Our misunderstood President

  By Hakeem Baba-Ahmad
“Politics – the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.” -Oscar Ameringer
DURING the better-managed and choreographed media outing on Sunday this week, President Jonathan said he thought he was totally misunderstood when he made comments on the need for complete deregulation if investment in the downstream sector is going to be substantially attracted to the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
He had been widely reported a few days ago as suggesting that fuel subsidy will be removed in order to make room for additional investment in areas such as refineries. He said provision for subsidy has been made in the 2013 budget estimates, but insisted that full deregulation will eventually have to involve removal of all subsidies.
Students of communication arts and management of media must be wondering what can be done to mitigate the manner our President is routinely misunderstood. When he speaks directly, he is misunderstood.
When he is spoken for, Nigerians see things differently. When he and his spokespersons speak on the same issues, people tend to see different angles.
Last Sunday, Nigerians saw a President at pains to establish a new level of personal integrity and sincerity in speaking directly with citizens. But the issues he took up, and the positions of his administration on a number of key issues must have left Nigerians perplexed over how they got to their current understanding of some of these issues.
In spite of the widely-reported engagement of the Federal government in discussions with the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (a.k.a. Boko Haram) insurgency, the President said there has not been any dialogue anywhere with the group.
Although neither the President nor his spokespersons had confirmed the numerous rumoured initiatives and engagements with the insurgency directly, it could not have escaped his attention that much hype had been built around the idea that the insurgency had been engaged in talks with his government through its members in Saudi Arabia, and had even put out a list of mediators which included General Muhammadu Buhari.
Is it also possible that the President missed the widely-publicised suspicions that the olive branch of the insurgency was a fiction manufactured by his administration to create the impression of successes against the insurgency, and ensnare General Buhari?
Could he have failed to be briefed that even a suspicious olive branch had raised hopes of millions of people over the possibility that this terrible war could be resolved through dialogue soon?
Could it have made more sense to allow dangerous speculation, damaging opportunism from the opposition, and crashed hopes from beleaguered communities to subsist, than an earlier repudiation of claims that talks were going on, or were being offered?
Who were those faceless people who spoke to journalists with such confidence regarding “back-door” dialogue with the insurgency? Are they the President’s men, or people who exploit huge gaps in the manner his administration responds to critical issues of governance?
No plan to speak with insurgents
Now that the nation knows from the President himself that there is no plan to speak with the  insurgents, should we resign ourselves to a long-drawn war, or are there options in dealing with this insurgency being contemplated?
In denying that President Olusegun Obasanjo’s assault on Odi had helped to cripple the Niger Delta militancy, the President implied that force alone is not the antidote to this insurgency.
Yet, force is the only thing his administration appears set to continue to deploy, even in the face of near-universal acclaim that it is becoming increasingly counter-productive. Just one day after the televised denial of on-going discussions with the insurgency, reports said another video had surfaced showing soldiers shooting civilian captives in Borno.
The international media is not likely to relent in digging deep into allegations of extra-judicial killings by security agencies; allegations made time and time again by the community, and routinely denied by the military.
If the President’s answers to questions around the insurgency raised even more questions, his positions on other important issues were no less puzzling.
The President gave himself a pass mark in the fight against corruption, citing electoral reforms as evidence. He said Nigerians blamed every failure and every evil in the country to corruption, so the fight against it must be thorough and total.
But even as he spoke, civil society groups and labour are flexing muscles and mobilising to take him up on the failure to deliver on promises that he will free the oil and gas sector from the stranglehold of corruption and powerful interests.
Petrol queues are reappearing, and more Nigerians buy petrol from black markets than licensed distributors. Most people know of the on-going battles between importers, and the government, and most Nigerians pay for these battles with high product prices.
Would it surprise the President, then, to know that most Nigerians believe he is losing the battle against powerful interests in the oil and gas sector? Is he aware of the damage done to the integrity of his reform process by the drama (and the fall outs) from the presentation of the Nuhu Ribadu report? Should he justifiably expect Nigerians to believe that White Papers prepared by this Ministers on work done by professionals and other people of high levels of integrity on sensitive areas will yield much value in terms of the quality of outputs?
The best President
President Jonathan believes he will be judged the best President Nigeria has had by 2015. But he will not know if he will run for another term until 2014. And he thinks it is unfair to ask him if he will run again at this stage.
So his penchant for not being misunderstood is likely to be enhanced, if he is still unaware that the popular rejection by Nigerians of the tenure extension proposals discussed during the recent hearings on amendments to the constitution has everything to do with his personal ambition.
The recent televised outing of the President revealed a man thrust into power who is grappling to justify his status. There was no evidence that he was engaged in sophisticated double-speak or elaborate schemes to fool Nigerians.
With President Jonathan, what you see is what you get. Unfortunately, what Nigerians get is the impression of a man who genuinely thinks that history has a place for him, but is finding it increasingly difficult to exercise a firmer hand on the levers he requires to shape that history. At this stage, Nigerians generally think he is too far removed from the actual events going on in the name of his administration; and he is too far removed from them.
 Vanguard

2015: Nigeria risks constitutional crisis if Jonathan contests – Junaid

  By Soni Daniel
Second Republic politician, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, yesterday spat fire on the decision by President Goodluck Jonathan to defer the declaration of his interest in the 2015 Presidency till 2014, arguing that it would be too cumbersome to salvage the nation from the crisis the belated action could trigger.

Members of the Red Chamber and President Jonathan

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Vanguard, the former lawmaker said Jonathan was courting avoidable trouble by pretending to be making up his mind on the next election, when in fact he had made up his mind to run in 2015.
According to the medical doctor-turned political activist, Jonathan should first subject his Presidential ambition to a judicial interpretation by the Supreme Court to stave off looming constitutional crisis that his action would generate in the country.
The Kano politician noted that given the furore already generated by the circumstance of his emergence as the President of Nigeria, Jonathan must clear the air early enough on his 2015 ambition so that those who have legal issues could challenge him appropriately and get redress.

Legal issues

Mohammed said: “He (Jonathan) will be doing Nigerians a big disservice if he waits till 2014 to declare his interest in the 2015 Presidency because there are Nigerians who have real legal issues to take up with him on the matter and he should do it in good time to prevent a constitutional crisis and violence.
“If Mr. President is a true Nigerian leader he should decide now so that those who have issues with him will go to court to challenge him and get redress.
“The issue is not about him but 160 million Nigerians whose fate is tied to the Presidency of Nigeria. Jonathan has no right to dilly dally with the destiny of Nigerians.

Jonathan not qualified to contest

But Mohammed made it clear that Jonathan was not qualified to contest in 2015, having taken the oath of office twice as Nigeria’s President first in 2009 following the untimely death of Yar’Adua and later in 2011, thereby hitting the limit provided by Nigerian law.
According to him, allowing Jonathan to run in 2015 would have made him to serve 10 years instead of the maximum two terms of four years each stipulated by law, thereby making a mockery of the Nigerian Constitution.
He said: “The fact that he wants to run after declaring that he would spend only a term in office also places a moral burden on him and he should think about it if he is a gentleman with conscience. Common sense indicates that Jonathan has no right to contest in 2015.
“Most importantly, Jonathan should be told that the Constitution does not allow any Nigerian leader to take the oath of office twice. He has already exhausted the limit of his two terms.”

FG in talks with  Boko Haram

Mohammed also punctured the claim by Jonathan that his government was not negotiating with the Boko Haram sect, insisting that the Federal Government was not telling the nation the whole truth about the matter.
The politician insisted that the Presidency recently dispatched a minister from one of the Niger Delta states to Mali to meet with that country’s top security official and some militant leaders sympathetic to the Boko Haram sect with a view to facilitating dialogue between the sect and the Federal Government.
He said: “This government has been having underground talks with Boko Haram and if the President says he is not negotiating with the sect, he is lying.
“What the government is trying to do with the Boko Haram matter shows the highest display of hypocrisy and dishonesty.
“The Federal Government cannot continue to justify its claim of not wanting to dialogue with Boko Haram after it negotiated with the Niger Delta militants and offered mouth-watering jobs and contracts to the mostly Ijaw boys only to turn round and denounce negotiations with another militant group.
“Is it because the Boko Haram sect leaders are not of Ijaw extraction where Mr. President comes from?”
 Vanguard

Who leads the North?

by Uchechukwu Olisa 

Atiku Abubakar

The geographical region called Northern Nigeria was a British colony created in 1900 on the basis of the 1885 Treaty of Berlin during the reign of Otto Von Bismarck as the Chancellor of Germany. The Treaty granted Northern Nigeria to Britain, on the basis of London’s protectorates in Southern Nigeria.Historical account has it that Britain’s representative, Frederick Lugard, slowly negotiated with, and sometimes coerced, the emirates of the North into accepting British rule, realising that the only way this could be achieved was with the consent of local rulers through a policy of indirect rule which he developed from a necessary improvisation into a sophisticated political theory.
Lugard, however, left the protectorate for Hong Kong. Lugard later returned to work in Nigeria where he decided on the merger of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate, an area which spanned 255,000 miles (410,000 km), including the pre-colonial states of the Sokoto Caliphate, Bornu Empire, and the Kano Emirate, with Southern Nigeria in 1914. And so, the protectorate was ended in 1914 when it was unified with the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Lagos Colony becoming the Northern Province of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria occupies about two-third of the country’s land mass. The region includes present day Kogi, Kwara, Benue and Taraba State towards the South, part of which sometimes now address itself as the Middle Belt. Much of the North was once politically united in the Northern Region, a federal division that was formally disbanded in 1967.

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa

“For the first time the establishment (Northern Nigeria), like a fish outside water, has found itself in a very unfamiliar terrain: Powerless and not in a position to use the instruments of state for its self-aggrandisement, and wastage of the limitless opportunities availed to it”. This  part of the opening of a treatise by Dr. Musa Adamu Mbahi titled, Northern Nigeria Leadership: A wasted opportunity, A betrayed Trust’, aptly captures what looks like a rudderless situation for the North in today’s Nigeria. Dr.  Mbahi is a resident in Clinical and Anatomic Pathology at the Howard University Hospital, Washington, DC. and wrote from Laurel Maryland, United States. His statement presupposes that the North is now lacking in effective and efficient leadership, a leadership that has lost focus or derailed and therefore requires a new leadership that will provide direction for the people of the region.
Mbahi’s reference to “the first time” suggests that before now, the North had always had a leadership that provided for its needs and protected its interest. This means that there were persons behind these apparent glorious years of the North. Who were some of these leaders? From where did they derive their power or authority? How did things go wrong? And who now leads the North out of its present political quagmire?
Some of these northern leaders of yesteryears who readily come to mind are, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Aminu Kano and Alhaji Shehu Shagari.
Sir Ahmadu Bello (1909-1966), Sardauna Sokoto
The circumstances of the birth of Sir Ahmadu Bello (June 12, 1910 – January 15, 1966) naturally threw him up as the leader of his people.  He was born in Rabah in today’s Sokoto State into an aristocratic parentage. Ahmadu Bello was the son of a district head and heir to the Sokoto Caliphate. The founder of Sokoto, Sultan Bello, the son of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, was his great-grandfather.

Anthony Sani

After his early education, he proceeded to Katsina Teachers’ Training College from where he became a teacher at the Sokoto Middle School. In 1934, he was made the district head of Rabah, and four years later, he got promoted and sent to Gusau to become a divisional head. Following his unsuccessful attempt to become the Sultan of Sokoto in 1938, the successful sultan immediately conferred upon Sir Ahmadu Bello the traditional, now honorary, title of Sardauna, and elevated him to the Sokoto Native Authority Council.Ten years later,  he was offered a scholarship to study local government administration in England. Ahmadu Bello took the scholarship. When he returned from England, he was nominated to represent the province of Sokoto in the regional House of Assembly. At the assembly, he was a notable voice for northern interest and embraced a style of consultation and consensus with the major representatives of the northern emirates: Kano, Bornu and Sokoto.
In the first elections held in Northern Nigeria in 1952, Sir Bello won a seat in the Northern House of Assembly, and became a member of the regional executive council as Minister of Works. He also served as Minister of Local Government, and Minister of Community Development in the Northern Region.
In 1954, Bello became the first Premier of defunct Northern Nigeria. In the 1959 independence elections, Bello led the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to win a plurality of the parliamentary seats. Bello’s NPC forged an alliance with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to form Nigeria’s first indigenous federal government which led to independence from Britain.
When the 1960 independence Federal Government was formed, even as president of NPC, Bello chose to remain Premier and devolved the position of Prime Minister to the deputy president of NPC, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Bello’s greatest legacy was the modernisation and unification of the diverse people of Northern Nigeria. He was assassinated on January 15, 1966 in a coup which ousted Nigeria’s post-independence government.
In spite of his aristocratic background, Bello was still humble enough to acquire the necessary education that prepared him for the leadership of the North, nay Nigeria. Besides, as evidenced by his biodata, he went through the ranks, indeed through the rungs of the leadership ladder, to earn his place as the first and only Premier of the region, a position which he employed to the fullest advantage to canvass and ensure the protection of the interests of his people.
However, there are other public commentators who think that the religious cum socio-cultural set up in the North which promoted hegemony in the North, in addition with the low literacy level at the time provided a fillip for the emergence of Bello as the sole dominant leader of his era.

Yakubu Gowon

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912-1966)Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa  (December 1912 – January 15, 1966) was the only prime minister of an independent Nigeria. He was a trained teacher, who became a vocal leader for Northern interests. He was also an international statesman, widely respected across the African continent as one of the leaders who encouraged the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU).
Born in 1912, in Bauchi,  Balewa was the son of a Bageri Muslim district head in the Bauchi divisional district of Lere. He began his education at the Koranic School in Bauchi and later studied at the Katsina College, where he acquired his teaching certificate. He taught at the Bauchi Middle School. In 1944, he was chosen to study abroad for a year at the University of London’s Institute of Education. When he returned to Nigeria, he became an Inspector of Schools for the colonial administration.
Balewa’s political career started with his election in 1946, to the colony’s Northern House of Assembly, and to the Legislative Assembly in 1947. As a legislator, he was a vocal advocate of the rights of northern Nigeria, and together with Sir Ahmadu Bello, who held the hereditary title of Sardauna of Sokoto, he founded the Northern People’s Congress (NPC).
But Balewa made his real entry into government in 1952 as the Minister of Works. He later served as the Minister of Transport. He was elected Chief Minister in 1957. He formed  a coalition government between NPC and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. He retained the post as Prime Minister upon Nigeria’a independence in 1960, and was reelected in 1964, and the position until his death in 1966.
He had in 1950 in the Northern House of Assembly advocated fundamental reforms to the system of Native Authorities in the North. This proposal was unpopular among many of the Northern leaders. Throughout the 1950s, he participated with great skill in the discussions on constitutional reforms which ultimately led to independence. Nevertheless, Balewa often seemed limited in the exercise of his own personal power, because as vice president of NPC, he was answerable, theoretically, to Sir Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern Region and president of NPC.
Balewa, just like Bello, came from among the ranks of teachers and the select few with aristocratic background, though not in the category of Bello. Even with his evidently more nationalistic postulations, he still did not forget his roots, and therefore did not abandon the pursuit of the interest of northern Nigeria.
Mallam Aminu Kano (1920-April 17, 1983)
Born to a Muslim scholar of Fulani extraction in Kano, Mallam Aminu Kano (1920-April 17, 1983) was educated at Katsina College from where he went to the Institute of Education, University of London, alongside Tafawa Balewa. He, however, earned his teaching certificate after completing his studies at the Katsina College. He commenced his teaching career at the Bauchi Training College.

Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar

He displayed his intellectual and radical inclination when he wrote a pamphlet, Kano, Under the Hammer of the Native Administration. He was a member of the Bauchi General Improvement Union along with Balewa. He was also a secretary of the Bauchi Discussion Circle, a group whose activities were later narrowed following his attack on indirect rule. He assumed the headship position of the Teacher Training Centre in Maru, Sokoto. He was also the secretary of the Northern Teachers Association and during this period, he established an organisation to improve the quality of Koranic schools in the North.In Sokoto, he joined the Jam’iyyar Mutanen Arewa, a Northern Nigerian cultural association which metamorphosed into a political party and became the dominant party in the North during the First Republic. But in 1950, Aminu Kano led a splinter group of young radicals from Jam’iyyar Mutanen Arewa, and formed the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). The opposition to the management style of the native administration in Northern Nigeria was the major pull factor for the members of NEPU.
After two failed attempts, one to secure a federal House of Representatives’ seat which he lost to Ambassador Maitama Sule in 1954, and two, to garner enough votes to win a seat in the Northern Regional Assembly in 1956, Aminu Kano in 1959 won the Kano East federal seat as a candidate of NEPU, which was already in an alliance with the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. While in the House, he was a deputy Chief Whip. In the post-First Republic military administration of Generl Yakubu Gowon, Aminu Kano served as a federal commissioner for health.
When the ban on political parties were lifted in September 1978, Aminu Kano, Sam Ikoku, and Edward Ikem Okeke formed the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). The party leaned towards populism. In 1979, it presented Aminu Kano as its presidential candidate but he could not muster enough votes to win. In spite of that, the party won two governorship seats.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Mallam Aminu Kano come out as the Northern leader who craved so much for the interest of the common people in the North through his reformists ideas. Indeed he co-founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union as a  platform to challenge what he felt was the autocratic and feudalistic actions of the Native Northern government. His attack was directed at the ruling elite, including emirs, who were mostly Fulanis.
Moreover,  he attempted to use politics to create an egalitarian Northern  society, just as he sought in the prelude to the First Republic the break up of ethnically based parties. The latter idea was well received by his emerging support base of petty traders and craftsmen in towns along the rail track. These men and women were mostly individuals on the move, searching for trade opportunities and had little ethnic similarities with their host communities.
Furthermore, he proposed a fiscal system that favoured heavy taxation of the rich in the region and was notably one of the few leading Nigerian politicians that supported equal rights for women. Mallam Aminu Kano is seen a man that typified democratisation, women’s empowerment and freedom of speech. The conversion of his house where he lived, died and was buried, to the Centre for Democratic Research and Training under the Bayero University Kano, is a great testament to the fact that he lived for the people.
In fact, Aminu Kano’s thoughts which captured the state of the North in his time and which appear relevant even today, as well as portray his populist ideology are encapsulated in the following statement:
“That the shocking state of social order as at present existing in Northern Nigeria is due to nothing but the Family Compact rule of the so-called Native Administrations in their present autocratic form.
“That owing to this unscrupulous and vicious system of Administration by the Family Compact rulers, there is today in our Society an antagonism of interests manifesting itself as a class struggle, between the members of the vicious circle of the Native Administration on the one hand and the ordinary ‘talakawa’ on the other.
“That this antagonism can be abolished only by the emancipation of the ‘talakawa’ from the domination of these conduits, by the reform of the present autocratic political Institutions into Democratic Institutions and placing their democratic control in the hands of the ‘talakawa’ for whom alone they exist.
“All parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the interest of the talakawa (commoners) is diametrically opposed to the interest of all sections of the master class, a party seeking the emancipation of the talakawa must naturally be hostile to the party of the oppressors.”
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (February 25, 1925)
Shehu Shagari was the President of the country in the Second Republic (1979–1983).
He was born in Shagari village, Sokoto, on February 25, 1925. A Sunni Muslim of Fulani extraction, Shagari is the holder of the aristocratic title of Turakin Sakkwato in the Sokoto Caliphate.  His father, Aliyu, was a farmer, trader and herder, who later became the Magaji or village head of Shagari village. Shehu Shagari attended elementary school at Yabo before he went to the Sokoto Middle School and later Kaduna College.
He worked as a teacher for a brief period before entering politics in 1954 following his election to the House of Representatives. Earlier, in 1946, Shagari and Mallam Gambo Abuja started the Youth Social Circle, which centred around Sokoto. With the suggestion of a merger of all fledgling political organisations in the region under one canopy, the Youth Social Circle agreed to the merger, and together with other organisations formed the Northern People’s Congress, which later became a political party. In 1959, the party won the national parliamentary elections.
In 1958, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He later held the positions of Minister of Economic Development in 1960, Minister of Internal Affairs in 1962 and Minister of Works and Survey in 1965. The military coup of 1966 ended the First Republic.
Shagari  returned to Sokoto to work on his farm and later to work as a councillor for the Sokoto Native Authority. In 1970, Yakubu Gowon made Shagari Minister of Economic Affairs and later of Finance. Shagari went on to become  President on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1979. He was later overthrown in a military on December 31, 1983 by General Muhammadu Buhari over allegations of corruption and maladministration.
According to observers, these leaders may not have derived their powers directly from the people at the early stages of their political career. The Northern region’s peculiar nature in terms of religion and socio-cultural make-up, as well as the low level of literacy which probably made lot of people remain subjugated to the whims and caprices of their leaders would have contributed to giving the leaders the power and influence they had over the people.
However, it needs be pointed out that at the mid-term of most of the leaders’ political career, the people started empowering the leaders to act on their behalf through these leaders’ election into different political positions. The failings of these leaders either by omission or commission notwithstanding, they are still regarded to be among the best the North has so far produced.
Dr. Musa Adamu Mbahi brought a different dimension to this discourse. He categorised the Northern Nigerian political establishment into various groups. One, those who were at the helm of affairs as heads of state and did well or at least worked hard. And whatever shortcoming during their leadership tenure, according to him, are probably due to human frailties and not an orchestrated plan of evil. Two, those who, as chiefs of state, were evil or incompetent or both and Nigeria came out the worst for their periods in office.
Three, those who served, not as heads of state, but in positions of authorities as governors, federal commissioners, Ministers, Special Advisers etc.
Mbahi said “Within these group also can be found those who served sincerely and to the best of their abilities without betraying the trust of the office in which they served and were required to execute. But there is a large cadre within this subset that really screwed-up Nigeria – They were corrupt, profoundly incompetent and except for nepotism, should never have been allowed near these offices which they were supposed to execute in trust for us and our posterity.”
Wondering where the North, acclaimed within the Nigerian political context as excellent politicians and people with high moral rectitude came to be so despised politically, Mbahi went on to ask: How is it that the Northern Political establishment found itself out in the proverbial cold?
“A lot has been written about the virtues of the first generation of Northern Nigeria’s political leaders especially the likes of the Late Sardauna of Sokoto, the Late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Late Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, the Late Mallam Aminu Kano etc. Nonetheless, it will be note worthy to point out, with no fear of contradiction, that the period in which they – especially the Sardauna at the regional level and Sir Balewa at the federal level – led, can be regarded as the golden age of Northern Nigeria’s political glory.
“These was the period when Northerners in politics were revered by their peers and their opinions highly regarded even if not agreed to by contemporaries because they were totally patriotic and passionate to their causes. During this golden age, other regions will preferentially rather “do business” with the North politically, even if they disagree with it, than do business with other regions. The leaders from the North during this period, are respectable and, integrity is an honor they live by.
“They were incorruptible and had the best interests of their constituencies at heart. Politics for them is not a personal wealth-making endeavor, as it is the case with most of the later generation of leaders of Northern Nigerian extraction, but a call to leadership and service. The guiding principle of these leaders’ are: Duty, Honor, and Country,” Mbahi wrote.
Regrettably, he pointed out, these same statements could not be made without exception about the subsequent generation of leaders of Northern Nigerian extraction both at regional and state levels. “To varying degrees, the progress that the first generation of Northern Nigerian leaders achieved for the region and the nation at large were allowed to waste and in most cases reversed,” Mbahi added.
Zainab Usman on September 4, 2012, in an article titled, Northern Nigeria: The Disconnect Between Our Leaders and the Rest of Us, accused the present generation of leaders of progressively disconnecting themselves from the ordinary people through misplaced priorities.
According to her, “The summaries of various communiqués of meetings and fora involving northern political leaders (mainly the Northern Governors Forum) and most northern elders (mostly former public office holders) of recent, on the North’s numerous problems are baffling and frustrating as it is apparent the agenda of these meetings typically have little to do with the region’s gargantuan economic, socio-political and security challenges. Neither do the final recommendations.
“The themes of these meetings usually revolve around increased revenue allocation to northern states from the Federal Government, lamentations over existing conspiracies to “marginalize” and “destroy” the North; emphasis on the North’s “turn” to produce the next president in 2015; hollow, rhetorical lamentations on the decline of the northern economy and the need to revive agriculture, countering the Boko Haram insurgency and occasionally, a passing reference is made on the need for good governance, and in the end, these ills are ascribed to bad leadership and that’s  about it. These meetings typically produce virtually no solid, detailed, implementable blue prints on how to methodically, systematically and effectively address the North’s well-documented problems.
“As the communiqués and press briefings for these meetings become public, one’s hopes of tangible solutions are further dashed by the crushing realisation that our leaders are running round in vicious circles. At best, they gloss over the most critical problems, and at worst, their recommendations have practically no bearing on these problems.”
Usman also classified the problems bedevilling the North into four broad distinct but interrelated categories: the steady economic decline of the region over several decades, the breakdown of social cohesion, the insecurity especially the Boko Haram insurgency and the gradual decline of the North’s political influence at the centre. She, however, opined that disturbing fact is that the priorities of the northern Governors and many of the northern elders, are skewed towards the North’s access to political power and how to bring back the Presidency to the North come 2015 while the more important economic, social and security challenges are of secondary importance to them.
Besides, Usman said Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, writing in June 2012, identified two components of the global leadership deficit prevalent in many countries - generational and technological. She opined that the Northern Nigeria leadership shares in this deficit.
She opined that “When this is applied to the situation in northern Nigeria, it becomes apparent that the disconnect between our leaders and the rest of us has much to do with the little generational change amongst those responsible for aggregating and articulating the North’s aspirations, with mostly the same people who have been in the thick of things since some of us were in diapers, whom we’ve read about in social studies textbooks in primary and secondary school, still dexterously recycling themselves continuously back in power – as governors, ministers, legislators, permanent secretaries, board members of parastatals – still calling the shots today.”
The incredibly persistent longevity of many die-hard power-brokers in northern Nigeria, Usman observed, has ensured that only a few neophytes have been genuinely groomed as successors. This situation of course, she added, is connected to the technological dimension of this leadership deficit which beyond the use of modern technology in governance, refers to the stale, archaic and retrogressive approach to leadership as a consequence of this generational gap, with little input of fresh ideas and approaches to governance.
“Therefore, the same top-down, gerontocratic and quasi-feudal approaches to leadership of decades past is very much the norm in the North today, increasingly incapable of addressing present-day 21st century challenges,” she further said. Who then leads Northern Nigeria?
NigerianTribune

Salami: Political solution threatened as stakeholders kick against resumption •NJC to void Jumbo-Ofo’s appointment

by Lanre Adewole

AS the National Judicial Council (NJC) holds its emergency meeting tomorrow, news oozing from the judicial circle is pointing to renewed strong opposition by certain major stakeholders to the planned three-month return to office of the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami, before his eventual retirement.
The council and Salami were reportedly moving close to effecting the agreed political solution to the long-running leadership crisis in the court, with Salami already agreeing in principle to a proposal by the council to temporarily return to office and retire after three months.
The retirement notice was expected to be submitted to the council before the return to office.
The idea was decided at the last council meeting as a lasting solution to the crisis triggered by Salami’s suspension by the council 15 months ago, with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukthar, who doubles as the chairman of the council, reportedly factoring the support of President Goodluck Jonathan into the political equation that was primed to see Salami withdraw the suit challenging his suspension, file retirement notice, return to office and quit after three months.
The fresh frenzy to stop the implementation of the agenda was reportedly taking place at the level of both the political and judicial circles, with various vested interests reportedly pulling different strings to stop his resumption.
A source in the know disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune that the sudden interest in the political solution by stakeholders was triggered by a discovery that those pushing Salami’s case may advise him not to honour the retirement arrangement once he gets into office, even if he tendered the premature retirement notice before his return to office.
It was learnt that the camp planned to challenge the arrangement in court once Salami goes in.
The Nigerian Tribune source disclosed that legal team that will work for Salami would be telling the court that he was interested in completing his full service years which terminate in October 2013.
The alleged plot had seen those opposed to his reinstatement embark on different moves to stall the implementation of the council-backed solution, using the court, the presidency and the judicial circle.
Certain judicial officers, who were reportedly against Salami spending a minute again on the seat, according to Nigerian Tribune’s findings, were already establishing contacts with the presidency and anti-Salami NJC members, while cases in courts were being given extra attention, in order to plug all loopholes.
A source disclosed that the council had been keeping its jokers on the chest since the Nigerian Tribune exclusively reported the resolution asking Salami to retire and his conditional acceptance, which might culminate in Justice Dalhatu Adamu’s senior taking over instead of a junior, in order not to fall into administrative discomfort of asking a junior to boss a senior, though it would not be novel, at least, at state chief judges’ level.
A council source told the Nigerian Tribune that the only snag in the joker was the Salami’s pending case which he had not withdrawn as of press time, though he still had today to so do.
It was also learnt last night that Adamu’s fate had been sealed, as the council had been reportedly sensitised on why he should go tomorrow, though an objection from the president may save the day for him.
It was further gathered that the issue of the dropped justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo, is the sole issue on the agenda of the council’s emergency meeting slated for tomorrow, with a source adding that the issue of Adamu’s continued headship of the Court of Appeal might come under AOB (any other business).
The council is expected to withdraw the appointment of the embattled judge as justice of the intermediate court.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has summoned the council in a suit seeking to stop the reinstatement of Salami, with the court joining the council suo moto and ordering the service of processes on it.
The suit, filed by Noah Ajare, was adjourned till December 13.
NigerianTribune

Ajimobi: Federal Police Has Failed Nigeria

Governor Abiola Ajimobi

Tunde Sanni in Ibadan
Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State tuesday justified the call for the establishment of state police, saying that the federal-controlled force has failed woefully in the maintenance of internal security in the country.

Indeed, the governor called for amendment to the 1999 Constitution to accommodate the establishment of state police as a way out of the security challenges currently confronting Nigeria.

Ajimobi made these submissions at a lecture entitled: “The Police Issue in Federal Nigeria: A Shoewearer’s Perspective,’’ which he delivered at the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan.
He said the agitation for state police had become apt in view of the crime and criminal activities which had enveloped the country in recent times.

“It is suffice to say the Boko Haram uprising in the North, the kidnappings and mob killings in the South-east and South-south and ceaseless armed robberies and assassinations in the South-west have raised questions on the ability of the police to secure Nigeria.
He lamented that the current command structure of the police had hampered state governors to truly serve as Chief Security Officers of their respective states. 

“They merely wear that title like an honorary chieftaincy title. Yet, the governors, who have been deemed fit to be entrusted with securing their states by the electorate, deserve to have the powers and facilities to meet the expectations of the electorate on the security of lives and property,” he said.

The governor also noted that the police had been subject to abuse by past federal administrations for political ends.
He cited the arrest and deportation of Alhaji Abdulrahman Shugaba, the Majority and Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) Leader of the Borno State House of Assembly by the National Party of Nigeria-led Federal Government in the Second Republic.
The police, he said, also featured prominently in the manipulations of the 1983 elections in Oyo, Ondo and Imo States.

“Since 1999, the police had been used by the PDP government of former President Obasanjo to harass and intimidate governors who either belonged to different political parties or were members of the same PDP but not on good terms with the former president. 

“The instances included the abduction of Governor Ngige in Anambra State. It also included the police-assisted impeachment of many governors, including Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State.  Instances of police culpability in the rigging of elections against opposition parties have also been rampant,’’ he posited.

According to the governor, one of the major consequences of the abuse of police power and inadequacy of the force was the emergence of multiple groups and public organisations ranging from neighbourhood vigilante groups to organised pseudo-security outfits like Bakasi Boys and O’odua People’s Congress (OPC) among others.

ThisDay

Another Nigerian Found With Over N50m At Lagos Airport

Departure Hall of MMIA

The Arab nations are becoming a popular destination for money launderers as another Nigerian has been arrested with $320,000 (N50.6m) cash at the Murtala Muhammed Airport on his way to Qatar. The man, Onwuekwe Chidi was about to board a Qatar plane to Doha, when he was arrested.
Mr Epowei Charles, the Area Comptroller, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Customs Command, said though Chidi declared the money, he could not explain the source of the currency or show adequate proof of his business to customs officials.
“The passenger and the money had been handed over to officials of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for further investigations,” Charles said.
“At about 1300 hours on November 19, 2012, a passenger by name Onwuekwe Anthony Chidi, with passport number A04086671 was checking in on Qatar Airways.
“He declared US $320,000 on both forms CDFIA and CDFIB but he could not explain the source of the currency nor show adequate prove of his business to the customs officer at the currency desk at the `E` wing departure hall of the airport.“
Records show that the Customs and the EFCC have seized close to $11million (N1.7b) from Nigerian travellers, especially to Dubai and Doha in the last three months.
What beats analysts is why so much money that can be put to better use is being taken out of Nigeria where unemployment and poverty is increasing.
InformationNigeria.org

Shall We Ban Religion? By Michael Egbejumi-David

Michael Egbejumi-David

I got the first phone call just before 1:00pm, UK time.  This was Tuesday 13th November 2012.  It was from my sister in Lagos.  She was frantic.  Our younger brother’s wife was bleeding, losing a lot of blood, laid out on a bed at the National Hospital, Abuja.  She had just delivered a baby, their second in just over two years.  My sister informed me that despite serious pleas from everyone in the family, from clinical staff at the hospital, and from concerned strangers, my brother refused to give his consent for his wife to have blood transfusion.
Why?  Unfortunately for his wife, my brother is a Jehovah’s Witness.
I called my brother and spoke to him.  He didn’t budge.  He said his faith; his religion forbids its members from accepting blood under any circumstance.  Though I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I said that it was ok.  I told him that he could refuse blood transfusion when he is the patient, but since it was his young wife at death’s door, he should give consent for the treatment for her.  I added that after his wife has been saved, he could go ahead and ask for forgiveness from the anti-transfusion god, and once again reconcile himself to his faith.
He declined.
I then went into the medical aspect of what was happening.  I informed my brother that the average male has only about 5.5 litres of blood in their body.  The average female has even less.  I told him that if the body loses too much of that, there wouldn’t be enough for the heart to pump, and the heart would stop beating.  The patient will die.  He still didn’t budge.  In fact, he promptly hung up on me.  I called him back a few more times but the young man refused to answer his phone.
I called back my sister in Lagos and reported my failure.
T
he second call came at exactly 2:00pm.  This time my sister was crying.  The young lady has died.
I immediately called my brother again.  I wanted to tell him to take and bow and to clap for himself.  But he was still refusing to take my calls.
I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about religion.  I know that religion has its many benefits, but I am beginning to wonder whether these are outweighed by its negative aspects.  Most people appear to check their intelligence at the door when it comes to their religion and practicing their faith.
Unfortunately, my brother is one of them.  I couldn’t believe that an educated man (he has a Master’s degree from the University of Ibadan) would sit around and watch his wife die when he could have very easily prevented her death by signing a piece of paper.  What has religion done to us?
I called my other sister in Abuja to get more details.  I wish I hadn’t.
She informed me that she spent more than an hour on her knees begging our brother to give his consent for his wife to be given blood, but he refused.  He refused her, and he refused all pleadings from the medical staff, some of whom were begging him with tears in their eyes.  He was told repeatedly that without blood transfusion, his wife would die.  He wasn’t moved.  He informed them all that if his wife died from bleeding and never got blood transfusion, she would go straight to Heaven.  This is a novel idea.  If only Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Abacha and the rest of them knew this nice little secret.  All they needed to do was slit their own wrists and the express lift to Heaven would have come for them.
Then it got worse.  I was informed that the young lady’s mother was present throughout at the hospital.  The doctors went to her to give consent for her daughter to be given blood to save her life, but the mother also refused!
She too is a Jehovah’s witness.  She maintained throughout that only the husband can give consent, she would not.
In desperation, the doctors called the young lady’s younger brother who is a junior doctor in Jos.  The deceased worked at the National Assembly and was the main breadwinner in her birth family.  She paid for the education of all of her siblings, including that of this junior doctor.  As the doctors in Abuja pleaded with him on the phone to give consent for his sister to receive blood to save her life, this junior doctor demurred.  He directed that she be given some coagulants and blood clotting agents.  He was informed that all of that has been tried but the patient was still losing blood.  In the end, he refused to give consent.  He claimed that it was the duty of his sister’s husband, not his, and terminated the call.
He too is a Jehovah’s witness.  A doctor!  What has religion done to us?
Before this, I have never imagined that any mother could sit on a chair, fold her arms and watch her child die and not do something about it.  This was a child she gave birth to and nurtured, and who in turn, had been taking care of her in her old age.  I don’t know whether I’m the one losing my mind.  What has religion done to us?
Anyway, the mother and my brother were finally called to go to the lady’s bedside as it became obvious that she was struggling through her last breaths.  Mama ran in the opposite direction shouting, “Jehovah o!  Jehovah is life!  Life is Jehovah!”
qqqqMy brother took his place by his wife’s bedside and watched life ebb out of her.  He stood there and watched her die.  What kind of boldness is that?  What kind of cold-heartedness is that?  When asked why he did what he did, he responded that when he dies, he would marry his dead wife again in Heaven!  Is this logical?  I have to confess that I am not the most religious person in the world, but are there marriages in Heaven?  Are we going to continue having more children in Heaven?
More importantly, would God be pleased with a person who had the power to save one of his children, one of his creations, but deliberately refused to do so?  It is one thing to watch helplessly and only give comfort as someone lies dying on a motorway, but to deliberately and actively withhold life-saving consent?  Especially to your own wife?  Your own child?  Your own sister?
My brother has become a latter-day Abraham.  He even went further by sacrificing his wife on the altar of religious principles.  But why are some religious people like this?  Is it the fear of going against the grain of their faith’s community?  Is it the fear of being seen or being thought as not faithful enough by their fellow religious comrades?  Is it the shame of being considered weak by one’s religious peers?  And if this is the case, are these feelings not trumped by love for another human being?  Personally, I think that it has got to be illiteracy of the mind.
Once upon a time, the Earth was thought to be the centre of the Universe.  That was the Church’s established view.  It was widely accepted that the Sun and all heavenly bodies revolved around an unmoving Earth.  Furthermore, it was thought that if the Earth moved, why are we not flung off its surface?  As Copernicus and science began to intrude, the Church was compelled to re-assert that the idea that the Sun stood still and that the Earth moved were "false" and "altogether contrary to Holy Scripture."  Well, Galileo later published a book, ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ in which he argued and proved that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, and that the Earth does move.  The Church and its head, Pope Urban VIII (who was actually Galileo’s friend) were enraged.  In 1633, Galileo was arrested and found guilty of Heresy.  His book was banned, he was forced to recant, and was placed under house arrest until he died.
But all of that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries.  Why are people today still favouring antiquated religious policies over love for one another – especially after the advent of Jesus Christ?  It cuts across all strata!  I don’t get it!
The entire belief system of Jehovah's Witnesses is founded on the basis of its teachings about the second coming of Christ.  They are so fixated on the end of the world that they sit there, petrified, unable to move forward.  From year dot, they have been making loud predictions about this.  Some examples:
•    1877: Christ's kingdom would hold full sway over the earth in 1914; the Jews, as a people, would be restored to God's favor; the "saints" would be carried to heaven
•    1891: 1914 would be "the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.”
•    1904: "World-wide anarchy" would follow the end of the Gentile Times in 1914.
1914 came and went.  Nothing happened.
•    1916: World War I would terminate in Armageddon and the rapture of the "saints”
•    1920: Messiah's kingdom would be established in 1925 and bring worldwide peace. God would begin restoring the earth. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful patriarchs would be resurrected to perfect human life and be made princes and rulers, the visible representatives of the New Order on earth. Those who showed themselves obedient to God would never die.
•    1922: The anti-typical "jubilee" that would mark God's intervention in earthly affairs would take place "probably the fall" of 1925.
•    1924: God's restoration of Earth would begin "shortly after" October 1, 1925. Jerusalem would be made the world's capital. Resurrected "princes" such as Abel, Noah, Moses and John the Baptist would give instructions to their subjects around the world by radio, and airplanes would transport people to and from Jerusalem from all parts of the globe in just "a few hours."
1925 came and went.  We are still here.  Things are still the same.
•    1938: In 1938, Armageddon was too close for marriage or child bearing.
•    1941: There were only "months" remaining until Armageddon.
•    1942: Armageddon was "immediately before us."
Hmm…
•    1966: It would be 6000 years since man's creation in the fall of 1975 and it would be "appropriate" for Christ's thousand-year reign to begin at that time. Time was "running out, no question about that." The "immediate future" was "certain to be filled with climactic events...within a few years at most", the final parts of Bible prophecy relating to the "last days" would undergo fulfillment as Christ's reign began.
•    1969: The existing world order would not last long enough for young people to grow old; the world system would end "in a few years." Young Witnesses were told not to bother pursuing tertiary education for this reason.
•    1971: The "battle in the day of Jehovah" was described as beginning "shortly, within our twentieth century".
•    1974: There was just a "short time remaining before the wicked world's end" and Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and property to "finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service."
Nope.  Nothing happened.  1975 came and went un-obstructively as well.
Well, after mama ran away, my brother too voted with his feet.  He couldn’t be found for a few hours.  Eventually he showed up and took his day-old baby over to our sister in Abuja to look after.  The next day, ten of his fellow Kingdom-hallers turned up to stare at the baby.  I cannot help but wonder what would have been going through their minds.  Would they be jubilating that a fellow member has been ‘martyred’ by her husband?  Are they happy that a needless and easily preventable death took place in their midst?
My brother is now faced with the daunting task of raising two infants on his own.  I wonder whether he has thought much about the future.  What would he tell his children when they become old enough and ask about their mother?  Is he going to lie to them for the rest of his life?  They would find out eventually, of course.  And when they do, would they thank him for the leading role he played in their mother’s death?
And bringing up those two infants on his own would be tough – very tough.  I assume he would have to stay single now for the rest of his life since he claimed that when he dies, he would remarry his dead wife in Heaven.  It would therefore be illogical for him to marry someone else again in this world.  That would complicate things for him in Heaven, unless Jehovah Witnesses are entitled to marry more than one wife in the great beyond.
But God is so patient!  The many mad things we do in His name!  What a waste.  What a complete waste of human life and human potential.  What has religion done to us!
Well, three days later, my brother called me.  He was looking for N250,000 towards funeral cost.  Of course I hung up on him…
Saharareporters