General, Mr. Obasanjo as enemy of the open society, By Adeolu Ademoyo

Adeolu Ademoyo: General Obasanjo can logically be said to be an enemy of the open society in Nigeria, in West Africa and in Africa generally

Recently, in Ghana, General Obasanjo refreshed his a-social vision. It is an unethical vision for a closed society. He gave us something to chew, but nothing to cheer-rather Obasanjo chilled us completely.   This is the Obasanjo story.

General Mr. Obasanjo was at the head of the ECOWAS monitoring team in the recent Ghanaian election. First, when he was addressed as General (which he is) and asked if he was a dictator, he said in Nigeria his enemies and opponents call him General, while he sees himself as a Chief or perhaps simply Mr. Unknown to him, he seemed to be saying that while he thought he had accepted democratic ethics, the Nigerian society thought otherwise. By addressing him by his first calling-“General” and the ethics that implies for Obasanjo’s politics, the society is telling him he is still steeped in military command and obey ethics.

General Obasanjo has the capacity of saying the truth and at the same time trivializing it for effect. He is the master dissembler. He knows it is true that he has not accepted democratic ethics and therefore he is a consistent opponent of the open society. Yet he wants to trivialize it by dissembling that truth.

I recall a chance meeting a friend of mine had with him during the defense by Nigerian people of the   June 12 1993 elections won by Mr. Moshood Abiola. One of Nigeria’s weekly news magazines, TheNews, had just exposed how the sitting military Generals under the then head of state General Ibrahim Babangida, aborted the June 12 elections, and, my friend had this chance meeting with General Mr. Obasanjo in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria. The detail exposure in the democratic press jolted the military conspirators against June 12. It exposed the long night of the long knives against June 12 by the military conspirators.  On sighting my friend, Mr. Obasanjo (he must have forgotten) said “eh you again, you people, you just hit, hit hit gbam gbam, you do not know that you have to do it little by little, and guide the bull in the China shop away …”

 In public, Mr. Obasanjo had given the impression of being an unwavering “democrat”. But here he was chastising the media-through my colleague – for the media’s direct challenge (through the detail press exposure of their betrayal) to the conspirators, the negators of June 12.  Perhaps “doing it little by little” was to allow the  “authority”-IBB, the Generals and their co-conspirators- “supervise” a democratic process and eventually to ambush and negate it, as they eventually did with Mr. Abiola’s June 12 1993  democratic and electoral mandate.

 So, General Obasanjo’s Ghanaian declaration against the open society has antecedents. Perhaps he was saying then in 1993 during the defense of the June 12 mandate by the media and the people that Nigerian people and the media have “right” to information but not freedom.   My friend, who directly bore the grunt and  brunt of General Obasanjo’s salvo against democracy,  is still very active in the public square. He is a living witness to this story.

The media exposure of the military conspirators against June 12 as a component of the Nigerian peoples’ resistance was what General Mr. Obasanjo wanted us to do “little by little”. That story   was one of the   fore parents and what triggered what came later to be known as the underground press in Nigeria–one of the major tools of Nigerian working people in their resistance of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abacha’s military dictatorships and defense of June 12, 1993 democratic mandate.

Thus, in the aftermath of the Ghanaian election, Mr. Obasanjo asserted that he believed in the right to information and not freedom of information. He  re-echoed what he did  in the  June 12,1993  democratic process in Nigeria and his covert unethical role in that process when he said “M.K.O Abiola was not the messiah Nigerians were  looking for.” Those are General Obasanjo’s words. General Obasanjo forgot that election is about people’s freedom, it is not about a military General’s definition of a messiah for the people.  In other words, General Obasanjo is suggesting that there has to be a “guardian” of democracy and he sees himself as the military guardian of our democracy.  Unfortunately, he is not, he cannot be, he does not possess  democratic credentials, he has never shown them.  Therefore, he cannot be a guardian  of democracy for by his words and actions  he is an opponent of the open society.

 So when on the basis of his untenable distinction between “right” to information and freedom of information, he concluded that the result of the Ghanaian election ought not be directly relayed by journalists but that journalists should rely on the official announcement from the electoral body, General Obasanjo’s  connected himself  back to his  tale of “doing it little by little” which was an immoral frame for the  termination and burial of  the 1993 June 12 election  in Nigeria by the military dictatorship, and their supporters  like himself.

“Doing it little by little” simply means “Do Not tell the truth, truth scares, let us guide and gag the truth, let us water it down a bit until it becomes useless.” With this, one understands why all the elections Mr. Obasanjo had supervised or involved in from the infamous twelve two third in 1979 when he said about Mr. Obafemi Awolowo’s candidacy in the election, and I quote “the best candidate needs not win”, and his own election and re-election -all these “elections” can reasonably be declared moral fraud against our freedom. This is based on Obasanjo’s “thesis” of “doing it little by little” sacrifice of merit for personal undemocratic causes framed in terms of  “best candidate needs not win”, and his Ghanaian empirical frame of subordinating freedom of information to “right” of information.

By the singular act of drawing a morally questionable distinction between “right” (which can be suspended) to information and freedom(which define our humanity and therefore cannot be suspended) of information, General Obasanjo declared himself an enemy of the open society. As Wole Soyinka correctly argued, “freedom is the first condition of humanity.” In other words, contrary to General Obasanjo, and in view of Soyinka, freedom co-exists with and is inseparable from humanity. So to take one’s freedom away by subordinating it to a tenuous “right” that is waiting to be determined and “guaranteed” (and therefore can be withdrawn by the fiat of a dictator-whether military or “civilianized”) is to negate one’s humanity, it is to take one’s humanity away.

This is a straightforward reasoning which a military politician like General Obasanjo will never accept.  This is evident in 1979 when he openly worked against Awolowo when he, General Obasanjo, saying the best candidate (in other words General Obasanjo thought and knew that Awolowo was the best candidate for Nigeria in the 1979 elections but that he would work against him) for the presidential election needed not win and in the June 12 1993 elections when he said ‘Abiola is not the messiah we are looking for” and hence covertly and by deliberate act of omission worked against the June 12 1993 democratic mandate freely given by Nigerians. It was that mindset that he took into the 2012 Ghanaian presidential elections when he argued against freedom of information in favor of a vague, woolly and ill-defined “right” of information. General Obasanjo can logically be said to be an enemy of the open society in  Nigeria, in West Africa and in Africa generally.

But the social and political credentials of Nigeria’s democracy are richer and more profound and they are qualitatively different and  beyond General Obasanjo. Those credentials are products of the works of Nigerian working people. Thus General Obasanjo is not the face of Nigerian democracy and his democratic credentials are not morally worthy to be treated as such by the international community.

In our next presidential elections, contrary to General Obasanjo’s military democracy of “doing little by little” Nigerians must go against General Obasanjo and the press must report the results of the elections as they are announced directly from the polling booths as it is done in civilized societies.  This is the way to build a respectable Nigerian democracy. This is the honourable path. It is the ethical path.

PremiumTimes

‘Marriage doesn’t need sex… and marriages don’t need it to survive’ – Dame advises

inShare1

No sex please, we’re married! Helen Mirren has said sex is over-rated and marriages don’t need it to survive

She has made her name as one of Britain sexiest – and most talented – actresses.
But Dame Helen Mirren believes sex is overrated, at least when it comes to marriage.
The 67-year-old claims it is possible to be married, in love, and yet have no sex at all.
‘I don’t know why people have this idea that all marriages have to have sex because really, they don’t,’ she says in an interview.
This declaration comes from the woman who has oozed sex in movies and on TV – and who has even posed topless for a photoshoot in her 60s, reclining in a bath to promote her 2010 movie Love Ranch, about a married couple who open the first legal brothel in Nevada, USA.
At the time, she said she loved the idea of shocking people and she has done that in her latest interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly.
Sex? It’s not necessary in marriage, she makes clear.
‘There are other types of glue that hold people together.’
Dame Helen has been married since 1997 to American director Taylor Hackford.
The magazine claimed she was not speaking about her marriage but of the 54-year union between Alfred Hitchcock and his wife, Alma.
Dame Helen plays Alma in the upcoming film, Hitchcock, which suggests that the master of suspense and his wife were no longer intimate because they slept in single beds.
There are indications in the movie that Alma, who is nearing 60 in the film, still wants Hitchcock to desire her – and Dame Helen tells the Australian magazine that she completely understands how Alma feels.
‘Of course, she’s his wife, she wants him to think, or to say, “Oh, look at you you look so chic!”.
‘It’s not “get your knickers down, darling”, but all women – or many women – want to be told they look nice.’

Loving: Helen Mirren and husband Taylor Hackford have been married since 1997

Dame Helen shows her amusement at suggestions people – and the headlines – describe her as ‘red hot’ or as a ‘sex pot’, rather than just ‘looking nice’.
The Australian magazine points out she has only herself to blame for the sexy headlines because just three years ago, at the age of 64, she startled photographers by emerging from the sea in Italy in a red bikini.
Then, two years ago, she posed naked, apart from a string of pearls, for New York magazine. And she stripped for Esquire, draped in just the Union Flag, in the lead up to the London Olympics.

‘There are other types of glue that hold people together’: Helen said she wasn’t talking about her own marriage but that of Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma

Not to forget that topless bath picture.
Dame Helen, says the Australian Women’s Weekly, is tickled by the idea that she’s somehow doing something remarkable by being an object of sexual fascination well into her seventh decade.
‘I do feel insecure sometimes, just like everybody else,’ she said.
‘It’s ridiculous…we’re all worrying about (how we look) and it really is a bloody waste of time.’
YNaija

Cement importation and threat to job creation

 by Idris Ahmed  

Since the beginning of this administration, government officials have been hammering on the need to patronise made in Nigerian products.

The argument is that when Nigerians buy goods that are manufactured locally, it will encourage entrepreneurship and local investors will invest more in the economy and this will in turn lead to job creation and reduction in the rate of unemployment.

To encourage this, government has come up with policies aimed at discouraging the importation of certain commodities that are produced in the country. But this policy seems not to be working as commodities such as cement are still been imported into the country, despite the availability of indigenous cement factories in the country.

Such importation, analysts say, is capable of discouraging local investors in the sector.

Local cement manufacturing firms in the country have the capacity to produce 28 tonnes.

Local firms, include Dangote Cement, which accounts for 19.25 million tonnes out of the country’s annual cement need of about 20 million; BUA Cement which produces 2.5 tonnes at its plant in Edo; Cement Company of Northern Nigeria in Sokoto, 2 million tonnes and; LaFarge Wapco which contributes 8.3 tonnes to the cement needs of the country.

Nigeria’s per capita consumption of cement ranks below Senegal’s which is the 23rd largest economy in Africa. The country is also behind Egypt, which consumes 48 million tons of cement in 2011 compared to the 18 million tons consumed by Nigeria during the period.

The above statistics probably explains Nigeria’s parlous state of infrastructure.

Nigeria has an estimated housing deficit of 16 million units. Its roads network, which requires some quantity of cement to build, is very minimal compared to its landmass and population.

The rail system is even worst. Nigeria’s rulers have only added a few kilometres of rail to what the colonial masters bequeathed some 52 years ago.

Recently, the management of Dangote Cement Plc said it was closing its four million metric tons of cement per annum line in its Gboko Plant, Benue State, because of glut in the cement market, which it said was caused by importation of the commodity.

The Group Head, Corporate Communication, Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, said the move was necessitated by the glut in the market arising from the success “presently being recorded with the exponential increase in local production of cement and further compounded by continued importation of subsidized cement into the country.”

He said the production figure for the first 11 months of the year shows increased local production level with supply now surpassing demand. Total supply of cement to the market at the end of November, according to him, when compared to the same period last year, has shown a record increase of 11.4 per cent - the highest ever.

He said it was therefore disheartening to note that despite the glut in the local cement market, some cement importation, though reduced, have continued, thus calling to question the rigorous implementation of the backward integration policy, introduced to encourage local production.

Giving reason for the choice of BCC for a temporary shutdown, the Dangote Group image maker noted that, “with the dumping of subsidized imported cement in the South Eastern market, there is no way our Gboko Cement plant can survive. In fact, staff have been put on forced leave pending when the situation improves.”

The plant employs about 1,000 staff and the laying down of this huge number could have serious negative effect on the unemployment rate in the country which is said to be in millions.

In Nigeria, every worker has about five numbers of people depending on him or her.

The spokesperson of Dangote Group also said: “Inventory of finished products is beginning to build up at our plants. Don’t forget that projects from our investments of about N280 billion in additional capacity are already on stream, with lines 3 and 4 at Ibese and line 4 at Obajana, coming on stream early this year.”

Chiejina said other manufacturers are also experiencing the same problem of low sale and high inventory and called for urgent solution to the ugly development

Besides, he advised that government should vigorously implement the provisions of the cement backward integration policy that are needed to protect local manufacturers from dumping.

According to him, one potent solution is for government to consider the total ban on importation of cement in view of the fact that local production now surpasses demand for cement and in the interim also increase duty and levy on imported cement to the maximum level.

If the backward integration policy is to succeed fully, Chiejina said government should help increase demand for cement by encouraging the use of concrete roads because concrete roads are more durable and much more longer lasting. Concrete roads, he further said, will save substantial outflow of foreign exchange, while reducing imports of asphalt.

He said: “Nigerians should be proud of what the cement sector has done by making the country self-sufficient and, our Ibese plant is ready to start exporting as soon as we receive ECOWAS permit to hit the ground running”

Speaking on the development, a renowned financial expert, Bismark Rewane, who is the Chief Executive of Financial Derivatives, expressed worry that government was yet to stop importation of cement despite the increased local production.

He expressed concern over the situation in the cement industry and urged for concerted efforts to save the local manufacturers.

Dangote Group alone has caused the employment of over a hundred thousand in direct and indirect labour. Hence the suspension of operation of such a key sector should disturb a serious government.

At the ground breaking ceremony of Line Four of Dangote Cement in Obajana, Kogi State, recently, President Goodluck Jonathan said, “Dangote will soon enter the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest cement manufacturing company and be recognised in Nigeria as a net exporter of cement just like crude oil.”

Dangote Group has invested over $6.5 billion in cement plants and plans to invest for another 17 million tonnes by the outgoing year. The company needs all the encouragement to do more by discouraging importation.

DailyTrust

Between politicians and political pastors

by Dr. Lewis Akpogena

What really happens when religion and politics mix? When you see Christians jumping on the political bandwagon, you may feel weary.

You wonder if Christians should spend time on politics or maybe you are glad that Christians are showing concern for society and getting involved. You may feel you should be involved. But you wonder if politically involved Christians are being naïve or simplistic.

You may doubt whether or not you should vote for a candidate just because he claims to be a Christian. You wonder if Christians are right to act as a pressure group in government. And you wonder, is there a truly biblical approach to political involvement? According to First Timothy 2:1-4, the first ministry and outreach of believers meeting together in regular fellowship is prayer.

The first specific topic for prayer is the government. We are to pray for good government. God desires all men to have the truth of the gospel preached to them. Good government facilitates the preaching of the gospel while bad government hinders it. Therefore good government is the will of God.

The place of Christians praying to enthrone and sustain righteous leadership cannot be overemphasized. Over the years and in history, Christian’s prayers had enthroned and sustained righteous leadership and liberate citizenry from bad leadership in some cases. This importance of praying for good government is stressed by Derek Prince in his book “Shaping history through prayer and fasting”.

Said he, “The truth is that Christians are not held responsible to criticize their government, but they are held responsible to pray for it. So long as they fail to pray, Christian has no right to criticize ….

This applies with double force to Christians in such a democracy who, in addition to the normal political machinery, have also available to them the God-given power of prayer by which to bring about the changes which they believe desirable, either in the personnel or in the policy of the government”.

Kenya, Great Britain and United States of America had experienced the power of praying Christians to bring changes in government and affairs of mankind in society. In Rivers State years back, Bishop Elkannah Hanson led praying team to enthrone and sustain the government of Chief Rufus Ada George.

In 1998/99, Rivers State Christian Elders Forum initiated by Rev. Mosy Madugba and headed by Elder Sam Mbata with me as the Publicity Coordinator in concert with the Military Administrator, Group Captain Sam Ewang by prayers brought about the government of Dr. Peter Odili.

In 2003, it was all comers’ affairs Christians and different religious groups were falling over to be noticed as praying for the re-election of Dr. Peter Odili to the extent that it caused division among Christian’s groups. Prior to the emergence of Sir Celestine Omehia as governor and thereafter, the problem is not lack of praying Christians but the extent it has degenerated. That prayer has been politicised by Christians as well as politicians politicking with it.

 Why politicisation of prayers? “For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naïve people” (Rom. 16:18) By reason of selfish interest, intrigues and self-seeking on the part of some Christian leaders who initiate move or form groups to pray for politicians and attempt by some politicians who have seen how Christian prayers had played dominant role in enthroning past governments began to recruit pastors, prophets and praying groups to out do one another in support of their candidacy.

To the extent that some Christian leaders collects money from politicians to pray for their success at the poll.

Bickering in Pentecostal circle today is as a result of this unwholesome practice. Derek Prince related this incident in his book of a young man named Wilson Mamboleo of the vision he saw and spoke about the intervention of God on behalf of Kenya came through a group of Christians who united together to pray, in accordance with scripture for the government and the destiny of their nation. “Only the supernatural power of the prayer of my people can turn away the troubles that are coming upon Kenya” Is there not good reason to believe that these words apply first as much to our country and Rivers State in particular?

In this era of political instability and cult/militant violence in Niger Delta, there is also proliferation of praying groups. Its like every politician or elected government officer takes pleasure to raise such group. And many Christian leaders are mobilising prayer support groups for politicians and governments.

But the motive and the practice is in using this prayer groups to curry favour and seek attention of politicians and government. The abuse is that these prayer groups have politicised prayers that it is more of publicity and praise singing of government and politicians in the media than agonising in prayer for violent free state and prosperity of our people.

Priests, Pastors and prophets helped ministers to enthrone rulers in the Bible but were never running around rulers/government officers for attention. If Christian leaders conduct themselves very well these politicians and rulers would seek for our counsel and prayers to rule well without unduly advertising ourselves to them. We should not lower the dignity of our calling and offices because we need government help to do ministry work.

Yes, I initiated Rivers State Concerned Ministers Association now Concerned Gospel Ministers’ Association.

It is patterned after defunct Rivers State Christian Elders Forum. It is not seeking for recognition. We do our praying. When politicians and government officials need our counsel on issues we give. We in Concerned Gospel Ministers’ Association have not received financial assistance from politicians or government. Jesus in Matt. 6:1-18 places main emphasis upon the motive, and warns against religious ostentation for the sake of impressing men.

Crises in Pentecostal circle is because some of our leaders for ego and conflict of interest ran around political office seekers to mortgage our collective heritage and interest to collect money from political office seekers secretly with intent to mobilize the votes of Christians to support those their business politicians partners that occasioned our division and crises.  Must we continue this way?

 To free Rivers State from present political upheaval and violence, for the Lord to do a powerful work of revival in Rivers State and Nigeria at large, believers need to rediscover Jesus’ heartbeat as expressed in His “High priestly” prayer of John 17. In a word, we need to work together as the brothers in the Lord that we are. “Believers plagued by disunity and dissension are disqualified from God’s blessing, while unity and cooperation among true members of God’s family invites His spirit to accomplish mighty things” (Dr. Joe Aldrich).

We don’t need to engage in press war nor use the force of police or court to bring peace, stability or justice to our land. Let all those mushroom prayer groups, the priests, the ministers, and  elders (Joel 2:15-17)  come together, leave politicians out of it and agonise in prayer for Rivers State, whatever evil plans by selfish politicians, cultists and militants will stop and peace will reign in the state.

How that government will affect Christians depends upon the attitude and conduct of the Christians. Christians get the kind of government they deserve. For the politicians and those in government who thinks that raising prayer groups and getting pastors to pray for them with money, what God requires in those who rule is “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God” (2 Sam. 23:2-4). Even devils and unbelievers pray.

God does not promise blessing to a government upon the condition that it carries a particular party label. God promises blessing to a government whose officials fulfill two great basic moral requirements. He demands that they be “just” and “God fearing”. When politicians induce cultism and militancy in our polity and call on men of God/churches to pray, God shall not answer such prayers.

But just and God fearing leaders who honour the priesthood and genuinely call for the prayers of Christian believers, God will answer. Politicians and government officials must stop politicising prayers. Christians must stop politicking with prayers.

“The ministry of preaching is open to a few. The ministry of praying is open to every child of God. Don’t mistake action for unction, commotion for creation, and rattles for revivals. The secret of praying is praying in secret. A worldly Christian will stop praying and a praying Christian will stop worldliness. When we pray, God listens to our heartbeat.

Hannah’s “lips” moved, but her voice was not heard (1 Sam. 1:12-13). When we pray in the Spirit, there is groaning which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26)” (Battle cry for the Nations). Let us stop political prayers of seeing ministers/pastors all over government house and function seeking for recognition and asking to lead prayers.

Let us stop advertising our prayers. Destiny and nation changing prayers are not advertised. They are not paid for by publicity or money but by secret tears, mourning and fasting in our closet.

Believer’s prayers are precious and costly. It should not be advertised or sold or induced by politicians offering money to get you to pray. We must pray to stop the violence but we should stop politicizing and politicking with prayers of God’s people.

NigerianCompass

Why democracy may not enthrone a God-fearing leader – Fashola

*Explains how Lagos used data for good governance
Africa Rising – That is the headline of (last week’s) cover of Time Magazine. It is for me an appropriate place to start my discussion on the theme “Governance, Security and Peace in Africa”; and, if I might say so at the onset, it is a somewhat misleading if not patronizing headline.
I say this because students of world history will know that the story of our planet is one of the rise and fall of civilisations and empires.
Civilisations and empires have thrived and floundered on the basis of the challenges of their time, when they peak or fall; and what men or women do or fail to do.
And I propose to discuss this in some fuller detail as I deal with the subject of institutions. But I must emphasize that Greece, which is one of Europe’s poorest and highly indebted nations today, was once at the zenith of human civilisation.
The heart of the Roman Empire, which gave the world one of its most enduring legacies of law, was situated in what is modern day Italy and is currently a struggling economy.
But we have not heard the last of Italy or Greece. In the way that Germany rose from the ruins of two World Wars to become Europe’s super power house today, we have seen the renaissance of a Ming Dynasty that took almost 5,000 years to re-discover herself in the renaissance of China.
Africa’s Renaissance
So contrary to a rising Africa, I see the renaissance of a region that once boasted the amazing engineering feats of the Egyptian pyramids when there were no super cranes and a place where Timbuktu, in modern day Mali, was once the place to be for science, mathematics and learning.
Africa is not rising; it is experiencing a renaissance again. The sustainability will be determined by what men and women do or fail to do.
This is the platform from which I propose to address my sub-theme of “Regime Change, Ethno-Religious Insurgency and State-craft in the 21st Century with my focus on West Africa.
Let me start by submitting that I have read enough history and seen a lot of conflict in almost five decades on earth to come to the clear conclusion, that all conflicts are fuelled by the desire for dominance, territorial control, economic benefit for self or allies.
I am convinced that in whatever garment these conflicts are dressed, whether ethnic or religious, those cloaks are only designed to whip up a sense of identity and support towards a cause they often may not understand.
Abundance of Human and Natural Resources in West Africa
West Africa, as the name suggests, is a sub region of Africa that has 16 (Sixteen) countries who are independent nations, collectively they have a population of approximately 300,000,000 (Three Hundred Million) people whose lands are blessed with all types of natural resources such as oil, gas, coffee, cocoa, timber, gold, to mention a few and access to water especially the Atlantic Ocean.
It is important to mention this so that there is clarity about abundance of human and natural resources. Some of the oldest and foremost learning institutions such as the Fourah Bay College and the many learning centres such as in Old Timbuktu are located in this region.
In the last few decades, they formed an economic block, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for short, almost like the European Union to deepen economic trade.
The Tragedy of West Africa
But ironically, this region has, until recently, made global headlines for the wrong reasons. Apart from hunger and poverty experienced by a people so blessed; and I am not happy to say this, peacekeeping operations have consumed several millions of dollars as perhaps the only successes that can come out of a region of such vast resources.
These are peacekeeping missions to end the mindless slaughter of innocent men, women and children who have been victims of mindless orgies of violence in the pursuit of crass and brazen ambition under the guise of attempted governance.
Sierra Leone and Liberia once very free, peaceful and historic settlements for their roles in the end of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the redevelopment of the African human capital through education, have lost their innocence forever.
While the healing process and rebuilding continues at a pace that encourages hope, there are scars that will never go away. My own country Nigeria faced a bloody civil war about which I will say a word or two, Ivory Coast was not spared; neither was Ghana, in the mindless toppling of regime after regime in the 1980s and several execution of leaders and the displacement of millions of citizens who became refugees outside their homeland. Yes, many Ghanian professionals became shoemakers, drivers, odd job men and women in my own country when I was a teenager because their country failed them. All these are now in the past.
The old Gold Coast of Africa is back. The Ashanti Dynasty is not rising. It is experiencing a renaissance. What lies at the heart of all these conflicts for me is a difficult question; and from here I have to be careful what I say so that I am not misunderstood. Before the colonization of Africa in the late 19th Century, many of these nations were several kingdoms with kings and emperors. We must remember that succession was by conquest and it is possible to rationalize what we have today on that basis.
The Hope Democracy Brings
Democracy has survived many ages. The Agrarian Age, the Industrial Age and it has merged with other philosophies like capitalism and moved into the age of information technology and now globalization.
It faces perhaps its biggest threat yet by the effects of technology and globalization which both test the limits of freedom.  The success or otherwise of this model of governance has been the Achilles heel of the political stability of West Africa.
It is possible to argue that the African concept of communal existence, sharing and conciliation were shaken to their foundations by the winner-takes-all that elections produce in a democratic setting. While I may be wrong, and I hope that I am, it is a study that I hope will be undertaken.
Those who are products of ancestors who ruled as kings and emperors may seem somewhat perplexed that they cannot share the Court of a successful winner after an election; and must therefore accept the economically unrewarding role of opposition, at least until the next elections are called.
Really and truly, all human endeavor and conflict about a better life, but the irony is that the concept of a better life is itself amorphous and difficult to define.
One might wonder for example why the people of the Western economies with all their infrastructure and progress, which are many miles ahead of what you will find in many parts of Africa, are still agitating for a better life.
Happily for me, I am able to say that inspite of the difficulties, many parts of West Africa are democratizing and, with that, political stability is emerging and we are seeing development. Sierra Leone just conducted peaceful elections for the second time after many years of conflict.
The evidence of political stability stares every person in face as one witnesses the block by block rebuilding of a once peaceful country whose infrastructure was ravaged by conflict induced by regime change.
The question therefore is this:- In the light of the progress being witnessed in many parts of democratizing West Africa, is democracy the answer or the missing link to unlocking the vast opportunities in West Africa.
Yes, democracy will, on the basis of the available evidence of what has been done under it, be critical to achieving the goal. On its own, it will not suffice to solve the problem.

Gov Fashola

The Creeping Danger of Fundamentalism
Inspite of democratic structures in Mali, and with only a few months to general elections, a few people still ganged up to seize power, with an official statement that they wanted to change things. The question on everyone’s lips was: why not wait for the general elections that were so close; to effect the change by the ballot?
The answer may be long in coming.
In some parts of West Africa, political change, and possibly the quest for a better life, has acquired a new image. It is now anchored on Islam, by the group now classified as the Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.
As we speak, the West African nations are contributing troops to go into Mali in a coalition to dislodge them because of the political danger they pose to the entire region.
But beyond guns and live ammunition, their pursuit for power is fired by a stronger ammunition, one which does not attack the body but instead strikes the mind. Religion.
This will be difficult to defend against or to attack.
Its range is limitless, its fuel supply is not science; on the contrary, it is passion driven by unquestioning faith.  That fuel rarely runs out of supply and it does not tolerate reason but commands only unquestioning faith and belief. This is the newest and biggest threat and it is on both sides of the 2 (two) popular religions, Christianity and Islam, both of which incidentally and interestingly owe their origins to the same region, the Middle East.
Perhaps the closest in history to what we experience today are the ecclesiastical wars in advent of Christianity.  It is against the background of these complexities that I intend to examine the role of statecraft in the 21st Century.
The Role of Statecraft
For my definition of ‘statecraft’, I choose “the art of conducting the affairs of state or conducting government affairs”.
I think it is fair to say that, at whatever level one is involved, it is not an easy affair. Whether you are a President, Prime Minister, State Governor, City Mayor or whatever designation you operate at, the problems are the same.
It is about humanity. Protecting people, securing your environment, saving lives and providing economic opportunities which, in simple words, mean jobs, providing education, healthcare, protecting rights and so on and so forth. What differs is the complexity of the same problem, from place to place, depending on the level of development or lack of it.
The accepted global model for conducting these affairs, which is democracy, has been tested, but is now, in my view, technologically challenged.
By this I mean that with globalization, many more people are involved in the process and they influence decision making for good or bad.
What newspapers could by editorial decision delay or refuse to publish while a decision of Government is under consideration is now instantly available on the social media without any consideration for its possible adverse or beneficial effect. Very recently, I told my colleagues that this is not a good time to be a leader, although I have always asked myself if there was ever a time in human history that it was good to lead.
That is why I salute the leaders of many centuries past, especially those of the early 20th Century who led our world through many technological breakthroughs such as electricity, the telephone, the airplane and protected our planet amidst the threat of two world wars.
I draw a lot of inspiration from their courage and refusal to give up.
This is the least that is expected of every leader today in any part of the world if we are to save this planet from peril.
This is the challenge of statecraft.
Regrettably, democracy does not concern itself about this. It is only concerned about the emergence of the leader by popular mandate in an open process.
Democracy does not guarantee that the leader will be competent as we have seen in some jurisdictions. It makes no guarantee that he will be compassionate or God-fearing or that he will be passionate about the job.
In a technologically-driven world, where the primary objective of statecraft centres around the human civilization, data possession, processing, understanding and management are a sine qua non to successful statecraft in the 21st Century.
In the last five and a half years that I have spent in office, I have paid unrelenting attention to data.  The importance coincides with the cliché that you cannot manage a thing, if you cannot measure it.  A few quick examples will suffice to demonstrate the point.
Security
On assumption of office in 2007, the first inquiry I made was about the number of Policemen in the State that was available to help me protect the 17,552,000 people that our 2006 headcount showed that we had living in Lagos.
Over the years, data management has become invaluable in our crime prevention strategy and has made our state easily the safest in the Country.
We are able to monitor trends by analysing reports at monthly security meetings which I chair and, by so doing, we deploy the necessary logistics, either of more men, more patrol vehicles, more boats, more communication equipment or extra hours or a combination of any of them as the crime data reports suggest.
Revenue
In order to raise money to fund our obligations, I sought to know how many properties we had registered on our data base and found out that we had registered only 26,000 (Twenty Six Thousand). We invested in the property enumeration exercise and today we have registered 640,000 (Six Hundred Forty Thousand) and still counting.  Of course I need not say that receipts from Property taxes  jumped in many folds.
I also sought to know how many citizens were issued with tax cards as proof of payment of personal income tax, and I was told it was only 500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand).
We embarked on massive tax awareness campaigns and invested in printing and issuance of tax cards and today we have 2,530,744 (Two Million, Five Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty Four) tax payers on our data base.
This accounts in part for why we are the only state that may survive without oil proceeds, because about 70% of our annual expenditure comes from internally generated funds
We also conducted a registration of existing businesses in the State and our version of the Lagos Yellow pages, a directory of small businesses, shows that we have 158,720 (One Hundred and Fifty Eight Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty) businesses in our State as at 2011 with significant increases expected in 2012.
Traffic Management
When we resolved to clean up Oshodi, a very congested part of Lagos that prevented access and thoroughfare through Agege Motor Road because street traders had taken over the road, our first task was to enumerate the number of street traders in order to plan their re-settlement. Their new market is now finished and awaiting hand over.
Subsequent to the clean-up, our monitoring and data collection revealed that it was a well-considered effort and money wisely spent because:-
Speed survey shows that the average speed within the vicinity (Agege Motor Road) had increased by 300% from 10km/hr measured while developing the Strategic Transport Master Plan in 2008 to an average of 40km/hr in spite of increased traffic flow arising from traffic diverting (to Agege Motor Road) from Ikorodu Road and Apapa-Oworonsoki expressway. The fact that vehicles now have effective use of 2 clear traffic lanes is a contributory factor to this development.
Travel condition has also improved along Ikorodu Road where traffic volumes have reduced by 4% as Agege Motor Road now serves as an effective alternative for north to south movements in Mainland Lagos. Traffic speeds have consequently increased by 10%.   Overall, our data analysis showed that the Oshodi clean- up measures will lead to travel time savings of 252 million hours, equivalent to 112,500 man-years savings leading to productivity gains in the Lagos Economy.
Indeed the traffic improvements  translate to an annual benefit within the Oshodi vicinity of around N10b. The wider benefit to the Lagos Economy is far bigger and could reach N120 billion.  As a result of the increase in travel speed from an average of 10km/hr to 40km/hr, the amount of carbon emitted by vehicles has reduced by 48% to 76g/km.  The noise level has also decreased from 73.73 dBA recorded in 2008 to an average of 65 dBA.
This is a reduction of 12% in noise pollution.  The cost of developing other measures such as building a 1km bridge
to by-pass the troubled area of Oshodi and to achieve the result currently being experienced now in Oshodi will cost the Government N16.6 billion as opposed to under N300 million spent on relocating the traders and mobilizing enforcement to ensure the area remains clear.
This leaves a surplus of just over N16.3 billion for more pressing infrastructure needs of the State.  Since August 2012 when we introduced a new traffic law to increase safety and reduce road traffic accidents, I was recently able to report to citizens the results of our monitoring of the impact of the implementation of the law as follows:
From the 25 General hospitals, the reports of accidents from motorcycles dropped from 646 to 525 cases in September; an 18.73% reduction, while deaths recorded between the same period dropped from 14 to 8, a 42.86% reduction.  In terms of the impact of the law and our advocacy on healthcare, our recent monitoring and evaluation assessment report reveals that:-
a. 65% of people sampled after the law want to reduce alcohol intake as against 30% before; b. 93% now want to reduce drugs as against 71% before the law; c. 77% are now convinced that alcohol is a danger to them and their passengers if they drink and drive, as against 10% before the law; and only 4% now say they can still able to purchase alcohol within the motor park after the law, as against 58% before the law.
Budget
Similarly, we have taken data and budget statistics very seriously as our critical tool for planning and service delivery.  We hold quarterly budget sessions year on year, we monitor performance vigorously and we have never performed below 70% of our budget commitments even though this is below our target of 90%.
Education
Data has proved quite useful in education management, just as in other sectors. Although we started an emergency school repair and construction programme, data collection has helped us identify areas of more classroom needs and this has helped us allocate resources more judiciously.  It has helped us to remain focused on the long gestation that education renaissance requires because we are seeing consistent upward results in the performance of students in their final examinations as a result of our many initiatives.
For example, the final West Africa Examinations Council secondary school leaving results showed that 7% of students passed with 5 credits in one sitting with English and Mathematics in 2007.  The result went up to 11% in 2008, 18% in 2009, 21% in 2010, and dropped to 19% in 2011.
Our detail analysis of data of students performances at monthly education meetings that l inaugurated in 2011, and which I chair, resulted in the deployment of a cocktail of  solutions, such as younger teachers,  review of class promotion grades, involvement of parents, injection of funds and extra lessons.  Perhaps at this point it will be remiss of me and dangerously ominous not to take a position about the still raging controversy back home, at least by the accounts in the local papers as of last weekend.
On THERE WAS A COUNTRY
My host, Professor Chinua Achebe, had chosen to document his account of an indelible personal experience in a new book titled, “There was a country – a personal history of Biafra”. It received and continues to receive mixed and in some cases hostile reception.  In fact, some commentators suggested that the work had contributed to restoring old tensions and brewing new hostilities, prefacing possible inter-ethnic conflict.
Wherever your personal view may lie, we cannot but observe, from the tone of the commentary, that our national governments continue to fail us in the crucial duty of being repositories of information, data, records and archives as historical records are indispensable tools for policy development.
Certainly, the discourse would have been richer, less acrimonious and not predestined for tension if institutional national archiving and information disclosure was responsibly discharged by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
I am sure there are other examples across the West African sub-region. States must begin to see the connection between information management and inter-religious, ethnic and sectional tension across Africa.
That publication has put me in some difficult straits and I will explain.
I speak here today not in person but by virtue of my office as Governor of Lagos State.
The invitation from Professor Chinua Achebe to me is therefore an honour to the people of Lagos and, on their behalf, I thank him.  My first invitation was actually to speak here in December 2011 but previous commitments made that impossible.
When I suggested to Professor Achebe that I will write the speech and have somebody deliver it, he was emphatic in saying that he would rather wait for a year until 2012.
Sometime early this year, I wrote to confirm my acceptance and my attendance.
I am Yoruba and interestingly a product of his seminal work, “Things fall Apart”, as  a student of literature in a Nigerian Secondary School.
You cannot imagine my excitement as I prepared for this occasion sometime in August this year, when I heard of his new book.  I ordered a copy online and requested that it be delivered to me in London in October whilst I was attending an event there.
I was halfway through the book when I checked the local news online and saw that things were no longer at ease back home in Nigeria.
Some leaders of my ethnic group had very strong views about parts of the book.
Professor Achebe is from the Igbo ethnic group. As you can also expect, there were spirited responses from leaders of opinion from his ethnic group.
My thoughts were to write to Professor Achebe to decline the invitation and proffer some excuse.  I wonder if it crossed his mind to find a reason to ask me not to bother to come.
But I resolved that a commitment I had made in honour to attend was more important than what anybody might say or feel. Those were the values on which I was raised.
More importantly, this was a generational disagreement between the principal parties of the events that took place when I was barely four years old.
As I said, the management of the National Archives and the publication of what really happened at that time will certainly help to ensure that nobody creates his own facts.
But beyond that, my own generation has moved on. We see our country differently. It also seems to me that, many years after the conflict, some of the principal actors in the conflict such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Yoruba leader, and Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu had decided to move on.
This was what Ojukwu said when Chief Awolowo passed on in the late 1980s:- “the best President that Nigeria never had”.
It might interest you to also know that one of the active military leaders of the time, a Yoruba General, did not object to his daughter subsequently marrying an Igbo man.
My own aunt, a Yoruba Muslim, had a son for an Igbo Christian man and he is as much my cousin as the others are. Today, the story of our progress in Lagos State cannot be complete without acknowledging the role of Ben Akabueze, an Igbo man from Anambra State, who has been my Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning for the last 5 (Five) years.
Interestingly, it is only in Yoruba land, and I stand to be corrected, where the problem of abandoned properties did not afflict the Igbos.
They returned back after the war to rightfully claim properties they had deserted in flight in the aftermath of the crisis.
It is instructive to also re-call that, when Lagos State Military Government, many decades after the war,  tried to expropriate Ojukwu’s property in Lagos, it was a Yoruba lawyer who prosecuted the case successfully on his behalf.
In my own home, Ojukwu was most welcome. He and my uncle started primary school the same day and remained lifelong friends until he passed on.
It was therefore a duty to honour him as I did at his funeral when I said:-
“Ikemba, as he was fondly called ,was an illustrious Nigerian, a dogged fighter and an accomplished individual, whose footprints and legacies on Nigeria’s political landscape have earned him a secure place in its Hall of Fame”. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I hope I speak for my generation if I say we understand how difficult things were at the time.
We salute the men and women who kept our nation together, especially those who paid the supreme price to do so.
The only way we can honour their memory is not to re-open the old wounds, but to resolve that never again will our people’s blood be spilled by their own people in order to harness the diversity of our people and make our union more perfect.
It is by making this kind of resolve that we can gain from that conflict and use the lessons to surmount the challenges that stand in the way of our journey to the promise of our nation.
This is why I have inaugurated the bi-enniel Kuramo conference that seeks to provoke the formulation of a new globlal legal order which, in my view, will unlock the closed doors inhibit the progress of the African Continent.
One of its recent gains is the inauguration of the Lagos Court of Arbitration which will help keep arbitration business and practice in Africa instead of exporting them to Europe.
The Kuramo  conference also seeks to repartriate Africa’s stolen wealth back home, develop a global standard for environmental clean up after oil spillages, reduce the proliferation of small arms amongst many other objectives that I think are laudable.
These for me must be some of the utilitarian values and pre-requisites of Statecraft in the 21st Century in Nigeria, West Africa and every part of the civilized world.
Being the keynote speech at the 2012 Achebe Colloquium on Africa held at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island USA on Friday December 7, 2012 delivered by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, on The Role of Statecraft in the African Renaissance amidst Regime Change and Ethno-Religious Insurgency – A West African Case Study.
Vanguard

Anxiety Rises Over Absentee Governors

From Lawrence Njoku (Enugu) and Aniete Akpan (Calabar) 

• Impeachment Threat Hangs Over Chime
• Imoke Alive, Says Aide
THERE are indications that absentee Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, may not return to work soon, even as the plot to impeach him may have commenced Saturday in Enugu.
This comes as his equally absentee counterpart in Cross River, faces similar ordeal, as rumour of his “death” spread like wild fire in homes, public and market places.
Some people speculated that the gods are angry with the Governor for demolishing the Mary Slessor effigy at the Marian/Mary Slessor roundabout in Calabar, and which was erected to commemorate the works of the Scottish missionary that single-handedly stopped the killing of twins. The roundabout is under re-construction.
It has also been speculated that the governor committed another sacrilege by uprooting the big traditional ‘nkong ekpe’ (used in Ekpe cult of the Efik/Qua people), which was visibly displayed at the Eleven-Eleven junction. They argued that nobody commits such atrocities and survive the wrath of the gods.
But in all these, Chief Press Secretary and Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr. Christian Ita, issued a press release in the first week of December, explaining that Imoke had written to the State House of Assembly for a two-month “cumulative” leave.
According to him, “Some three weeks ago, His Excellency took a short break after a long hectic and eventful year preparatory to the start of the busy Calabar festival season. He used the opportunity to undergo medicals and, in the process, was advised by his doctors to undergo further evaluation.”
Some people have genuinely expressed concern about the health of the man whom they regard as a leader and father.
Cross River State Commissioner for Information, Akin Rickett, also told The Guardian that the Governor was not dead as rumoured, but was undergoing proper medical check-up and analysis.
He said despite the fact that Imoke formally wrote to the State House of Assembly for a two-month leave, “from allindications, we are expecting him before the end of two months.”
In his own case, Governor Chime’s absence is due to his alleged ill health, which, sources say, has deteriorated so much that he has now been kept under close watch.
The Guardian gathered that the latest plot to impeach him is being contemplated by the State House of Assembly, as a way of clearing the dark clouds surrounding his “disappearance”, since September 19, this year, when he informed the lawmakers that he was proceeding on his annual leave.
It was further gathered that the impeachment process would most probably begin in January next year when the lawmakers would have returned from recess.
The source added that the lawmakers are being infuriated by the fact that the much they know about their governor is that he transmitted a letter informing them that he would be away for only six weeks.
“Are they saying that we are not entitled to know about the governor and the situation with him since he left for his annual leave? It is over 90 days since he left the state and since the constitution gives the State Executive Council powers to write to the House of Assembly to constitute a health committee to ascertain his condition, does it mean they cannot show that sense of responsibility up to this time and do the needful?
“We have shown enough understanding and maturity in the kind of thing we found ourselves, but I want to tell you that we cannot continue like this.” the source added.
He wondered the kind of “accumulated leave” that the governor had embarked upon as well as the “ailment’ he is suffering from that “his wife, children, brothers and sisters’, would ‘abandon’ him and remain in Enugu.
He said the House is incensed the more by the fact, that even the Acting Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi, has been incapacitated to perform his duties, stressing that it took so much argument for him to be allowed to present the 2013 budget on Friday.
Meanwhile, an initiative to locate the governor after 90 days of absence from duty has been launched with the initiators vowing to unravel the mystery over his whereabouts.
One of the conveners, Jude Agu, said that those who decided that “nobody should know about Chime’s whereabouts could be playing some games with state resources’, stressing that they must be benefitting from keeping him away from the state.
He said that in the next couple of weeks, they would tell Enugu residents and Nigerians where the governor is and why he had not returned to duty at the expiration of his accumulated leave.
TheGuardian

Delta pleads on pipeline to Edo

DELTA State Government, yesterday told the people of Idjerhe kingdom in Ethiope West Local Government Area to allow SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company carry out the laying of its pipelines from the community to the Oben flow station, Edo State. The people had demanded that a flow station be constructed in the area by the company before it could commence the laying of the pipeline from the oil field in the kingdom.
At a meeting between the state government, the company and leaders of the Idjerhe kingdom, the state Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Mr. Mofe Pirah, explained that SEPLAT already had two flow stations in Delta that were being utilized to full capacity and one other in Oben, a neighbouring community in Edo State which was below 30% utilization.
Vanguard