Clark, associates blast Anenih over comments on New PDP; Obasanjo’s peace talks continue today

By Wale Odunsi

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih, has been criticized for a statement credited to him on the emergence of a faction of the party.
Anenih had stated that the governors of the party who are part of the new faction headed by Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje had a point.
But a group, the Congress for Equality, on Thursday said Anenih belittled his person and office for not standing solidly behind President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
At a meeting held at the residence of Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, on Thursday in Abuja, the group condemned the stance of the Abubakar Baraje’s faction, that President Jonathan should drop his purported 2015 ambition.
In a communiqué signed by Ameh Ebute, on behalf of the Congress for Equality said that Anenih should not have said that the aggrieved governors had genuine complaints but rather “should distance himself from the demands of these so-called ‘aggrieved governors’ and join Tukur to work for the party in truth and in spirit.”
“Every past Head of State or President had weaknesses, but such weaknesses were not sufficient to deny them their constitutional rights to vie for a second term,” Ebute said.
Also in attendance were retired Major General David Jemibewon and retired General IBM Haruna.
Chief Anenih had in a statement titled: “A Call for Caution”, said that that it amounts to act of disrespect for President Jonathan if chieftains would continue to fire salvo while reconciliation is ongoing.

“Following the walkout staged by some aggrieved members of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the special Convention of 31st August, 2013, there have been genuine efforts by the leadership of the party, including the President himself, to reach out and reconcile with the aggrieved members, using the numerous mechanisms for conflict resolution that exist in the party.
Continuing, “A series of meetings have been held and more are scheduled to hold in the next few days. It is unfortunate that while the reconciliation efforts are being made, some of our members are making inflammatory statements, intimidating one another and issuing threats of court actions. Such actions do nothing, but harm the efforts at reconciliation.
“Like a good family, we must avoid open confrontation and allow the leadership of the party to effect genuine reconciliation. Conflict is not new to the PDP and, as in the past, I am confident that, in spite of the differences, the current one will be resolved, with the party coming out even stronger and more united than ever.
“To make preemptive statements while the process of reconciliation is still on is disrespectful not only to the President but also to the party leadership. Such statements undermine the party and the enormous efforts being made under the transformation agenda of the Mr. President.
“I therefore call on all members of our great party to exercise restraint throughout this trying period.”
Meanwhile, another round of consultation is scheduled to hold today with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in attendance.
Some PDP elders are also expected to be part of the talks, which will discuss ways to end the factionalization of the party.
Sources say the aggrieved PDP governors would be met next week.

DailyPost

ANALYSIS: PDP Split: A Repeat of History

Gimba Kakanda

The ongoing internal chaos in the Peoples Democratic Party, which was actually a predictable twist following the rate at which key members were being ostracised with obvious cooperation of President Goodluck Jonathan, is a repetition of a drama witnessed under the chairmanship of Ahmadu Ali in 2006, when a group led by the founding chairman of the party, Solomon Lar, set up a parallel faction to purportedly take over the running of the party from Ahmadu Ali. 

Declaring its position known at the time, the splinter group announced through a past Deputy National Chairman of the party, Shuaib Oyedokun, that it had ceased to recognise the Ali-led leadership, as its faction was the authentic. The faction also boasted of supports from 17 governors and notable chieftains of the party. This split was in the middle of a war over the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s fallout with his boss. And thus it was considered a move sponsored by Atiku. 

That major split was triggered by alleged political victimisations in which then Plateau State’s Governor Joshua Dariye and Anambra State’s Chris Ngige, were suspended and expelled respectively. The ostracised members, Oyedokun told journalists, were “chased out by those elements that were mere beneficiaries of the struggles of the G34. Most of them in the hierarchy of the party and government today are known Abacha foot soldiers and they are at it again. Indeed, the PDP has been hijacked by night guards.” Oyedokun added that his group was taking over the party because “the existing national officers led by Ali were purportedly elected by affirmation in a method that was strange to the party’s constitution.”

PDP has always been mired in crises over legitimacy of its national exco. The recent crisis was sparked by the nullification of the election of 12 of the 16 members of its National Working Committee by INEC on April 8, 2013; a crisis that did not not end until a panel led by Anyim Pius Anyim was set up to intervene, hence a recommendation for the sack of some members of the party’s national executive committee- an imbroglio narrowly escaped by the embattled and controversial party chairman.

The long-awaited special convention of the party last Saturday brought to the fore a foreseen split which had frustrated the unity of the party chieftains ever since the infamous election of Nigerian Governors’ Forum in which River State’s Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Presidency-backed Governor Jonah Jang were both “winners”. While the division was along a deepening conflict between President Goodluck Jonathan and various state governors, it became a repetition of an old drama with the involvement of Atiku who had never had it easy, and who had also always been a political outcast and on the opposite side of incumbent leaderships.

As the current Atiku-led faction battles to chart the way for an already threatened party in its desperate campaign for relevance and sympathy come 2015, the memories of a similar act seven years ago continue to torment the psyche of the nation. Is PDP going to survive this very split? Is the Tukur-led leadership ready for this rise of an aggrieved faction? Is this the beginning of an end of the self-acclaimed biggest party in Africa?

This second split is likely to deal a heavy blow to the ruling party as it’s not only ill-timed but happening at a time the oppositions merged to form a strong and attractive force. It is however evident that PDP is again exhibiting its failure to coordinate its internal affairs, tasking us with asking: is this finally the end of the road for PDP?

PremiumTimes

Buhari, 2015, and parable of the 2 sons

I have noticed a trend in the build-up towards the 2015 elections, particularly as it concerns former military head of state, Gen Muhammadu Buhari.  There are those who want him to run for president again, and there are those who do not.  
Gen Buhari had taken shots at the highest political office in the land in 2003, 2007 and 2011, but never made it to the presidency due to a number of factors.  However, that is not the focus of this piece.
Shortly before the 2011 polls, the Daura, Katsina State born general, said it was going to be his last time of offering himself for the position of president.  Still, his ambition was not realized, and he has maintained a fairly low profile political position since then.
But as 2015 approaches, there are pressures on Gen Buhari to throw his hat into the ring again as a candidate.  He turned 70 last December, and would be 72 by the time elections hold in 2015.  Too old?  Maybe not, as long as he is physically and mentally fit.  Our constitution prescribes only a minimum age for the president, and not maximum.
Abdoulaye Wade ruled Senegal in his 80s.  Ronald Reagan won election as American president when he was over 70 years old.  Robert Mugabe, though not an inspiring example, recently took oath of office for the sixth time as Zimbabwean president.  He is almost 90 years old.
For some people, the issue of whether Buhari should run in 2015 or not is not largely about his age, but his pledge in 2011 that he would not offer himself for the position of president again.
Those people believe if he goes back on his words, it would be antithetical, even antipodal to his previous position.  And two different positions have now been thrown up.  There are those who think Gen Buhari should be convinced to run again, since the Nigerian ship of state is drifting dangerously, and may soon hit the rocks. Former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, is one of such.  No doubt, Buhari has what it takes to save us from doomsday in terms of combating indiscipline, corruption, lawlessness, and generally leading by example.  But should he capitulate to the persuaders and run?
Before we answer the question, let us go to the other group, the ones who do not want Buhari to run, simply because they are afraid of him.  Yes, three parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All Nigerian Peoples Party, and the Congress for Progressive Change (and there is even a splinter from the All Progressives Grand Alliance) have coalesced to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A formidable alliance, if you ask me.  This is one political party that can torpedo the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power, where it has ensconced itself since 1999, doing little and promising to be there for minimum of 60 years.  But as long as Buhari lives, and is healthy, he poses a potent threat, a veritable stumbling block to the dreams of the PDP.  So, they fear him like plague.
And what do they do?  They embark on further disinformation, which they had always used against the man over the years: he is a religious bigot, he is sectional, he is inflexible, he is the brain behind Boko Haram.  Some people, in their bid to set a trap, even conjured a splinter group of the insurrectionist group, and mentioned Buhari as a man they could trust to broker a ceasefire deal.
A veritable trap, if ever there was one.  If he acquiesced, they would say, yes, they listened to him because he was their sponsor.  And if he didn’t (as he did not) they would say he’s not a patriot.  He could have used his influence to secure a ceasefire, but he did not, simply because he’s not altruistic. Head you lose, tail you lose.
What other mechanism are they using to dissuade Buhari from running in 2015?  They are spreading the word that it would be incompatible with his famed integrity if he runs, having said he would never run again in 2011.
The integrity they refused to allow the man use for the good of the entire country, they are now also waving over his head like the sword of Damocles.  Integrity is now sin, and it is only in Nigeria that it happens.  Pity.
How are the perpetual Buhari opposers (largely for fear of their economic empires) going about the disinformation process?   They have thrown the 2011 pledge the man made into public space, ahead of the process that would lead to the APC picking a presidential flag bearer.  Anybody else but Buhari would make them comfortable.  But if the latter emerges, then they would be in serious trouble.
Do I blame the PDP?  I don’t. The political game is all about getting the upper hand.  The most colourful politician with the largest cult-like following, particularly in the northern part of the country, is Gen Buhari.  And he equally has a large number of discerning supporters in the south.
If he then combines that with the grip the erstwhile Action Congress of Nigeria has on the South-west, then 2015 is a done deal for the opposition.  What to do then?  Convince Buhari not to run, mobilize public sentiment against him, remind him that keeping to one’s words is part of integrity.
Rather sadly, my friend and colleague, Eric Osagie, has got hoodwinked by the propagandists, and fallen for the fib.  Last Monday, at the back page of this newspaper, he wrote under the headline ‘2015: If Buhari runs…’ And what was he saying?  “At 70 plus, it is time for Buhari to forget his presidential dream, groom younger leaders to take over from him.
With all due respect, Buhari is not indispensable…  If Buhari runs and fails in 2015, he would have finally eroded the Buhari myth, which has kept many of his followers going over the years.  And that would be quite tragic.  A nation should not lose all its heroes, in the name of politics or whatever…  Anyone who truly loves Buhari ought to advise him to take a bow and go, and go on a deserved rest.”
Osagie has a right to his opinion, but that does not necessarily mean it is the gospel truth, or the laws of Medes and Persia, which can never change.  This is my own position, looking at Eric Osagie clause by clause: At 70 plus, it is time for Buhari to forget his presidential dream.
True?  False.  Age has nothing to do with it.  If a man remains physically and mentally sound at 80, who says he can’t be president?  The constitution allows it. The team that you assemble is what matters, as well as the direction you chart for the team.  And do you ever forget a dream?  If Abraham Lincoln did, he would not have ever become American president, after failing many times earlier.  John Atta Mills ran for three times before he became president in Ghana.  A man has a right to his dreams, and it is an infringement on his right to ask him to drop such dreams. God is the one who turns dreams into reality, not any man.
Again, Eric asks Buhari to groom younger leaders to take over from him.  The power game is never played that way.
Power is taken, and not handed out.  Let the younger people come with integrity, with dedication, with abhorrence for corruption, with charisma and ability to lead by example, and the country would follow them.  If a younger person comes with all the attributes we see in Buhari, who says we won’t follow him?  Nobody is indispensable, truly, but a country that refuses to put its best men at the helm of affairs is a moral and psychological absurdity.
If Buhari runs and fails in 2015, he would have finally eroded the Buhari myth, Eric Osagie says.  Not so.  I wouldn’t use the word myth, I’ll rather say Buhari brand.  Yes, there is the Buhari brand, and what are its characteristics?  Simplicity.  Incorruptibility.  Public spiritedness.  Discipline.  Accountability.
And many more!  And who should not like this brand?  I do, and will ever do.  It is a brand that can never fail, be eroded or corroded, no matter what misguided Nigerians do to it.  It is a lifelong, time tested, eternal brand.  Worry not Eric, the brand lives, and will live.
The writer also said: anyone who truly loves Buhari ought to advise him to take a bow and go on a deserved rest.  Not so fast, Eric.  You don’t trample on a man’s rights, under the pretext of loving him.  His rights are inalienable to him.  There are some decisions that a man can make only himself, and you have to respect such decision, if you truly love him.
So, what have I been saying?  Should Buhari run in 2015?  I have not said yes, I have not said no.  I will simply respect whatever decision he takes, because it is within his rights.  But to say running despite his promise never to do so again in 2011, would tantamount to loss of integrity, is to pull it to ridiculous level.  Who never changes his mind in this world? A change of mind is not irresoluteness.
It is not fickleness.  Neither is it vacillation or shilly-shallying.  In fact, a man that never changes his mind is one to fear, and run away from.  Such would remain stiff and unbending, even in the face of superior arguments.  Like Julius Caesar said of Cassius, “such men are dangerous.”
Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 21 verses 28-30.  “A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said. Son, go and work today in my vineyard.
“He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
And he came to the second, and said likewise.  And he answered and said, I go sir: and went not.”
Jesus then asked which of the two sons did the will of his father?  Of course, the first one!  The conclusion?  You can always change your mind to do positive things.  It will never lead to loss of credibility or integrity.  Shikena.
Truly, Delta no dey carry last
For five days last week, over 300 Nigerian editors congregated in Asaba, Delta State, as we held the 9th edition of the All Nigerian Editors Conference (ANEC). Theme was ‘Nigeria beyond oil: Role of the editor.’
The subject matter was dissected from different angles.  Chief Host, Gov Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, told the Delta State story.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote told the story of his own conglomerate through his Group Managing Director, Engineer Joseph Makoju.  Professor Sylvester Monye, Special Adviser to the President on Performance Evaluation and Monitoring, looked at the investment opportunities in non-oil Nigeria, while Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, Minister for Agriculture, took us through the Agriculture Value Chain Roadmap.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, painted frightful prospects of what would happen to Nigeria if oil became a non-major revenue earner, while Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, was also on hand to talk about media freedom and national development.
Dr Barclays Ayakoronma, Executive Secretary of National Institute for Cultural Orientation, spoke on the inexhaustibility of tourism as revenue earner, while Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, CEO of Access Bank examined the role of financial institutions in a non-oil economy.
The conference in Asaba will remain a benchmark, as Delta State hosted very well, with Gov Uduaghan personally attending majority of the sessions.  His commissioners and aides made sure things worked almost seamlessly.  And on Saturday, at the Gala Nite, which lasted into Sunday morning, editors let down their hairs as D’Banj, Omawunmi, and many stand-up comedians performed.
Those who say Delta no dey carry last are quite right.  It was typical Delta hospitality.
Back in Lagos Monday, I had sent a text to Gov Uduaghan to appreciate him.  And he replied: “We thank God for journey mercies for all participants, and even the good weather.  God was on our side.”
Yes, God was on our side. It was my first major outing as President, Nigerian Guild of Editors.  And God was with us.  May He be there always!  Amen.

TheSun

PDP’s self-inflicted ulcer

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Nigeria’s ruling party since the arrival of the Fourth Republic in 1999, and according to its members, the largest party in Black Africa, is like a diabetic patient, who should have been very careful to avoid sustaining an injury, as wounds are hard to heal on a diabetic. Through several – and often avoidable – acts of omission and commission, PDP went ahead to inflict several injuries on different parts of its vulnerable body. Both out of carelessness or recklessness (or a combination of both), the patient refused to care for and cure the wounds until they festered into smelly and deep ulcers that made efforts at a definite cure impossible. There was no other alternative but to do the inevitable.
Last Saturday, August 31; exactly on its 15^th birthday (as PDP came into being on August 31, 1998), the utterly sick and ulcerous PDP underwent its baptism of fire. Its cancerous limb suffered an amputation that has left the remaining part of its debilitated body writhing in a spasm of unsure health. The fate of what is left of Africa’s largest party, which many of its carefree leaders had boasted would rule  – not govern – Nigeria for the next 60 years, after the blow, which it suffered last weekend, has become unsure. But only those who do not appreciate that PDP is in a critical situation are either dreamers or its members who are still living in a fool’s paradise.
That expected blow came when, in a well-choreographed act, a big rump of the ruling party walked out of its special convention at the Eagles Square at Abuja and convoked at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre where they declared that they had driven a six-inch nail into the coffin of the 15-year old party and had out of its ashes, founded the “New PDP”.
If the dramatic act had been orchestrated by ordinary members of the party, Nigerians would have seen it as a mere comical relief and had a good laugh. However, only the deranged would laugh at a political act enacted by some of Nigeria’s most astute political minds, led by no other one but Atiku Abubakar, former vice president and one of Nigeria’s most gifted political minds. For, it was the Turakin Adamawa, who had walked out of the convention ground, followed by a throng of weighty supporters, amongst whom were seven PDP state governors, even as Governor Akpabio was singing his own praise, as the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. It was obvious that the Akwa Ibom State Governor, hardly knowing it, was presiding over a hollow ritual, having automatically become a general of a badly depleted army.
The split of the PDP did not come to many political observers as a surprise because the act had been long in coming, even as those who would have had the responsibility of checking what would be the systematic denudation of the ruling party, wallowed in undeserved self-confidence and did not take steps to stop the inevitable. The party has been going through some jaunty rides since President Jonathan assumed power or more accurately, before then. The issue of the zoning in the party, which some elements in the party from the North had canvassed vigorously should have been revisited, as Jonathan wanted to contest at the expiration of the Yar’Adua ticket, which he completely glossed over, even as the president emerged the overwhelming candidate of the party and won at the 2011 election.
However, there are some prominent Northern PDP leaders, who have been alleging that before he secured the wholesale support for his candidacy, President Jonathan had assured and undertaken that he would run for only one term of four years and allow the post to be zoned back to the North. The president’s men have continued to insist that no such thing happened and had, in fact, dared the North to produce any document to that effect, which is a mistake, as most political undertakings are never reduced in black and white on paper, as they are usually made to remain at the realm of gentleman agreements. Rather, the president has not shown much effort at placating the North, even as his clansmen have continued to threaten everyone else that Nigeria would go up in flames if their son did not get the second term at the presidency, no matter how.
Since President Jonathan got to power in 2011, the PDP has continued to act as if the alpha and omega as its essence is to work for the maintenance of the power status quo, with the staunch removal of anything that would look like an obstacle to the ambition of a few people in the party. The coming at the helm of the party by Dr. Bamanga Tukur, last year, rather than grow the prospects of the party, seriously injured them. It did not help that the new chairman refused to accept the power and influence of the state governors in the affairs of the party and in the overall power-wielding equation in the country. It was obvious that the Presidency saw the position of the chairman as coinciding with his own short and long term ones, which seem to have their ultimate destination at 2015.
The PDP might not have fared that badly had Bamaga Tukur’s rumoured personal interests not loomed too large too early in the day. It was alleged that because he would want to create the leeway for his son to become the next governor of his home state, Adamawa, he had started very early in the day to tamper with the structures of the party in that state, most probably to install those who would be amenable and work for his interest and that of his son. As the saying goes, it is only a tree that would see that it is being assailed and keep silent. The governor, Murtala Nyako, a former military governor and one time head of the nation’s Navy, schooled in the theories and practice of warfare, was a very wrong man for Turkur to take on in such a battle of interests. It can be easily surmised that the fight, which Tukur started with Nyako in his state, that has people like Atiku Abubakar, was the first main injury that the PDP inflicted on itself.
That injury took a life of its own and festered uncontrollably, as the PDP chairman grew more drunk with powers, as weeks and months went by, obviously supported by the seat of the federal power. Tukur also prosecuted a battle against the party scribe, who was elected at the same time as he was and won. Without bothering that Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the party’s general secretary, was a candidate of both the governors and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Tukur fought him till he was shown the way out through a perfidious sleight of the judicial hand.
As things progressively fell apart in the PDP, the falcon released by the party leadership stopped its ears against the falconer, even when those who were not even involved with the party saw the drift from kilometres away. The only people, it seemed, that did not see that the party was going towards the way it went last week were Tukur, President Jonathan and those who were benefitting from the drift. They were not even able to read Obasanjo’s threats, tantrums and loud complaints from time to time portended. Rather, the PDP under Tukur got more reckless, as days and weeks went by, culminating in its toleration of the disaster that was the election of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum, where the election, roundly won by Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, was subverted and donated, undeservedly to Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state. Unless PDP chieftains have become too insouciant as to have stopped bothering about the pulse of public sentiments and opinion, they would have known that the NGF affair had brought both the party and the Presidency to the nadir of national public consideration and respect.
Following closely was the political imbroglio in Rivers State where Wadata Plaza has unabashedly supported the rogue faction of the PDP in the crisis, which has pitched the government in the state against the Presidency and the mainstream party, which has non-creatively been backing the wrong horse in the conflict. As if the unnecessary and high-handed suspension of Amaechi was not injurious enough, the party went ahead to suspend Governor Wamakko of Sokoto State at a time when the party should be putting its house in order, in view of the threats being posed against it by the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The fact that the action of some PDP governors, who openly started speaking and acting against the goings-on in the party and openly stationing themselves on the side of Amaechi and his faction of the NGF, did not ring very big alarm bells in the ears of the PDP was the surest indicator that, as a Nigerian proverb affirms, “when a dog is threatened by death, it can no longer perceive the aroma of its favourite food”.
Even when the once-eminent members of the PDP started forming other parties like the PDM and VOP, the PDP and its leadership, like a death-bound hunting dog was still unable to hear the flute call of its master. Instead of using the recent initiatives of such efforts by the likes of Obasanjo to put its house in order nor the opportunity offered by the last bungled special convention to patch up its many yawning cracks, the PDP decided to sink deeper into the quicksand to which it has dragged itself. One of the latest causes of the conflict in the party was the effort of the Tukur leadership to handpick officials during last year’s and last weekend’s convention and foist on the party individuals, which some people felt would be most amenable to the advancement of some narrow interests.
Pundits had seen last Saturday’s special convention as that which would have offered a golden opportunity for the party to remedy its previous faux-pas and create a broader elbow room to enable it heal many wounds. But not PDP! It had become too far woe-begone that it went ahead to enact even worse acts at the special convention, eliminating candidates, handpicking delegates and short-circuiting every attempt that would have made the party better and more-inclusive. Those and many subsisting sins became enough excuses for those who had been waiting at an ambush to spring the master-stroke that saw to the effective split of the PDP, a party with an overwhelming good will that had taken off like a blistering rocket, only to flutter down like a weightless feather.
What is obvious is that the people, who have set out to put out the PDP like a candle in the wind as from last week, have undertaken a very big task at hand. The PDP might be dying and almost totally dysfunctional but let nobody write it off as yet. Nigerian politics has not yet become ideological and is not likely to become for a very long time. The only ideology remains that those who wield the hand that shares the spoils of office remain those around whom more feet would patter. There is an Igbo proverb, which states that the goats follow those, carrying the fodder. The PDP might be putrid and dysfunctional but until 2015, President Jonathan and his party would still be carrying the national cake, which they will continue to distribute at their whims. That will remain its strength and redeeming grace.
However, the way and manner the PDP has carried on so far leaves much to be desired and unless it takes very giant steps to re-invent itself very quickly and fundamentally, it might learn, to its chagrin, that the 2015 on which it is hanging its hopes might turn out to become a very huge mirage. To do that, it needs to do a huge surgical exercise of its organs, starting, of course, from its apex, which most antagonists insist, is where its main problems reside.
And for the benefit of the ordinary Nigerians for whom the ‘giant achievements’ President Jonathan reeled out last Saturday is a laughable mirage, it is a welcome development for such split that happened to PDP last Saturday to take place. It is also to their interest that such other challengers like APC to get stronger and put their best feet forward. Who knows, it might be competitions from those alternatives that would bring better deals to our lives.
What is life without choices, after all?

TheSun

Are Nigerian elite the curse of development?

Life for all it is worth could be fun. This is especially as folks come upon you to tell their stories, in part, confirming yours. I had not quite run a piece on Nigerian elites; Lord I was at Jazzhole, Daily Sun 03 / 03 / 11, when some man about town confronted me. In a small group of evening revelers, we had to talk things over, and it came to be about the same front burner topic: Nigerian elite as the curse on our development.
Here is a summary of the main points. Prince John, (a self styled prince or a prince by inheritance, I wouldn’t know but that is what everybody called him) started off with a story – anecdote he swore he witnessed in Onitsha main market just about the end of the Biafran Nigerian war.
According to him, the principal of one of the famous secondary schools in Onitsha (names withheld), visited the equally famous Onitsha main market to do some shopping.
As he finished and was getting home, making his way through the people and stalls, he saw his brightest student, selling wares. He was stunned and he stopped. ‘‘Umeora,’’ he called out, ‘what are you doing here?’’
Umeora, not his real name, stuttered and was not quite able to explain things to his principal, who, though adored him for his brilliance, was a no – nonsense disciplinarian.
The principal started slapping Umeora, muttering abuses of all types and concluding, ‘‘Umeora, you must be mad, who told you to waste yourself here?’’
Meanwhile a small crowd of curious traders and apprentices had gathered, ready to pounce on the stranger if only Umeora could show displeasure or even fight back.
Umeora, of course, was the first son of one of one the Lords and richest men of the Onitsha main market. If there was a Prince Merchant, it was he. So, people were disposed to fight his fight, if only for the expected return on favours from his father or himself. But Umeora bore it all with the humility of the sacrificial ram. And there were thoughts that Umeora might, in spite of himself and his heritage, have been something, may be a crook in an earlier past. A stranger cannot just come and be slapping you, a young and able man, and you keep quiet. Perhaps, you must be guilty. So, onlookers, who would have been volunteer pugilists for Umeora, kept their peace and only watched. And the principal now went for the kill. He grabbed Umeora by his belt, levitated him a little and dragged him to his father whose king-size stall was a hollering distance away.
‘‘Chief Okonkwo, what is Umeora doing here?’ the principal asked with some anger and visible disdain. ‘‘Is it why you sent him to school? What more money can he (Umeora) make that you have not already made?”
Chief Okonkwo, Umeora’s father, was even more supplicating than he. He asked in total humility,  “Nnanyi John,” as he called the principal, “what shall we do? Please, we will do whatever it is you say.”
Anyway, the principal ordered Umeora’s father, “see me at home this evening by 7:30p.m. As for Umeora, I am taking him home now.” Nobody asked any further questions, as Umeora left his own stall unlocked and followed the principal.
When latter they met in the evening, the principal gave the following instruction. Umeora will not leave my house till a passport, visa, school is arranged for him in Europe or America. And he must not return until he has earned his PhD. “Why do I say so? It is because his brain, such a sharp brain, is always bigger and finer than profit…. than Naira and Kobo.”
“Umeora was my best student. It is true the war disrupted and damaged things…. But every great brain that survives the war must fulfill its destiny – and not trade for profit. And here, Okonkwo, you have made all the money, can’t Ume, (as he now begins to call his favourite pupil), rest on some of it to buy the leisure to be great, in great things, and not as is common here in Nigeria to be great only in small things. That is the tragedy of our nation, our people – to count a brain only as good as the profit it earns. But it will not be with my beloved Ume.”
It so happened that many years later, Umeora came back from America, where he dutifully earned his PhD, worked in white room firms and earned some money. When he came back, the first gratitude he showed was to his now very aged principal. In a reunion full of tears, tears of joy, Umeora cried and blessed the old man with a voice as quivering as it is moving. He built him an American style bungalow in appreciation. It stands in the greater Ekwulobia area of Anambra State to this day.
The real message of this, Prince told us is that, that era is gone. Today a new spirit of the age has taken over. Even universities, alas, are in the gold rush to teach how to make a kobo here and a Naira there. Somehow, principals, educators and men like Nnanyi John are gone.
What happened is that these men and educators are the products of the British. The British we all remember are a small Island people who ran and conquered the world by the might of their brains, not arms or profit. So the British kept things in perspective. Yes it may be true money may seduce and give men erections, almost like a naked virgin, but she in herself is not the real thing. Only civilization is. Without which a people however rich will remain fools. And as the Bible correctly predicts a fool and his money are soon parted.
Today the most famous, most glamorous, most rated adventure for the children of Nigerian elites is to trade or perhaps to entertain? It is a form of block headedness, however popular.
But as we can guess, if these kids had stars in their eyes, they will set about life as heirs to men who have the means to purchase the solitude, the privacy one needs to thing great thoughts, one needs to be primary creators, almost like the gods rather than be mere administrators, traders, fools, humorists and columnists. Boy I too I am guilty. My grace is that I acknowledge my sin and my shame.
So if the question is to be answered, why are the children of the rich or the elites so block-headed, the answer will be as follows. It is not in their stars. It is in their father’s DNAs…. Who teach them it is profitable to betray genius to earn a kobo, even the least kobo.
In conclusion the Prince said this generation of Nigerian elites and their sons should be kidnapped, perhaps hanged – at least if not in the physical then in and ultimately out of history. They ruin us by their sickening example. And my tape recorder alas ran out of battery power. Ahiazuwa!
Minorities as Competitive Overlords?
By 10am today, Thursday, 5th September 2013 at NICON luxury hotel Abuja, Senator Osita Izunaso, alongside other distinguished names will be making history. Making history? And the answer is yes. He will be presiding over a ceremony as chairman to unveil one of the most important works ever done in Nigeria. The work is by yours truly. However I can assure doubters that we are on firm ground. The assessment of the work is by a battery of our finest scholars across disciplines. I am not expressing my opinions on, I only did the work.
That is the opinion of the work as one of the most important, perhaps the single most important work by a Nigerian in the social science especially economics is certified by other intellectual powers. In fact we are humbled by the critical reception of the work. A reader straight away characterized it as economics at the level of Things Fall Apart.
In the words of another, it is a wonderful piece of work. It proposed and established a thesis that is startlingly new. It is ground breaking stuff that extends the frontiers of knowledge. The brace factor is unassailable.
And have you ever heard of the brace factor? The answer is of course no, you just wouldn’t have. The brace factor is one of the farm fresh discoveries, category tools, made by the work, and this for the first time in history. There are a few more others. That is to say scholars in Harvard or Sorbonne will be reading and encountering these truths and revelations for the first time in their lives. It is something of a world record for a Nigerian in the discovery, not delivery sciences.
And the book is titled Minorities as Competitive Overlords. It is a cross between history, economics, sociology and philology. And it succeeds in proving that there are still new laws of life, of nature, of completion, to be discovered.
In fact our publisher, The Stone Press, has wagered on our behalf a full and final payment of US$2500.00, or its equivalent each, will go to the first two intellectual antagonists who can flaw or contradict the brace factor thesis. There is however a caveat. It is that the respondent antagonist must wager his own US$1000.00 or its equivalent. That is if he wins, he keeps his own US$1000.00 and we lose US$2500.00 to him. If he falters, his US$1000.00 is gone to our favorite charities or other expense heads. Ahiazuwa!
Of course this is a new intellectual game in town. We are putting our dollars where our brains are and enriching the world thereby. If you have the balls then this is this is The Turf Game to play.
To help berth the historic occasion are representatives of the presidency, governors, senators, besides Chief F. O. Offiah who is our father of the day and chief host, Professor Chidi Odinkalu Guest Speaker, Professor Umelo Ojinmah official presenter, Tony Onyima Group MD Sun Special Guest, Peter Ishaka, Editorial Board ThisDay, reviewer, Professor Emeka Enejere, Honoree of the day, Barrister Chijioke Nzekwe, political stalwart, amongst others. Frontline public intellectual and scholar, distinguished Senator Osita Izunaso will be the Chairman of the occasion.
This is an invitation to join us as history is being made. The first edition of this book will almost certainly be a treasure. That is it will in itself be an investment instrument and keepsake. The Minorities as Competitive Overlords is not just the writing of a new book; it is the invention a new idea. And it is breaking forth from the Nigerian shores. Be one with this history. You are invited to witness not just a book launch but the making of history, intellectual history, if you are in Abuja. Otherwise you may fly in. Ahiazuwa.

TheSun

No, Anambra is not cursed!

I have nothing against the number of aspirants that spring up in Anambra as soon as a governorship election is around the corner. With so many rich people, who do not know what to do with their money, it is only to be expected. After all, it is believed that the same scenario would play out if and whenever the rest of Nigeria decides to zone the presidency to the South-East. So, there is no harm in getting a foretaste of that future from the Anambra of today. After all, what does Billionaire A have, which makes him want to aspire for public office, that Billionaire B does not have?
In a state where many private individuals and businessmen command larger convoys than the state governor and have more police details attached to them than the sitting governor can ever dream of, it is not uncommon to think you can also purchase the governorship. Afterall, money is talking! And, sincerely speaking, it is not even a strictly Anambra phenomenon.
However, there seems to be a curse that goes with gubernatorial elections in Anambra State. But, lest Anambrarians conclude that their state is cursed, I’d prefer to refer to the situation as a jinx. So, Anambra is not cursed, it’s just jinxed.
That is the only meaning one can seem to make of the dizzying political drama that has trailed virtually all the major parties, as they seek to choose their respective flagbearers for November’s governorship election in the state.
Not even the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), is spared this madness. Having lost Imo, with Gov. Rochas Okorocha, joining the newly-registered All Progressives Congress (APC), APGA is back to its original one state (Anambra), where it is now desperately trying to retain power.  Incidentally, this is also a state that the PDP desperately wants to capture back into its fold – having first governed it through Chinwoke Mbadinuju and the controversial Chris Ngige tenure. Of course, Ngige has told everyone who cares to listen that he has unfinished business at the Awka Government House.
Of course, all these are genuine and legitimate ambitions. What does not, however, appear too legitimate is the way the different camps are going about choosing their eventual flagbearers.
On this score, it would appear, all the parties are being dogged by old demons. There are too many rich and influential people in the race, who just can’t understand why they cannot use money or contacts to swing things in their favour – irrespective of what the ground norm says.
APGA, which only just managed to paper over the huge cracks that had almost torn the party to shreds a few weeks ago cannot sincerely go to sleep, on account of having chosen a candidate – in the person of Chief Willie Obiano. For one, two of its frontline aspirants are unhappy. Former transport minister, Prince John Emeka, withdrew from the contest on the ground that the process was deliberately skewed to favour Obiano.
Hon. Uche Ekwunife, who has since congratulated Obiano, continued to complain that she was never allowed to see the list of accredited delegates to even know where and how to canvass for votes.  Of course, a few days to the primaries, the likes of former Central Bank governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, had been disqualified in rather controversial circumstances.
In the APC, a certain Godwin Ezeemo, has refused to accept the choice of Ngige as concensus candidate. The APC, following in the tradition of the ACN (and the AD and UPN before it), had decided to bypass the unnecessary cost of forcing aspirants to run election-before-election primaries by picking a consensus candidate. It settled for Ngige, whom many, both within and outside the party, believe can possible give APC its best shot at the governorship. But Ezeemo is crying foul and imposition.
He is insisting on having a proper primary conducted.  Incidentally, he is alleged to have held his conference at the same hotel where Ngige was held hostage in a toilet by Chris Uba’s goons in those troubled days of his aborted governorship. Luckily, I cannot confirm this right now, and would, therefore, not make any conclusions. I also encourage you, dear readers, not to draw any conclusions either. Or link anything to anybody, sponsoring anybody to destabilise anybody. All we should know for now is that, like the APGA, the APC is also having a few sleepless nights over its choice of flagbearer.
In the PDP, the case is even worse. In fact, something tells me the party is working its way back to the Amaechi/Omehia situation, whereby it hoisted Celestine Omehia, as the party’s candidate in Rivers State, even when every legal and circumstantial evidence indicated that Rotimi Amaechi won the ticket. That was how the Supreme Court ultimately over-ruled PDP to declare Amaechi governor, even when he did not, as it were, contest the election.
Today, PDP has two governorship candidates in Anambra – Tony Nwoye and Andy Uba. The fact that the party leadership, under Bamanga Tukur, has chosen to recognise Nwoye as its flagbearer does not in any way change the fact.
Of course, I don’t want readers to get mischievous and begin to think that PDP is in a mess today because it does not want to make a crony of former president Obasanjo governor. Or to think that the people, said to be behind this alleged position, are dropping the name of President Goodluck Jonathan. That is not true. What is true, however, is that the last time the PDP tried something like this, it burnt its own fingers. But then, being a party that is given to self-destructing, burning its own fingers may not be something the PDP would take seriously. But that’s just by the way.
Yes, the party has the power to present its candidates for elections but the laws governing elections in the country also specify how such candidates must emerge. For instance, the process of their emergence must be superintended over by the relevant party executive committee (in this instant, the state exco) and with the electoral commission, observing the proceedings. But we should make haste to add that an exco, in this context, is not an exco unless it is recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The problem now is: While Tony Nwoye is by every stretch of the laws qualified to fly the PDP flag, INEC is of the opinion that the faction of the PDP that produced him is not the recognised faction – that probably explains why INEC refused to attend the Nwoye group primaries supervised by Gov. Ibrahim Shema of Katsina. Andy Uba, on the other hand, was produced by the faction recognised by INEC but which the PDP leadership is not happy with.
Of course, the PDP national headquarters has the right to say it does not recognise the Ejike Oguebego state exco or that it is only ready to work with the Ken Emeakayi group but it must first of all vacate the court order, endorsing the former group. Unfortunately, like everything PDP, the party ignored the court order and went ahead to back the Emeakayi group to organise a parallel congress, the result of which it has now upheld.
But it is only instructive that Dr. Obinna Uzor (Gocuz), a lawyer and businessman, who was one of the frontrunners for the party’s ticket and who appears to have sympathy for the faction backed by the party leaders in Abuja, still pulled out of the Emeakayi congress on the ground that it was illegal to go on in disregard of the subsisting court order. But his appeared to have been a lone voice that would come back to haunt the party later.
So, for now, PDP is again working towards the 2007 Rivers situation. It could even be worse. It could land itself in the Imo situation whereby the party would totally lose out. In Imo, INEC and the law stopped PDP from substituting Ifeanyi Araraume, who should legally have been the PDP candidate but the party stubbornly refused to back him. Instead, it subtly encouraged its members and supporters to vote for Ikedi Ohakim, then of the Progressive People’s  Alliance (PPA). In the end, Ohakim won and the PDP lost Imo, even though Ohakim would later dump the PPA and return to PDP.
Now, I see a situation whereby PDP would lose Anambra again. But unlike in Imo where they could do deal with PPA’s Ohakim, the chances are thin in Anambra. There cannot be any deal with APGA – which would be sounding its own death knell if it agrees to any such deal.
For one, Anambra is the last and only base of APGA. So, selling its soul to PDP in Anambra would effectively mark the end of the party. Besides APGA, there is the Ngige and his APC. But while Ngige remains very formidable, his APC is not the type of party PDP would risk, going into any cross-carpet deal with. The Tinubu gang is too smart for the PDP. In the event of any such deal to grab power, the APC is bound to ultimately outsmart the PDP. So, APC is out of it.
That would then leave Labour Party’s Ifeanyi Ubah. Incidentally, there is not a great deal that any PDP candidate can sincerely claim to have over the Capital Oil boss. For one, of all the governorship hopefuls, Ifeanyi Ubah is believed to have the biggest presence so far. While the others are busy, scheming for their party’s tickets, believing that campaign would only start after the ticket may have been secured, Ifeanyi Ubah, who left APGA a few months ago, has since gone to the grassroots, covering every town and village in the state and even reaching out to Anambrarians outside the state.
Whatever the young businessman lacks in political experience and brinkmanship, he has made up for with his enthusiasm and commitment. Those who are dismissing him today might actually be doing so at their own peril. We are waiting. And watching. And this is even as APGA is gearing up for the battle of its life.

TheSun

The Taraba circus show

I am told that our great party, the largest party in Africa, has split. They say there is now a New PDP. That some seven governors are already in, with some eight others sitting on the fence. That National Chairman Bamanga Tukur (and by extension, President Goodluck Jonathan) is holding unto a shell while Atiku and the renegades are jealously holding unto the soul.
Now, they are running from pillar to post, trying to reunite body and soul of PDP. And who else to do it, but Obasanjo – the old fox who, incidentally, has been fingered as playing both sides. It is another dizzying twist to the curious family we have entrusted with our national lot since 1999. Some family! Yes, the only family where it is okay to kill your brother or sister and readmitted with a half-hearted apology – only to do it again at the slightest provocation. Needless to ask: with a family and friends like the PDP, do we really need any more enemies in Nigeria?
That is why I don’t want to waste my time with PDP. By this time next week, the worst would have been over. They would probably have sacrificed Tukur, or be preparing him for the sacrifice (because this is one crisis that the usual fowl and goat sacrifice would not do. Only human sacrifice would suffice and the PDP chairman is increasingly looking like the sacrificial object).
But, like I said, I want to leave PDP to sort itself out with its family affair while I go on the trail of the dreaded ‘cabal’ that appears to have relocated to Jalingo, with the usual suspects: wife, aides, commissioners and the kitchen cabinet of a dying regime. Just like was the case in Abuja a few years ago.
Family and aides of Danbaba Suntai say he is fit again to continue to pilot the affairs of Taraba State. This is irrespective of the fact that the last thing Suntai ever piloted was an aircraft that ended up in crash, leaving the hitherto lively Suntai permanently staring into space with a blank expression and barely hanging on to life.
But his handlers insist he is fit enough to rule. They have neither shown us any doctor’s clean bill of health on the governor to confirm this claim, or even let Suntai to publicly proclaim so himself. They have returned us to the era of Oga-talk-say (even when ‘Oga’ did not ‘talk’ anything).
Even though the state’s lawmakers are insisting that the Suntai they saw is not yet fit to return to his job, or even write or sign any letter to that effect, the new Taraba cabal would not give let. They have foisted a circus whereby governance is now by video. With that arrangement, they have sacked cabinet, appointed aides and all. The result is that Taraba is now one running circus, at some point operating with only seven commissioners – with each commissioner overseeing at least one other ministry apart from his original ministry. Of course, the state of the state’s treasury under this arrangement can be best imagined. That explains why some N400 million allocated to the state to address problems created by last year’s flood in the state eventually got swept away by another flood that hit the treasury.
Now, I can almost imagine what has been happening to the governor’s security vote, for instance.
If Suntai has become incapacitated as we have seen, why can’t they let him, go? He has to be aware of himself (and even his environment) to enjoy the perks that come with hanging on to power. Now, I doubt if he is aware that he is still governor of any state. Meaning:  other people are enjoying these perks on his behalf and are only propping him up to serve as a façade while they do the looting behind the scene.
Of course, it was this desperation to continue to sustain a lie that made them forget that it is not actually criminal for the governor to alight from the plane in a wheelchair. But for the fact that they had to create the impression that Suntai walked out from the plane (when they actually packed him out like an unsteady bag of bones), I would have believed the lie that the man is really okay. But for them, being okay is purely and strictly a physical thing. So, they had to disgrace the man by showing to the world that he was ‘strong’ enough to return to office.
Let no one get me wrong; you do not have to be standing on your feet to be able to perform in public office. But for eternal electoral shenanigans, somebody like Cosmas Okoli would be in the legislature by now. And I can’t think of many more sound minds than Cosmas’. Yet, he is permanently on wheelchair, but many of us physically more able compatriots queued behind him to get him into the legislature. So, even on wheelchair, Suntai would still be governor.
But I am more interested in his mental fitness than physical fitness. As a student of history, I came across a certain FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32^nd president of the United States of America and arguably the strongest of America’s ‘strong’ presidents.
FDR remains the only U.S. president to have been elected into office for more than two terms; in fact, he did four terms (12 years). Incidentally, he ran a large chunk of his tenure from the wheelchair – where he was partially confined to by polio. But, the progressive paralysis notwithstanding, FDR led U.S. out of economic depression and through the ‘total war’ that was the Second World War. Today, he ranks with founding President George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as America’s best presidents ever.
Of course, a lot of wrong sentiments may have crept into the Taraba case, but one thing I can bet my last kobo on is that Suntai is not responsible for anything currently going on there. I suspect that he is aware of the fact that he is now back to Jalingo from his medical treatment abroad, but that seems to be as far as it goes. He probably does not even know that he did all of 10 months away from Nigeria. I also suspect he has not written or signed anything in the last 10 months – of course, that is not to say that some smart alec would not come up with a document purportedly signed by Suntai.
I listened to the video of his address posted on YouTube, but could only see his lips moving.  Thinking it was because of environmental noise, I waited till about 2:00am when everywhere was quiet, to look at the video again. But again, I only heard barely audible rasping of someone totally out of breath (and strength) labouring to pronounce a few words. I came away with the impression of a poorly synchronized video editing – with the lips moving faster than the background voice.
Of course, I also saw a Suntai, with a plastic smile plastered on his face, barely managed to lift his hand from the desk it was resting on to shake hands with the officer whom he was alleged to have just sworn into office. And so I wonder, if all is well, why would a governor, a politician for that matter, who should always grab the limelight with both hands suddenly be shying away from it? Why would he, instead of attending public functions to slap backs and pump hands to confirm he is back, resort to clandestine videos like a certain Abu Shekau, and Osama bin Laden before him?
Did he not see the publicity blitz that followed the return of Sullivan Chime and Liyel Imoke, his Enugu and Cross River counterparts respectively, on their return to Nigeria? Are we still discussing them today? Is anyone in doubt, for instance, that Chime is still taking treatment? Now we know that he is human and is, therefore, susceptible to falling sick from time to time? Have all those curious ’Save Enugu’ groups  which sprang up to make political capital of Chime’s medical trip abroad not suddenly died a natural death?
Truth is, Suntai and his handlers should be busy thanking God for keeping him alive after a plane crash. That thanksgiving should keep them  busy for the rest of their lives – so busy that they should normally have no time for the kind of political schemings going on in Taraba today. What they are doing today is an insulting throw-back to what we say in the last days of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. And if Nigerians saw through the deceit then, why would the people in Taraba think that we have suddenly taken leave of our senses three years later?
It is therefore, heartwarming, to hear that Suntai has now agreed to let Deputy Governor Garba Umar to continue as Acting Governor. I’m just curious that all these announcements and proclamations are made by people, who go to see the governor; this fit and strong governor never seems to say anything himself these days.
TheSun