OPINION: MUSLIM-MUSLIM TICKET GOOD OPTION FOR APC (PART 1)

Muslim-Muslim ticket in the forthcoming 2015 Nigeria’s presidential polls may be good option for the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) if they intend to get more votes than the 12 million they garnered in 2011.

Many Nigerians have condemned the Muslim -Muslim ticket but they forgot that APC is neither a charity organization, neither is it a football club nor a talk show association- rather it is a political party with intent on capturing power at the centre and states. This theory of Muslim-Muslim ticket not flying is another stupid balderdash from shortsighted politicians. Let’s take a look at some states to buttress just a few postulations.

North West
The North West comprising Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Jigawa and Kebbi will definitely have a large voter’s turnout in favor of an all Muslim ticket. Apart from Kaduna where there is a sizeable Christian opposition, the rest are predominantly Muslims and vociferous against the ruling party. However, the Christian population in Kaduna can cast sizeable protest vote for the ruling PDP.

North East
The North East of Nigeria comprising Borno, Gombe,Adamawa, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi,etc will most likely get endorse an all Muslim ticket. Apart from Taraba and parts of Adamawa States, the rest are predominantly Muslims and will definitely, especially with the prevailing Boko Haram threat which they believe is being deliberately sponsored by the ruling party, a Muslim- Muslim will be a relief. North Central-This consists of Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Nasarrawa, Niger and Kwara states. While Nasarrawa, Niger and Kwara States will give APC sizeable votes, with equally sizeable PDP second fiddle, Plateau, kogi, Benue states will go the way of PDP. Therefore, with Muslim-Muslim ticket, APC and PDP will share North Central with likely PDP majority.

South West
This consists of Yoruba States of Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo. Most South West Muslims will likely vote an all Muslim ticket. However, Yoruba Christians will be sharply divided. Non-indigenous Christians will definitely vote against the Muslim all ticket. Therefore, in South West, APC will still get majority votes while the polarized Christian community will put up a good showing for PDP.

South East
Muslim-Muslim ticket is going to be a hard sell in the South East. The Igbos will oppose it vehemently. Even a Muslim- Christian ticket will not translate to any significant change in patterns of votes. The South East believes that Boko Haram is an extension of Biafra Genocide and APC will not fare significantly there. The idea of a Christian vice president may not elicit much excitement except if the APC does lots of factual campaigns to correct the already existing sentiments.

South South
Muslim-Muslim ticket is a hard sell in the South South . Probably except for Edo and Rivers states where the influences of Oshiomhole and Amaechi can attract significant sympathy votes, a Muslim-Christian ticket can only sell in Edo or Rivers States depending on which of them produces the running mate. However, neighboring states like Cross River, Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa Ibom will definitely not find the idea a good one. They cannot abandon Brother Jonathan for those they term Boko Haram party.

Summary-
Therefore, from the foregoing, APC with an all Muslim ticket will sweep votes in the in the North East and North West, with its huge electoral capital. The South West can use the Muslim-Muslim ticket to get dormant voters to itself. The North Central will divide votes with PDP getting a simple majority. The PDP will sweep the South-East and South -South States, However, at the end, the amalgamation of votes cast will be too close that the APC can allege fraud and claim electoral victory. With a militarized Muslim population, the nation will likely boil again as it did under during June 12, if INEC chief, Prof Attahiru Jega declares Jonathan the president.

Conclusion-
Therefore, a Muslim- Muslim ticket will not injure the chances of APC in the forthcoming pools. Rather, it will activate indecisive Muslims in the North and South West while at the same time polarizing the Yoruba Christians who will be torn between voting for a performing Fashola or Tinubu as running mate and maintaining a Jonathan status quo which many of them see as incompetent. Due to political exegesis, it is obvious that a Muslim-Muslim ticket may not be as injurious to the APC as being feared.

A Muslim –Muslim ticket, though morally wrong, is still politically expedient for APC –afterall the ruling party has taken many morally wrong political decisions in the name of expediency -the Governors Forum elections where 16 votes is greater than 19 is one of such. Therefore, if APC is bent on increasing their votes tally in the 2015 elections from the former 12 million votes CPC got in 2011 to about 18 million votes, a good option is to stick to a popular Muslim as its running mate, put electoral pressure on the ruling party and make the PDP sweat profusely for another victory.

Written By Obinna Akukwe

TheWill

Confusion galore in pursuit of Boko Haram

In any country, a state of insurgency is abnormal and prone to various absurd or unusual behaviors. Like telling lies, as in war situations, like being dishonorable or exhibiting inflated ego all for purposes of claiming false glory. And for Nigerians, misconduct in such circumstances attains the unenviable level of shamelessness.

That was why the (recent) abduction of, at least, over 200 secondary school female students in a hitherto hardly known (to Southerners) rural settlement Chibok, in Borno State, created all-round confusion especially in government circles. The schoolgirls were suspected to have been abducted by the Boko Haram violent agitators. That suspicion somehow was an image-boosting feat for Boko Haram, a lawless gang terrorizing Northern parts of Nigeria. For the past three years, the nation has been assured intermittently that Boko Haram would, soonest, be subdued.

That would not justify the confusion in the land such that till now, there is no exact correct number of the female pupils abducted or their whereabouts, and most importantly, the unverified (if verifiable) treatment to which the poor pupils might have been subjected. Teenage girls in the forced custody of scores of male lawless elements? So far for a fortnight and indefinite future?

This concern is exacerbated by the unknown number of the hopeless girls in the Boko Haram captivity. Clearly in a vain attempt to pre-empt public outrage at the misfortune of the schoolgirls, the first information came from army headquarters that the figure was merely over 100. An incensed group of Chibok citizens disgusted by the claim of the army headquarters put the figure at 247. The school authorities virtually ratified that figure with their own claim of over 230. By far, the worst confusion was created by army headquarters with its claim to have rescued almost 100 of the abducted girls.

For the moment, there is this necessary concession. As a people, we are very churlish. Despite criticisms of President Goodluck Jonathan all along on the Boko Haram violence, he (Jonathan) has emerged a paradox in the seeming uncontrollable upsurge of the Boko Haram menace. Abduction of the Chibok Secondary School pupils occurred a day after the massive tragic bombing incident at Nyanya motor park at Abuja in which authorities claimed almost 100 Nigerians lost their lives. Witnesses around the incident put the figure at more than double the fatal victims.

Jonathan must not, and in any case, will not be allowed to rest until there is a solution to the Boko Haram insurgency. But for the moment, nobody can legitimately blame Jonathan for not doing everything possible to contain Boko Haram. Critics should now come up with new “ideas” on how to conquer Boko Haram. Who are the critics? Opportunists known as religious fundamentalists, ethnic jingoists, emergency warlords and dubious security experts who blamed, blackmailed, forced and even if inadvertently, undermined Jonathan in the battle against Boko Haram.

Jonathan was made to change service chiefs. Three or four times? Jonathan was made to declare emergency in three Northern states where Boko Haram fiercely operated. Jonathan was made to create a new army (7th) division in Maiduguri. Jonathan was made to move leadership of the army to Maiduguri. In view of the criminal conduct of Boko Haram, these measures, on the surface, might be necessary. The only fault was that proponents were too naïve and mostly ethnically biased to realize that the Boko Haram insurgency had assumed an entirely complex nature that even Americans and specifically ex-US President Bill Clinton publicly observed that tackling Boko Haram should be multi-pronged, – military, economic and social etc.

The point being made is that President Jonathan must thank his stars that he positively responded to his critics especially with the military option. Otherwise, the religious fanatics would by now single out Jonathan for total blame on the intractable nature of Boko Haram. Left for the critics, Jonathan should wipe out North East from the Nigerian map.

A further confusion was created that once the United States listed Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation, that would end the violence in Northern Nigeria. Could it be as simple as that? Jonathan’s former National Security Adviser, the late General Andrew Azazi, as a professional knew better and in total opposition, argued his case at Ministry of Defence, Washington. Jonathan was misled to remove General Azazi. Two years after his exit and 18 months after Azazi’s death, Nigeria is still held down by Boko Haram. And of course, that was after the United States has rightly declared Boko Haram a terrorist organization.

As the Americans have observed and advised, we must not limit the solution to Boko Haram at only military combat.

On the confusion in the fight against Boko Haram, the military (or perhaps the Nigerian government), has worsened its credibility problem. It was bad enough that the military claimed the kidnapped schoolgirls at Chibok had been freed. But it was most disturbing that the army claimed responsibility for rescuing the girls, all claims which turned out to be untrue as the girls, at this time of writing, are still with Boko Haram in unknown destination.

The army claim to have rescued the girls is the latest in its series of false success stories or denials of insurgents’ similar claims. Were Nigerians not told last year that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been killed by Nigerian soldiers in action? Nigerians were even shown visuals on Channels Television of a man lying injured or dead somewhere and identified as Abubakar Shekau. Since then, media all over the world have been reporting video clips of Shekau deriding Nigerian government.

How about this other confusion? A supposed Nigerian National Security Council meeting was held at Abuja, which was expected to be attended by all the 36 state governors. It turned out only PDP state governors, 17 of them attended. Why should a National Security Council meeting in the circumstances of threatening anarchy be turned into a ruling party affair either because the opposition parties were kept away or because opposition parties boycotted?

Did the National Security Council meeting end before PDP national publicity secretary Olisa Metuh, openly accused opposition parties of boycotting the meeting? In another confusion, Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, emerged from the meeting to say that PDP governors requested for the meeting but that President Jonathan requested the enlarged meeting to involve opposition governors.

PDP’s Olisa Metuh lied and Governor Akpabio lied. Do these people realize the state of insecurity in the country? Was it true, as claimed by rival All Progressives Congress (APC)that the party, after being invited, was misled that the meeting had been postponed or even cancelled? And Olisa Metuh turned round to mischievously lie to Nigerians that APC boycotted the meeting while Governor Akpabio similarly lied to Nigerians with the image massage of President Jonathan insisting on the attendance of APC governors?

The prospects were that PDP governors and President Jonathan had decided on their intention and would confront APC governors with that fait accompli.

There is this other very disturbing confusion, which should attract the attention of President Jonathan and his security chiefs. Most of the times, victims of Boko Haram atrocities, as reported in the media, always claimed that their attackers dressed in military uniforms. Should the culprits be truly Boko Haram insurgents, how could they be accessing military uniform?

Governor Amaechi’s lesson for Jonathan

 This must not be true but if true, it should taste sweetest. The Commissioner of Police, Adamawa State, John Abakasanga, was reported to have written Governor Murtala Nyako advising him not to disturb President Goodluck Jonathan from holding a political rally at Ribadu Square, Yola.Governor Nyako must be exceeding his power and violating his oath of office if he has been correctly reported. We must get this clear. Jonathan, in this case, must not be seen as President of Federal Republic of Nigeria being defied by Governor Nyako. Instead, Nyako must be seen as violating his oath of office to which he swore partly “… that I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions; … that I will, to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; … that I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, in all circumstances, etc.”In denying Jonathan from holding rally, Governor Nyako is allowing his personal (political?) interest to influence his official conduct and decision against Jonathan. There is no other explanation. But for political differences Nyako would not have obstructed Goodluck Jonathan. In so doing, Nyako is also not defending provisions of Nigerian constitution.

It must not also be conveniently assumed that in planning his political rally in Yola, Jonathan is in any way violating the Electoral Act, which purportedly bars election campaigns till 90 days before elections. No such law can stand as long as it violates fundamental human rights under Nigerian constitution, which guarantees for everybody the right to assemble, the right to hold political views and the right to express such views publicly.

Jonathan should approach a court of law for a declaration (a) of his right to hold and express political views as well as the right to assemble and (b) that Governor Nyako is violating his (Nyako’s) oath of office and his (Jonathan’s) rights under the constitution.

For the education and entertainment of everybody, let us allow the constitution to operate through the law. That is how a society develops. Jonathan must resist the temptation and especially any prompting to send soldiers or armed police to secure Ribadu Square, Yola, for his political rally. Should he fall for such show of force, he would be unnecessarily taking the law into his hands.

However, that is about all in favour of Goodluck Jonathan. We must now remind President Jonathan how his agents Police Inspector-General Mohammed Abubakar, instructed his subordinate and (at that time) Commissioner of Police Rivers State, Mbu Joseph Mbu not to allow Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi, to hold rally at the new Port-Harcourt stadium. If police authorities were on that occasion acting without Jonathan’s knowledge or instruction in disallowing Amaechi’s rally at which he was to distribute appointment letters to newly-recruited teachers, did Jonathan keep his oath of office by overruling his police subordinates to allow Governor Amaechi enjoy his constitutional rights?

The fact of history is that Amaechi could not hold his rally on that day. Today, President Jonathan is being subjected by Governor Nyako to the same humiliation inflicted (in Jonathan’s official status) on a state governor  last time. On that occasion, that official lawlessness was condemned in this column as Governor Nyako is being rebuked today.

Ordinary road transporters carry inscriptions on their buses to remind us that “ASO ROCK IS NOT THE END”. Ironically, President Jonathan still occupies Aso Rock and he is being treated with the indignity and misuses of power to which a state governor was subjected by police authorities in the name of President Jonathan.

For purposes of preserving the dignity of his office, President Jonathan should enforce his fundamental human rights through law courts.

TheSun

What can cure me of this melancholy?

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Each time I remember those 234 schoolgirls in the custody of Boko Haram, I get the blues.  I go into depression, melancholy, lugubriousness.

What are the insurgents doing with those teenagers now; feeding them with baby formula?  Obviously not.  Patting them on the head, and telling them to be of good behaviour?  Surely not.  Telling them tales by moonlight in the evenings and rocking them to sleep?  Definitely not.  Or going through their notebooks and helping with homework?  Hell, no!  That is haram!  Boko Haram has no time for education, at least, not of the Western type.  So, what are the insurgents doing with our daughters?

I have a daughter, a teenager.  She’s on holiday from the university now.  Each time I’m leaving for work, she’s there to bid me goodbye, and when I arrive back in the night, she runs to hug me first before her mum.  In fact, both of them are usually at loggerheads over who hugs me first.  My wife tells my daughter to be patient till she gets her own husband, but she replies:  “He is my daddy.  Go and hug your own daddy.”  They laugh, and I join them.  But for me, that laughter has been only an outward show in recent days.  Unknown to them, I’ve been dismal and doleful for almost two weeks.  Why?  The girls, the schoolgirls.  Do they have anybody to hug voluntarily?  If there is any sort of hugging going on where they are, it is involuntary.  It is punitive, violatory.  A breach, desecration of the innocence of ones so young.

How many of those 234 schoolgirls would have known the things men and women do behind closed doors?  Surely, not many.  How many of them remain the same way today?  Two weeks after being in the clutches of Boko Haram?  How many of them have been defiled, turned to sex slaves, and even possibly have the seed of Boko Haram sprouting in their wombs?  It does not take long, does it?  Nubile girls can get pregnant at first encounter, not to talk of two weeks of unrestrained, unprotected assault.  Two weeks of what?  Being fed with milk and honey in the Sambisa forest?  I doubt.  Of being told bedtime stories?  Surely not.  Then of what?  I shudder to think of it.  And there comes my melancholy.  My depression.  My gloom and pensiveness.  Where are our daughters?

In the evening, before you retire to bed, you ensure that your sons are in the house.  Your daughters too.  If they are not home, you at least can account for where they are.  Remember how Frank Olize used to kick off News Line, which he hosted for many years on NTA?  “It is Sunday evening, do you know where your children are?”  Big question.  Do we know where our daughters are?  Which part of the Sambisa forest? What are they doing?  What is being done to them?  Do they have change of clothes, underwears, and other sanitary requirements?  Did those who abduct them also carry their luggage along?  Not likely.  So, what are they wearing?  Have they been in the same dresses for about two weeks?  When it rains, what happens?  When the sun is too hot, how do they fare?  If they break away from their captors, like a few of them have done, how do they cope with reptiles, huge snakes and other wild animals?  Questions, questions, questions.  I’m not getting answers, and you ask me not to go into melancholy?  You ask me not to get depressed?  It is nighttime, do you know where your daughters are?  What an evil visitation, a tragedy of monumental proportions to befall a country!

But you know the worst part?  Me and you, we carry on merrily.  Easter holidays just ended.  Didn’t we make merry with our families?  Didn’t we travel, go to fun spots, and if we saw “a one horse open sleigh,” would we not have ridden?  If we saw the bells, would we not have jingled all the way, even though it is April?  We forgot the girls, the schoolgirls, who did not even know it was Easter.  It is nighttime, do you know where your daughters are?

He who feels it knows it.  While we carry on with business as usual, some 200 parents are like the biblical Rachael, filled with mourning and lamentation.  “A voice was heard in Ramah.  Weeping, and lamentation and great mourning.  Rachael weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.  (Matthew 2:18).”  The parents are not comforted, cannot be, because the girls they sent to school cannot be accounted for.  It is nighttime, do you know where your daughters are?

My heart broke when I read earlier this week that some women were preparing to storm Sambisa forest in search of their daughters.  Do you blame them?  One woman was quoted as saying that it was better to see the corpse of her daughter, than to be held in a state of suspended animation for a longer period.  Do you blame her?  But when the women get into Sambisa, what would they meet?  A welcome party?  No.  Music and dance?  Such are surely forbidden in the camps of the zealots.  What then?  Guns?  Sure.  Machetes?  Definitely.  Rocket launchers, even anti-tanks, and anti-aircraft guns?  Sure.  Because they say Boko Haram now has all those capabilities.  So, what will the women do, even if they happen on the schoolgirls?  Beg the captors for mercy?  That does not exist in such realms.  Mercy?  Mercy, my foot!  Violence? But how do you go violent with a man who is prepared to die?  Possibly, where the girls are kept is rigged with improvised explosive devices, ready to be blown skyhigh the moment an intruder comes.  Already, the captors have warned the parents and security agencies to stay away, lest the girls be slaughtered.  I shudder.  Kill these innocent girls?  And would the ground open its mouth and swallow their blood?  What will the blood be shouting; vengeance, vengeance, like the blood of Abel, or mercy, mercy, like the blood of Jesus? The Good Book says the blood of Jesus “speaks better things than the blood of Abel.  (Hebrews 12:24).” But what will the blood of these young ones speak? Vengeance, surely, and curses for a country that has got itself muddled up.

You cannot tell me not to be depressed with the state of our country.  Blood, gore, tragedies everyday.  And I should not go into melancholy?  I will, I will.  And let nobody try and stop me.  And I will announce it from the rooftops. I am morose, depressed, and crestfallen.

Before the 1970s, depression was something to be ashamed of.  It carried a social stigma.  But today, it can be discussed openly.  In fact, we now have the benefit of knowing people who suffer, or have suffered depression.  Abraham Lincoln, a former American president had bouts of depression.  A friend even said of him: “His melancholy dripped from him as he walked.”  Also, John Adams, the second president of the United States of America suffered from depression.

How about many actors, actresses, musicians, accomplished people?  Depression was, and is, part of their lives.  Marilyn Monroe was a sex symbol.  She had powerful men at her beck and call.  But depression was her close companion, and it eventually sent her to an early grave.

Buzz Aldrin was the second man ever to step on the moon.  Is that not a great achievement?  It is.  But Aldrin came back from the moon, and fell apart.  He went into severe depression.

Julian Assange is the celebrated editor of Wikileaks.   But he suffers depression.  So did William Blake, the poet, Agatha Christie, the writer, Diana, Princess of Wales, Charles Dickens, the celebrated English writer, Ludwig von Beethoven, the classical music composer, and many others.  Even Dolly Parton, with her delightful country music, suffers depression.  So also does Oprah Wilfrey, with her loads of money.  And Barbara Bush battled depression, despite being America’s First Lady between 1989 and 1993.  Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud?  Well, I don’t pity those ones.  They probably provoked depression with too much of philosophising and psychoanalysis. They got what they asked for.

Robert Burton, the British academic was so much at home with depression, that he wrote a book in 1621 titled ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy.’  What a life!

To beat depression, people go for jokes, for music, some take a vacation, and some find solace in hard drugs.  Beethoven took to opium, and alcohol, and eventually died of liver disease.  Sigmund Freud took to cocaine.  What then should Nigerians take to in such times as these?  Dance Azonto or Skelewu?  That would be rather unfeeling, and would amount to dancing on the graves of many thousands who are dead, when some parents are currently very mournful and woebegone.

It is nighttime, do you know where your daughters are?  No we don’t know.  And it is to our shame as a country.

TheSun

National Conference, misplaced priority –Yusuf Ali

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Alhaji Yusuf Garba Ali, one-time Managing Director, Unipetrol Nigeria Ltd, and former National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), is  always forthright in his analysis. In this interview, the one–time National President of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) bared his mind on the ongoing national conference, saying it clearly represents a misplaced priority for a nation grabbling with so many hydra-headed problems. He also reviewed  issues in his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), stressing that all aspirants, including General Muhammadu Buhari, would go through primaries to emerge as the party’s candidates in any election. He spoke more on this and other national issues with Desmond Mgboh in Kano. Excerpts:

Sir, what is responsible for your long silence? While a lot is happening, it just seems as if you are not around?

Yes, I have been quiet, but honestly I am not silent as such. I never left politics. I am one of the leaders of APC. And before this time, I was one of the elders of Action Congress of Nigeria and now we are in APC. Honestly, I decided to be quiet because I have done a lot of talking before now, as such I decided to contribute within an inner circle. The truth is that you keep on talking, yet nobody listens.

The birth of APC seems to have come with so many promises. Do you still believe that APC, in the light of its own internal challenges, can match its initial promises? Crisis here, quarrel there?

I think you know that as a new party merging together with several other parties, you are bringing three or four political parties together with different people. Not only the parties but the people too. For you to bring them together and mix them together, it would take time. A lot of people are different. Their thinking and mentality are different. What they were used to in their own parties are different from what it is in the new party. What APC is trying to do is to harness and bring a policy, party policy that would override all the ambitions and differences of all these political parties and backgrounds and make them one.

Talking about the APC’s manifesto that was recently unfolded to Nigerians, what, in your opinion, is spectacular about the document? What makes it tick?

Well, one of the most important things about APC as a party – and its manifesto- is its stand on corruption. Here is a party that represents anti-corruption. As far as I am concerned, the greatest problem afflicting this country today is corruption. Corruption causes all the malaise that we are in today. Can you imagine today that even Mugabe, the same Robert Mugabe, is abusing Nigeria on corruption? We have come so low. Majority of Nigerians want to be rich for doing nothing. So, if we are able- we cannot say that we would wipe off corruption completely, but if APC is able to reduce corruption within the society and in the government, then every other thing would fall in line. That is my belief. This is because if you reduce corruption, then you must have discipline. If you reduce corruption, you must have work ethics and if you reduce corruption, you can be sure that all this malaise of armed robbery must be a thing of the past and if you reduce corruption, you would be able to save money and employ more people.

Has it ever occurred to you that majority of Nigerians do not believe APC when it talks about anti-corruption. The argument is that a few APC leaders, the same ones talking about corruption, appear corrupt in their private and public businesses?

Well, if you are talking about private business, we have nothing to do with private business. If the government is straight, then you have to fall in line. Everybody would fall in line. Let me give you an example. If look at what is happening in states where APC is in control- in most of them, I am not saying a hundred per cent- you can see that there is development, you can see that corruption is at the lowest ebb, you see that they are paying more attention to education, you can see that even agriculture is receiving the greatest attention. Housekeeping – what do I mean by housekeeping? Cleanliness of the society- you see that the streets are much cleaner. You don’t see the affluence of a governor if you go to some of these states.

Are you saying that we do not have this kind of developments in PDP-controlled states?

Well, I am yet to see it. I am not saying that 100 per cent PDP states don’t have this kind of development. But they are very few. Maybe if you go to Enugu, you can see some difference…

(Cuts in) What about Akwa Ibom?

Look when you talk about Akwa Ibom State, have you compared the amount of money that AKwa Ibom is getting from the Federation Account? Compare these amounts.

But what about the amount the APC states like Kano and Lagos states are getting from the same account?

Which Kano? You can’t, my friend. Can you compare the development in Lagos and the development in Akwa Ibom? Never! I mean Lagos is getting money from internally generated revenue.

But it is still money?

But it is not the same. It is them who worked for it and it is their planning. It is their planning that resulted in  the money. Can you compare Kano of today and Kano of two years ago? Can’t you see progress?  Can’t you see that there is a change? You can’t compare the two eras.  And it is because the governor of Kano State, Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is making good use of his internally generated revenue. You can’t compare Akwa Ibom State with any other state in this country in terms of the amount of money they receive, except maybe Delta and Bayelsa states.

Let us discuss something that is happening to APC. You have lost a number of your big time players who were part of the construction of the party like Mallam Shekarau, Attahiru  Bafarawa and others who were forced to leave?

We didn’t force anybody to leave. They chose to leave. I am one of the people asked to work on the reconciliation with them and they chose to go. And we are in democratic society. You cannot force somebody. If Shekarau is saying that he cannot allow Kwankwaso to be called the leader of the party in Kano, if that is his only complaint, I don’t think that he is right. I was a national chairman of ANPP,  Shekarau was  under  me but when Shekarau was a governor, he called a meeting and I attended, I was on the floor. He was the one speaking. That is respect. I was there when he was elected, he was not even elected, but he became the governor of Kano State. And as a National Chairman of the party, he called a meeting and I attended.

Sir, the MOU that handed over the leadership of the party to the defected governors is branded a fraud that was not thoroughly discussed by major stakeholders of the party. Some people claimed that it was smuggled into reality by a few eggheads of the party?

I don’t know who told you that. There is nothing like that. You cannot smuggle such a thing into the party.

But was it agreed to by everybody and every stakeholder?

It was agreed. There is no way you can have a governor in a state and you think that somebody else is going to control the party.  You cannot do that. If anybody tells you that it was smuggled, it is a big lie. I have been part of the formation of APC from zero to where we are. And I can tell you that I played a very prominent role even before Shekarau joined the concept. I only refused to talk. The whole thing about APC started with Chief Audu Ogbe and myself and there is nothing hidden to me.

A number of deputy governors  and principal officers in states where PDP governors defected into APC are still “body in APC but souls in PDP”.   And we have cases like that of Sokoto where the deputy governor did not just go. How are you taking this?

I do not agree with you. The only thing we know is that the deputy governor of Sokoto State remains with his party and he made it quite clear that he is going to remain with the PDP, but he would obey the instruction of his governor until the end of their tenure. But you see, this is politics. This is the problem with Nigerians. They do not believe that two brothers could belong to two different political parties and yet remain in the same house.

Maybe what Nigerians didn’t anticipate is the probability of two people elected on the platform of the same party to run a government now belonging to two different parties, yet maintaining the same government.  That is what Nigerians find strange?

Are they not Nigerians? Are they not playing politics? I may like that party. From the beginning, I may like that party and we became one. Later on, I decided that I don’t like that party anymore and I want to change.

In some of these PDP to APC defected governors’ states, their governors proclaimed that they have moved with everybody, but with the realities on the ground, not all senators, reps and state House of assembly members moved with them.  How do you see these contradictions?

I doubt if these governors ever made claims that that they have moved with everybody in their party to APC. Of course, it is only estimated that when the governors move, a majority of stakeholders would move with him.

Looking at the arrival of the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar into the APC, do you still see the prospects of an automatic ticket for General Muhammadu Buhari?

APC is a democratic party.  I do not think that there is an automatic ticket for anybody in the party. For any position where we have candidates, there is going to be primaries.

As a mark of respect, Buhari has always got automatic tickets?

It is a mark of respect in his previous political parties – ANPP and CPC, and even there, it is because other candidates withdrew for him. It is not that the parties say that nobody should contest. No! Other candidates who were willing to contest withdrew. Of course, there is no compulsion in APC. We don’t  do a mockery and say let just have a show. No! Once we have a contestant interested in any position, there is going to be primaries.

Buhari may not want it…?

General Buhari is a democrat. He believes in the rule of law. Therefore, there is no way… don’t tell me General Buhari would not go for primaries, it is wrong! I believe that Buhari would agree to go for primaries.

And what are his chances bearing in mind that he is strong at the grassroots level but not at the elite or middle class level?

Politics, can you predict it? Nobody can predict it. I think he stands a good chance like any other candidate of the party.

Let us look at the ongoing national conference. Does it offer any serious promise to Nigerians?

I think it is good that Nigerians should talk. I believe that we should look at issues, but the timing is wrong and you cannot select people and ask them to go and talk on behalf of Nigerians. They were selected, they were not elected. So, we are yet to see the purpose of that conference. We are going for election, next year, to elect a new government and you want  again to come and have a constitutional conference, a conference which whatever they decide, if it has anything to do with the constitution, the National Assembly will have to pass that. The National Assembly, which has budget and other issues to worry about, when would it have the time to look at the recommendations of these august or eminent personalities? And whatever they decide, the president has no right to implement it. It has to go to the National Assembly. If it affects constitutional amendment, it has to go to all the states’ Houses of Assembly. Do you imagine that we are going to spend N7 billion- I don’t know how much it is we are spending on it. Is this figure not enough to give our youths employment, to reduce unemployment rate in this country? Why do we need to waste money and time? Why?  How many million unemployed do we have in this country? Look at the stadium. I have never seen the national stadium on any football match filled like it was filled on the day of the recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Immigration Service. We can use that money to create jobs. That is more important. I think we are getting our priorities wrong.

There is also concern about the size of money being paid to members of the national conference?

This is what I have been saying. Why do the conference at all, not just the allowance?  Why not use the whole money to create jobs for the people. I don’t see any reason why.  The rich are getting more money and the poor are becoming poorer. There is none of those delegates who cannot afford an accommodation for themselves, but you are giving them N12million? How many young men can you employ with N12m? Can you sit down and calculate? Our priorities are always wrong. That is the reason I said that I had stopped talking because nobody cares.

Sir, I assume that you must have attended similar conferences at different times in the past and allowances were paid. You didn’t see it as being wrong then, why do you now see it as wrong today?

Let me say one thing, I attended two conferences in Nigeria. I attended the constitutional conference of seventy something, maybe seventy eight. We have not got this malaise. We have not got this unemployment rate today. We haven’t.  I attended the vision 2010, organized by General Buhari. He did not pay allowances. Every chief executive contributed. The only thing they gave you is a room accommodation, one single room at NICON with fanta.  If you want beer, you pay. If you want a better room for yourself, you pay from your pocket. No allowances. And all of us, all chief executives in this country, contributed for the running of that Vision 2010. We contributed our staff, we contributed vehicles to the government. So I did not attend a conference where money was being dished out to me. And 1978 constitutional conference, Nigeria was a much better country than now.

There are arguments that in the light of the problems confronting the country, the National Conference is a step in tackling these problems?

Listen, let me tell you all the problems we have in this country, as I said to you earlier, is poverty and corruption. And the solution is let us correct it. Let us try and reduce corruption to the barest minimum. EFCC cannot fight corruption alone. Unless you have the right people at the right places, only then you will fight corruption. Unless you have people who are patriotic. Then let the government become serious in punishing people. If the government would close its eyes and ensure that they execute the recommendations of the EFCC. Some would go to court today and they would dilly dally on their cases until after two years, then you will hear that the man has been released.  By which time, you have forgotten about the case. And even the newspapers are not helping matters.

How?

You will see a headline tomorrow saying, “Billions have been stolen.” That is the end of the story. No Newspaper follows that story to its conclusion. They will give you headline, something has been done, though nobody follows it up.  It ends there. The newspapers should be able to systematically follow this sort of story until they reach its logical conclusion. Not to forget it. You give it sensational headlines and you forget. And, of course, the case will be adjourned and adjourned and adjourned. And the same man would come back and he is celebrated in his local society because of his money-ill-gotten wealth.

TheSun

Demonisation and Blackmail as Official Policy

Postscript  By Waziri Adio;   waziri.adio@thisdaylive.com

After the publication, last Monday, of a so-called rejoinder to one of my articles on this page, my initial reaction was not to dignify such claptrap with a response. But I changed my mind. And I did for two reasons. One is the need to set the record straight. The other is the imperative of properly outing the incipient but vigorous stratagem of this regime to frame, demonise, and blackmail those who express contrary views. The regime’s initial goal might be to censor those not parroting its favoured lines. But if not checked, this authoritarian streak could metamorphose into something more sinister, as the world has learned from the dangerous exertions of Joseph Goebbels in Germany and Joseph McCarthy in the United States. 

Mr. Henry Omoregie, supposed author of the rejoinder, said he was responding to my article entitled “Dasuki, Metuh and Boko Haram.” In case you missed it, my article contrasted Chief Olisa Metuh’s pathetic witch-cried-yesterday-child-dies-today logic and his potentially anti-Islamic and Islamophobic rhetoric on behalf of the ruling party with the “all-of-society” approach to fighting Boko Haram recently unveiled by Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), the National Security Adviser. Here is the link to my article: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/dasuki-metuh-and-boko-haram/174452/.

Curiously, Omoregie said the centre-piece of my article was Reno Omokri’s alleged link to Wendell Simlin. I do not want to believe Omoregie is ‘dyslectic’. But someone who has a plum hatchet-job will safely choose to read a text upside down or even read it with eyes closed. One does not need to be an expert in text or discourse analysis to see the clear link between the opinions hawked by ‘citizen journalist’ Omoregie in his ‘rejoinder’ and the publicly expressed views of Metuh, Omokri and Simlin. He left it all hanging out, without even a lazy attempt to pass off the spit as his own. 

The rejoinder featured a cocktail of allegations against me, tendentiously tossed together to project me as a partisan and to blackmail me into silence. I do not owe flunkies like Omoregie and his bosses any explanations, but I will address those allegations nevertheless, and here we go. They said I am a long-term, paid consultant to Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. I am not. I run two businesses: a consulting firm and a publishing company. My consulting firm worked with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on public communication between August and November 2009, and that was it. When Sanusi was installed as the Dan Maje Kano in 2012, the organising committee asked my publishing company to coordinate the publication of a commemorative booklet on him, and that was it.

Of course, I know Sanusi in personal capacity. But I am not his long-term consultant, paid or otherwise. They said he “coincidentally” graced the cover of the magazine I publish. Yes, he is on the cover of the current edition of Metropole. But what Omoregie failed to disclose (since they have the means of finding out) is that despite my ‘closeness’ to Sanusi I had to run after him for more than a year to get him to grant the interview. And when he finally agreed, the interview was rescheduled three times and my photography team and I had to chase him from Abuja to Lagos before we could secure a rushed photo-shoot, all at my expense. But these minor details would not advance the sexed-up line of ‘long-term, paid consultant’ that Omoregie and those behind his mask want to trumpet.

They said I organised a media meeting for Sanusi in a $500 a night hotel in Lagos. Yes, I did. Before going more into this, I am curious why how much guests pay a night to stay at Intercontinental Hotel is an issue. But for pure mischief, does it matter if the meeting was held at Sheraton Lagos, Eko Hotels or even in a private residence? Anyway, back to the meeting. Long before his suspension, I discussed with Sanusi that he risked being remembered not for his achievements but for his many controversies and that he needed to start shaping the discussion about his legacy. He said some people were already working on something, but he agreed to a meeting with editors and asked me to facilitate it.

During the meeting, he spoke largely about his achievements as CBN governor, about how and why he got into the NNPC issue, and about his position on the allegations against him. No one was asked to report or write anything out of the meeting. And despite that the meeting was completely off-the-record, one publication ran the discussions verbatim. But since Omoregie and his bosses are obsessed with people ‘disrespecting the president’ they have to manufacture a convenient reality.

I facilitated the meeting for him as a friend, not as a client and I was not paid anything for doing it. Is it a crime for Sanusi to meet with editors or a crime for someone to facilitate such a meeting for him? As a columnist, I have deliberately not written a single word on Sanusi’s removal or his issue with the Financial Report Council (FRC). The last time I saw Sanusi, spoke to or exchange messages with him was on the night of that Lagos meeting. All these they can verify since they have their sources and they have resources for snooping.

They said I am “a core member of APC.” I am not even an ordinary member of APC, not to talk of being a core one. They said I participated in APC’s national summit in Abuja as a delegate and I coordinated event for the party. I was invited to the APC summit, and the invitation letter sent to me was the same as the one for other editors and columnists invited to the event. Is it a crime to attend the public event of a party and does attending such confer automatic membership? I did not participate in the summit in any way and I did not coordinate anything for APC. Omoregie and his bosses have the means of finding out the truth. But sharing the truth will not be sexy enough and will not help their demonisation game.

And in what they think is their trump card, they said I desperately lobbied the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, to head the Consumer Protection Council (CPC). Yes, I expressed interest in the CPC job because I believe it is an obscure but important agency where I could make a mark in the service of customers, fellow citizens and my country. Those who know me closely know that since 2003 I have been a firm believer in the centrality of the public sector to the growth and development of Nigeria. But that does not mean I am desperate for any job. I am not jobless. I have never been. In fact, I have been offered, and I have turned down, many public sector jobs that many will kill for.

This is what happened on CPC: a friend who is close to Anyim told him that he thought I would be a good candidate for the job. He later told me the SGF said he was surprised I didn’t mention it to him given that we had known for a long time and we had worked together before. We went to see the SGF and he pointedly told us the matter was out of his hands. Eventually, a name was announced out of the about eight people shortlisted for an interview that never held. So where was the immorality and where was the lobby and where was the desperation? Why would anybody lobby desperately for what would clearly amount to a pay-cut for him, or desperately lobby to head an under-funded and little-supported government agency? And what is there to be sour about?

And more importantly, does it mean that a citizen can no longer express his/her views again about his/her society because s/he has a relationship with someone, organised a meeting with editors for someone, attended the summit organised by a political party and once expressed interest in a job meant for Nigerians? If this is not blackmail, then nothing else is. Sadly, it falls into a clear pattern. Demonisation and blackmail are the default reaction and weapons of choice of this regime.

Instead of focusing on governance, they are thrashing about hunting for dirt on those with contrary opinions and they have an online army that targets dissenters. (One of them, remarkably named Fairgame, will make unrelated comments on my articles; another one called me a supporter of terrorists on Twitter.) But I have news for them: some people cannot be intimidated. I will continue to express my views here and elsewhere without let. Besides, they need to get over themselves. Not all those who disagree with them do so for pecuniary or political reasons. And while it may be irresistible, the paranoid impulse that sees every criticism as enemy action has little utility for them and for our country.

In his scatter-gun demolition job, Omoregie insisted that Omokri knows nothing about Simlin. Great effort.  But even Omoregie-Omokri cannot make the accusations against Reno Omokri go away. It is only Omokri that can say what Omokri knows or doesn’t know. And since he claims to be a pastor, I beg the real Omokri in the name of God to please say what he knows about Wendell Simlin. Thank you.

ThisDay

Why This Mess Won’t Go Away

The Pendulum By Dele Momodu, Email: Dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Fellow Nigerians, I have come with my lamentations again. I wish I could spare you this ordeal but something in me makes it impossible to do so. God knows I write not because I expect our country to change from mere writing. I know how difficult it is for a pen to achieve what we couldn’t accomplish under the barrels of guns. I’m not writing because I expect everyone to accept my views. Writing for me is therapeutic. I pity those who can neither read nor write. They belong in another world and no not what they miss. Just imagine how many eyes are reading this right now, everywhere in the world. Many are sipping in the points while some are cursing various reasons I won’t mention. It takes some magic to arrest their attention perennially while lamenting like Jeremiah. Nothing is more thrilling and fulfilling than being able to express your inner feeling. It reinforces your manhood. And preserves your legacy for posterity.

The writer is often an oracle. He sees what ordinary eyes cannot see. He says what fickle tongues cannot express. He defends the rights of man at greater risk to his own. He carries the sins of the world and bears the burden and scars alone. Many of the critics’ critics actually love him but pretend otherwise. Why read the so-called garbage week-in week-out if you’re not addicted to roughage? I will never waste my time to read what I don’t like. I can’t even imagine commenting on what I dislike venomously when I can write my own. But I love my readers, especially my perpetual faultfinders. They help sharpen my brains and thought process and prepare me for the next one.

Let me confess that it is not easy to write every week. I would rather spare myself the agony. But trouble is our country is in a big mess. That is even now stale news, if not an understatement. Those wishing for a miracle under the present arrangement are deluded day-dreamers. Please, feel free to quote me. I have come to the sad conclusion that our journey is still very far. And the roads are ominous, long-winding and bumpy. I will explain my pessimism in a jiffy.

I’m used to people saying we only grumble but provide no solution. That is not true. It does not require rocket science to fix Nigeria. We should stop making a fetish of nonsense. Every Nigerian knows the reasons for our intractable problems. It has been a vicious cycle without end. I will like to describe our collective folly like this to create a graphic picture of our woes. Just imagine your son or daughter in school for a course of seven years. The best facilities have been provided in order to create a good atmosphere for learning. He sits for his examination but flunks mercilessly. The indignant parents advise him to repeat it and try again. The result this time is even worse. The frustrated parents insist on yet another repeat but the result is more calamitous.

The elders gathered to discuss the way out of this monumental embarrassment to the family. Exam papers for the three sessions were requested and scrutinised. To their utter shock and befuddlement all questions were repeated verbatim on all occasions. So why was it so difficult to pass? Answer papers were also requested and graciously granted by the school authorities. The parents simply fainted. Their recalcitrant son had repeated same answers to same questions on all three occasions. They were saddened by the revelation that their son was such an incurable moron. How did he expect to pass when he never changed any of the answers that made him fail on two previous instances? Only a certified fool would repeat the same mistakes and expect different results.

That is the sad story of Nigeria. We knew why we’ve been failing woefully. We know we must change the answers to over-recycled questions for us to be able to succeed. But no one is ready to try what it would take to achieve this miracle. There is nothing new under the sun is a popular cliché we ought to imbibe. Too many countries are our seniors in failure. Some were even far worse than ours. We have many centuries of human existence and experience to learn from. All we needed was to dub their template and adapt it to our local temperament. That is the way to go in the absence of originality. That is it.

Our mess will not leave us soon for failing to submit ourselves to the best solutions. We can start from the simple to the sublime. The number one solution to our myriad of complexities is good leadership which I don’t believe will come easily.  The way Nigeria is presently configured makes it almost impossible to throw up the leaders that can speedily energise our nation. Everyone knows that any of Godswill Akpabio, Donald Duke, Aminu Tambuwal, Adams Oshiomhole, Babatunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Nasir El Rufai, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, Oby Ezekwesili,  Rabiu Kwankwaso and others would instantly catapult Nigeria to a greater height, but none of them is likely to be considered in the next Presidential election as a lead candidate. I’m basing my confidence in them on what they’ve been able to achieve in various places and dispensations. But the godfathers will never pick from the pool of our best fishes.

There are other impediments towards having some better leaders. Money is very crucial in fighting elections anywhere in the world. A good leader cannot rely on small donations from Nigerians like the Americans do. Our citizens believe politics is the exclusive preserve of those who have looted the treasury and are ready to blow it recklessly. Good leaders are not likely to have access to loads of cash. Most donors often prefer to work with the bad guys who won’t disturb the flow of their illicit business. The good man who compromises his principle in order to win election would also find it difficult to fight his patrons on attaining power. It would even be morally wrong to do so. This is the dilemma of a change agent.

What are the other options to explore? The good man is not necessarily a saint but a performer. He has his blueprint for development ready. He scans the existing political landscape but cannot derive joy and inspiration from most of the existing platforms. The idealist decides to form a new party like CPC or join supposed progressive party like Labour or National Conscience. I was under such illusion but soon discovered that Labour was radical in name but more ultra-conservative than even the PDP in reality. I had thought the party was controlled by the powerful unions and this would have served as a veritable springboard for launching a blistering campaign nationwide. But the Labour Party underrated its own potential and chose to be an alter-ego or megaphone to the ruling party. All the lofty dreams of linking up with the British Labour Party for expert advice and policy formulation which I had laboured to set up went up in smoke. My leaders were not interested in ideological excursions and adventurism. They were content with managing whatever the rat race had to offer.

I ran to the National Conscience Party that once fielded the great Gani Fawehinmi as its Presidential candidate. It is instructive to note that no man ever went to prison as many times as Gani did on behalf of the Nigerian masses. He broke in the class of radicalism. You would have expected the massive poor community he so fervently protected to support their greatest benefactor but that never happened. We tried our best against all odds to carry on from where other great party members had taken the party. We were proud to have another legal luminary, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, as our National Chairman. He was also a veteran of Nigerian prisons and gulag-archipelago. The great man almost spent himself blind to build the party. Yet the same people who cried for change did not mind us. We fought gallantly but our strength could not carry us far. Some people who did not appreciate the magnitude of the Nigerian problem sat in the comfort of their homes to throw darts at us. These emergency analysts knew those qualified to rule Nigeria and we were completely ruled out. Even some of our colleagues preferred to support the same recycled politicians and their proxies. Everyone was qualified –police officer, customs officer, teacher – but not a Publisher.

When people told me I had no experience in the last election, I did not take offence because I understood the language of politics in our clime. I was expected to have gone through the windmills of corruption, looting, profligacy, and cap it up with incompetence. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was a pardoned ex-convict. No one cared to lecture me on the brilliant achievements of their experienced and God-sent Messiahs. I simply concluded that we were not ready for credible change in Nigeria and that all the issues I’m about to mention below would continue to elude us for as long as we enthrone mediocrity. 

Once we find that leader of our dream, he/she knows what to do immediately. The first problem to face very squarely is how to develop and fertilise the minds of our youths in particular and the rest of us in general. A dead soul is worse than a dead body. Once the soul is alive there is hope for the whole body. These can only be done through quality education not the wishy-washy system we presently operate. Those who killed our education practically ruined the future of Nigeria. You need to go on social media or organise job interviews to see and appreciate the unacceptable level of the rot. Nigeria will never get out of this mess unless education takes priority over our current frivolities. Education is the ultimate leveller in the world today. It is closing the gaps between the poor and the rich. It is breaking down age-old barriers and walls of superstitions.

Education is too crucial to be left in the hands of hard-core politicians. By now one would have expected a serious nation to gather the biggest egg-heads and other stakeholders in the country to declare a state of emergency in education and come up with practical steps towards restoring order and sanity in that sector. But what we have at present is the same politicisation and continuation of our lukewarm attitude to what is clearly a terrible state of tragic proportions. One cannot see the sense of urgency needed to tackle the matter at all levels. At best the sector continues to haemorrhage to death while our politicians murmur their mumbo jumbo.

Who does not know that something drastic has to be done to reverse the ugly trend which has forced our kids to run in all crazy directions in search of good education? We have put many of these kids at the mercy of scammers while the best among them are voluntarily donated and permanently lost to foreign lands and territories. Who wants to tell me that the problem has endured because we don’t know what to do? No. The issue at stake is that politicians have decided to share and allocate everything including the future of our kids. That is why industrial strikes can go on ad infinitum and no one really cares.  

The second answer is wealth creation through provision of jobs, directly or indirectly by governments of Nigeria. Our students must acquire entrepreneurial skills as part of school curriculum. Everyone can’t be waiting for employments on Fantasy Islands. The time has come to put an end to being too picky about jobs. Why can’t we simply agree to see dignity in labour and accept the same menial jobs we do abroad at home? Why can’t we improve our technical skills and upgrade our vocational training? Nigeria is currently understaffed without any shade of doubt in my mind. The country is massive enough to absorb most of our youths roaming the streets today if and when we decide to put up our thinking cap. All it takes is to reactivate and rejuvenate all our dead sectors, especially in the area of agriculture, manufacturing and aggressive industrialisation.

The second is naturally dependent on the third which is power. I must commend the current effort of President Jonathan’s administration in this sector but he needs to do much more to ensure the gains are not frittered away in our typical manner. My palpitation is predicated on the way the discos are looking more like scenes out of Saturday Night Fever. Our businessmen are all running Yo-yo to acquire what they least understand just because they see it as the latest fad. We’ve now moved from oil to telecoms to discos. And the rat race continues. Until we tackle power, it would be difficult if not impossible to achieve anything tangible. Again our solution lies in the political will to take on the many demons that litter the path to our recovery.
Once we can get to this stage, the rest would be easier to handle. But tell me who will bell the cat.
If you know, please give me a shout.    

ThisDay