Forget the rose-scented official statistics, the sweet words of the establishment. There can be no procedure to tracking Nigeria’s progress graph more efficiently, more intimately than a gesture as ordinary as dusting up old copies of newspapers or journals to find just how much of yesterday’s promises were eventually delivered and the gradient to which current lamentations in the land bear resonance with the cry of yester-years.

The first likely surprise on that excursion into the past: Not a few of yesterday’s heroes would have dramatically morphed into today’s villains, with old crooks now miraculously canonised as saints.

The annual national ritual resumed last Sunday as we marked another October 1, the 57th actually. Listening to President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) making his fourth outing that day as either civilian or military head of state, perceptive older Nigerians were unlikely to miss the recurring decimals in all. Always permeating his National Day speeches from 1984 to date are the themes of the anti-corruption struggle, containing centrifugal forces and titanic exertion to fix the leaking economy.

One, the noble duel against Boko Haram which has dominated PMB’s October 1 broadcast in the past three years slightly echoes what was said about the no less aberrant Maitasene sect in 1984 as military head of state.

Talk of salvaging the national economy out of recession last Sunday bears sthe ame cadence with what we heard in 1984 after failed politicians had reduced “our hospitals to mere consulting centres”. The same way the anti-corruption rhetoric persistent today had also featured back in 1984 amid a national crackdown on those who looted the exchequer during the preceding dispensation then.

In a way, it all tells of a nation hopelessly locked in the frenzy of motion with little or no movement.

Turning the pages of Sunday Concord of October 5, 1997 last Sunday, I, for instance, could not but shudder at the striking plangency the points made some donkey years ago by respected columnist, Mr. Lewis Obi, still bears with the current human condition in contemporary Nigeria.

With democracy then in retreat under dictator Sani Abacha, the national mood was perhaps best captured by Obi in the piece entitled, “37 Years in The Wilderness”, contained in that edition. His grim observations after listening to the Independence Day broadcast by the then head of state goes:

“(A)fter the speech, most households in Lagos went out in search of water. A cholera epidemic is imminent in Lagos unless the water supply is restored and increased. Most homes in Lagos get two days electricity a week. Since only the rich – indeed, even the rich can no longer run their electricity generating sets – only the obscenely rich still has a set working. The reason is that the Tokunbo generators have had to be overburdened and the cost of running them is driving their owners mad.”

Sadly, the generation that drank from efficient, hygienic public taps in the 70s/80s sat by idly and over the years watched in surrender as the cartel of “pure water” merchants gradually displaced state water boards across the country and today have proved to be far more efficient, even carcinogenic, in water supply.
With trillions of naira since expended on power by Abuja in a succession of five administrations and a surfeit of reforms in the past twenty years, the generating set market has, in fact, boomed further with fuel costs completely out of reach of the common man as the nation still largely wallows in pitch darkness.

Back in the 70s, a federal rolling plan panel led by Chief Olu Falae had projected the nation’s energy need would be over 10,000 megawatts by 2000. More than 40 years later and with the population almost tripled, electricity generation is still officially estimated at a controversial 7,000. Yet, by 1988, official records indicated the 4,000 mark had already been attained. Even after pouring more than $16 billion into the energy sector by 2007 (according to the House of Representatives in 2009), Chief Olusegun Obasanjo only delivered a miserable 3,000 megawatts.

Today, statistics from an international agency, WaterAid Nigeria, indicate that 40 percent of the population still lacks access to potable water despite hundreds of billions voted yearly by various levels of government. In short, ten percent of the world’s thirsty today are in Nigeria.
So pervasive has the sinking of private boreholes become that authorities in many states have since enacted assorted regulations not to lose out in making profit (by way of levies) from the misery of the thirsty populace desperately seeking quick-fixes. Of course, no one seems to bother about the adverse consequence for the environment ultimately.
Sadly, the generation that drank from efficient, hygienic public taps in the 70s/80s sat by idly and over the years watched in surrender as the cartel of “pure water” merchants gradually displaced state water boards across the country and today have proved to be far more efficient, even carcinogenic, in water supply.

Now, let us fast forward to October 2007. This is what Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, one-time Anambra governor, had to say about the activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) then under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu:

“As you know, all of us are in support of anybody or institution that is anti-corruption. The only problem is the right process to take in fighting corruption. We need to know that selective justice is injustice. That is the point I want to emphasis. And so far, the EFCC has been doing selective justice, pursuing people it is asked to pursue. It cannot claim to be following due process.”

Today, with yesterday’s opposition now in power at PDP’s expense, what could only be said to have changed is the voice; the complaints of “selectivity” have not stopped trailing the anti-graft war.

Pity, the more things change in Nigeria, the more they appear the same.
Then, fast forward to 2017. Ezeife’s reaction to the October 1 broadcast by President Buhari as published byVanguard two days ago (October 2), no doubt turns a darker page on a different issue altogether – national unity/integration: “Buhari … is trying to push the South-East out of Nigeria by marginalising, dehumanising and humiliating them… The young ones (IPOB) couldn’t understand what he was up to and so they reacted as young people.

“We didn’t have these problems under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua or Goodluck Jonathan but immediately Buhari took the oath of office and swore to protect the constitution, he reneged on such things as federal character. He told us he belongs to everybody and to nobody but we have seen that he belongs to Katsina.”

At Nigeria’s 47 anniversary, these were the reflections of Chief Falae as published by Sunday Sun of September 30, 2007: “At 47, Nigeria has a lot to grapple with, the insecurity of lives and property, unemployment among the youths which has turned young ones to prostitutes and armed robbers, unstable economy which is telling seriously on the downtrodden, the masses and massive rigging that is pervading our electoral system and other vices of our leaders. All these are enough to ruin the nation.

“There will not be meaningful development unless our leaders are ready to change their attitudes and their approach to governance… Tell me, how you do think the nation will develop when a whole deputy governor was snatching ballot boxes in the presence of voters? I mean this nation needs a lot of reforms and sanity, otherwise the nation may not witness any meaningful development.”

Poor Chief Falae. While uttering those sanctimonious words in 2007, little did the Akure high chief know that he would find himself being implicated nine years later in the alleged unsightly receipt of N100 million in Dasukigate.

Ten years ago, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, one of the nation’s surviving moral authorities, had wept at Nigeria’s wasted opportunities, urging prayers for the country’s salvation. His views as published by Sunday Sun of September 30, 2007 are that: “Our nation needs serious prayers and God’s intervention. Our leaders, instead of listening to the cry of the masses and engage in developmental projects that will alleviate the sufferings of already downtrodden masses, they were busy looting the nation’s treasury. Therefore, we need to intensify our prayers so that God can touch the hearts of our leaders. You can see that at 47, the nation has little to show for it. Our leaders should have the fear of God in their minds.”

Today, the octogenarian, after a decade of fervent prayers, seems to be giving up. His comment in the PUNCH three days ago (October 1) is that: “(M)ajority of the politicians join politics not to serve the people but to serve their pockets. That is why I always say these so-called politicians lobby for positions in order to get possessions to enrich themselves. Look at the way they are stealing billions from the treasury and keeping them in their private accounts in Nigeria and abroad while many Nigerians are suffering.”

Pity, the more things change in Nigeria, the more they appear the same.

PMB’s Lexical Inflexibility

Columnists Sam Omatseye and Segun Adeniyi drew attention to the abuse of language in official quarters the last time. But President Buhari’s speechwriters appear too immersed in their hubris to accept that a republican spirit forbids them from addressing the rest of us in a certain fashion.

From “My dear citizens” of August 21, the president only slightly modified to “My dear Nigerians” to preface his October 1 national broadcast without mitigating the extant epistolary goof.

Under feudalism, the community grovels at the ruler’s feet. He is therefore at liberty to treat and address everyone as “my subject”. He may wish to wave the horsetail with an imperial swagger as well.

But such predisposition is taboo in a republic, let alone democracy.

Shared patriotism is however implied at the invocation of “My fellow Nigerians/citizens/compatriots “. That bespeaks a leader viewing others as fellow stakeholders. Conversely, “My dear citizens/Nigerians” only suggests an insufferable condescension, being duplicitously affectionate. It reeks of a conceited aloofness. It is the language of an emperor. An assault on the civic dignity of Nigerians. Even putschists in the past always started courteously with “Fellow countrymen and women…” in announcing regime change.

What confounds is not so much the occurrence of this gaffe at all, but the obvious unwillingness of the presidential speech-writers to climb down from their high horse after the dust raised by the August 21 episode and attune themselves to the simple syntax of democracy. If we can’t get PMB to yield on little things like this, what hope is left that he could ever be sold on more abstract imperatives needed to change Nigeria for the better.

Louis Odion is a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (FNGE).

Source: premiumtimesng.com

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday marked the military ceremonies of the National Independence Day in Maiduguri, Borno State, the epicenter of the Boko Haram terrorism and insurgency to honor the courage and sacrifices of the Armed Forces.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the ceremony, which was marked with a display of military hardware and a show of air power by the Air Force, took place at the Maimalari Military Cantonment which houses the headquarters of the Theatre Command, “Operation Lafiya Dole.”

According to him, that was the first time such ceremonies will take place outside the nation’s capital.

After inspecting the military guard of honor, President Buhari was said to have praised the gallantry of the Armed Forces for the successes recorded in defeating terrorism in the North-East and lawlessness in the Niger Delta.

He also gave assurances that the country’s Armed Forces will be equipped with the best the country can afford.

“Under this leadership, there will be resources as much as the country can afford to support your operations. As long as you live and in service, your rights will be guarded jealousy,” the President said.

He asked members of the three arms of the military to return the gesture by being steadfast and loyal.

“You must stand firm for your country. The center is determined to hold. You must be loyal to the center. If Nigeria breaks, you are the first line of losers so you must stand firm for your selves and for the country. The security of the country is in your hands and in the hands of God,” he stressed.

President Buhari reiterated an earlier warning in his National Day Broadcast that the country will not break up under his watch and dismissed those agitating for its division as dreamers who were not born when the country went through a debilitating civil war in which two million lives were lost.

“Those who are making noises were not born, so they don’t know what we went through. They don’t know. I like to remind you that whatever happens, you are at the front lines of the defence of the citizens wherever they live. This administration is prepared to protect all citizens residing in all parts of the country.”

The President commended the fortitude of the wounded-in-action soldiers who are receiving treatment and wished them quick recovery when he met them in a special tent.

President Buhari also inspected several military equipment,  newly-acquired and those refurbished put on display as well as some of the new acquisitions of the Air Force that included night-vision Mi 35 attack helicopters.

In his welcome speech at the ceremony, the Chief of Defence Staff,  General Gabriel Olonisakin commended the President for showing a lot of care for the Armed Forces.

He assured the President that the country’s military will continue to be loyal to the administration and expressed their readiness to guarantee the sovereignty of the nation and the security of its people.

The CDS said the visit by the President will rejig and boost the spirit of the Armed Forces, assuring that with better morale, they will fight better.

The President was joined in cutting the Anniversary Cake by the host Governor, Kashim Shettima, the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olonisakin, the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar Sadiq, the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas, the Theater Commander, General Ibrahim Attahir and the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Umar  Garbai El-Kanemi.

Source: thenationonlineng.net

The entire national day broadcast by PMB on the occasion of Nigeria’s 57th independence is quite disappointing in all ramifications. It was very unpresidential and unreconciliatoty.

PMB left the real issues and pursued triffles.

The speech was bereft of nobility of statesmanship, and devoid of a calm grasp and appraisals of the dire straits Nigeria is currently in.

The broadcast was rabidly narcistic, parochial, nepotic and clanish, as it failed to see anything wrong with the blatant and well reported threats by the Arewa youths to quit fellow Nigerians from their domains.

The speech followed his now well worn out fixation of perceived hatred for the Igbo race, whose leadership he needlessly and needlessly scurilised and lampooned, for allegedly being behind IPOB and other agitations.

I doubt hear him mention anything about gun wielding herdsmen that literally vanquish citizens in their own homesteads across Nigeria.

The president celebrated mediocrity and edified his government’s nonperformance two and half years down the line.

I genuinely wondered if he was discussing the same country, Nigeria, that I am in, or another utopian planet Mars.

The beautiful picture of a peaceful country he painted so glowingly and artistically with the paintbrush of breathless satisfaction is quite different from the stark reality on the ground, which every beleaguered Nigerian labours under.

His speech writers either wallowed in utopian mystic of redemptive mesianism, or in crass fraud and grand deception. But, Nigerians are no fools.

Did I hear PMB say this is the first time a government at the centre is losing the governorship, senatorial and Houses of Assembly’s elections to the opposite at the state level?

No sir, wrong. Whoever gave M.r President this false electoral history has done him incalculable disservice and great damage and ridicule.

Few examples: Remember Ondo state (Labour Party), Osun and Edo states (AC), Anambra (APGA), etc? Not only did the ruling PDP party lose the elections to those opposition parties, the then president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan actually rolled out the drums and congratulated the new governors, Senators and House members.

Peter Obi won the Anambra state governorship election in 2010 for the second time,on the platform of APGA. Obasanjo was president at the centre under the PDP party, just as Bola Tinubu won the Lagos state governorrship seat twice under AD and ACN, with Obasanjo as president under PDP at the centre.

Buhari lost yet another golden opportunity to balm bruised nationalities’ ego and cement Nigeria’s yawning cleavages, hate and divisiveness.

Must everything be predicated on falsehood, force, threats and gun boat diplomacy, viet armis? It didn’t ever work. When he applied such excessive force and threats to the Niger Delta militants, i counseled then it would not work.

The marginalised youth picked up the gauntlet, serially blew up oil pipelines, tore up Nigeria’s oil jugular into smithereens. Crude oil output plummeted to about 700 thousand barrels per day from 1.5m barrels. It took the then Acting president Yemi Osibanjo’s shuttle diplomacy to the Niger Delta region to quell the strife. It was Napoleon Bonarparte, a French General and Emperors (1769-1821), who was famously declared: ”Do you know what amazes me more than anything else?

The impotence of force to organise anything”. PMB sir, allow Nigerians enjoy the full bloom of democracy and its inbuilt mechanisms for conflict resolution.

Chief Mike Ozekhome,SAN,Constitutional Lawyer and Human Rights Activist.

Source: lawyard.ng

Listening to president Muhammadu Buhari's independence day broadcast, I was left wondering if there is any section of our law book that mandates the President to always gift his employers with threats whenever he wants to address them as against speaking in conciliatory tone as a way of fostering unity and nation building.

After spending over 100 days abroad, treating a yet to be named ailment with millions of public fund, president Buhari came back to the country, not to de-escalate tension but to escalate it by reading the riot act to everyone and anyone. Yesterday, he told the same path in his independence day broadcast.  A shame, isn't it?

Aside from reminding us of how he took part in killing over 2 million Biafrans during the Biafran war and threatening to kill more in his idiosyncratic arrogance, the Daura born ex-soldier again showed his deep-seated hatred and generational grudges for the people of the Southeast.

But he added small "jara" today by playing the now boring, tiring and outdated Divide and Rule card by promising to look into the agitation in the Niger Delta while swearing he would unleash thunder and lightning on the "hot-headed" and "irresponsible" people of Southeast.

In reference to the Nnamdi Kanu-led Biafra agitation in the Southeast, president Buhari said and I quote,

"I am disappointed that responsible leaders of these communities do not warn their hot-headed youths what the country went through. Those who were there should tell those who were not there the consequences of such folly"

Just so we are clear, only a man whose very existence rests on violence will interpret a call for a referendum as a call for war.

IPOB is not asking for war. They are asking for a referendum which is the right of indigenous people recognized by all laws known to man. And the group is neither armed nor violent. No act of organized violence has been attributed to IPOB so far. All they do is stage rallies which have never witnessed even a stampede despite the large crowd.

And most importantly, the Biafra agitation draws its very oxygen from two things:

1. The refusal of some very powerful but retrogressive elements in the North to allow for a genuine restructuring of the country to enthrone justice, equity, fairness, and merit.

2. President Buhari's highly divisive, vindictive, and mostly commonsensical bankrupt utterances, actions, and inactions since he assumed office as president

Having stated these, I have some questions for president Buhari:

How many of his "hot-headed" Boko haram kinsmen did he warn when they (the Boko Haram terrorists) were killing, maiming and bombing schools, markets, churches, police and military installations with the attendant harvest of blood, something they are still doing even as I type this? How many? The answer is nil.

Instead, he (Buhari) was busy going from one radio house to another, defending the group rated the deadliest terror group by global terror index. Buhari didn't just defend them, he made it clear that any attack against the terror group was an attack against the North. In return, Boko Haram nominated him (Buhari) as their mouthpiece in a failed peace talk with Jonathan government.

Since assumption of office, it is on record that he (Buhari) has released numberless Boko Haram senior commanders imprisoned by the previous govt of Goodluck Jonathan.

As I write, the Fulani herdsmen who share the same religion and region as president Buhari have continued to kill and maim only people living in a Christian dominated area, with govt-sponsored impunity.

Rather than warn these "hot-headed" Fulani terrorists, president Buhari has continued to protect them with a special military taskforce.

How can such a man retain the mindless audacity to call Igbo leaders "irresponsible" for not warning their youths who are only protesting the grave institutionalized injustices of the Nigerian state being aggravated by his own nepotism and clannishness??

Between President Buhari and Southeast leaders, who does the "irresponsible" cap look better on?

Let me remind President Buhari that he and all those who are opposing Restructuring are the biggest catalysts of secession.  By actions and inactions, he (Buhari) has divided Nigeria in a way a million Nnamdi Kanu could never have been able to.

Those who think the Biafra agitation can be quelled with guns, tanks, intimidation, and cheap blackmail are grievously mistaken. Even if it is just an Igbo man that is left standing in this Lugard Cage, as long as the injustices and state-sponsored killings which necessitated the 1967 Biafra still persist, that one Igbo man will still cry towards Biafra.

A wise man once said and I can't agree more, "peace can only be a child of an intercourse between justice and truth."

President Buhari must understand that any peace that is not a native of justice can only be a peace of the grave yard which is no peace at all.

Charles Ogbu, a socio-political analyst, writes from Port Harcourt.

Source: saharareporters.com

Every first day of October, Nigerians and their leaders engage in the ritual of the Independence Day celebration. Nigeria has just turned 57 and it was another day of rolling out the drums. It was a great day to sing the national anthem, take the pledge, salute the flag, and engage in all outward signs of patriotism. Again, we can recount the fact that we have survived a number of crisis and tipping points and come back from the brink. But where is our big picture? Where is the framework for national development and greatness?

It ought to be a day of sober reflection for the leadership and the led, a day to recount how far we have gone on the journey of development and nationhood. A day to draw lessons from the past and say, never again to the continuation of the rot in our nation. It is pertinent in this soul searching exercise to look at our education, health, housing, infrastructure including electricity, housing, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, etc. Questions need to be asked whether we have made good use of the abundant human and material resources available to us in the last 57 years. Have we performed well in the journey of development when compared to our peers?

No nation develops faster than the leadership that drives it. And the challenge of underdevelopment, poverty, political crises in Nigeria is simply the challenge of leadership. Thus, on this auspicious occasion, Nigerians should rethink the process of leadership selection and emergence, whilst the leaders should commit to turning a new leaf. We can learn good lessons and copy good practices from other countries that have virtually gone through our kind of experience. The excuse of differences in religion, ethnic origin, etc. cannot be a justification for our underdevelopment because we are not the most diverse nation on earth. Neither do we have the biggest population. We are lucky that we have not experienced volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, wild fires, prolonged drought, etc. across the nation. Rather, we have had a series of leaders that have turned themselves into the equivalents of these natural disasters. Pray, if any of these disasters befall Nigeria, how shall we cope with our state of preparedness?

When leaders engage in forced evictions and de-housing programmes, they produce the same results as these natural disasters. When state governments mismanage resources meant for the Universal Basic Education Scheme and therefore cannot access funds meant for their state which now lie idle in the central pool – a disaster has been created. Children will be certificated and passed onto society without their learning and knowing the basics. The disaster is that they may never get the opportunity to learn those basics after that stage of their life. This, in turn, produces a set of dysfunctional citizens without requisite skills and competencies. The same repeats at the full secondary and tertiary levels with institutions turning out one quarter baked graduates who can hardly contribute to modern societal development. In the health sector, governments run down health institutions, pay health workers poorly and when government officials have a headache, they enter the next available flight to Europe, America or Asia. The power sector has held back development over the years, with a country of 180 million persons sharing less than 3500 megawatts of electricity every day. The stories never cease to amaze any right thinking person; for 17 years, we have invested massively in the sector and the more the investment, the less the returns in terms of access to electricity. But other countries have fixed their power challenge; how did they do it? Did they get men and women from Mars to fix it?

The starting point for our development will come when leaders and public officials understand the big picture of development. The big picture is that every little effort counts. No one can be mismanaging his little corner and expect things to works across the value chain. The big picture is for leaders to see the entire nation as their constituency. The “we and them” approach to leadership will not resolve the challenges of underdevelopment. The whole country needs to be moved along the path of development, otherwise the backward parts will weigh heavily on those in front. The deadweight may be too heavy to allow any meaningful progress across the board. The big picture is that education is the bedrock of social and economic development. We need to invest massively in building capacities and competencies that will allow us to compete in the comity of nations. Part of the big picture is that the stealing of state resources and transferring it to other climes belittles us all and makes us a laughing stock in the comity of nations. Such stealing deprives us of resources for development and indeed may not necessarily benefit the persons stealing the money. The country becomes less secure with crimes which may even affect the looter.

The big picture is one of empirical development planning, policy consistency and staying the course of implementation. Policies should not be necessarily tied to administrations and cease when they leave. Good policies, which obviously are in the national interest, need to be continued across administrations. Governance should be about assembling good teams, preferably the first eleven, to manage state affairs. No one competes well or wins a match with its third eleven in a competition where others come with their extremely talented first eleven. The world is not waiting for Nigeria. It is moving on whether Nigeria gets its act together or not. We can already see our slight loss of relevance and revenue with the declining importance and price of oil. It is time for setting in motion the thought process and development strategy for a post oil Nigeria because this is already starring us in the face. It is also a time for using our diversity positively to great effect. What A cannot achieve or produce will be provided by B. The different endowments and competencies will complement each other to a get whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. But to get these done, we need a political structure that liberates the energies and talents of our people, to allow them to blossom for the common good.

We need a compassionate and humane government across board that responds with firmness and compassion in tackling national challenges. The big picture should be encapsulated in a national plan for greatness and development, marketed and implemented by charismatic, dedicated and honest leaders. It is time for real change with our eyes on the ball. Greatness and prosperity beckons if we put our acts together.

Eze Onyekpere is lead director at Centre for Social Justice. Twitter: @censoj

Source: premiumtimesng.com

Let me begin by sharing this story of a teacher who got lost in a rural area, and please don’t ask me in which country because I don’t know. While still wandering, the teacher saw a farm and went there, hoping he would find someone from whom he could seek direction. Fortunately, he found a farmer but as they were exchanging pleasantries, he noticed a cow with a wooden leg and he became curious. “How did that cow get a wooden leg?” the teacher asked the farmer.

“Well”, replied the farmer, “that is a very special cow. One night not too long ago we had a fire in the barn. That cow set up a great lowing that woke everyone, and by the time we got there it had herded out of the barn not onlythe other cows but indeed all the animalsin the farm and saved every one of them.”

“And that was when the cow hurt its leg?” asked the amazed teacher.

“Oh no” responded the farmer. “The cow was fine after that even though a few days later, I was in the woods when a bear attacked me. As it would happen, that cow was nearby and it came running to chase off the bear. That is one experience I will never forget because that cow saved my life for sure.”

“So the bear injured the leg of the cow?” asked the teacher.

“Oh no”, came the prompt reply from the farmer. “The cow came away from that encounter without a scratch. Unfortunately, a week after that incident, my son was working on the farm when the tractor turned over into aditch with a large pool of water and he was knocked unconscious. Well, that cow dove into the ditch and pulled my son out before hecould drown.”

Nodding his head, the teacher said: “Now I get it. That was how the cow hurt its leg while rescuing your son…”

“Oh, no,” the farmer interjected.

By this time the teacher had become very impatient: “So how exactly did the cow get the wooden leg?” he asked.

“Well”, looking in the direction of the cow, the farmer shook his head and muttered,”You should put yourself in my position. A cow like that, you don’t want to eat it all at once.”

Pastor Poju, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, if we will be honest, that unfortunate cow has so much in common with Nigeria, which has over the years become a victim of serial abuse, including by thoseto whom she has given so much. As I reflected on that story in the past few days, I came to the conclusion that just like that cow, Nigeria is no more than a meal ticket to many of her elites. What is even more unfortunate is that the people who speak ill of her the most, especially in a season like this, are those who have benefited immensely from the opportunities presented to them by this supposedly useless country.

Some of these people were, at various times,governors, ministers, lawmakers, special advisers etc. Many were also in the private sector where they made so much money under a system that demanded little or no accountability of them. Also in this categoryare some of our compatriotswho now live abroad, including with their immediate families, thanks tothe fortunes they or their parents made in this same country.

Let me make a confession here: Iowe a lot to Nigeria. That someone like me, given my background, could attend a university like Ife as at the time I did was because the state made education at that level to be tuition free. And whether they admit it or not, there are hundreds of thousands like me who are where they are today on account of Nigeria: the education they got, the wealth they have accumulated and the influence they still peddle. Unfortunately, it is from this same collection that you find those who continually trouble our country.

On 6th June this year,some old men under the aegis of Coalition ofArewa Youths gave all the Igbo people living in the North till yesterday, 1st Octoberto vacate the region.  Even though the quit notice was eventually withdrawn,the damage that ultimatum did to our national psyche would take many years to heal. But then, the action of this group was also a response to the uncontrolled verbal aggression by MrNnamdiKanu, leader of the so-called Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Egged on by the mob, comprising mostly okada riders with online support from several of his kinsmen in the Diaspora, Kanu was allowed to take hate speech to an unprecedented level, even by the standards of our country. Even when he waspresented a golden opportunity to champion the genuine grievances of his people with civility, following an ill-advised treason trial that catapulted him into national limelight and prominence, Kanu could not rise beyond the mediocrity of the adulation of some street urchins. He felt that by making incendiary statements to offend, insult, intimidate and threaten people from other ethnicgroups, he was helping whatever his cause was. At the end, he made a strategic miscalculation.

However, while I do not know why Kanubelieves spreading hate and violence would help his cause, the Arewa youth counter-response was also very much unfortunate because the inference was that because Kanu is Igbo, all Igbo people must suffer the consequences of his action. But one must thank the governor of Borno State and Chair of the Northern Governors Forum, AlhajiKashimShettima as well as Governor NasirelRufaiof Kaduna State for their prompt interventions.

Unfortunately, the message that was lost on the authorities in Abuja is that you cannot build an inclusive society when you react to national security threats in a manner that suggests some people are above the law;although many people across the country also felt let down that some otherwise respected senior citizens from the South-east who ought to have called Kanu to order were practically genuflecting before someone young enough to be their grandson!

Meanwhile, what many of our young people, as well as the politicians in their sixties and seventies who do not want to grow up, forget or are ignorant about, is that north or south, we need one another. That then explains why all thecurrent agitations and perturbations are a distraction from the real issue which is that Nigeria is not working for majority of its citizens. And we see the evidence everywhere.

For sure, the state of affairsin our country today is enough to make people really angry. But if such anger is not properly channeled, it can be dangerous. For instance, I am angry about how clumsy and inefficient public institutions have become in Nigeria. I am angry about the way public officials, at all levels, betray a lack of creativity even in dealing with simple matters. I am angry when a teenager tells me that their school bribed invigilators to look away so that their teachers could tell them the answers while sitting for a crucial national examination. I am angry by the latest statistics from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) that in our country about 90,000 children are expected to die of hunger over the next 12 months.

I am angry about the foregoing and much more because I believe we can do better as a nation. But I cannot because of such anger lash at the next person or another group of Nigerians who do not speak the same language or worship the same God with me.Therefore,my charge this morning to our young men and women is: If you must be angry as Nigerians, direct it not to the tribe, ethnicity, religion, race, gender or even the sexual orientation of fellow citizens. Direct it at the greed and the perversion that make some people deny others their decent and fair opportunities in life. Direct it at the ignorance andbigotry of a vast majority who submit themselves as ready tools for those who conspire to hold our nation down. And let us begin to figure out a way to defeat these people and problems

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the challenge of the moment is to create an environment with less suspicion and more equitable distribution of power and resources among the critical stakeholders in our country. This country is full of promise and presents enormous opportunities. Even while it is true that the system is creaking beneath all of us and we must fix it, those who couch the narratives in ethnic or religious arguments miss the point and they are actually the problem. This is not a North-South debate neither is about dismemberment for many of us. What we are saying is that the current situation where money is sent from Abuja to Badagry or Birnin-Kebbi is antithetical to good governance.

Nothing can be more revealing of how wasteful our federal structure has become than a recent revelation by the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole who said: “I was in Zamfara State. At the Federal Medical Centre in Zamfara, there are about 120 doctors but the state has 23 (doctors) as at the last count to manage 24 hospitals. And, yet, the federal hospital has about 120.”The pertinent question is: How did the federal government engage such a large number of medical personnel who are practically idle and for just one medical centre? The answer is simple: It is largely because of its heavy wallet. Yet, you find this sort of waste replicated in several sectors.

Therefore, we must find a way to make government more efficient and effective. How to make this happen is where the disagreement lies. But we are gradually coming to a consensus that it is the dysfunction at the centre that is creating the current bad blood, frustration, anger, suspicion and unhealthy competition among the various groups in the country.

Anybody who has read the report of the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of the Federal Government Paratastals, Commissions and Agencies cannot but understand the waste we call government in Nigeria.Chaired by former Head of Service, Mr Steve Oronsaye, the committee was established in August 2011 by the former President, DrGoodluck Jonathan with the report submitted to him in April 2012, although he ended up doing nothing with the recommendations.

It is instructive that the committee identified 541 federal government agencies, 50 of which have no enabling laws! There are also 55 agencies that are not under the supervision of any ministry and many of them, according to the Oronsaye committee,“receive more budgetary allocations for personnel than they require because that component of their budget is usually inflated”. These agencies include National Agency for Population Programmes and Development; Population Activities Fund; Population Fund Activities Agency and Population Research Fund.

Yes, those are federal agencies in Nigeria!

I need to state here that bad governance is not peculiar to the federal government because the situation is actually worse in the states and as for local governments, let us not even go there given what governors have done to that tier of government.

As things stand in Nigeria today, accountability diminishes as you move from the centre to the other units: states and local governments. For instance, no president in Nigeria can get away with half of what governors do, almost as of right, in their states where there are neither checks nor balances. The speakers of the state houses of assembly are more or less errand boys of the governors and they serve and are removed at their pleasure.The logical result is that the promise of good governance embedded in the theory of decentralization that many Nigerians now clamour for, will still be delivered in the breach if there is no change in the behavior of the political actors.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am well aware that we do not have a perfect country but regardless of how our collective resources have been badly managed over the years, there is great gain for us to be positive in the way we relate to the country we all call our own. The pertinent question at this point is: What exactly do we mean by Nigeria?

In our context, the answer may be quite complex but one thing is certain, it should not be about geography or tongues or faith. For me, Nigeria is not the violent man who would demonise and threaten fellow citizens just because they speak a language different from his. Nigeria is not the angry man in a video who would ask his fellow men to go and poison the waters in a section of the country oblivious to the Yoruba saying that when you throw a stone in the market place, you cannot determine who would be hit by it. Nigeria is not the Baba the boys who would issue a dangerous quit-order on innocent citizens in their area of domicile. Nigeria is not the public official who would steal the money meant for some of the most vulnerable of our citizens, knowing he has the back of those who should hold him to account. Nigeria is not the politician who spends his productive hours every day spewing hate and bigotry on social media platforms just because he has a personal score to settle with the president.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, if I am sounding like a motivational speaker this morning, I think you should blame my pastor, EvaristusAzodoh. A retired colonel of the Nigerian army and a medical practitioner, Azodoh is always leading us to pray for Nigeria and never to speak ill of her. It is strange because I know a little bit about his family background which suggests he has every reason to be bitter about Nigeria. But he is not. From 6.30am yesterday, Pastor Azodoh led us through a 90-minuite prayer session for Nigeria and President MuhammaduBuhari.

Building a nation, especially from our kind of diversity, according to Pastor Azodoh, is a process that may not necessarily produce quick results but with a leadership that deploys fairness in the distribution of opportunities and citizens who see the value of shared aspirations in an atmosphere devoid of acrimony, it is not beyond us. And in the course of the prayer session, Pastor Azodoh stopped and asked that we all sing the national anthem. He likened Nigeria to a big family where there would be quarrels, squabbles, even injustice; but he also added that, whatever the challenges, we must always remember that families stay together.

To buttress his point, Pastor Azodoh told the story of what happened in 1981 when, as a medical student, he participated in the West African Universities Games hosted by Cote D’Ivoire in Yamoussoukro. In the course of the competition, according to Pastor Azodoh, a Nigerian student was molested and the contingents from our country said the competition would not continue unless the then President of Cote D’Ivoire, the late Félix Houphouët-Boigny, personally came down to apologise to them. “Ministers from the government of Cote D’Ivoire came to plead with us but we insisted only an apology from their president would do”, said Pastor Azodoh, “I felt very proud to be a Nigerian.”

Eventually, it took the intervention of the Nigerian ambassador to Cote D’Ivoire for the contingents from our country to stop the demonstration that had held up the competition for two days. Now, what those students demonstrated was not only our power as a nation but also the power of our unity. They were fighting over an injustice done to a single Nigerian. We need such solidarity today. And despite our challenges, we are already seeing glimpses in that direction.

For me, Nigeria is that young man in Samson Itodo who is working day and night to create a pathway for change, by ensuring that a country where the demographics tilt heavily in favour of young people cannot continue with a policy founded on the erroneous notion that the Wisdom of Solomon had anything to do with age of Methuselah. Nigeria is that young lady in Lagos, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, who took it upon herself to ensure that those who need blood donation across the country are well served and on time with her LifeBank organisation. Through her effort, the lives of hundreds of our citizens are being saved. Nigeria is my beautiful sister, Ibidunni Ighodalo who, despite her own disappointments, decides to put smiles on the faces of other aspiring mothers by deploying her personal resources to pay for their In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment Nigeria is Kechi Okwuchi, who proudly draped herself in the green white green flag to mark the 57th independence of our country in the United States where she is making many of us proud. This is a young lady who could be said to have been let down by Nigeria at a most difficult period in her life, even when lucky to be alive, unlike her friends and classmates caught in the same plane crash. But she is still proud of being a Nigerian.

Nigeria is Aisha Waziri Umar who is planting libraries in those parts of the north-east devastated by Boko Haram. It is her way of fighting back against the misguided zealots who see education as a sacrilege to be destroyed along with the future of millions of innocent children. Nigeria is Oronto Douglas who, diagnosed with Cancer in 2008, invested the last seven years of his life setting up and nurturing a school for orphaned children in his native Okoroba in Bayelsa State.

The examples are just too many of change agents who are taking up spaces to make a difference in our world. But the message is simple:Our drive and commitment to making Nigeria great should be anchored on the fact that we also have a role to play and numbers don’t matter. What matters is the resolve that we will be part of that positive change.

Let me illustrate that point as I try to conclude my intervention this morning with the Biblical account of the 12 spies as recorded in the Book of Numbers Chapter 13.

The people of Israel had been set free from their captivity and servitude in Egypt. They wandered through the wilderness during which a number of them died. On reaching Mt Sinai, they were given the laws to govern their affairs and the templates they needed for worship. With national census concluded, they inched towards the border of Canaan, ready to enter the land that had been promised their fathers.Suggestions however came from the leadership that a search party be sent to look at the inhabitants and how good the land really was. 12 gentlemen were selected, one from every tribe, and they were sent as spies.

For 40 days, they explored the length and breadth of the land and returned with sufficient proof. About the goodness of the land, there was no deviation in all the reports.However, while ten of the 12 spies concurred that the land was indeed good, they added a misleading bit: “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than us…it is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature…We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

One can argue that the ten spies possessed critical spirit and there is nothing wrong with positive criticism. But they went further not only to dampen the morale of the people but also to incite them against the leadership. Having lost their self-worth, like many Nigerians have done today, the ten spies likened themselves to grasshoppers and added that they were seen as grasshoppers, even by the Canaanites. How could they have known that?

We have many of such people in Nigeria today. The negative men and women who tell you that nothing can change; that our country is doomed. Meanwhile, Caleb and Joshua saw possibilities and with that, they also gave hope to the people that victory was attainable. Unfortunately, their report could not convince the people and their voices were drowned. As a consequence, Israel wandered additional 38 years in the wilderness with an entire generation wiped out completely.

What the foregoing means is that we should not continue to listen to the naysayers in our midst who do not mean well for our country. Whatever may be the differences in opinions, there is more that unites us as Nigerians than there is to divide. While some of the current agitations are not bad in themselves since they reflect the broad diversities of our country and the different experiences that must be on the table to make us great, we must also recognize that it takes so little to set a house on fire. Any fool can do that. Meanwhile, it takes efforts, perseverance and sacrifice to build. That does not come easy.

Admittedly, ours is a fragile polity but the social and economic bonds that unite us are strong and hard to dissolve. Yet the task of conscious nation building has hardly been done. The rights of citizenship are still shackled by boundaries of state of origin and ethnicity. The excessive hangovers of prolonged military rule are still with us in the form of impulsive arbitrariness. Our government still finds it easy to call in military force to quell elementary civil unrest.We are yet to teach our citizens from infancy the values of group living and how to compete as individuals without resorting to primordial hate when we cannot prevail.

However, despite all these, the real challenge is that of creating enough wealth to cater for the need of our huge population. If we remain a poor country with an external reserve that is less than the cash holding of Facebook alone, our competitions might get more bloody and our future more speculative and tentative.Our task therefore is to make Nigeria a land of equal opportunity for all, a nation whose unity is not decreed as non-negotiable but is guaranteed by the practical incentives it offers for all to want to stay in and perfect the union.

As I stated earlier, the enemy is not the other who speaks a different language or worships a different God. The enemy, unfortunately, is that person with predatory behavior who has benefitted the most from our country, but who like the farmer in the story with which I started this intervention, only rewards Nigeria’s love with eating her up in bits, to the detriment of the majority of our people. This tiny group, which is present in every region and religion, has maintained its hold by setting the majority against themselves. We need to rescue our country from their destructive grip.

Therefore, recognising that we may not always agree on the details of how to perfect our union, it becomes problematic the moment any argument is framed in a way that makes the incumbent think it is an attempt to distract him from governance or to get power through the back-door. But history also shows that leaders who improve their society are not those who divide along the voting pattern in the elections that brought them to power but those who can bring diverse citizens together to work for the common good.

Pastor Poju, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as I take my seat, on a day such as this, my charge to all Nigerians is simple:We should see ourselves as allies in a struggle for a better country that is bigger than any, and yet needs all of us working together.

Thank you very much for listening and good morning.

Excerpt  of Adeniyi’s presentation at Platform, a Covenant Christian Center programme, on October 2, 2017

Should we raise our hopes high? Or should we gently let the matter sink in so we can digest and ponder before responding to the CTA (Call-To-Action)? Whichever way one looks at it, there may be, just maybe, some silver lining appearing within these menacing, rumbling dark clouds of our present national discourse.

The trending topics today are ‘secession’, ‘restructuring’, ‘devolution’, etc. Each region is taking a stand and, as we all know (and as discussed here a couple of weeks ago) Arewa always lags behind in these political elite-created problems. The political elite, be they in the Villa, under the Dome or in Government Houses, continue to connive and consolidate their hold on our polity, and our lives.

The ‘silver lining’ is a group trending as ‘Arewa Initiative for Good Governance’ (AI2G). It is a conglomeration of about fifty intellectuals (a majority of whom I know personally and many of whom I trust unconditionally) who recently came together to discuss our national morass and quagmire. These distinguished ladies and gentlemen have met about seven times so far at Arewa House, Kaduna (apt for an Arewa Initiative) to brainstorm on ways out not only for Arewa, but for all the nation.

Part of the AI2G remit is that it aims to be a liberating platform to make the interest of the old Arewa the priority of a new Arewa. The Initiative avers that some of the current Northern leaders appear pro-Arewa outwardly, but are actually anti-Arewa deep down. So AI2G aims to bring all people of Arewa together on a platform of justice, by prioritizing actions that will make the Region move fast, and by avoiding those that may slow it down.

It was observed that any discerning mind could see the destruction of the nation has its root in the rot in our politics which has only been breeding rogue leadership at all levels of government. There is need, therefore, for likeminded individuals to come together and address the recruitment processes within the parties since they ultimately produce the leadership of governments. This could be done by creating a platform that will bring together all concerned irrespective of background.

When they rose from their last meeting, members agreed that a Draft Charter be prepared for adoption in order to have a document which shall form the basis of the Initiative. This document has been prepared and is being circulated to members as “Draft Charter for the Political Salvage of Nigeria”. The next meeting of the Initiative will consider the Draft and consider suggestions and amendments related thereto. Also, the leadership structure of the Initiative will be unveiled.

As a member of the Initiative, I hereby ‘coopt’ my readers in helping AI2G firm up this Draft Charter by making suggestions and comments directly to ai2gsecretariat@gmail.com which may be incorporated into a Final Charter.

Following is the Draft Charter:

“According to Edmund Burke, ‘The only thing necessary for the success of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing.’

“WE, THE CONCERNED CITIZENS OF NIGERIA, having watched how in the last two decades or so, our country has consistently failed to develop; indeed how every circle of election leaves us worse than the previous one; specifically how poverty has deepened and become entrenched in the face of enormous oil revenues; how corruption has become endemic and systemic, defying even regimes that rode to victory on the crest of fighting corruption; how our pristine societal values are eroding and our society is gradually decomposing; how the economy has been collapsing, impoverishing the poor, fueling crimes and insurgencies; how the teeming jobless youths have been abandoned to their wits with no hope on the horizon; how the millions of out-of-school-children have been ignored as their numbers keep swelling;  how governance has been reduced to vengeance and personal aggrandizement; and how our political parties, especially their leadership recruitment mechanism, keep churning out incompetent, irresponsible and corrupt leadership;

“WE ARE THEREFORE DETERMINED to come together to put an end to these tragic, nay catastrophic, self-afflictions and salvage our country from the brinks of collapse and disaster by carrying out a thorough diagnosis of the problem and charting a way out; precisely to create a formidable platform to bring on board and mobilize all those worried about the future of our country and ready to stand up for it; and to participate in this rescue mission and to do all it takes to deliver it on the path of safety, growth and development.

“RECOGNIZING THAT our democracy is clearly not giving us the leaders that can take us out of the woods; rather we are finding ourselves further into the woods; indeed at the rate we are going it is obvious that our society is being consumed by a quick sand of a dangerous political culture; a political culture that is recklessly, unashamedly and seemingly endlessly predicated purely on pecuniary considerations, violence and all manners of crimes; a political culture that has subverted our value system, decimated our social order and is blunting, nay, obliterating  our senses of shame and outrage. Incontrovertibly this rogue political culture has calibrated our leadership recruitment mechanism in our political parties to produce inept, clueless and precipitous leaders who only know how to swindle the electorate and loot our treasuries dry. All projections on this trajectory are indicating that we are heading towards a failed state and a failed society as evidenced by the vertical and horizontal rise of horrifying violence. Some studies done by international watchers have been setting dates for our collapse as a nation. Now that our hope for rebirth after the heavily fought 2015 elections has come to naught, we must wake up from our slumber and complacency and salvage our society before it becomes too late. We further recognize that ‘rather than continue to curse the darkness, it is better that we light a candle’. In other words, ‘we must stop agonizing and start organizing’.

“WE HAVE THEREFORE AGREED to bring all the good men and women, in and out of politics, in public and private sectors, young and old, from every tribe and religion, from every walk of life together onto one platform and create a critical mass so as to move together in one direction and ensure that the flawed leadership recruitment mechanism in our parties is fixed. This we also agreed can work best when we are able to create a movement down to the grassroots that can mobilize the whole society for this reform, very much like the Anti-Third-Term movement. Thus this movement must resonate with the concerns and worries of the wider society and articulate the solutions in clean and clear terms defining the roles of every stratum of society. We further agreed that the media and strategic communication are key to this project. We therefore ask men and women of conscience in the media to join this struggle as part of their corporate social responsibility.

“WE THEREFORE COMMIT OURSELVES to participate in this process of a political re-birth with all our strength and wits, to move together into a carefully considered political platform to ensure that the party is re-calibrated to produce conscientious, competent and courageous leadership that will endeavor to be guided by the best practices of democracy, accountability and responsible leadership for the moral, social, political and economic development of our country. We pledge our honor, dignity and integrity that we shall give this mission the uttermost priority and will not allow partisan political considerations or any personal interest to stand in our way.

So help us God!”

Source: www.dailytrust.com.ng

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has expressed sadness at Nigeria’s “tale of conundrum” riddled with various crises 57 years after its independence.

In its independence message on Saturday, the union said Nigeria at this stage still “dances naked to the full glare of the whole world while its roof is on fire”.

It said though remaining as one country after 57 years is something to cheer about, “our staying together has been at the cost of innocent blood and outright violation of the fundamental rights of Nigerians”.

“Ordinarily it should not be out of place if we roll out our drums today to celebrate this feat, but we cannot, because like they say ‘you don’t participate in a dance competition when your house is on fire.’ Nigeria is dancing at the market square naked to the full glare of the whole world when our roof is on fire,” TUC said in a message signed by Bobboi Kaigama, its president.

“This day should remind us of our heritage, the vision and struggles of the founding fathers, unfortunately, some have had cause to question the rationale behind the quest for independence in the first place.

“Our tale is that of a conundrum with insurgencies, collapsed educational system, gross unemployment, ritual killing, cultism, prostitution/rape, mass emigration, de-industrialisation, tribalism and nepotism, inept leadership, environmental challenge, infrastructural decay, gender issues, Badoo, kidnapping, YahooPlus, corruption and anti-graft, and a host of others.”

Kaigama added that the pain Nigeria bears is a needless one “given the enormous wealth of human and natural resources God has bestowed to this country”.

He said Nigeria is not at par with many of the countries that attained their independence in 1960 “even when they do not have one-tenth of what we have in terms of human and natural resources”.

The union, therefore, challenged the country’s leadership to see this year’s independence anniversary as a vintage opportunity to reflect on our polity, economy and society at large.

It said: “Our key functionaries and institutions must be made to work respectively and religiously like it is done elsewhere. Insecticides and deodorants have their roles. You cannot achieve result when you misapply the two liquids.

“We wish to appeal to the federal government to remember its ‘change mantra’. It makes no sense accusing and condemning the previous administrations for corruption only for the recovered money to be re-looted. Mere leaving a political party for the ruling party must not make anybody a saint.

“The world is watching and waiting for the pride of Africa and most populated black nation to blossom. The federal government’s economic recovery plan must not fail. No more excuses.”

Source: www.thecable.ng

The Federal Government has declared Monday, October 2, 2017 as public holiday to commemorate the nation’s  57th independence anniversary.

Minister of Interior, Mr Abdulrahman Dambazau who made the declaration on behalf of the government on Wednesday in Abuja, congratulated Nigerians on the anniversary.

He urged them to sustain the collective efforts towards maintaining and strengthening the unity of the country.

Dambazau in a statement by Permanent Secretary, Mr Abubakar Magaji, emphasised government’s commitment to promoting national unity, economic growth and political development on democratic principles.

He noted that in the past 57 years, Nigeria had made a lot of progress and positive impact not only on its citizens but also on human development globally.

“The minister enjoined all Nigerians to remain steadfast in the love and care of the country, noting that a strong sense of ownership of one’s country is vital to the sustainable development of any nation,” Dambazau said.

Dambazau expressed appreciation to Nigerians and the international community for their support and cooperation with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The minister wished all Nigerians a happy 57th Independence anniversary.

(Punch)