Biafra, Anambra election and other stories

Casmir Igbokwe

Last Sunday, Ekwu (full name withheld) approached me at a burial ceremony in my village. He whispered that he would like to see me for an important discussion. I prayed that this discussion would have nothing to do with money. I had already spent a lot just for the two days I visited to accord my maternal uncle, Chief Andrew Onyeguili, a befitting burial. ”Biafra is going to be a reality this March,” Ekwu said when I finally spoke with him. ”United Nations is going to divide six countries this year. Nigeria is one of those countries. And in Nigeria, no other nationality is asking for independence except Biafra.” He wanted me to be part of the Radio Biafra team which, he said, would soon hit the airwaves in Nigeria. I promised to get back to him. Elsewhere in the town, there were hot debates about the governorship election of Feb. 6 and the candidate that could clinch the seat. In churches, priests urged their faithful to vote wisely and not to mortgage their conscience. Although there were rumours that the Catholic Church endorsed Mr. Peter Obi, there was no official indication to that effect. For the candidates, it was a potpourri of campaign slogans. The candidate of the Action Congress, Dr. Chris Ngige, said he did it before, he would do it again. According to him, onwa ga-eti ozo (the moon will shine again). The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, said he would make Anambra the African, Dubai, Taiwan of Nigeria. The incumbent governor, Peter Obi, flew to the patronage of Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu. And Ojukwu‘s last wish was for the people of the state to vote his beloved son, Obi, again. Progressive Peoples Alliance standard-bearer, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife; Andy Uba of the Labour Party and over 20 others made their own mouth-watering promises. Campaign billboards and posters were all over the state. One good thing about the campaigns was that people made some money in different ways. Transporters had a field day as politicians hired their buses to take supporters from one campaign trip to the other. Some youths pasted posters for money. Some were hired to disrupt rallies of some candidates. As you read this, the winner of the election may have emerged. The intrigues, the fighting and the usual manipulations associated with elections in Nigeria may have manifested. We now wait to see how many people the casket the Anambra Revolutionary Movement placed in front of the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Awka will deal with. The casket was a warning that danger awaited any INEC official, who would involve themselves in the rigging of the election. If the casket spares the incoming governor, then Anambrarians await the fulfilment of his promises. He must swear to do away with anything that will bring back the rule of godfathers. During the time of Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Chief Emeka Offor was the king. The then governor owed much allegiance to him. For about one year, he could not pay civil servants. Anambra became a theatre of the absurd. Ngige came with his own godfather, Chris Uba. Somehow, the relationship between the two turned sour. There were violent but unsuccessful attempts to remove Ngige from office. At a point, he was abducted from his home with the connivance of the police and the tacit support of the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. There are many criminal gangs operating in the state. In the last one year or so, the spate of kidnappings in the state became so alarming that citizens of the state started avoiding visiting home. The kidnappers spared nobody. Those who summoned courage to visit home moved with trepidation. I thought the phenomenon has died down because I didn‘t hear much about it during the Christmas celebration. But a good friend of mine, Dr. Chidi Okpaluba, told me last Friday how the marauders kidnapped his wife‘s uncle during the festivities. For four days, the kidnappers reportedly did not give the man food. Initially, they asked for N300m, but later they collected N10m as ransom. And with confidence, they were said to have told their victim to fear no more as he had paid his own dues and would never be touched again. It behoves the incoming governor to eradicate this problem completely. Another major issue the new government needs to give adequate attention to is erosion. If something urgent is not done now or in the immediate future, some villages in towns like Nanka, Agulu and Oko may cease to exist. Many buildings have caved in and many people rendered homeless by erosion. The state government will not do it alone. But it needs to constantly pressurise the Federal Government to do something. There was a time boys from Anambra preferred trading to education. Today, I believe there is an improvement in boy-child education. But the snag now is that there is even no job for those who graduate from higher institutions. That is why some of them have found a niche in agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra. Though government is not a good employer of labour, it must create the enabling environment that will foster the growth of private business. The administrations of Ngige and Obi did their best to construct and repair roads in the state. But there is need to do more. Some portions of Upper Iweka Road and some other roads in the state are very bad. Such bad spots should have no place in a modern society. And the fact that the people provide boreholes and underground tanks for themselves does not mean that the government should ignore providing potable water for the citizenry. I congratulate the new governor and wish him well. That is if there is no Biafra to put a stop to his reign. And if the ARM casket does not engender catastrophes in the state.

Obasanjo’s tale by moonlight

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in Sunday Punch, Jan. 24, 2010 

President Umaru Yar’Adua had challenged whoever doubted his physical abilities to a game of squash. It was in the thick of his campaign for the 2007 presidential election. Many Nigerians had expressed anxiety over his health. The then President Olusegun Obasanjo gave him his full backing. He dismissed every talk about Yar’Adua’s ill-health, threatened every opposition to the man’s candidacy and ultimately foisted him on Nigerians.

 Today, Obasanjo is singing a different tune, if you like, playing silly games with Nigerians. In a widely reported speech at the 7^th Annual Daily Trust Dialogue last Thursday, the former President reportedly urged Yar’Adua to resign on health grounds. He sermonised, “If you take up an appointment, a job, elective, appointed, whatever it is, and then your health starts to fail, and you will not be able to deliver, to satisfy yourself and satisfy the people you are going to serve, then there is a path of honour and a path of morality; and if you don’t know that, then you don’t know anything.”

 According to him, he chose Yar’Adua because the man has intellectual capacity, high personal integrity and sufficient broadmindedness. He knew that Yar’Adua had gone abroad to treat kidney ailment when he was the Governor of Katsina State. But he claimed that doctors had given him a clean bill of health before the presidential election. Typical of Nigerians, he invoked God to punish him if he had picked Yar’Adua to spite Nigeria, which he claims to love so much.

 Obasanjo would always remind whoever cares to listen that that love manifested during the Nigerian Civil War. Then, he fought tirelessly to keep the nation one. Besides, when Buka Dimka assassinated the former Head of State, Murtala Mohammed, in a failed coup attempt, the mantle to rescue Nigeria’s leadership vacuum then fell on him again. In 1979, he became the first military Head of State to hand over power peacefully to civilians.

 His second journey to power in 1999 was also messianic. The gap-toothed General from Niger State, Ibrahim Babangida, had annulled what many Nigerians considered the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s history – the June 12, 1993 election. And in order to pacify the Yoruba race who felt short-changed by the treatment meted out to Moshood Abiola, who presumably won the election, some northern power brokers allegedly brought Obasanjo out from prison and anointed him the President of Nigeria. His ascension to power somehow doused the tension in the land and ushered in another democratic dispensation.   

 But now, all these are neither here nor there. For even admitting that he selected Yar’Adua to be our President, Obasanjo deserves our sympathy. What made him think that the over 28 presidential aspirants under the Peoples Democratic Party were not as qualified as Yar’Adua? Is it for him or the majority of Nigerians to pick our president? Was it former President George Bush that picked Barack Obama to be the President of the United States of America?

 What manner of democracy encourages the rule of godfathers against the rule of the majority? The same Obasanjo, when he was the President, encouraged and supported people like the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the so-called strongman of Ibadan politics, to lord it over the people of Oyo State.

 In Anambra State, he tacitly supported somebody like Chris Uba in his battle with the erstwhile Governor of the state, Chris Ngige. At some points, there were attempts to kidnap and deal with Ngige, but he shut his eyes to that. There were insinuations in some quarters also that Obasanjo picked a sick man to be our President in order to punish Nigerians for opposing his third term ambition.

 The refrain of the ruling party during the campaigns was “continuity”. But when Yar’Adua became president, he discarded some of the policies of his predecessor. This did not go down well with Obasanjo. Ever since, his relationship with the President has not been as cordial as it used to be.

 So, his call on the President to resign, though noble, is anchored on selfish interests. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP. But he did not bother about the fact that his statement was antithetical to the wishes and stand of his party. Already, the PDP has dissociated itself from the statement, saying his views do not represent the position of the party.

 In a way, what Obasanjo said was an admission of irregularities that marred the 2007 elections. Hence, it has become absolutely necessary for Nigerians to do everything possible to prevent a recurrence. On February 6, 2010, Anambra people will go to the polls to elect whoever will be their next governor. The candidates of the various political parties are campaigning seriously at the moment. It will be a tragedy if at the end of the election, somebody who is not the popular choice of the people emerges via rigging.

 A certain media report yesterday indicated that Yar’Adua might be coming back next week. Some members of his kitchen cabinet have reportedly concluded arrangements to bring him back to defuse tension that gripped the country since he travelled to Saudi Arabia 61 days ago. We have heard that before. I’m only hoping that it is true this time around.

 By the time he comes back, he will realise that he needs even more energy to tackle the rot that has built up in his absence. The Jos crisis is one. Fuel scarcity is another. And now the Obasanjo challenge.

 The major way the President could win the heart of Nigerians and shame his detractors is to implement the electoral reforms he promised without let or hindrance. Muhammed Uwais-led electoral reform panel has shown us the way. He only needs to adopt its recommendations to move the country forward.

Yar’Adua and dilemma of a gatekeeper

Casmir Igbokwe THE brief interview President Umaru Yar‘Adua granted the British Broadcasting Corporation is metaphoric. Just as the President struggled to speak during the interview, his listeners struggled to understand what he was saying. The voice was weak and petered out like droplets of water running into a tiny hole. The nation Yar‘Adua claims to be ruling is also struggling to find its voice and bearing. Outside the country, there is disdain; there is contempt for the name Nigeria. Within the country, there is confusion. Somehow, this confusion appears to be permeating the newsrooms across the country. Rumour and lies have taken over as the cardinal principle of state policies. Nobody is sure what to believe and who to trust. Even the now famous ”reliable sources” may not be too reliable anymore. For some information gatekeepers, the situation is dicey. They receive all manner of information. The dilemma is how to strike a balance between falsehood and facts and present the readers with the accurate information they need to live their lives. Some two decades ago, some of the nation‘s media reported that the late Owelle of Onitsha and former Nigerian President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was dead. Even Zik‘s closest allies came on national TV to confirm the death. Zik was to later debunk the death story himself and said those who announced his obituary would die before him. For some time now, the rumour mill has been agog with the tale of Yar‘Adua‘s death. The rumour was strong during his campaign for the presidential election of 2007 when he was on admission to a German hospital. The then President Olusegun Obasanjo put a call to him asking his now famous question, ”Umoru, are you dead?” Last week, the American Chronicle again reported the death of Yar‘Adua. According to the report, Yar‘Adua died on Dec. 10, 2009. Some anxious friends and readers called me to verify the information. How do I tell those who believe I must have the correct information that I‘m as confused as they are? My simple answer was that in Nigeria, anything could happen. But that it might not be true because as a Muslim, his death would not be kept secret for long. Besides, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan; Senate President, David Mark; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, claimed to have spoken with him on the phone. Could these principal officers of the state be lying? In Nigeria, anything is possible. For 55 days now that Yar‘Adua has been in a Saudi hospital, my eardrum has been saturated with fantastic tales. In November last year, the month Yar‘Adua travelled, some governors claimed to have seen him in his hospital bed. Very reliable sources told me then that those governors were lying; that apart from the man‘s wife, Turai, and his aide-de-camp, nobody had been allowed to see him. Rumour thrives in a society where truth is a scarce commodity. We have heard that Yar‘Adua would return very soon; that Nigeria‘s President is missing; that he is dead; that he is brain-damaged; that he is an expert telephone conversationalist, and so on. Where lies the truth in all this? The truth is that we don‘t have an open society. Our government operates like a secret cult. We have an executive that speaks from both sides of the mouth. We have a legislature whose activities are defined by selfish interest. We have a judiciary that dispenses, in some cases, fraud than justice. If not, how can a chief law officer of the federation, Michael Aondoakaa, gloat over the recent confusing ruling of the Abuja Federal High Court? The judgement says Jonathan can perform the functions of the President, but not as an acting president. And how can the House of Representatives consider it wise to send a delegation of seven persons to Saudi Arabia to see Yar‘Adua when it is obvious that the exercise will not yield any positive result? Is it not ironical that the same House that has refused to pass the Freedom of Information Bill now wants to fly to Saudi Arabia to get first-hand information on the President‘s ailment? Last Thursday, the Reps again stepped down the FOI Bill as against their promise to discuss it. Since 1999 when civilians took over power from the military, our lawmakers have been playing hide-and-seek with that bill. The way out is for Nigerians to take control of their destiny. Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, and some other notable Nigerians have taken the lead. Last Tuesday, they marched on the streets of Abuja to protest the vacuum created by the long absence of Yar‘Adua from his duty post without properly handing over to his deputy. We need to sustain the tempo of this mass protest. We need to tell whoever brought Zakari Biu back to the police force that the ignoble role he played during the reign of Sani Abacha is still fresh in our memories. We need to let Chief Olusegun Obasanjo know that he partly created the problems we are passing through now by foisting an unwilling and sick man on us in May 2007. We have to continue to demand that the FOI Bill be passed as a first step towards enthroning openness in Nigeria. We demand that the Federal Executive Council gives us authentic information on the current state of health of Yar‘Adua. As a private individual, Yar‘Adua could stay one year in any hospital he likes anywhere in the world. Nigerians will not bother. But as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, what happens to him is of public interest. As for Aondoakaa and Co., the day of reckoning will soon come. History has taught us that whoever presents selfish interest above public interest ends up crashing into the pit of irrelevance. In Yar‘Adua‘s 2008 medical journey, the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, played some roles which did not go down well with Mr. President. He came back from that trip and sacked him. Those hiding the President and pretending to love him more than he loves himself may soon discover that though fawning loyalty may go undetected for some time, it does not last forever. Soon, the real truth will manifest.

Terrorism and the dwindling influence of a giant

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in Sunday Punch, Jan. 10, 2010 

Alhaja Folake, 70, just returned from Dubai where she went for a medical check-up. Saturday Sun of January 9, 2010 quoted her as saying that a white lady stripped her while conducting a search on her at the airport in Dubai. She knelt down on her arrival in Lagos and thanked God for seeing her through the ordeal.

 Elsewhere in the world, Nigerians go through hell in the hands of immigration officers. The same Saturday Sun reported that Canadian officials turned back some Nigerians who live in that country and who had returned after celebrating the Yuletide in their home country.

 The major cause of this latest insult on Nigerians is the failed attempt by a Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab, to blow up a United States bound Northwest Airline plane on December 25, 2009. Last Friday, the suspect pleaded not guilty to the six-count charge brought against him before a US court.

 US authorities had earlier listed Nigeria among the “countries of interest” group. This means that travellers flying into the US from Nigeria will face thorough screening such as body scans and pat-downs. Other countries that belong to this group include Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan and Somalia. The other category known as “state sponsors of terrorism” has such countries as Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria on the list.

 As expected, many Nigerians have condemned the US action. The Senate has threatened fire and brimstone. The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, described the move as discriminatory. Nigerians, she said, were peace-loving and happiest people on earth.

 The action of the US government appears to be too severe. A few Nigerians may have put us on the map of advance fee fraudsters. But we are not known to be suicide bombers. Mutallab’s is an isolated case just as that of the British citizen, Richard Reid, otherwise known as the shoe bomber; or the case of the American, Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted and executed for the Oklahoma bombings in the US. Britain and the US were not branded terrorist nations on account of the actions of a few of their misguided citizens.

 However, we miss the point when we base our argument on this premise alone. The fact is that presently, Nigeria is like a widow buffeted by selfish and troublesome in-laws. It has no central figure, no rallying point, or if you like, no husband to give some form of direction and protection.

 For 48 days now, our President, Umaru Yar’Adua, has been in a Saudi hospital without handing over to his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan. Some government functionaries keep telling us he is in charge. Some say he will return very soon. How soon, nobody knows. The other day, Senate President, David Mark; Speaker House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; and Jonathan expressed immense delight that Yar’Adua spoke with them on the phone.

 We are not serious. We lack leadership. We lack direction. We keep making noise about our large population; about our roles in peace-keeping operations around the world and such other mundane things. The truth is that the world is leaving us behind.

 Former American ambassador to Nigeria, Princeton Lyman, put it succinctly when he noted recently that Nigeria was not making a major impact either on the region or on the continent as it was making before. As he put it, “The point is that Nigeria can become less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message that Ghana symbolised more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.”

 Currently, Nigeria does not have a substantive ambassador to the US. Ambassador Oluwole Rotimi was recalled after an altercation with the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe. The US rejected his replacement, Tunde Adeniran, on the allegation that his son gang-raped three women in Baltimore, US. We have not also been participating fully at the highest level in many international engagements. Late last year, our President preferred to attend the opening of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia to a United Nations function in New York.

 In any case, suicide bombing is not the only form of terrorism. We have religious killings, electoral violence, ethnic cleansing and so on. The dust is yet to fully settle over the Boko Haram religious killings in the North when Kala Kato uprising erupted in Bauchi. Thousands of innocent people perished in those disturbances. So far, nobody has been adequately punished for these crimes.

 While we cry over our fate in the hands of US and other foreign immigration officials, we need to also look into our tendency to discriminate against one another. An Itsekiri man does not see eye to eye with an Ijaw man; a Hausa man has little or no trust in a Yoruba man; the Igbo man believes he is marginalised and places his hopes in the illusory Federal Republic of Biafra.

 Rather than threaten and poke our little fingers at the US, we should strive to put our house in order first. It’s good the House of Representatives will be debating the absence of the President for over a month now on Tuesday. I only hope the debate will be devoid of unnecessary sentiments and focus more on how to rescue Nigeria from the problems at hand.

 There is no need playing the ostrich like the Nigeria’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Aminchi, and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, have been doing. Sometime in December last year, Aminchi told us that Yar’Adua would soon return to the country. Forty-eight days after, he is still telling us that Yar’Adua is sound and fit and would soon return.

 The majority of Nigerians are no longer interested in this he-will-return-soon template. Since the President could sign the budget from his hospital bed in Saudi Arabia, he should not find it difficult signing a letter mandating his deputy to act as the President pending his return to the country.               

 What the country needs now is dynamic leadership. Things should be done properly to regain the confidence of the international community; and to save citizen Folake the embarrassment of being stripped at any airport in the world.

New Year prophecies and promises

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in Sunday Punch, Jan. 3, 2010 

It’s the time of the year again when we make predictions, promises and projections. As has become my tradition every New Year, I will take a cursory look at some of these prophesies and leave you to draw your conclusions.

 First, let’s examine the predictions of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye. In his cross-over night service at the Redeemed Camp on the New Year, Adeboye reportedly urged Nigerians to pray fervently against suspension of the Constitution this year. He also solicited intensive prayers against backward sliding for the country in 2010.

 The RCCG GO urged Christians to pray against outbreak of diseases and natural disasters in the world. Last year, he similarly predicted that floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes would come globally. But only concentrated prayers, he said, would reduce their frequency and intensity.

 On the positive side, however, he enthused that some people would experience miraculous deliverances, unexpected promotions and open doors this year. I’m sure some are claiming these goodies already.

 Last year, the President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, also prophesied that the year 2009 would be very fruitful. He had said, “Number nine signifies fruitfulness. A good Bible student would discover that God does a lot with numbers. The number nine is the number of fruitfulness. For example, we have nine gifts and fruits of the spirit. A woman carries pregnancy for nine months; so, that number in the calendar and programme of God speaks of fruitfulness.”

 Fellow Nigerians, we all are witnesses to the lot of the majority of our people last year. Some fell into the traps of kidnappers and armed robbers. Economic meltdown melted the spirit of many who invested in the capital market. Some banks’ phoney buoyancy crumbled. Thousands of workers became jobless as their companies laid them off. Millions of others died of preventable diseases. Hunger and other deprivations took hold of many citizens. About 70 per cent of Nigerians are classified as being poor. Are these the look and feel of fruitfulness?

 Keep your answer to yourself first. To the General Overseer of Inri Evangelical Spiritual Church, Lagos, not all the senators and House of Representatives members would finish their term in 2009. According to Primate Babatunde Ayodele, there would be a coup against the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2009. Five Speakers of state Houses of Assembly, some state governors and three Secretaries to state governments would be removed last year. How many of these things happened?

 Early last year, President Umaru Yar’Adua promised that with the systematic planning process his administration had put in place, “we will forge ahead with our agenda for rapid improvements in critical areas with greater vigour and total dedication…”

 Which critical areas received these rapid improvements in 2009? Health? Education? Roads? Power sector? Even the 6000 megawatts the Federal Government promised to deliver to Nigerians by December 2009 failed woefully.

 This year, the Vice-President, on behalf of the ailing President, has come with more promises. “As we enter the New Year,” he said, “spirited efforts and resources will be mobilised to address the challenge of power supply and ensure higher generation as well as more effective transmission and distribution.”

 He also promised far reaching measures to curb rising youth unemployment, improve infrastructure, reform electoral process, protect lives and property and stem the pain and stress Nigerians suffer at fuel queues.

 Just as the VP was promising to reduce unemployment, more employees of some banks are being relieved of their jobs. Media reports indicated that Finbank sacked about 700 workers on New Year’s Eve. A total of 4,000 workers have reportedly lost their jobs since the Central Bank started reforms in the banking sector. Another report noted that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria planned to lay off over 1,000 workers in the first weeks of 2010.

 As if to put a lie to the promised protection of lives and property, a police corporal, Ismaila Mohammed, allegedly killed a 25-year-old accountancy student of Osun State Polytechnic, Adewunmi Adelowo, on New Year’s Eve. The student was reportedly riding his motorbike to Osogbo to collect a gift from somebody when the policeman allegedly shot him at a checkpoint.

 To be fair to the police, they tried this festive season to maintain law and order. I drove down to the East last Sunday and was impressed by the large number of policemen on the road. This apparently scared away robbers who usually waylay travellers on the road. The only snag was that at each checkpoint, the police asked me to “do New Year for us.”

 Since we are a prayerful nation, one of our prayer points this year should be to have a police force that is well taken care of such that it will protect citizens without asking for anything.

 Other prayer points are as follows:

• To have an end to all manner of fuel crisis in the country.
• To end Boko Haram, Bauchi Haram and all other religious harams harassing our lives in Nigeria.
• To have a free and fair elections in Anambra State in February and in Nigeria generally in 2011.
• To have a strike-free academic sessions and a crisis-free health system this year.
• To have improved infrastructure.
• Above all, to have the wisdom to be able to decipher truth from falsehood, and to take most of the prophecies and promises of the New Year with a pinch of salt.

Farewell to the year of the mad pig

Casmir Igbokwe

Published in SUNDAY PUNCH, Dec. 27, 2009 

On Christmas Eve this year, a Swiss-Italian woman reportedly jumped a barricade and lunged at Pope Benedict XVI. The Pontiff was processing down the aisle towards the altar to celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. But Susanna Maiolo, 25, with psychiatric problems, grabbed his vestments and pulled him down.

 The other day, it was the Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, who suffered attacks at a political rally. His attacker, a man with a history of psychological problems, hurled a souvenir statuette at him, leaving him with a fractured nose and two broken teeth.  

 Nobody has knocked our own President, Umaru Yar’Adua, down. His nose and teeth are also intact. But for now, he is wrestling with acute pericarditis which has kept him in a Saudi hospital for the past 34 days. As the year ends in a few days time, Yar’Adua looks like he will not celebrate the New Year with us. 

 On the hospital bed with him is a nation that has witnessed 10 years of disjointed democracy; a nation going into a new year and a new decade with uncertainties and misfortunes.  

 Chinese people have a unique way of describing such misfortunes or fortunes of their New Year, which begins on Sunday, February 14, 2010. To them, next year is Year of the White Tiger. The outgoing year is Year of the Brown Cow. Last year was Year of the Brown Rat. Though this is not about Chinese Horoscope or New Year, I have chosen to adapt the country’s use of animals to depict the fortunes or misfortunes of any particular year for our own use here.

 For Nigeria, 2009 is a year of the mad pig. It is a year many Nigerians would wish to forget forever; a year that brought many misfortunes for them; a year that has shown the characteristics of a pig that is inherently dirty and mentally sick.

 Or is acute poverty not a manifestation of some form of sickness? Some even say it is a sin. To me, it smells. It nauseates. And it is embarrassing. This is a year 70 per cent of Nigerians are classified to be poor. In a recent report, the African Peer Review Mechanism notes that six per cent of all poor people in the world reside in Nigeria. I believe the percentage is higher because many hitherto middle-income earners have become very poor on account of the loss of their investment in the capital market.

  The problem is worsening with the sacking of many breadwinners by some companies. The banking sector appears to be the worst hit. This month alone, some banks like Intercontinental and Oceanic sacked thousands of their workers. Many more will likely go in the next few months.

 The main cause of this poverty in the midst of plenty, according to the APRM report, is corruption. In political circles, corruption thrives. Many of the people parading the corridors of power at the three levels of government are not supposed to be there. They rigged themselves into office. They continue the rigging while in office with our common resources as the main launch pad.

 It is quite disheartening, for instance, that the Federal Government could not complete any road project in 2009. The Ministry of Works had a budget of N240bn for 2009. For 2010, the ministry has requested N249bn to continue the same projects it couldn’t complete.

 The Minister of Works, Lawan Hassan, tried to rationalise this cardinal sin by telling us that most Nigerian roads deteriorated before this administration came on board. And even when they awarded the contracts for their repairs in April this year, rainy season could not allow contractors to mobilise to sites. So, he wants another N249bn “to sustain the momentum.”

 Which momentum, you may ask? The momentum of corruption, excuses, lies and failed promises. At the advent of this democracy in 1999, the Olusegun Obasanjo’s government promised Nigerians heaven on earth. It awarded billions of naira contracts for the repair of roads. Ten years after, contracts are still being awarded for the same roads. And the ministers who were responsible for the past failures still walk the streets and direct political affairs overtly and covertly in the country.

 Besides, other infrastructural facilities are not better. Public water supply is non-existent in many parts of the country. Electric power supply has remained abysmal. And the promise of 6000 megawatts by the end of this year has become what a public commentator called 6000 mega lies.

 The victims of our mega failures reside in Libya, Angola, Mozambique and many other better-run countries. This year, Libya deported the highest number of Nigerians. Note that I have not mentioned any European country.

 Our image has not only plummeted, it stinks. The civilised world sees us as a nation of scammers, kidnappers and killers. Three former American Ambassadors to Nigeria, Princeton Lyman, Walter Carrington and John Campbell did not mince words in telling us recently about our worthlessness in the comity of nations today. Carrington reportedly said Nigeria had become the butt of jokes and comedians at drama shows.

 There is every need to cleanse the system; to bathe the dirty pig. First of all, all the evil deeds that give us bad name and bad image, we should resolve to do away with in the coming year.

 My suggestion to the President whenever he comes back to his seat is to start the cleansing process with his ministers and aides. Whoever is not doing their work well should be shown the way out. The number one on this list should be the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa. He has brought so much confusion in the discharge of his duties just to protect some interests and his job.  

 The number two should be Rilwan Lukman. Here is a petroleum minister who has chosen to relax in Austria while his house is on fire. This is a clear violation of the directive of the Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, that he should stay back to solve the current fuel crisis in the country. Is there another name for insubordination?

 Those who call themselves our leaders should just be very careful in the New Year. That is if they don’t want to end up with bruised and bloodied noses.

Nigerian police and 53 marabouts

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in Sunday Punch, Dec. 20, 2009

Lawrence Anini presumably had extraordinary powers. During his reign as a robbery kingpin in Benin City, the citizens of Edo State trembled at the mention of his name. While Ibrahim Babangida ruled Nigeria from Lagos then, Anini controlled events from Benin.

But one fateful day, the police in Benin arrested him and some other members of his gang. Leading the team that put a stop to Anini’s reign of terror was Parry Osayande. The police boss became the toast of Nigerians for his gallantry. I suspect that a good number of women might have dreamt of having one form of relationship or the other with him – the type that has currently put Golf star, Tiger Woods, in the spotlight.

 What Osayande, who retired as a deputy inspector-general of police, has not told us is the number of marabouts, native doctors or evangelists he used to neutralise the powers of Anini and his men. Nigerians also need to know whether his spiritual experience then informed his current strategies as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission.

 Last Thursday, Osayande reportedly spoke about his innovative solution to the problems of the police. According to him, “We have also approved the recruitment of 53 imams and chaplains for the Nigeria Police Force. You know the problems facing the police also require spiritual cleansing and remedy. That is what we have done. These people will help in preaching to their colleagues and help in moulding their character.”

 On the surface, this theory looks good. Being a religious people, many Nigerians will likely hail the PSC boss as the messiah we have been waiting for. But looking critically at the problems of the Nigerian police, can we truly say that hiring imams and chaplains will effectively do the cleansing job?

 Osayande himself is not sure. Worried by the resurgence of extra-judicial killings by the police, the same man, who has hired spiritualists, attributed the problem to lack of training of policemen. Does this now mean that the prayers of these imams/chaplains will engender the required training?

 Will these prayers restore the lives of Chukwuemeka Onovo, Chidi Odinauwa, Tony Oruma and many other people allegedly murdered by the police? Will they heal the emotional wounds suffered by the parents and other relatives of these victims? Will the prayers make the police more civil?

 As these clergymen get set to consult the gods on behalf of the police, the black uniformed men are not relenting in their violation of the fundamental human rights of the citizenry. Media reports last Friday indicated that a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Olu Akinola, sued the police for allegedly molesting him because he was a lawyer to somebody who jumped bail. The man claimed the police threw him inside cell at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos. There, he was allegedly stripped to his underpants and forced to wash toilets and carry faeces.

 Will the police prayer warriors put a stop to this kind of incidents? Will their intervention usher in people-friendly police that respect the rule of law?

 I hope they can do that. I also hope that the men of God will help heal what Osayande called “officers with bloated stomachs”. The man boasted that he retired as a DIG and still did not have that kind of bloated stomach. “I think the problem is that many of them don’t do enough recreational activities,” he explained.

 I’m surprised that rather than push this problem to the imams and pastors, Osayande decided to alert the Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, who he is sure is doing something about it.

 Part of the reason why we have remained backward is that we apply wrong medication to our ailments. Some of us take malaria drugs when what is actually worrying us may be ulcer. When any of our relatives runs into a big pothole on an expressway and dies, we say it’s the will of God. Whereas what we need is an action against the authorities that have failed to repair the road. When we come back to our houses after a hard day’s job and there is no electricity, we grumble and say it’s only prayers that can save this country. And when the police mount roadblocks to extort money from motorists, we recruit prayer warriors to deliver them from their bondage.

 I don’t envy Osayande’s evangelists who may have just secured another extra income without much effort. But as the Police Service Commission is paying them, it should also ensure that it provides the necessary tools and equipment for the police to function effectively.

 Our police also need constant training and retraining. They need good welfare packages. They need to evolve a sound recruitment process such that criminals will not infiltrate their rank and file. They need to have human face and learn how to handle civil cases with civility.

 The passing out of the seventh batch of Police Human Rights desk officers penultimate week is a step in the right direction. So far, a total of 1462 desk officers are said to have been trained. And the idea is to effect a change in the negative attitude of the police while handling cases. In Lagos, for instance, each police division is expected to have a human right desk that will handle issues relating to human rights violations.

 This is a practical example of efforts to stop the maltreatment of people by the police. An aggrieved citizen can go to these human rights desk or visit the police headquarters to seek redress against the violation of their rights by the police. Hundred marabouts cannot get that justice for them.

 Or is Osayande telling us that imams and chaplains helped him to arrest Anini and co?

Palatial residences in the midst of squalor

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in SUNDAY PUNCH, Dec. 13, 2009

 These are not the best of times for Nigeria. For almost three weeks now, our President, Umaru Yar’Adua, has been in a Saudi hospital. Surrounded by unofficial secret act about the true state of his health, Nigerians have resorted to permutations, rumours, lies and half truths to explain the circumstances of his ill-health. The refrain has been, “Yar’Adua will return next week; Yar’Adua will not return this year; Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan is not the acting president; no the VP is in charge; northern leaders back Yar’Adua; North shops for Yar’Adua’s successor…”

Amid these confusing signals, the nation remains like a plane without a pilot. There is no clear direction where we are going as a nation. Are we deregulating or still regulating the downstream sector of the oil industry? Should we or should we not expect 6000MW of electricity by end of December? Will the contractors handling our various road projects deliver soon or will they collect money and disappear without any sanctions? How do we create jobs for the teeming unemployed even when companies are relocating to other countries and new ones are afraid to invest? These and many more questions demand truthful answers and decisive actions from a purposeful leadership. But what confronts Nigerians daily is a potpourri of ludicrous actions and utterances that propel them into half-hearted prayers and other mumbo-jumbo.

 Let me make my points clear. Media reports last week indicated that the Federal Capital Territory administration was planning to build new residences for the Vice-President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and their deputies. At the completion of the buildings, the four presiding officers of the National Assembly are expected to relocate to Maitama District Extension of Abuja from Apo Legislators’ Quarters. According to reports, the sum of N1.5bn has already been budgeted for the design and construction of the residences. That of the Vice-President is expected to gulp N2bn.

Apparently to convince Nigerians that he has the general interest of the country at heart, the FCT Minister, Adamu Aliero, further told the Senate Committee on FCT that invited him to defend his 2010 budget, that he would build a five-star hospital in Abuja. This is to take care of public officials who go to foreign hospitals whenever they are sick.

Ordinarily, there is no problem if, for any reason, the powers that be decide to build new palaces or state of the art hospitals to take care of their high taste. But the pertinent question is, is this the right time to do that? Just as Aliero was reportedly making his plans known, a Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme in Abuja noted that the number of poor Nigerians doubled in the last 30 years. Oxfam International estimates that out of about 140 million Nigerians, over 53 million wake up every morning not knowing where the next meal will come from.

 The UNDP’s Resident Representative in Nigeria, Turhan Saleh, brought the points home when he said the country’s macroeconomic performance had improved significantly since the early 2000s but that the proportion of Nigerians categorised as poor today was twice the proportion of those who were poor in 1980. Even as the privileged leaders think of moving from one mansion to another, millions of Nigerians are without a home. Some sleep under the bridges. Some sleep by the roadside, while some others have taken over abandoned public buildings in some cities.

 Two Sundays ago, I was at the NITEL premises at Cappa, Oshodi, Lagos, for a small function. I was shocked at the rot the massive buildings on the premises have become. Lying desolate, the houses have turned out to be a blessing to some hoodlums who have converted them to their own palaces. There are many other public buildings wasting away when millions of people are looking for where to put their heads in the night. Those who cannot stand the systemic rot at home have rushed abroad to encounter more problems. Last week, Libya deported hundreds of Nigerians for various immigration offences. In some other countries, many Nigerians go through hell to survive.

This is a country planning to buy four new executive jets for the Presidential fleet. The jets, estimated to cost about N31.5bn, are to replace another four in the fleet that already has eight aircraft. I don’t begrudge servant-leaders who decide to serve themselves first. My main concern is that when leadership seems insensitive to the plight of the led, there is bound to be some eruptions.

 All over Nigeria, people are visiting their pent-up frustrations on fellow citizens in different ways. We just recovered from the Boko Haram crisis in the North. In the East, kidnappers and armed robbers are having a field day. In the West, the killing of an Assistant Commissioner of Police and the attendant killing of a number of people in Ijebu-Ife is still fresh. In the South-South, some militants who claimed to have surrendered their weapons felt like testing their libido the other day by raping innocent students of the University of Port Harcourt.

Many of us seem to have sold the kindness and the emotional bond that bind humanity together. We rape without thinking of any repercussion. We kill without looking backwards. We covet our neighbours wives and property without blinking. And we bless our atrocities and heartlessness with insincere prayers. These are signs of a nation on the edge of a precipice.

 Sincere and committed leadership will go a long way in rescuing us from a total fall. That is to say that before our public officers start any new building project for themselves, they must complete abandoned low-cost housing projects in different parts of the country; before they acquire new presidential jets, they must ensure that a good number of people can afford bikes; before they build five-star hospitals, there is need to equip the primary health care centres in rural areas; and before they embark on their capacity-building trips abroad, they need to empower the masses with good jobs and other good things of life.

 Until these things are done, we cannot sing “Abraham’s blessings are mine” with confidence.

Praying for a nation on hospital bed

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in SUNDAY PUNCH, Dec. 6, 2009 

Former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, has become the symbol of the nation’s mood and character. Recently, he had a warm handshake with Pope Benedict XVI. He must have left Rome with a bountiful of blessings and a resolve to be a prayer warrior.

 In his column in SATURDAY SUN of December 5, 2009, Kalu said he sought God’s face and God assured him that President Umaru Yar’Adua would get well soon. He then composed a prayer for the President. “I bring him and his family and the entire nation to you for special blessing,” he urged God. “Forgive him his trespasses and heal him of this illness…We stand on the authority of your word to decree liberty for him from all satanic forces that torment him…”

 I never knew that acute pericarditis has something to do with satanic forces. Like Kalu, the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party organised a prayer session for Yar’Adua last week. There were Islamic and Christian prayers from some PDP leaders. But none came from traditional religious worshippers. Perhaps, their prayers are not efficacious.  

 While we continue with these supplications for Yar’Adua, it is important to note that the nation he leads is also sick. A cursory look at the state of health of the nation reveals something familiar and disturbing.

 For instance, Nigeria has reportedly earned $520bn between 1970 and now. The question remains, what have we achieved with this huge sum of money? Past administrations were able to construct network of roads. But we lack the maintenance culture to keep these roads in top shape. It is as if we have not had any government in the past 10 years.

 Realising that no nation can claim to be developed when its power sector is comatose, Yar’Adua made power a cardinal part of his seven-point agenda. Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo took the issue of power seriously. His administration initiated different power projects that gulped billions of naira without much success.

 The Yar’Adua administration promised 6000MW by December this year. We are already in December, but the new song now is 4000MW.

 We may not even realise the 4000MW, what with the planned importation of generating sets by the Energy Commission of Nigeria. The Director-General of the ECN, Prof. Abubakar Sambo, was quoted to have said that the generators would provide about 2,320MW to augment the supply from the national grid. This will cost N182bn.

 Similarly, there is an increase in the 2010 budgetary allocation for the purchase and maintenance of generating sets in the Presidency. In 2009, the sum of N42m was budgeted for the generators, but the figure jumped to N82m in the 2010 budget. And it runs contrary to the recent assurance of the Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, that Nigeria would not be using generators next year.

 The tragedy of our situation is that even the diesel that will power the generators will be imported. We import generators, estimated now to be over 60 million for private use. We import diesel. We import the technicians that will repair the gen. sets. 

 In terms of health, Nigerians are dying everyday from preventable diseases. Cholera is wreaking havoc in some states. Infant mortality is on the average of 217 deaths per 1000 births. Roadside chemists and mobile medicine hawkers have taken over the roles of doctors as the majority of the people do not even have the money to seek proper medical attention from the hospitals. For these, we cry and curse our leaders. And what solution have we got – prayers.

 We have taken this prayer thing to a ridiculous level. Even when we knew we were cheating our way to the finals of the last U-17 World Cup, we were praying to God to see us through. Our senior national team, the Super Eagles, qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by dint of luck. We have also attributed that to prayers.

 The Eagles coach, Shaibu Amodu, reportedly said the intervention of Prophet T.B. Joshua of the Synagogue of All Nations church ensured their qualification. Before he went to Joshua, he had marvelled at the way the prophet engineered the early qualification of the Black Stars of Ghana for the same World Cup. Since Nigeria’s God is superior to all other gods, I’m hoping and praying that Joshua’s intervention will see us winning the World Cup in South Africa.   

 The consequences of our actions and inactions are the increase in the rate of kidnapping, armed robbery, prostitution, advance fee fraud, corruption, cultism and other crimes. Even these, as Kalu would want us to believe, “are all products of evil possession.”

 So how do we exorcise these evils? Some believe an understanding of astrology will go a long way in solving our problems. One Dr. Olabisi Okunaiya came to my office last Friday. He couldn’t see me but he dropped a book he wrote on Nigeria and cosmic symbols for me. I have not had the time to go through the entire book. But the author in the book asks why Nigeria experiences identical political problems or events every 29 years. “Why do we have military coup det’at in every nine years? Why do the Northern and Southern sections of the country see the same thing in different ways? Why is the relationship between the North and the East a cat and mouse affair…?” he asked. He believes astrology has the answers.

 Were Okunaiya to be a Thai citizen, he would have been a hero. Royal astrologers in Thailand, two years ago, reportedly decreed that what was auspicious for their king’s well-being was the colour pink. The king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, has been ill for sometime now. In mid-September, he was admitted in the hospital for respiratory problems and loss of appetite. To mark his 82^nd birthday, he left the hospital to have audience with his people, many of whom are said to have heeded the directive of astrologers by wearing bright pink shirts.

 How I wish delusion can transform into reality. But since it cannot, let us discharge our nation from the hospital by emulating the advanced Western democracies that solved and continue to solve their problems via honest scientific methods.

 May our President recover fast to attend to the myriads of the national problems facing him. And afterwards, may he summon the courage to retire in 2011 to attend properly to his health.

Extracting our fat at gunpoint

Casmir Igbokwe

First published in Sunday Punch, Nov.29, 2009

 Penultimate week in Peru, the Police arrested four people for allegedly killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue. The commodity is said to be essential for cosmetic uses in Europe. The finished product, which comes in liquid form, costs $15,000 a litre. The strategy is to target people on remote roads, kill them and then extract their fat.

 As bad as our situation is in Nigeria, we have not heard cases of this nature. But that does not mean that we are totally free. There are other forms of fat extraction going on. They come in different guises.

One of them is called deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. They say it is good for us; that it will not hurt the common man who does not have a car not to talk of buying petrol; and that it is now or never. They cite the telecoms industry as a good example of deregulation working wonders.

I’m tempted to join in singing this deregulation song. In a free market economy, there should really be little or no governmental control of the market forces. Prices of things should take their natural course. And since a student in Covenant University does not pay the same fee as a student in the University of Lagos, why should we expect that the price of petrol should be the same everywhere?

 The deregulation debate is still ongoing; but the Venezuelan ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Enrique Arrundell, appeared to have put sand in the Federal Government’s food. According to him, since 1999, Venezuela has never raised the price of fuel. He said filling his tank in Nigeria would take N12, 000 whereas that would cost him N400 in his country.

The trick, he said, was that Venezuela took its destiny into its own hand. “All we are doing is in the hands of Venezuelans,” he asserted. “How come Nigeria that has more technical manpower than Venezuela, with 150 million people, and very intellectual all around has not been able to get it right?”

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind – the wind of corruption. A former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, did not waste time in telling us this to our faces last week. At a lecture he delivered in Lagos on statecraft, corruption and national development, Mohammad said corruption was a function of the culture of the people. A people with no sense of shame; a people whose greed overcomes their better judgement, he added, would never put a stop to corruption.

Mohammad did not tell us anything new. Or do we have any sense of shame? Hold your answer first and let’s look at some current trends together. For instance, we are now talking about the 2010 budget. But that of 2009 has not been implemented to the letter. Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Usman Nafada, said he discovered that N30bn was allocated to projects that had been completed in the previous budgets.

 What this means is that whoever is making such allocations does not know his job, or there is an intention to defraud. Ultimately, some of the money will enter some private pockets as allocations from unspent funds from the budget.

Greed and corruption are not the exclusive preserve of people in leadership positions. The man who sits down to craft 419 letters is greedy and corrupt. The woman who sells expired frozen fish as though they are fresh is greedy. The nurse who expects some tips before passing a patient’s file to the doctor is corrupt. A mechanic who buys oil filter for N500 but presents a bill of N1, 500 is a cheat.

 Everywhere you go and in every profession you turn to, there are people making it look as if corruption is truly a major part of our culture. This is why people will embezzle money meant for rehabilitation of roads and nothing will happen. This is why rather than improve on the corruption perception index, we are retrogressing.

And that is why Nigerians will continue to be sceptical about deregulation. It is so bad that some people have even insinuated that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party intends to use the accruals from the exercise to fund the 2011 electioneering campaigns.

The Venezuelan Ambassador has told us that his country has no illiterate people; that there is no payment of school fees in his country’s universities; and not just that he graduated without paying a cent, he took three meals everyday while in school. Elsewhere in the advanced world, there are social security systems put in place to take care of the less privileged.

 What has our own government done for us to ginger us into supporting deregulation? Not much I’m afraid. Nigerians depend on boreholes and underground wells for their source of water. Generator fumes have killed many while the Power Holding Company of Nigeria is on standby. Even the roads that were built by previous administrations have become death traps as contracts for their rehabilitation end up in breach.

 To further confirm government’s insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary Nigerian, the proposed 2010 budget has little benefit for the masses. Allocation of N162bn to health, for instance, is lower than the allocation to the military which is N232bn.

 I’m almost certain that many Nigerians will support deregulation if the government shows sincerity of purpose. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has the support of many of his subjects and garners praises here and there because people have seen what he is doing with taxpayers’ money.

 There is every need for the Nigerian government to show more commitment to the welfare of the citizens before implementing any belt-tightening measure. To start with, all those who have been mobilised to repair our roads must be compelled to do their work. Secondly, the National Assembly and some others have levelled sundry allegations against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The corporation is yet to respond to these allegations. It must cleanse its house first.

I don’t see why we cannot put our four refineries in order and stop wholesale importation of petroleum products. Let nobody tell us again that the Catalytic Cracking Unit of Warri Refinery or any refinery for that matter is not working when people won contracts to repair these units.

Unless and until we put our house in order, talking about deregulation will amount to skinning the poor alive.

Or put in another way, extracting our fat mercilessly.