By Dele Sobowale
“When women have gone a step too far, they will stop at none”. Henry Fielding, 1707-1754. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 280).
Henry Fielding, the author of world classic, TOM JONES, was an excellent writer and the classical “woman wrapper”. So, he knew what he was talking about. For Fielding as for all men, there is an abiding warning - be careful when your woman (wife, running mate, mistress, girl-friend etc) intrudes too much in your business. Irrespective of whether the business is politics or a church or illegal oil bunkering the odds of a happy ending are very long. Conventional wisdom has it that “behind any successful man, there is a woman”. But, conventional wisdom is not history and the verdict of history has not been too kind to conventional wisdom.
Last week, in the first part, I mentioned three women, wives of Heads of States who interfered publicly in governance. One ended well, two ended in tragedy for husband and wife. In fact, the chances of a wife damaging her husbands’ political career, instead of helping it, are higher than two to one. They are more like 1000 to one. To be candid, I have searched in vain for an example of a political career that was saved by a wife jumping publicly into the fray.
From this survey, it is my conclusion that a wife can only help if the public perception of her is very positive and if the citizenry, in general, consider her as a positive influence on her husband. Otherwise, a synergy develops – the President’s or Prime Minister’s real or imagined faults are multiplied by the personal defects or wrong doings of the wife.
Today, in Nigeria, rightly or wrongly, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the President’s wife, had become branded with two characteristics – none of which can possibly do her or the President any good. First, every governor in Nigeria, even if some will not admit it, must dread the arrival of Mrs. Jonathan in their state capital. After the experiences in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, where her presence left people literally cursing “whoever is the cause of this” (as I heard co-victims saying on Ikorodu Road when she held Lagos hostage), it is doubtful if anybody in that holdup, people who lost their daily income, missed business or doctors’ appointments etc, will ever want four more years of that nonsense. The Lagos hold-up almost resulted in the premature death of one of my friends – until he called his doctor who gave him an emergency prescription on the phone!! He will never forget Mrs Jonathan; so will millions of others.
Second, she might have forgotten, but few Nigerians will forget the bundle of lies Nigerians were fed during her prolonged illness abroad – which must have emptied the national treasury of undisclosed sum. When she finally chose to tell the “truth”, it was followed by an extravagant “Thanksgiving” (more like fund raising) Service into which more millions were thrown.
Prince Philip, the Queen of England’s husband was discharged from the hospital recently and his return home called for no more than handshakes from the hospital staff and his official assistants. His wife, the Queen, is more powerful than any Nigerian President. But, he knows that Britain is struggling with economic recession and the masses are suffering. The difference is clear.
Whether Jonathan likes it or not, Mrs Jonathan has become a 2015 campaign issue. And from my point of view, it is an issue which might cost the President millions of votes. The choice is his. Or is it hers?
ASUU AGAIN? ARE NIGERIAN STUDENTS TAUGHT BY DULLARDS? 2
Last week, you were treated to part of a column written in June 2013 predicting another ASUU strike. The current one is the second since 2011. Read what was written in 2011 and send me a bottle of Gulder for accuracy of prediction.
POWER LIES
Protest: Residents of Sakpoba/Dumez Road protesting “No light for six months” at PHCN Office, Benin City. Picture in Vanguard, August 21, 2013, p 7.
One funny fellow, who claims to be living near Brig-Gen. Ogbemudia, had been telling me lies about power supply in Benin – which according to him averages 18 hours a day. I had visited Benin at least twelve times this year, and there is a Vanguard Office there. I know this Jonathan supporter will be exposed eventually. He still has not told me how less than 4,000MW generated can provide all of Nigeria with 18 hours supply everyday. Jonathan’s supporter indeed. By their reasoning we know them. Certainly, he will try to wriggle out of the lie again. With “supporters” like these…
“ROPE A DOPE – ASUU – 4
“We do not know whether there is a special way of passing this Bill that had been begging for attention for years. We also doubt if the lawmakers were equally sensitive to what the non-implementation of the said agreement [emphasis mine] had caused the academic community, students and parents and what it would cause them in the future”.
Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, President ASUU, lamenting the delay in passing the Bill arising from the agreement reached with the Federal government in 2009.
“It is unthinkable that wisdom should ever be popular”.
Goethe, 1749-1832.
Fuel queues are back; your wife is probably still searching for kerosene; power supply had reversed back to one hour a day. A guy seats in Aso Rock enjoying the “breath of fresh air” which his “rope a dope” strategy has yielded. I dey laugh O!!!
Commonsense is not common. If there is anything funnier than the “rope a dope” strategy, it’s the new twist. You would think Professors and Senior Lecturers in our universities are intelligent; that they could not be fooled. Well, you are half right. They are mostly intelligent; but also mostly not wise. A good lot of the world’s catastrophes had been caused by “egg-heads”.
David Halberstam, in his book THE BRIGHTEST AND THE BEST, the best chronicle of the American misadventure in Viet Nam, had called the policymakers and top military brass, who produced the debacle, “intelligent but not wise”. Back in 1974, when I was reading the book, it had not registered in my mind that someone can be intelligent and not wise. Now I know. Of all the definitions of wisdom, John Milton’s, 1608-1674, is the most apt for this column. According to him:
“To know/That which before us lies in daily life/Is the prime wisdom/ What is more is fume”. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 275). Wisdom, is never taught in schools; it is learnt from experience, open mindedness and providential intuition; from being truthful to oneself all the time and not compromising with the truth – however unpleasant. When ASUU reached the 2009 “agreement” with the Yar’Adua-Jonathan administration, the two sides compromised heavily on the truth.
ASUU is now left holding the empty bag. As this piece is being written on June 3, 2011, the Sixth National Assembly had gone into history without passing the Bill. Yet, if the discussion between some of my friends in academia is a reflection of what others did on election days, they also “voted for Jonathan not PDP”. In the end, Jonathan and PDP had colluded to break the agreement entered into in 2009 to get ASUU back to the classroom. That self-deception on the part of highly intelligent people is bad enough.
A look at the composition of the present National Assembly reveals that except for the mini-tsunami in the Southwest, the PDP had again been overwhelmingly re-elected nationwide by people who deceived themselves that they “voted Jonathan not PDP”. Was Jonathan running for Senate, House of Representatives and Governor everywhere?
ASUU members, who might find themselves back in the trenches, can now ask themselves if they were honest with themselves and other stakeholders by keeping quiet until it is too late. To be quite blunt, did they actually expect Jonathan and the PDP to keep their promises? If not, why the self-deceit especially when it is now clear that the calamity Professor Awuzie predicts would come to pass for Nigeria’s education sector? ASUU is now threatening to go on strike again. A lot of sense that makes!! That’s like bolting the gate after all the chicken have fled.
Showing posts with label Frankly Speaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frankly Speaking. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Saturday, 6 July 2013
SS mutiny: PDP’s ship of counterkerous elements (2)
By Dele Sobowale
“A group without a leader is a mob”.
Late President John Kennedy, 1917-1963, of the United States, in his classic, PROFILES IN COURAGE, recalled a Senator who told anyone, who cared to listen, “I never quarrel; but I fight. And when I fight, a funeral follows”. From the second year of PDP in Nigeria, the party had left a trail of blood.
They never quarrel; but they fight. Till today, over twenty murders remain unsolved as a result of PDP members fighting as elections approach. What we are witnessing now is probably the warm-up to 2014 mayhem. By this time next year, a few funerals would have followed the fights. There is absolute bedlam in that “ship”.
On any other ship, the Captain’s word is law – but not here on SS MUTINY. Three weeks ago, the Captain ordered the Chief Engineer, CE, to hand over to somebody else and get off the ship. Two days after the order was given, the Chief Engineer, not only announced to everybody, including the Captain, that he was going nowhere; he made good on his defiance by calling a meeting of the engineers and mates who asked him to stay on.
That shows how much control the Captain has over the ship. Unfortunately, the Captain did not consult us, Area Boys, we would have advised him that, “it is useless pushing a drunkard; he will fall down all by himself”. Captain should have waited…He should wait; the CE will end up in the sea. Mark my words.
Meanwhile, Chief Engineer, who defied the Captain, is experiencing revolt from the crew himself. He recently ordered two cabin heads, one in the Southsouth and the other in the Northwest wing of SS MUTINY to leave the ship on suspension.
The Southsouth cabin head ignored him (perhaps because he believes that “silence is the best answer for..”); the Northwest cabin head sent a reply to the suspension order telling the Chief Engineer that the fellow is not only unfit to be Chief Engineer but should go and jump in the ocean; and suggesting that Chief Engineer should be thrown overboard if he refused to take a dive willingly. Can you now see why Captain should have waited for Chief Engineer to do himself in?
Bedlam is the only way to describe what is going on in the rest of the PDP ship. One Southsouth cabin head, scheduled to get off the boat, in 2015, suddenly coveted the bunk of another cabin member. Without consultations with the owner of the cabin, Southsouth cabin head announced that the owner had conceded the bunk to Oga of Southsouth cabin; he appointed the bunk owner as the “Manager” of his cheerleaders.
Bunk owner, taking that as a slap in the face, responded with an upper-cut to the jaw of Southsouth Oga. They are still going at it and blood might flow or someone might disappear any time soon; this is happening at one of the kidnap states of Nigeria; reminding historians of what happened there in 2009-2011.
Southwest wing of SS MUTINY is undergoing low violence free for all; the palaver there might not remain non-violent for much longer. Three of the combatants are retired, but not tired, military men – a full General and former PDP ship Captain, a Colonel and a Commodore – all are, by training, as stubborn as donkeys. The former Captain, unlike Mandela, Bush, or Blair, who left partisan politics, when their days were done, had refused to stay on his Hill top mansion.
He labours under the illusion that he is indispensable and he is totally immune to insults. Because of the obstinate refusal of the ex-General to go and rest, the Southwest wing of the mutiny ship is in full disarray. Any meeting called by one faction is sure to be challenged by another faction. “A group without a leader is a mob”; as we all know. The Southwest wing is leaderless; so you know what they are; or don’t you?
Out of the thirty six power-holders in Nigeria, PDP has twenty two as cabin heads in SS MUTINY. As at last count, seven of them are not on speaking terms with the Captain. Six of them combined with outsiders to hand the Captain a black eye and a bleeding nose when he poked his nose into the affairs of the thirty six power-drunkards.
His tag team partners returned to the Captain’s cabin bloodied and booed by spectators. Altogether, it has been a “bloody business” for Captain. Never in the history of Nigerian politics had a Captain of a ship faced such mutiny as this one. Yet, he still has duty to bring the ship safely to port. Can he?
JOKES APART.
“A political deserves the approbation of Americans [or any country in the world] only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of the [people]. If it is anything less, is is merely a conspiracy to seize power”, President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969, November 7, 1956.
That the PDP is in disarray can only be disputed by the greatest liars on earth. The same individuals would probably deny that the PDP, which prides itself on being the largest political party in Africa, has never and probably will never represent the “ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of the Nigerian people”. Right from the first day of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in office on May 29, 1999, the PDP had constituted itself into a conspiracy against the people of Nigeria.
Three PDP presidents, from three different zones of Nigeria - the Southwest, the Northwest and, now, the Southsouth – have occupied the presidency at Aso Rock from 1999 till today. Over N50 trillion had been budgeted and spent, yet today, fourteen years after we started out on the new democratic dispensation, all we can see is the same internal struggle within the party to seize power and to loot the public purse.
My first book on the PDP, titled PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED, covered part of the Obasanjo years in office. It was a shameful episode in Nigeria’s history. Some of those who are leaders of PDP today were also top members of the biggest of Abacha’s political parties, UNCP, and, would have gladly supported Abacha becoming the civilian president in 1998. Foreign governments, even now, are still returning Abacha loot to Nigeria. So what has changed? “Show me your friends……”.
Obasanjo’s administration has not been called to come and account for the about N8 trillion of public funds. Jonathan has had three years to do it and he is clearly not interested in accountability by his predecessors. Obviously, the only way we are ever going to get Obasanjo and others, who handled public funds from 1999 to 2007, to account for them, is to have a new political organization in the Federal government.
The second volume of PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED will cover the periods between 2006, tail end of Obasanjo’s government, to 2012 which covers Yar’Adua’s two and a half years plus two years of President Jonathan. From all the evidence available to me, nothing has changed.
In fact, more trillions of public funds have disappeared without trace in the six years. The continuity, which those supporting the PDP government seek, is nothing more than the licence to continue in office for personal gain of top party insiders, the parasitic private sector and their close associates.
One quick glance at the raw figures, so far compiled raises the question: “what has changed?”
There is one obvious conclusion, as long as the PDP is headed by those who were there to support Abacha’s looting, Obasanjo’s unexamined tenure of office (including where the money came to allegedly bribe NASS members N50 million EACH to influence the third term vote), who authorized disbursement, of funds long after Yar’Adua was brain dead, and who were the recipients of our money and how our finances have been managed since May 2010, we will get nowhere.
“A group without a leader is a mob”.
Late President John Kennedy, 1917-1963, of the United States, in his classic, PROFILES IN COURAGE, recalled a Senator who told anyone, who cared to listen, “I never quarrel; but I fight. And when I fight, a funeral follows”. From the second year of PDP in Nigeria, the party had left a trail of blood.
They never quarrel; but they fight. Till today, over twenty murders remain unsolved as a result of PDP members fighting as elections approach. What we are witnessing now is probably the warm-up to 2014 mayhem. By this time next year, a few funerals would have followed the fights. There is absolute bedlam in that “ship”.
On any other ship, the Captain’s word is law – but not here on SS MUTINY. Three weeks ago, the Captain ordered the Chief Engineer, CE, to hand over to somebody else and get off the ship. Two days after the order was given, the Chief Engineer, not only announced to everybody, including the Captain, that he was going nowhere; he made good on his defiance by calling a meeting of the engineers and mates who asked him to stay on.
That shows how much control the Captain has over the ship. Unfortunately, the Captain did not consult us, Area Boys, we would have advised him that, “it is useless pushing a drunkard; he will fall down all by himself”. Captain should have waited…He should wait; the CE will end up in the sea. Mark my words.
Meanwhile, Chief Engineer, who defied the Captain, is experiencing revolt from the crew himself. He recently ordered two cabin heads, one in the Southsouth and the other in the Northwest wing of SS MUTINY to leave the ship on suspension.
The Southsouth cabin head ignored him (perhaps because he believes that “silence is the best answer for..”); the Northwest cabin head sent a reply to the suspension order telling the Chief Engineer that the fellow is not only unfit to be Chief Engineer but should go and jump in the ocean; and suggesting that Chief Engineer should be thrown overboard if he refused to take a dive willingly. Can you now see why Captain should have waited for Chief Engineer to do himself in?
Bedlam is the only way to describe what is going on in the rest of the PDP ship. One Southsouth cabin head, scheduled to get off the boat, in 2015, suddenly coveted the bunk of another cabin member. Without consultations with the owner of the cabin, Southsouth cabin head announced that the owner had conceded the bunk to Oga of Southsouth cabin; he appointed the bunk owner as the “Manager” of his cheerleaders.
Bunk owner, taking that as a slap in the face, responded with an upper-cut to the jaw of Southsouth Oga. They are still going at it and blood might flow or someone might disappear any time soon; this is happening at one of the kidnap states of Nigeria; reminding historians of what happened there in 2009-2011.
Southwest wing of SS MUTINY is undergoing low violence free for all; the palaver there might not remain non-violent for much longer. Three of the combatants are retired, but not tired, military men – a full General and former PDP ship Captain, a Colonel and a Commodore – all are, by training, as stubborn as donkeys. The former Captain, unlike Mandela, Bush, or Blair, who left partisan politics, when their days were done, had refused to stay on his Hill top mansion.
He labours under the illusion that he is indispensable and he is totally immune to insults. Because of the obstinate refusal of the ex-General to go and rest, the Southwest wing of the mutiny ship is in full disarray. Any meeting called by one faction is sure to be challenged by another faction. “A group without a leader is a mob”; as we all know. The Southwest wing is leaderless; so you know what they are; or don’t you?
Out of the thirty six power-holders in Nigeria, PDP has twenty two as cabin heads in SS MUTINY. As at last count, seven of them are not on speaking terms with the Captain. Six of them combined with outsiders to hand the Captain a black eye and a bleeding nose when he poked his nose into the affairs of the thirty six power-drunkards.
His tag team partners returned to the Captain’s cabin bloodied and booed by spectators. Altogether, it has been a “bloody business” for Captain. Never in the history of Nigerian politics had a Captain of a ship faced such mutiny as this one. Yet, he still has duty to bring the ship safely to port. Can he?
JOKES APART.
“A political deserves the approbation of Americans [or any country in the world] only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of the [people]. If it is anything less, is is merely a conspiracy to seize power”, President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969, November 7, 1956.
That the PDP is in disarray can only be disputed by the greatest liars on earth. The same individuals would probably deny that the PDP, which prides itself on being the largest political party in Africa, has never and probably will never represent the “ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of the Nigerian people”. Right from the first day of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in office on May 29, 1999, the PDP had constituted itself into a conspiracy against the people of Nigeria.
Three PDP presidents, from three different zones of Nigeria - the Southwest, the Northwest and, now, the Southsouth – have occupied the presidency at Aso Rock from 1999 till today. Over N50 trillion had been budgeted and spent, yet today, fourteen years after we started out on the new democratic dispensation, all we can see is the same internal struggle within the party to seize power and to loot the public purse.
My first book on the PDP, titled PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED, covered part of the Obasanjo years in office. It was a shameful episode in Nigeria’s history. Some of those who are leaders of PDP today were also top members of the biggest of Abacha’s political parties, UNCP, and, would have gladly supported Abacha becoming the civilian president in 1998. Foreign governments, even now, are still returning Abacha loot to Nigeria. So what has changed? “Show me your friends……”.
Obasanjo’s administration has not been called to come and account for the about N8 trillion of public funds. Jonathan has had three years to do it and he is clearly not interested in accountability by his predecessors. Obviously, the only way we are ever going to get Obasanjo and others, who handled public funds from 1999 to 2007, to account for them, is to have a new political organization in the Federal government.
The second volume of PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED will cover the periods between 2006, tail end of Obasanjo’s government, to 2012 which covers Yar’Adua’s two and a half years plus two years of President Jonathan. From all the evidence available to me, nothing has changed.
In fact, more trillions of public funds have disappeared without trace in the six years. The continuity, which those supporting the PDP government seek, is nothing more than the licence to continue in office for personal gain of top party insiders, the parasitic private sector and their close associates.
One quick glance at the raw figures, so far compiled raises the question: “what has changed?”
There is one obvious conclusion, as long as the PDP is headed by those who were there to support Abacha’s looting, Obasanjo’s unexamined tenure of office (including where the money came to allegedly bribe NASS members N50 million EACH to influence the third term vote), who authorized disbursement, of funds long after Yar’Adua was brain dead, and who were the recipients of our money and how our finances have been managed since May 2010, we will get nowhere.
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