PDP’s stormy tea cup

By Ochereome Nnanna
WHEN the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, election politics was raging and some commentators said Their Excellencies were wasting time on an irrelevant issue that had no bearing on the average Nigerian, I laughed.

It reminded me of what Mohandas Gandhi said about religion and politics: “Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics don’t know what religion is”. They did not remember that a governor is first of all a politician, and a politician’s first reflex is to play the power game.

The NGF election of May 2013 was a dress rehearsal for the shape of things to come, especially in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The PDP knew it was going to expose the treachery, disloyalty and rebellion of the governors bent on ensuring that President Goodluck Jonathan does not win his second term.

[caption id="attachment_412041" align="alignnone" width="412"] PDP Special National Convention: Delegates casting their votes at 2013 PDP Special National Convention . Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.[/caption]

 

The Governor of Rivers State,  Chibuike Amaechi, was advised to forgo that election and avoid being used by Northern governors to divide the solidarity of the South-South. He refused to listen. Egged on by the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, governors, the rebellious Northern governors as well as their vocal supporters in the media and open forums, Amaechi plunged into the contest.

The recently concluded national convention of the PDP ended with the rebellious Northern governors – Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto, Aliyu Babangida of Niger, Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Amaechi of Rivers and Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara (who was then dancing on the sidelines) – pulling out to form what they termed “new” PDP.

A familiar newcomer, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his handy political peripherals were there.Within the space of one week, we saw the registration of Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, as a political party, the announcement of the intention of the rebellious Northern governors to register a new party to be called Voice of the People, VOP and the “secession” to form the “new” PDP.

They do not quite seem to have made up their minds exactly what to do, except that they are all united in their determination to pull the rug from under the feet of the President come 2015. The central question trailing this development is what effect this will have on the ruling party.

The question is best answered by looking at every mid-term to a presidential election year since the return of democracy in 1999. In 2001/2002, there was turmoil in PDP because Atiku’s PDM faction wanted former President Olusegun Obasanjo to “do a Nelson Mandela” and hand over to Atiku after only one term in 2003.

They failed because Obasanjo not only ran for second term but also forced Atiku to run with him as Vice President.In the 2005/2006 midterm toward the 2007 presidential election, another series of crises erupted in the party.

The first was over the determination of Obasanjo’s camp to de-register those big stakeholders in the party opposed to his third term ambition as members of PDP. That was how Atiku and many others were pushed out. This eventually resulted in Atiku becoming the presidential candidate of the opposition Action Congress, AC, for the 2007 election.

The second was the attempt by Obasanjo to use the then ongoing constitution amendment to give himself a third term. Atiku vehemently opposed this bid, along with majority of Nigerians. A crisis-riddled PDP was very instrumental to the abortion of its leader’s unholy ambition.Come the year 2010, the nation was in a heated transition from one president to the other when President Umaru Yar’Adua passed away.

Some Northern leaders did not want then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to succeed Yar’Adua because they said it was the turn of the North to rule for eight years after Obasanjo’s eight. Later, they grudgingly caved in to pressure, only on the condition that he would not seek an election of his own.

Therefore, the PDP crisis in 2010/2011 was basically a section of the Northern leadership versus President Jonathan. Jonathan successfully defeated the regional gang-up against him, and some say the Boko Haram terrorism is a fulfillment of their threat to make Nigeria ungovernable.Against this background, I tend to see this PDP crisis as a teacup storm.

The party is used to them. The party always comes out of these storms intact and strong enough to win the next election. The PDP is a veteran of many civil wars. These wars will never end because they are normal jostling and positioning to hijack the party and use it to win. As it happens, the incumbent President, being the leader of the Party and the man who holds the proverbial knife and yam, he is always best placed to hijack the party for his own political ends.

Much is being made over the “splitting” of the PDP after the convention. It pays to ruminate more on the possible long term survival of the “split”. Ordinarily, the pullout of seven out of 23 governors of the Party to form a “new” PDP is considerably earth-shaking.

In 2010 when the Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, queued behind Atiku to drag the PDP presidential ticket with President Jonathan, the governors had kept their distances, obviously because they were looking for second term tickets. Now that all of them are on their ways out, they can afford to join the effort against the President.

The question is: Who will step down for whom? Lamido, Atiku, Kwankwaso and Aliyu are all known to have presidential ambition. Lamido, an ardent Obasanjo supporter, is several times on record pouring vitriol on Atiku as a political leader.

Kwankwaso is also an Obasanjo lackey. Would they agree to step down for Atiku when the time comes? Will they go with Atiku to PDM? It does not seem likely. Some of them may reconcile with Jonathan any time, especially when Obasanjo gives the President one hundred per cent support. Nigeria politicians are not known to voluntarily jump down from the gravy train.

 

Arik stowaway, Boy Oi!

By Ochereome Nnanna

FOR passengers on an Arik Air flight from Benin to Lagos, Saturday, August 24,2013 will be a day to remember like no other. On that day, they climbed down the gangway of their flight at the General Aviation Terminal in Lagos and met with a spectacle that gave them the psychedelic shock of their lives.

A young teenager of about fourteen years old sporting a pink polo shirt with a cream Catholic rosary hanging loosely around his neck, climbed down from the tyre hole of the aircraft! He was also carrying what looked like a school bag. Then, in typical Nigeria fashion of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted away, security men swooped and led him away.

His name was later given as Daniel Oikhena, a boy said to be a loner and an aficionado of action movies which he watches till late in the night. I call him Boy Oi. When I examined the countenance of this kid as he was being dragged away, I did not see the fear or trepidation that hits when one has just escaped death. All I saw was a touch of bewilderment on a face that exuded intelligence and confidence.

What happened that day was extraordinary, and I must admit that the media slept on duty over this mind-bending news. In other, more media-alert parts of the world, all the television networks would focus on it for days, if not weeks, while all the major newspapers would descend on it like a pack of hungry hyenas, tearing every angle of it to shreds for a news-hungry public to devour.

Fancy what could have happened. The boy could have been crushed to death by the tyres when they were retracting. The dead body could have caused the tyres to hook and fail to eject on arrival in Lagos, thus leading to a plane crash. That black bag could have contained an explosive, which could have gone off mid-air, blowing the plane and its human cargo to bits. All these because workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Arik Air tasked with the job of ensuring the safety and comfort of air travellers woefully failed in their duties.

All we saw was FAAN and Arik exchanging blames. No one was made to lose his job; none was made to report to the law enforcement agencies to answer questions for endangering public safety. That is Nigeria.

This, certainly, is not the first time Nigerians are stowing away in planes. Stowaways have been happening since transportation was invented by man. But no serious country records aircraft stowaways with the frequency that we see here in Nigeria where it has almost become commonplace.

On Thursday, October 26th 2012, I was on an Arik (again!) flight to New York to cover the US presidential election. The flight departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at exactly 4.20pm and landed safely at about 1.35am New York time. We all disembarked and went our respective separate ways, only for me to read a couple of days later that a dead man was found in the hold of the plane!

Apparently, he hid among the luggage, quite obviously with the assistance of some people charged with the plane’s security and logistical services. Similar such reports have come from Arik flights from Nigeria to South Africa and a few other routes. Arik needs to look inwards to know if they are truly well grounded to do airline business. So does FAAN. Whatever lapses the airlines may have, the industry regulators should be able to spot them and bring down the hammer as and when due.

Back to Boy Oi. I suggest that after interrogating him, the punishment should be very minimal. Being a minor who got mixed up with such a complex and perilous adventure, I will not put the full weight of culpability on his shoulders. The family he comes from is obviously not in the best of shapes to cater for his financial and psychological needs, thus his decision to take his destiny into his hands in that suicidal manner. Secondly, the system he was born into is not working. Otherwise, he would have been caught before the flight took off.

Boy Oi should be helped. He is an extraordinary young man. Such people can be turned to an asset to society. But if they are allowed to grow wild like weeds, they can equally turn to haunt society. His case requires expert and matured handling.

My last line is that parents should resume being parents. Let us spend more time with our children and study them closely. Let us encourage them to speak their minds to us and be eager to discuss with them. Money is only a small part of a child’s needs. We must help children to grow, not allow them to grow up anyhow. Let us revive the African concept of the community as a collective nursery for raising young people.

Abandoning these children as we now do is not in our interests. The Federal government and their state counterparts have ministries for the youth. What do they do, except using the youth for political self-aggrandisement? One misguided youth could have led to the death of scores of innocent air travellers. Some of whom might even be foreigners visiting the country.

We will surely pay through the nose for neglecting our youth, one day soon.

 

 

Suntai: Easier said than done

THE Governor Danbaba Suntai impasse in Taraba State is not an easy nut to crack. Commentators asking him to resign or be impeached due to permanent incapacity have to look closely at Section 189 dealing with Permanent Incapacity. Only two-thirds of the members of the executive council (people appointed by the governor; people who owe their employment to him) can initiate this process. They are unlikely to do this for obvious reasons.

For as long as Governor Suntai remains alive, he is free to cling to power. His loyalists will see to that. There are too many interests that will be affected by Suntai’s loss of power. We are not just talking about religious and ethnic interests, we are also talking about 2015 prospects. Only a dead president or governor will leave political cabals with no choice but to let go. The best the state can hope for is that development is not impeded in the heat and vapour of this controversy.

Clearly, Section 189 is a failed constitutional clause and must be amended to ensure the state does not fall sick along with an ailing governor.

 

My takes on constitution amendment

By Ochereome Nnanna
BETWEEN 2005 and 2006, the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo started elaborate amendment of the 1999 Constitution. He empanelled the National Political Reform Conference (NPFL). The effort died on the floor of the Senate due to Obasanjo’s insertion of a clause seeking to extend his tenure.

Shortly after being elected in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan also inaugurated the Justice Alfa Belgore panel to review outstanding issues of our constitutional conferences since independence. On Tuesday, 12th July 2012, the Committee submitted its report.

Based on this, the National Assembly embarked on the latest round of large-scale amendments of the constitution. Bearing in mind that during President Umar Yar’ Adua’s reign the constitution was also amended, we are left with the grim conclusion that every regime will have to tinker with the constitution.

We are in this constitutional mess because the military bequeathed a document that is simply unviable, inchoate and discreditable. It is like trying to patch a structurally flawed building which has developed cracks all over.

I have always maintained that we need to write an entirely new constitution that will usher Nigeria into a new century devoid of the weaknesses, mistakes and mischief that ruled our crisis- and conflict-riddled first century as a nation founded by a foreign colonial power and dominated by internal regional overlords. It gave way to violent rebellions, a civil war, coups, counter-coups, and currently terrorism.

We must come together and evolve a constitution that will exorcise the demons of centralised federalism, which is a legacy of our colonial and military past.

It is amply evident that the only viable and credible system of federalism suited for Nigeria is one that decentralises power to the six geopolitical zones. This is the most adequate grouping of Nigerians based on principles Professor George Obiozor terms: “contiguity and consanguinity”.

Violent agitations in the country’s history were rejections of our centralised federalism. The failed secession of the Eastern Region (Biafra) was a flee to safety from a country unwilling and unable to protect its innocent citizens under attack.

The many failed counter coups carried out by officers of the Middle Belt (Col. BS Dimka’s coup of 1976, Major General Mamman Vatsa’s coup of 1985 and Major Gideon Orkar’s coup of 1990) were rebellions against Muslim North’s domination.

The campaign for the revalidation of Chief Moshood Abiola’s presidential mandate from 1993 to 1998 championed by the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) with activists from the South West zone as the spearheads was a struggle for power shift and true federalism.

The armed struggle of Niger Delta militants that lasted between 1998 and 2009 was a struggle for Resource Control. In 2000, Sharia riots swept through the Muslim North, after the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Sani Yerima, unconstitutionally declared full implementation of the Muslim law.

Thousands of lives were lost. Today, the Boko Haram insurgents have taken up arms to implement the same Jihadist agenda, killing thousands of people across the North and sparking off the ongoing emergency rule. The handwriting on the wall is simple to decipher: Muslim North also wants true federalism where they can live their Islamic cultural life to the fullest.

Every major group has violently indicated its yearning for full, decentralised federalism. So, what is holding us from simply putting it into effect? Why have all constitutional efforts since the end of the civil war avoided it, opting to sustain a glorified unitary system that has failed to build the nation?

Therefore, my take on our constitution is that of total re-engineering, starting with the empanelment of a constituent assembly.

The National Assembly’s attempts to amend the military constitution will continue to fail. The Assembly is arrogating to itself the power to give Nigerians a constitution through the back door by amending a faulty military constitution.

In the subsequent parts of this article I will examine whether the 1999 Constitution is truly supreme. I will declare my stand on the controversial issues of immunity, autonomy for the local governments and creation of states.

Deportation of Igbos from Lagos

WHEN I first heard about it I could not believe it until the details were everywhere in the media. A detachment of officials of the Lagos State Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) bundled 70 indigent Nigerians of Igbo extraction and dumped them on the shores of the River Niger at Onitsha and sped back to Lagos!

It was a display of deep seated barbarism and an assault on the citizenship rights of Nigerians whose only sin was that they were indigent non-indigenes. Since I have not heard where the Lagos State Government (LASG) has dumped similar citizens of Lagos and South West extraction, it is difficult to dismiss accusations of xenophobia against the LASG.

I find it curious that an LASG that, since the days of the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Tinubu, as the Governor of Lagos, has responded to the electoral support of non-indigenes with concession of posts within his government to them, has now resorted to this inciting and uncivilised hostility to non-indigenes under Governor Raji Fashola.

I do not support the mass migration of people without means of livelihood to Lagos or the urban areas. People like that have better uses in the native communities than to become pests in the cities. But the LASG must approach the cleaning of Lagos streets of mendicants and destitute persons in a decent, lawful and wholesome manner, ensuring that no particular ox is gored. Lagos should go about its “mega-city” business with lessons learned from other great societies that have travelled the road.

The growing rudeness and aggressiveness to non-indigenes must stop. Lagos is our national commonwealth. It was built with the oil wealth of the former Eastern Region as the capital of Nigeria before being handed over to LASG in December 1992 when the seat of government moved to Abuja.

There are millions of Igbos and non-indigenes doing big time business, providing employment and paying through their noses to the coffers of the LASG. Non-indigenes make the Lagos economy tick, while the indigenes simply milk their effort. The scanty Igbo down-trodden in Lagos are entitled to care of the government because their virile and affluent brothers who control all the markets in Lagos, enrich the coffers of the state to the tune of billions of Naira monthly.

LASG must find a better method of moderating the complex social situation in the state because the resort to “Area Boy” strategies will not help anyone. Besides, those deported might have found their ways back to Lagos already!

 

Generals of the unjust war (2)

By Ochereome Nnanna
BEFORE I proceed, let me recap the essentials of the first part of this essay. I described the Nigerian civil war as an “unjust war”.

It follows that the ex-military officers who gathered last week in Lagos to launch General Godwin Isama-Alabi’s book, including their comrades living or dead, were soldiers of this injustice.



I noted that the immediate causes of the civil war were the “Igbo coup” of January 15, 1965 and Col. Ojukwu’s declaration of secession.

I also mentioned that the remote causes included the rapid emergence of the Igbo people to, in 30 years of exposure to Western education and civilisation, become a dominant force both in their native Eastern Region and the nation at large.

Their inability to manage their new-found success, coupled with the impatience of their idealistic young military officers over the corrupt, inefficient and clannish ways of the ruling establishment spearheaded by the North, led to actions that prematurely terminated their manifest destiny.

The rest of the country, with the support of some world powers, came together to push the Igbo people off the political centre stage.

The perceived hatred of the Igbo was not the only factor that led to the grand gang-up. In truth, no major ethnic or regional group was beloved by their neighbours within and outside their regions in the jostling for power and the upper hand when the colonialists left.

The Minorities of the former Western Region also detested the Yorubas, whom they accused of excluding them from the spoils of power in Ibadan. Majority of them continued to vote for the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, throughout the First Republic.

They had their own Mid West Region created out of the old Western Region in 1963. In gratitude they voted for the NCNC, which produced the first Premier, Chief Dennis Osadebay.

And in the North, the Middle Belt Christian Minorities actually took up armed struggle in the Tiv and Plateau areas against Hausa-Fulani domination and allied with the Southern political parties, such as NCNC and the Action Group led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

There was hatred galore. Regional Minorities hated their domineering Majority and allied with Majorities from other regions to sabotage them, while each regional Majority hated its rivals while sitting heavily on their regional Minorities.

A bigger, more lucrative incentive was responsible for the successful multinational gang-up that led to the defeat of the Igbo: the oil wealth of the Eastern Region. Long before independence, the East was the poorest region, while the West was the richest due to their cocoa wealth.

The North was also quite wealthy because of their many agricultural products such as groundnuts, cotton and livestock. But the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri and other parts of the Eastern Region was set to change the fortunes of the region.

As at 1966 when the first coup took place, the 1963 Republican Constitution, which vested resource control in the various regions, was in effect.

Had the “Igbo coup” not taken place, Eastern Region would have, by 1975, had enough resources to build a society comparable to today’s Gulf economic miracles, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and others. The oil boom was about to explode.

Nobody saw it coming, except the British ex-colonial masters. When they saw it they prevailed on Gowon to stand and fight to keep Nigeria one and be in control of the oil resources coming the way of Nigeria. Gowon started dissuading the North from their call to secede from Nigeria.

The North, which was shouting “Araba! Araba!! (secession) only in March 1967 started chorusing that Nigeria was “an indivisible and indissoluble one nation under God” in September the same year.

Once the war ended, the resources of the country were centralised. By 1979 when we were ushering in a civilian government, the presidential system of government was adopted, whereby the centralised economy and politics of the North-controlled military were enshrined into a constitution that was virtually rendered impossible to amend. With the Igbos pushed out, the land of the Eastern Minorities from where the oil was exploited became war booty.

The first attempt by the Minorities to protest the situation ended in the summary trial and hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow Ogoni activists by the General Sani Abacha regime on November 10, 1994. It took an armed struggle by Ijaw militants between 1998 and 2009 for the Minorities to win the derivation concessions as well as the right to produce the incumbent president of Nigeria.

Since the war ended, the oil wealth of the former Eastern Region has fed, not only the nation but also kept the top generals of the North and West and their civilian partners and aristocrats in great opulence.

They are the major owners of the oil wells, oil services and both legal and illegal oil bunkering outfits, often using local and international small fries as fronts.

The old North and West have benefitted from the oil wealth of the old East far more than the East itself. It was used to develop Lagos and environs as the former capital of Nigeria.

It is also being used to develop Abuja and environs as the capital of Nigeria, which some Northerners are now claiming as part of their region. In terms of federal presence, there is very little in Port Harcourt to show it is an oil city.

All manners of tricks were devised to make sure that the North, which led the civil war, got the lion’s share in every aspect of national cake sharing (including seven states in the North West) while the South East, the war’s loser got the least (five states).

But when it comes to qualifications to benefit from the federation, the North always gets the smallest cut-off points while the East is saddled with the highest.

From the look of things, this could become a permanent feature of Nigerian affairs. It does not seem as though anyone is prepared to put an end to it.

 

Generals of the unjust war

By Ochereome Nnanna
ON Thursday July 18th 2013, the cream of generals and political/bureaucratic czars that worked for the federal side during the Nigerian civil war gathered in Lagos.

They were at the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs (NIIA) to honour retired General Godwin Isama-Alabi, who presented his memoirs. Late reggae singer, Peter Tosh, once sang: “any time I see these men, my blood runs cold”.

Among these were cold-blooded murderers who killed innocent civilians during the pogroms in Northern and Western Nigeria; war lords who rounded up and hacked innocent and defenceless civilians to death in Asaba and other fallen theatres of the civil war; people who, in their youth, took great pleasure in operating the policy of hunger as a legitimate weapon of war and sent thousands of children to their untimely graves through starvation.

[caption id="attachment_404749" align="alignnone" width="412"] *The Public Presentation of the Book The Tragedy Of Victory on-the-sport Account of the Nigerian-Biafra War in the Atlantic Theatre by Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama (rtd) took place at the NIIA in Lagos yesterday Px shows General T Y Danjuma (Rtd) Chief Presenter of the occasion presenting the book at the occasion Px Biodun Ogunleye[/caption]

Among these were people who betrayed and butchered their boss in Ibadan and also killed an honourable man, Military Governor Adekunle Fajuyi, for being a true African who would rather die than collude in harming his visitor, boss and head of state, General Aguiyi-Ironsi.

These were the men who promised reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation after the war but proceeded to wage more than forty years of marginalisation against the former Biafrans after forcefully bringing them  back to “One Nigeria”.

These were the people who pounced on the oil wealth of the former Eastern Region (now Niger Delta) and ravaged the land and its people in the name of being civil war winners; people who took away the powers of the Nigerian people and concentrated them in the Federal Government, thus reducing every federating unit to parasites that rush to Abuja every month to collect federal allocation.

To be fair, among these were also the men who, in their youth, were genuinely committed to Nigeria, a supposed jewel of the Black race, staying united to fulfill its destiny as Africa’s gift to the world; people who are now dismayed that their patriotic vision for putting their lives on the line was thwarted by the hidden enemies among them in collaboration with former colonial masters, Britain.

Forty three years after the civil war, one after the other, these war generals lamented that injustice still pervades the system. And I laugh. I have a question: was the civil war a campaign against injustice? You answer the question by asking two more questions: (a) what led to the war? And (b) when the “war of unity” was won, what steps were taken to ensure justice for all in Nigeria, including those defeated in war?

I answer these questions based on my understanding of our history. The immediate causes of the war were (a) the coup of the five majors in which leaders of the North (both in the army and the political arena) were killed in a manner suggestive of ethnic cleansing. It sparked the pogroms in the North and West and pushed the East towards secession.

And (b): the Military Governor of the Eastern Region, Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who yielded to pressure and declared the secession of the region from Nigeria in 1967.

There were remote factors involved. These included ethnic and regional rivalries which the Igbos mismanaged to their own detriment. Before the colonialists came, the North and Yoruba land were already distinct political entities.

In the East, there were also distinguished entities along the coasts, such as Calabar, Bonny, Kalabari and other kingdoms. In other words, the Minorities along the coast were more firmly established than their neighbouring Igbo groups who remained scattered in their disparate republican hamlets.

Colonialism which brought Western education became the single most important factor to launch the groups later identified as the Igbos into limelight.

As Chinua Achebe correctly points in his various works, the Igbo people took only thirty years of exposure to Western education and civilisation to burst onto the arena, sweeping the Eastern Minorities into the shade and becoming the regional overlords, much to the resentment of the latter.

They also, by the middle 1960s had become so dominant in the system that even the Yoruba, who had a much longer access to Western education and civilisation, began complaining of “Igbo domination” in their homeland. The North not only complained but had to create the Northernisation Policy to prevent the South, particularly the Igbos, from taking over when the British colonial masters were gone.

The Igbos became arrogant and loud and before long, created anti-Igbo feelings not only among the Minorities in their home region but also among their majority rivals at the national level. These, combining with the anti-Igbo decolonisation disposition of the British, laid the gunpowder that exploded against the interests of Igbo people during the events of 1966 to 1970.

The so-called “Igbo coup” of January 15th 1966 followed a year later by the declaration of Biafra took the anti-Igbo sentiments beyond mere complaints, as a broad national and international consensus converged to ship the Igbo people out of political relevance through the “war of unity”. With the Igbos out of the way, a big reward awaited those who were in the coalition (the Minorities, North, West and Britain). They would have unfettered access to the surging oilfields of Eastern Nigeria! (CONTINUED)

Amaechi’s lovers and deceivers

FOLLOWING the crisis in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Governor Chibuike Amaechi has been playing host to governors loyal to his faction in the Governors’ Forum. First batch to arrive in Port Harcourt were the “PDP renegades” from Arewa: Govs Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa). Next came the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governors of the South West with some deputy governors from All Progressive Congress (APC) states in the North.

They were tagged “solidarity visits”. It would have been so harmlessly if not for the undisguised motives of using Amaechi to undo President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the run-up to 2015.

Whether these people are lovers or deceivers of the Governor, only one person will wear the pinching shoe in the end.And that is Chibuike Amaechi.

To be warned is to be armed.

 

‘Game on’ in Rivers (2)

By Ochereome Nnanna
IN an earlier article ("Amaechi’s rebel war", June 3, 2013) on the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State, I made this observation on the Governor of Rivers State: “Chibuike Amaechi is an intelligent man. But he is not a wise man. He is action-packed, but he lacks self control.”

The dance of shame on the floor of the Rivers State House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 9 presented a prime opportunity to demonstrate this attribution.

Five members of the House opposed to him had gathered early in the day and later announced they had impeached the Speaker,  Otelemabala Amachree, who had the support of 27 other members. The group’s ringleader, Evans Bipi, announced himself as the new Speaker. Later, there was a breakdown of law and order in the House and we saw videos of members trying to murder one another.

The faction loyal to Amaechi alerted him on telephone about the crisis. The Governor mobilised his security and invaded the House chamber. Not surprisingly, his supporters are saying there was nothing wrong in what he did. According to them, as the Governor and Chief Security Officer, he had the right to go there when things turned as ugly as they did on that day.

Let us switch the picture around and assume that a similar political crisis erupts in the House of Reps or Senate and President Goodluck Jonathan  goes with his security aides to quell the situation and in the process his faction, emboldened by his presence, join forces with the President’s security guards to bloody the opposition. Will there still be “nothing wrong” with it?

To the best of my knowledge, there is nowhere in the Constitution that the President is empowered to personally go to the National Assembly, or the Governor to go to the House of Assembly to quell fights.

That Amaechi was for eight years a member and Speaker of the House did not confer on him any constitutional right to move his forces there in person. In any case, he went there to join his faction in its fight against the opposition legislators.

The Constitution did not give him any such rights. His position as the Chief Security Officer empowers him to maintain law and order in the overall interest of the state and its people, and not to help himself to a factional fight.

But  more importantly, it was not in the interest of his personal safety to go to the Assembly and join the fray, bearing in mind there was a reported large number of armed hooligans allegedly brought in by the opposition legislators.

Suppose there was a shootout? He could easily have been killed either by a stray bullet or a deliberately aimed shot. If that had happened, the losers will be Amaechi and members of his family sympathetic to him. His Deputy, Chief Tele Ikuru, would have been sworn-in a couple of hours after he is confirmed dead. The noise in Rivers would die down after a few days and all his teeming supporters and enemies alike would quietly file behind the new Governor.

I am describing what was likely to happen based on my observed traits of the Rivers political elite. When Dr Peter Odili was the Governor of the State, he was like a god to the men, women, youth and chiefs of the state. I remember how the House of Assembly led by Speaker Chibuike Amaechi himself unanimously endorsed his presidential ambition.

I also remember how the state shut down and Rivers people, both the high and lowly, lined all the streets from the Port Harcourt International Airport to Brick House in the downtown of the city when he returned from his President Olusegun Obasanjo-sabotaged presidential run.

But as soon as he left office and the Supreme Court awarded the gubernatorial seat to Amaechi who later launched a war on Odili, virtually the entire political machine left behind by Odili lined up behind Amaechi, the new man with the proverbial knife in his right hand and yam in his left.

Had anything tragic happened to Amaechi when he led that foolhardy invasion, how would it have been possible to prove who might have committed the offence if there was a sporadic shooting? His security advisers deserve to lose their jobs for allowing him to plunge himself into harm’s way like that. There were a thousand and one ways of preventing the House crisis of that day with or without the help of Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu.

The saddest downside of the Rivers crisis is that Amaechi is in danger of reversing all the excellent work he spent the last six years doing in securing the state. He needs to continue to work together with the Federal Government to make the peace he contributed in fostering in the state become permanent.

But by working with opposition parties to undermine the political ambition of President Jonathan, the ex-militants, armed cult groups and dangerous thugs have bounced back to ignoble relevance.

Let no one be deceived: In this ugly crisis bedevilling Rivers State, there are no saints or angels. Amaechi and his supporters and his former Chief of Staff, Nyesom Wike and his “federal might” supporters are equally guilty of impunity.

Call it war among Ikwerre-born singer, Duncan Mighty’s “Port Harcourt Boys”. Instructively, Amaechi and Wike were eulogised in that epic rendition entitled: "Port Harcourt’s First Son".

Even though this crisis has generated a lot of bitterness on both sides, I am still hoping against hope that something can touch the hearts of the major actors to realise that without peace there will be no politics, let alone development. Unless something is done, we may see a return to the evil days of unending violence.

Between 2001 and 2009, it led to militancy in the Niger Delta and the consequences were grave for the whole nation. As the entire nation is emotionally involved in the latest crisis, we do not know where it might lead.

“Game on” in Rivers

By Ochereome Nnanna
IT was horrible in the corridors of power in Port Harcourt on Tuesday last week. If it were a scripted Nollywood home video, it would have been either age-barred or altogether banned by the Nigerian Video Censors Board.

An “honourable” member had a heavy, blunt object in his two hands. He swung it over his head and delivered a hit on the forehead of another “honourable” member.

Rather than the victim turning tail and running for dear life as fast as his feet could take him, he was spinning around like a headless chicken. Perhaps, he was too dazed to run.

He was repeatedly attacked until he found himself near an exit door. Just before he plunged into it, his assailant released a final hit across back in the waist region. We later heard the blunt object was a camera tripod – a steel object!

Someone described that cold-blooded assault as an “attempted murder”. That assailant, whoever he is, must be prosecuted accordingly. The victim could easily have fallen down and lost his life. After all, the late Hon. Aminu Safana, a legislator from Katsina, simply slumped during a heated argument in the chamber of the House of Reps during the Patricia Etteh scandal in 2007 even though he was not even assaulted.

Another sickening part of it all was that a policeman decked in his newly-acquired fatigue uniform was seen stripping the victim of his black jacket and in the process rendering him more vulnerable before his attacker.

Earlier on, five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly opposed to Governor Chibuike Amaechi had conducted a comical charade in which they said they had impeached the Speaker of the House, Otelemabala Amachree, replacing him with Evans Bipi. What else would you call a situation where five out of 32 members of a legislature would purport to carry out an impeachment when the constitution clearly says they needed two-thirds majority or roughly 20 members. The impeachment’s nullity was proved when 26 members later assembled and attended to a supplementary budget brought to the house by the Deputy Governor, Tele Ikuru.

What happened that Tuesday was a move to push Governor Amaechi further to the outer fringes of power, perhaps before the final nudge. The opposition rehearsed its roles very carefully. You must have seen how the grounds of the Assembly were flooded with people described as “thugs” in some media quarters. Since there was a screening of both members and visitors to the Assembly, with scores of policemen in evidence, how was it possible for “thugs” to make it into the “hallowed chamber” of the House if superior powers were not in the picture and on the side of the opposition?

And how come that the policemen sat on their palms and watched the live movie, rather than do their job as law enforcement agents? Those (like Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs) who said the Presidency had nothing to do with events of that day were merely playing to the gallery. This was simply the latest episode of the President Goodluck Jonathan versus Governor Chibuike Amaechi political muscle-flexing. It was the newest phase of the political game meant to push matters rapidly towards the endgame.

After the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) election, which Amaechi doggedly contested against the directives of his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and won, thus making President Jonathan lose face; he had drawn a bold battle line. He not only gave the president’s political enemies in the north the opportunity to betray the Party and the President; he was also the rallying point for the rebellion.

Thereafter, the two sides (President and Governor) made that routine protocol encounter at the Port Harcourt International Airport when Jonathan visited his home state. It was splashed all over the front pages of the dailies, and speculated as a move towards reconciliation. The following day, the major stakeholders opposed to Amaechi in the Rivers State PDP led by Hon. Felix Obuah, visited the President in Aso Villa. They included Amaechi’s former principal, ex-Governor Peter Odili. That visit was meant to keep the President focused on his warpath with the Governor.

The anti-Amaechi group would obviously want him out of the picture as soon as possible because he could remain an irritant on President Jonathan’s path to re-election in his home base. The PDP and the Presidency are set for a general re-jig of structures in readiness for the oncoming political high season and undesirable elements will be dropped from the wagon as soon as possible.

Amaechi started this crisis by striking the posture of an opposition element; a strange bedfellow, within the ruling party. He chose to fight the party and the Presidency from within, rather than honourably resign and join his allies in the All Progressives Congress (APC) parties, to which he is now the rallying point. People say he has the constitutional right to do what he is doing, but the party also has the right to protect itself from a member who now acts in the interest of the opposition. This is power play, and it is game on.

Amaechi says he is under siege. What did he expect? He would do the same to anyone who undermines him. The hand that disturbs the bee’s nest will be stung.

Boko Haram convictions

TUESDAY, July 9th 2013 became an important day in our history of war on terrorism. It was on this day that Hon. Justice Bilikisu Aliyu of an Abuja Federal High Court sentenced Shuaibu Abubakar, Salisu Ahmed, Umar Babagana, and Mohammed Ali, all members of the terror group, Boko Haram, to life in jail for their parts in the bombing of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Suleija.

Many were elated that, at least and at last, some terrorists have been brought to book, even if they got less than they deserved: death, which they meted out to their victims.

Concerns remain, though. What about their sponsors; the big men who assembled and financed the ugly venture? You don’t kill a snake by cutting the tail leaving the head.

Secondly, sending them to jail for life means we have to be vigilant forever for fear of their affiliates setting them free through jailbreaks, the sort we witnessed in Ondo and Bama prisons recently.

 

 

Jigawa in a new world

By Ochereome Nnanna
A  LITTLE over six years ago, Jigawa State was rated by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, as the poorest state in Nigeria. At a public lecture in Kaduna, former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, after reviewing the figures from across the North, reached the sad conclusion thus: “Poverty is still a Northern phenomenon”.

I had the opportunity of touring the state in June 2007, paying particular attention to the rotten educational facilities and infrastructure. Six years later, after many postponements due to security uncertainties in the North, I returned to the state to assess the situation. I can comfortably report that Jigawa State is not only in a new world, it is also in a world of its own.

It has almost completely overcome its infrastructural deficits, especially in the areas of roads, education, water supply and health. Though surrounded by terrorism flashpoint states such as Kano, Bauchi and Yobe, Boko Haram staged only one raid in the Ringim area and it was a clear hit-and-run raid, as the anarchists have no home base in the state.

An official of the state government who explained the reason the terrorists have not found a breeding ground in the state, said Governor Sule Lamido runs a government of total inclusion. No section of the state is left out from the benefits of governance, and this includes non-indigenous residents.

The Jigawa State government is welfarist. It is the only state where beggars are paid monthly stipends to keep them away from the streets though al majiris are still noticeable around eateries. In Jigawa, every certified handicapped person of the state’s origin is paid N7000 per month. Education is free for girls to close the huge gap between males and females in the state, while the boys enjoy partially free education.

The Fulani nomads have also been brought into the care system. The perennial conflict between them and farmers is almost a thing of the past because government established windmills all over the state.



These draw water into surface tanks from the aquifers as the wind blows. It provides water for people and their cattle and reduces communicable diseases which result from drinking water from unsafe sources. Pastoralists and their cattle have been granted safe passage corridors along all federal and state roads to prevent livestock from stomping through farmlands. During our visit over the past weekend, emirs and chiefs were undergoing a seminar on conflict resolution in the state capital.

In Jigawa State, villages are frequently evacuated to create room for development. For instance, the natives of Ngullo village near Dutse, the state capital, were evacuated to make way for the new international cargo airport.

But the state government first built modern huts for them in their new village and still paid them compensation.

They are living happily in their new abode and the airport project is going at a break-neck pace, giving officials reason to believe that a Hajj flight will take off from there this year.

Inclusion is also evident in the spread of amenities. The major roads in all the headquarters of the 27 local government areas have been constructed with drainage channels and street lights powered with solar energy.

The housing bonanza also benefits all strata of government workers – from junior to senior civil servants, from commissioners to ministers and from the Deputy Governor to the Governor. The emirs of Dutse, Hadejia, Gumel, Kazaure and Ringim, have luxury plazas built for them in a section of the state capital. Lamido made a rule that every top government functionary must own a comfortable house in Dutse to avoid the temptation of straying back to Kano or getting stuck in Abuja.

What impressed me most was the Jigawa Academy, a model school for gifted children in Bamaina, the Governor’s hometown. It currently has 160 students drawn from all parts of the state, with one student each from 17 of the 19 states in the North. Admission is strictly on merit and once a student gains admission he or she is on full scholarship.

We were told that due to the strict merit-based admission, none of the children of the top officials of the state government – including the Governor and Deputy – is studying there. In compliance with the prompting of President Goodluck Jonathan, the school will open its gates to students from the Southern states in the next academic session.

Governor Lamido paints a picture of his political history with the way he is building up Dutse. There is the Aminu Kano Triangle, the Jigawa equivalent of Eagle Square, Abuja. Inside, there is the Sawaba Monument, set up to honour the eight founders of Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU, who, in 1948, met and issued the Sawaba Declaration for the liberation of the masses (Talakawa).

These were: Abba Maikwaru, Musa Kaula, Magaji Danbatta, Mudi Sipikin, Abdulkdir Danjaji, Bello Ijumu, Abubakar Zukogi and Babaliya Manaja.

Also, near the “three arms zone” is a housing estate named after the G.9, the group that met in 1998 and demanded General Sani Abacha to hand over power to civilians when it was clear he was poised to succeed himself through his five registered political parties. Each of the nine chalets in the estate is named after Alex Ekwueme, Bola Ige, Iyorchia Ayu, Jerry Gana, Francis Ellah, Adamu Ciroma, Solomon Lar, Abubakar Rimi and Sule Lamido.

Lamido is a disciple of the Aminu Kano NEPU/PRP ideological school and a founder of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. But from all indications, he is running a NEPU/PRP government. The whole of the Jigawa landscape is green and crawling with intense agricultural activities, with government-sponsored oxen-drawn carts (6,000 in all) putting as many idle hands as possible to profitable work.

By the time the airport comes alive Jigawa will no longer be in the back waters. It will come to the centre stage as a rapidly developing state in the country.

 

Can APC ride its internal storms?

By Ochereome Nnanna
LET me observe, first of all, that the ongoing merger effort by the political parties wanting to form the All Progressives Congress, APC, is approaching a milestone. It has got to the level of sharing of interim national offices, with the expected charged outcomes.

Its traducers are accusing the APC of being a Muslim-dominated party, and the party through its interim Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, is calling them “purveyors of falsehood”.

[caption id="attachment_359345" align="alignright" width="412"] Governors of the new mega party, APC in Lagos last week[/caption]

If they overcome the challenges of this level of evolution, the next obstacle will be the selection of presidential candidate for the 2015 election. In the short and medium term, management of the group’s “natural” fault lines – the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP and Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and other sub-group interests – will greatly task the leadership.

Power and office sharing in the APC will first satisfy the interests of these sub-groups before considering geopolitical issues, unlike the PDP which goes straight to geopolitical factors in apportioning posts within the party and the Federal Government. The three major merging parties will continue to ensure that their group interests are not swallowed by their rivals, particularly as these groups also represent regional interests.

The ACN from the South West led by Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will always look out for its regional interests, making sure that, being the largest political group in the merger, it maintains its lion’s shareholding. The emergence of its National Chairman, Alhaji Bisi Akande, as the interim National Chairman hardly comes as a surprise. On the other hand, the CPC with Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari as its leader will also seek to collude with the ANPP to push Arewa interests, particularly its quest to regain power at the centre. If both blocs are able to manage this regional power tussle and nominate a viable and acceptable presidential ticket then the party is well on its way to self-actualisation.

By far the most challenging factor in this start-up party is the issue of religion, particularly Christian-Muslim equations. Part of the accusations levelled at the group after its recent office sharing process, is that its leadership is dominated by Muslims. A cursory glance at the top positions reveals that Arewa and Yoruba Muslims clearly call the shots. Apart from the interim National Chairman, Akande, the ANPP’s Alhaji Tijani Tumsah is the National Secretary. The interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of the ACN; Mallam Nasir el Rufai of the CPC (the Deputy National Secretary); the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Alhaji Nmodu Sheriff who is widely accused of being a sponsor of Boko Haram, are all Muslims.

The two National Leaders of the political association, Tinubu and Buhari, are also Muslims. The highest position ceded to a Christian is Deputy National Chairman, which goes to the South East and Rochas Okorocha’s All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. Christians do not have a strong footing in the leadership of the APC, but it hardly has anything to do with deliberate marginalisation. Lai Mohammed tried to play down this factor by disclosing that out of the 35 posts shared out, Muslims have 18, while Christians got 17. This means that the party had gone the extra mile to give the Christians some “affirmative action”.

The Muslim domination of the APC owes to the basic regional characters of the political parties forming the merger. The ACN’s home base is the South West, in which Christians and Muslims appear equally distributed by population. The CPC and ANPP are chiefly based in the North West and North East, the core of Arewa. North West is about 90 per cent Muslims, while the North East is about 60 per cent Muslim dominated. The part of the North East where ANPP comes from – Borno and Yobe – is about 80 per cent Muslim-dominated. The APC’s current core catchment areas constitute roughly about 70 per cent Muslims.

It is natural that Muslims will dominate the group, for now. Whether Lai Mohammed likes it or not, the religious and regional configuration of the leadership of any political party will be a factor in any national election because religion, ethnicity and region are still very vital and commanding elements of Nigerian politics.

What it also means is that the APC
has to work very hard to reach out of its core Muslim base and bring in the North Central, South East and South-South, which are the core Christian zones of Nigeria. The North Central is just about evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. The South East and South-South are about 95 per cent populated by Christians and non-Muslims.

Given the situation the group finds itself, if it fields a Muslim presidential candidate in 2015 (which appears very likely) religion will become a campaign factor against them. They will be running against a ruling party (PDP) which has no regional or religious deficiency problem because the party is evenly spread all over the country with every group comfortably accommodated.

To overcome these problems, apart from the need to embark on a fierce drive to accommodate predominantly Christian zones, the group must create a sound ideological document to persuade voters. Perhaps, that way it can make all the difference.

People often say it does not matter whether we have Muslim/Muslim ticket or Christian/Christian ticket. They also say it does not matter where the person comes from provided he or she is a competent and God-fearing leader.

Much as this is true, it is also important for a political party or government produced by it to be truly national and broad-based like the PDP.

A competent leader who is narrow-minded, like Buhari, will take most of the goodies of his regime to his region as he did during his reign as Head of State and Executive Chairman of the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF. He will not give others a sense of belonging. He will implement regional agenda and call it “national agenda” like Northern Muslims who ruled Nigeria did in the past.

If Lai Mohammed sees the obvious skewed distribution of the interim APC offices as “equal opportunities across the regions” it shows he believes that is what each of the regions deserves from their group. It is a pointer to things to come if the party comes to power.

APC is coming to war with PDP with too many internal weaknesses.

 

When Obama eventually comes here

By Ochereome Nnanna
I AM beginning to lose enthusiasm about seeing United States President, Barack Obama, in Nigerian on state visit.

The romance factor has all but worn off. If Obama comes tomorrow, he will still have a lot of people eager to watch him on television. After all, he is still Barack Obama, the first Black person to be elected to the highest political office in the world. Some people call him “our son” because he has African ancestry.

I am somewhat bored by the snobbish attitude that Obama and his officials have maintained towards Nigeria since he was first elected in 2008. This is totally at variance with the eagerness with which our own President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, welcomes every opportunity to visit the White House. Since he emerged as our president GEJ has been to the White House at least twice.

Obama has come to Africa on two occasions. The first was shortly after he was inaugurated in 2009. He was on his way to L’Aquila in Italy but stopped in Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana. It was on that occasion that he made his well-received call on African countries to emphasise more on strong institutions rather than strong men.

[caption id="attachment_401908" align="alignnone" width="412"] POWER: President Barack Obama of United States of America (right), Mr. Tony Elumelu (middle) and others discuss Africa's power sector transformation during a tour of the Ubungo Power Plant near Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, Monday.[/caption]

Later in August 2012, his Secretary of State, Mrs Hillary Clinton, on a 12-nation tour, stopped for four hours in Abuja. She met President Jonathan, had a brief town hall meeting and headed straight to the airport out of Nigeria.

On the recent occasion of President Obama’s three-nation tour, he chose Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa. Again, security fears were the official reasons adduced for his avoiding Nigeria.

Fine! Security challenge is a credible excuse. Since terrorists succeeded in bombing the Police headquarters, army cantonment and United Nations office complex, all in Abuja; and in 2012 forced the President to observe independence activities within the secured grounds of Aso Rock Villa, you cannot blame any foreign leader who feels unsure about coming here.

Come to think of it: If Obama eventually comes here, what do we expect of him? What did he take to the four African countries he visited? He went there to lecture them on democracy and good governance. In South Africa, he performed one of his pet activities of engaging the youth, inspiring them and psyching them up towards their future role as leaders.

There was not much in terms of fresh economic packages. Man shall not live by bread alone, it is true. But we in Africa still need a lot of bread. Nobody likes to listen to lectures on an empty, rumbling stomach. Obama’s predecessors, Bill Clinton and George HW Bush came here armed with bread in their right hand and a lecture script in their left. Clinton in August 2000 came here to announce the granting of duty-free access to US markets of certain classes of made-in-Africa goods. It was a package contained in the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act, AGOA.

And when Bush came in July 2003, he brought a situation report which confirmed that under the Republican government, economic ties with Africa had grown. Under this salutary situation, the push for democracy and human rights by the American government was easier to sell.

When President Obama eventually comes here, there are things I want from him. In addition to his usual motivational lecture, I want him to come here like the Canadians. Canadian businessmen and women have seen the unfolding new Nigeria, particularly on the economic front. The Chinese and Indians saw it long ago. We want Obama here with a horde of American businessmen/women and industrialists ready to invest in the power, infrastructure, agriculture and technology sectors.

We will also appreciate America’s continued interest in building our democracy. After all, we copied our presidential system from them. It will be nice to quickly get over the teething problems associated with this expensive system. We will also be delighted to see America helping us to overcome terrorism to enable Nigerians face with a united front the task of nation-building. We want to get into the second centenary of our existence with the old demons that shackled our people exorcised.

When Obama comes here, we will not want him to give us a lecture on human rights. That subject has been well provided for in our Constitution. All we need is to have leaders who are ready to defend the Constitution and implement its provisions on fundamental human rights. We do not want Obama to come here and campaign for the Western interpretation of human rights to us.

Our own human rights are pro- law-abiding citizens, not pro-criminals. Our laws recognise that a person, who willfully kills his fellow citizen, when convicted through to the Supreme Court, will pay with his life. In other words, we believe in the Death Penalty. The law must fight for victims of savage termination of life, even though our laws also permit for the prerogative of mercy when applicable.

Secondly, we in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, whether Christians, Muslims or traditionalists, consider homosexuality and bestiality as taboo. The West, on the other hand, has uprooted the Christian foundations of their societies and adopted atheistic definition of “freedom” or human rights. They have taken the definition beyond sane boundaries. This is why the US Supreme Court recently ruled that marriage is no longer defined as a union between a man and a woman. With this new definition, men can marry men, women can marry women. In fact, American soldiers are free to have sex with animals and, perhaps, marry them!

Count us out of that!

Without a spiritual base, the West is in steep decline, and they cannot take us with them. Nigeria and Africa are rising. We will take what we want from the West and drop the rest in the trash bin, just like the Asians have done.

So, when Obama comes here, let him draw the line.

 

Attention Ambassador Campbell: North is pampered, not alienated

By Ochereome Nnanna
I READ Martins Oloja’s front page story on The Guardian (Monday, June 24th, 2013) with interest and decided to put in a word. Oloja, the Editor of the newspaper, interviewed Ambassador John Campbell in Washington DC. Campbell was the chief envoy of the United States of America in Nigeria. When he was through with serving his country, he wrote a controversial book: Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink.

Campbell describes himself as “a friend of Nigeria”, who is so concerned for the unity of the country that he opted to speak “the truth” about the situation in a country bedevilled by instability and threatened with an uncertain future. The aspect of the diplomat’s assertions that tickles my interest is his contention that the “core North” (Arewa, or the Muslim North) is “alienated”.

He is concerned that Nigeria’s leaders are not doing enough to address the “discrepancies in the social statistics” that portray “alienation” of the region. These, he insinuates, manifest in violence, terrorism, mind-boggling poverty and high level illiteracy. He is of the view that “most of the elements in the North do not participate in the modern economy”. The general impression he creates is that the nation has not done enough to carry the North along in its modestly improving circumstances.

I beg to vehemently disagree: I agree with Campbell that the North, particularly the “Core North”, has been manifesting attributes of an alienated entity. Social scientists will tell you that prolonged relative deprivation creates frustration, which in turn causes alienation that often results in violence.

The case of core northern Nigeria is more complex than meets the ordinary eye. It is easy for a foreign envoy to miss the peculiar causative factors troubling the North (and hence Nigeria) and instead focus on the effects.

I am strongly of the view that the North is not a deprived entity. The poverty, illiteracy, destitution and unending chains of religion-driven social conflicts have nothing to do with the marginalisation of the North by the Nigerian nation. If anything at all, overwhelming historical tons of evidence portray the North as the most favoured; in fact, pampered section of this country from the colonial days till tomorrow.

Let us run a brief checklist: The British colonialists gerrymandered the political constituencies and made sure that the Northern Region would be dominant in terms of land mass and real or imagined population; enough to be able to seize control of political power at independence.

The colonialists also created the military institution making sure that North would control military power. Any surprise that after independence, the North went on to dominate the political landscape for a total of thirty nine out of fifty three years.

They ran the country in a manner suggesting they merely replaced the foreign colonialists because emphasis was placed on economic and political exploitation of the South.

[caption id="attachment_399374" align="alignnone" width="412"] 2012 Bauchi State flood victims waiting at bank in Bauchi for money on Tuesday[/caption]

They arbitrarily created states, local governments, senatorial and federal constituencies, as well as electoral divisions giving the lion’s share of political power to the North.

They also centralised the economic resources of the country, ensuring that proceeds from the oil and other resources of the Niger Delta and Southern Nigeria are brought into the federation account and shared in a manner whereby the North always carts home by far the largest chunk. Let us take a sampler.

The May 2013 sharing of the federal allocation indicated that non-oil producing Arewa zones (North West: seven states, N157b and North East: six states, N109b) got a combined share of N266 billion. South East with five states, two of which are oil-producing, got a mere N85b.

Others were – South West: six states, N127b; North Central, six states, N105b, and South-South: six states, N285b (because of the derivation principle).

Ironically, within the same period, the National Examination Council (NECO) issued the cut-off points for admission of students into Federal Government (Unity) Colleges. Four states of the South East were given the highest points to attain: Anambra: 139; Enugu: 136; Imo: 135; and Abia: 128 on the one hand. On the other, northern states got as follows: Kebbi: 35; Jigawa: 33; Sokoto: 27 and Yobe: zero! If you are a male from Yobe State seeking admission into a federal college and you score zero in all your papers you will be admitted while an Anambra chap who garners 134 points, which is well above the cut-off allocated South West states, will be denied admission!

By the time you gather all the statistics, the “discrepancies” will startle you. The reality is that Nigeria gives the North everything on a golden platter, while the Igbo people are given the scraps. They are marginalised and oppressed in every conceivable sector while the North is treated like royalty. But despite this, the Igbo people and the South as a whole maintain the lead in vital social indicators of human development. Those who are alienated come out like the privileged, while pampered exhibit attributes of alienated people. It is an irony of Nigeria!

Full scalemodernism

The root cause is easy to locate. While the South has embraced full-scale modernism with social equity ethos, the North is bogged down by an archaic oligarchy that caters to the sweet-tooth comforts of the aristocracy. All the money, all the power that the North takes from Nigeria are used to feather the nests of the upper classes; the traditional, political and bourgeois gentry. The Northern oligarchy tramples upon the masses of the poor (Talakawa), chaining them with the thrall of religion and using them as cannon fodder in political contests. The terrorism in the North East is seen as a sample of such political machination after the North failed to regain power following the death of President Umaru Yar’ Adua.

Ambassador Campbell must take note that the leaders of the “core North” are chiefly responsible for the illiteracy, poverty and violence in the North. Nigeria has given the North more than it deserves. If these resources had been responsibly invested, the North would be light years ahead of the rest of the country.

If Campbell is a genuine “friend of Nigeria” he should campaign for equity and fairness for all Nigerians rather than carrying coal to Newcastle.