Miscallaneous Updates

In the last month, your column has been engaged in historical excursions-Abacha, MKO Abiola, June 12 etc. That may have meant ignoring contemporary matters, some of which are important. We will attempt to bring ourselves up to date.

The Spanish Season

It’s a good time to be Spanish, isn’t it? Euro 2008 jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria has come and gone. I doubt that any previous European national teams contest has enjoyed a similar following. I was backing Netherlands, Portugal and Spain-in that order-all of them (particularly Netherlands (Holland) and Spain) with well-deserved reputations as chronic under-achievers. It was good however that Spain has proved the cynics wrong and won a fantastic victory this time around. Less than two weeks after the famous Spanish football triumph, Spanish good fortune moved into tennis. Rafael Nadal won a scintillating victory at Wimbledon against the favourite-Roger Federer. I heard one report which quoted one of the tennis greats, John McEnroe declare it was the best game of tennis he had ever seen, and he should know. How long will the Spanish season last?

The Gambari Affair

It is not a good time to be a mediator! The president has even before his election declared his intention to convene a Niger-Delta Summit to discuss the problems in the troubled region. The government has reportedly been preparing the spade work for the conference since it came into office in May last year. As it began to look as if the summit was ready to get off the ground, the government named Professor Ibrahim Gambari as the summit Chair. Well the summit planning apparently did not include considerations of the reactions in the region to the distinguished academic and diplomat’s anticipated role, and no one either remembered or imagined that the regional stakeholders would remember offensive comments he made in the wake of the Ken Saro Wiwa affair. Now it appears all stakeholders in the region appear to have agreed that Gambari is unacceptable as in effect Chief Mediator in the Niger-Delta consultations. Now the esteemed professor is left insisting, “I must be the peacemaker!”

Daniel in the Legislators’ Den?

What is really going on in Ogun State? When the legislators out of the blues removed the erstwhile speaker, Mrs Titi Oseni, various interpretations were possible. Had the governor lost confidence in her and sanctioned her removal? At first, given the assumptions about what seemed like Governor Gbenga Daniel’s absolute control of Ogun State politics (or at least the PDP version of it), any other explanation was inconceivable. Then it began to emerge that the governor was as ignorant about the speaker’s removal as the rest of us. Then an attempted mediation by former President Ibrahim Babangida which may have complicated matters and further incensed some of the governor’s hidden opponents. Then rumours of assassination attempts and impeachment plots. It now appears clear that relations between the Governor and the House is breaking down irretrievably and Ogun State politics is entering a dangerous and unpredictable phase. May be we should pray.
No Surprises about Power

The Rilwanu Lukman Committee set up to recommend a policy framework for the power sector turned in its report weeks back. As has become predictable to close watchers, the committee is reported to have recommended suspension of further privatisation of the earlier unbundled PHCN companies. It also supported the putting in place of a “coordinating mechanism” for those entities. The committee advocated huge government spending on power obviously leading from its lack of faith in a private sector power development model. The recommendations learnt nothing from our economic experience-the rapid transformation of our aviation, telecommunications, broadcasting, pension and banking sectors amongst others without government investment; the scandals of the power sector probe which should have confirmed to any one that putting money alone into the sector without a proper industry model anchored on private sector funding and management will lead no where; and ignored the existence of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 which prescribed a road map for development of the power sector. I am convinced the recommendations will not work, but that will be after a lot more money has gone down the drain, and the power situation has worsened further.

Will Obama be the first African-American President?

Barack Obama completed to all intents and purposes the feat of being the first African-American to be nominated by a major US political party as its presidential candidate. The next step is then for him to actually win the November elections and be sworn in as US president in January 2009. If that does happen, it will be a truly significant epoch in the journey of the African-Americans and indeed all minorities in the US. It will also be a powerful signal to the rest of the world about racial and ethnic integration and the futility of racial, ethnic and other stereotypes and prejudices. I pray Obama wins. Followers of the column will of course recall that I supported Hillary Clinton, but hoped that she and Obama could hold a joint ticket. I still believe the democrats have chosen a riskier strategy, but then nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Mugabe for Ever!

Robert Mugabe “won” another term as Zimbabwean President last week after intimidating and brutalising his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai out of the re-run elections and then prevailing in uncontested repeat elections. I used to sympathise with Mugabe at least in so far as British opposition to him was tied up with the former colonial power’s unwillingness to address the land issue. I still support the basic principle of land re-distribution, but then every leader has a responsibility to make life more abundant for their citizens and not worse, and certainly Mugabe has made life hellish, brutish and unpleasant for all Zimbabweans. He now has a duty to design an exit plan from office and allow a younger and hopefully more competent successor to resolve the problems of that nation. Unfortunately as Mugabe himself pointed out not many of his African Union colleagues are in a position to prevail on him so to do.