"Before It Is Too Late"

The above title is borrowed from the famous letter written by ex-President Obasanjo to President Jonathan, which forms the subject of this article. On the substance of the issues raised by Obasanjo, I make the following preliminary points-Jonathan needs to do more to convince Nigerians and the international community that his government is not tolerant or even facilitative of corruption. The Alamieyesegha pardon and the determination to retain Stella Oduah in the face of damning allegations of fraud and criminal abuse of office are particularly odious examples of the regime’s reputation in this regard! Secondly the government needs a broader governing coalition to sustain national peace and stability. Anyone suggesting to the president that he can dispense with other ethnic groups and geo-political zones and govern and win re-election with support mainly from two out of six geo-political zones is deceiving him. Thirdly I strongly support the regime’s planned national conference and I urge Jonathan not to be distracted from the task of convening it. There are two classes of Nigerians-those who like Nigeria the way it is and think once they replace Jonathan, all is fine; and those who recognize that Nigeria as it currently operates is not sustainable and needs fundamental restructuring. We know what side Obasanjo, Babangida and other oligarchs belong to! It is not a credit to Obasanjo that he occupied the presidency for eight years and left Nigeria structurally unchanged, with the consequences we see today! Finally it is true that there is an African window of opportunity which Nigeria should seize and I note that some factors militating against that are created by Jonathan’s opponents (Boko Haram, post-2011 electoral violence, Fulani herdsmen in central Nigeria, social conditions in Northern Nigeria, non-passage of PIB etc) while Jonathan bears responsibility for others (oil sector mismanagement and corruption). Beyond these comments, I do not concede to Obasanjo the moral credibility to make most, if not all of the “allegations” he has presented against Jonathan! One I do not think Obasanjo’s interest contrary to his posturing is the national interest. My careful reading tells me this is in reality intra-elite power struggles in which disgruntled members of a clique who have arrogated to themselves control over Nigeria, finding themselves marginalized seek to reclaim their power and privileges. I am not impressed that Obasanjo apparently feels that Babangida, Abdulsalam and himself have sufficient moral authority with the Nigerian people to manipulate us in whatever direction they seek. Secondly, considering the specific offences Obasanjo alleges Jonathan has committed, it is difficult to find even one which Obasanjo himself was not guilty of, in a more grievous manner while in office! When Obasanjo sees a semblance between Jonathan and Abacha, he exaggerates-the emerging similarity may actually be Jonathan and Obasanjo! Obasanjo arranged with opposition senators to defeat his party’s choice for senate presidency, Chuba Okadigbo and Evan Enwerem was elected based on AD/APP votes. That process I am very reliably informed also involved a few “Ghana-must-go” bags! PDP members in Borno State complained persistently that Obasanjo had a secret understanding with Senator Ali Modu Sherrif which led to him undermining PDP in that state. Of course we all know the fate of Senator Ifeanyi Araurume, PDP’s candidate in Imo State who was dis-owned based on orders from Obasanjo’s presidency in favour of Ikedi Ohakim of PPA. With respect to Buruji Kashamu, it suffices to ask what the difference is between him and Chris Uba who became a member of PDP Board of Trustees in Obasanjo’s time and who notoriously executed a siege on the government of Anambra State without any consequences. When Obasanjo talks about dividing the country along North-South or Muslim-Christian lines, the principal culprits are his allies who made provocative statements about making Nigeria “ungovernable” and who have already threatened bloodshed were Jonathan to contest in 2015. Yes Asari Dokubo and Edwin Clark make unhelpful statements, but so do Junaid Muhammed, Lawal Kaita, Muhammadu Buhari, Yahaya Kwande, Nasir El-Rufai and others. We may also note that the families of Bola Ige, Harry Marshall and A.K Dikibo may wonder whether Obasanjo has moral standing to complain about killings which he fears may happen when those that actually happened under his watch remain unresolved. Even concerning security, Boko Haram and Niger-Delta militancy were both created during Obasanjo’s regime with two governors close to him (Odili and Modu Sherrif) implicated in their origins! Regarding corruption, Obasanjo cannot cast the first stone either. And it is somewhat of a shock to me that Obasanjo who got a second term, in spite of a similar alleged agreement to the contrary, and then sought an unconstitutional third term, can consider himself entitled to ask Jonathan to take “a more credible and more honourable path”. Having dispensed with Obasanjo’s sanctimonious hypocrisy, it remains for all Nigerians to ask President Jonathan for a full, detailed and comprehensive response to the allegations and particularly the following-is it true that his government has 1,000 people on “political watch list”? Is his government surreptitiously training snipers and armed personnel? What are the facts regarding the allegation of missing $7billion from NNPC by CBN? Has Jonathan offered “assistance” for any murderer generally or Major Hamza El-Mustapha in particular to evade justice? If so, why? Why are the Olokola and Brass LNG projects stalled? Is Jonathan frustrating the Port Harcourt water project funding by the ADB? What is Jonathan’s relationship with Buruji Kashamu? While we await Jonathan’s response, it remains to warn Nigerians not to allow any oligarchic clique to steal our democracy. Similar statements by Obasanjo in the past had terminal implications for former regimes, including the 1979-1983 second republic and Obasanjo in this statement explicitly threatens “Egypt must teach some lesson”. But Nigerians are rational and in spite of our pains, we know that Nigeria’s current troubles are largely the legacy of past misrule!!! Our democracy is far from perfect, but we should NOT go back to Egypt!

Nelson Mandela: 1918-2013

I can’t recall when I first heard the name “Mandela”. My parents were both teachers whose specialization was English Language and Literature. There were always books and newspapers around and I read all I laid my hands on. My earliest specific recollections of reading newspapers were around 1970 and some names stuck from those editions of Daily Times, Spear, Drum and Nigerian Tribune-Golda Meir; Yasser Arafat; Yakubu Gowon; Benjamin Adekunle; Richard Nixon; Julius Nyerere; Kenneth Kaunda etc, and at some point, Nelson Mandela. I must have been at Igbobi College in the mid-1970s however before I began to fully grasp the scale of the atrocity going on in Southern Africa and I soon realized that political freedom and equality was not a universal condition. Yes I had read about African countries securing independence from British and French colonialism, but awareness of the evil concept of apartheid was initially beyond comprehension of my young mind. First I got hints from literature books particularly Alan Paton’s “Cry the Beloved Country”, but it was the foreign policy dynamism of the regime of Generals Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo especially in relation to the independence of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the end of apartheid in South Africa that raised my consciousness about how wrong and abominable what was going on was. And then we learnt about massacres in Soweto (the Sharpeville Massacre in particular), about the death of Steve Biko; the extent of the segregationist policies of the Afrikaner regime in South Africa; the matchbox houses; the jailing of Nelson Mandela; and the persecution of his wife Winnie Mandela and I must say that for a while, the political representation of evil, wickedness and the devil in my growing spirit were the South African white apartheid regime, their National Party and its then leader, P. W Botha. The music and performances of Miriam Makeba and “Ipi Tombi” also helped communicate the conditions under which blacks lived under apartheid. I began to wonder at a point whether white people (not just those in South Africa) had a conscience, especially as important US and UK leaders-Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in particular, protected and condoned the evil system and against the background of slavery and colonialism. The sheer affront and wickedness of coming into another man’s land, taking over his land and wealth and then banishing him to the arid parts of the land while treating him as sub-human fundamentally questioned my faith in white civilization and humanity. In the event, the racist regime chose to redeem itself and with the help, encouragement and coaxing of Nelson Mandela, and after decades of incredible black suffering, pain and blood, Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, the ANC unbanned, and majority rule was achieved in South Africa in 1994. It remains to be seen whether the White South African change of heart was the result of genuine repentance or merely a strategic change as the unsustainability of minority rule became glaring and the global political environment became unconducive to apartheid. Whatever the motives of the Afrikaner regime, Mandela came out of prison without anger or bitterness; preaching love, forgiveness and reconciliation; showing incredible generosity of spirit, graciousness and optimism about humanity; and working across racial barriers to build a rainbow nation of multiple races. A grateful world, shocked at his nobility of character and goodness of heart submitted to his moral leadership and his example. When after a single term in office in 1999, Mandela chose to step down (disdaining the African stereotype of nationalist leaders who having secured political freedom for their nations, concluded that occupying its presidency for life was the least of their just rewards), his reputation as a “saint” and exceptional, transformational, once-in-an-era leader was cemented. When I saw the breaking news on CNN of Mandela’s death on Thursday December 5, 2013, I knew that without doubt, the greatest African and most influential black person that ever lived had just departed. There will be two challenges to Mandela’s legacy however-continuing black poverty and deprivation and widening inequality will lead some to wonder whether apartheid simply shed the liability of political control, while strengthening economic domination; and many blacks will wonder whether his successors in the ANC have lived up to his standards and vision. Mandela recognized that true transformational leadership did not consist of the privileges of power and wealth it could secure, or the sanctions and force it could exercise, but the influence it wielded and example it offered. Mandela’s life is evidence to me, that when we seek a higher quality of leadership in Nigeria, we are neither naïve nor academic. Several years ago, I wondered in a conversation with a professor of ethics, why every Nigerian politician touts the names of the likes of Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jnr and Chief Obafemi Awolowo when they make absolutely no effort to emulate these great people? Don’t they say imitation is the best form of flattery? If you truly admire these people, why don’t you make some effort, even a little, to be like them? Mandela’s names defined his life-born “Rolihlahla” (literal “pulling the branch of a tree” but colloquially meaning “troublemaker”), he was also “Khulu” (great, grand, paramount), “Madiba” (his Xhosa clan chieftaincy name), and “Tata” (father). He was born on July 18, 1918 into a Thembu royal family in Mzevo, near Qunu in the hinterlands of Umtata, capital city of Transkei in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943. He formed the ANC Youth League along with Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu in 1944 and its military wing “Umkhonto we Sizwe” (Spear of the Nation) in December 16, 1961. Mandela also made his mark in the law profession, founding South Africa’s first black law practice, “Mandela and Thambo” in 1952. He married Nomzano Zaniewe Winifred “Winnie” Mandela in 1958 having divorced his first wife, Evelyn a few years earlier. He was to later marry Graca Machel, widow of Mozambique’s Samora Machel after his divorce from Winnie. When he was jailed in the notorious Rivonia Trial in 1964 ushering in his 27 years in Robben Island and other locations as prisoner 466/64, Mandela uttered the now immortal words, “During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Frederick W De Klerk. Mandela’s life confirms to us that living for principles and the common good is neither foolish nor futile. On the contrary, that is the only legacy that endures. Opportunistic, self-serving and tactical politics can bring much temporary advantage, but it is only sacrificial, principle-centred leadership that transforms society and edifies people.

Security and Federalism

I was at the 7th Town Hall Meeting of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) last Thursday November 28, 2013 at the Civic Centre, Victoria-Island in Lagos. For those who may not know, LSSTF was created by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) through a Law passed by the State Assembly, in 2007 when he was first elected. Indeed it was the first law passed under the Fashola Administration. It was envisaged as a public-private partnership arrangement to intervene in the chronic funding gap for the police and other security agencies in the state. As I have heard Fashola say on several occasions (and as those of us who live in Lagos can easily corroborate!), when he came into office in May 2007, Lagos was besieged by armed robbers and other sundry criminals. Bank robberies, home invasions and traffic attacks were a regular daily occurrence and near anarchy was virtually loosed upon the land. I can testify to all these from personal experience! In August 2007, five or more armed robbers broke into my home on the island in the dead of night and carted away laptops, projectors, phones, jewellery, cash and any portable stuff they could lay their hands on. It was, I believe, only the restraining hand of the Almighty that ensured no one came to any harm, and nothing of subsisting value was lost. Some years earlier, I had gone to visit a junior bank colleague who had just had a child in the Ikeja area, along with my wife, and armed men broke into the flat while we were there! This was around 8.00pm on a Sunday evening!!! In 2000, armed robbers blocked me down Opebi Road, Ikeja around 9.30pm, drove me (with a gun to my head all through) to Ijoko Road, Otta, before dropping me off in the middle of nowhere around 11.30pm. Of course they went off with the brand new Honda Accord I was driving as well as most of my personal belongings!!! Fashola notes that he spent his first weeks in office visiting hospitals, mortuaries and homes of residents to console victims of the then rampant robberies in the state and quickly decided the deteriorating security situation required an emergency response. LSSTF was the outcome of the work of a committee headed by former Inspector-General of Police, Musiliu Smith, which recommended the state find a means of redressing the almost criminal neglect of police funding by the federal government. At the Town Hall Meeting, one of the mechanisms institutionalized by LSSTF to ensure transparency and accountability (others include publication of an annual report; auditing of its accounts by global accounting firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers; an independent board, comprised of a majority of private sector representatives; non-receipt of any direct appropriation or subvention from the state government; etc), Fashola and the Fund’s Executive Secretary, Fola Arthur-Worrey illustrated the shocking scale of police funding deficit-in 2013, Abuja provided only 3 vehicles to the Lagos State Police Command, which includes command headquarters, OPS Attack, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Special Investigation Board (SIB), State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), 106 police divisions with Divisional Police Officers (DPOs), and numerous police stations and posts, as well as Marine Police, 5 Mobile Police Divisions and a Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU). All these exclude the “federal” commands based in Lagos-Airport, Ports, and Railway Commands, Federal SARS and FCID! The FGN reportedly budgeted N475million for vehicles for the entire Nigeria Police Force!!! The total police budget for the whole country was N311billion of which N293billion was for personnel costs, leaving only N8billion for overheads and N10billion for capital expenditure! Yet this same Federal Government, which abandons the police, other security agencies and many other federal agencies in the states resolutely opposes state police and devolution of power! It is very much like an irresponsible husband and father, who lavishes his money on a wasteful lifestyle while refusing to provide for his wives and children, and yet insists the wives must not work!!! It is absurdities and dysfunctions such as this that convince me of the necessity, indeed the imperative of a national conference to discuss such and similar fundamental issues! In the face of this gross federal neglect, Lagos State Government, its Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas, and citizens and organisations have through the LSSTF provided in excess of N12billion in resources and provided the police and other security agencies in the state more than 800 vehicles since 2007. LSSTF has also become a mechanism to ensure recurrent costs such as fuelling, servicing and maintenance of vehicles, equipment and other operational resources are provided in an accountable and verifiable manner. The relative peace and security which Lagos State enjoys is thus not a co-incidence, but the result of the vision of Fashola in setting up LSSTF and it illustrates the effectiveness of “local responses to rising national security challenges” (the theme of this year’s town hall meeting) and the value of federalism in a society with diverse peoples and challenges. Federalism we must re-state is the system best-suited to nations with multi-ethnic, multi-religious and other multi-component diversities allowing sub-national entities respond to differing challenges in manners best calibrated to their local conditions. It is this effectiveness of local strategies and responses that Nigeria denies itself through its current pseudo-federal or defacto unitary constitution. The virtual breakdown of law and order across Nigeria is just one additional symptom of the failure of the current approach!