Homosexual desire

Homosexual desire

Posted by: Femi Macaulay

 

Let me begin by recounting a near-homosexual experience I had in the 1970s. I was in my early teens and a student at the Methodist Boys’ High School in Broad Street, Lagos. Opposite the school was the First Baptist Church, where I was member of the choir; and Sheila Cinema, where I sneakily saw Chinese films, which were popular at the time. Somehow, I became friends with a bouncer at the film house, a muscular man who was far older and who I regarded as an elder brother in a cultural sense. He seemed to like me, and would occasionally demonstrate generosity towards me.
Then, one day, he asked me to come around on a Saturday morning. When I got to the cinema, he took me to an inner room and appeared to be tense. He was incoherent, and I couldn’t really make out why he wanted to see me. While I was still trying to understand his puzzling behaviour, I noticed he had a big bulge in the crotch. He was clearly in a state of sexual arousal. Instinctively, I sensed what he was up to and felt a deep awkwardness. He offered money, which I refused, saying that I would come back later as I was being expected at home. I was a bit fearful, but he didn’t try to force me, perhaps conscious of the fact that such a move could result in a loud resistance, which would attract the attention of the people around.
He let me go, and that was how I escaped being sexually abused by a male. Of course, I consequently broke my connection with him. I couldn’t fathom why he found me sexually attractive, despite the fact that I was the same sex as him. What if he had forced me into the act? Whatever he desired, would it have involved penetration, or invasion, of my anal orifice? Would I have been physically hurt? Or psychologically tortured? Would I have been consequentially converted to homosexuality? How would such an experience have influenced my sexuality, which was decidedly heterosexual?
This background is significant in the context of my reflections on the current emotionally charged gay debate, particularly hostile Western reaction to the country’s anti-gay law and the local defenders of the legislation. The country’s criminalisation of homosexuality, which means that anyone in a same-sex marriage or union would face up to 14 years in prison, also makes it illegal for anyone to operate or participate in gay clubs, societies and organisations, or to officiate, witness, abet or aid the solemnisation of same-sex marriage, which attract a 10-year jail term. In addition, such partnerships concretised overseas are considered void in Nigeria. Fundamentally, the law states that “Only a marriage contract between a man and a woman shall be recognised in Nigeria.”
I wonder whether there are aspects of the new law that cover happenings such as my encounter with the bouncer. In that particular instance, a scheming adult attempted to take advantage of a vulnerable minor, which was definitely reprehensible. However, supposing the situation involves two consenting male adults fully conscious of the import of their relationship? Should such a couple be blocked?
Interestingly, mirroring the storm is the fact that notable Western nations, the United States of America (USA) and Canada, as well as the European Union (EU), have separately criticised the new law, with a common thread alleging a violation of “fundamental human rights.” It was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay who wrapped up the opposition, saying that rarely has there been legislation “that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, universal human rights.”
The government’s defence, which forms the kernel of local protest against perceived meddlesomeness of the foreign voices, was supplied by presidential spokesman Reuben Abati who said, “We have received enquiries from some foreign embassies on why the bill was signed into law and told them our cultural values do not tolerate same-sex marriage.” He added: “More than 90 per cent of Nigerians are opposed to same-sex marriage. So the law is in line with our culture and religious beliefs as a people. And I think that this law is made for a people and what the government has done is consistent with the preference of its environment.”
Actually, this appeal to religion and culture is not as conclusive as it is perhaps intended to be. For instance, Pope Francis, head of the world’s largest Christian church with an estimated 1.2 billion Catholics, at least 19 million of them Nigerians, reportedly said that he couldn’t “judge” homosexuals. More specifically, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, representing the Church of England, in a joint letter addressed to Jonathan, made it clear that “The victimisation or diminishment of human beings, whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex, is anathema to us.” They emphasised that homosexual people “are children of God, loved and valued by Him and deserving the best we can give – pastoral care and friendship.”
Ironically, in a striking demonstration of reverse evangelism, the West is now on the receiving end as beneficiaries of its proselytism seek to re-educate it. Are Nigerians, therefore, better Christians than those who introduced the faith to them? Defenders of the anti-gay law have also projected an Islamic point of view, which they insist is intolerant of homosexuality. Intriguingly, however, devotees of indigenous religions have not been as expressive of distaste for same-sex relationships. It is noteworthy that local stories abound of people who allegedly indulge in sodomy, particularly for occult purposes, including acquisition of supernatural power and riches.
From the cultural perspective, it would appear that the official view of culture is rather inelastic. There is no doubt that human culture is always work in progress; it is even more so given the reality of increasing globalisation, which is not to endorse domineering moves by the West. When all is said and done, the world is far from an agreement on homosexuality, and no one should assume the authority of forcing it down the throats of people who have different values.
Be that as it may, central to the controversy is the nature of homosexual desire in human beings. Is it biologically driven or socially acquired? Fascinatingly, there is evidence of homosexual behaviour in certain animals, including mammals, birds and fish. Is its condemnation a question of human morality, then? According to modern research, homosexuality relates to all sexual behaviour between animals of the same sex, that is to say, “copulation, genital stimulation, mating games and sexual display behaviour.” It is curious that more attention is apparently being given to males than females in this matter, for lesbians have relationships too.
It is apt to ask: Can the anti-gay law succeed in preventing people of homosexual orientation from expressing their sexuality, if they cannot behave otherwise? Welcome to the world of closet gays! The difficulty of the heterosexual imagination is that it cannot accommodate other possibilities of sexual manifestation, which itself is cause for wonder.

Foreign neighbors and Boko Haram

Posted by: Emeka OMEIHE

There appears to be a renewed focus on the role of neighboring African countries in the festering Boko Haram insurgency that has kept this nation on its knees for some years now. It is not that the foreign dimension to terrorism is new. It is not. The experience of countries grappling with it has always shown the cross boarder angle to the debilitating scourge.
It has not been different in the Nigerian situation despite attempts by some apologists to play down this angle to the festering problem. The military had always drawn attention to the difficulty in taming the menace because of the relative ease with which suspects flee to neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Because of the affinity in culture, language and ethnicity between these countries and zone that hosts the insurgents it has been pretty difficult to differentiate between Nigerian members of the insurgent group and foreign mercenaries.
The government has also been hesitant to accuse the leadership of some of these countries of complicity in this guerrilla warfare. But increasingly, it is dawning on us all that unless we get a good handle to this dimension of Boko Haram insurgency, the battle to stamp it out of our shores may turn out an exercise in wishful thinking.
Already, there have been attempts to chide the military for lacking the sophisticated hardware and capacity to successfully conclude the battle and save the lives of innocent citizens that are regularly slaughtered in these senseless onslaughts.
It was apparently on account of such frustrations that the Borno state governor Kashim Shettima recently took swipes on the military. His grouse borders on the relative ease with which the sect has been operating and killing innocent people in his state in the last few days. And the renewed killings have been very frequent and deadly.
But even as the debate on the capacity of the military to rise to the challenge is yet to abate, reports of the seeming complicity of Cameroon has featured very prominently. In the last couple of weeks, the media have been awash with reports linking that country either directly or indirectly with complicity in the Boko Haram debacle. In the face of this, the Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, David Paradang came up with the shocking story that our borders are perpetually open and lack effective control.
The first report had it that a leader of the sect Ibn Mohammed Abubakar wrote to President Paul Biya of Cameroon complaining against incessant attacks on its members by their forces. He was further said to have threatened to levy war on that country if its forces continue to lend support to the federal government’s military campaign. The sect leader according to a Cameroonian daily was piqued by a joint operation which the Nigerian troops and those from Cameroon conducted in a boarder town of Limani.
A few days later, there was another report that the same country was not cooperating with Nigerian troops in this battle and that has made it difficult for our troops to pursue fleeing insurgents into Cameroonian villages.
What is certain from these reports is the fact that our neighboring African countries have a key role to play if we must win this war. This fact is not in doubt. From accounts of most of the attacks that have been recorded, these onslaughts are planned and executed from outside the shores of this country.
We hear of their sophistication in weaponry. We hear of insurgents armed with such deadly weapons as armored personnel carriers, anti aircraft batteries and rocket propelled grenades. There is also the surprise dimension and the quick disappearance into the thin air immediately after these attacks. Even with the aid of fighter jets, it is still very difficult to trace the sources of these attacks.
But very regularly, the military speak of their escapades and constraints while pursuing insurgents into neighboring countries. Even as it has become obvious that our foreign neighbors provide safe heavens to these terrorists, not much has been heard from the government on efforts to partner with them to stamp out this senseless war.
The impression fast gaining ground is that the federal government is tepid in its handling of this dimension to the Boko Haram menace. This impression must not be allowed to take root. It is also very instructive that of the north-eastern states entangled in these attacks and killings, all share boarders with these African countries. Does this not instruct that concrete steps must be taken to engage them on ways out of the debacle? Is the relative ease with which insurgents attack and flee without being caught not sufficient signal that this battle cannot be won without the cooperation of Chad, Niger and Cameroon? And if we cannot secure the confidence of these countries, is it not high time we secured our boarders firmly such that cannot permit of the kind of cross boarder movements that have aided and abetted this crisis?
These are some of the issues that have been brought to the fore by the conflicting reports on the roles of these countries in the nation’s fight against terrorism.
Take the case of Cameroon which the sect purportedly threatened to levy war against if it obstructs it or cooperates with the Nigerian troops in fighting it. If this report is true, one or two inferences can be made. It is either that government had all this while shut its eyes to the atrocities of the sect for some inexplicable reasons or it had no information on their activities. It could also be a subterfuge for Cameroon to refuse doing the needful in ensuring that its grounds are not used to carry out attacks in this country. They may have even simulated that report to give the false impression that the threat has imposed restrictions on the kind of support that country could give the Nigeria government. This is more so with the current focus on the role of neighboring countries in sustaining the scourge of terrorism.
Whatever it is, the crucial role which Cameroon and other neighbors can play to decisively tame this monster is no longer in doubt. It is now certain that we must get a clear handle to this dimension for these senseless killings to be contained. That is the real issue now.
These countries cannot possibly feign ignorance of the movement and storage of the sophisticated military hardware at the disposal of the insurgents. It is also instructive from all these that the terror group means business and is very well funded. This contrasts sharply with some of the patronizing perspectives usually adduced on these shores on the root cause of the Bobo Haram insurgency.
The poor cannot afford the sophistication in armament and training which the sect has been ascribed. The poor cannot afford armored personnel carriers and the enormous logistic support that have been put into this useless battle. So Boko Haram has very strong backing both within our shores and outside of it. Those from within can be handled but not the ones outside our shores without parternering with the host countries. That is the direction to go if we must win the war against terrorism.
But our boarders must be highly secured such that it will be easy to differentiate between citizens of those counties and Nigerians in those areas. At the moment, such a difference does not exist.

Jonathan’s innocence

If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority – Barbara Jordan.

President Goodluck Jonathan has always been a façade, and he basks in it. That façade is innocence. In his gait and simper, he affects the persona of childhood, and whenever he wants Nigerians to perceive him, he wants us to think of him first as an innocent. A man, in his grey years of the fifties, in his full Niger Delta outfit complete with the hat, still conveys the diaper sentiment.
It is not for nothing that his only memorable quote is that he grew up without shoes. Or, to others, that he does not want to be called a pharaoh, etc, which also conveys the personality of the dove.
A few days ago, he failed in trying to do that, although he tried. He asked Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and vicar of our financial soul, to proceed on suspension. This followed an earlier conversation with Sanusi in which he asked the imperious heir to the Kano throne to resign. The man said he would not and the President needed the Senate to effect his designs.
The President bided his time, consulted his lawyers, and they told him he could suspend him. Since he had a few months left in the saddle, Sanusi could not return before June when his term expired. Practically, the suspension was a sack.
That would be sack through the back door, a serpentine ambush. That is innocence, Jonathan style. “All things truly wicked start from innocence,” crooned American novelist of precision, Ernest Hemmingway.
How to effect this? He would organise an investigation that neither the National Assembly nor the Nigerian public would be aware of. The result would be quickly documented, and the charges would become indictment. So they charged him with financial recklessness and misconduct. They said he was reckless for contributing hefty money to education, as if it was not part of the corporate responsibility to the society for a CBN that made an income of about N600 billion for the Federation Account under him. The CBN endowed chairs and contributed to some universities. The innocent man did not like that even though in his full term as president, no one university has advanced in any area and he has no significant track record. Yet, Sanusi erred for continuing a tradition that even his predecessor Charles Soludo participated in.
They charged him with spending more money, about N38 billion on Nigerian mint, than the budget for Nigerian mint company. They did not look at the figures well because it is not Nigerian Mint Company alone that prints our money but other countries around the world also do it for us. They forget that the man cut down the cost of printing in his tenure from close to N50 billion for the same purpose. They accuse him of spending money on Boko Haram victims, as though to indict him for spending institutional money on his kinsmen in the North. But check the record. Most of the beneficiaries were Christians from the South. The CBN contributed about half a billion to flood victims and he helped mobilise banks to give one billion for that purpose.
They said he spent money on Emirates Airlines to ship money within the country, and Emirates is an international company. But they were a little too excited or else they should have distinguished between Emirates Airlines and Emirate Touch, a local concern.
For a president who delights in making pilgrimages from church to church and attracting the image of a lamb to himself, he should have done a little homework, or asked his men to be a little thorough with his work.
He carried the game against Sanusi to a serpentine venom. It is in his style to act as though he did not act. He was only responding to the charges and so he sent the man on suspension, so the matter could be investigated.
Really? The former aviation minister’s case was being investigated while she clucked in office. She even travelled with him on a Christian pilgrimage to the land of our Lord. No one pressured him to rid the CBN of Sanusi, but he let him go. Pressures mounted relentlessly over Oduah. He merely said the report was on his table. Up till the time of writing, he has not acted on it. She is still innocent and the President knows a lot about that. She was removed from office not on the ground of her malfeasance but because, like other ministers, they had to pursue some other personal goals.
If you suspend after charges are levelled, why are the other two angels of Jonathan still in office? The one, is the minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and the finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Sanusi charged that $20 billion cannot be accounted for. Three important officers are involved. The finance minister, oil minister and Andrew Yakubu, the group managing director of the NNPC. None of them has been asked to go on suspension. The money at stake is close to N5 trillion, and that is the budget for a whole year.
If N5 trillion is spent prudently in a year, most of our major roads will be in perfect shape, all our hospitals will not lack basic equipment, the schools up to the universities will be well funded and equipped and industries in full throttle and the jobs will be available for more than half of our restive youths today.
Yet, Sanusi’s only wrong seems to be that he wanted us to look into this money and he is being punished for it?
Sanusi’s style is the contrast to the president. He is direct, frank and has been accused of reckless volubility. That is true. He has been more than a little flamboyant for his sober position, and some of his utterances make him more of a gladiator than an accountant. He was hasty about the charge of $48.9 billion, which was cut down to $10.8 billion, amounting to N2 trillion. Yet, he was right to unveil the matter as he saw it. If he were quiet, we would not know of that hefty sum. He has said he did not leak the letter he wrote sounding the alarm of the missing money. Who knows? But the letter had reached the President about three months before it was leaked. Why the presidential tardiness or inaction?
Some have also said that after raising the alarm, he should have resigned. It is a matter of style. The argument is that he could not be in government and fight from within. They miss the point. The CBN governor is no staff of the President. The President enjoys the privilege to nominate him, and there is a reason why the same law denies him the right to fire him. After all, the CBN governor does not report to the President but the National Assembly.
The prerogative to appoint derives from the inability to confer that right on the lawmakers because of its rowdy potential, or the judiciary being the judge. You cannot be a judge in your own cause. Being the head of the executive branch the President can nominate him. But that is where it ends.
The CBN also plays a role to check and report the financials of the executive and that is why the President cannot show power over him once the Senate hires him. In fact, it is the Senate that hires the CBN governor. The President merely suggests subject to the wisdom of the Senate. If the office of the auditor general of the federation had not been crippled, it should be checkmating an executive on a financial frolic.
Therefore, the suspension was an act of serpentine impunity, a firing from the back door. He took liberties with his presidential powers and licensed himself to violate an institution over which he has no powers.
He knew he fired him, hence he promptly appointed a successor at the same time he appointed the acting governor.
Obviously the move was to divert attention from the $20 billion, so we can start saying “why is a corrupt Sanusi accusing Jonathan of corruption? Is it not a case of the pot calling the kettle black?” But if he was sure of his charges against Sanusi, why did he not bring it to the floor of the National Assembly so the nation can dig and know the truth about any footloose financing?
As lawyers say, the President went to equity but where are the clean hands!

Sam Omatseye

Sanusi’s suspension diversionary, says APC

Lai Mohammed

POLITICAL parties have joined the controversy sparked by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s suspension.
The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) described Sanusi’s suspension as illegal, accusing the Presidency of seeking to use it to divert attention from the allegation of missing $20 billion in oil funds.
But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) condemned what it called attempts to politicise the suspension.
In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the way the Presidency has been campaigning to malign Sanusi, using the report of the “obscure” Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, shows that it is working hard to sweep the issue of the missing funds under the carpet and punish Sanusi for daring to expose the fraud.
The party said if the government had used half the energy it has been deploying to discredit Sanusi toward the investigation of the missing oil funds, the “monumental corruption” case would have been solved by now.
“Irrespective of the tepid and unconvincing denial by the Presidency, it is clear that the main reason the Presidency moved against Sanusi is because he blew the lid on the $20 billion funds which the NNPC allegedly failed to remit to the Federation Account.
“Fortunately, discerning Nigerians are not hoodwinked by the Presidency’s choreographed mudslinging against a whistle blower and the sponsored campaign that amounts to shooting the messenger just because his message is not palatable.
“While the Presidency has chosen to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians over the missing oil funds, we call on the National Assembly to get to the bottom of Sanusi’s allegation and save Nigerians from a rapacious and a rampaging cabal that is hell bent on bringing Nigeria to its knees through runaway corruption,” the APC said.
The party said the questions that are begging for answers include: What happened to the missing $20 billion? If indeed a part of the funds has been used for kerosene subsidy, who authorised the spending of money that was not appropriated, in violation of the nation’s constitution? Who reinstated the subsidy that had been removed by a presidential directive? If $8.76 billion of the missing money was used for kerosene subsidy, who and who are the beneficiaries, since it is clear that Nigerians are not enjoying any subsidy on kerosene for which they are shelling out at least N150 per litre?
It re-stated its earlier stand that Sanusi’s suspension is unlawful and that it is another dangerous turn in the Jonathan administration’s journey of impunity, lawlessness and double standard.
APC said the drop in the value of the Naira and the fact that the banking sector and other stocks spiralled into the negative, in the aftermath of the “ego-driven and illegal” suspension of Sanusi, have shown the dangers inherent in politicising an office that should be insulated from political pressure.
“There are just short-term repercussions. The long-term fallout may be the scaring off of foreign investors by the perception of instability in the financial sector and the erosion of the CBN’s autonomy. If and when that happens, a President who has so far failed to uplift his nation’s economy would have succeeded in sabotaging it,” the party said.
On the allegations against Sanusi, it said the government should charge him to court, if indeed it is convinced of the veracity of the allegations, instead of convicting him on the pages of newspapers and mob-lynching him through paid hatchet men.

Jonathan’s main problem, by axed CBN boss Sanusi

Tambuwal, Amaechi, APC, ACF condemn suspension
Suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi yesterday described President Goodluck Jonathan as a simple man trying to do well but undermined by” incompetent and fraudulent aides”.
Sanusi, widely respected by economists in Nigeria and abroad, was suspended by the President last Thursday over alleged financial misconduct. He denied any wrongdoing.
Sanusi accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of failing to account for $20 billion, an allegation that is being probed by the government. The NNPC denied that any cash is missing.
In an interview with the French news agency (AFP) in Lagos, Sanusi said many of the people advising Jonathan are sycophants who do not speak frankly about the extent of corruption in the government.
“When you sit with President Jonathan himself, he appears a nice, simple person who is trying to do his best,” Sanusi said, adding: “His greatest failing obviously is that he is surrounded by people who are extremely incompetent, who are extremely fraudulent and whom he trusts.”
When Sanusi was removed, just four months before his tenure was set to expire, analysts voiced concern that Jonathan was seeking to sideline an increasingly vocal critic of his administration’s record on corruption.
Sanusi learnt of his suspension while in Niger Republic for a regional meeting. He immediately returned to Lagos, where intelligence agents from the Directorate of State Services (DSS) seized his passport.
On Friday, he secured a temporary order from the Federal High Court in Lagos barring the DSS agents or police from arresting him.
“I thought taking away my passport was the beginning of infringement on my fundamental human rights,” Sanusi told AFP, explaining why he had already sought court protection.
Regarding the allegations against him, Sanusi said he earlier this year heard of a report condemning his performance and wrote to Jonathan in “June or July” asking if an explanation was needed, but received no reply.
The first time he was formally notified about the allegations was the day he was suspended, he said.
He argued that it would be too simple to describe his removal as payback for his attacks on the NNPC.
“Since 2009, I have been annoying the government… You’ve got people who think I have the wrong friends, people who think maybe I have not distanced myself enough from people who are seen to be opposition figures,” he added.
The list of Sanusi’s enemies may have been built up over years, but the NNPC affair appeared to be the final straw.
The NNPC has become notorious as one of the most opaque oil companies in the world, but Sanusi said the extent of the graft may have reached an historic high.
“I think everybody has known that NNPC is rotten. I don’t think it has ever been as bad as this,” he said.
He has levelled various accusations against the NNPC, but an alleged kerosene subsidy payment scam has received increased attention.
Even though the NNPC pays subsidies to kerosene vendors, Nigerian consumers still pay full market price for the product.
According to Sanusi, the so-called kerosene subsidy money, in fact, pays for “private jets…yachts… and expensive property in Beverly Hills and Switzerland”.
Sanusi has ruled out running for elected office, but said he may still have a future in public service.
In the short term, he voiced readiness to face any attacks that may be coming from those committed to preserving the status quo in the country.
“If I am sacrificed in whatever way, my freedom or my life… if it does lead to better accountability it will be well worth it,” Sanusi said.

Opposition demands removal of Osun REC

Opposition demands removal of Osun REC

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The top echelon of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is discussing the future of Ambassador Toyin Akeju as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Osun State, Nigerian Tribune has learnt.
Opposition parties in the state are demanding his removal for alleged bias.
A litigation to stop him from conducting the forthcoming June 21 governorship election in the state is also pending.
It was learnt that the commission began to see his continued stay as an automatic debit to the credibility of the election when opposition parties staged a walk-out on INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, during a stakeholders’ meeting on February 13 in Osogbo.
A peaceful protest was also staged at the venue of the meeting by loyalists across party lines, demanding his removal.
Akeju is battling accusations of being a card-carrying member of APC and a former aide to the national leader of the party and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu. He has vehemently denied the allegations.
A top source told the Nigerian Tribune that the direction of discourse on Akeju’s fate pointed at imminent deployment to forestall a situation where allegation of bias would taint the election from the take-off point.
A source disclosed that issues of evidence or exhibits to prove the allegations might have little role to play in deciding Akeju’s future, saying that everything was being put in the Osun election to make it a success story.
The source added that though the commission was not empowered to sack RECs, it could redeploy them, “and this is what is likely to happen in this particular case.”
Another senior source confirmed the concern over Akeju, adding that it appeared there was something to the opposition against him, considering how serious his hecklers had taken their case.
There had been publications quoting him as representing Tinubu at functions before his appointment.

We’ll shock PDP in 2015, say APC leaders

Notable leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) have said that the ruling party at the federal level, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be shocked by its mass rejection by Nigerians in the 2015 elections.
The party leaders, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend, vowed that the imminent defeat of PDP in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections in June and August respectively, will serve as a foretaste of what await PDP in the 2015 general elections.
The APC boast followed series of strategy and assessment meetings on Saturday by some of the party chiefs under the banner of the Mandate Movement, founded by a frontline leader of the party and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking at a reception rally organised by the Mandate Movement, now led by a former Commissioner for Environment in Lagos and APC’s National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire, in his honour,  the Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, who was weekend given Daily Independent newspapers’ Man of the Year 2013 Award, stated that “with the abysmal performance of PDP governments across the country and the result of our party’s (APC) recent membership registration exercise, it is certain that we will shock PDP and uproot it totally from all tiers of government in the country in 2015.”
The Osun governor, who is also a founding leader of the Mandate Movement, spoke to a huge crowd of its members from all the 57 local council areas of Lagos gathered at the Skypower playground, GRA Ikeja, thanked them for keeping faith with the APC through its various transformational stages since 1999.
“I must thank you for standing by us all the way. You have seen that more Nigerians, including serving and past governors, members of the National Assembly have been trooping to the APC because PDP has failed and disappointed the nation.
“What this tells us is that we put in more effort to flush out this party that has brought so much pain and anguish to our people.
“Our coming elections in Ekiti and Osun will surely give them (PDP) a bitter taste of the peoples level of resentment for them”, he added.
He thanked the organisers of the reception for remaining faithful to the ideals of the founder of the TMM, which began as just a political group in Lagos.
In their welcome speeches at the occasion, Banire and another leader of the TMM, Cardinal James Omolaja Odunmabku, who is the Deputy Chairman of APC in Lagos State, stated that the mass attendance of the programme by party faithful across the state, is a strong warning to PDP not only in Lagos or South West, but all over the country.
“This is just a small reception put together within days for a few people to attend in honour of one of us, Ogbeni Aregbesola, but the crowd that is gathered here is not only intimidating, overwhelming but encouraging.
“We assure you that our party is forming the next government at the federal level and we will never fail you as the PDP has done”, Banire stated.
Other chieftains of APC at the reception were Lai Mohammed, its National Publicity Secretary;  Leke Pitan, former Lagos Commissioner for Health; Deputy Governor, Osun State, Mrs Grace Olaoye-Tomori; wife of the state governor, Sherifat Aregbesola; members of the National Assembly from Lagos and well as their counterparts at the State House of Assembly, among several others.

Four Osun tertiary institutions begin indefinite strike

Four Osun tertiary institutions begin indefinite strike

Bayelsa splinter teachers’ union is illegal’

 

ACADEMIC activities have been suspended since Friday and students have vacated in four higher institutions of learning in Osun State, which begin an indefinite industrial action following alleged non-payment of their allowances and sundry welfare matters.
The affected institutions are the Polytechnic, Iree, College of Education, Esa-Oke, and the Colleges of Education in Ilesa and Ila-Orangun, all owned by the state government.
Meanwhile, a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore, has blamed Governor Rauf Aregbesola for the development, alleging that he is not sensitive to the plight of the indigenes.
And as the over four-month-old industrial action by the primary school teachers in Benue State over the non-payment of the national minimum wage continues, parents and other stakeholders have blamed the state government for not handling the matter well enough.
Apart from the minimum wage issue, the teachers are also demanding promotion and leave grants, which have cumulated from 2010. Some parents noted that teachers are very crucial in the society and would have been the first group to benefit from improved welfare.
Nevertheless, they noted that though the teachers have a good course to be at home, they should also show understanding to save the children’s education.
Nevertheless, the National Industrial Court sitting in Calabar has declared a splinter body of teachers known as the Basic Education Staff Association of Nigeria (BESAN) in Bayelsa State as not a trade union as known under the Trade Union Act (TUA).
BESAN, which was formed in 2007 by some aggrieved members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in the state, had been locked in legal battle with the leadership of the NUT for recognition in the state.
In a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity of his campaign organisation, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, Omisore said: “It is quite inhuman and a lack of focus for a government to be commissioning rehabilitated primary school buildings at the expense of the state-owned tertiary institutions.
He alleged that state government was deploying propaganda when it commissioned “a primary school financed by the Federal Government through the Universal Basic Education (UBE) as if it was solely executed by Aregbesola with the state allocation”.
Omisore said there was no reason lecturers would not go on strike since they are not well paid and are denied 65 years’ retirement age as implemented in other states, while students are denied bursary and the schools lack basic facilities.
He challenged Aregbesola to state with facts and figures how much he had expended on state-owned tertiary institutions or the actual amount he had given to the institutions in grants since he assumed office.
In its originating summons on March 4, 2013, the BESAN leadership had asked the court to declare that all primary school teachers in the state were at liberty to join any association or union of their choice.
It also sought a declaration that BESAN has the right to exist for the purpose, as incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, and that the NUT (4th defendant) was not entitled to any check-off dues from salaries of the members of BESAN as from April 2010.
In his ruling, the presiding justice, F. I. Kola Olalere, of the National Industrial Court, declared that though members have right to form an association, the first claimant (BESAN), as registered under CAMA, is not a trade union under the Trade Union Act (TUA) and is, therefore, not entitled to collect check-off dues from its members.
However, he restrained the fourth defendant from deducting check-off dues from the 10 members who have properly withdrawn their membership from the union, and to refund to them the total sum deducted from their salaries from May 2010 till date within 30 days of the judgment.
Governor Gabriel Suswam has maintained at several fora that the state cannot afford the over 20,000 academic and non-academic primary school staff rate due to paucity of funds.
But the state Chairman of the NUT, Mr. Gowin Anya, told The Guardian that members view government’s complain as unfair since other workers in the state were already benefiting from it.

Osun completes 280 micro projects

Osun completes 280 micro projects

NO fewer than 280 gender sensitive and socially inclusive micro-projects have been successfully implemented and functional while 65 others are on-going by the Osun state Community Social Development Project {CSDP}.
Osun state CSDP General Manager {GM},Mrs Funmi Abokede noted that the World Bank assisted project has the capacity to enhance rapid
development of the country if properly executed in view of its immense contribution to the upliftment of rural communities in the state.
Abokede, who canvassed this position while presenting the activities of the agency to reporters in Osogbo,Osun state at the weekend said since its inception in 2009,the agency had assisted in the realisation of the government’s six-point Integral Action Plan to banish poverty, hunger, unemployment, restore healthy living, promote functional eduction and
enhance communal peace and progress.
The GM noted involvement of communities in the execution of identified projects coupled with close monitoring activity by the agency have contributed to the modest success attained in the scheme.
Giving details on how the agency conducts its affairs, she explained,
“Communities provided on the spot information about their critical needs to ensure that these specific needs are met through appropriate intervention strategies with active involvement of community members. As such, community members are not just beneficiaries of community development programmes but they are also actors”.
Some of the projects completed for the benefit of rural dwellers cut across different sectors including education, water, health, rural
electrification, environment and natural resources, transport, socio-economic, gender and vulnerable groups.
She attributed the achievemnents recorded by the agency to effective resource utilisation and the support received from governor Rauf Aregbeola who increased the state counterpart funding from N100million to N200 million.
According to her, Osun state came second after Cross River state in access to the World Bank facility among the 26 participating states in the scheme in the federation due to its commitment to the project.
“A total sum of $7,732,076.10 million (N1,191,721,373.65 billion) was accessed from the World Bank instead of initial $5,000,000 million (N750, 000, 000 million) as a result of good performance”, Abokede said.
She noted Osun CSDP was unique because the agency gave voice and decision making responsibility to women and other vulnerable groups which led to the formation of a group called “Women In Development {WID} network comprising 253 women treasurers in the 253 CSPP communities.
She said as at February this year, the agency had executed 280 gender sensitive community micro projects that have impacted positively on the populace while 65 others were still on-going.

Associates Rally For Aregbesola, As Olubolade Joins Governorship Race

Associates Rally For Aregbesola, As Olubolade Joins Governorship Race

Lagos literally stood still yesterday when political organisations loyal to him converged in Lagos to endorse Governor of Osun State Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola for a second tenure in office.
As the political organisations whose members were cladded in white and blue apparels regrouped at the Sky Power ground amid tight security, former minister of police affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade declared his intention to run for Ekiti State governorship seat, with the pledge to transform it when elected.
LEADERSHIP Sunday observed that the ever-busy Kodesoh Street and other adjourning roads witnessed traffic congestion during the rally for Aregbesola.
The ceremony was attended by the interim national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Lai Mohammed, Senator Anthony Adefuye , deputy governor of Osun State Otunba Titilayo Laoye-Tomori and APC stalwart Cardinal James.
They said the event was to celebrate the governor for his performance in office, especially for his feats in the education sector.
APC acting national legal adviser, Dr. Muiz Banire, said  Aregbesola was an embodiment of humility, commitment and dedication.
Cardinal Odumbaku said “Rauf Aregbesola is an unusual administrator with a midas touch. A man most often misunderstood.”
In his address, Aregbesola urged his supporters to embrace the change so that APC could heal develop the country from 2015.
At a reception organised in his honour by members of Ekiti Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ado-Ekiti, Olubolade promised to run programmes that were in tandem with the President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda to develop the state.
The former minister who rated the present administration in the state as a failure, said, “Borrowing by Governor Kayode Fayemi is a product of failure of governance. It is a sign that he is running a failed government.”
While alluding to the N25 billion bond sought by Governor Fayemi from the capital market, pledged not to borrow a dime to run his government.
“I want to assure you that I will not borrow a dime to finance the state and all I am going to do as programmes will align with the transformation agenda of President Jonathan. I am determined to rescue Ekiti from the pangs of bad governance,” he said.

Ige’s son: ministerial nominee Adesiyan has questions to answer on ex-minister’s death

Adesiyan

WHEN he appeared before the Senate to be screened for a ministerial job, Abduljelili Oyewole Adesiyan was all tears.
He said he had no hand in the murder of former Attorney-General and Justice Minister Bola Ige – as he had been widely accused.
Alhaji Adesiyan swore that he had no reason to kill Chief Ige who he said loved him so much.
But the speculation about his role in the December 23, 2001 murder – Ige was assassinated in his Ibadan, Oyo State capital home – has refused to go away.
The late Ige’s son, Muyiwa, has some questions for Adesiyan
•why did he flee his home with his family the night Ige was killed?
•what was his role in the December 15, 2003 assault on the late Ige, eight days before he was assassinated.
According to the young Ige, these are fundamental issues Adesiyan should resolve before telling Nigerians that he did not kill Ige.
Adesiyan, a ministerial nominee from Osun State, was before senators on February 13, 2014 for screening.
He (Adesiyan) was asked to say what he felt the Senate should know about him that was not stated in his CV. Adesiyan suddenly burst into tears, saying he did not kill Ige.
Muyiwa, who spoke with The Nation in Ibadan at the weekend, described the statement by Adesiyan’s denial – that he did not kill Ige – as “deceitful” and a “deliberate cover-up”.
“He lived four houses away from my father’s house. His building is a distance away to Chief Bola Ige’s Bodija Ibadan residence. He was our neighbour. What informed his sudden disappearance from his house the night Chief Bola Ige was killed? He fled his home with members of his family the moment the act was done.
“Let him explain why he ran away.
Again, the assault on Ige on December 15, 2001 eight days before his assassination; he should explain his role in the assault on Chief Bola Ige at Ile-Ife, whether overtly or covertly. For him to say that Chief Bola Ige gave him money and sponsored his education is nothing.
“On the day Chief Bola Ige was assassinated, why did he suddenly move his family and fled; he should tell Nigerians. Though he was arrested and tried, unfortunately they botched the trial.
“Those crocodile tears on the floor of the Senate were staged managed.
It is obvious that the spirit of Bola Ige continues to hunt them, “he said.
The young Ige said all those who plotted and executed his father’s murder would not know peace, as the spirit of Ige would continue to torment them.
Besides, Muyiwa Ige, who is the Commissioner for Lands and Physical Planning in Osun State, also flayed the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) choice of Adesiyan for ministerial post, adding that the choice fittingly confirmed that the party is “a nest of killers”.

The crucifixion of truth

With Sanusi’s sack through the back door by President Jonathan, like Justice Salami’s, who is next?

Do not get carried away by the title of this piece. Nothing in it suggests that the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was suspended (actually sacked) by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday, is a saint. In Nigeria, who is a saint?

A statement signed by Reuben Abati, the president’s spokesman, said inter alia: “ Having taken special notice of reports of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies, which indicate clearly that Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi ‘s tenure has been characterised by various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct which are inconsistent with the administration’s vision of a Central Bank propelled by the core values of focused economic management, prudence, transparency and financial discipline …” the Federal Government had no choice but to suspend the CBN governor.

One thing that is not funny about the so-called suspension is that it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The Jonathan administration is deficient in all the qualities it has outlined as constituting Mallam Sanusi’s sins. Which financial recklessness is greater than the one in which our foreign reserves and even the excess crude account are being depleted voraciously without any tangible thing to explain the depletion? And this in spite of the fact that crude prices have been soaring far beyond budgetary projections! If the government is talking of core values, what constitutes its own core values? Does transparency exist in the government’s lexicon?

As a matter of fact, this is the main reason why Mallam Sanusi incurred the wrath of President Jonathan. The CBN boss, had raised certain fundamental issues about the way billions of dollars are missing from the government’s coffers and, instead of the government thanking him (even if that is not his duty), he was asked to resign. As someone who knows his right, he refused. It was clear at that point that the President would take his pound of flesh.

A predictable President Jonathan did last Wednesday. But we need to be worried, especially when dangerous precedents become a predictable pattern. I must confess that some of us heard something akin to what eventually happened to the CBN governor more than three weeks ago. What was in the air then was that the CBN governor would just get to his office and be barred from going in by security agents, and without any explanation, perhaps beyond the usual ‘order from above’. May be those who were to hatch the plot figured that might not go without incidents and so decided to wait for a more auspicious time. That came Wednesday when the former governor was in Niamey to attend the conference of the West African Currency Zone with other governors of the Central Banks in West Africa. Sanusi was reported to have hurriedly left the venue of the meeting shortly after the Nigerian Ambassador to Niger confirmed to him the directive suspending him by the presidency.

When, the other time Justice Ayo Salami was the victim of presidential recklessness, we thought it was his (Salami’s) business. All we offered then was a feeble resistance. Even when the judiciary that took the matter to the President (apparently in error) said it had found nothing against the former President of the Court of Appeal and that he should be recalled from suspension, President Jonathan looked the other way and ensured that Justice Salami retired from his so-called suspension.

The danger in our docility or nonchalance on matters like these is that impunity will continue to beget impunity. It is already happening. This paper’s editorial on Mallam Sanusi’s sack on Friday took us down the memory lane when it said that Alhaji Shehu Shagari took time out to address the nation when, during his time, N2.8billion oil money was said to be missing. This was the result of the outrage in the entire country. These days, worse allegations of corruption involving billions of dollars are treated as if they are not unusual. Indeed, Nigerians are no longer shocked by public officials stealing in millions, the vogue now is to steal in billions since hell would not be let loose.

But these are too dangerous precedents that should not be encouraged in a democratic setting. The stark reality is that fascism is fast creeping in. President Jonathan does not need to tell us that he is neither Pharaoh nor Herod; his actions have spoken louder than his voice to give us an idea of his true personality. And the situation can only get worse with the 2015 elections getting closer because most things happening in the country, particularly on the political and economic plains, including the removal of Mallam Sanusi, are all about the 2015 elections. Nigerians who felt the 2011 elections gulped money would see that the next general elections would gulp even more. What was spent in 2011 would be chicken feed to what would be spent next year. And that money must come from somewhere. All kinds of books would be cooked because there won’t be any heading for such expenditure anywhere in the budget. We may start to feel the negative impact of such unearned income on the economy by the third or fourth quarter of the year. Now that Mallam Sanusi has been fired, the allegations may die naturally because not many people would want to suffer the same fate. In all these, Nigeria is the loser.

Be that as it may, by saying that he suspended Mallam Sanusi, President Jonathan has merely fooled Nigerians. He is only being clever by a quarter, not even by half. It is a slap on our faces because what has happened means that the President knows that he has no power to sack the CBN governor by virtue of section 11, subsection 2(f) of the CBN Act, without at least two-thirds of the Senate members concurring. Yet, he does not like his (Sanusi’s) face (or is it his guts?) and so decided to throw him out with impunity. If all he did was suspend the former CBN governor, why the unholy haste in announcing an acting CBN governor only to follow it up with the nomination of his replacement?

This kind of decisiveness in not vintage President Jonathan, except when the matter concerns people whose faces he does not like. We know how long it took us to get him remove his former Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, despite the weighty allegations against her. The other, his petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, whose case is even worse than Oduah’s remains on the beat years after Nigerians have come to see her ministry as an epitome of corruption.

The truth of the matter is that whatever arbitrariness the CBN Act sought to prevent by insulating the apex bank’s governor from an overbearing executive would have been defeated if the bank boss can be suspended the way President Jonathan has done. People get away with these things because they are hardly challenged. It is on this score that I support Mallam Sanusi’s decision to challenge his suspension in court. Even a baby lawyer would know that if you lack the power to remove or sack, you cannot have the power to suspend in this situation, and especially in our kind of clime where government specialises in satanic subterfuge even as it lacks the capacity to deliver good governance. Obviously, the President too might be aware of this point but decided to go ahead with his plan in the hope that Mallam Sanusi would challenge him in court. Given the snail speed at which justice travels in the country, his (Sanusi’s) term would have elapsed by the time the case is decided. In which case, the President would still have had his way.

It is high time Nigerians rose against this reign of impunity. With two vital parts of our lives – the judiciary and now the CBN – being gradually subdued as it were, we may find it difficult to differentiate between good and bad, or morality and immorality, at the rate this government is perverting the system. Ideally, one would have hinged hope on the Senate but the Upper legislative house as presently constituted cannot be trusted to stop the rampaging government. Otherwise, the starting point would have been to ask it not to confirm the appointment of Zenith Bank boss, Godwin Emefiele as Mallam Sanusi’s successor. Whatever sins Mallam Sanusi might have committed, due process ought to be followed in addressing his case. We should not leave our fate in the hands of any overbearing executive. At the rate we are going under this government, truth would soon join the long list of essential but scarce commodities.

2015: Beyond the defections

Nigerian politics has come a long way. In the past defectors who crossed party lines for whatever reason were viewed as a detestable subset of the political class. They were often denigrated as desperate people who stood for nothing and would flee a sinking ship at the fight sight of water.

These days the defector is king. He is courted by even presidents as Goodluck Jonathan did not so long ago when he led a colourful rally in Sokoto to welcome serial defector, former Governor Attahiru Baffarawa into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

All parties are in on the act. The All Progressives Congress (APC) was the major beneficiary of the first wave of defections last year. But it is now crying foul that the eventual destination of potential carpet-crossers is being determined with generous cash inducements by the PDP.

As though the whiff of the scandalous that trails them wherever they turn were not bad enough, a comical turn was introduced into the matter not too long ago. Former FCT Minister, General Jeremiah Useni, who heads the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) miffed that his party had lost one of its few national legislators went public to correct certain wrong impressions.

He said the instruction given to the representative by the party was actually to defect to the PDP! Apparently, the man got things mixed up and landed in APC. So far there’s no indication that he’s retraced his steps.

It is tragic that as we head for 2015 the basis on which political parties would be asking us to vote is how many defectors they managed to attract into their ranks. Although I believe that individuals should be allowed to freely join and freely depart any party or organization, many of those who are fleeting from place to place are not doing so for any firm convictions.

In most instances the reasons are as pedestrian as ‘I wasn’t made head of the party in my state’ or ‘I was denied ticket for some election.’ In the end when their personal quest fails they, without any sense of shame, quickly return to their vomit.

I was reading about a couple of politicians in Imo State apparently afflicted by the wandering disease. They had been in APC but now have seen the light and are set to be received with fanfare by President Jonathan. Just trying to make sense of how many times two of them have switched parties makes me dizzy.

There’s a lie that has been sold to the public for too long. It claims that Nigerians don’t bother with issues when they vote. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I know of incumbents who were punished by voters for their appalling record whilst in office.

The electorate will focus on those things we prioritise. A celebration of defectors is not a game that will do the parties – especially the opposition much good. They must begin to focus like a laser on Jonathan’s record in office. Anything short will allow the other side to define them in those terms that play to our primordial and emotional weaknesses.

Jonathan’s impunity

For the duration of his hyperactive and fairly controversial tenure, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi never quite won my unalloyed support for some of his critical policies as Central Bank of Nigeria governor. Under him, for instance, the CBN’s acts of charity rankled in many regards. His banking reform measures were also implemented with a flamboyance and uppityness that left me wondering whether his unduly feisty approach to banks and banking regulations was not more appropriate for tinseltown than for apex banking. Then he often talked nineteen to the dozen, when restraint and reticence would do, and projected himself as the ultimate Nigerian iconoclast, a sort of business and class egalitarian indifferent to the accoutrements of the wealthy as he was not incommoded by the lowliness of the classless.
Indeed, as some elements of the report prepared against him by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) indicated, Mallam Sanusi, who was brusquely suspended a few days ago by President Goodluck Jonathan, might be inadequate in some respects and needed to painstakingly convince his traducers his integrity was not sullied by any identifiable form of financial and regulatory brashness. Perhaps he still will. But whatever might be said of the suspended CBN governor, no one could accuse of him of a lack of dignity and character. I had reservations about some of his policies as CBN governor, but I never stopped respecting him for what he stood for and how pluckily he fought for what he believed. He called his soul his own and displayed a robustness of principles seldom seen in public office in these parts.
In contrast to the dour integrity shown by Mallam Sanusi in public office, Dr Jonathan has handled power most obliquely and impiously, if not with the irritating absolutism of a monarch. The president claims to have suspended Mallam Sanusi and describes the process as innocuously routine, but everything surrounding the suspension indicated the dismissive finality of a sack. Not only was the former CBN boss removed, his temporary and permanent replacements were hastily named with a temerity that reeked of political insensitivity and unconstitutionality, and with such absolute lack of grace and class that leaves one wondering how it was possible for Dr Jonathan to demean the Nigerian presidency to such level of pettiness.
Again, in contrast to his dithering over the proven allegations against former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, and in consonance with the subterfuge evident in the suspension of former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, Dr Jonathan has choked and undermined the constitution by removing Mallam Sanusi in contemptuous disregard for the law. The excuse he gave for sacking the former CBN boss is that he breached some financial rules. But in reality, the removal was probably due to the president’s exasperation with Mallam Sanusi’s volubility and irreverence. The suspended CBN boss had complained bitterly at least twice about the NNPC’s unorthodox bookkeeping methods and financial malfeasance. And the complaints had elicited intense controversies and triggered insinuations that the Jonathan presidency condoned corruption, body language and all. But the snag is that the oil agency reports to the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, one of Dr Jonathan’s favourite cabinet members, if not the most favoured minister. Two attempts to reconcile the books of the NNPC merely reduced the gaps, not eliminated them, and gave impression the agency was nothing but a sinkhole and a conduit for funding the politics of the ruling party.
By peremptorily sacking Mallam Sanusi, Dr Jonathan has finally given indication he will henceforth not be distracted by the constitution in the pursuit of his ambition to govern Nigeria along absolutist lines. Though he was careful not to cite any constitutional provision in sacking Mallam Sanusi, perhaps knowing full well that no such provisions existed to back him, it was nonetheless clear that he gave indication his action was lawful. But there is no conceivable way of reading or interpreting the CBN Act, as amended, particularly the applicable Section 11, to back the president’s action. It is intriguing that any lawyer, not to talk of any rational person, could suggest that the said provision could be construed any other way. Section 11 is not only clear and direct; it is not ambiguous at all. The president himself knew this.
The CBN Act doubtless empowers the president to remove a CBN governor if necessary, but that power is circumscribed by and contingent upon the approval of two-thirds of the members of the Senate. The president completely discountenanced this provision and went ahead to do the unthinkable. We may not like Mallam Sanusi, but if executive, legislative and judicial actions are to be based on whom we like or dislike, we would have complete chaos. Dr Jonathan, it is clear, is besotted to some of his ministers. Anyone that challenges his favourites pokes a finger in his eyes. When Dr Jonathan suspended Justice Salami and we failed to get him to reverse himself, we unwittingly approved the president’s resort to self-help. If we fail in checking this new impeachable breach of the constitution, we should ready ourselves for more flagrant breaches of the constitution in a tension-soaked election year.
The sacking of Mallam Sanusi is not just a case of the president getting rid of a headache; it is an indication of the underlying methodology of the Jonathan presidency and an example of his dreadful unease and impatience with the restraining and civilising leashes of the constitution. Dr Jonathan, I have said repeatedly, lacks the depth and idiosyncratic understanding to appreciate the kind of democracy Nigeria should run, and the kind of country we should have, one that should serve as example and provide leadership to the rest of Africa, and one that should challenge even the most democratic country in the world. Lacking such understanding and discipline, Dr Jonathan has constituted himself and his government into a tyranny run by a camorra of friends, avaricious aides and petulant family members. We are in far worse trouble than we imagine, especially in an election year, for the president has more dangerous concoctions on tap.
If we look forward to any salvation, it will certainly not come from the presidency. Those characters in the presidency are too far gone to be redeemable. If we look to the legislature, we would have to ponder which direction to go: is it to the House of Representatives or to the Senate? If it is to the House, it is satisfying to note that that assembly of men is fairly radical and of some use. But the constitution does not give them the kind of powers that would make them tame the president in the face of a grovelling and ingratiating Senate. And if it is to the Senate we look, we would be seeing nothing but a chimera. The Nigerian Senate is a party to the conspiracy to undermine the constitution, blissfully unaware that they are in effect undermining their own very existence. They see themselves more like an arm of the ruling party, nay, a department in the Jonathan presidency. They will do nothing radical or altruistic; and they will not lift a finger in the defence of the people or the constitution.
Might the judiciary be of any help? Mallam Sanusi has already indicated he would be seeking help in its hallowed precincts. But litigation produces its own paradoxes. By going to court, Mallam Sanusi will be denying us a confirmation of the Senate’s infamy and conspiracy with the Jonathan presidency. The Senate will cite the case in court and decline discussions on the unlawful act of suspending the CBN governor. And since there is already an acting CBN governor, as it were, it would not matter whether the Senate declined to confirm the president’s nominee, Godwin Emefiele. The president can afford to wait it out. So, too, disingenuously, can the conniving Senate. In June, after Mallam Sanusi’s natural tenure expires, Emefiele’s confirmation will be done, and it will seem natural and unimpeachable.
I restate once again that the problem is not Mallam Sanusi’s competence or style. The problem is that he raised fundamental and disquieting concerns about financial disparities in that most disturbing of arcana, the NNPC, and the fact that the president in sacking Sanusi acted most precipitately and brutishly by assaulting the constitution. If we condone these infringements, we will not only be exhibiting our powerlessness in the face of intense financial impropriety on the part of government agencies, we would also be signalling to Dr Jonathan that his monarchical tendencies, his contempt for the constitution, his demeaning attachment to a few of his cabinet members and his lawless predilections will be winked at. Dr Jonathan has taken the first awful steps in the direction of Somalia, Central African Republic, Sudan/South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. It is no exaggeration to say he has thus taken us closer to the precipice than at any other time in our anguished and chequered history, including the civil war era. Should we indeed be compelled to endure four more years of Dr Jonathan and his lawlessness, as some pundits are projecting, there is no telling what horrifying fate the country would meet.

A Freezing Evening with Murtala Mohammed

•Murtala-Muhammed

It has been unseasonably cold in England. An icy fog lays a brutal siege on the entire country from Inverness to Portsmouth. The ambience in Birmingham is grey and dreary as country and people are frozen into a vast mass of drooping icicles. It is the worst winter in thirty years, and February is the cruelest of months. Even this late in the year rather than retreating, General Winter has been advancing.
Trapped inside the house by a ferocious sleet storm and wrapped up like a Siberian wayfarer, Snooper has hit the bottle on the rebound. Our comforter is a vicious Austrian liqueur known as Stroh”80″. Known otherwise as the spirit of Austria, It is eighty per cent alcohol and a sip could take a bull out in a second. I often wonder why the immensely cultured but imperious Austrians are allowed to do this to the civilised world. But then, there are many things the Austrians will want the world to forget.
The generous provider of this heady spirit is an Aeronautical Engineer friend of Kogi extraction who is based in Birmingham. A hilarious and witty fellow, our man once told Snooper of how he took a bottle of the strong stuff home as a Christmas present to the Oba of his town who happens to be his cousin. Kabiyesi often boasts of his drinking prowess. A few hours later when the engineer returned to the palace to retrieve a document, his royal majesty had passed out on the bare floor with his staff of office lying on top of him.
For intellectual comfort, Snooper has been reading excerpts from the interesting memoirs of Engineer Akindele, the first Director General of the Nigerian Telecommunication. It is riveting read which shows how things used to be with the civil servants and civil service of yore. But by far the most interesting revelations in the memoirs concern Akindele’s memorable encounter with the tempestuous and unpredictable Murtala Mohammed both as Head of State and as Akindele’s supervising commissioner at the Ministry of Communication. At a point, Akindele was so exasperated by Murtala’s bullying antics that he blurted out in Yoruba that his own child was three years’ older than the menacing Mohammed.
The straight-laced bureaucrat thought he was making an uncomplimentary comment beyond Mohammed’s linguistic ken. Little did he realise that the mysterious warlord spoke and understood Yoruba perfectly well. A few years later, in fact on the eve of Mohammed’s assassination, Akindele almost took to his heels when Obasanjo asked him in Yoruba language whether he had forgiven them for the shabby manner the government treated him, only for Mohammed to retort in Yoruba: A si nbe. (We are still pleading with him)
Although still very controversial with regards to many aspects of his distinguished career, particularly the pogrom in Asaba and the infamous burglary of the exchequer in Benin, Mohammed has long been canonised as the nation’s most iconic leader. It is also arguable that had he lived longer, Mohammed would have unraveled as deliberate and painstaking statesmanship became unamenable to his short-fused hell-raising and impetuous grandstanding. But give a man his dues. Mohammed was kind, humane, charitable and ever ready to make amends when and where his conduct or the policies of his government might have caused harm or grievous damage. Here was a noble ruler.
From a very unflattering background reeking of supremacist arrogance, Murtala made a dramatic transition to a bold and visionary conception of the nation as an organic community of equal stakeholders. From a sectarian warmonger dripping with religious and regional prejudices, he became a Pan-Nigerian patriot of unusual mettle. It was an apostolic conversion of Pauline proportions. At a very grave time when Nigeria is once again in danger of fracturing along regional and religious lines as a result of the antics of a visionless and greedy cartel, Mohammed’s dynamic and visionary leadership commends itself to an endangered nation.
These were the sober thoughts that engaged one’s attention as the ferocious sleet storm raged outside and one took a hard swig of the spirit of Austria. Suddenly, the last sentence of an e-mail one had been reading on the computer screen shattered the icy complacency. “Sir, at this moment, President Yar’Adua is flying back home and is due back in the early hours.”
“Coming back to where and to what?”, Snooper screamed at the computer screen in towering rage. The source of the news being too authentic and impeccable, one was left to impotent fury and implacable disgust. Forgetting how scantily dressed one had become in the intervening hours, one rushed out of the house and into the receding snow storm.
It was bitterly cold outside. Snooper swept past the adjoining streets not knowing where one was going. As the fury slowly subsided, the icy frost began to bury its chilly fangs deep in the body. It was as if one was beginning to have an out of body experience as outlandish creatures from outer space started crowding the vision. Out of nowhere, a middle-aged man appeared, smartly dressed in a navy blue French conductor suit. The military swagger and the swashbuckling gait was unmistakable. It was the old general. It was Murtala Mohammed.
“Talk of the devil,” Snooper mumbled in muted excitement as the teeth clattered away. In edgy contempt, the general ignored his new-found companion and then launched into a bitter tirade about the weather.
“Kai, kai, it is bloody cold. Shege. Doualla, bani taba. Akoi Benson and Hedges?,” the general growled demanding for a stick of cigarette. Snooper quickly pointed at a huge neon sign prohibiting smoking.
“Walahi, I will soon prohibit that your useless mouth for you,” the general cursed.
“:No, no no, it’s not me, it is the whiteman. They have their strict rules and regulations,”Snooper protested.
“Listen, I hate these stupid Oyinbo people. They are bloody hypocrites. They brought corruption and cheating to us and they keep calling us crooks. May Allah forgive them,” the general fumed.
“Is that why you only took bribes from them?” Snooper demanded.
“My brother, one bad turn deserves another,” the general began with a crooked, much endearing smile. “By the way how did you bloody rogue come by that? You have been reading classified material, eh? Yaro barawo ne?”
“No, no no. I have been reading Akindele’s memoirs,” Snooper corrected.
“Ah that old bugger, is he still around? He is a good man but I almost shot him. I overheard him cursing my mother in Yoruba,” the general growled.
“I never knew you spoke Yoruba language,” Snooper marveled.
“Ajoke, my wife is half Yoruba,” the great warlord noted wistfully.
“General, how about a drink at Old Orleans at Broad Street?” snooper offered.
“Drink ke? I am a devout Muslim, you know,” the general protested.
“I also know something else. There was a famous restaurant in Lagos which was your watering hole. For years after your departure they use to take adverts to celebrate your patronage,” Snooper noted with a sly wink.
“You are a real sonobabitch, you know. Okay, we’ll have a drink, but the Stout here is not as stout as the one back home. The one here is totally useless, like the people. I’ll have Johnnie Walker instead,” the General crowed with boyish enthusiasm.
“By the way, General, Umaru is back”, Snooper said more like a complaint than anything else.
“Who is Umaru?”, Murtala replied in genuine ignorance.
“Umaru Yar’Adua,” Snooper replied.
“What does he do for a living, and is he related to Shehu?”, the general queried.
“He is our president, and he is Shehu’s brother. Obasanjo left him there after returning to power two decades later.” I replied.
“Hmmmmm. That must be the boy calling himself 007,” the general began with a sardonic smirk on his face. “I don’t want to be uncharitable but has Nigeria now become a James Bond film? I know Shehu as a noble and first-class officer, loyal to the core. If he were to be around, I would not have been killed. Your yeye brother ran away. But this Umaru???”, the general brooded uneasily.
“He is being supported by some northern elements who claim that the presidency is the north’s birthright till 2015 and that nothing should be done to disturb the arrangement,” Snooper noted without much passion.
“Those lot again!!! I never allowed them near the seat of government when I was in power. They are an idle lot, forever seeking for relevance and power. If I have my way, I will put them on the farm settlement near Bagauda Lake,” the general growled.
“They are led by a man called Inua Wada,” Snooper observed.
“Kai mana, but that is my own uncle,” Mohammed blurted out.
“I was wondering, too,” Snooper croaked with some mischief.
“You see, the problem is more fundamental. By the way, what did Obasanjo himself forget at the State house that he was looking for?” Mohammed snarled.
“He forgot to mess things up properly. Now for the first time in the history of the country, we have three presidents at the same time: An Acting President; an inactive President and an active President,” Snooper noted with muted relish.
“I see. What is Theophilus Danjuma doing about the nonsense?”
“Danjuma and Obasanjo are no longer on speaking terms,” Snooper replied.
“What ? You know sometimes it may be better to die young. Longevity is a curse in Africa”, Mohammed reflected with misty eyes.
“What the colonial Army put together, post-colonial oil blocs have torn asunder,” Snooper cynically pressed on even as a sad Mohammed ignored him.
“And where is Akinrinade in all this?” Murtala growled.
“He is out in the street protesting against all of them,” Snooper replied.
“I see. It is a total disaster then. It is Abagana all over again. I must thank Sub-Lieutenant William Sheri for not missing his target. A country where Alani is a protester on the street is not worth living in”, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed noted and began moving away.
“General, what about the drink?” Snooper protested.
“To celebrate what?” Mohammed snapped. “But let me tell you this. Those of us who have killed for Nigeria and have been killed for Nigeria hold all of you responsible for this mess, this disgrace of the blackman.”
The ferocious sleet storm was still raging in Birmingham. Luckily, the automatic heating system had come on unfailingly, rousing Snooper from his catatonic stupor. The computer screen was still flashing with the lone apocalyptic message: Umaru Yar’Adua is on his way home.

Saraki: Jonathan can’t justify

Saraki

Former Kwara State governor, Senator Bukola Saraki, yesterday said President Goodluck Jonathan cannot justify his decision to suspend Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi
Saraki, who is the chairman Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, also denied reports making the rounds that the upper legislative chamber has approved Sanusi’s suspension.
He said that the Senate was yet to be formally briefed on the Sanusi’s controversy, insisting that the provisions of the CBN Act are clear and unambiguous on the removal or suspension of the apex bank governor.
Saraki spoke yesterday in his Ilorin, Kwara State, capital home.
He said it was clear Jonathan has been ill-advised on the issue and warned that such developments will affect other institutions meant to stabilise the country.
He expressed concerns that investors would be wary of doing business again with the country given the alleged arbitrary nature of suspending Sanusi.
According to him: “Today, it is the CBN governor. Who knows the president may wake up tomorrow and suspend the chairman of INEC?
“With my own knowledge of the CBN Act and the relevant sections, which I have gone through, no part of that Act supports the action taken by the president.
“And I think this kind of thing is not about Sanusi. It is even more about the new governor who is coming in.
“Can that governor really say that his tenure is five years? There can be a new president tomorrow down the line who would say, ‘in 2014, this is what happened.’’’
He added: “The independence of the position of the governor of Central Bank is no longer there and there are investors outside the country, fund managers that will have about N20bn invested in this country who took those decisions based on the fact that the CBN is independent.
“The moment those institutions are not protected, they have far-reaching effect on the economy. I think in a way the president was ill-advised.
“Whatever he was trying to achieve is lost because those institutions are more important than the issue of the individual. Also the law states clearly how the governor of Central Bank can be removed or suspended.”
He debunked the notion that the Senate had backed the suspension of Sanusi.
Saraki said: “I was reading in the newspapers that the Senate has taken a position on the Sanusi’s issue and I want to say that the Senate has not at any time discussed the issue.
“I think the senator who was quoted was talking on his personal recognition.
“From reading the CBN Act, there is no room for the president to either suspend or remove the CBN governor.
“There is no letter or request before us; maybe when we get back, we will get the letter. We must follow the laws.”
On the gang-up against his political leadership in the state, the former governor, who has defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC), said any talk about taking over from him is mere day dreaming.
He explained the latest figures from the registration of the APC membership in the state has shown that it can conveniently win the next elections.

Amaechi’s Obasanjo coup

FOR two days last week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was ferried from one project to another by his host, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, to commission projects. Both guest and host relished the roles they foisted on each other. Ordinarily, not constitutionally, the role of commissioning major projects is reserved for the president who often synchronises his visit with the completion of huge state projects. But President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience, are at daggers drawn with Mr Amaechi, and that conflict has degenerated so badly and obscenely that even the constitution is endangered.
Fortunately for the governor, Chief Obasanjo is not only at worse daggers drawn with the president over what many describe as egotistical trifles, the former president also had sufficient clout to make his visit to Rivers both important and memorable. The message and implication of the visit and project commissioning were of course not lost on Nigeria’s mischievous reporters who latched on to the visit to give it very copious treatment. Mr Amaechi not only carried out a coup, he did it with aplomb, amidst jokes, banter and dithyrambs certain to leave President Jonathan chafing and envious.
It is unlikely that after this celebrated role reversal between Chief Obasanjo and President Jonathan, there is unlikely ever to be any reconciliation. Neither President Jonathan nor Governor Amaechi is temperamentally suited for succumbing to pressure or making peace after war. As the 2015 polls draw near, both gentlemen will indulge their bizarre talents to the fullest, the former to levy war earnestly and heedlessly; and the latter to fire ripostes with disproportionate and unqualified youthful zest.

Fayemi, APC and Jonathan’s national conference

Tinubu

FOLLOWING former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s strident opposition to President Goodluck Jonathan’s national conference, it was widely believed that All Progressives Congress (APC) states were disinclined to participating. It was not clear why that belief became popular, but perhaps it had to do with the forcefulness with which Asiwaju Tinubu presented his position. He had argued that on account of the serial inconsistency and political intrigues and dishonesty of President Jonathan, not to say the appalling timing of the exercise, the conference was headed nowhere. And though he stressed he was not opposed to national conference, having advocated it for more than two decades and fought for it to be sovereign in particular, his Southwest opponents still denounced him for suggesting it should be postponed to a more auspicious time.
Barometer is himself opposed to the convocation of a national conference at this time, believing that it is filled with booby traps, is improperly conceived, and designed, like all the others before it, to fail. The conferees are incredulously and implausibly expected to design the legal and legislative frameworks for both its convocation and implementation. Worse, they are also expected to come up with resolutions which the electorate would lobby the legislature to accept. But the conference, said President Jonathan, would neither be sovereign nor its resolutions final. The National Assembly would have the final say; but that same National Assembly is currently engaged in a review of the same constitution upon which President Jonathan’s national conference decisions would be grafted.
While the APC as a party never quite came out with a resolution to boycott the conference, many of its leading members gave unmistakable impression that the party was not keen on it, thereby fuelling the belief in many quarters, especially the incurably optimistic and often politically naïve Southwest, that the party and its leaders were unalterably opposed to the conference, both in theory and in practice. Finally, last week, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State told reporters that the party would participate in the conference. Are they simply hedging their bets, in case the conference by some sleight of celestial hand should succeed? Or are they simply determined, in spite of themselves, to give the devil his due, knowing full well that the conference is an irredeemably bad exercise fated to miscarry? It is hard to say. But what is clear is that they recognise that being in politics, there is a limit to which they, notwithstanding their foresight, can jump too far ahead of the people they lead.
Dr Fayemi’s justification for APC participation in the Jonathan conference is ingenious. Said he: “APC is well within its right as a party to decide on what its position is as far as the national conference is concerned. But APC also has states being governed by its members bearing in mind the fact that governors are governors of all. Without prejudice to the position that our party has taken, we preside over both members as well as non-members of our parties and it would be wrong for us to decide unilaterally as governors not to allow our citizens to air their views as far as the national conference is concerned.”
The fact is that APC never as a party sat down to resolve not to participate, at least not the northern elements of the party. It is also a fact that Asiwaju Tinubu has been the most vociferous critic of the Jonathan conference, but even he has been unable to persuade his colleagues to his side by his vehemence. Worse for the party, the resentment nursed against Asiwaju Tinubu by a faction of the Southwest political elite and the zone’s general lack of political sagacity, as exampled by their dubious embrace of the conference, has cast the APC in bad light. Dr Fayemi’s apparent endorsement of the conference must therefore be in spite of his own and his colleague’s convictions of the inappropriateness of Dr Jonathan’s political shenanigan. The APC and its leaders have my sympathies, for the time is not right now to commit political suicide. They need a bigger and nobler cause to do that.