₦airaland Forum

Chukwuma Soludo: the best and brightest
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

The people of Anambra State are jubilant. They have been jubilating because the Supreme Court affirmed Chukwuma Soludo as the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the November 6th, 2021election. That Soludo remains on the ticket is of immense importance to the people of the state. Although the political contest is cluttered with candidates, the people are acutely conscious that Soludo is a quintessential leader. Unlike any of the gubernatorial candidates, he is a proven leader. As governor, he will take Anambra State to new heights of prosperity, accountability and overall societal progress. His removal from the political race would have been tantamount to the removal of the best and brightest.

Chinue Achebe once wrote that “The problem of Nigeria is simply a problem of leadership”. It can be argued that there are limits to what a leader can do; he can only lead within the bounds already defined by society. However, history has furnished us the instructive precedent that leadership can make a dramatic difference. The power, influence and consequences of leadership are so enormous and encompassing that it literally defines a people, country, and, in this context, a state.

By their words and actions, leaders shape countries: usher in peace or war, poverty or prosperity, rule of law or anarchy, etc. Thomas Carlyle was emphasizing the importance of leadership when he wrote that “The history of nations is but the biographies of leaders.” Inevitably, therefore, the history of Nigeria is a compilation of the biographies of our earlier presidents. Similarly, the annals of each Nigerian state are the life stories of their governors.

As we, the people of Anambra, elect our new governor, the man whose vision or lack of it; altruism or avarice, decency or crookedness will define our state, and dictate her political, economic, and even, moral and ethical trajectory for the next four, and possibly, eight years, it is extremely important that we sieve out the best – the most qualified - from the variety of gubernatorial candidates. The most accurate basis for determining the most qualified, and thus our best choice in the November 6th election is by casting a critical eye on their antecedence. We will choose from amongst them that man that has, in the past, demonstrated unusual courage, brilliance and vision in the service to the country, and humility and selflessness in the service to the people, especially the disadvantaged and downtrodden.

Soludo distinguished himself in the service of the country. His demonstrated vision, courage and reform-mindedness transformed the Nigerian economy, especially, the banking sector between 2005 and 2010. His successful consolidation of the Nigerian banking system was globally acclaimed. Thus, he was awarded the world’s Central Governor of the year for two consecutive years. An internationally renowned economics professor, he was the only African chosen to be part of the United Nations Expert tasked with the reformation of the global economic and financial system.

Despite his national and global acclaims and accolades, he is down-to-earth, accessible, patient and with a listening ear. He is a rare breed in a country notorious for arrogance of power and elitism. He believes in the right of every individual to the opportunity to achieve his/her maximum potential. In his volunteerism – the zeal to labor for the benefit and betterment of others, without desiring any reward, publicity or acclaim – he has spent enormous time and resources mentoring the youth, protecting the oppressed, uplifting the downtrodden and empowering the dispossessed. He has sponsored the education of so many indigent students, financially empowered so many and built houses for the homeless in and out his hometown of Isuofia.

On November 6th 2021, the people of Anambra State must vote against fishy, cowardly and shilly-shally politicians whose loadstar is avarice and selfishness. We must reject unschooled money bags, empty-headed scoundrels of great wealth, who, in their sordid misconception of “money answereth all things”, believe that votes are for sale and that they can buy the will of Anambra people. We must also reject liars and certificate forgers, who claim to have attended schools they did not attend and to have acquired degrees they do not have.

We will vote for Chukwuma Soludo. From his antecedents, we know that he seeks gubernatorial power, not as an end in itself, and not to revel in the pomp and pageantry of the office and advance some selfish and clique interests, but to serve. He has earlier deployed the powers of his office to serve Nigeria – a reformative and transformative service - that won global recognition. Anambra State needs the selfless service of this servant-leader, Chukwuma Soludo

Tochukwu Ezukanma, an indigene of Ikenga, Ogidi, writes from Lagos.
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Soludo: A Reflection
By Tochukwu Ezukanma
A onetime White House counsel, Richard Goodman, once characterized a great American, Robert Kennedy, as “a constellation of contradictions”. And the famed author, Harry Barnes, described the greatest of the patristic fathers, St Augustine, as a complex combination of opposites. Like most great men, Chukwuma Soludo, the gubernatorial candidate for the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is a paradoxical blend of contrasting and opposing qualities.
He was a village boy that rose from rural deprivation and drudgery to the corridors of power; hobnobbing with presidents and prime ministers. He is erudite, urbane, cosmopolitan and deftly discerning, but remains inextricably bind to the customs, traditions and mores of his town people. From the pedestal of fame and attainments, he remains “a true home boy, deeply rooted among his age grade, village and town”. He is a reformer; his transformation of the Nigerian economy bordered on a revolution. He is essentially a revolutionary that operated within conventional limits. He is a consummate insider, but, in many ways, remains an irascible outsider; with his impulse towards the defiance of the status quo evident. This is evinced by his humility, genuine concern for the disadvantaged, something of a disdain for elitism, and moral proclivity for equal opportunity for all.
Consequently, from his early days, he devoted his time, resources and labor to provide educational and economic opportunities for the indigent, downtrodden, and forgotten. So many people, especially, from his hometown have benefited from his philanthropy. It was in gratitude for what he has done for them that the people of Isuofia led by their king honored Chukwuma Soludo. Therefore, on August 14, 2021, Isuofia, literally, came to a standstill, a celebratory standstill, as the king, His Royal Highness, Igwe Moghalu of Isuofia, a retired colonel in the Nigerian Army, conferred a chieftaincy title, Dike-Udo Isuofia, on Soludo. The title, which means the Mighty Man of Peace of Isuofia, was conferred on him in recognition and appreciation of his service to his people and community and enormous contribution to their wellbeing and progress.
He has successfully lifted so many out of ignorance and poverty. He abhors mere hand-outs because hand-outs have a tendency to breed beggars. His approach is to establish individuals by giving them education, and financial independence. It is an approach underpinned by the proverbial: teach a man how to fish, and he is empowered to feed himself for life. According to Christian Aburime, “I have watched him spend enormous amount of his time offering advice to parents and their children on how to grapple with, and overcome, the challenges of life, often using himself as a case study”.
In his belief that the surest way to success is education, he has sponsored hundreds of students to various levels of academic attainments. After all, the building of a great society and country is contingent on first building great men and women through education. In 2000, he instituted a scholarship scheme for his Umunna (kindred), so that financial constraints cannot stop anyone from obtaining a university education. In 2001, he became the pioneer chairman of his village Education Trust Fund. He was the highest donor to the Trust Fund, which grants scholarships and bursary to indigent students in his hometown. Hundreds of graduates have benefitted from this scholarship and bursary programs.
Twelve years ago, Soludo "adopted" a primary school in his village, Amoji Primary School. At his personal expense, he provides all the 900 pupils in the school with free and qualitative education. He furnishes them with uniforms, footwear, game wears, textbooks, and writing materials. He employed about ten additional graduate teachers to augment the teaching staff in the school. He furnished the classrooms, and equipped the computer lab with 40 computers. Thus, he turned this once ramshackle public primary into a state-of-the-art model primary school. In addition, he assists in the running of five other primary schools in Isuofia. He pays the salaries of about twenty five Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) teachers in the five schools. Every year, he pays the fees for Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) for hundreds of secondary school students, including all the students of the Holy Child Secondary School, Isuofia.
He has been assisting widows, and the other vulnerable and helpless in his hometown, with his interest free micro credits, to set up their own businesses. For over fourteen years, he has operated a revolving interest-free micro financing for Umuada, and the women organizations in Isuofia church parishes, amounting to tens of millions of naira. He has also built houses for the poor and elderly. Fascinatingly, he has painstakingly shielded his philanthropy from the limelight. To him, they are his own way of being grateful to God for His blessings, for which he expects no thanks and no praise.
So, underpinning the pomp and pageantry, and glitz and glitter of, and the rich, powerful and famous that graced, his conferment with the tile Dike-UdoIsuofia, was its import. The king and the people were bestowing an accolade to their illustrious son that has made them very proud with his achievements and renown, and labored diligently and unremittingly in the service his community and uplift of his people. In the words of the king, Igwe of Isuofia, “Love Soludo or hate him, you cannot but acknowledge his gigantic footprints in uplifting others”.
As we cast our vote for a new governor on November 6th 2021, we must recognize that power is morally neutral. Depending on who wields it, gubernatorial power in Anambra State can be deployed as a ruthless enemy of the people or employed as a selfless servant of the people. We must therefore meticulously scrutinize the gubernatorial candidates: pore through their education, credibility, commitment to the collective good and demonstrated capacity and capability in prior public service. We must reject the ignorant, charlatans, and con artists. We must also reject those out to mortgage truth, principles and social justice to selfish and cliquish interests.
We should vote for ChukwumaSoludo. He is a man seasoned to high purpose and noble temperament by education, training and experience. He is a proven, distinguished public servant. He is a quintessential leader: honorable, visionary, and courageous.
TochukwuEzukanma, an indigene of Ikenga, Ogidi, Anambra State, writes from Lagos.

Glycolite:
[s]Crying because he scored against Bolivia,a country that is ranked 81 in FIFA world ranking [/s]?
Messi should be ashamed of himself !
His fans should all be ashamed of theirselves for this disgraceful show of tears by their dwarfy god.
Such an embarrassing and disgusting show of emotion against a team ranked that low in FIFA ranking .
#spit

he cried because he broke a record

Soludo: Burnishing the radiance of the Light of the Nation
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

According to a trite Nigerian parlance, “Politics is a dirty game”. As long, as it is left for dirty men and women, politics will remain a dirty game in Nigeria. The only way to clean up Nigerian politics is by the participation of decent and honorable men and women in politics. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind.” In their natural penchant for evil, dirty men must always play dirty, especially in politics. As such, the redemption for Nigerian politics lies in the involvement of credible and principled individuals in politics. So that, as evil men plot, burn and bomb in Nigerian politics, good men in politics will plan, build and bind.
As we go to the polls on November 6th 2001 to elect a new governor, the people of Anambra must reject crooked and dishonorable politicians - certificate forgers, ignoramuses and con artists – posturing as sentinels of the public good, and vote for Chukwuma Soludo. He is the most knowledgeable, experienced and qualified of all the good men in the race. In addition to knowledge, experience and honor, he has other necessary qualities - guts, gumption, powerful ego and vision - to lead Anambra State, the Light of the Nation, to new heights. Thus, he will burnish the radiance of the Light of the Nation.
Despite the preponderant powers reposed in the federal government by the 1999 military-sponsored constitution, state governments still has substantial influence on the lives of Nigerians. So, while we continue to bemoan the failings of the federal government and the dysfunction of its institutions, and demand reformation, we must realize that the reformation of state governments is equally important. Accountability, transparency, and principled distribution and efficient management of resources by state governments will be momentous for Nigerians. After all, education, health, judiciary, housing, etc are all in the concurrent list, and other important areas of governance, like land use, physical planning, and local government and chieftaincy affairs, are solely within the purview of state governments. An improvement in these areas under state authority will dramatically improve the quality of life in Nigeria.
The people of Anambra State are trailblazers. They have blazed the trail across the entire range of the Nigerian social life. The likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chinua Achebe, Pious Okigbo, and Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu respectively pioneered nationalism and national unity, creative writing and African literature, scholarly and practical economics, business and wealth creation in Nigeria. Presently, the state is spearheading the Nigerian rendition of the industrial revolution. The hub of this marvelous revolution is Nnewi, and its apogee is auto manufacturing.
At a point, the state blazed the trail in bad government. In his buccaneering thievery and murderous political intolerance, Governor Chinweoke Mbadinuju, in concert with his vicious and voracious political godfathers, ran every state institution aground and consigned the state to something of 21st Century Dark Ages. With the saga of Chris Ngige and Chris Uba, the state broke new grounds in the narrative of political protégés breaking loose from the stranglehold of unscrupulous and ungodly political godfathers.
In addition, Anambra State has been on the forefront in the participation of decent and financially honest men, with guts and gumption to battle the ravages of evil men in politics. The political party, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), has provided the political platform for these courageous and committed public servants that have successfully rolled back the lamentable consequences of the grasping avarice and depredation of dirty men in the politics of the state. As the APGA governor of the state, Peter Obi brought transparency, political tolerance, thrift and incorruptibility to governance. The subsequent governor, Willie Obiano, elevated, expanded and deepened these splendid qualities in his governance of the state. His distinguished leadership found expression in his administration’s achievements in every aspect of governance, and the people’s continued confidence in his administration.
In his first 100 days in office, Obiano completely dislodged criminal elements from the state, making the state one of the safest in the country. His administration made enormous progress in transportation, security, workers’ welfare, road construction, health, agriculture, education and making the state attractive to foreign investors. As such, the state has one of the highest per capita incomes, one of the most efficient healthcare services, and one of the best results in NECO and WAEC examinations, in Nigeria. In addition, it became the uncontested commercial hub of the Southeast, and premier foreign investment destination in the country.
There is the need for continuity, and consolidation of Obiano’s achievements in office. Therefore, the character and capability of his successor is extremely important. Refreshingly, APGA chose the best and brightest, Chukwuma Soludo, as the eventual successor to Obiano. Soludo is an honorable and respectable man, with a distinguished career in the academia and public service. He will be one of the most erudite and versatile to occupy the governor’s mansion in Nigeria. Over the decades, he proved his mettle as a reformer and leader. With his economic reforms, especially, in the banking sector, he has already left an impressive, indelible imprint on the country.
Incontestably, he will take the achievements of the two earlier APGA governors to new heights. And, in its refulgence, Anambra State will continue to shine brighter and brighter, as the Light of the Nation.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

Soludo stands out

By Tochukwu Ezukanma



The Anambra State gubernatorial election is scheduled for November 6th, 2021. Quite naturally, different political parties and their political nominees are relentlessly, stridently campaigning for the election. As usual, every gubernatorial candidate wants to convince the people that he has an exceptional insight into the problems of the state, and will, therefore, provide solutions, even, panaceas, to the problems. According to an American parlance, “Talk is cheap”.

Therefore, in determining the next governor of Anambra State, the people of Anambra should focus less on the candidates’ political talk, but more on their antecedence. It is a candidate’s prior performance that prefigures his performance as a governor. The vision, competence, and innovation he demonstrated in his earlier public assignments are powerful indicators of what to expect of him as the governor of Anambra State.

In assessing the gubernatorial candidates based their earlier accomplishments, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the nominee for the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), stands out. With a doctorate degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and post-doctoral education in some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge Universities, he is a scholar; he was a professor of economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

But he went beyond the starchiness and pedantry of academia, and also distinguished himself in the practice of economics. He worked for a number of international organizations, including the World Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and United Nations Development Program. His extensive academic training and work experience prepared him for his famed excellence in public service to Nigeria. He was the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Olusegun Obasanjo. And, in 2004, he became the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Before his appointment to the CBN, banking in Nigeria was in disarray. Banks routinely collapsed because the banking institution was very weak, and the banks were very poorly regulated. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of abuses and exploitation of the banking process. Bankers exploited depositors and investors, and sometimes, expropriated their money. These led to the collapse of nearly forty banks across Nigeria in a period of less than ten years.

The economic consequences of bank failures on the country were devastating. Primarily, depositors and investors lost their money and investments. Some were traumatized to the point of delirium and insanity, and, some, even, died from the shock of losing their money, and in some cases, entire life savings. Bank employees lost their jobs and were readily thrown into the labor market. Many suppliers and contractors were rendered bankrupt. The dependents and family members of the affected individuals suffer immensely. Nigerians lost confidence in the banking sector, and Nigeria became unattractive to foreign investors. The negative spin-off and spillover effects of the litany of economic woes occasioned by the bank failures were incalculable.

For years, the Central Bank of Nigerian struggled to deal with these lingering problems of financial distress, pervasive weakness, uncertainty, and lawlessness that plagued the banking sector, and the consequent, bank collapses. It was Soludo, as the Governor of the Central Bank, that provided the once and for all solution to these problems with his banking consolidation policy. It resulted in the merging of 89 banks, most of them weak and wobbly, to 25 big and resilient banks. The consolidation provided much-needed stability in the banking industry and boosted public confidence in the Nigeria banking sector. It made it possible for Nigerian commercial banks to have the asset base to fund manufacturing, agriculture, trade, and the services industries. The emergent robust and economically viable banks provided enormous potential for economic growth.

His consolidation program was one of the most successful in the world. The Nigerian banking sector became the fastest growing in Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world. It made Nigeria very attractive to foreign investors. It placed the Nigerian economy at the center of the global flow of financial capital, and the Nigerian financial markets become a major destination of foreign capital. It attracted huge foreign investment into the Nigerian economy. It created economic prosperity in Nigeria that opened up opportunities for ordinary Nigerians.

One seasoned economic commentator summed it up in his own words, “It took Nigeria less than three years to achieve what it took South Africa 20 years to achieve in the area of banking”. And in the words of the London-based journalist, Ayo Akinfe, “Charles Soludo, governor of the Nigerian central bank, is Africa’s best banker. He is the new face of the economic renaissance that is sweeping across the continent”. And the Financial Times of London named Soludo ‘a great reformer’.

For his many achievements, he is the recipient of scores of awards and recognitions, including the Global and African Central Bank Governor of the Year awards in 2005, 2006, and 2007 by different international media institutions, including The Banker Magazine.

Not surprisingly, the governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, stated that: of all the candidates for the gubernatorial election, Soludo is the most qualified to succeed me as governor because of his intellectual capacity, local and international contacts, and other necessary qualities required to excel as governor. In Soludo’s own words, “I have done it at the global level and the national level, and now I want to do it for my state.”

For the Anambra gubernatorial election of November 6th, 2021, the people of Anambra State should vote for Charles C. Soludo. For we need the vision, brilliance, knowledge, and experience of this great reformer directed at the governance of Anambra State.



Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

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Idolatry in Christian garbs
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

The 19th Century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, once wrote, “This valuation was brought to a peak by Jesus: with Him every man was of equal worth, and had equal right. He was in His deepest instinct a rebel against everything privileged; he believed and struggled unremittingly for equal rights”. And to Nietzsche, the teaching of Jesus Christ, “He that is the greatest among you, let him be your servant” is an “inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity.”
It was in this inversion of wisdom and sanity that, as the Jews came to arrest the master they could not distinguish Him from his disciples. Normally, a master should be distinguishable from his disciples by the trappings and symbols of power and authority on him. But in demonstration of His teaching on humility and its associated inversion of rules and norms, the master, Jesus, blended in with His disciples. It took the kiss of Judas to reveal Him to the Jews.
In Nigerian Christendom, it will not require the kiss of a Judas to identify the master (pastor, prophet or general overseer) because they are detectably different from their disciples and flock by their spruce outfits, special seats in designated sections of the church, and the bowing and kneeling of people before them. They will also be revealed by their pompous strutting, superciliousness and empty ogaism. Jesus preached and evinced humility, rebelled against everything privileged, and struggled for the equality of all, but, ironically, many Nigerian pastors are arrogant and imperious.
Ordinarily, the church is a bastion of incorruptibility, and a sturdy bulwark against pervading and encircling societal vices because Christians, especially pastors, should be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. But, in Nigeria, the evils and decadence of the society permeated and dominated the church, and many pastors, especially, one man own Pentecostal church pastors became incorrigibly selfish, insatiably greedy, incurably dishonest and ruthlessly obsessed with power and money.
Fixated on power and money, and laden with unbecoming attributes, they jettisoned the kernel of Christianity for its peripheral, prosperity. Prosperity Doctrine is falsehood aimed at lining the pastors’ pockets and building their financial empires. It enables them to sustain their lavish lifestyles, maintain fleet of luxury cars, purchase private jets and indulge their sinister fancies – all – at the financial strangulation of their congregations.
To use the word of God to advance the quest for power and wealth, new age Pentecostalism fashioned it into a tool for cultivating the pastor’s mystique and personality cult, and elevating him to an object of supreme exaltation, even worship. The deliberate apotheosis of the pastor and its consequent intimidation of the congregation into unquestioning obedience to him and emptying of their pockets into the offering box as offering, tithes, first fruit, and seeds is priestcraft.
The religious historian, Robert Brow, once defined priestcraft as, “The rise of a group of people (pastors/priests/prophets) that claim to control access to God, and who suggest that offering of sacrifice (tithes, first fruit, sowing of seed, etc) is the meritorious act which forces God to grant favors” and blessings. The excessive veneration of pastors and purposed falsehood that underpin priestcraft undermines the essence of Christianity. They make “void the word of God,” and strip Christianity of its essential ingredients: the fruits of the spirit.
“Priestcraft”, Brow wrote, “stifles individual piety, truth and justice and divorces morality from religion.” It is the stifling of individual piety, truth and justice and divorce of morality from Christianity that explains the paradox of Nigerian Christianity. How can a country inundated with the Christian doctrine, which is founded on love, humility, compassion, lawfulness, etc., be full of hate, haughtiness, cruelty, lawlessness, etc? How can our neighborhoods be studded with churches, and Christians are endlessly praying, exhorting, preaching and evangelizing, but the country is a vast scene of moral squalor, honeycombed with crooks, electoral fraudsters, thieves of public funds, ritual killers, etc.?
It is because the religious elite cannot provide the desperately needed moral and spiritual leadership because, in their priestcraft, they call evil good, and exalt prosperity without piety and blessings without righteousness. Although the Bible states that God “hates robbery for burnt offering”, they preach that irrespective of the source (robbery, fraud, ritual killing and other forms of criminality) of your money, as long as you sacrifice to God in offerings, tithe, first fruit and seed, God will continue to bless you, favor you and answer your prayers.
That is, they preach and prophesy that despite sinfulness and depravity, Christians will continue to enjoy blessings and prosperity, as long as they continue to sacrifice to God. The use of sacrifice to obtain blessings and prosperity in total disregard for God’s commandments and fruits of the spirit is magic, and the identical twin of magic is idolatry. A religious system devoid of individual piety, truth and justice, and divorced from morality that thrives on the apotheosis of men, “who control access to God”, and deification of money, which “forces God” to action is not Christianity but idolatry.
The word idolatry might sound inappropriate and scandalous in the description of Nigerian Christianity. But even, as we do not bow to, and sacrifice to, the golden calf, there can still be idols in our lives. “The essence of idolatry”, wrote David Klinghoffer “is setting up authorities” and obsessions “in competition with, or to the negation of, God”. Therefore, idol worshipping can “manifest itself in every age, in one form of the other.” What authorities and obsessions have new age Pentecostalism set up in competition with God?
It is false pastors that are adored and worshipped because they are “infallible mouthpieces” of God, with total “control of access to God.” It is also money, the wild obsession of the Nigerian society, which, in addition to its worldly utility and influence, also “forces God to grant favors and blessings” and which God continues to heap on those that continue to sacrifice to Him in offerings, tithes, first fruits and seeds.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

We are all men of God
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

The Highlife maestro, Oliver de Coque, once sang, “Wherever I am, God gives me good music; when I am asleep, God gives me good music; when I am awake, God gives me good music”. In response to a question about composing songs, Michael Jackson replied, “I don’t understand this thing about writing songs. I think it is spiritual. I think it is heavenly”. The two men talked about their musical inspirations coming from divine, spiritual realm, from God.
God’s first instructions to man are, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over (it)”. In the rigor and drudgery of upholding these divine commands, we are, sometimes, jubilant, frustrated, and flustered, and, we also, sometimes, fall in love, fall out of love, and even, get heartbroken. Irrespective of the moods and circumstances engendered by our determined labor to carry out these instructions of God, music comes handy: soothing, encouraging, inspiring, bracing, etc.
On my first job as a mortgage banker, I worked for a 35 year old millionaire. She made about two million dollars every year. Once, in a discussion with her, I talked about, “What people sow is what they reap”. She seemed a little puzzled, and asked me, “Do you think so”? I replied yes, because the Bible says so. She asked me, “For real, the Bible says so”? Evidently, this young, successful lady did not frequent the church, and barely read the Bible. The pastors and their preaching and demands for offerings, tithe, first fruit and sowing of seed had very little or no influence on her life.
But, it would have been impossible for her to manage a mortgage bank, employing, training and supervising mortgage bankers to fulfill their professional responsibilities to the public, advancing the public good, which is the Will of God, without an education. Therefore, teachers played more pivotal and beneficial roles in her life than pastors. In doing their work as educators; educating and enlightening humanity, exorcizing the beast in man, and making the world a more discipline and livable place, teachers are doing the Will of God.
Just like musicians and teachers, everyone is called, inspired and anointed by God to play a given role towards the divine mission to be fruitful, and dominate the earth. We are individually special to God; He thought about each of us in a special way. Not surprisingly, he created us with individualized identities, talents and destinies; and assigned us unique roles, as writers, medical doctors, architects, pastors/prophets, etc. Therefore, we are all men of God.
The calling of the pastor/prophet is not superior to that of the other professionals. In orthodox churches, pastors, educated and trained, have a better understanding of the word of God. As such, they respect other professionals and restrict themselves to their duties, which are generally ecclesiastical. They do not own their individual churches, and are therefore subject to church authority, and regulated by Christian ethics and church cannons. Consequently, they play by the rules.
The advent of new age Pentecostalism significantly altered the roles of pastors and the tenor of church doctrine in Nigeria. With their perversion of the word of God, they acquired an exploitative, manipulative and intrusive influence on the lives of Christians. Many of the new age Pentecostal pastors lack education and training, and the calling of God to be pastors. Many of them rose from the ranks of the uneducated, unemployed, and unemployable, and some, from among the hungry and homeless that sought shelter in the church. Their presence in the church made them readily available to the pastors, who assigned them roles within the church, and with time, made them assistants, which provided them the launching pad for takeoff on their own as pastors and church owners.
A once never-do-well that is now a pastor has an inferiority complex and a chip on the shoulder. In addition, because they own and control their individual churches, they are not subject to any supervisory and/or disciplinary authority. If not strictly regulated, a pastor, with an inferiority complex and a chip on the shoulder; without education and training, and consequently, devoid of the discipline and sense of responsibility the job a pastor demands; and not subject to any corrective authority because he is the sole owner and controller of his church; can be dangerous to the society.
Many of them are misleading, manipulating and exploiting their congregants. They acquire prophetic powers, sometimes, in dalliance with satanic forces; cultivate a personality cult; and terrify their church members into total submission to their personal will. They claim exclusive access to God, and declare that the offering of sacrifices (tithes, first fruit, seeds, etc) forces God to answer prayers and grant blessings. They apotheosize themselves, and become the object of worship to their members. Therefore, it is not uncommon for members to be kneeling down before their pastors, and literally, worshiping them, which is idolatry.
In all, they establish, and continually reinforce their menacing and mesmeric grip on the minds of their church members. Thus, with easy, they dispossess them of their money, in the name of offerings, tithe, seeds, first fruits, etc; seduce unsuspecting women, including married women and under-age girls; break up marriages; and indulge their weird, ghoulish, and even, demonic fantasies.
It behooves every Christian to study the Bible. The knowledge of the word of God is a sturdy bulwark against the wiles of deceitful pastors. With the knowledge of the Word, it will crystallize to you that we are all men of God, with access to God; money does not buy God blessings and answers to payers; and no man but God is deserving of your worship. Jesus Christ came to raise believers, not pastors, and all the promises of God are for believers and those that do the will of God, not exclusively for pastors.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

The solution is not in restructuring
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

Recently, President Mohammadu Buhari took a verbal swipe at the agitators and proponents of restructuring. He characterized them as “naïve and ignorant”. The president’s scoff at restructuring and its advocates irked many Nigerians; and elicited their criticisms of him. The generality of Nigerians are passionate supporters of restructuring Nigeria. Without much understanding of its significance and specifics, they are singing its praises, extolling and touting it, as something of a panacea to all our political and social problems.
The restructuring of Nigeria will not provide a solution to our innumerable and immeasurable problems because the wellspring of our problems is attitudinal, not constitutional. It is our perverted attitude towards the law – our entrenched penchant for breaking the law – that is the hemlock of the Nigerian society. Most of our national problems and maladies are direct consequences of lawlessness. And they can only be resolved or significantly reduced by an attitudinal change towards the law, not by endless tinkering with the constitution. With our culture of lawlessness, any constitution, irrespective of how exquisitely written, and the ideals it embodies, will be violated and abused. So, until Nigerians learn to respect the rule of law, no constitutional arrangement can work effectively in Nigeria.
Our law books abound with magnificent laws. If we obey these laws, our present constitution, even, with its obvious flaws, provides the basis for building a peaceful, democratic, secured and just society. With obedience to the law by the generality of Nigerians, the political class will seize to be corrupt, fraudulent, election-rigging, grasping, and money-stealing panjandrums. They will become public servants, completely subject to the will and legitimate aspirations of the people. Inevitably, Nigerian citizens will rise from pawns and stooges in an elite power game to become the focus of the interest, concern and actions of their elected and appointed government officials and every institution of government. Are these not the essence of a democratic, secured and just society, irrespective of the specifics of the constitution?
While there is a need to restructure Nigeria, we have placed much emphasis and misplaced hope on it. The devolution of more powers and fiscal responsibilities to the states will not automatically elevate our societal morals and ethics. “Characters are not so easily changed as laws”. So, a restructured Nigeria will not automatically relieve our moral and ethical surrealism; our moral squalor and ingrained proclivity for lawlessness will persist.
All tiers of government will still be run by the same iniquitous political clique matchless in their official brutality, arrogance of power, and buccaneering despoliation of the country. Invariably, the system will remain what it has always been: anarchistic and unjust. Without an attitudinal shift towards the law among Nigerians, no constitutional arrangement will appreciably improve the Nigerian situation. She will remain a disorderly country steep in corruption, social injustice, official brutality and mass poverty.
However, it is somewhat perplexing that President Buhari unequivocally denounced restructuring. After all, it is one of the planks of his political party’s (All People Congress) platform. It is obvious that despite their lip service to restructuring, the Nigerian power elite are averse to it. The former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who is now a fervent advocate of restructuring, did not restructure Nigeria in his eight years of presidency. And our Christianized, congenial, gentleman president, Goodluck Jonathan, also failed to do it.
The yarn that with the exception of those from the Northeast and Northwest geo-political zones, the senators are all for restructuring is suspect. With three senators from every state, the four geo-political zones that supposedly support it have a majority in the senate. Why have these senate aficionados of restructuring, with their majority in the senate, not started the legislative process to restructure Nigeria? Simple, irrespective of tribe, religion, zone and party affiliation, the power elite do not want to restructure the country. They are very comfortable with the status quo; and will not countenance any momentous change to it.
In the same speech that he condemned restructuring, the president made a strong and pertinent case for the financial independence of local governments and state judiciaries. In their greed and hypocrisy, the governors are opposed to these because they want to continue to emasculate the local governments, expropriate their funds, and manipulate, and even, scuttle their elections. They also want to retain a financial choke on the state judiciaries, and continue to bend them to their personal wills.
From the dishonesty and equivocation of the Nigeria political class on restructuring, President Buhari stood out: he stated his unambiguous position on the matter. Secondly, against the opposition of state governors, and even, the federal legislators, he is resolutely advancing the financial independence of local governments and state judiciaries. Unfortunately, his demonstrated virtues of honesty and courage are anathemas in the unpromising conundrum of Nigerian politics.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908


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Nigeria: The unscramblity of a scrambled egg
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

The different peoples of Nigeria made contiguous by geography, roped together by British colonialism, and bound by political and economic forces, and to a considerable extent, social and cultural agglutinants are so intertwined to the point of being scrambled together like a scrambled egg. Just, as you cannot unscramble a scrambled egg - separate a scrambled egg into its constituent units - you cannot dismember Nigeria. Therefore, the clamor by any group of Nigerians to unilaterally secede from Nigeria is fantastic absurdity.

It is either nauseating sophistry or overwhelming ignorance to argue that Nigeria cannot succeed as a country because it is a product of colonialism, and its continued unity was dictated by force of arms. Many successful countries were products of colonialism, and the unities of many countries of the world were dictated by wars.

The ultimate democracy, and the richest and most powerful country in the world, the United States of America, is a product of British colonialism, and her unity was preserved by war, the American Civil War. It was the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American civil war that sealed the American union. Therefore, in the parlance of the separatist forces in Nigeria, American unity is a “forced marriage”. But her unity remains inviolable and none negotiable. The unity of the most populous country in the world and the emergent economic and military superpower, China, is also a “forced marriage”. It was Mao Tse Tung’s Communist Army’s defeat and routing of Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist army from mainland China in 1949 that ended centuries of Chinese warlordism, disunity and civil wars. Despite being a “forced marriage”, her unity is sacrosanct and unquestionable.

Nigerian unity was not imposed by fiat by the British. Before Nigerian independence, the different peoples of Nigeria, after exhaustive debates and considerations, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, resolved to continue to co-exist in one country. Just as the secessionists were defeated in America, Zaire, Vietnam and so many other countries of the world, they were defeated in the Nigeria civil war; and Nigerian unity re-established. And, as the unities of these countries unified by war have remained inviolable and none negotiable, the unity of Nigeria is sacrosanct and immutable.

The post-Second World War geo-political dynamics made colonialism untenable; and the independence of colonized countries of the world, including Nigeria, became inevitable. The war time American president, Franklin Roosevelt, wanted immediate independence for more politically enlightened colonial entities, like India, and a long process of preparation for independence for yet backward colonial entities, like Nigeria. He died shortly before the end of the war, and his desire for “long process of preparation for independence” was not factored into the decolonization of Nigeria.

In retrospect, a protracted period of preparing Nigerians for independence would have been better than the accelerated process that made Nigeria independent on October1st, 1960. At the time of independence, the Nigerian power elite were yet to imbibe the political skills and refinement, and the attitudinal disposition for leading a democracy. Secondly, the emergent country was not a nation, but a welter of ethnic groups, with their competing and conflicting tribal and political interests. However, just as in India, Malaysia, etc, British colonialism laid a good foundation for Nigeria to take off as a modern, though, Third World country. And despite the problems besetting the nascent country, Nigeria worked.

Nigerian worked under the First Republic responsible and committed leadership. There was law and order; the crime rate was extremely low. There were thieves, mostly pick pockets and burglars, but virtually no armed robbers. The police were not armed with guns; they maintained law and order with just batons. Our academic standards, as established by the colonial government, and maintained by the Nigerian governments, were of world class. Nigerian universities, particularly, the University of Ibadan, especially, its medical school, ranked among the best in the world. At a point, Eastern Region of Nigeria had the fastest growing economy in the world. The Western Region government built the first television station, and the biggest stadium in Black Africa. It also had an efficient and effective free primary education system. And similar successes were replicated in northern Nigeria. Therefore, to suggest that Nigeria has never worked is brazen falsehood.

The series of seemingly intractable problems presently plaguing Nigeria did not stem from British colonialism and/or forced unity of Nigeria, but mostly from military rule. Soldiers are trained to kill or be killed. Consequently, they subconsciously live today as though they are dying tomorrow. Those with little care for the future must be financially reckless and compulsive pleasure-seekers. And there was the oil boom to finance their extravagance and hedonism. It was that lamentable mix of oil boom and military involvement in politics, and its attendant corrupt, amoral and profligate governments that complicated the problems of Nigeria.

It was bad leadership that ran Nigeria aground. Corollary, it is responsible and committed leadership, not the breakup of Nigeria, that will transform Nigeria. It can rightly be argued that there are limits to what good leadership can do; it can only lead within parameters already defined by the society. But have the annals of nations not furnished the instructive precedence that leadership can make the dramatic difference?

Just, as it has done in different countries of the world, leadership can lift Nigeria from the quagmire of corruption and moral decadence to a pedestal of probity and decency; gloom of anarchy and social injustice to a new dawn of the rule of law and social justice; enervating bigotry and tribalism to restorative fairness and unified sense of purpose; etc. Yes, good leadership can resolve the problems of Nigerian, over time, because it will readily rise to the object of responsible government, which is “to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man”.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

The Nigerian oil-rich poverty
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

History has demonstrated that democracy is a fount of political stability, social justice, rule of law, principled distribution of wealth and over all societal progress. It has improved the standards of political morality, elevated societal ethics and refined the value system in many countries of the world. Lamentably, in the topsy-turvy world of our beloved country, Nigeria, democracy has not been attended with any of these laudable outcomes. It has been fraught with social injustice, lawlessness, inequity, poverty, repression of free speech, and most disturbingly, insecurity and the demeaning of human lives.
Most Nigerians are not politically fastidious; our concerns are limited to the mundane and pedestrian. We long for the basic essentials of life: jobs, food on the table, education for children, electricity, water, security from criminal predators, and protection from the inhumanities of governing officials and agents of government. Unfortunately, after more than twenty years of democracy, our basic expectations of democracy continue to elude us.
In their hypocrisy, our rulers posture as democrats and sentinels of the public good, but are, in essence, tyrannical and voracious feudal lords. Shelter in their cocoons, they live in islands of affluence and extravagance in an ocean of poverty, gloom and misery. Their thievery and profligacy make it impossible for most Nigerians to share in the general prosperity of the country. So, while the political elite and their cronies maintain life-styles that amaze even the rich and the famous of the wealthiest countries of the world, a frightening proportion of Nigerians are trapped in extreme poverty.
A onetime United States of American Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, once called Nigeria “the poorest oil-rich nation in the world”. What an oxymoron – oil-rich poverty? It was an appropriate characterization of Nigeria because despite her oil wealth, she ranks with the poorest and war-torn countries of the world in life expectancy, child mortality, and other social indexes. Life is a cruel grind for countless Nigerians; so many are consumed by the drudgery for daily existence. Many families can barely eat one square meal a day. Many survive as scavengers, rummaging through trash dumps for edibles, reusable items and sellable scraps; and as street hawkers, thronging the streets hoping to eke out a living by selling water, soft drinks, fruits, etc to motorists and pedestrians.
Many Nigerians, even in urban areas, do not have access to clean drinkable water. Consequently, dirt borne diseases, like malaria and Typhoid fever, are very prevalent; people suffer and die from these readily preventable and treatable diseases. Many, especially, in urban areas, are homeless: living in open air and under the bridges. Some of the supposedly lucky ones that can afford housing inhabit decrepit and dilapidated houses, just hovels and pigsties. In them, people are crowded, sometimes, up to 10 persons in one room in dusty, filthy, festering, trash strewn neighborhoods, with gutters clogged with filth and debris, and streets pock-marked with pot holes.
While we generally train our focus and criticisms on the federal government, the state governors are just as corrupt, irresponsible and dictatorial. Without financially independence, state legislatures lack the independence and intrepidity of a serious parliament; they are rubber stamp parliaments. The governors are essentially provincial despots; their powers are uninhibited. Each governor appropriates from state coffers, at least, five hundred million naira every month, as security vote. The security vote is unaccounted for; it is spent strictly at the discretion of the governor. In their avarice and wastefulness, some state governors refuse to pay state employees for months, sometimes, for more than twelve months. And those that demand a partial payment of their backlog salaries are severely punished.

It has been written that, “Money is like muck, not good unless it is spread”. As such, “the best antidote for political upheaval is equitable distribution of wealth”. Corollary, the most potent trigger of political turmoil is inequitable distribution of wealth. The social injustice and income disparity in Nigeria will inevitably lead to political turmoil. In our present political passivity and docility, we seem to have forgotten that we have, in the past, risen up, in protest, against exploitative and oppressive powers. Long ago, we successfully rallied against a colonial power and wrest the country from its grip. More recently, we rose up in protest against the repudiation of the collective will of the people – the annulment of the June 12 election - by gun-toting generals.

Nigerians need to break the vicious grip of our evil rulers, and bring to an end their looting and tearing down the country and deliberate impoverishment of the Nigerian masses. To do these, we must unite in agitation against the iniquitous cabal that rules this country. It is collective, courageous, sustained and strategically directed agitation that will break its ruthless grip on the country and force it to reform its ways.

The killing of peaceful, flag waving, national anthem-singing protesters was to intimidate Nigerians into passivity. However, Nigerians must muster the guts and gumption to start another more elaborate, better organized and protracted protest against this government. After all, has the cudgel of the International Criminal Court (ICC) not fallen on many dictators that wantonly murdered the innocent? Secondly, has history not demonstrated that those that wanted to maintain their power, with guns and bayonets in defiance of the legitimate aspirations of the people have always kissed the dust?

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

Where was the genocide?[b][/b]
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

To characterize a scale of mass-murder that defied the English lexicon, Raphael Lemkin coined a new word, “genocide”, from the Greek word “geno”, meaning tribe, nation or people and from the Latin word, “cide”, conjugated from “caedere” – to kill. He was writing about the Nazi policy of deliberate, systematic extermination of entire nationalities in Axis-occupied Europe. Although the forces of secession in Nigeria has endlessly bandied around the word “genocide”, there has never been any act of genocide in Nigeria.
Leading up to the civil war, there were two anti-Igbo riots in northern Nigeria in May 29th to 31st 1966, and September 29th to early October, 1966, and an anti-Igbo coup of July 29th 1966. In the two riots, about ten thousand Igbo were killed but the Biafran propaganda bumped up the figure to 30,000. And in the anti-Igbo coup, Aguiyi Ironsi and about 300 Igbo soldiers were killed. These were in reprisal to the January 15th 1966 coup by one Yoruba and four Igbo majors that killed the two most important Hausa/Fulani political leaders and four highest ranking army officers, without killing any Igbo leader; insulting of the memory of the most important northern political leader, Ahmadu Bello, by Igbo living in northern Nigeria: and Ironsi’s Decree 34. Following the September/October pogrom in the North, there was a half-hearted reprisal killing of northerners in Eastern Region; a few hundred of them died.
During the war, in some rare cases, both Nigerian and Biafran soldiers massacred civilians, either in hate or suspicion. At Asaba, the Muritala Mohammed commanded Second Division, out of hate, murdered 500 to 700 Igbo. In Ikot Ekpene, Ogoniland and other Biafran minority areas, Biafran soldiers, out of suspicion of sabotage, murdered thousands of Biafran minorities. But there was no plan or attempt, on either side, to exterminate any tribe or nation.
After the capture of Enugu by federal forces, my cousin, and her family returned to Enugu. They ran a restaurant, selling food and drinks to Nigerian soldiers and Igbo civilians. Like the Igbo that lived behind “Enemy Lines”, they lived their lives and went about their normal businesses till the end of the war. That is, as the war raged, some Igbo lived in parts of Biafra already captured by Nigerian soldiers, and the “vandals”, “genocidal maniacs” did not kill them. As the war ended, the Nigerian government, with its “genocidal policy”, released Biafran prisoners, both soldiers and civilians. Ironically, Biafra had no prisoner to release because, in our “saintliness” and “godliness”, we had killed every Nigerian soldier we ever captured. The Nigerian government had no genocidal policy, and the Nigerian army did not wantonly kill Biafran civilians. It was a fact attested to by international observers.

As in every war, people died in the Nigeria civil war. Soldiers died from two armies fighting and killing each other, and civilians died from collateral damages of war, mostly air raids and hunger. Since the Second World War, the bombing and strafing of civilian centers have been legitimate acts of warfare. Had Allied war planes, in a sustained bombing raid, not destroyed sections of the German city of Dresden and killed about 25, 000 (some estimated 50, 000) German civilians? So, as the Nigerian Air Force bombed and strafed civilian centers in Biafra, it was in exigencies of war, not in an act of genocide. Since history, people have starved in wars. In the First World War, about 750, 000 Germans starved to death, and in the Second World War, millions of people died from hunger. TV footages of wars around the world, like in Yemen and Syria, show images of starving civilians. Was it not self-deceit for Biafrans to expect that their enemy, the Nigerian government, will feed them?

As Chukwuemeka Ojukwu finally ran away, Biafra surrendered unconditionally. And it became evident that the talk about a planned extermination of the Igbo by the Gowon government was colossal nonsense. We were pleasantly surprised by the federal forces: they were disciplined and benign; they bothered no one and killed no one.

In his book, Why the Jews rejected Jesus, David Klinghoffer, wrote that, “Widespread misinformation poisons a culture”. The lingering grip of the misinformation of the Biafran propaganda on Igbo minds is poisoning Igbo culture, psyche and mindset. The belief in the lies that, for no offense of ours, all the other ethnic groups of Nigeria, unified by their relentless hatred against us, massacred us, drove us from Nigeria and still followed us to our home region to fight us and exterminate us is psychologically ravaging the Igbo. It fills us with angry, bitterness, hate and suspicion. With the Igbo collective mind laden with so much anger, resentment, hate and distrust towards Nigeria and other Nigerians, we cannot experience the full depth and dimensions of our political life in Nigeria.
For our own good, we must start freeing ourselves from the psychological, emotional and sentimental fetters of Biafranism. Despite the intrusive availability of accurate information on the civil war, many Igbo prefer to cling to the falsehood of the Biafran propaganda. Thus, they remain captives to the past, Biafra, and giddy with the excrescence – abnormal outgrowth – of Biafra, neo-Biafranism. Neo-Biafranism is a flight into fantasy. It makes them reject a real country and grasp at a daydream country, which is a major source of our political dilemma; it enervates us, politically, and erodes our political relevance in Nigeria.
Already, our political fortune has plummeted to a lamentable low. A proud and resourceful people that once held sway across the entire spectrum of the Nigerian social life now whimper over trivialities, and prattle like political destitute and beggars. And a people, once led by one of the greatest political minds of the 20th Century, Nnamdi Azikiwe, are now being hoodwinked by a blustering ruffian, vulgar parvenu, and inexhaustible liar, Nnamdi Kanu.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes in Lagos, Nigeria
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

President Buhari: the inability to make hard choices

By Tochukwu Ezukanma



The former American Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, once summed up the follies of the Nigerian power elite, “They have squandered their oil wealth, they have allowed corruption to fester and now they are losing control of parts of their territory because they won’t make hard choices”. Despite his much-hyped incorruptibility and moral courage, President Buhari, like earlier Nigerian presidents, has failed to make hard choices.

Consequently, political power continues to be wielded as an enemy of the people by self-absorbed power elite, and a shady, spooky, self-seeking cabal continues to pull its oligarchic strings from behind the façade of democracy. Power exercised as an enemy of the people ignores the legitimate aspirations of the people and subverts equity and social justice. It steals from the people and panders to the avarice of an elite few. It promotes the unjustifiable affluence of the political class and their cronies and relegates the generality of the people to hard poverty and insufferable misery.

While Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world, Nigerian workers live on the lowest minimum wage in the world. The income per capita in America is twenty times that of Nigeria, but Nigerian senators earn nearly three times as much as American senators and more than the American president. Is this not, in essence, robbery, robbery colorfully festooned as legislative remuneration? In addition to their legitimized robbery, the legislators still splurge excessive amounts of money on other perks of office, for example, the spending of N5.6billion for the purchase of new SUV for senators. In the 2021 budget, the feeding and travel allowances for the president and vice president are N3.97billion. It rends the heart and boggles the mind when the greed and extravagance of our rulers are considered against the backdrop that Nigeria has the greatest concentration of extreme poverty in the world.

With government institutions bloated and wasteful, a preponderant percentage of the budget is spent on recurrent expenditure and debt servicing. The total expenditure for the 2021 budget is 13.58 trillion naira, with a deficit of 5.2 trillion naira. The deficit will be financed by loans from the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and countries like Brazil, and sales and concessions of none-oil assets. Borrowing to invest in public infrastructure, health, education, and law enforcement is laudable economics, but borrowing to service debts and sustain bloated and wasteful institutions is woeful economics. In the 2021 budget, only 30.4 percent of the total budget is for capital expenditure. The percentage of the budget devoted to education, health, and the police is distressingly low. For example, Nigeria has high malaria burden and mortality rate, but only N297million was budgeted to fight malaria in 2021.

Despite Buhari’s claptrap about fighting corruption, Nigeria remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The toll of corruption on the country is terrifyingly evident. For example, it enervates the war against crimes, like kidnapping and banditry, and the war against terror. With the resources already committed to the war against terror, Boko Haram should have been defeated, or severely weakened to the point of not constituting a major military threat. Paradoxically, it remains a potent military force; striking at civilian and military targets at will, and overrunning sections of the country. This is because some powerful interests are benefiting, financially, from the endless war. An endless war necessitates endless budgeting of endless billions of dollars for the war and the endless sharing and salting them away into the private pockets of the military hierarchy, politicians, and other government officials.

The refusal to make hard choices explains the intractable problem of inadequate electric generation in Nigeria. The “spending” of significant amounts of money to increase power generation with nothing to show for it continues under the Buhari administration. Does common sense not dictate that to entrust the responsibility to revamp power generation on those that gain from lack of power is fantastic absurdity? Those that benefit from the inexplicable trillions of naira paid to oil marketers for nonexistent subsidies; importers of refined fuel that fuel private generation of power; and importers of generators cannot solve the problem of power generation. Not surprisingly, darkness holds sway over Nigeria.

The president is unable to subordinate his nepotism, tribalism, and commitment to Fulani expansionism to the peace of the country; his administration encourages the murderous binge of Fulani herdsmen across central and southern Nigeria. Under the pretext of seeking grazing area, Fulani herdsmen have been raping women; killing innocent men, women, and children; and razing, seizing, and renaming peoples’ villages. It is blindingly clear that these have nothing to do with grazing, but the advancement of Fulani irredentism. By emboldening Fulani terrorists and encouraging Fulani blood-soaked expansionism, President Buhari is nudging Nigeria towards a civil war.

Making hard choices is challenging. It demands courage, principles, and the resolve to subordinate selfish, cliquish, oligarchic, nepotistic, and tribal interests to the collective good of the country. In addition, it demands genuineness, transparency, and accountability. The Buhari administration cannot meet these demands because Buhari is laden with all the vices of previous Nigerian rulers. As such, like previous administrations, his administration cannot make the hard choices.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria

maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

Trumpism: the lessons for Nigeria
By Tochukwu Ezukanma [b][/b]

Many Nigerians gloated over the invasion of the United States’ Capitol by President Trump’s supporters because they subliminally found solace in it. The solace being that, if the oldest and most stable democracy in the world can be plagued by such political upheaval, we can justifiably excuse away the abysmal social and political standards, and political bungling, of our fledgling democracy. But, in that episode, there are lessons, not alibis, for Nigerians.
Despite the congeries that have been associated with civilization, civilization is most importantly about what the ancient Greek writers called, “taming the savageness of man and making gentle the life of this world”. Over thousands of years, different cultures and countries of the world succeeded, in varying degrees, in taming the savageness of man. Western countries are the most successful in this civilizing enterprise. More than the other peoples of the world, they evolved the most genteel and just societies, and made “gentle the life of this world”.
It is tempting to attribute this feat to the genetic superiority of the races that inhabit the West. However, as Harry Barnes rightfully noted, “All efforts to prove the superiority of one race or sub-race of man over another turned out unsuccessful”. It is not a race, but culture, cultural skills and attitudinal disposition that are most significant in determining human development. The differences in social accomplishment and human development between races, for example, White and Black, are more cultural and attitudinal than genetic. Race is strictly a physical matter that has no relation to intelligence and cultural attainment.
In every human soul, no matter how barbaric or civilized, lurk conflicting proclivities for savagery and civility History has demonstrated that even amongst the civilized, wealthy and materially efficient, savageness has sometimes triumphed in this duel between savageness and civilization in man. No wonder, Donald Trump, a billionaire, superlative achiever in business and politics and the president of the world’s oldest, greatest and wealthiest democracy can be a barbarian.
The election of Trump president in 2016 was a backlash to eight years of Barack Obama presidency. The election of Obama as the president of America, a predominantly White country, with its entrenched and intractable racism seemed impossible and was an unpardonable affront to White Supremacists and other racist and ultra-conservative White Americans. Trumpism gave expression to some of the deepest instincts of these Americans. Trump is an epitome of White American implacable racism and hard-core conservatism. For a delusional narcissist that expects to always win, Trump alleges rigging each time he loses. So, quite naturally, to him, because he lost the November 4th, 2020 presidential election, the election was rigged.
It was leadership as personified by Trump that awakened the dormant savagery in his supporters and channeled it to exceedingly disruptive ends. His supporters fenestrated their sense of demureness, respect for the law, reference for the popular will and democratic institutions; and desecrated the ultimate citadel of American democracy, the Capitol. They breached security, scaled walls, broke down windows and doors, entered offices of congressmen and senators, strewed official papers around, carted away artifacts, and planted pipe bombs. Their willful and ruthless destructiveness was repulsively redolent of the vandalism of the Vandals in 5th Century Europe.
Following the 2015 Nigerian presidential election, leadership, as personified by Goodluck Jonathan brought out the best in Nigerians. Many Jonathan supporters were ready to reject the election results and slug it out with the opposition. They were roiled and ready for trouble. It was the words of Jonathan that engendered the triumph of decorum over savageness in that inner duel among his supporters. With his concession speech, he restrained his crestfallen and agitated supporters, and stunned and sobered his overjoyed opponents. And, inescapably, peace reigned.
Is the lesson not obvious? It is all about leadership. The power, influence and consequences of leadership are so enormous and all-encompassing that it literally defines a people, nation or country. The words of a leader unleashed anarchy in America, a civilized, efficient and orderly country, and the words of a leader brought peace to Nigeria, a vast scene of confusion, renowned for its dysfunction and anarchistic propensity. By their words and actions, leaders shape the country: bring about peace or war, poverty and prosperity, rule of law or anarchy, etc. Invariably, Nigeria is in its present disgraceful state because of the irresponsible utterances and dishonorable actions of our leaders.
It is therefore high time we paid painstaking attention to the quality of men and women we elect to power in every stratum of our governments. We must carefully scrutinize them, meticulously pore over their education, mindset, credibility, patriotism, commitment to the collective good, etc because the quality of a leader must invariably reflect on the people/country he leads. And for those already elected to office, we have to continually engage them: demanding accountability, responsibility, elevated morals and ethics, equity, and social justice.
The #EndSARS protest was very exhilarating because it was a major attempt, in a very long time, to hold the Nigerian power elite accountable. Lamentably, it was not sustained: it fizzled out once soldiers opened fire on the protesters. To expect a reformation of the Nigerian government, and subsequently, the transformation of the Nigerian society without loss of lives is quixotic. It is starry-eyed optimism and infantile naiveté. Just, as there cannot be birth without loss of blood, there cannot be national re-birth without loss of blood.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

President Buhari and the deranging effect of power
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

Power, not tenoned and mortised - dictatorial and tyrannical powers - is hypnotic, and sometimes, deranging. Not surprisingly, history is strewn with lamentable and regrettable bombasts and blunders of despots and tyrants deranged by power. Democratic power is legitimate, benign power. It derives from the ultimate repository, and the most genuine source, of power: the people; it is a selfless servant of the people. It appreciates that the people are not pawns in an elite power game, but the focus of the interests, concerns, policies and actions of elected and appointed government officials and every institution of government. Consequently, democratic power is neither hypnotic nor deranging.
The Nigerian aberration is that democratically elected governments routinely degenerate to bumbling, blundering dictatorships. Therefore, instead of being selfless public servants, the Nigerian ruling elite are a band of over-paid, profligate, hedonistic and money-stealing panjandrums. President Buhari is a dictator. He is not known for his oratorical flourishes, and has, consequently, not displayed the usual arrogant and megalomaniac bombasts of dictators. But he has dramatized the other characteristics of despots, like intolerance for political opposition and repression of free speech.
Therefore, he is susceptible to the hypnotic and deranging effects of power. It was in the deranging effect of power that he refused to heed the message of the #EndDARS protesters. It was in the deranging effect of power that he ordered the shooting and killing of peaceful protesters waving the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem. The #EndSARS protest was a dirge, laden with a message from the generality of Nigerians for the government. The message is cogent, lucid and loud: Nigerians are sick and tired of the status quo. It is an unconscionable status quo buoyed by an evil oligarchy that has, for so long, retained a monopoly grip of power, and deployed power as a ruthless enemy of the people.
It is a status quo that subverts a principled distribution of the national wealth by reinforcing the inordinate wealth of an elite few – politicians, government officials, businessmen, super-star pastors, etc - at the economic strangulation of the masses. It encourages the stealing, sharing, and salting away into personal bank accounts a frightening proportion of the national commonwealth by the political and business elite, and consequently, consigned a preponderant number of Nigerians to poverty, ignorance, homelessness, disease and insecurity.
It is a status quo that superintended over the destruction of the Nigerian educational system, and reduced our universities, once intellectual powerhouses and bastions of academic distinction, to festering quarters of intellectual lassitude and academic mediocrity, and cesspools of “sorting out”, and bribe and sex for grades. Battered by neglect and corruption, our health care delivery system is in a disgraceful state. In their condescending indifference for the country they supposedly serve, the political elite educate their own children overseas, in Western universities, and get their medical treatments, even, routine medical check-ups in America, Britain, etc.
That most notoriously corrupt, trigger-happy and murderous police force in the world, the Nigerian Police Force, is an indispensable tool of the ruling elite. Its brutality and extra-judicial killings are only reflective of the attitude of the ruling elite towards the people. If the corruption and brutality of the Nigerian police are not in conformity with the wishes of the ruling elite, why did the government repeatedly renege on all its earlier promises to ban SARS and reform the police? In their ineffable avarice, every state governor appropriates at least five hundred million naira monthly as security vote. The use of the security vote is at the discretion of the governor and is not accounted for. Still, in their outrageous wickedness, many state governors refuse to pay the salaries of state employees. In some states, civil servants are owed up to 18 months salary. The list of the iniquities of this evil oligarchy is inexhaustible.
In addition, Nigerians are disenchanted with a government that has failed to fulfill the most fundamental of its constitutional obligations: the protection of lives and property and advancement of the peoples’ welfare. Skillfully packaged and presented, Nigerians were captivated by Buhari: his lickerish electoral promises and, what we thought was, his personification of the desiderata for dealing with Nigeria’s myriad of problems: incorruptible uprightness of a moral crusader, indomitable will of a military commander and unbridled candor of a devout Moslem. Unfortunately, the Buhari presidency has been a disaster.
The economy is in doldrums, as the naira continues to depreciate, unemployment soars to perilous heights; hunger intensifies and pervades the country; and Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world. The war on corruption has collapsed into mere trumpery; and the country became even more corrupt. Despite the billions of dollars budgeted and “spent” on the war on terror, Boko Haram remains a potent and effective fighting force. It strikes at military and civilian targets with terrifying facility. Bandits operate with impunity, killing and kidnapping, almost at will. The Buhari administration has demonstrated bewildering contempt for human lives. For example, over the years, it encouraged, at least, tacitly, Fulani herdsmen mass-murder of the innocent and hapless across central and southern Nigeria.
It was in disenchantment for this disgustingly unjust status quo, the evil oligarchy that props it up, and the downright failure of the Buhari administration, that Nigerians spoke out through the #EndSARS protest. The protesters demands are pertinent and legitimate: disbandment of the SARS, overall police reform, and responsibility and accountability in governance. Lamentably, the Buhari administration refused to heed these demands, and, in addition, attacked and killed the protesters.
Nigerians are angry and bitter. If this smoldering anger and bitterness are not assuaged by resolute, far-reaching political and economic reforms, they will burst into flame. To pretend that the Nigerian situation is not edging towards a precipice, and therefore, does not require immediate, determined and wide-ranging reforms is a flight into fantasy, which is a symptom of the hypnotic and deranging effects of power.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908

The problem of Nigeria is elite criminality
By Tochukwu Ezukanma

The crime rate in Nigeria is inconceivable; it literally blows the mind. Factoring in corruption, armed banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killing, Fulani herdsmen unhinged murderousness, etc, Nigeria must have the highest incidence of crime in the world. Routinely, our rulers bewail the spiraling crime rate; and attempt to address it. The problem with their attempts at solving the crime problem is that they train their focus on the symptoms, not on the causes, of the problem.
Not too long, the Kwara State Police Commissioner, Kayode Egbetokun, evidently, expressing the sentiments of the police hierarchy, and, of course, the Buhari administration, said, “Crime has become a huge industry, attracting the greedy and absorbing the get-rich-quick, while constantly tempting and … employing the unemployed in our population”. To him, the solution is in augmenting the Nigeria police with Community Police. This seemingly impressive approach to fighting crime is, for all practical purposes, an exercise in futility. It is another charade that ignores the causes of the crime, and targets the symptoms. The problem of the Nigerian society is the criminality of the Nigerian power elite. As such, no crime fighting strategy or policy can succeed in Nigeria, until the criminality of the ruling elite is successfully dealt with.
It is brazen hypocrisy for a ruling class steep in corruption, theft of public funds, disregard for human lives, and contempt for the rule of law to fight crime. In his condemnation of hypocrisy, Jesus Christ urged the hypocrite to: first cast out the beam out from his eyes before offering to pull out the mote out of his brother’s eye. The problem with the hypocrite was that the beam in his own eyes was obstructing his vision, and thus, distorting his perception. Consequently, he thought there was a mote in his brother’s eye. If he removes the beam in his own eyes, he will see clearly, and realize that there was really nothing in his brother’s eye.
Once, the Nigerian power elite can deal with their own greed, thievery, lawlessness, scorn for human life, etc, it will come to a consternating realization that there is really no crime to fight in the Nigerian society. That what they, all along, perceived as the crime of the Nigerian society was only a reflection of their own crime. Thus, that the evils they, all along, attributed to the people were only mirror images of the evils of the ruling class.
In ancient China, a scandalously corrupt, extravagant and hedonistic king, Chi K’ang Tzu, sought the advice of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, on how to deal with thieves in his kingdom. The philosopher replied, “If you, sir, did not covet things that don’t belong to you, they wouldn’t steal (even) if you paid them to”. He lucidly expressed the nexus between the ways of the ruler(s) and the followers. Rulers are role models; by their conduct and attitudes, they shape the conduct of the masses, and their mindset towards money, work, honesty, patriotism, and virtually everything. Their influence on us is profound; it infuses our homes, work places, schools, even churches. Inescapably, we behave like our leaders.
What can be expected of Nigerians, a people, whose rulers steal the people’s money with the ruthless and avidity that will amaze even the most hardened and conscienceless armed robber? Did the power elite not steal and divert to private bank accounts billions of dollars budgeted for the resuscitation of the power industry; and left an entire country trapped in utter darkness? Although schools were closed down throughout the country and no pupil attended school during the COVID-19 lockdown, the federal government “continued” with its school feeding programs. In its abracadabra, pupils that were at home were being fed at school at the cost of hundreds of billions of naira. It was later alleged that at least 267 billion naira “spent” in the school feeding program was traced to a private account.
What can be expected from those whose role models - a former state governor turned senator and his politically powerful son - stole 535 billion naira from the state coffers? And what can be expected of citizens of a country where each state governor, in his inconceivable avarice and condescending indifference to the economic misery of the masses, in addition to his bloated salary and allowances, still, appropriate for personal use, at least, 500 million naira every month from state coffers? To give this brazen monthly theft a veneer of legitimacy, it is called “security vote”. Still, some governors refuse to pay the monthly salaries of state employees. States, like Imo, Abia, and Kogi owe state employees many months of unpaid salary.
Inescapably, like the horde of brigands and insatiably greedy that we look up to as rulers and role models, Nigerians are liars, thieves, fraudsters, kidnappers, bandits, etc. Any genuine war against crime in Nigeria must first be waged and won within the ranks of the power elite. Once the war is won, the victory will immediately resound within the ranks of the Nigerian masses. The new elevated moral and ethical standards of our rulers will readily cascade to the masses and pervade the entire society, and the crime rate will dwindle to the point of almost insignificance.
But until there is this successful assault on elite criminality, no crime-fighting theory, policy, and strategy can resolve the Nigerian crime problem.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
maciln18@yahoo.com
0803 529 2908