₦airaland Forum

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Happy new year beautiful people and welcome back to our rendezvous.

Permit me to allow fish engage our attention today. It seems the creature is angered by our letting goats, cows chickens and turkeys steal the spotlight as if it never existed. As if it wasn't what we relied on for our animal protein prior to the yuletide. It is justifiably irked that within the last two weeks we've helped our favourite yuletide animals exit this wearisome world without visiting the same favour on it.

Hence, fish has taken us on in protest as we can see in their current prices. Its kind is apparently revolting. Maybe, it figured that we have been this contemptible because it wasn't as costly as the others. That has led it to speak to us in that language we very much understand; when a commodity commands high price, it then becomes suitable to be offered to royals or served at special times.

That's exactly what it has responded to! As a result, its price has rocketed by 20per cent, spoiling to go even higher. To be clear, a carton of the species we call Titus has increased from N10,500 to N13,500, while a carton of the Kote variety now sells for N10,200, up from the N7,500 it sold a month earlier. The locally produced catfish is not left out of the fray as the hike in its imported kind has made its rate far removed from the reach of average income earners in the country.

You may not believe this, but fishkind has found none other ally in subjecting us to this 'correction' than the federal government. Yes, the FG you know! While we understand the grievance of fish, that of the FG which made it get involved in this matter is what we need to decipher. So let's now forget about the avenging and paranoid fish and focus our mind to better understand the relationship our FG have with fishdom.

To be fair to the federal government, it did tell us before hand. This instance is no where near the ambush it perpetrated against us in the 2012 removal of oil subsidy where it caught us totally off guard in the most cavalier manner.

It had in a letter dated October 29, 2013, to fish importers directed them to ensure that all Bills of Lading, conveying fish consignments, dates not later than October 2013 and arrived the Nigerian waters not later than December 31, 2013. This explains why major shipping lines such as Maerskline, Safmarine, Belmas etc stopped the transportation of frozen fish leading to the scarcity of the item.

Though government was fair in specifying exactly when this will happen, it fell short of fairness by not heeding to the outcry that earlier greeted the policy. People have continued to argue that the directive was a ploy to deny the poor masses of their only cheap source of protein and enrich corrupt custom officers. Yet, the last has not been heard of it as the policy is targeted at an annual reduction of fish importation by 25per cent in the next four years by which time we would have attained zero importation of frozen fish.

The fish products that have become staple food in our country, that is the mackerel (titus) and horse mackerel (kote) are not farmed here. They are caught in high seas in Asia, Europe and America, from where we import them. The variant that we cultivate locally is catfish. The problem with it is that it's a tad too expensive for the poor and not widely available.

This situation caused the recourse to fish importation which costs government $600 million yearly. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina is not happy that government is losing such money, hence, he is all about conserving the sum. However, in doing this, he and members of his team appear to be overlooking some vital issues that shouldn't just be overlooked.

For one, it is a basic knowledge that the fundamental ground for import ban is import substitution. It then flies in the face of logic for a country to ban what it cannot produce locally. Where this occurs, it becomes deprivation! That is why it is difficult to fault Daily Sun's Steve Nwosu who, while commenting on the allocation of N34.5m for two animals in Aso Rock Zoo in the 2014 budget, wrote: "... the only assurance I can give those presidency animals is that any day any of them gets so over-
fed that it strays into the streets, it would end up in our soup pots;"

I'm sure most Nigerians would be more than happy to devour those pets in the Aso Villa whenever they have the chance. They wouldn't even mind if it be any of the 'unclean animals'. For when a person is denied something important, anything else that come close comes handy. Even if not as substitutes, there'd be people who think their health status will improve if they feast on them as that would afford them nutritional benefits that animals better fed than princes have to offer.

Aside these Nigerians who just hunger for GEJ's pets, there'd still be those who would gladly prey on the animals to free up the preposterous amount government is spending on them. Who knows when they're no longer there to quaff such humongous public funds, Dr Adesina may have to tolerate the $600million government spends to avail us animal protein.

Be that as it may, another reason the ban is seen as ill-conceived which derives from the former is that the species of fish being banned have proven difficult if not impossible to be bred locally. For they are either too expensive to cultivate or do not adapt to our local conditions. With this in mind, it then seems as if the policy doesn't give a damn about those with preference for the banned species of fish and would have none of the catfish brand.

You may say: heck, what do we care when their taste is milking the nation of $600million. But, remember we are practising democracy and if about 70 per cent poor Nigerians vote to have their favourite fish rather than conserving what is being spent on it for government to use and buy additional aircraft to its over-bloated fleet, why shouldn't that be respected?

Further, we have seen that it's not really that the catfish will come cheap when an embargo is placed on the others. The truth is that the unavailability of the imported brand will cause the price of the already expensive catfish to up. We saw this happen and there is every possibility that it will get more expensive when the availability of kote and titus fish continues to shrink. Whence, then, should Nigerians go for cheap animal protein?

But, a major consolation most Nigerians have is that men of the Nigeria Custom will always play ball. Since it is in their DNA to play. After all, many years after government placed a ban on frozen turkey, you need not look too hard before you find out where they are sold. In the streets stalls and market shops they are displayed for sale.

Many other commodities had being banned by government but were un-banned by those at the customs. So, government still has to eventually spend the same sum it is working to conserve. Moreover, the smuggling activity that this ban will engender is sure to fester corruption and lead to more revenue losses to the government considering the porous nature of our borders.

With all this in mind, government should just tarry the policy till it had ensured that there is an alternative in place that the poor can relate to. Since we must have the titus and kote species, efforts should be expended on coming out with ways through which their production can be domesticated. Our academics should be engaged to research into ways this can be realised.
No one is disputing the good intention of the government in this policy. It's just that it failed to properly do its homework before executing the policy. This has led it to unwittingly play into the hands of fishkind that is now having a good time settling a score with us!

Ugochukwu, a freelance journalist can be followed on twitter @ugsylvester or reached via ug.ugovester@gmail.com


http://thewillnigeria.com/news/opinion-the-deprivation-and-collusion-in-the-ban-of-fish-import/

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

One of them said: ‘’why is the House of Representatives such a killjoy? Just when we were waiting in anticipation for the December 15 deadline, with virtually all of us rejoicing over the much-needed exposure the days following that date will bring our way, the green chamber waded in with a resolution that have made nonsense of our calculations!’’

In case you haven’t figured, this is the submission of one of the artistes who really wanted the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, BON, to make good its earlier threat to boycott songs by popular Nigerian music acts. These artistes, you will find in the constituency of the up-and-coming. But let's first put the narrative into proper perspective before proceeding from there.

Some days ago, BON- a coalition of private television and radio stations across the country- stunned Nigerians by slamming a ban on the airing of songs by about 100 Nigerian artistes in broadcast stations across the country. Speaking in Abuja, the BON Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Jijiwa said that the suspension of the artistes' works will take effect from December 15, 2013.

He disclosed that the action was in solidarity with the Independent Broadcasting Association of Nigeria, IBAN, which has been waging a running battle with members of the Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, for some time now over copyrights. The raging battle is centred on payment of royalties for the broadcast of certain music by radio and television stations in the country. COSON is pushing for that, while, IBAN is not willing to oblige.

COSON has been accused of employing an attitude of hostility, antagonism, grandstanding, intemperate language, veiled and real threats, and harassment of broadcast stations in making its demand. These, Alhaji Jijiwa said, led BON into taking the drastic decision which some industry analysts have described as the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The BON Chairman was quick to point out that his organisation is not at war with Nigerian musicians per se but that it's simply out against COSON.

To drive home this point, Alhaji Jijiwa urged some of the affected artistes, who may not be members of COSON but have their names wrongly listed among those banned, to contact BON on or before December 15 to have their music reinstated. He warned actual members of COSON to expect their music being withdrawn or suspended on or before that deadline. And we are talking of an estimated 80 per cent of performing Nigerian musicians becoming casualties of this faceoff between BON and COSON.

Let me not get you jaded with the names of those favourite acts that you won't get to hear their songs on local radio and TV by virtue of this ban. But suffix to say that all the artistes you can think of are affected; remember they are a hundred of them. So, there isn't any local artiste you've ever known that won't be under the hammer. But, they graciously spared for us those ones we have not known, perhaps to allow us know them.

It may be that the warring parties have something else up their sleeves aside that which they have made known to the public. They may simply be advancing the course of the music industry without our knowing. They may be forcing us to embrace variety since that has been widely mouthed as the spice of life. Even if not for us, they may be doing it for themselves. Since they, who monitor local broadcast stations, listen and watch its contents than the rest of us, boredom may have set in. Perchance, this ploy is to reinforce their interest. You know, they must watch and listen; else broadcasting in our country won't fare well. So much for the speculations!

The fact remains that they are about to leave us with the obscure ones to take over those slots initially enjoyed by the prevailing ones in our radio and TV stations. And the dark horses are happy for it. Why won't they, since they are the ones who instead of demanding payment for the airing of their songs, like COSON is doing for its members, pay and pray for their songs to be aired.

So, they have to be happy that if not for anything: the broadcast stations will be constrained to air their singles whether they pay or not. They'll really be in a celebratory mode because the proposed ban will turn the table around causing stations to even go as far as airing jingles inviting them to forward their songs for continuous broadcast. I spoke with three of them who suggested this much.

But, why won't they merry over what was about to come when a similar episode experienced in Nollywood some years ago assures them that it will play out for their good? Remember when major home movie producers and directors boycotted top-notch actors like Nkem Owoh, Pete Edochie, Patience Ozokwor, Omotola Jalade, Genevieve Nnaji etc for charging exorbitant fees, that was when the stars of the likes of Mercy Johnson shone.

Thus, the music artistes, who have become tired of having the up-coming prefix attached to their monikers, must be feeling a repeat broadcast was imminent hence their celebratory and upbeat mode. Senses of decorum and propriety may not have allowed them come out so loud in expressing their happiness, but, when you chance into them while they are revelling and hanging out, you wouldn't need to be told about their feeling towards the ban! Nonetheless, someone would say: not so fast.

And truly they shouldn't have been so fast in celebrating for members of the House of Representatives have cut short their joy even before their imagined gain became real. In a unanimous voice vote passed by the House this Thursday, it directed BON/IBAN to withdraw the December 15 directive banning the airing of the music of several Nigerian artistes on our local television and radio stations.

While presenting the issue to the House under matters of urgent public importance, Reps member, Abike Dabiri-Erewa said: “I am worried that a tussle between the organisations should not degenerate to a situation that will retard the progress made so far in our music industry. The victims will not only be the artistes but Nigeria and Nigerians. I am aware that this crisis can be resolved through dialogue.”

I honestly disagree with that line where she was talking about the ban retarding the progress so far recorded in our music industry. That isn't true! If you have been following my line of argument in this piece; you should know why I'm disputing that. How will resting the works of those who have already attained popularity to promote those of unsung artiste retard the progress made in our music industry? I think it would further boost our music industry rather than detract from its success.

The only time I know it will negatively affect the industry is if the ban will be taking us back to the aeon before the revolution in our music industry was effected. I'm talking of that time when almost 95 per cent of the songs we heard on radio and watched on television were from foreign artistes. If broadcast stations resort to this era, that's when we would have a problem. But, I'm consoled by the fact that NBC won't allow that. So, like they say: "nothing spoil"

As a matter of fact, those hundred artistes whose music has been affected don't actually need our local stations. Most of them have their songs enjoying massive airplay in international music channels. They are the ones whose works are played over and over again in parties, clubs and such other places. Still, they remain the ones for who fans troop to the internet to download their songs. Thus, I'm lost as to how the prohibition of their music in our local stations will affect them.

On the contrary, it is the up-coming artistes that really need their songs to be given airplay so that they can get announced. And the ban of the works of those other artistes would have been a perfect opportunity for this to happen. Hence, their favourable disposition towards the ban as announced. And for Nigerians being the victims, I don’t think so. I’m sure they will be pleased to be afforded the works of ‘underground’ artistes. For, many have argued that the unsung artistes are actually the ones with the real talent.

I think we should be mulling a policy where the works of those who have become so popular are withdrawn from been played in our local stations to allow the massive airing of the songs of those not yet there. The proposed ban would have presented a veritable test ground for this. See it as another way of advancing the frontiers of the zoning principle if you like, but, I will rather see it as a way of balancing fame: a way of making everyone get a piece of the pie, a way of empowering more people thus landing a big blow on unemployment and a way of availing music enthusiasts more options.

I really appreciate what COSON is doing as it is simply looking out for its members. I equally understand the predicament of IBAN and BON who are been tasked to do what is alien to our climes. But, let them be allowed to slug it out the way they were bent on. For in the end, if IBAN succumbs, it's for the good of the industry and where it doesn't, we would take solace in the fact that the impasse made us get used to some other artistes. Whichever way, the industry wins, somehow.

Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist. You can follow him on twitter via @ugsylvester or reach him through ug.ugovester@gmail.com


http://www.globalreportersvienna.com/2013/12/the-winnings-of-bons-boycott-of-100.html

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Email was predominantly the avenue they use in getting at us. If yours isn't set to shut out junk messages, you'd always see their mails informing you that through your mail address you've been randomly selected to win mouth-watering sums of money from foreign-based organisations or foundations. At other times, they will simply write: 'I have a project for you', expecting you to reply. Albeit, they haven't totally thrown away this method, they have added another to it.

Because the yuletide is here, these never-do-wells who must have been lazing about since the start of the year suddenly realised that they must go all out in hitting home with a car as they had earlier resolved. It can also be that they waited patiently up till this time of the year since they know this is the time most people get easily beguiled; blinded by their craving for quick cash. Hence, the scoundrels capitalise on that to effect their latest sophistry.

Their current stratagem is to get personal. Yes, you heard me right! They do this by calling people's personal phone lines. If it were to be one's hotline they call, that wouldn't pose so much a problem as that would easily give them away. Rather, they go for those lines you must have reserved for close acquaintances and family members. And here is their trick: they'll call such lines claiming you gave it to them. They'll cite illusory scenarios as places where you both exchanged numbers.

Hear what one of them told me this Friday: "ah! Don't you remember me again? I met you at PHCN office by that busy road when you went to pay your bill. We were standing close to each other on the queue. We got talking and I told you I'm into supply; that I make supplies to the federal government. Can't you remember?" Those were the convincing words he uttered after he had called, introduced himself as Hon. John Idoko and averred that he has a job for me!

When he thought I was almost cowed into believing his story, he joking said: "you owe me a bottle of wine for not remembering me." He went on to advise that if I'm within the earshot of any, I should move away from there so that no one would hear our conversation. At this point, I asked him to tell me the town where the PHCN office he was talking about is. On account of this, he told me I should forget about the deal that: "since you can't remember me, let me give the job to someone else that knows me."

With that, he cut the conversation; probably expecting me to call back in pursuit of the chimerical job. I paid no heed to the fool, but continued with my day. My phone conversation with the supposed Hon. Idoko was on Friday morning at about 7:30. Towards evening of same day, another swindler was on my phone; my personal line, that is.

There was no resemblance between this voice and that of the former. Equally, was there no facsimile between their storyline and panache. But, there still was a parallel and it rests on the fact they were both on a mission to defraud me. I must confess that the gimmick of the latter was well orchestrated. This is essentially what can be made out of his tale. It is presented in the first-person account to better reflect its essence:

I just hit a boy with my car. He was severely injured and has been taken to the hospital. Now the police are holding me. They are threatening to lock me up in their cell. But I could be set free if only I recharge the phones of the inspectors here with N1500 worth of recharge card. At the background, I could hear what seemed like the voices of policemen telling him to act fast and stop wasting their time. He replies by telling them he was just talking to his brother who is to send across the airtime.

Me, his brother? This is somebody I'm still lost as to how he got my number!
He had earlier given a vague explanation for that. Seeing that I wasn't satisfied he pleaded that I'll surely know him when I see him, that we need not waste time, else the police locks him up. He continued: I have over N280,000 in my car. But I'd rather not have the police know I have such sum of money, else they'll leave me with nothing. I'll give you N25,000 for all your troubles after I must have paid for the recharge cards you'll send.

Please hurry to wherever they are selling recharge cards. Tell them to give you N1500 airtime, scratch and keep sending them to me till I settle all the police inspectors here. Once I'm allowed to go, I'd be coming to the place you bought the recharge cards to pay the vendor and reward you. I'll not hang up the phone until you read to me the pins. If I do, the officers here will lock me up. Please hurry! This was about the 12th minutes he was spending on this call. He told me that his hanging on to the call would convince the policemen that he was just trying to meet their demand.

He remained on the line while I acted as if I was going to the place recharge cards are sold. At a point, the pressure from him became so unbearable that I was almost buying his story. But, I requested that he allow me come and meet him at the scene since he said they were still there. He refused insisting that my presence would aggravate the case. I then told him to allow me come nearer to the scene, that since he said they were in front of a fuel station, I can just perch close by without the police sensing I was there. In response, he said by the time I got there, he'd have been taken to the station. Our conversation was getting to 18 minutes. I cut the call. He called twice and stopped calling.

After approximately 40 minutes, I called the number with a different line. I still heard the same voice but this time the voice isn't anxiety-laden, instead it sounded calm and relaxed. I feigned familiarity on a different level. But my interlocutor in his smartness kept saying: 'I can hear you.' When he sensed what I was up to, he ended the call. With this, it dawned on me that I have just escaped been pulled a fast one on.

There has been a consensus among everyone I narrated these episodes to, that those were fraudsters on the prowl. Two of them went on to share similar experiences they recently had with conmen. Their versions also showed fraudsters as trying to perpetrate both scams through GSM. But, how do they get these numbers? One of the victims reasoned it was the same way the get to know peoples' email addresses while the other thinks they get the numbers through trial and error.

He said our telecoms operators have so many subscribers that there is hardly a free line. Hence any other seven digits you combine with the first four that is peculiar to a service provider put you through to a subscriber. If this really is their strategy, then everyone is at risk. Since they can get through to anybody including Mr President! But the joy is that they don't just defraud you by contacting you on your line, they can only do you in when you get carried away by their lies.

As such, the elixir is to avoid buying when they come selling. No matter how much is involved, everyone will be well advised to steer clear whatever deal they are initiating. These fraudsters are like the devil. Remember what the Bible tells us to do with the devil. It charges us to rebuke him and he will flee from us. Indeed, these swindlers can't stand the sound of rebuke. Thus, let's not fail to use that.

On Nelson Mandela
When we were young growing up, a male child was born to a man in the neighbourhood. At the naming ceremony, the man gave the first and second names of his son as Nelson Mandela respectively. I couldn't really comprehend why the man had to go that far, but now I very much do.

Since President Jacob Zuma of South Africa announced the passing away of the first black South African president on Thursday night, there have been torrents of reactions eulogizing the anti-aparthied crusader. Mandela's death at age 95 provoked so much reaction to the extent that Nigeria declared three days of national mourning in honour of the late global Icon.

I wonder if there is any other thing that can be said to extol Late Mandela that have not been said by the Barack Obamas, Stephen Harpers and Ban Ki-moons of this world. In all these, I just wish that our leaders will learn that life isn't really about how much wealth you leave behind but it's more about the legacies you bequeathed to humanity.

I think the British Prime Minister, David Cameron got it wrong when while expressing his grief on twitter wrote: "A great light has gone out in the world"
No, the light has not gone out for it still burns in the life of every aficionado of Mandela. Let our youths and all those aspiring for leadership chronicle the live of Madiba and make it their handbook. That way, they'll show the Mandela light as burning in them.


You can follow me on twitter via @ugsylvester or reach me through ug.ugovester@gmail.com

http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/130580/1/as-swindlers-port-from-emails-to-phone-calls.html

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Although the age long aphorism: "better late than never" is generally accepted, there are instances where it mustn't apply. One of such is in emergencies where if you knew you'd arrive late, so late as to allow the worst happen, it would be best you don't come at all. Lest, your coming turns you to the one in emergency. That's an understanding everyone involved in works that require urgency should have.

This is because their work is to avert things from getting awry. They are not professional mourners or sympathisers that come afterwards. Their input should come prior a ruination not after it. If it comes after, they become only useful in collecting catharsis. Since everyone knows that if they were on hand to do their work as expected, there wouldn't have been a reason to grief, it then means that it'll be daring for them to still come when they know that to the grief-stricken, they are the grief- the source of their grief, that is.

This much happened in a part of Enugu metropolis sometime last week where Daily Post reported that men of Enugu State Fire Service were close to being mobbed by about 500 residents. Their offence? They arrived late to a scene of fire disaster. Now, it isn't as if they came on their own. Should that have been the case, they'd still have attracted angst but our culture of low expectation would have tampered that. However, in this case, they were duly invited, yet they elected to be late by one and half hours!

There went another manifestation of the African, nay, Nigerian time syndrome. I doubt if that timing is observed in other African countries. Our predilection for being behind schedule has become so ingrained in us that our emergency workers now reflect that in their work. They have become so carried away by this aberration that an invite for them to save a situation is treated like a call to grace a wedding reception or party.

Hence, they take their time when they receive such calls:- go for a second shower, rub some cream, pomade and powder, but put on their work wear to deceive us, wear a cologne or perfume on themselves, brush their hair, then take a good look at their image in the mirror to get certification before going to prepare the vehicle they will use in coming. By the time they arrived, you'd be lucky if they took just one hour 30 minutes. This must have saved them in the past as the victims and onlookers may have been mesmerised by their appearance.

But, if you said these weren't what delayed them, what else could have? Given that they know their remit to be about putting out conflagration, shouldn't they always be prepared like Boys Scout since inferno doesn't announce its coming? Even if they weren't prepared, how on earth would they need as much as one and half hours to be able to mobilise to a scene? These are questions only the Enugu State Fire Service can answer but till they do, we shouldn't be faulted for assuming what we assumed!

And so they came 90 minutes late to that scene in Uwani where the inferno took place, as if their intention was for the fire to last for hours. Yes, that was the message their late coming inadvertently conveyed; that they wish the fire to last beyond the 90 minutes it took them in coming. That was why they still came. If not that, their lazy and inefficient mind would have ministered to them that either the fired would have been extinguished by then or it would have wrought enough damage.

Unfortunately, it went the way of the later. By the time they arrived, the fire had already made an ashes of a bungalow that house a residence, a boutique and a furniture showroom.
One of the victims who said she just left to get her kid from school but couldn't find their showroom upon return lamented: “All we have in this life is gone; people have already paid for most of the furniture there; where do we go from here?” This cry of anguish wouldn't have been, if the Fire Service were time conscious.

You may suspect exaggeration at play when I repeatedly say it took them one and half hours in coming. I wouldn't blame you for your unbelief. After all, where else in the world would an emergency-fighting parastatal like the Fire Service take that long to get to where urgency beckons? However, to clear your suspicion, let me feed you with the words of an angry resident:

“In this case, they were called as soon as this fire started but they got here almost two hours later; that’s not how to attend to emergency”. Now you see that the one hour 30 minutes I had referred to was on the conservative side. For the eye witness said it took them almost two hours! It was learnt that this isn't the first time, the same irked neighbour continued: “What the youths did to them is right because they are not doing anything in Enugu State. They have never quenched any fire in this state."

What! I can't believe this. So the Enugu State Fire Service have never quenched any fire in the state before? Why then is government spending the state's limited resources in funding such an agency? If this is true, then the state government had better diverted the money used in funding such ineffectual agency to other establishments that would give utility to people of the state. But, that is if it hasn't done that already.

I'm sure if you asked those working in the Enugu State Fire Service why they are this poor in service delivery, they would readily tell you that poor funding and lack of facilities are at the heart of it. That's why government cannot be distanced from their inefficiency. For, if it had granted them all they needed to function effectively and monitored them to ensure they did their work, we wouldn't be talking about the delay in responding to SOS in today's column.

But my worry is this: if it took the Fire Service almost two hours to attend to an emergency in the state capital, what will the situation be like in other parts of the state? If they had the guts to be that late in carrying out their duty where the seat of government sits, is it in Ibagwua-Aka that they will be afraid to do what taxpayers are paying them for? Well, now they know that albeit the authorities may not hold them to task, the people wouldn't mind doing that in their own way.

However, the problem with the people doing that is that they can be very savagery about it as seen in the Uwani episode. Let's again refer to the report: "Upon sighting the Fire Service vehicle, angry residents numbering over 500 started pelting stones on the officials as well as on the windscreen, a situation that made the driver to zoom off from the place." That's what you get when the masses choose to react, hence, we need not push them to that.

Imagine 500 persons casting stones on a vehicle, only a miracle could have accounted for how the driver escaped amidst that. One may wonder why I'm making a fuss out of their being one hours 30 minutes behind, but verily, verily I say unto you if it can irk up to 500 Nigerians into reacting the way they did, then it irks this column as well. Considering how indifferent Nigerians are, especially with regards to getting what is due to them from the country, it was a pleasant surprise reading about their reaction.

It should be a lesson to all those who go about thinking that Nigerians will always take whatever rubbish handed to them without dissent. It should be an eye-opener for those who still live in the days of Fela Kuti's 'suffering and smiling'. Such persons should know that the song no longer typifies today's crop of Nigerians.

Thus, people like that should watch how they treat Nigerians; they should watch it when they abuse the offices they occupy. They should be circumspect when they hand the short end of the stick to Nigerians. All this is because just like we know not where the next fire outbreak will break out, so are we ignorant of that particular action of ours that will attract our being stoned. So the best bet is to carry on the way we should.

Again, I will say that this isn't restricted to the Enugu State version of Fire Service in the country. A careful study may even reveal some states' Fire Service where they take four hours in coming. In the same vain, it's not just about the Fire Service, there exist other agencies and departments of government that have remained so sluggish in doing their job. A worthy example is INEC given the manner it conducted the last Saturday's election in Anambra State. The malaise cuts across board. Most times I wonder whatever happened to Servicom!

Well, since today's intervention is to address the glaring indiscretion of a Fire Service, let's stick to that. Our people will be well advised to do all within their capacity to see to it that they don't play host to this devastating visitor. They should mind their electrical gadgets and all that should be minded to keep fire outbreak at bay. We should continue being our brother's keeper by supporting in putting out fire outbreak before it does more damage.

When we do all these, we wouldn't require the service of an agency of government funded to fight fire yet carries about as if fire frightens it. More so, we wouldn't have to be reminded of our other failings as a nation which always saddens us when remembered.

Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist who you can follow on twitter @ugsylvester or reach through: ug.ugovester@gmail.com


http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/articles-opinions/that-reaction-to-the-laxity-of-a-by-ugochukwu-ugwuanyi/

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Considering the way Nigeria is reacting to Uncle Sam's designation of the fundamentalist Islamist sect, Boko Haram and its break-away faction, Ansaru as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, FTO, it's as if the intervention is one that comes with all gain and no pain. Both from official circles and the average Nigerian, the story is the same. Everyone is seeing the classification as a step in the right direction.

The Nigerian government reacting to the designation in a statement by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ogbole Ode said it's "a welcome development, as it will strengthen cooperation between Nigeria and the United States in the fight against international terror; enhance the capacity and legal basis for concerted actions against both groups; and enable the two countries work more closely towards reducing the capability and capacity of the groups to unleash terror".

Earlier on, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Mohammed Adoke SAN, in his reaction said: “The US stance is a welcome development; we salute the US government for partnering with the federal government to root out terrorism. This step will assist this nation to deal with these renegades. It will also help in strengthening the proscription of Boko Haram by the federal government."

Our Defence HeadQuarters too couldn't resist the urge to join the fray. It spoke through its spokesman, Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade thus: “It is a welcome development, we hope it will further bring the required international understanding and co-operation to deal with the terrorists. It shows a better appreciation of the security challenges that we are dealing with.”

A serving military general reacted to the issue by pontificating that the designation takes away all political colouration to the crisis. He stressed that those who support or identify with the two sects risk forfeiting their wealth and other interests outside the country and could be picked to face the wrath of the United States at anytime.

For members of the Free Readers Association of Nigeria ie. those who congregated at a popular news stand visited, majority concluded that Boko Haram has met its waterloo by the designation. Two specifically advised the federal government to spare its energy for other engagement and allow the Americans go all out on the radical Islamist sects. One expressed concerns about what the decision portends for the sovereignty of Nigeria, while another saw it as a minus to the push for dialogue in resolving the crisis wrought by the sects.

Going by these reactions, I'm tempted to believe that if Washington decides to take over the governance of our country today some of us would simply oblige without asking questions. Those at the power corridors would quickly relinquish authority after securing mouth-watering deals for themselves and then tell us 'it's a welcome development'. But, let me perish that thought and instead pray that subjecting our country to another bout of colonialism doesn't catch the fancy of Uncle Sam.

As exhilarating as their reactions are, I still refuse to utterly buy into this move by the US government. This is based on some equally palpable reasons. But before these reasons are reeled out, it'd be very appropriate to first illuminate on the new branding of Boko Haram and Ansaru. For one, the classification makes it a crime under US laws to provide material support to the groups just as members of the groups, wherever they are, will now be targets of air strikes from the US military among other decisive actions.

It gives Washington the legitimacy to clearly view the threat of Boko Haram as part of wider Islamist militancy in Sahel region that covers Niger, Somalia, Mali, Mauritania, Algeria and Libya. The FTO listing will bring many aspects of the US pursuit of Boko Haram to the open and systematise certain activities. It is believed that US had sent surveillance drones to Nigeria as early as last year, albeit not in an overt manner. But with this latest act, we should expect drones, any type of drone that is, without the US government being cryptic about it.

Indeed, any type of drone should be expected. While Washington has said it doesn't expect to deploy troops and drones, it is yet to be seen how such stance would be sustained should Boko Haram went ahead to prove its newly-bestowed international acclaim or aggressively go after US interests.

Already, the US flies unarmed drones from an airfield in Niamey, the Niger's capital which helps collect some intelligence information on the movement of militants with links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). It then means it could easily arm those drones should Boko Haram or Ansaru misbehaved.

Put in another way, the interpretation of the designation is that members of Boko Haram and Ansaru alongside their partners could be tracked down anywhere in the world by US law enforcement agents and prosecuted in the US. It also directs US law enforcement and regulatory agencies to block business and financial transactions involving the Boko Haram and Ansaru sects along with their members.

No doubt, the classification would come with extra scrutiny from US law enforcement officers in search of sponsors and financiers of the groups, not leaving out the militants from the close study. This will pose an encumbrance for travel plans, ease of transacting business and transfer of funds across countries. Oh! I forgot, this should be about elucidating the designation, why then am I already delving into the implications? It is because they are inweaved as you can't talk about one without inadvertently talking about the other. That's why it calls for surprise that we can't see the downsides to this move.

While we essay to stomach Abuja's acceptance of the intervention, it becomes too large a morsel for our throat for Abuja to tell us that the designation does not come with any consequence. Did government really say that? Yes it did! That much was said in the same statement by the spokesperson of the Foreign Affairs Ministry thus: “It also wishes to assure the public that the designation of Boko Haram and Ansaru by the US government as FTOs would not lead to any negative repercussions for Nigeria and Nigerians."

Holy Moses! Our government can be preposterous sometimes. Isn't this tantamount to adjudging charcoal as snow? Or claiming that 'good morning' is very appropriate for a hot afternoon? Well, since government wants to take us for a fool, let's refer it to what one of its own told us about a year ago. Or don't you think somebody in the pedestal of a Nigerian ambassador to the US is one of government's own?

The ambassador, Ade Adefuye in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP newspaper sometime last year gave five reasons why Boko Haram shouldn't be designated a foreign terrorist organisation. He began by saying it'll mean 'that Nigeria is not able to deal with Boko Haram'. He continued that 'it will give such psychological boost to Boko Haram among other terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, which can be tempted to embrace them and support them.'

For the third reason, the diplomat said it 'would discourage investors from coming to Nigeria because nobody wants to go to an area where a terrorist organization resides.' He also said then that designating Boko Haram an FTO would betray US as illogical since they failed to declare Niger Delta groups, which also threatened their interests, an FTO. For his last reason, he opined that an FTO listing for Boko Haram would subject Nigerians travelling to the US to 'horrendous search at US entry points'.

With all these grounds, as germane as they are, proferred by the envoy, what other ground remains for a government official to stand and tell us that that act of US government wouldn't be detrimental to us? Let's hope that as they lie to us about the matter, they aren't acting on that lie. Better still, that they aren't lying to themselves as well. They'll be acting on that lie if they do nothing to mitigate the fallouts from this intervention by the US.

Our government must take care so that the case of Pakistan doesn't become our lot. We know how the US military in that country unilaterally launch military operations there in the name of fighting terror. That can worsen the crisis instead of dousing it.

There is this report by the American newspaper, New York Times which quoted Edward Snowden to have identified Nigeria’s SSS as one of the security agencies in the world that America’s NSA had been bugging. Our government haven't found it expedient to react to this. Yet it has gone ahead to welcome their intervention in taming the Boko Haram and Ansaru sects. We had better be mindful before Aso Rock itself becomes bugged (that is if it's not already).

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not as if I'm against the US wading into the matter. Why should I be when the situation seem to have defied the handle of our government? My point is that Abuja must insist that Washington doesn't cross the line. It must ensure that the territorial integrity of Nigeria as well as the rights of Nigerians are upheld even as they intervene. Let's not go to sleep thinking that it has now become the headache of Uncle Sam. If we do, we'd wake having migraine instead.

Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Editor-in-Chief,
sifareports.com
@ugsylvester
ug.ugovester@gmail.com

http://theeagleonline.com.ng/news/as-we-welcome-boko-haram-ansaru-ftos-listing-by-ugochukwu-ugwuanyi/

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

I hate divorce. I'm pretty sure you share the same sentiment with me. Why am I so confident, you may want to know. It is because your Creator didn't mince word in expressing his disdain for divorce. In fact, so categorical was He in expressing this repugnance that it had to be registered in Malachi 2:16 thus: "I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Isreal..." (NIV)

If the Creator who created you in His image after His likeness hates divorce, then you cannot but hate same. Hence, it is safe for us to assume that we all hate divorce. Having established this premise, there is a nagging poser that have refused to go away. It keeps asking: if we all hate divorce, who then are those courting divorce for the flimsiest of reasons?

This question refers to those who separate their fruitful marriage because the woman insulted their landlord or because she couldn't produce the receipt confirming the payment of the child's school fees. Wait a minute, did these have the same impact on you? I bet it did. Myself couldn't resist the shock when I chanced in on headlines essentially announcing those ideas.

I consoled myself that it was just a headline; a deliberate ploy the writer is using to attract attention to the story. But, when I read the story, it dawned on me that what I earlier gathered from the theme was it. I learnt that, indeed, men are now divorcing their wives for insulting their landlord and for failing to show them receipts for payment of school fees for their children.

Coincidentally, both cases took place in Ikole, Ekiti State. But, let that not lead you into the conclusion that it's just restricted to that geographical space. It's nationwide, nay, worldwide. The frequency with which one hears of divorce cases nowadays only shows how much globalization has robbed off on us. For once upon a time, divorce was alien to our clime, but these times, it has overran us.

At some point in this 21st century, it started with the upwardly mobile folks who love to be referred to as society people. The bug also bit the elites with churches that see nothing wrong with divorce aggravating its prevalence. Their preaching didn't just encourage it, their actions did as well. Some examples will suffice: before our very eyes we saw a Lagos-based pastor, Ope Balogun who went to court seeking the divorce of his ninth wife who he described as 'a troublesome wife'.

We also know of Pastor Chris Okotie who for the umpteen time remarried after throwing away his earlier marriage rings courtesy of divorce. There was also this case of the Founder of Communion Church, Lagos, Bishop David Benecoch who sent away his wife after 20years of wedlock claiming that God instructed him to do so. As if the 'god' he is referring to is distinct from the One in Malachi 2:16. It's possible.

We can go on and on with examples of 'men of God' who have gone ahead with this thing that God hates. This explains why it was easy for the vice to penetrate into the lower rung of our society inhabited by the hoi polloi thus dispatching us to where we are at the moment: A situation where a man terribly affected by poverty opts to divorce his wife so as to be freed from extra responsibility.

Even when it isn't for the sheer inability to cater for an accessory burden that makes the poor sue for divorce, the frustrations triggered by their penury is enough to do the job. Did they not say: a hungary man is an angry man? This is very true. A bricklayer who has got no job come his way for weeks will be hungry and when hungary, he will be angry to the extent that a slight provocation from his wife is enough for him to file for divorce.

If only it follows this course... Most times it doesn't! Here is the common route: when consistently hungary, he will get to the stage of being red at even those innocuous acts of the wife. This anger will lead him into wife battery. When this becomes very frequent, the wife wouldn't wait to be told before finding her way to the nearest customary court to file for divorce. Willy-nilly, the man has achieved his aim.

This verily applies to the man (and his ilk) who divorced his wife for insulting his landlord. His is an even clearer case of poverty at work. If not for poverty, there wouldn't have been any landlord, the man would be living in his own home with no landlord to indulge by sacrificing his marriage. So you see, poverty is at the heart of making people not to regard the institution of marriage.

A cursory look at divorce incidents amongst the poor shows men as the aggressor. One would have expected it to be the other way round. For, it is characteristic of women not to regard their husband much if he doesn't live up to financial obligations. A man knows he is poor, but has a hardworking wife that bears with him, should such a man went ahead to exasperate that wife into seeking for divorce or him divorcing such wife on trivial grounds, then he is most idiotic of all men!

The painful part is that these people who court divorce think it's just about them. That is highly delusional, for what they are practising or promoting goes beyond them into affecting the larger society. The family remains the smallest unit of the society as such the society falls apart when the family cannot hold. Cast your mind to what children from such broken families experience and you would have got the crux of my thesis.

These kids must have seen their mummy and daddy exchange blows. They would have heard them trade insults and they must have empathised with their misery in addition to that which the quarrels of their parents caused on them. All these tell on their psychological make-up. It affects their world-view to the extent that they build an affected appreciation of marriage. And it will take a miracle for their own marriage not to go the way of that of their forebear.

Since families that usually experience divorce are relatively younger families whose issues would at most be in their teens, there are great chances for the build-up to the divorce and the divorce itself to affect the academic performance of their children. In other words: it upsets their learning in school. This is because the goings-on at home becomes a distraction to their assimilation of what is being taught.

Lest I forget, another fallout of disunion or persistent quarrelling among couples is that it makes their children unduly aggressive. They grow up with the instinct of bickering. This, they display even when the situation doesn't call for that. And where the situation in the slightest demands that, then would all hell be let loose. The way it is, kids from broken homes anticipates altercations and brawls. If they don't, how else would they have the opportunity to pour their vendetta for what mummy did to dad or vice versa?

And everyone gets affected. You can be the gentleman who would inadvertently attract their ire by an action which any other person wouldn't raise the hackles for. Having to work closely or remotely with such irritable and tetchy persons requires a good dose of maturity and caution, else affray wouldn't be afar. Talking of a life on the edge or a graveyard peace; No thanks to divorce.

Nonetheless, no one should be naïve to believe that those marriages crashed for the mere reasons that one insulted the landlord while the other failed to show receipts affirming payment of the child's school fees. Indeed, there must be more to that. It's just that these were the last straws that broke the camel's back.

The man whose grouse was with school fees receipt also complained of his wife not giving him peace of mind through her insubordination, lack of trust and constant threat to his life. The other man who had married his wife for five years with two kids to show said she insulted his landlord when he was trying to settle a dispute between them, and later moved out of his house because she got annoyed for being corrected.

Indeed, it takes two to tangle. We can't just exculpate the wives of any blame and apportion all on the husbands. Even, if the wives were sanctimonious, their indiscretion in going into a marriage that would go kaput makes them culpable. All those while they courted before marriage (if they did at all), they should have been on the look out for signs that indicate they are both incompatible.

These signs must have shown itself but, I guess, the lovers were carried away by 'love' or the desire to settle down. Hence they overlooked it, only to remain unsettled when they have supposedly settled down. It is high time we all behaved like our Creator by acting out our hatred for divorce. Rather than hating our spouses, let's direct our hatred towards divorce. That will do us and our society a world of good.

Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Editor-in-Chief,
sifareports.com
@ugsylvester
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
http://www.globalreportersvienna.com/2013/11/god-divorce-poverty-and-society-by.html

If you are 2013 Batch 'C' Anglican corps member posted to Kogi State please call 08074779482

Any Anglican posted to Kogi State who is in need of assistance call 08068967686. We will be happy to be of
help.

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

The intellectual Femi Aribasala, in one of his articles, wrote: "our politicians form and join different political parties, but it is all one big lie.  All Nigerian politicians belong to one single party: Politicians Party of Nigeria (PPN)." Those who failed to grasp the import of this theorem now have every reason to with the palpable romance between the G-7 governors and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This week must be the busiest week so far for the APC apparatchik. Their being so occupied was informed by what Gen. Muhammadu Buhari termed “recruitment drive” for their party. But, this form of recruitment is a peculiar and awkward one. A type which many would find it difficult to situate within their body of experience. The norm is to have prospective employees go to employers for jobs not vice versa. But, that's not for APC.

The 'avant-garde party' emptied its who-is-who into Sokoto, Adamawa, Jigawa and Kano states in the course of the week. Its mission? To cajole the prime citizens of these states into joining its amalgamated fold. The party didn't wait for them to come knocking on its door, instead it did the knocking. And what a deafening knock it was, considering the number and status of those who went from the party.

Check out the role call: former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, interim National Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande, Interim Deputy National Chairman, Aminu Masari, a former EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, Governors Rochas Okorocha, Raji Fashola and Kayode Fayemi of Imo, Lagos and Ekiti States respectively, former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff amongst other APC chieftains.

You may at this point want to know what they got for all the troubles. The Kano State governor said: “I will sit down with all stakeholders because there is no decision I can take as governor without consulting the stakeholders of the party." His counterpart in Jigawa State was evasive but assured he would support anything being done to rescue the country as the country had been good to him.

The 'recruitment drive' of the APC team appeared most productive in Adawama State where Governor Nyako told them: “As far as I am concerned, I have already distributed kola nuts to the entire Fulani nation and like-minds in PDP to leave enmass to the APC,” In Sokoto State, Governor Wamakko seemed set to join them but for vital consultations he must make.

You would be wrong thinking the National Secretariat of APC would now rest its quest to extend the party's tentacles with the 'successes' it has so far recorded. The energetic party is not yet done as it is billed to hold talks with Governor Ameachi of Rivers State this Monday. After that, talks with the remaining G-7 governors will follow suit.

What an Oliver Twist we have in APC! Having cornered major opposition parties into its kitty, the coalition is yet to be satisfied. It is still craving for more, hence its tenacity to use all the big names it has in courting these beautiful brides. Then again in equal measure, what a behemoth we have in PDP such that even after collapsing itself into a coalition, opposition elements are still not sure of their ability to uproot the ruling PDP from power.

What would you have me say? APC's overtures to the renegade PDP governors suggests it is still not sure of its current potentials. Better still, it implies that the party still sees PDP as insurmountable notwithstanding its present gains. Little wonder PDP was boasting on Thursday that it is not perturbed by the development. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP accused APC of 'poaching' the G-7 governors by 'desperately coaxing' them.

The PDP, in the statement, took a dig at APC describing the party as a “hypocritical party lacking in genuine ideology and principles”. It added that the opposition party lacked true followership and electable materials at all levels. APC got served, you may say. It was a super-cut that the party and its handlers asked for. Candidly, what PDP said seems true judging from the context.

It is really hypocritical for APC to publicly condemn the bad governance that PDP has brought to bear on the country, heap all the blames for our under development on it, yet seek to have critical members of the party within its ranks. Is APC implying that the quartet of Wamakko, Lamido, Nyako and Kwankwaso who are governors under the platform of PDP aren't part of the maladministration of the country it has relentlessly accused PDP of?

If PDP could have up to four, nay, seven 'hardworking and progressive' governors, as APC described them, then the party isn't as terrible as APC had always portrayed it. Unless by hardworking and progressive, the party is referring to politicians who are rebellious to their party leadership. Verily, it is incongruous for PDP to be declared as the disease plaguing this country, only for some governors on its stable to be acquitted just because they fell out with the leadership of the party.

Drawing further from this, the advances of APC towards the G-7 governors give it away as actually lacking 'in genuine ideologies and principles'. The aggrieved governors it is currently chasing after already have the philosophies of PDP ingrained in them. It, therefore, remains to be seen how APC would easily substitute these entrenched ideals of PDP in the governors with its own. By finding it convenient to reach out to these established PDP members, APC simply betrays itself as lacking in genuine ideologies and principles.

Else, it would have even been worried when they seek membership. It would be bothered about compatibility and adherence to what it stands for. Ideologies and principles, where they exist, are sacred. So hallowed are they that whatever or whoever would taint or undermine it is never permitted. Warts and all, APC has simply made us know that it doesn't have any of those. It may have it on paper, but, it means little to them.

Nonetheless, is PDP that brought this to our knowledge any holier? Of course not! If the party had or adhered to its ideologies and principles, it wouldn't have found itself in the terrible pass it is today. But let's just deal with the message and leave the messenger for another day. Metuh also said APC lacked true followership and electable materials. That may not be true, but again, judging from APC's new found hubby, it may be true.

Do not be deceived, in the Nigerian political terrain, it is a verity. For no other material can be more electable in Adamawa as of now than the Admiral himself or his stooge. Ditto for Jigawa, Sokoto, Kano and the other states. In our country, the incumbency factor is very veritable in deciding who gets elected or not. It even bestows true followership as can be seen with the Kwankwasiyya movement that has engulfed Kano state. Thus, Metuh is spot on to the extent of those states where APC doesn't have one of their own as head.

I guess it is in recognition of this that APC is throwing shame and caution to the wind to cajole the troubled emperors of their states into joining its ranks. If it succeeds, this will technically translate to APC raising the number of states it controls even when it did not undergo the rigours of the election process there. It also promises to swell the number of votes the party gets in the 2015 presidential election. Then again, it would boost the party's revenue base.

Now you can better appreciate why they had to trample on whatever ideologies and principles they have. But, are these grounds cogent enough to allow what a party represents be subjected to the miasma of corruption? Your response is as good as mine.

However, the odds go beyond APC making mockery of its ideologies and principles into causing disaffection and unease among its old members. Some of them see the drive to attract the governors and their supporters into the party as a prelude to the imposition of leadership in the party. They fear it is a move that would alter the choice of candidates in future elections.

These fears are well founded but APC can allay them by upholding the tenets of democracy, rule of law and justice. As the party courts politicians to whom these values are strange, the party must ensure it doesn't concede elective positions to them or their loyalists in disregard for primaries. The party must be careful not to undermine those who have laboured for the opposition for several years. Given that we have just Politicians Party of Nigeria in our country, this makes it all the more compelling for us to, at the least, have internal democracy.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi,
Editor-in-Chief,
sifareports.com
@ugsylvester
ug.ugovester@gmail.com


http://dailypost.com.ng/2013/11/03/ugochukwu-ugwuanyi-the-apc-g-7-governors-romance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ugochukwu-ugwuanyi-the-apc-g-7-governors-romance

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

The intellectual Femi Aribasala, in one of his articles, wrote: "our politicians form and join different political parties, but it is all one big lie.  All Nigerian politicians belong to one single party: Politicians Party of Nigeria (PPN)." Those who failed to grasp the import of this theorem now have every reason to with the palpable romance between the G-7 governors and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This week must be the busiest week so far for the APC apparatchik. Their being so occupied was informed by what Gen. Muhammadu Buhari termed “recruitment drive” for their party. But, this form of recruitment is a peculiar and awkward one. A type which many would find it difficult to situate within their body of experience. The norm is to have prospective employees go to employers for jobs not vice versa. But, that's not for APC.

The 'avant-garde party' emptied its who-is-who into Sokoto, Adamawa, Jigawa and Kano states in the course of the week. Its mission? To cajole the prime citizens of these states into joining its amalgamated fold. The party didn't wait for them to come knocking on its door, instead it did the knocking. And what a deafening knock it was, considering the number and status of those who went from the party.

Check out the role call: former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, interim National Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande, Interim Deputy National Chairman, Aminu Masari, a former EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, Governors Rochas Okorocha, Raji Fashola and Kayode Fayemi of Imo, Lagos and Ekiti States respectively, former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff amongst other APC chieftains.

You may at this point want to know what they got for all the troubles. The Kano State governor said: “I will sit down with all stakeholders because there is no decision I can take as governor without consulting the stakeholders of the party." His counterpart in Jigawa State was evasive but assured he would support anything being done to rescue the country as the country had been good to him.

The 'recruitment drive' of the APC team appeared most productive in Adawama State where Governor Nyako told them: “As far as I am concerned, I have already distributed kola nuts to the entire Fulani nation and like-minds in PDP to leave enmass to the APC,” In Sokoto State, Governor Wamakko seemed set to join them but for vital consultations he must make.

You would be wrong thinking the National Secretariat of APC would now rest its quest to extend the party's tentacles with the 'successes' it has so far recorded. The energetic party is not yet done as it is billed to hold talks with Governor Ameachi of Rivers State this Monday. After that, talks with the remaining G-7 governors will follow suit.

What an Oliver Twist we have in APC! Having cornered major opposition parties into its kitty, the coalition is yet to be satisfied. It is still craving for more, hence its tenacity to use all the big names it has in courting these beautiful brides. Then again in equal measure, what a behemoth we have in PDP such that even after collapsing itself into a coalition, opposition elements are still not sure of their ability to uproot the ruling PDP from power.

What would you have me say? APC's overtures to the renegade PDP governors suggests it is still not sure of its current potentials. Better still, it implies that the party still sees PDP as insurmountable notwithstanding its present gains. Little wonder PDP was boasting on Thursday that it is not perturbed by the development. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP accused APC of 'poaching' the G-7 governors by 'desperately coaxing' them.

The PDP, in the statement, took a dig at APC describing the party as a “hypocritical party lacking in genuine ideology and principles”. It added that the opposition party lacked true followership and electable materials at all levels. APC got served, you may say. It was a super-cut that the party and its handlers asked for. Candidly, what PDP said seems true judging from the context.

It is really hypocritical for APC to publicly condemn the bad governance that PDP has brought to bear on the country, heap all the blames for our under development on it, yet seek to have critical members of the party within its ranks. Is APC implying that the quartet of Wamakko, Lamido, Nyako and Kwankwaso who are governors under the platform of PDP aren't part of the maladministration of the country it has relentlessly accused PDP of?

If PDP could have up to four, nay, seven 'hardworking and progressive' governors, as APC described them, then the party isn't as terrible as APC had always portrayed it. Unless by hardworking and progressive, the party is referring to politicians who are rebellious to their party leadership. Verily, it is incongruous for PDP to be declared as the disease plaguing this country, only for some governors on its stable to be acquitted just because they fell out with the leadership of the party.

Drawing further from this, the advances of APC towards the G-7 governors give it away as actually lacking 'in genuine ideologies and principles'. The aggrieved governors it is currently chasing after already have the philosophies of PDP ingrained in them. It, therefore, remains to be seen how APC would easily substitute these entrenched ideals of PDP in the governors with its own. By finding it convenient to reach out to these established PDP members, APC simply betrays itself as lacking in genuine ideologies and principles.

Else, it would have even been worried when they seek membership. It would be bothered about compatibility and adherence to what it stands for. Ideologies and principles, where they exist, are sacred. So hallowed are they that whatever or whoever would taint or undermine it is never permitted. Warts and all, APC has simply made us know that it doesn't have any of those. It may have it on paper, but, it means little to them.

Nonetheless, is PDP that brought this to our knowledge any holier? Of course not! If the party had or adhered to its ideologies and principles, it wouldn't have found itself in the terrible pass it is today. But let's just deal with the message and leave the messenger for another day. Metuh also said APC lacked true followership and electable materials. That may not be true, but again, judging from APC's new found hubby, it may be true.

Do not be deceived, in the Nigerian political terrain, it is a verity. For no other material can be more electable in Adamawa as of now than the Admiral himself or his stooge. Ditto for Jigawa, Sokoto, Kano and the other states. In our country, the incumbency factor is very veritable in deciding who gets elected or not. It even bestows true followership as can be seen with the Kwankwasiyya movement that has engulfed Kano state. Thus, Metuh is spot on to the extent of those states where APC doesn't have one of their own as head.

I guess it is in recognition of this that APC is throwing shame and caution to the wind to cajole the troubled emperors of their states into joining its ranks. If it succeeds, this will technically translate to APC raising the number of states it controls even when it did not undergo the rigours of the election process there. It also promises to swell the number of votes the party gets in the 2015 presidential election. Then again, it would boost the party's revenue base.

Now you can better appreciate why they had to trample on whatever ideologies and principles they have. But, are these grounds cogent enough to allow what a party represents be subjected to the miasma of corruption? Your response is as good as mine.

However, the odds go beyond APC making mockery of its ideologies and principles into causing disaffection and unease among its old members. Some of them see the drive to attract the governors and their supporters into the party as a prelude to the imposition of leadership in the party. They fear it is a move that would alter the choice of candidates in future elections.

These fears are well founded but APC can allay them by upholding the tenets of democracy, rule of law and justice. As the party courts politicians to whom these values are strange, the party must ensure it doesn't concede elective positions to them or their loyalists in disregard for primaries. The party must be careful not to undermine those who have laboured for the opposition for several years. Given that we have just Politicians Party of Nigeria in our country, this makes it all the more compelling for us to, at the least, have internal democracy.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi,
Editor-in-Chief,
sifareports.com
@ugsylvester
ug.ugovester@gmail.com


http://dailypost.com.ng/2013/11/03/ugochukwu-ugwuanyi-the-apc-g-7-governors-romance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ugochukwu-ugwuanyi-the-apc-g-7-governors-romance

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

In case you missed it, we've been allowed a glimpse into what remains of the life of every female victim of sexual assault. If before now you were beset by curiosity as regards their disposition to life afterwards, your puzzle need not be prolonged for a statement to that effect has been made- an eloquent one for that matter! Yet, for those who have been indifferent to the scourge of rape, it is hoped that the statement made will make them feel different.

It should all the more dawn on the perpetrators, who do not reason beyond their lustful quest to disengage the heat in their groin, that the binge of violation they effect is a stroke that makes their preys prefer to inhabit the great beyond! Further compounding this absurd preference is the society that instead of providing succour, choose to be vindictive as if the victims are the initiators.

Those who are strong enough, bar all odds to live through the nightmare. Yet, no matter how intrepid they get about it, that urge to end it all never ceases to rear its head from time to time. This is because of the eternal scar our subject-matter bequests on anyone unfortunate enough to be a casualty coupled with how they are treated by us all.

Even as they live with it, their perception of men, romance and relationship get poisoned, such that they fail to believe in love as the force that attracts men to ladies. Instead, they see all advances whether filial or amorous as driven by lust. A survey of commercial sex workers would readily reveal that many of them were led into prostitution by the sexual assault earlier carried out on them, ditto for unapologetic lesbians.

Ladies and gentlemen, pardon me for devoting today's column to this awful practice that has assumed a life in our country and that can now be officially said to consume lives as well. There may be other burning national matters which you think are more deserving of today's space, nonetheless, it cannot but be spared to be used in talking about that abrupt moment of ecstasy which has turned debauched men into dogs going about in search of weaker vessels to get defiled.

We should be incensed to give attention to this menace following the death of 18-year old Janet in Bayelsa state who last Wednesday was confirmed by the police to have hung herself. This happened barely a week after she was gang-raped by three men. Reports say the rapists forced her at gun point into an uncompleted building where they committed the act. According to family sources, Janet, who was on an errand for her elder sister when the incident happened, got so "sad and devastated" afterwards.

But, who wouldn't be? I'm sure not even call-girls would be pleased to experience this, let alone a lass who may have been reserving her virginity for the right person. She must have resisted every entreaty for her to give away her pride from puberty stage only for her to be raped at age 18. Even if she had lost it, the ordeal of having three men sexually come upon a lady without her consent is one evil that no humane person would wish her worst rival.

Verily, three men cannot forcefully have canal knowledge of a lady in quick succession and not leave her traumatised. Those who get raped by individual males who overpowered them feel so bitter about it, not to take of a young lady whose sexual organ was forced to host three men at a time. But, do the rapists give a hoot? No, they don't! For all that matters is their libido which must be satisfied.

Yet, it isn't as if the satisfaction they derive will last them a lifetime to warrant their throwing caution to the wind. Instead, the pleasure is so short-lived that minutes after they must have climaxed, the urge returns with greater intensity leaving them with no option but to go in search of another prey. What a miserable life to live! In as much as they make life miserable for their preys, they should know that themselves wallow in greater misery. Something akin to the jailer and his inmates.

Yet, this misery precedes the birth pangs for their comeuppance goes beyond that into one that not even life imprisonment can equate. Given that we have a case of Janet's suicide being remotely caused by their horrendous hobby, then should they expect a recompense that transcends them to their generations yet unborn. For it used to be said that the evil that men do lives after them, but may I intimate you that it has changed to: the evil that men do lives with and after them!

I just hope that rapists knew this much before they embarked on their evil act. Assuming they know not, morality and conscience should have refrained them from desecrating their hapless victim to the extent that she would hang herself thereafter. But, we are talking of depraved persons with a dead conscience and to whom morals mean nothing more than just another word.

It was Amit Abraham who once said, “The punishment for rape should be castration." This seems to be a plausible punishment for the offence since it would prevent rapists from having progeny who would suffer for a curse they know nothing about. But I'm afraid this can't obtain here considering the ineptitude of our police. How do you castrate a rapist who is perpetually at large?

There have been countless reported and unreported cases of rape in this part of the world with most of the perpetrators going 'scot free'. Alas, they aren't free. They and theirs are bound by their unjust act of defiling those who are innocent thereby subjecting them to self-slaughter. The rapists should better surrender themselves to be castrated so that they, their offspring and girls generally would have respite.

Considering the dark clouds that the rape (and subsequent deaths) of victims attracts to those involved in the iniquity, one wonders why rapists won't just marry so that they can rape their wives as they so desire. At least, that would have been safer than putting everyone including themselves in harms way.

This is not to say we don't have married men who still engage in the rape of susceptible girls. Such men should not be surprised when their daughters or wives become victims as well. In fact, we should pray for that to be their lot so that they can have a taste of their medicine. Since rapists usually operate in the dark, they may eventually turn out to be those who would inadvertently rape their daughters. And that is very very possible!

The prognosis of the spokesman for Bayelsa police command, Mr Alex Akhigbe, suggests that stigmatization played a major part in the suicide of the deceased. In his words: “I believe the deceased decided to hang herself due to the attendant shame and stigmatisation she experienced after the rape incident.”

This is an indictment on those of us who treat rape victims as lepers. From where I'm standing, persons like this are no better than the rapists. Hence, somebody should tell them to first remove the speck in their eyes before attempting to remove the log from those of rapists or the victims. The truth is that it is such people who make rape cases to grow in leaps.

They do this by giving victims a reason not to tell anyone about their harrowing experience. And when they keep this to themselves, those who commit the crime escape the wrath of the law, thus allowing them go about their distasteful pastime unperturbed. It's one circle that starts and ends with the set of people who love victimising victims of rape.

Now that we have established how they are culpable, the holier-than-thou judges should not close their ears to this screaming statement that Janet's suicide is sounding. They should better give up their inconsiderate stance to allow us treat this rape headache squarely. Their adding more load to the already heavy-laden victims of rape reeks of sheer wickedness.

Finally, we all should do our best in curbing this rape menace that is spoiling to overrun our society. We should strive to abort incidences of rape whenever and wherever we smell it. Also, we should not fail to empathise with the victims. It's imperative for us not to muzzle this final statement from Janet like her harriers silenced her while they took advantage of her. If we do, we'll basically be casting ourselves in the same mould with the rapists.

You can follow me on twitter via @ugsylvester and reach me through ug.ugovester@gmail.com

http://
thewillnigeria.com/news/the-suicide-of-that-rape-victim/

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

May we give a round of applause to Hon. Victoria Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the deputy governor of Lagos State who did what was expected of an elderly woman at a public event last Wednesday. You may wonder why she should be applauded when she only did what was to be expected, but don't forget that ours is a country where most 'elders' look the other way while heavily-pregnant goats deliver in tethers.

The deputy governor is worth the clap for taking exception to what should be frowned at but have been allowed to assume the status of a norm in our society. She, at that event, stood up for her number one constituency which is womankind. She also proved that she has indeed had a stint with social work. All these and more she evinced by just throwing one stone, like the Reggae musician, Culture, would sing.

You wouldn't be forgiven if you expected anything less from a princess who has a committed passion for the emancipation of the womenfolk. No, such a person can't be present yet stomach what went down that day. I can imagine how uncomfortable the former Lagos House of Assembly member would have felt while the desecration lasted. How she prayed for the show to end abruptly so she can address the anomaly.

But she kept her cool till the end only for her to make the correction in an indulgent manner, adopting what was more like a slap on the wrist for an offence some hardliners would only have been placated by the severing of wrist. And if you ask them, they will quickly remind you of the good book's injunction for us to chop off whichever part of our body that comes between us and heaven. We shall return to this presently.

However, before we veer off too far, the woman chose the path of dialogue. Do you blame her? Of course, not! If there is any word that has been most mouthed in our polity right now, that word is surely dialogue. It is so much on every tongue that GEJ had to inaugurate an advisory committee just for it. Who knows, our Lagos mummy may have opted for dialogue as a form of rebuke in order to put her in better stead to dialogue when the stage is set for the national version. Let's now hear the dialogue that ensued between her and her interlocutors:

Deputy Governor: I guess you are professional dancers?

Interlocutors: Yes ma!

Deputy Governor: If you must entertain without pants on, certainly not in a gathering like this. Just see how you are disgracing and degrading womanhood. Don’t try it again.

Interlocutors: Yes ma!

Still lost, I suppose? Let me find you. The dialogists are kukere crooner, Iyanya's female dancers who wore no pants while they danced seductively. The conversation happened shortly after the sensational artiste and his troupe performed at the closing ceremony of the MTN Lagos Street Soccer that was staged at the Campos Mini Stadium in Lagos Island.

Footages from that event which went viral on the social media revealed how the dancers in question appeared almost naked such that it wouldn't take much peer before their pudenda are gleaned. To make matters worst, they danced like agents of satan sent to advertise sex by flaunting what traditionally shouldn't be flaunted.

Indeed, provocative would be an understatement for what they displayed. Yet for all of this, Hon. Orelope-Adefulire only charged them to take their display elsewhere! Verily, you will be forgiven if you expected more from her. There are lots of options before her, even within the ambit of civility, that could have been employed in ramming her disgust in and avoid a recurrence. I'm talking of options that could cause the dancers to change profession, but the good lady chose to be gentle instead.

Excuse me, did I just call for a round of applause for the deputy governor? My bad! It should have been a round of half clap, if there's anything like that. So, feel free to collect the remaining half from her, if you can. While we try to accommodate the temperate scolding she gave, her asking the dancers to take their flirtatious brand of entertainment elsewhere is a no-no! Hence, she should please make do with a half clap.

Given her statement that their show shouldn't be 'in a gathering like this', that ordinarily suggests that such display can be taken elsewhere. This elsewhere can be on music videos with impacts that would be even more devastating. It can be on television channels where advertisers would employ their craft on the claim that sex sells. The right thing would have been for the honourable to use the opportunity that availed itself to dissuade the girls from engaging in such an act no matter the setting.

If it so pained her, she could have demanded a means of contacting them or prevailed on them to see her afterwards. When they do, she could re-orient them after which they will be empowered to reach-out to other ballerinas who are still disgracing the sanctity of womanhood in other gatherings and under different capacities. Only this would have guaranteed that the gals and their like won't try it again.

The above option should have been favoured in view of the fact that the girls who were cautioned weren't just dancing for the fun of it. Rather, they performed because that is how they make ends meet. They may not have wanted to dress that way but were cajoled by the higher pay such costume would attract.

Given that this is how they earn a living, it then becomes unreasonable and unjust for anyone to ask them to give that up without providing an alternative means of livelihood. It becomes even hypocritical for the person making such demand to be in a position to provide a more decent job yet chose to be mute about that. Now you know why the number two citizen of Lagos State reserved other options before her.

Be that as it may, it is good that she at least condemned their desecration of womanhood. That is one profanity we know women to always stand against. I have witnessed an scene where a deranged lady was about stripping herself bare but was stopped by women around who rallied round and covered her with a wrapper donated by one of them.

If they could do this for an apparently raving female, why can't they prevail on ethically-mad ballerinas who appear almost naked in the guise of entertainment? The girls engaged in this nudity definitely have mothers, aren't their mothers curious about the kind of work their daughters do? Or do they know yet see nothing wrong in it since that pays the bills and makes their daughters stars? All these are vain things which a mother who ab initio did not bring up her girl-child well will glory in.

And now the poser: where are the women societies and women-cause advocates who should be campaigning against what musicians are turning young members of their gender into? I sense they have been so busy chasing 35 per cent affirmative action that they have rendered this one negligible. Looking at Iyanya, who the ballerinas were dancing to his singing, he was well clad concealing what everyman should conceal, why then should those dancing for him not clad themselves well enough?

It is in reaction to this that American divas like Beyonce, Rihanna and sorts are now trying to make boys act in a manner that degrade manhood in their music videos. This points to their acknowledgement that females are being abused in musicals, albeit they started it. Warts and all, that wouldn't change the given that womanhood had been and has continued to be desecrated globally on the altar of entertainment.

This smacks of the selfishness of the average Nigerian music artiste like his counterparts abroad. They don't really care about us, neither do they still give a heck about morality. They are basically about anything which helps in increasing their fan-base not minding how injurious that thing is to the society. I'm sure Iyanya would least be bothered when told that one of those who watched his performance that day went ahead to rape an under-aged girl.

We have really suffered at the hands of our music stars. After leading many to sin through their sex-glorifying lyrics, they are rubbing it in with pornographic visuals as well. If only Hon. Victoria Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire had spared some words for Iyanya as well...

Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist who you can follow on twitter via @ugsylvester or reach through: ug.ugovester@gmail.com

http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/lagos-deputy-governor-and-semi-nude-dancers-intersection.html

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

We would have had an ample reason to question the resourcefulness and altruism of our intelligentsia if they had continued to look at issues surrounding the national conversation proposed by President Jonathan from the regular prism without paying heed to one obvious lapse therein. But thank heavens, Dr. Chidi Odinkalu, who is the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), saved the day.

Since the names of members of the Advisory Committee were made public on October 1, 2013, we have been harangued by the literati and other social commentators of this country on the national dialogue as suggested by the President. Almost all of them view it with suspicion; the crux of their interventions centred on the need for us to beware of the Greeks when they come bearing gifts as told by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana.

Even Senator Bola Tinubu, the doyen of All Progressives Congress, who was just returning from a medical trip abroad couldn't wait to alight the plane before describing Jonathan's confab as a “diversionary step taken by a sinking ship." He concerned himself with the fact that the proposed national dialogue (which he and others had always clamoured for) is coming at a time the 2015 elections is fast afoot.

One of the columnists in The Sun newspapers, Steve Nwosu, likened the national conference fever gripping the nation to a fallout of PDP throwing another bone to the dogs just to keep them busy so as not to disturb their(PDP apparatchiks') laze. He reasoned: "I think this is just a distraction to make us take our mind away from what we should be looking at..."

For Sam Nda-Isaiah, who qualifies to be the most incurable of Jonathan's critics: "Jonathan’s confab committee of unelected people, some of whom are of dubious character, is certainly inferior to the National Assembly. And whatever any such committee brings up is still subject to the National Assembly’s imprimatur anyway. So why waste everybody’s time?"

Apparently, this space can't contain all the reactions that have so far greeted this bone thrown at us. Yet, it was just Dr. Odinkalu who, while giving an instance in his recent disquisition titled: 'Nigeria: Between Nostalgia and Nirvana,' that exposed a fatal negligence in the composition of the Advisory Committee. The example he cited was buttressed by Segun Adeniyi in his last Thursday's piece on the backpage of ThisDay.

Both of them scantily talked about the fact that in a committee detailed to work out the discussion of Nigeria's future, not one person yet to clock 50 years of age was made a member. This, the NHRC Chairman described as worrying. Citing Dr. Odinkalu, Mr Adeniyi wrote: "it is noteworthy that on a committee to undertake an assignment expected to determine Nigeria’s future, not a single person is under the age of 50..."

He went on to reveal that this is happening at a time when our demographics indicate that Nigerians within the age group (1 to 50) probably accounts for more than 85 per cent of our population. How then can one reconcile these? Firstly, Nigeria has this great percentage of younger persons, still, she did not think it wise to factor them into such an important committee. The second is that an indiscretion of this magnitude was committed, yet our agenda-setters failed to see the need to set it as the agenda.

Since it is palpable that the so-called national conversation would not lead us anywhere given that the sincerity of those behind it is in doubt, we should have used the window created by government's choice of those to be in the committee to let it know that there goes another instance of it telling a 30-year old man that he is the leader of tomorrow!

Indeed, we should have harped on that to make government realise her foolishness in asking senescent persons to oversee what today youths have a greater stake in. How can you be talking about determining Nigeria's future, yet fail to substantially include those who are more of the present in that process? And the country in question is one where "the median age is 23 and where life expectancy is just about 48 years." Little wonder many are not taking government serious on this issue.

Shortly before the independence day, I was interviewed by a reporter from a radio station in Lokoja. He sought to know my opinion on things Nigeria is not doing right as she marks her 53rd anniversary. I wasted no time in telling him that the country's undying love for gerontocracy isn't going to move it forward since that system encourages the recycling of leaders who are bereft of ideas. I made a case for Nigerian youths to be allowed political leadership. It happened that when the interview was aired, a friend asked how I think a 25year old, for instance, can effectively govern a state in Nigeria.

While this isn't to give into my friend's polemic that tweens are not yet mature for executive positions in the country, it's in delegations like the Advisory Committee on National Dialogue that government can allow the youths taste political leadership. For, it isn't until one serves as a local government chairman or governor, that a person can be said to have experienced political leadership. And the fact that what is to be discussed is the future of our country makes it all the more compelling for youths to be involved.

I know this is just a committee to sort out the modalities and that when it gets to views collation the younger generation will not be overlooked. That, to me, is neither here nor there. Their having slots at the committee will enable them proffer the easiest and most reliable ways of obtaining the views of the younger generation. It will also make them become more interested in the country and ultimately equip them and buoy them up to aspire for higher political positions.

And that is our ruling elite's greatest nightmare: having to drag our juicy public offices with more people. Hence, they use every means possible to shut the more people out. Even where the more people shouldn't be bounced, they still bounce them. How else can we justify their not including elements from this generation if not for the selfish motive of protecting 'their' turf, rather; our turf that they have cornered for themselves!

Indeed, nous must have ministered to them that some youths should be in that committee, but they elected to ignore it's counsel. It is a given that youths of nowadays are so given to 'frivolities', yet some of these pastime fill them with so much ideas that could be exploited to make our country work.
Take for instance, their craze for foreign football leagues; from these leagues they learn how coaches administer and position players for optimum performance on the pitch and be goal scorers. You can well agree with me that if given the chance to replicate this in managing our nation, we will be the better for it.

Watching of western movies is another of such 'frivolities'. However, these movies reveal so much about what makes those countries exporting them tick; what makes their societies functional. It thereby affords our youths the opportunity of emulating global best practices. Thus, such excuses as: what do they have to offer, holds no water!

At least they would have more to offer than Col. Nyiam known to be the most senior officer that led a failed mutiny that was set to break up this country, who was still appointed to the Advisory Committee. They will verily be more useful in the the Senator Femi Okorounmu led Committee than a character who does not believe in the indivisibility of Nigeria. This is not to mention the fact that they have more of the vigour and energy to make a thorough job of the brief.

Here now is the meat we should chew: we have continued to whinge that the 1999 Constitution is a sole product of the military with no contribution from a greater section of Nigerians whose lives the Constitution was to regulate. I put it to us that the composition of the Advisory Committee has dispatched us to that road again. This is as a greater majority of those whose lives would be dependent on it are about to be sidelined again.

However, the joy is that both the call for a national dialogue and the setting up of the Advisory Committee seem more like a ruse meant to distract us from issues that matter. That, notwithstanding, government have unwittingly disclosed its dereliction of youths, it is therefore expected that youths should stand to demand their inclusion in the political governance of the country.


Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist who you can follow on twitter via @ugsylvester or reach through: ug.ugovester@gmail.com

http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/articles-opinions/youths-and-the-composition-of-the-national-dialogue-committee/

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

General Olusegun Obasanjo in his first stint saw the need to tighten the spending of government. To tackle this, he came up with austerity measures. And in a bid to further protect the economy, his junta made the importation of cars difficult leaving Nigerians with no option but to patronise Peugeot and Volkswagen cars both of which had assembly plants in Kaduna and Lagos respectively.

The administration did not stop there; it used government-owned media stations like the NTA and FRCN to school Nigerians that the decision was taken in their best interest. That worked like magic. Before you know it, Toyota, Mercedes, Opel and Fiat cars disappeared from Nigerian roads allowing Peugeot and Volkswagen unfettered dominance. The relics are still here as can be gleaned from our military establishment's continued predilection for the Peugeot brand.

Why is he taking us down this memory lane, you may wonder? It's because our today government is set to take a cue from as it was then. There goes another reason why we can't despise history since it always offer us a book to borrow a leave from. It became expedient to exhume this example which occurred during Gen Obasanjo's regime of February 1976 to September 1979 in order to assure the current government that it can succeed in its determination to travel a similar road.

If the military junta succeeded then, this government can succeed as well. All it requires is tenacity and unity of purpose. Yes, the present government is set to thread the trail blazed by Gen Obasanjo and his co travellers. This it did by declaring, last Wednesday, that all vehicles to be purchased by it would be from local assembly plants, except those so specialised that they could not be produced in the country.

This is captured under the Automotive Industrial Policy Development Plan for the country which hopes to significantly reduce the high vehicle importation bill in the country that stands at $3.4bn (N550bn) in 2012 rising from the N4.2bn spent for the same purpose in 2010. These figures are major capital flights that cannot but have a devastating impact on any nation's foreign reserve.

And it goes beyond its pillage on the foreign reserve to also destroying the local economy. But were there to be functional car assembly plants in the country, that will automatically attract companies that manufacture tyres and other ancillary parts of automobiles, creating job opportunities in the process. It would also provide the much-needed stimulus which will revive our comatose steel industry. Eventually, it would lower the price of automobiles such that Nigerians can easily afford them.

A situation where the foregoing obtains remain a veritable sine qua non for a buoyant economy. Granted that I'm not an economist to effectively correlate them, some of the things I know for sure is that if government stays true to this propitious policy, there would be great investments in flow that would in turn create lots of job opportunities in the country. And, in the long run, it will be a source of revenue generation to government through the payment of tax.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga disclosed this much when he said: “A transformed automotive industry will realise its potential as a major driver of economic growth and diversification, job creation, local value addition, and technology acquisition."

That part on economy diversification thrills me unend because if there is any economy in the world that needs diversification, it is absolutely that of Nigeria. This is owing to our dwindling oil revenue occasioned by oil theft and the fact that the world is shifting focus from our type of oil deposits to shale oil. Not minding we've been trying to achieve diversification through agriculture, the word itself would better attain its true meaning if automobile manufacturing is thrown into the potpourri.

This new policy deserves to be so welcomed that anything detracting from it should not be welcomed. That's why I'm not happy with the proviso in the policy statement which holds: "...unless it is specialised in nature and the NAC has certified that it is not produced in Nigeria."

Must they drive in such specialised vehicles? Aren't we in the same age with Jose Mujica, Uruguay's 40th president, who would rather drive around in a 1987 model of Volkswagen Beetle? My major grouse with this stipulation is that our politicians can easily take advantage of it. Being who they are, they can use it as an excuse to continue importing exquisite cars from outside our shores. Such that when asked, they will readily tell you that the car in question is specialised and have been certified as not being produced in the country.

In the republic of South Africa, the government in that country drives or buys no other cars except the ones assembled in South Africa. This is notwithstanding the specialised nature or otherwise of whatever vehicle is to be bought. This disposition of South Africa explains why Toyota, Mercedes and BMW all have assembly plants in that country that has a population of 50million and not Nigeria that is populated by close to 170million people.

It goes to show that investors are solely out for places they are sure of a guaranteed market. With a bound market in place, they can even disregard the energy challenges to be faced since they know they will always get around. Cast your mind to Nigeria restricting her large number of public office holders to using cars from a particular company, then would you understand what proceeds await such companies: proceeds that defies whatever hiccoughs to be faced.

Little wonder, car manufacturing giants like Toyota and Nissan are expected to announce their commitments soon. They just have to, since the size of those within the corridors of power in Nigeria eclipses what they can find in other African countries. And going by the insinuation of President Jonathan at his last media chat, the size is not likely to be abridged any time soon. Thus, the companies need not be disturbed with the number of those government will be buying for.

However, while they may dilly dally in coming, they should know that smart businessmen like Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM) have already begun the process. And from all indications, people like him are having a swell time doing business in the country. It is a common sight to see their long buses criss-crossing some major cities in the country providing intra-city transport services.

Government not need wait endlessly for the kind of companies it is expecting to come before effecting this policy. Lest, their delay in coming becomes a reason the policy will become kaput. The car assembly and manufacturing factories already on ground should be used in kick-starting the policy. When this is done, we wouldn't need to beg foreign car manufacturing companies before they start making their ways to this place.

It will be instructive to call on the states and local governments in the country to subscribe to this Automotive Industrial Policy Development Plan being promoted by the federal government. None of them should constitute itself as a clog in the wheel of progress. They too are in the habit of procuring cars. Thus, they should always endeavour to buy made-in-Nigeria cars, and not those made abroad. For the rain of this policy will pour on them just it would on the federal government.

The legislative arm cannot be sidelined in an issue like this. In as much as they have an obsessive inclination to use eye-popping official cars which they readily sell to themselves when leaving office, they should be assiduous in providing the legal framework for this policy to succeed. They are the ones that can make it outlive the present government that conceptualised it by giving the policy a legislative backing.

I'm sure this is one major commitment from government that foreign investors are waiting to see before they make that move we are all expecting from them. For none of them would want to establish a car assembly plant today only for another government to come up tomorrow and lift the embargo on government patronising cars made abroad. Hence a strong legislation is necessary and our lawmakers should get at it.

And as government works to bring this extremely expedient policy to life, let us as Nigerians meet it halfway by resolving to go for our locally manufactured vehicles next time we want to buy an automobile. Patriotism requires we do this, nous expects this of us and our bank accounts will be happy when we do this. It's high time we started seeing made-in-Nigeria vehicle the same way Americans see Ford automobiles. We absolutely don't need a Gen. Obasanjo to make us do this.

Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist you can follow on twitter via @ugsylvester or reach through: ug.ugovester@gmail.com

www.globalreportersvienna.com/2013/10/partnering-government-in-patronising.html

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Co-Nigerians, permit me to embark on what may look like afghanistanism today. It is not as if we have finished tackling the issues confronting us at the home front, neither have I abandoned my beloved journalism metier to take up appointment as a busybody briefed to pry into other people's affairs (although that is what journalism is about). It is just that there is a pressing need to take this trip outside Nigeria. Be patient, you will understand presently.

You should know, however, that it's not as if we are transcending the dark-skinned continent. No. We are just going to stay within the bounds of the motherland, not minding that the people of the country we are headed aren't dark-skinned. So, where is our destination? It is none other than Tunisia. I'm pretty sure that one major thing that comes to your mind is the Arab Spring. And correct, you are!

Actually, the Arab Spring that some years ago upsetted the apple cart in the Arab world to the extent of consuming enduring rulers started here. We can't forget that it was in Tunisia where an event which was akin to a strike of the matchstick that set ablaze a forest occurred. But that was in 2011, let's get to the present.

Before then, however, there is a point that can't be overlooked: unlike some other countries that copied its brand of street protest wholesale, Tunisia's path to transition has been comparatively peaceful with its trademark compromise and concessions taking pre-eminence whenever and wherever factions exist.

In Egypt, we know how the military recently toppled a democratically-elected president triggering bloody protests in its wake. We are also not ignorant that, in Libya, the central government have continued to battle rival militia's influence since the ousting of the country's hitherto strongman: Muammar Gaddafi. We also know what have become of Syria.

However, this relative peace enjoyed by the people of Tunisia got ruptured in July following the assassination of an opposition leader, Mohammed Brahmi, by suspected Islamist militants. This happened barely five months after a prominent leftist politician, Chokri Belaid, was murdered in February. It is also believed that Islamist extremists have a hand in Chokri's death.

These killings have made the opposition elements in the country to resort to what they are good at- street protest. Their demand? That the Islamist controlled government should step down. As at last week, anti-government protesters held a rally for the dissolution of the government in power in Sfax, 270 kilometres southeast of Tunis.

Wading into the matter that was already on its way to becoming a standoff, the country's powerful labour union and other members of the civil society proposed that the ruling Islamist Ennahda party should agree to three weeks of negotiations at the end of which it would resign to make way for an independent transitional administration that would conduct presidential and parliamentary elections.

The labour union, which also goes by the abbreviation UGTT, had planned a protest campaign to arm twist Ennahda into accepting its transition blueprint, should the government not heed its demands. It is heartening that the ruling Islamist party didn't allow the country's labour union to go that far before it hearkened to the sense of reason.

According to an Ennahda party official, Lotfi Zotoun, "Ennahda has accepted the plan without conditions to get the country out of the political crisis." Even the UGTT confirmed that both the secular opposition forces and the Islamist Ennahda have consented to the agreement it proposed. The deputy head of union, Bouali Mbark, said his union has a written statement from Ennahda about its decision, and that opposition officials have also confirmed the agreement.

Albeit experts suggest that Ennahda's decision reveals its recognition that taking a rigid posture against the proposed caretaker government was getting it nowhere considering that the balance of forces in society was against it, I'd say it takes maturity for a reigning government to see things this way. That concession of government is highly commendable. All three parties have exhibited love for country by their actions. It is then expected that this patriotism will guide them all through the negotiations to when lasting peace will be achieved.

The Ennahda party have been accused by the opposition of pushing an Islamist agenda in the previously secular nation. It will better serve the course of peace for Ennahda to temper its alleged infusion of religion into governance and politics. This is as the country belongs to all the people of Tunisia, not just a section of the people.

The reputation Tunisia holds as one of the most secular in the Arab world even before the 2011 ousting of its longtime leader, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, must be upheld. This is as the people of the country must have got themselves accustomed to that style of living. Tunisia should guard against the same mistake made by the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.

Be that as it may, the decision of the Ennahda party to resign after talks with its opponents are concluded remains a welcome development. Governments in power, especially those in many African countries should take a cue from this. For in the final analysis, government exists at the behest of the people. A situation where the people wants an unpopular government to go, yet such government remained headstrong does augur well for democracy.

It is good that this is coming from the same Tunisia which set the precedent for the Arab Spring. Since other countries are wont to following its leading, it is hoped that the ruling Ennahda party will stay true to its promise so as to equally allow the expected outcome reverberate in other nations. Now you see why we had to undertake this trip.

Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist who you can follow on twitter: @ugsylvester or reach through ug.ugovester@gmail.com


http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/125638/1/looking-up-to-tunisia-for-another-exemplar.html

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

How convenient it is for people to denounce an unattractive pass. It is so convenient that even those who have hands in making a situation hard-featured, can go ahead in condemning the parlous outcome of their indiscretion. An ugly state of affairs becomes a Mary Magdalene who many would want to stone notwithstanding that they have had quickies with her at some nights!

I've asked myself why some people would be this hypocritical and a major reason that comes handy is that they may be trying to exculpate themselves from whatever mess their innermost self know they are responsible for. Their mischievous mind must have told them that merely speaking against something torpid absolves the speaker of any complicity whatsoever. And so they shouted on top of their voices!

They condemned the turn of events in our country, hoping that that's enough to blindfold we the populace from recognising them as being among those turning events from its straight course. This freedom of expression self! I was of the thinking that one isn't expected to use his or her right to the extent that it abuses that of another. Here is a case of people exercising their freedom of expression and in the process, insulting our sensibilities.

Let's take a trip to the red chamber so we can better appreciate today's subject; in the course of debating a motion sponsored by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egbe which was titled: “Congratulations to Nigerians on her 53rd Independence Anniversary”, Senator Ita Enang and about ten others took turns to regret that Nigeria was performing far below expectation, especially when compared with its contemporaries like Malaysia and Brazil. They insisted that the country was in a more pitiable state than its peers.

According to Senator Ita Enang of Akwa Ibom North-west: a number of factories that existed at independence have ceased to function while those functioning had relocated to neighbouring countries following the absence of conducive environment for operations. Speaking on the swell in unemployment, the Senator recalled that when the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recently advertised vacancies for employment, as much as six million Nigerians applied for the few vacant positions.

Hence this poser: Isn't it within you and your colleagues' powers to make the enabling laws for factories which generate employment to exist? For if the right laws are passed, that will be a veritable way of creating the conducive environment for factories to function.

One online commentator who gave his name as Okolie Emeka, in responding to Senator Enang's claim of six million applicants going after few NIS job openings, said: "If you slash your monthly home take by 50%, and the Lower House does the same, in a year, that will be enough to sponsor more than 2000 graduates to set-up small businesses who will in turn employ others." I can't agree any less because 50 per cent off our federal legislators pay that is channelled to productive sectors of our economy would create enough jobs, yet wouldn't make our lawmakers paupers.

In his contribution to the debate, Senator Smart Adeyemi of Kogi West said: “Unlike patriotic leaders like the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Nnamdi Azikwe, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, etc, who started the Nigerian project on a very solid note, anchored on maximizing the greatest goods for the greatest number of people, most of the modern day leaders after the independence era, have been running aground the Nigerian nation, being parochial leaders.”

Did I just hear: 'maximizing the greatest goods for the greatest number of people'? If only this principle had guided those of them at the Senate, I'm sure things wouldn't have been this terrible. If they had had this in mind, they wouldn't have allowed their budget take up to 25 per cent of our national budget (apologies to Lamido Sanusi).

Senators Mohammadu Magoro, Eyinaya Abaribe, Kabiru Gaya, were all of the opinion that at 53, problems such as teeming youth unemployment, poor electricity supply, incessant ethno-religious crises etc, should not be heard of in the country. But then I ask: what have they done to make these problems not to be heard of in Nigeria? This is as Senator Ademola Adeseun, in his contribution to the same debate, noted that the first republic is rated the best era in the nation’s history because that epoch was more or less driven by the parliament.

The rock band, Coldplay in one of their famous hits titled Clocks, asked a vital question: "I'm I part of the cure or I'm I part of the disease?" It's obvious that members of the Nigeria Senate didn't ask themselves this soul-searching question before electing to speak about the failure of leadership in the course of their last Thursday's plenary.

For if they did, they would have found themselves as part of the disease hence sensed the need for them to refrain honourably from acting holier when they aren't even holy to start with. However, it is possible they know they fall on left side of the question thus had to rely on orchestrating those eloquent speeches to conceal their collusion.

Yet, it calls for wonder that they would be so bothered about our knowledge of their avarice and corrupt tendencies amidst glaring ineptitude to the extent of trying to down-play them. This is because they have always swaggered with a whiff of arrogance and impunity; the one that suggests: now you know, what can you do? I suspect that they are either propelled by their conscience which must have continued to prick them, or they see us all as fools who know not the exact spot leaking in the roof that have permitted drops of rain to drench us.

But, hello! Your speaking out against the deplorable state of things in the country does not and cannot make up for the role you all played in making our country a hell hole. If you like, make the most flag-waving of speeches, that wouldn't compensate for the fact that an American Senator earns 174,000 US dollars a year, his UK counterparts earn about 64,000 US dollars while in Nigeria, you lawmakers pocket about 1.7 million US dollars (240 million Naira) amidst the biting penury!

Little wonder that on the same day they were on the floor exonerating themselves from the deplorable state of our country under the guise of commemorating Nigeria's 53rd anniversary, protesters marched from Eagle Square to the National Assembly building to demand transparency and accountability from them. 

That demand just like other demands for accountability directed at them is on point considering that although our senators are the most paid in the world, they passed just 28 Bills in two and half years with majority of the Bills coming from the Executive arm. Also, out of the 109 Senators there is, 34 of them are yet to sponsored a Bill for the past two years. Tell me, does people with such an abysmal record amidst tremendous perks have any moral right to speak against what have become of our country?

Now, you can understand why many of them spoke with their tongue in check, for they surely know that they are parts of the disease. We couldn't see them exude much mania in the said debate as they do whenever new PDP and old PDP is the bone of contention. Imagine how pleasant it would have been if those of them who considered themselves as impeccable seized the moment to point accusing fingers at the bad eggs amongst them, telling them to their faces and in front of the cameras that they are behind our backwardness as a nation.

Perhaps, we couldn't see such an action-thriller because there is none impeccable amongst them.

Since many of them complained that countries which in1960 or afterwards attained independence are leaving Nigeria behind in the race for development, how many of them can vouch that they didn't help these countries get developed at the expense of Nigeria? They must have done this by either establishing firms in those countries, travelling there for holidays and treatment of ailments or by sending their children there for educational trainings. With them doing any or all of these, there isn't a way Nigeria's independence-mates wouldn't get ahead of Nigeria in the bid to get developed.

Taking it further, it is instructive to tell the senators that the slow pace of development in the country can't be far removed from their luck-lustre attitude towards oversight. The oversight responsibility empowers lawmakers to ensure that ministries, departments and agencies(MDAs) of government are up and about in delivering the goods, but what do we hear? Cases of lawmakers making financial demands on the very MDAs they are supposed to supervise!

Yours sincerely considered what eventually became the caption of this piece as apt because many who watched the senators contribute to that motion commemorating Nigeria 53rd independence anniversary would have concluded that those responsible for our under-development are in Timbuktu. As such, it is expedient to jolt such people back to reality by asking again: can we truly acquit our senators of any complicity in Nigeria's backwardness?

Ugochukwu is a freelance journalist who you can follow on twitter via @ugsylvester or reach on ug.ugovester@gmail.com

http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/125394/1/dont-they-have-a-hand-in-nigerias-retardation.html

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

When the now-rested Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in February this year intimated us that the federal government is diverting the SURE-P money towards prosecuting project 2015, many dismissed the allegation as another political statement lacking in substance. But now, we know better.

The loquacious spokesman of the defunct party, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, then said: "Ordinarily, SURE-P seems laudable as it is aimed at the empowerment of the citizens through job creation and infrastructure development, but in reality, PDP apparatchiks have hijacked it for the purpose of empowering only the party’s members.

"They have created State Implementation Committees (SICs) to handle the disbursement of SURE-P cash to party members as a strategy to arm them with a war chest ahead of the 2015 elections. To make matters worse, the PDP is denigrating the traditional institution by using traditional rulers in some states as the conduit to distribute SURE-P funds, ostensibly to empower Nigerians but in reality to put money in the pockets of PDP supporters.”

Though this disclosure was made over eight months ago, the substance in it became evident to us last Thursday when the Presidential Committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, told the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on SURE-P in Abuja that it may lay off 111,000 workers by September 30 if additional funds were not made available to it.

SURE-P Chairman, Dr. Christopher Kolade, informed the Senator Abdul Ningi-led committee that out of its budget of  N27 billion earmarked as workers’ salaries which was captured under its employment generation scheme that comprised 3,000 workers from each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), only a paltry N9 billion was approved in the 2013 budget.

With this development, Dr. Kolade told the senators that SURE-P wouldn't be able to meet its commitment to the 111,000 youths already engaged under the programme, stressing that the cut in its budget had also compromised its target of employing 5,000 workers per state and the FCT on a monthly allowance of N10,000 apiece. Inherent in the preceding are evidences of what we have to sacrifice for them to have their 2015.

To be ernest, I find it difficult to swallow the fact that this ubiquitous project 2015 also laid its larceny hand on the funds meant for SURE-P. This is as I had always been under the illusion that both SURE-P and the money meant to execute it are sacred, far-removed from the reach of our stealing politicians. Pray, must 2015 rob us of everything? Having successfully despoiled us of the attention our leaders should accord pressing state matters, must it also short change us of the dividends of SURE-P which are supposed to be inviolable?

Inviolable, because it is that same initiative that saved the current government from the fuel subsidy removal conflagration which almost snuffed life out of it at the birth of 2012. It was also courtesy of SURE-P that Nigerians gave up their quest for the return of the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, to N65 accepting to buy same for N97. Indeed, the event of SURE-P it was that calmed frayed nerves which were flared by government's cavalier total removal of fuel subsidy at a time it was least expected.

It then becomes unthinkable for anyone to tinker with this all-important peace broker just because he wants to have 2015 go his way. What an affront on Nigerians! It's not even up to two full years since SURE-P quenched the fire ignited by the fuel subsidy removal, still they are already misusing its money. See how they like taking advantage of us. They must have reasoned that by now Nigerians ought to have become used to buying PMS at N97 to the extent that they would no longer remember events that preceded the extant pump price of petrol.

But if they can't respect we the living by allowing SURE-P do for us what it is intended, can't they spare some for those who died in the course of the oil subsidy removal imbroglio? Why treat with contempt one major gain produced by the struggle for which compatriots gave up their lives? Do they think the dead are as forgetful as we the living? Everyone of us are mortals after all, so when we go the way of all mortals, those abusing this essential fruit of the sacrifice of the dead should be ready to square up with them even before facing the judgment throne.

I bet that many Nigerians wouldn't be so surprise at what government have made of the SURE-P funds and of the programme itself. For they know it is archetypal of an average Nigerian politician to throw everything into his quest to remain in power. If they steal when they apparently don't have need for money like Farida Waziri made us to understand, imagine what they would do when they have a capital-intensive project like a re-election bid to accomplish.

Given that seven rebel governors and other aggrieved elements have taken it upon themselves to see to it that the powerful seat is taken away from them what wouldn't they do to retain that seat. In such scenario, money becomes in high demand such that every money in sight gets conscripted into the war chest. Don't forget that we live in a country where money buys endorsements and votes and in the end delivers the desired election result. Hence, money has to be recalled even from the most sacred vault.

But here is where our fear should lie: if they could deplete the SURE-P budget from N27 billion to N9 billion with almost two years to the 2015 general elections, what would become of the budget as the elections draw closer? I suspect that by then, Dr. Kolade would have had no job for himself let alone have some with which to engage Nigerian youths!

The painful aspect is that what they are stealing or perverting now isn't our oil wealth so to say, it is our personal money! I'm talking of the extra N32 we pay for every litre of PMS bought. If it were to be the money we get from our natural endowments, it won't be that sore since they are nature's free gift yielding money that isn't coming from our wallets. But in this case where they have to use our money to water the ground for their 2015 to materialise, it become the height of capitalization.

It will be recalled that it was on this money that all manner of promises were hinged on in the heat of the January 2012 impasse. We were regaled to tales of how it would be used to guarantee stable electricity, efficient health care delivery, well-tarred roads, jobs creation and so on. Now, instead of SURE-P creating jobs, it is decimating them with plans afoot to wipe out the ones so far created not just in thousands nor tens of thousands but in excess of a hundred thousand!

Not yet sated, their looting of our collective N32 is also spoiling to engender a snafu in the additional 2000 jobs that should be created in each of the 36 states and the FCT (that is 74,000 jobs). What a heavy price we pay for having the kind of thieving politicians we are cursed with. Try to consider the fact that for their egoistic interest to prevail, a monstrous 74,000 jobs have to give way! A case of a handful of politicians pilfering our collective waiver at the expense of the dire need of 74,000 people.

Thank heavens we at least prevented them from totally removing the subsidy on PMS, else we would have been giving their 2015 and other profligate demands of theirs as much as N76 for every litre of PMS we buy. Thus, inadvertently funding their continued stay in power with our hard earned money when their current tenure is more of an albatross than a benefaction.

As of now, unconfirmed sources say over 40 million Nigerians are unemployed. When you add a whopping 111,000 to this figure, then would know whether we're making progress or regress as a nation? In better organised societies, should a relatively lower 50,000 job cuts occur in circumstances like ours, then would there be intense calls for the resignation of whoever is at the helms. Most times the call wouldn't even come before the president or prime minister honourably resigns. But not in Nigeria!

It is hoped that both the federal government and the National Assembly would desist from tampering with the money Nigerians have agreed to pay and are paying to help government fulfil its contract with the people. Given that there are various sources of finance available to government, it is expected those operating it would steer clear of the SURE-P funds.

Ordinarily, the monies Nigerians pay as taxes should go a long way in assisting government create jobs. Their going the extra mile of paying N32 for every litre of PMS bought leaves government with no excuse to warrant the loss of 111,000 jobs. It also makes the retraction of the proposed creation of 74,000 jobs unacceptable. All government needs to do is to let SURE-P funds be for SURE-P and not for 2015.

Ugochukwu is a public affairs analyst. To follow him on twitter, use: @ugsylvester.
For reactions, use: ug.ugovester@gmail.com

Explanations for Archbishop Kattey's kidnap
by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Popular U.S. gospel artiste, Donnie McClurkin sang: 'these are the days of Elijah...,' but, I beg to disagree. For I see incongruity in that disclosure that the present times is ala the days of Elijah. How can we be in the days of a man whose words caused fire to rain from heaven and consume troops of soldiers sent to arrest him, yet have miscreants kidnap an Archbishop?

It wasn't even a captain and fifty of his men that came for the abducted Archbishop as it were in Elijah's case but mere criminals. And it wasn't even as if they tried twice and failed as was experienced with Elijah, the kidnappers struck just once and a cleric in the standing of Most Rev. Ignatius Ogboru Kattey was whisked away into a lair. With this in mind, Pastor McClurkin had better likened our days to those of another character, but definitely not Elijah!

I'm pretty sure that the 'troubler of Isreal' had the power to see to the death of the earlier two detachment of soldiers detailed to go and arrest him because he spoke the naked truth to power. In other words, fire from heaven hearkened to Elijah's command because he spoke against the poor choice made by the then ruler of Samaria. Pray, in our country brimming with political leaders who don't take God into consideration in their decisions, how many of our religious leaders today are speaking truth to power, let alone speak the naked truth?

The above question is answered in the fact that kidnapping is now a major menace in our country to the extent that an Archbishop would be a victim. Indeed, kidnapping is a fallout of the poor choices made by our leaders which would not have been if our clerics cause those in authority to defer to God as they run the country. But since they didn't recourse to God, there abound too many faux pas that should keep our clerics busy and voluble. They should be incensed to talk given the outrageous sum politicians collect as security votes but vote same for themselves.

I doubt if our clergymen would ever leave their comfort zone to demand what is right from government. This is as many of them have failed to use this window, of having a top christian leader abducted, to deplore the state of insecurity in the country. If they can't do this when Most Rev. Ignatius Kattey who is the Chairman of Christian Council of Nigeria in South South Area Council is kidnapped, is it when a sexton is abducted that they would speak up? Thank gracious sextons and people like him are not within the radar of kidnap syndicates.

One of the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome who recently regained freedom after been held hostage for three weeks described his abductors as ”angry and desperate well-read graduates” who told him they were pushed into kidnapping by the height of unemployment and poverty prevalent in the country. Having heard these as the causes of kidnapping from (pardon the cliché) the horse's mouth, which clergyman can we say have held government to task on addressing these twin evils?

If Prophet Elijah of old was to be here, I'm sure what government suffered in the hands of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi would have been a child's play. Our today clerics are lucky that the way they are now being perceived by political leaders is far higher than how their counterparts in the yore were perceived and treated by the then emperors and rulers. The fact that President Goodluck Jonathan, not too long ago, knelt while Pastor Enoch Adebayo was ministering testifies to this.

Hence, there is a greater propensity for our political leaders to take seriously whatever our today men of God have to say. Their words are seen as weighty unlike those of garrulous journalists and social critics which political leaders dismiss as being of featherweight to their continued stay in power. Even when political leaders don't respect the criticisms of clerics on account of God, they will surely respect same because they are coming from leaders of thought.

For they know a bishop can easily tell members of his congregation to vote out an under-performing regime and that would be all his people need to do him in at the polls. What happened to Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State is still fresh in our memory. This forms part of the reasons knocks coming from MoGs are not taken for granted by politicians. In as much as they are wont to rigging themselves into power, they know that rigging is made difficult when a section of the voting public is against their candidacy. And taking into cognisance how averse they are to hardwork, such politicians wouldn't want to create extra stress for themselves.

Since our religious leaders have this might at their disposal, it calls for wonder why they haven't been going in this might of theirs. Perhaps they never thought one of them will be a victim of their passivity. Nonetheless, it should be clarified that this isn't a call for them to be unnecessarily antagonistic of government, neither are they expected to forgo their pastoral metier to become social critics. It's simply an invitation for them to speak truth to power since power is attentive to them.

An innocent call on them to leverage on their powers to neutralise or put in check our do-nothing political leaders.

They can, for instance, intensify the call for President Jonathan to go after his friends and 'generals' who have been stealing the nation's crude oil; an act which docks the fund government could have used to create employment and fight poverty. They can equally add their voices in condemnation of the lingering ASUU strike that can lead students into joining the kidnap business or they can just help the nation by putting the various state governors in check. As it seems, instances abound of expedient things needed to move the nation forward which they need to speak out for.

Moving ahead, another way members of the clergy are indicted for the kidnap of one of their own is in the fact that most of those who engage in kidnapping are actually members of their congregations. One gospel artiste whose music overran the eastern part of the country in the 90s sang that whenever he went to churches and saw the mammoth crowd, he was always forced to wonder who then the assassins, armed robbers, prostitutes, murderers, (I took the liberty to add) kidnappers are. He concluded that they are among those gently sitted in the pews. I can't agree any less!

Our churches and mosques have continued to have rogue members. It remains to be seen how the messages preached by priests and imams have been able to influence such members. It is said, in Hebrews 4:12, that the Word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword as it penetrates even into dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow... How then is it that the word being preached today is not penetrating into evil elements who attend church services to gain societal approval?

Perchance, it is because the real Word of God is no longer being expounded. It may also be because preachers nowadays simply preach to their congregation those sermons they would want to hear and not what God wants them to hear. This explains why prosperity preaching is the order of the day with some 'men of God' telling their members to do whatever their hands findeth to do not minding whether it is offensive to the society. All that matters to such 'preachers' is the money that rolls in as tithes and offerings.

Having this as the case, why won't kidnappers see an Archbishop as another prey they can easily take advantage of? Apparently, their 'pastors' must have been so preoccupied with sermons on being fruitful that they failed to intimate their rogue members about God's injunction that forbids touching His anointed or doing His prophet any harm(Psalm 105:15).

Be that as it may, the chicken have come home to roost. But the unfortunate thing is that they are roasting on a leader of one of the very few denominations that teach the true Word of God without obliging members what they want to hear.

That is why I'm confident that the taking into hostage of Most Rev. Kattey isn't unto the disgrace of God's kingdom or the Anglican Communion, instead, it is for the glory of God to be made manifest. Didn't the holy writ record that Apostles Paul and Silas were beaten and confined to the inner cell with each of their feet fastened to stocks? Yet, that didn't stop God from using a violent earthquake to fly the prison doors open and let loose the chains on each prisoners' leg.

This happened when Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God around midnight. Little wonder the Archbishop has been released already. He must have gone the way of Paul and Silas of old. Indeed, his kidnap was to teach leaders of the churches a lesson. It is hoped that the lesson is well learnt.


Ugochukwu is a public affairs analyst. For reactions, use: ug.ugovester@gmail.com

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Usually those (mis)leading us reason that we, like them, don't give a damn about their maladministration of the country. They take it for granted that we can connect their past and present actions in our bid to decipher how altruistic they are. This explains their approval of acts that portrays them as holier. They pooh pooh one of the maxims of equity that he who must come to equity must come with clean hands.

They, by their actions, spurn the biblical injunction that challenges those without sin to throw the first stones. See them trying to throw the initial stones, when we know what humongous a sin they carry. They exploit the system in a manner that they want to visit on commoners the same laws they and their co-travellers subvert. I surmise they are emboldened by the supposed monumental amnesia and nonchalance of Nigerians. Sadly for them, we now live in an age where prompters abound to jog our forgetful memories whenever need be.

Yes, we live in a time where they can be easily intimated that some of us know how incongruous what they want to come on us is to what came on their peers when they committed a worst crime. Those who know are always quick to remind the rest of us. They have been consistent in doing this that we are now peeled of every layer of nonchalance. And nothing else better supports them in this than the social media which permit immediate talk-back.

And this immediate talk-back have Nigerians never relented in using to expose the hypocrisy and fault lines in most policies initiated by our policy-makers. They have effectively used it to have their say even when they know they may not have their way. Like an active social media user known as Muadi made me to understand, he and his ilk simply relish the cathartic effect that flows from making those at the helms know that the followers aren't fools. This, I also think, is worth the while.

They, the citizen journalists in the country, are always quick to throw up angles that a regular journo wouldn't, either on account of the interests he represents or as a result of sheer laziness. So, we owe thanks to the social media for having afforded us a better lens with which to examine government's deeds and a conga we can use in drumming our deductions to their ears.

Nothing better illustrates the foregoing than the Federal Executive Council's approval of the amendment to an Act of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), part of which seeks to make culprits of examination malpractice liable to a five-year jail term or a fine of N200,000 or both.

Immediately the education minister announced this after their last meeting, internet surfers took to their past-time to pillory the Federal Government for approving such an act when it was yet to as mild as excoriate the Kenny Martins, Femi Otedolas and Farouk Lawans of this country. They sought to know the moral right a government that granted pardon to former Bayelsa governor, Dipreye Alamieyesigha have to make such an approval.

Many of them wondered the number of years felons like Bode George, Salisu Buhari and Tafa Balogun spent in custody on account of their crimes which were far worst, that made the Federal Government endorse a five-year time for youngsters who engage in examination malpractices. Others couldn't just see the locus standi a government that overlooks crude oil thieves have, that qualifies it to intend visiting justice on juveniles or young adults who cheat in examinations.

As is to be expected, the report that expressed this news story stopped at just passing the information to the public as it was announced by the Minister of Education. But following the bare report were readers' comments which substantially exposed the hypocrisy of the present and past governments. The comments indicted government for seeking to go after small fries while there are culpable big guns who have been left unscathed or were merely given a slap on the wrist for their abhorrent crimes.

I tell you, if you are only contented with reading a news story without bothering to read the appendages that are comments on the story, then are you missing out of the action. Most of the reactions are veritable eye- openers. I'm not passing over the fact that there are those who just articulate arrant nonsenses as comments. You will also find others who exploit the avenue to advertise their trade. Nonetheless, amidst the nonsenses are senses that one cannot but take seriously.

As I was saying before that digression, social media users who read the story could not help but post their comments apparently because of the pharisaism of government that was gleaned from the story. As at the time I came across it, there were already 28 comments and that was barely one hour after the story was posted. One of the comments I found so fascinating was posted by one Koko part of which reads, "...Let the government provide the minimum required enabling environment for students to study and pass at all levels, then they will have the moral justification for enacting law of five years jail term for those who cheat in exams."

There goes another perspective to the same episode. While this angle projected by Koko is noteworthy, let's focus on the popular opinion since Koko's position is as clear as crystal. Let's harp on the ones that denied our government the right to give such an approval for having not done much to appropriately punish other law breakers in the country. We have to anchor on this point of view for the cogent message it is passing across.

This message is that government's duplicity, insincerity and selectivity in justice delivery is being kept track of by the citizenry. As lax as Nigerians are known to be, who would have believed they could still remember to bring Tafa Balogun into their analysis of this news. Or who would have thought they could still throw this presidency's protection of a person who stole police pension money into their mix of the issue at hand.

Thus, government had better realised that Nigerians aren't daft. If they were, they aren't anymore. This consciousness of the citizenry have the potency of making them opt to act at cross purpose with the government. And when that becomes the case, lawlessness usually lurks around. Please, they had better not let us go the way of Egypt.

Something tell me the WAEC Act would be successfully executed in other West African countries that are bound by WAEC. This is because selective justice delivery isn't as pronounced over there as it is in our country. As such, the people will have no qualms with the implementation of the Act for the Act on its own has great value. It implants in a country's citizenry the culture of hard work and expels from them laziness which makes people want to cut corners.

If given teeth, the law would do our country a great good owing to the scourge of exam malpractice that has so eaten deep into our society. What else do you think is responsible for a 'teacher' not being able to read out the information contained in her certificate? Someone had chirped that five years time was too lenient a punishment if we want to banish exam malpractice from Nigeria. Yet the issue remains that given our leaders antecedents, should they be in a position to approve such a Act?

This, I think, is the major reason why those elected into leadership position should seek to do the right thing always. It explains why they need to be forthright in their actions and inactions. They should not govern in such a way that would render them hamstrung in doing certain things that needs to be done. That is one of the major burdens of leadership they must bear.

As we voice our varied views on the Federal Government's domestication of the WAEC Act, let us be mindful not to dissipate energy and time on a cul-de-sac. For it is yet to be seen how the approval granted the Act would contain examination fraud that appears to have become a way of life in this country. Remember we have laws that address malpractices in examination, yet, they haven't done much in torpedoing the menace.

Although the Federal Executive Council in this case had directed the Ministry of Justice to take further necessary action to ensure the Act is made functional, one would be pardoned for expressing doubts as to the level of success to be achieved at the end of the day. A visit to any external exam centres across the country when exams are holding removes the scales off one's eyes as to what lies in store for the Act.

Let it not be that I'm presenting myself as one who does not see the evil in exam malpractice or a pervert that doesn't want it exterminated from our shores. Verily, verily I want cheating in exams to be banished from here. It's just that my pessimism is buoyed up by the fact that both we and our leaders are so malpractice-loving. As such, it remains to be seen how we would expunge same from our public examinations. But, that's not to say I don't believe in miracles.


Ugochukwu is a public affairs analyst. You can follow him on twitter via @ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

I should have written a piece on Nigeria's flagship in the telecommunications sector but for some inexplicable reasons I demurred. Still, what then incensed me to write refused me respite. Each time I read, watched or heard any of the numerous wonders of this indigenous company I get reminded of a debt I cannot but pay.

Debt, not because I have a stake in the company nor because I was commissioned to promote it, but because it is incumbent on us to say thank you to Globacom for at least delivering us from the strangulation of MTN that once blatantly told us that per second billing is not feasible in Nigeria. Of course, Globacom proved them wrong by billing its subscribers on a per second basis thus allowing consumers to pay for their actual talk time on phone. The yellow shylock had since swallowed its words and embraced the per second billing it had repudiated.

There are many other things to be grateful to Globacom for, one of which is the bringing down of call rate from the exploitative N50 per minutes to what it is now. Another is that it was the company that really made GSM to be within the reach of the common man. This, it did by crashing the price of sim cards to N200 at a time other networks were selling same for N40,000.

The company did not stop there. It, at a point, sold (or do I say gave away) its sim card for N1. Yes, you heard me right; one naira! This was when, upon buying a Glo sim for N1,999, you'd get benefits worth N1,998 leaving you with just a real charge of N1.

And such have been the trajectory of Globacom, bringing us emancipation when and where other networks elected to manipulate us. But are you surprised by this humane disposition of Globacom? Of course you shouldn't be. That is what you get when you have a brother providing what outsiders are offering. For he wouldn't be there and allow them exploit you. It's clear that Globacom has been doing just that.

The foregoing and other factors which you shall read presently made me want to dedicate a column to this network that has become a source of pride to Nigerians. Hence my latching onto the event of her 10th anniversary to do so. This commemoration, I'll use to extol this indigenous operator for its Corporate Social Responsibility that has been so unparalleled and for the overwhelming succour it has continued to afford Nigerians and others.

That is the right thing to do, lest we give ourselves away as an ungrateful stock undeserving of anything good. It's also proper we channel our goodwill to Globacom at this point so that we can inspire the telecoms service provider to do more. This isn't to undermine the fact that showing much love to Globacom could make its competitors want to carry about in like manner so as to elicit such amity from us as well.

It's rather sad that Nigerians are not showing enough fervour about the Globacom network. If they had, there would have been a deluge of congratulatory messages running off national dailies and the social media would have buzzed with talks about the Globacom phenomenon. This either goes to show how nonchalant Nigerians can be about little things that matter or it reveals lapses in the publicity drive of Globacom.

I don't want to take the later as true for as regards marketing communication, the network and its handlers have done quite well. Indeed, they have made good use of the marketing mix for the brand's promotions. Considering its recently concluded Glo slide and bounce tour, the ongoing X factor show, the rave-making Unlimited theme song coupled with its extant sponsorship of Glo CAF Awards and the local football leagues in Nigeria, Ghana and Benin Republic, Globacom has used these and more to endear itself to members of the public.

Many, as a result, now see Globacom as a company that isn't just out to rake in profits but a network that seeks to add value to the society. One thing I find fascinating about Globacom is its believe in Nigerians and in the Nigerian project. Its major pay-off lines have continued to reflect this. From Glo with pride to Rule your world and now Unlimited, its slogans have consistently inspired Nigerians to set out in achieving their dreams.

And it doesn't just stop at inspiring them, the company goes ahead to create avenues for bringing these dreams to fruition as we can see in the ongoing X factor TV show and the network's interventions in Nollywood and our local football league.

Globacom, taking up the sponsorship of the Nigerian Premier League when many people left it for dead evinces the service operator's uncommon faith in Nigeria. At a time when football lunatics (I beg your pardon, fanatics) are so crazy about the English Premiership, Spanish La Liga and the likes, Globacom going ahead to invest in the local football leagues of Nigeria, Ghana and Benin Republic speaks volume of its good intentions that are devoid of any vile.

Thursday, August 29, 2013 makes it exactly 10 years that Globacom was launched into the nation's telecommunications terrain by Dr. Michael Adenugu Jr GCON. He had to weather no still a storm before being granted a licence to float the network, owing to what pundits believe was the then powers-that-be's displeasure with the people he associated with.

It is instructive to note that by the end of its first year of operation in 2004, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recognised the role played by Globacom in what was then globally celebrated as a revolution in the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. The network came over two years after South Africa owned MTN and a Zimbabwean promoted Econet had stormed the market, yet this didn't hinder Globacom from announcing its presence in a major way.

Little wonder a decade down the line, the network is now ranked second in the Nigerian telecoms industry with over 25 million subscribers to show. Globacom, no doubt, didn't achieve this feat on the basis of being a hundred per cent Nigerian enterprise. Nigerians are not that generous in according patronage just on nationalistic considerations. The company is what it is today based on its altruistic nature, innovative services and an unflinching believe in Nigeria and Nigerian youths.

This explains why it is the only telecoms service provider in the country with the highest number of celebrities on its payroll as ambassadors. They include: Psquare, Lagbaja, Basketmouth, Flavour, Omawumi, MI, Jim Iyke, Waje, Lynxxx and co. Empowering these stars as ambassadors invariably amounts to commissioning them to continue making us, their fans, happy by prompting them to deliver their A game always. Need I say that it is courtesy of Globacom's perfect relationship with these celebrities (as many as they are) that we don't have a case of any of them making a jest of him or herself or the network by shouting 'I don port o'.

Further, creating deals for these artists inspire those yet to attain stardom to be assiduous in working towards becoming a star knowing that once they got there, there will be Globacom's ambassadorial deals waiting for them. And in that course, we are afforded wonderful tunes to enjoy all because of this genial network. Still, the presiding does not include the massive direct and indirect employment opportunities generated by the existence of the company.

In virtually all ramifications one looks at it, it is fit and proper to exult that there is, at least, an indigenous player in the highly competitive Nigeria's telecoms market that has got our back. That's a major reason why we should take thanks to Dr. Adenugu for investing his wealth and ingenuity here. His kind is a rare breed in a country that brims with idle moneybags who just stash their cash abroad or spend it in frivolities and not meaningful investments that can add value to our country and its economy. It is in this respect that we can better situate his been awarded with the second highest national honour of GCON.

Having lasted a decade, it should now be clear to even the worst of pessimists that Globacom is here to stay. Unlike the Nigerian-owned HiTV which disappointed the expectations of many who trusted it would endure and challenge the monopoly of DSTV, Globacom has over the years proven to be a successful Nigerian story that has exported itself to Ghana, Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and the Gambia.

This should make us feel as good as we do when we see other countries deify our homegrown movies or when we hear of our music stars staging sold-out concerts in other countries. For, these are the little things that make nationals of a country feel they are superior to citizens of other countries.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester
+2348074779482

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Clairvoyants around the world should please hurry down to Nigeria for their service is well needed around here. Their coming now will be a little too late but it is better late than never. Since ours is a nation with great predilection for strikes, their being of service to us will help us make the most of industrial actions we experience here.

Of course, having seers around will mitigate the effects of strikes on our lives, making it a thing to exploit, not to deplore. For, given the right information, we have the capacity to turn a seemingly unpleasant circumstance to a wonderful one. And this we can actualise as regards strike, if we had forecasters within our reach.

It is a common knowledge that Nigeria has enough clairvoyants. In fact, the country is brimming with them. From the gods of men in Lagos synagogues to the ordinary man at the street corner who would always correctly tell you the team to carry a match even when the game is still afoot.

We have them here. It is just that they have not redirected their ability to this all-important area so needed by Nigerians. Given their wizardry in the act, I don't want to believe that telling when a strike would end is too much a thing for them to foresee. No it can't be, not when these men stay in Nigeria and predict what is to happen overseas and it happens just as they presaged.

With this established, let us then call on them to look inwards. Perhaps, they may by that begin to receive honour in their country. Actually, these gifted people should be in the employ of the government. It is not out of place to demand that. Since government is notorious for carrying about in a manner that triggers strike, let it make available for us seers who will provide us with the telling that would help us manage our lives while industrial actions last.

Today's subject is informed by a report I read which has it that the strike embarked upon by ASUU since July 2, 2013 has forced many students in Abeokuta and its environs to register for various vocational trainings. The report revealed that the students, tired of idling about at home and spurred by their parents, took up vocational trainings in tailoring, hairdressing, auxiliary nursing, electronic repairs, shoe making, carpentry etcetera.

One Bisi Adedeji, who is a student of History and Diplomatic Studies at the Tai Solarin University, Ijebu-Ode, said, “I voluntarily told my parents I wanted to learn the trade after realising that a solution to the strike is not in sight and looking ahead for employment benefits after acquiring the degree certificates which is in doubt. I quickly decided to learn the trade for my benefits and to be independent and an employer of labour.”

Most of the students interviewed said they were tired of sitting at home and have grown to be passionate about their training, adding that the current high rate of unemployment in the country and the challenges of getting a white collar jobs led them into going for the training. For Mr Femi Shodunke, whose ward is an undergraduate, the strike may be a blessing in disguise as many of the students may end up using the trade learnt while it lasted to better their lives in future.

As laudable as this initiative of the undergraduates may be, I have one fear for them which is that the strike may be called off at any moment thus putting the kibash on the completion of their trainings.

Some of them may have opted not to go for this training immediately the strike began because of this fear. Seeing the lingering slant the strike has taken: they may sign in for the training on the seventh week only for it called off on the nineth week. In that scenario, will the two weeks be enough to provide them with all the knowledge required for the craft?

It is for this reason that we should be availed the service of seers who will readily tell us at the outset of an industrial action how many months it is to last. Better still, any of the two sides to the trade dispute should be magnanimous to let us know the length of days the strike would take, for both of them are in a position to.

Hence, it is not enough for ASUU to tell us that they are embarking on a “total and indefinite strike”. In as much as they left us a clue in that, the union could have gone further to tell us the exact number of days it can wait on the Federal Government after which it would accept its fate and return to the classroom trusting God to intervene in the matter. You know that is what we are good at: beckoning on the Almighty for help in issues we can glaringly take care of by ourselves.

In the same vein, the Federal Government can spill the beans as regards when they intend to make the lecturers return to work. They can simply disclose how long they would want to call off the bluff of ASUU. Although the Finance Minister's claim that government has no money to foot the N92 billion demands of ASUU is instructive, she could have added that ASUU could therefore remain on strike till the end of the life of this administration for all they care.

If only she had been that generous with the above line, then would Nigerian students know they have over a year to toy with. With that in mind, don't be surprised when you see them become more of an artisan than a student whenever the strike is called off. In the hostels you will be sure to find sowing machines and other equipment littered over the place. There is even a great probability that you may find students trying to fix their clients' vehicles under that tree in front of their dorm while lectures are going on in their classes.

But cheerio for this is just a supposition. My fear is that that mocking remark of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation(SGF) spells the possibility of bringing this to life. At a recent meeting between the government and ASUU over the impasse, SGF- Anyim Pius Anyim had ridiculed to the amusement of those on government's side that the Minister of Education should “go and give them(ASUU) N400 billion,”

It is the fact that such a scornful statement can come from a senior government official like him that makes one understand why more students are enrolling for artisanal trainings. That pejorative remark is much of a pointer to how long it will take for the strike to be called off. If only these people will speak in plain languages so that poor students would understand their fate. But since they wouldn't, let them at least employ forecasters to come to rescue of students.

But seriously speaking, do we really need the services of clairvoyants? And do we indeed need parties to the industrial action telling us when they will culminate the strike? I know the answers to these questions are required to guide undergraduates who would want to use the time-out to enter for artisanal trainings, however, here is another poser: Are our students supposed to punctuate their university education with accidental skills acquisition programmes?

These goes to show that there is truly no alternative to ending the current strike that has crippled activities at the nation's public universities. On that score, it is incumbent on ASUU and the government to work sincerely for the quick resolution of this impasse that has the potency of turning our young ones into artisans rather than scholars.

It's not even as if they will be good artisans as their trainings will ultimately be disrupted by the call-off of the strike. Further, they may not have fixed their entire mind on learning the craft since their ernest expectation would be for the strike to be called off. Similarly, the possibility that they would not see the end of the trainings could tamper their devotion to the vocational tutelage.

It is bad enough that the country is already reputed to be overflowing with half-baked graduates, let's not make it worse by creating room for half-baked artisans as well. It's high time academic activities is allowed to resume in our public universities.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi,
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

I'm tempted to, like some of my kinsmen, put on the nepotism garb and try to collapse the roof with yells for an Nsukka man to occupy the Lion Building(Enugu Government House) from May 29, 2015. Moreso, when fairness, equity and even the power-that-be demand it to be so. But I remain hesitant because of the objectivity training I received in Journalism where I was also tutored to respect the sanctity of public interest.

I have habitually preached the gospel of allowing he who the cap fit to wear it not minding whether the one who just wore the same cap was his brother. In plain language, I have customarily associated myself with the view that we should not allow zoning rob us of better leaders who would have bettered our lot.

In as much as the entreaty, trappings, entanglement and rewards of zoning whet our appetite for it, my gospel has always been that we shouldn't let it to lead us into sacrificing a Joshua for a another who becomes our Ahab. This disposition of mine is being put to test in my native Enugu State but I'm glad to announce to you that I am sticking to my principle, albeit as human, prejudice wouldn't always want to stay out. As such, it may try to rear its leaning head in this writing, but, I'll try to remain on guard.

In all honesty, I'm always circumspect about writing on developments in my home state. When the issue of the health of our fruitful but taciturn governor was on the lips of every public affairs commentator, I deferred in writing on it till the governor returned to his grind. There were calls for me to do a piece on that but I was reluctant because I wanted to be sure I had all the controls.

However, on the issue of the now, I'm incensed to write courtesy of how people are manipulating facts, playing to the gallery, whipping up sentiments and in all surrendering the most cogent for the trivial. I read with concern the post and riposte of Max Ogbonna and Ngwuoke Chukwuma Muoneke with both providing shades of opinion on the vexed topic of: 2015 and the Enugu political equation.

As intelligent as the two sounded in their disquisitions, I could see a layer of narrow-mindedness in the way they channelled their arguments. In fact, the later was as guilty as the former because they both played down some facts that would have undone them and drummed those that serve their cause. I blame them not, since they aren't thoroughbred journalists.

For instance, Ngwuoke accused Max of not going pre-1999 in his talk about zoning because he knew Nsukka at a point in that aeon produced a governor in Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, but he cleverly omitted the fact that his deceased brother- Christian C. Onoh and Rear Admiral Allison Madueke from Oji River, were governors of old Anambra State which then included today Enugu State.

If we were to go prior to 1999, then should we be told that all the three senatorial zones in today Enugu State have had their share in governing the state at one point or the other and in one form or the other. It is even the Nsukka people who had the raw end of the deal as the tenure of their son was the shortest lasting about 18 months. It will be recalled that Jim Nwobodo from Enugu East had a tenure of four good years as governor(October 1979 to October 1983) while Enugu West had two of theirs as governors. So what is Ngwuoke and his ilk yapping about?

One of the things Ngwuoke sought to wish away was the uniform idea where every state across the country has just three senatorial zones each. He would rather that Enugu State have four as he tried to elevate Greater Awgu zone into a senatorial zone. I wonder how he figured that to be possible when the said Greater Awgu has just three local councils of Awgu, Aninri and Oji River.

What Ngwuoke was pushing for is tantamount to the people of Igede in Benue South senatorial zone claiming to be on the same pedestal with Benue North West senatorial zone. Every knowledgeable and sensible person should see the fallacy and unfeasible nature of such a claim. If democracy was a game of numbers, then should a people with three council areas not claim to be at par with those who have six council areas in their kitty. Their doing so would amount to sheer foolhardiness.

Actually, zoning is there to assist minority groups like Greater Awgu zone to actualise their dream of again tasting the governorship of Enugu State. This is because an understanding with their Agbaja brothers from the same Enugu West will allowed them produce the governor when next it's the turn of that senatorial zone. Since Agbaja people have had their fair share in Sullivan Chime- the incumbent governor, they should have no qualms in letting a Greater Awgu aspirant to be the governor when that time comes.

Can't you see how puerile and infantile it is when we talk about zoning? Some body from a more civilised clime who reads this and other blabs about zoning will get to understand why we are still referred to as a third-world country(even though they call us developing country to make us happy). For no nation serious about having high-quality leaders pay heed to such triflings as where the leader comes from.

This informs why you see Africans and nationals from other countries heading strategic U.S. establishments. Once the antecedents of an aspirant is stellar, he or she should be elected on that merit and nothing more.

That is why I would rather vote for Senator Ike Ekweremadu who is from the same zone as Sullivan Chime to become the next governor of Enugu State than vote for the person parading himself as my representative at the Senate who is just representing his immediate family. In more functional societies, he wouldn't even be voted in as mayor of a city because he has no achievements with which to convince voters.

But this remains Nigeria where anything and everything goes. I wouldn't even be surprised if at the end of the day he carries the 'ballot'.

Deputy Senate President- Ike Ekweremadu a.k.a. Ikeoha has been described as the most outstanding politician in the South East and I am so subscribing to that. He has done much for his constituency and beyond. Work at the youth development centres in the five council areas that make up his constituency have reached an advanced stage and he has promised to have the centres functioning before his present tenure elapses by 2015.

Recently, he brought President Goodluck Jonathan to commission a magnificent church singlehandedly built and furnished by Ikeoha for All Saints' Anglican Church in Aninri Local Government Council of Enugu State. There are rural electrification projects and road projects to his credit. His Ikeoha Foundation gives scholarships that span first to final year to students in tertiary institutions. Tell me, are all these what I'll see and still cast my vote for an under-performing senator to become the next governor simply because he is my 'brother'?

Should I did that, Enugu State will never forgive me, my conscience will never forgive me, my progeny will never forgive me and journalism will not forgive me!

The only person, interested in the race from the zone zoning supports to produce the next Enugu governor, who I will cue behind is Evangelist Sam Maduka Onyeishi- owner of Peace Mass Transit. I have observed him from close quarters. His charitable acts and philanthropy are towering. His ability to grow Peace Mass Transit to what it is today makes him all the more qualified to become the next Chief Executive Officer of Enugu State.

I'm settling for this 'outsider' not minding the fact that somebody from the same clan and village as me is interested in the gubernatorial race. I'm talking of none other than Mr Chuks Ugwuoke- the present information commissioner. But like I said, all that matters to me and should matter to all of us is antecedents and ability to deliver, not primordial sentiments.

For me as regards Enugu 2015, let the same cap be tested on all, not some, interested aspirants but let him who that cap fits wear it. It is only those whose head are too small for the cap that are so vociferous to have those with a fitting head for the cap to be disqualified from testing it on.

We should not allow such lazy elements afraid of competition, to beguile us in the name of fighting for our agenda. No, it's their ulterior motive they are after and once they achieve that, they wouldn't remember our supposed agenda. Thus, we shouldn't in ignorance avail ourselves to them as accomplices!


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi,
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com,
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Last Monday, wisdom shouted from a hilltop in the North such that everyone would hear. But those who heard are dismissing it with a wave of the hand. Others who must react overlooked the wisdom and in its stead poured invectives on the medium wisdom used. They claimed the medium has no business speaking wisdom.

Those against what was spoken took this position because they were so blinded by one or all of these: their narrow-mindedness; their being very accustomed to acting in the same way that wisdom is asking them to correct; their being so obsessed with the cause wisdom is speaking against. I can surely say that the foregoing and more must have combined to delude these opponents of the wise proclamation.

This becomes a verity owing to the fact that a professor and a doctor are involved. You can agree with me that it takes much more than one of the above three factors to make a professor neglect wisdom when he accosts it, unless such a professor does not merit going by that tag. Because, any scholar who is a doctor or professor is by that title supposed to be a lover of wisdom.

But, one thing I can surely say is that there is wisdom in the recent utterance of Mohammed Abba-Gana. Mark my words, I didn't say wisdom permeated all he said but a substantial part of his postulation were clothed with wisdom. The other part that came bare was where he spoke like a member of PDP Board of Trustees that he is. But like they say it's unwise to throw away a baby alongside the bathwater.

So let's focus on the baby which is that the north presently needs at least four years to search for a suitable presidential material that could unify the region and that after producing nine of the country's leaders, the North should give other sections of the country a break to produce the number one citizen as well.

But before people like Prof Ango Abdullahi and Dr Junaid Mohammed take me to the Golgotha, let me disclaim that the above is not my idea. It remains the idea of the man they had already taken to the cleaners. Yet, wisdom rushing through that outlet continued, "Mind you, the region has produced about eight or nine former heads of state of this country and it did not take away poverty from the North."

True talk! You see, when wisdom speaks, it's always incontrovertible. That's why people who want to dispute wisdom hold unto trivialities instead of addressing issues raised by it. They, most times, attack the messenger not the message. This, we saw in the reaction of others to what wisdom said through Abba-Gana who was a one-time FCT minister.

The Secretary-General of Northern Elders' Forum(NEF)- Prof Ango Abdullahi and Dr Junaid Mohammed- a second Republic lawmaker dismissed the former minister as a politician who had always fraternized with the wrong political group for his personal interest, asking him to speak for himself and not the North.

For Prof Abdullahi, "Abba-Gana is more of a businessman than a people-oriented leader from the North. Having failed to advance any reason why the north should wait for another four years(but he did) to enable Jonathan to run again, he should hide his face in shame."

On his part, Dr Mohammed maligned, "Abba-Gana was one of the errand boys when we were in active politics and should not be taken seriously because he has no political clout even in Borno State. He does not really merit any response from right-thinking northerners."

Reading what these two elders said of the former FCT minister show how bigotry has affected their reasoning. Why should right-thinking northerners, nay, Nigerians not take him serious when he has suggested what can take us out of the woods. Let's then ask, since they aren't comfortable with what was said, which suitably qualified presidential material from the north has wide acceptance across the region at the moment?

This is because, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha from Taraba State who was with Abba-Gana when he was making the statement, dissociated northern minorities from the clamour for power to shift back to the north. Thus, not until the North produces a candidate with whom both the majority and minority will be well pleased, Abba-Gana's words remains a true counsel that is worthy of acceptance, not rejection.

We would have forgiven these two northern leaders if their reactions which came separately were immediate. But, it did not. It took over 48 hours in coming meaning they had ample time to find fault in the nub of Abba-Gana's statement but they just couldn't. Tell me, what error is there to find in the disclosure that the North has produced nine of our past leaders yet poverty remains very evident there?

Or what is wrong in the assertion that the North should spare another four years to be used in searching and grooming a presidential material with mass appeal that would better appreciate the demands of being a president and minister to the needs of our country? This is what I'm holding unto in all Abba-Gana said and I advise all Nigerians to treasure that as well.

For, one of the prominent reasons our country is in this parlous state is because we've always had accidental leaders. People who, in their wildest imagination, never thought of becoming presidents or heads of state. Some of them get into reverie when they were told they will be the next ruler and by the time they came out of that state, their government have wandered off rudderless.

As such, sparing the next term to thoroughly search and prepare a presidential candidate can be a panacea to bringing about a purposeful leader that would end the biting poverty in the North and other parts of the country. And I'm surprised that a professor in the calibre of a former Vice-chancellor of ABU Zaria cannot see the sense in this.

The way some politicians are going about 2015 makes one think there will be no 2019, 2023, 2027... in this country. That a section of the country did not produce the president in 2015 does not mean that same will elude it in 2023. I guess this is the understanding the Igbos have that is making them not so bothered about having one of theirs as president. For as far as there exists Nigeria, one day an Igbo man will be the president. How I wish other zones will come to this understanding.

However, there are fears expressed by Prof Abdullahi and Dr muhammed which to them was why the North can't wait for another four years. They said that Jonathan lacked the capacity to move Nigeria forward after having failed to tackle the myraid of challenges confronting the nation. They maintained that another four years for Jonathan would push the country into the abyss.

While these fears are not out of place, we can still get around it, not by quarrelling with Abba-Gana, who left out this part as a PDP chieftain, but by throwing our support at other candidates in the race. What else would you have me say, since we should disqualify the North for not having a suitable candidate and Jonathan shouldn't run so as not to dispatch the country into abyss, let other candidates from other zones run.

By the time one of the candidates who won must have finished his tenure Nigeria would have escaped a place in abyss and the north must have finished grooming and preparing a suitable and generally accepted candidate that will deliver the goods. You see, it promises to be a win-win situation for everybody.

Written by:
Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi,
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Should I not forgo whatever I had wanted to talk about today to allow me heartily exult with the All Progressive Congress(APC) for attaining the status of a registered political party in Nigeria? Of course I should, just like every lover of democracy would. If those who only by word of mouth profess love for democracy could, why then should I, who is a votary of democracy, not applaud their registration.

Since the news of its registration broke, the nation's media have been awash with congratulatory messages from divergent individuals and interest groups including rival political parties going the street of APC. These compliments highlight just a sentence: APC has achieved a feat.

And a bigger feat it will be when you consider that this is the first time our major opposition parties will successfully collapse their interests and structures into a big marriage. They had, in the past, tried to marry themselves, but they just couldn't. Insincerity of purpose, internal squabbles, sabotage, fifth columnists and unwillingness to make sacrifices did them in.

Prior to the 2011 general elections, the idea of forming a major coalition was bandied but before you could say hey, the above factors reared its ugly head and solo, they went into that election. Thus, if for nothing else, let's celebrate APC for overcoming these factors.

Taking it further, APC's registration is a bigger feat owing to the determination of its promoters that allowed them weather the pessimisms of nay sayers as well as meet all conditions contained in Section 84 of the Electoral Act which any alliance must scale before being officially recognised. Announcing APC's successful registration, INEC in a statement signed by its secretary- Alhaji Abdullahi Kaugama said, "on considering the application, the commission found that the applicant-parties have met all statutory requirements for the merger and has accordingly granted their request."

If all these still fail to make you enthusiastic about the official birth of APC, perhaps this paragraph from a statement released by Tinubu's media office in reaction to the registration of APC would, "selfish interest and ego were shelved. Personal sacrifices were made particularly by those who hitherto occupied higher positions in the merging parties in the interest of moving Nigeria forward." Warts and all, it was a no mean feat that demands approbation.

Let no one deny those behind the highly anticipated marriage that.

From all quarters that rained congratulations on the newly registered party, not a few were surprised to hear PDP compliment her new rival. However, I don't think even the most gullible will believe that PDP is truly happy for APC. For, if the party was happy to have APC, who then was behind all those landmine that APC had to torpedo.

PDP couldn't even remove it's disdain for the newly registered party in the supposed congratulatory message signed by its National Publicity Secretary- Tony Ceaser Okeke. In that message, PDP maligned, "It does not remove their dictatorial tendencies and penchant for deceit and propaganda for which Nigerians have rejected them irrespective of party name."

PDP should have held back its 'congratulatory message' since it was only looking for an avenue to take a dig at its new nightmare.

But, what PDP has to say about the new party should be the least of APC's worries at the moment, for its congratulations have nothing meaningful to add to the life or relevance of APC. The message was aparently intended to achieve the dual purpose of shoring up PDP's public image and hitting at APC. The party used the statement to depict itself as a believer in democracy, but Nigerians know better.

Be that as it may, APC should know that it's successful registration does yet spell uhuru. In as much as the party can shout eureka, let it reserve some energy to be used in trumpeting the ideals of the party and soliciting support from Nigerians ahead of the Anambra election that's afoot and other elections across the country.

Aside this, the party should at the interim live up to the responsibilities of an opposition party which it is pending when it becomes the ruling party. It should not fail to raise the bar of political discourse in the country by taking stands that reflect its ideological bent on national issues. It won't be out of place for APC to form a shadow cabinet that would keep the ruling party on its toes and impress on Nigerians what a better alternative it is.

The party is lucky to come at a time when Nigerians are so disillusioned with the ruling party that all they needed was to see a serious-minded alternative for them to cue behind. APC is also propitious by coming at a time when many believe the PDP is on a self-destruction course, with an implosion brewing in its fold. It would then become unthinkable for APC to have these going for it and still blew the opportunities.

One can only imagine the impunity that would characterise the polity should APC failed to dislodge PDP from power come 2015. Then would they extend their projected years of ruining Nigeria to a century and then carry about with that understanding. They will misrule us through corruption, indifference and other maladministration daring us to do our worst. Then will they become to us an albatross like Goliath was to the Isrealites of old.

This explains why many Nigerians look up to APC as the David that will bring down this Goliath of PDP. In fact, just as Goliath taunted and made jest of David before the fight, so have PDP derided APC and gone ahead to brag that the new party is not in any way a threat to its continued misrule of Nigeria. But, we are consoled by the fact that David ultimately triumphed over Goliath. A replay is basically underway so let the one that is loud-mouthed keep at what it's good at. It should just be mindful of the saying that pride goes before a fall.

It is not even as if APC is as diminutive to PDP as David was to Goliath. No, the difference between them isn't that pronounced. At the moment PDP has 23 states in their kitty while APC has 11. David used five stones in going against Goliath but APC has 11. This, no doubt, tips the balance in APC's favour.

One of the reasons David was able to decapitate the mighty warrior was because natural justice favoured his quest. Indeed, Goliath was a burden to the Isrealites just as many believe PDP is to Nigerians today, hence APC riding on the crest of same natural justice stands a great chance of culminating their misrule of Nigeria.

A caveat though, it's not as if APC is filled with saints who will not undo us. We are not that naïve! There is the possibility that the new party can turn out like the Socialist Party(PS) formed by Abdoulaye Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party(PDS) and other opposition forces who fought vigorously against one-party system in Senegal only for Wade to perpetuate same when he got to power. APC can even grow to become worse than PDP.

While these likelihood can't be ruled out, still we should celebrate the manifestation of APC. For it's a testament to the progress of our democracy. It stands to awaken PDP from the slumber of non-performance. The coming of APC promises to cast us in the mould of advanced democracies that have two dominant political parties known for specific ideologies. Ditto for us as we have a conservative PDP and a progressive APC.

Indeed we are getting somewhere.

Many of us have continued to be nostalgic of the June 1993 presidential election that was contested by just two political parties. Perhaps that good old election year is here again only that this time other parties are allowed in the mix. If only these parties will join forces with APC to see to it that this behemoth of PDP is uprooted.

Some may wonder why I'm advocating this since I call myself a lover of democracy. Such people will always argue that having more parties will make for wider political participation, which democracy is all about. While that is true, let's in reality ask ourselves the possibilities of the mushroom(apologies for the demeaning word) parties playing in the national league.

Considering how urgent and important a task it is to deracinate PDP, perhaps it would do our country a world of good if we learnt from the opposition parties in Senegal who through their "out with the incumbent" slogan collectively displaced 86-year old Abdoulaye Wade, who wanted a third term as president, from power in 2012. They couldn't get this done in the first round of the election because they were solitary about it, but when in the next round they teamed up, Wade was gone for good.

Other parties yet to join the coalition should learn from this.

However, it is gratifying that it is the major opposition parties in our country that have merged to form the APC. As such, even if the rest declined to sign in for the merger, those already in can pull our yearning through. Equally heartening is the fact that APC has at least one state in all the geo-political zones- this already makes it national in outlook. It should therefore leverage on its structures and goodwill to deliver Nigerians from this Goliath of a party.


Written by:
Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

In the build up to the 2007 presidential election, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was culminating his constitutionally permitted second term having exhausted what a section of the country believed was the south's turn of producing the nation's leader. The north expected power to return to it, but the south-south would have none of that.

They put up an aggressive campaign targeted at convincing Nigerians that justice demands their son becoming the president. On radio, television, newspapers, billboards etc, we were bombarded with justifications for a south-southerner occupying the number one seat. They even produced and aired documentaries that could make everyone in the country cast their votes for a candidate from south-south.

The purported gentleman agreement said to have been entered into was played down while a south-southerner becoming president was played up. The people of the geo-political divide were united in their quest, as if theirs is a region unified by a common language. Everyone of them wanted, craved and prayed for it. They must have thought that achieving that dream would sound the death knell to all their troubles. How wrong they were.

However, they shot for the moon and landed among the stars which is still a fair bargain for a zone that had neither tasted the number one nor number two office since the history of our country. So, their noise payed off. Their son- Goodluck Ebele Jonathan became the vice president. Fate unfolded and he is now the president.

Why am I disturbing your life with this brief chronicle, you may wonder. It is because we need to find out if their agitation, in the light of current happenings, was worth it after all. So, is it worth all the trouble they underwent prior to 2007?

But, is that question necessary? Isn't the answer apparent? While we concede that Bayelsa State in terms of infrastructural facilities has fairly been the better for it, the south-south in general has not. This is owing to the unprecedented heating up of the region's polity to the extent that it is spilling over to other parts of the country. Don't forget that development is hard to come by in a state of disquiet.

Unfortunately, the embers of this unpleasant state of affairs in the region is fanned from none other ventilator than the one in the exalted office they had so canvassed for. This will be the second time that turmoil will in verity erupt in the president's backyard with the finger of Abuja glaringly behind it. If, however, we chose to pay heed to the rumour mills, it will be the fourth. Recall the hearsay about Owoye Azazi's death and the disputed Soku Oil Fields/boundary dispute between Bayelsa and Rivers States.

It started from his native Bayelsa with the case of Timipre Silva, the erstwhile governor of the state. His tiff with Mr President degenerated and became so open that both of them bandied accusations without restraint. Distractions reigned supreme, tension set in and the shark ultimately swallowed the lesser fish vomiting same in political siberia. Another man has since taken his place as governor of the state.

Moving ahead, another fight has manifested. This time it is between Abuja and Port Harcourt and so far, it has been of the no holds barred brand. It has left Rivers State and its people as the grass upon which the two elephants are flexing their might. This is so because their governor is distracted and when a man is distracted, every other thing including the one that should be prime, becomes secondary.

Yes, Rotimi Amaechi is flustered. Most times I wonder if he still musters enough coordination of himself to go about the intricate demands of running his state owing to the deluge of challenges that is being laid on him. If it had stopped with Amaechi, we would have taken solace in the fact that, at least, the state House of Assembly is working. But, the turn of events in the State Assembly is even worst.

All these are on account of what the people of the region had so pursued and disturbed us about prior to 2007. At the moment the crisis has polarized the region. Or do I say, has caused them to jettison their unified stance in demanding for national positions. That's why Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom would lead three other governors from the region to vote against their brother in the Nigeria Governor's Forum election.

In all ernest, this has been my concern in the unfolding Rivers fracas. I would always mutter to myself whenever there is a twist to the episode, so this is what all their cries then for Nigeria's next president to be from their region is amounting to? A president that will cause skirmish among them thereby prompting a sharp division on a people who had always made their demands with a voice.

Though President Jonathan has continued to deny having any hand in the Rivers crisis just like he wanted us to believe in the heat of the former Bayelsa governor's case, believing that adjuration is tantamount to believing he will not run in the 2015 presidential race. Aside this, eminent Nigerians including Bola Tinubu have told us to hold him responsible for what have become of Rivers State.

But to be fair to president Jonathan, this predicament in his homestead isn't peculiar to him. Those before him had crisis in the regions they represent which many felt were instigated by them. It will be recalled that when former president Olusegun Obasanjo reigned, Oyo, Ekiti and few other states in his south west zone were enmeshed in political imbroglios courtesy of his actions and inactions.

Even the short period, late president Yar'Adua spent in office, had its own share of political turmoil in the north east. I'm talking about when Mohammed Yusuf, the late leader of Boko Haram, was killed alongside other members of the sect. Hence, the security impasse we are currently confronted with, albeit, it is yet to be said that Yar'Adua provoked this.

Aside the case of presidents, there are other instances where those who by virtue of being from a geo-political zone got to high positions turn round to engender crisis in their home zone. A case in point is Okwesilieze Nwodo who picked a quarrel with his state governor, Sullivan Chime, when he became the national chairman of PDP. Therefore, Jonathan is not alone in this.
Nonetheless, what is of interest in his is the dimension the Rivers crisis have taken and the consideration that here is a man flying the flag of a people who went all out to demand their producing the next president pre-2007. Of a truth, the Yorubas weren't that voluble in asking for one of their own to be made president in the preparations for the 1999 presidential election. As such, Jonathan owes it as a debt to his people to work for their uplift not for their disintegration and degeneration.

The group of progressive governors who were in Port Harcourt last week on a solidarity visit to Amaechi asked Jonathan to be a father to all. This begs the question; if Jonathan cannot be father to all in just his region, is it at the national space that his umbrella will cover all? He, verily, needs to start seeing himself as the father of the nation at the moment. This will help him distance himself from regional politics.

Let not the foregoing direction of this piece mislead you into thinking it's about Amaechi or Jonathan. No, it is not centred on the political stand-off in Rivers State. It is only drawing from the crisis in the state to drive home a vital point. The point is that we should come to the understanding that a region is not better off simply because one of its own is the president. As such, we should know better when politicians whip up ethnic sentiments to feather their political nest in the guise of fighting our cause.

Today, it is clear that there is a crack in the rank of south-south governors that will make it difficult for them to reach a consensus on whatever is affecting the zone. This is as Akpabio and company may see Amaechi as an traitor while Amaechi and his man will see the others as an enemy. In all of these, trust becomes alien. I dare say that this would not have been their lot, if the president was from another zone.

Since the president is from the zone, he should leverage on the remaining months he has before 2015 to make amends. No matter how a 'lesser mortal' angers him, he should check the bigger picture before unleashing his wrath and immolation arsenal on such. That's what makes a leader. Considering that Amaechi is well into his last term in office, he may not have much to lose. Both actors should iron out their differences so that their minions can sheathe their swords.

And for the rest of us, we must have learnt not to be so gullible to fall for it when politicians and ethnic jingoists tell us we are being marginalised because one of our own is yet to be a president. When they come with such sermon, let's not hesitate to make them enlighten us on how zones that produced presidents were positively touched by their sons who were in power.

Written by:

Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi,
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

The week that just gone by presented us another facet of decay in our society. Not that it is a new trend, it has been around since God knows when, especially in the South Eastern part of Nigeria where it appears domiciled.

I'm talking of another style of modern day slavery, with the difference being that in this style, babies are the beings being traded upon. Of course, they are beings! They may be some hours or a day old, still they are beings and are entitled to be taken care of by their mothers, nay, biological mothers. If foetus in the womb have right to live, then infants just given birth to, deserve some rights. One of which is to be fostered by their real mothers.

But, people in the mould of Dr Ben Agbo and a nurse identified as Mrs Nweke will not allow this be as they must have concluded in their perverse minds that the opinion of babes regarding who should raise them up is inconsequential. The duo were last Thursday paraded by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Enugu for running what many have come to know as baby factory.

In this illegal maternity home, pregnant teenage girls are lured to come and put to bed, after which their babies are sold off at an exorbitant rate while them(the mothers) are given peanuts to go home with. A total rip-off of the teenagers, their babies and the society for the pecuniary gains of the perpetrators.

I would have passed for this story and focused the attention of this column on the brigandage that has overwhelmed Rivers State or the eventual acquittal of Al Mustapha by the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos, but I was beguiled by the claim of Dr Agbo who maintained that he was only offering a humanitarian service.

How much more preposterous and ridiculous can a fellow get?

The suspect who had been arrested by the police, claimed he was doing a humanitarian job of assisting those in need of children adopt babies through him at the same time saving pregnant teenagers or mothers from engaging in abortion. This, he noted, was what he earlier told the police that made them release him unconditionally.

If this was true, then has nous taken flight from our police stations. How would the police, on such featherweight of a claim, allow a man like that to go and continue sinning, which was what he did? Have the police now arrogated to themselves the power to free offenders? Shouldn't they have charged the man to court and allowed the courts determine whether his vocation is in conformity with our laws or not? Or did the man part with a part of his ill-gotten proceeds at the station as we are wont to believe? The police, it is, that has all the answers.

Now to the man who said he is a doctor, could it be that he knows not the definition of a humanitarian service hence his claim of offering one when what he does is anything but a humanitarian service? Or does he think we all are as dumb as the police officers he sold the dummy to and they left him off the hook? As a doctor, does the ethics of his profession support this his brand of humanitarian service?

Since the man seems ignorant, let's school him by making him understand that you can't offer a humanitarian service yet make so much financial returns, for he was reported to be selling the babies in excess of half a million naira.

Hear his warped argument, "in humanitarian gesture like this everything should not be free. If you collect like N100, 000.00 or N120, 000.00 from there you feed and do other things and give the baby to a particular person who have been crying to have one. When the mother will be going, you can settle her with N20, 000.00."

He apparently knows what he is doing- pulling the wool across people's eyes with the gullible falling for it thereby presenting themselves as capable of committing atrocities for Voltaire submitted, 'Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.' I'm grateful his tale didn't catch me one bit.

Still talking humanitarian service 101, let's lecture this man and others in his school of thought that humanitarian service is not carried out in a manner that constitutes nuisance to the wider society.

The same Thursday he and his accomplice were paraded, it was revealed, at the commemoration of this year's World Population Day with the theme- 'Preventing Teenage Pregnancy', that 18 million underage girls get pregnant every year. The statistics further revealed that over one in every five girls have given birth before the age of 18 globally. It then becomes incontrovertible that it is people like Dr Agbo that make this possible, burgeoning the world's population for his selfish interest.

It beats me that the suspect who is aged 70 is still involved in a calling as dubious and abominable as farming babies with all its negative attributes. Being a septuagenarian demands one living a sober and dignified life as life expectancy in our country is far below that age.

I am equally surprised that a man of his age cannot see anything wrong in what he does for a living. A 70-year old man should in actuality have no business being in the rat-race to acquire wealth to the extent of going about it in an under-the-table manner.

However, it needs to be clarified that this column is too big to have Dr Agbo as its subject. He is only a metaphor that is used to refer to all who own and maintain baby factories. For goodness sake, they should get a life! What they are doing is a great minus for our society. It is my believe that deep down they know that what they are in to isn't 'humanitarian service' but humanitarian disservice!

This is because teenage pregnancy is believed to be the biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide as their pelvic bones are yet to reach the maximum size that can comfortably see them through child birth. It basically exposes them to the deadly vesicovaginal fistula(VVF) that allows the continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault.

When this infection is contacted, not even the peanuts the teenage mothers received from the doctor contractors can deliver them from it.

The practice of running baby factories goes ahead to place an unnecessary health and psychological strain on the babies and their teen mothers. It also prevents the babies from enjoying their mother's breast milk which to me is a great act of injustice.

Further, the farming of babies provides a ready supply for ritualists who may feign a wife in need of a child only to buy off the baby and use same for rituals. For baby factories don't place measures, stringent enough like the orphanages, to guard against this. It's even possible that those managing the factories would know that the babes are to be used for sacrifices, yet they won't mind as money is just what they are concerned about.

Aside these, the idea of baby factories encourages promiscuity among youths as they will tell themselves that all they need do when they become noticeably pregnant is to check into any of the illegal maternity homes, be delivered of the baby when the time is due, forsake same and make some money for all their troubles.

With such a facade, a Hot boy can easily convince a naïve lass to unzip, increasing sexually transmitted infections in its trail. These are some of the ways the activities of Dr Agbo and his ilk constitutes a humanitarian disservice to our nation and even the world. Thus, it shouldn't be allowed.

A search through suspects who have so far been paraded for engaging in this crime reveals that most of them are said to be of the medical profession either as doctors or nurses. This therefore places a demand on the relevant professional associations to monitor what their members are doing.
Parents equally have their hands full in this. It is appalling to observe that some parents dispatch their teenage daughters to these baby factories upon discovery that they are pregnant. Shame or cupidity aren't enough reasons to warrant parents distancing their grandchildren from their real mothers.

Even when their teenage daughters, in their youthful exuberance, err by registering for any of the illegal maternity homes, the parents should resolutely force them out of such places.

And for the police, I'm lost for what to tell them since they could believe the vain justification Dr Agbo gave for his enterprise. They had better embraced wisdom and learnt to hand over to the courts suspected culprits who farm babies.

In reality, every stakeholder concerned should play their parts well enough for us to contain this menace. Else we would be re-defining humanitarian service to be in the negative light. And should that be the case, we would be the worst for it.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

The week that just gone by presented us another facet of decay in our society. Not that it is a new trend, it has been around since God knows when, especially in the South Eastern part of Nigeria where it appears domiciled.

I'm talking of another style of modern day slavery, with the difference being that in this style, babies are the beings being traded upon. Of course, they are beings! They may be some hours or a day old, still they are beings and are entitled to be taken care of by their mothers, nay, biological mothers. If foetus in the womb have right to live, then infants just given birth to, deserve some rights. One of which is to be fostered by their real mothers.

But, people in the mould of Dr Ben Agbo and a nurse identified as Mrs Nweke will not allow this be as they must have concluded in their perverse minds that the opinion of babes regarding who should raise them up is inconsequential. The duo were last Thursday paraded by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Enugu for running what many have come to know as baby factory.

In this illegal maternity home, pregnant teenage girls are lured to come and put to bed, after which their babies are sold off at an exorbitant rate while them(the mothers) are given peanuts to go home with. A total rip-off of the teenagers, their babies and the society for the pecuniary gains of the perpetrators.

I would have passed for this story and focused the attention of this column on the brigandage that has overwhelmed Rivers State or the eventual acquittal of Al Mustapha by the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos, but I was beguiled by the claim of Dr Agbo who maintained that he was only offering a humanitarian service.

How much more preposterous and ridiculous can a fellow get?

The suspect who had been arrested by the police, claimed he was doing a humanitarian job of assisting those in need of children adopt babies through him at the same time saving pregnant teenagers or mothers from engaging in abortion. This, he noted, was what he earlier told the police that made them release him unconditionally.

If this was true, then has nous taken flight from our police stations. How would the police, on such featherweight of a claim, allow a man like that to go and continue sinning, which was what he did? Have the police now arrogated to themselves the power to free offenders? Shouldn't they have charged the man to court and allowed the courts determine whether his vocation is in conformity with our laws or not? Or did the man part with a part of his ill-gotten proceeds at the station as we are wont to believe? The police, it is, that has all the answers.

Now to the man who said he is a doctor, could it be that he knows not the definition of a humanitarian service hence his claim of offering one when what he does is anything but a humanitarian service? Or does he think we all are as dumb as the police officers he sold the dummy to and they left him off the hook? As a doctor, does the ethics of his profession support this his brand of humanitarian service?

Since the man seems ignorant, let's school him by making him understand that you can't offer a humanitarian service yet make so much financial returns, for he was reported to be selling the babies in excess of half a million naira.

Hear his warped argument, "in humanitarian gesture like this everything should not be free. If you collect like N100, 000.00 or N120, 000.00 from there you feed and do other things and give the baby to a particular person who have been crying to have one. When the mother will be going, you can settle her with N20, 000.00."

He apparently knows what he is doing- pulling the wool across people's eyes with the gullible falling for it thereby presenting themselves as capable of committing atrocities for Voltaire submitted, 'Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.' I'm grateful his tale didn't catch me one bit.

Still talking humanitarian service 101, let's lecture this man and others in his school of thought that humanitarian service is not carried out in a manner that constitutes nuisance to the wider society.

The same Thursday he and his accomplice were paraded, it was revealed, at the commemoration of this year's World Population Day with the theme- 'Preventing Teenage Pregnancy', that 18 million underage girls get pregnant every year. The statistics further revealed that over one in every five girls have given birth before the age of 18 globally. It then becomes incontrovertible that it is people like Dr Agbo that make this possible, burgeoning the world's population for his selfish interest.

It beats me that the suspect who is aged 70 is still involved in a calling as dubious and abominable as farming babies with all its negative attributes. Being a septuagenarian demands one living a sober and dignified life as life expectancy in our country is far below that age.

I am equally surprised that a man of his age cannot see anything wrong in what he does for a living. A 70-year old man should in actuality have no business being in the rat-race to acquire wealth to the extent of going about it in an under-the-table manner.

However, it needs to be clarified that this column is too big to have Dr Agbo as its subject. He is only a metaphor that is used to refer to all who own and maintain baby factories. For goodness sake, they should get a life! What they are doing is a great minus for our society. It is my believe that deep down they know that what they are in to isn't 'humanitarian service' but humanitarian disservice!

This is because teenage pregnancy is believed to be the biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide as their pelvic bones are yet to reach the maximum size that can comfortably see them through child birth. It basically exposes them to the deadly vesicovaginal fistula(VVF) that allows the continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault.

When this infection is contacted, not even the peanuts the teenage mothers received from the doctor contractors can deliver them from it.

The practice of running baby factories goes ahead to place an unnecessary health and psychological strain on the babies and their teen mothers. It also prevents the babies from enjoying their mother's breast milk which to me is a great act of injustice.

Further, the farming of babies provides a ready supply for ritualists who may feign a wife in need of a child only to buy off the baby and use same for rituals. For baby factories don't place measures, stringent enough like the orphanages, to guard against this. It's even possible that those managing the factories would know that the babes are to be used for sacrifices, yet they won't mind as money is just what they are concerned about.

Aside these, the idea of baby factories encourages promiscuity among youths as they will tell themselves that all they need do when they become noticeably pregnant is to check into any of the illegal maternity homes, be delivered of the baby when the time is due, forsake same and make some money for all their troubles.

With such a facade, a Hot boy can easily convince a naïve lass to unzip, increasing sexually transmitted infections in its trail. These are some of the ways the activities of Dr Agbo and his ilk constitutes a humanitarian disservice to our nation and even the world. Thus, it shouldn't be allowed.

A search through suspects who have so far been paraded for engaging in this crime reveals that most of them are said to be of the medical profession either as doctors or nurses. This therefore places a demand on the relevant professional associations to monitor what their members are doing.
Parents equally have their hands full in this. It is appalling to observe that some parents dispatch their teenage daughters to these baby factories upon discovery that they are pregnant. Shame or cupidity aren't enough reasons to warrant parents distancing their grandchildren from their real mothers.

Even when their teenage daughters, in their youthful exuberance, err by registering for any of the illegal maternity homes, the parents should resolutely force them out of such places.

And for the police, I'm lost for what to tell them since they could believe the vain justification Dr Agbo gave for his enterprise. They had better embraced wisdom and learnt to hand over to the courts suspected culprits who farm babies.

In reality, every stakeholder concerned should play their parts well enough for us to contain this menace. Else we would be re-defining humanitarian service to be in the negative light. And should that be the case, we would be the worst for it.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Honestly, it feels good to hear the Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS) announce, on Friday in Akure, Ondo State, that it has arrested 147 illegal immigrants from various spots of Akure metropolis and will soon repatriate them to their respective home countries.

This is coming on the heels of an earlier report that the NIS has arrested 110 illegal immigrants in Enugu who would soon be deported. Why am I pleased by these you may wonder? It affords us the opportunity to boast that we are of a country that repatriates illegal immigrants as well.

Pedestrian, isn't it? Even though it is, it, none the less, shows that we are not doomed to always be at the receiving end, we are about proving ourselves to be at the giving end as well.

But sincerely speaking, it is rare coming by the news of Nigerian government, better still, the NIS deporting illegal immigrants. What we always hear is that they have been arrested and are going to be deported. We hardly get to see when they are actually deported. Check this out:

On March 25, 55 illegal aliens were handed over to Immigration for deportation while on 27 of the same month, 102 illegal aliens were handed over for deportation. Similarly, on April 2, the police handed over 14 illegal aliens to Immigration for deportation. The Lagos State Police Command on April 16 also handed over another 271 illegal foreigners to the authorities of the NIS for deportation while another 146 aliens are still being screened.

One explanation for this may be that there is no money to effect their deportation. Nonetheless, NIS has shown to be very hospitable for it to be accommodating these aliens without deporting them, yet, possibly bear the cost of feeding them. Perhaps, it is safer to believe they are deporting them clandestinely without engaging the usual media hype. No matter the matter, NIS deserves our approbation for doing their job.

Be that as it may, that is not the focus of this piece. What caught the attention of this article is the fact that as bad as people portray Nigeria to be, there are others who still want to come here and get a piece of the action. To them, Nigeria becomes an el dorado. Yes, the same Nigeria you know!

Though it is true that the aliens being arrested are mostly from neighbouring West African countries like Chad, Niger, Benin, Mali and the likes, this does not detract from the fact that they see Nigeria as having more opportunities than their home countries.

And the actuality that they could travel into the country without the required papers seems to reflect their desperation to come and partake of 'Fascinating Nigeria' although they lack what it takes. They must have said to themselves; let me still go, for the returns from the venture will be worth the crime of entering Nigeria without visas. Ergo, they came.

Posers: Is it still not the country that its youths will want to desert for 'better lands' at the slightest opportunity subjecting themselves to extreme danger in the process? Is it not the same country about which many have asked, "can anything good come out of Nigeria?"

Yet, these illegal immigrants in their numbers have resolutely answered the last question in the affirmative, hence their coming, albeit illegally. However, I'm sure the risk they took in coming was nothing compare to what young Nigerians subject themselves just to check out of the country.

As if the country is a gulag they are trying to escape from.

Permit me to apply the breaks here and allow one of my unpublished articles to complete the story:

How do you sympathize with one who neglects the norm but embraces death or its harbinger in the name of deserting his father land? How do you commiserate with a deceased who in a bid to get to el dorado does the unthinkable by putting his life on the line? This appears to be the past time of Nigerian youths.

Some time ago in March 2010, it was reported of a Nigerian youth whose corpse was found in the nose wheel portion of an aeroplane operated by the United States carrier- Delta Airline.

Few weeks ago, another story broke of a young Nigerian whose corpse was discovered in the wheel well of an Arik Airline plane that returned to the country from New York in the United States. The young man is suicidal, you may say, but I can wager that he didn't see it as such.

He may have been told tales of stowaways who succeeded in the 'escapade' and are now busy enriching themselves with the golden fleece in their dream countries. But, is it really possible to succeed as a stowaway in the external compartments of an aircraft? I doubt!

To use the wheel wells or other external portions of an airliner to get to one's destination brings about hazardous dangers difficult to overcome. If such a stowaway is not crushed by the wheels, he is likely to die from cold or suffocation due to lack of oxygen since they are neither pressurized nor heated.

Obviously, manufacturers of aeroplanes did not envisage human beings concealing themselves in the external compartments, hence they had no business making it conducive for humans. Yet it is these parts of an aircraft that some of our youths are opting to use as they journey to the countries they believe flow with milk and honey. Hmm!

This, to me, smacks of the height of desperation and a classic case of misdirected determination. One thing you can see in those with this mentality is their sheer optimism towards succeeding. But this optimism is misdirected because if you are so bent on succeeding to the extent of putting your life on the line, why not go all out to succeed in your country and success will come calling. I am one of those who believe that Nigeria favours those who are resolute!

There are other ways that Nigerians have shown their determination to go abroad. Some are hard-hearted enough that they tread the Sahara Desert en route Europe and other western countries. Those who undertake this option suffer to no end as they even condescend to drinking their urine just to quench thirst amidst other harsh conditions.

Still, its not as if when these illegal immigrants get to the supposed el dorados someone will be waiting to fill their sacks with hard currencies. They will still have to burn themselves out working to earn enough to take care of themselves over there. They virtually become slaves in another man's land executing jobs they can never imagine themselves doing back home.

This goes to show that the cliche "it is a crime to be poor in Nigeria" is sinking deep into the psyche of most Nigerians and they don't want to commit that crime. Hence their obsessive desire desire to extricate themselves from the clutches of poverty. But how did we get to this terrible pass?

Don't look too far. In our country, the dictum is 'every man for himself and God for us all.' These days brothers do not look out for a fellow brother. A rich relative would rather burn his money on frivolities than part with a smidgen of his stupendous wealth to help a kin attain his dream.

And for the politicians, they literarily do not give a damn! They would rather flaunt their wealth, showing you how large they are living than for them to let you have a smattering of what they grabbed from our collective till. So, we are all guilty in this.

But this does not warrant our youths taking extreme measures in freeing themselves from poverty. At least, if they are to take to the extremes, it should be within the armbits of the law. It should also be safe enough to guarantee their being alive to enjoy the fruits.

One thing that can't be taken away from Nigerians is their can-do and never-say-die spirits. This disposition should be an asset, not a liability. We should leverage on it to make our nation one that other nationals would take great risks to come and savour the milk and honey we made to flow in our land. Yes we can do it, after all we have the can-do spirit.

The government should also assist in making this come to pass. The onus is on it to create the enabling environment and incentives to make the youths succeed. Those running the government should desist from actions and inaction that would make our citizens flee the country courting death in the process.


Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Editor-in-Chief,
wazobiapost.com
ug.ugovester@gmail.com
@ugsylvester