The Future Belongs To Asia (3)

The Future Belongs To Asia (3)

31st October, 2006

Ikechukwu Amaechi, ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com

But like I noted two weeks ago, I don’t blame Mr. President for most of these failings. The fact remains that what it takes to run a 21st century globalised economy with intellectual capital as the cutting edge is well beyond him. So he could as well be a good man, but he lacks the skills and competence to drive this process.

But a much more forward looking leader, in spite of whatever handicaps ought to have realized by now that education holds the key to a prosperous future. Unfortunately, it is the least of the worries of our leaders. All that matter to them is how to maximise power for very selfish ends or to use the words of General Ibrahim Babangida how to prove to all of us that they are not only in government, but also in power.And this is why what I described last week as the dance of shame in Aso Rock is as nauseating as it rankles.

It rankles because I insist for the umpteenth time that it has nothing to do with the welfare of the masses who have never had it so bad. It is the crude supremacy battle of men who see power as an end in itself rather than a means of translating their ennobling vision of improving the lot of the people into reality. What we have witnessed since 1999 is the reckless abuse of power in the promotion of self-centred interests. Whether it was in the unconscionable rigging of the 2003 elections, the political crisis in Anambra and Oyo states, the ongoing political brigandage in Plateau and Ekiti states, the flagrant disregard for rule of law particularly the disobedience of court rulings, contempt for the National Assembly, etc, the whole idea is to convince every Nigerian that we now have a supreme leader who is omnipotent and omniscient.

Even at the risk of being called names or being branded an Atiku apologist, I insist that Obasanjo’s war of attrition against Atiku has nothing to do with war against graft. Could the president have moved against his deputy if the latter had not courageously worked against his life presidency ambition? I doubt! But nothing convinces me that this is a war of vendetta more than the reaction of the President and his minders to the avalanche of evidence being churned out on a daily basis by the Atiku camp to prove that the president’s fingers are also in the corruption pie. As conventional wisdom has it, every bully is a coward at heart.

I am convinced beyond any iota of doubt that if the president knew that Atiku would fight back as ferociously as he has done in the past couple of months or if he knew that Atiku had amassed the tons of incriminating evidence which he is flaunting today to the detriment of the credibility of his traducers, they wouldn’t have moved against him. But it is rather too late because the genie is already out of the bottle. For too long, the president had perfected the art of making his personal wars of supremacy, buoyed by his king-size ego, against real and perceived enemies look like battles fought altruistically for the sake of people.

And for too long the media have bought into this fraud, thinking that by so doing, they were helping to build a wall of defence round the country’s democratic edifice. By so doing, the president has skillfully projected himself as the personification of the country’s democratic ethos and the moral avatar of our time and any attempt to rein in his autocratic tendencies from any quarters was construed as an attempt to scuttle democracy. The result was that in the past seven years, men such as Dr. Chuba Okadigbo were demonised and hounded to their untimely death with the active connivance of the media because they dared to resist the anti-democratic tendencies of Obasanjo. Men of goodwill and impeccable democratic credentials have been sacrificed on the altar of Obasanjo’s invidious politics.

Knowing how indignant Nigerians are on the issue of corruption, the game has always been to label a perceived enemy corrupt and the media would take up the battle from there.In the case of the vice president, that strategy seems to be failing at least for now, hence the resort to intimidation by the president.Let me state once again that I am not defending Atiku on the charges of corruption leveled against him by his principal. If anything, I had believed before now just like so many other Nigerians that Atiku was the most corrupt Nigerian public office holder after General Sani Abacha.

I had believed that he abused his privileged position as chairman of the National Council on Privatisation by converting our national patrimony to his personal estate all in the name of privatisation and I had looked forward to the day he would reap his comeuppance. So when Obasanjo finally showed his hands, I had thought that for Atiku, the game was up, that finally he would be buried in the grave of corruption which he personally dug. I had expected the president to bring to the public domain such damning evidence that would automatically nail the vice president’s coffin. But most ironically, what we have seen so far is an Atiku, the supposed epicetre of corruption effectively taking the battle to the court of ‘Saint’ Obasanjo who surprisingly is hedging and resorting to arm-twisting and intimidation to cow Atiku into silence.Or how else can one explain the arraignment on Tuesday, October 10 before Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja of Mallam Garba Shehu, Atiku’s media consultant on three counts of offences against the Official Secrets Act?

The charges said that Garba, a 46-year old Nigerian “between January 2001 and September 2006, in Abuja and other places in Nigeria within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court did obtain…reproduce…retain classified matter” which he was not authorised on behalf of the Federal Government so to do and “thereby committed an offence contrary to Section (1)(b) of the Official Secrets Acts, Cap 335, LFN 1990, and punishable under Section 7(1)of the said Official Secrets Act.” Of course, what the government is doing here is the height of political cum judicial subterfuge. Because for somebody’s action to infract on the Official Secrets Act, the information so made public must be “classified matter.” The same Act went on to define what a classified matter in this context means as an “information or thing which, under any system of security classification, from time to time, in use by any branch of the government, is not to be disclosed to the public and of which the disclosure to the public would be prejudicial to the security of Nigeria.”So, how would the disclosures made by the Atiku Campaign Organisation headed by Garba that the president may not after all be above board on the issue of corruption prejudice national security?

For instance, how could the disclosure that our president dips his hand into our common till to buy state-of-the-art cars for lady friends who may be rich enough to buy such cars themselves rather than giving scholarship to indigent but gifted students constitute a threat to national security? Rather than trying to silence Garba by waving the judicial banner, shouldn’t the president use the opportunity provided by the National Assembly to prove that Atiku is not only congenitally corrupt but also a pathological liar? Why is the president having goose pimples at the prospects of appearing before the National Assembly to give account of his stewardship particularly in the oil sector where he has been the sole supervisory authority in the past seven and half years? What did the president expect when he moved against Atiku? That the latter would keep quiet and be led to the slaughter house without fighting back? That is the height of hallucination.

The facts in the public domain since this dog fight reached its denouement have proved beyond reasonable doubt that those who are ruling us have no iota of respect for us. They are not there to promote public good. All that matters to them is power and the narrow interests it serves. To them what matters is today. While leaders of other forward looking nations think of tomorrow and by so doing invest on their citizens so as to reap the intellectual capital that Emeagwali is talking about, an investment that guarantees a rosier tomorrow for their people, our own leaders with their tunnel vision think of self, how acquire power, consolidate it and sustain themselves in power, how to ward off opposition and how to loot the economy. While other nations are investing in the education of their citizenry, our own leaders are busy ensuring that our people remain stagnated so as not to rise up and question the atrocities they are committing all in the name of power. What a pity!And that is why I insist that 2007 belongs to the people. Come next year, Nigerians must be able to decide who governs them. Part of the reason for the level of impunity and contempt exhibited by our so-called leaders towards us since 1999 is the fact that many of them occupy their lofty positions without our mandate.

To them therefore, they owe us no obligation. There must be a paradigm shift in 2007. That is the only way we can retrieve the soul of this nation from this army of occupation. As Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okojie, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos noted on Friday, October 13, 2006 at the seventh annual Samuel Odunaike memorial lecture, it was the sheer determination of Nigerians that terminated the third term agenda. Such grit should be demonstrated in the quest for a successful transition in 2007. Nigerians must ensure that the president’s plot to foist a successor on us must be resisted. Obasanjo must be told in unmistaken terms that no man, no matter how powerful ever triumphs over the collective will of the people. He cannot be any different.

My Take On The Anambra Impeachment Saga

My Take On The Anambra Impeachment Saga

24th October, 2006

Ikechukwu Amaechi, ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com

On Saturday September 30, 2006, at about 9 am, I received a telephone call from one of my most reliable sources in all my years as a journalist. I privately call him my own Deep Throat. And what did he say? Anambra State House of Assembly had concluded plans to impeach Peter Obi.

 

I never had any cause to doubt him in the past but I was quite sceptical about this particular story because it didn’t add up. In the first place, Obi was barely six months in office and the 2007 elections are less than seven months away. So, why would anybody want to precipitate another round of political crisis in Anambra? Again, members of the House have had a cordial working relationship with Obi or so it seemed, so what had gone wrong?

 

Again, given the dynamics of what I will call impeachment politics in this era, allegations of corruption against a public office holder particularly a governor and their proof? (real or manufactured) by the EFCC are two of the three legs on which any impeachment move must stand. Of course, the last leg which is actually the first and most important is that the man to be sent to the impeachment guillotine must be in the bad book of President Olusegun Obasanjo who must stamp his seal of approval on the impeachment plot for it to see the light of the day.

Peter Obi has not broken any of these rules, so why impeach him? When Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s anti-corruption czar presented his rather hyperbolic evidence of corruption against state governors in the Senate, Obi was one of the few he gave a clean bill of health. In fact, neither his wife, children, father, mother nor siblings are presently under probe.

Again, the governor has gone out of his way to ensure that there is a good working relationship between him and the god of Aso Rock, even at great political cost back home. Most of those who dismiss him as being weak believe and I would say rightly so that the President was part of the numerous problems that had wreaked havoc on the state since 1999.

Dr. Chris Ngige became a folk hero not necessarily because of his spectacular achievements in office but because he was able to withstand the forces of darkness many believed were unleashed on Anambra by Obasanjo to ensure that the state perpetually plumbed the depths of retrogression. So they had expected Obi to continue the battle against these forces from where Ngige stopped. Obi thought otherwise. He wormed up to Obasanjo instead, leaving no one in doubt that he was in no mood for a fight with Abuja. It was because of that that the president had agreed to pay a state visit to Anambra, the second time he would do so in seven and half years.

He visited once in the four years when Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju held sway and avoided the state like a plague during Ngige’s tenure. For this visit, Obi had made all preparations, pleading with very reluctant Anambrarians to come out en masse and give him a resounding welcome.So, why would the House impeach a governor who has not breached any of the impeachment laws (written and unwritten)? Deep Throat told me that Obi would be impeached not because of any infraction of the constitution or any crime he has committed against his people but because both Obasanjo and the PDP apparatchik were behind the plot.

Obasanjo had made a promise to his special assistant on domestic matters, Dr. Andy Ubah to hand Anambra over to him as a parting gift in 2007 for being a faithful and trusted aide. But there is the fear that if Obi was allowed to remain in office till the time of the elections, he may maximise the incumbency factor to win a re-election. In order not to risk that, he must be impeached by the PDP dominated House.

In his stead, the deputy governor, Dame Virgy Etiaba, in her sixties who had already given her word not to re-contest would become governor. The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mike Balonwu was promised the deputy governorship position under Andy Uba and most members of the House were promised tickets to the House of Representatives. Besides, to start with huge sums of money exchanged hands between those behind the plot and those they intend to use to execute the plot.After he finished his narration, I immediately called another reliable PDP source who confirmed the story wondering how I got the information since it was a top PDP secret which was intended to remain so until the House which was then on break resumed sitting. In their calculation, surprise would be the linchpin that would pull off the coup.

He confirmed that both Obasanjo and the PDP leadership hatched the obnoxious plot and that there was nothing anybody could do about it. To emphasise how far they have gone with the plot, he said that Ubah would be paying a courtesy call on Dr. Alex Ekwueme that day in Okoh and that the only All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) female member of the House would declare for the PDP at the event.I called Remi Oyo, Obasanjo’s media aide with the intent of confronting her with the story but her line was switched off.

I didn’t have Mike Balonwu’s phone number but I called one of our correspondents in Awka, Chukwujekwu Ilozue to follow the story up. I had barely finished debriefing him when he shouted, that explains it. He was actually in Okoh at Ekwueme’s residence waiting for the arrival of Ubah at the time I called. He had actually exchanged pleasantries with the APGA female member of the House about ten minutes before my call. He noticed that the woman was rather visible and upbeat about Ubah’s visit and he was wondering what an APGA member would be doing in a PDP event. The information I gave him solved the riddle. I told him to go after the woman. Thirty minutes later he called me to say the story was true. The woman admitted that she was there to declare for the PDP, claiming that APGA was crisis-ridden. Not only that, Ilozue said Okey Maduforo, our other correspondent in Awka whom he had told I called confronted a prominent PDP member of the House with the story and he admitted that they had concluded plans to impeach Obi and were only waiting for their resumption to swing into action. He ,however, said that the House moved against the governor because the latter wrote a petition against them to the EFCC, a crime which he said was unpardonable.

I called Peter Obi repeatedly but his line was busy. I called his Chief Press Secretary, Mike Mdah who was surprised that the House could be contemplating impeaching the governor but added that it was not true that Obi wrote any petition against them.Having tied up all the angles to the story, I broke the news on the front page of Sunday Independent of October 1 (second edition). A worried Governor Obi confronted Obasanjo with the story in Abuja and expectedly he denied it.

How did I know? Obasanjo himself told the world at the reception in his honour during his two-day visit that a newspaper had carried the story of his plot to impeach Obi and that when Obi came to Abuja to see him over the story, he assured him that he was not in the business of impeaching governors and that Obi should go back and do his work assuring that as long as he provided good leadership, nothing would happen to his seat.This is inspite of the fact that the House raised a rather curious motion during his visit urging him to release Ubah to them so that he would contest for the governorship.

Barely one week after Obasanjo made this public declaration, the House did exactly that which Obasanjo assured they would not do. They moved an impeachment motion against Peter Obi and relocated to Asaba. PDP leadership and of course Obasanjo had since dissociated themselves from the plot. Col. Ahmadu Ali, the party’s chairman and Commodore Bode George started their shuttle diplomacy, first visiting the lawmakers in their hideout in Asaba and Obi in Awka, according to them, to broker peace. The lawmakers were reportedly intransigent, vowing that nothing would halt the impeachment move.

PDP had set up a committee headed by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu to reconcile the lawmakers to Obi and the waiting game continues. But anybody who is conversant with the operations of the new PDP and in fact the new Nigeria where Obasanjo, to use the words of his state governor, Gbenga Daniel is next to God will agree that what the president and PDP leadership are telling us are the axiomatic cock and bull stories.

The House could not have summoned the courage to go ahead with the impeachment and are still remaining adamant if Obasanjo was not behind it.What is happening now is that having watched the Ekiti drama go awry when rather than impeach Fayose and hand over power to his deputy Biodun Olujimi as directed by the president, the Speaker upstaged the applecart by impeaching both and declaring himself governor, the powers that be in Abuja panicked that the Anambra saga may be going the same way when the House rather than moving for the impeachment of only Obi as directed included the deputy, clearing the coast for Balonwu.

So the PDP intervention was not to save Obi but to ensure that when and not if he is impeached, the desired outcome would be achieved.I have told this rather long story to underscore a point I have consistently made here. Obasanjo has never and can never be a man to be trusted, so also the Ahmadu Ali-led PDP which he has moulded in his own image. Peter Obi, Anambrarians and indeed the entire Igbo race to whom this impeachment if it is allowed to sail through would be the final humiliation would believe otherwise at the own peril.

Corruption: Obsanjo Is Also In The Dock

Corruption: Obasanjo Is Also In The Dock

26th September, 2006

Ikechukwu Amaechi, Ikechukwu amaechi@yahoo.com

I am surprised that some Nigerians seem to be aghast and horror-struck at the revelations that have been made in recent weeks since the smouldering feud between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar reached its denouement.

The question I have heard not a few people ask in the past three weeks is if indeed it is true that President Obasanjo to whom the so-called fight against corruption has become an official mantra could also have both his hands and feet in the corruption pie as Atiku is alleging.My answer to this all-important question is; read the lips of government.

It is instructive that Obasanjo’s aides are not denying the allegations. Of course, this is because there is nothing to deny. The evidences are rather too overwhelming. Instead, they are trying to be clever by half by insisting that it is the vice president that is in the dock. That could as well be true. But does that fact mitigate the president’s culpability? Does the fact that the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) decided to play the ostrich by ignoring the documented evidence of graft amassed against the president exonerate him?

One would have thought that for a regime as sanctimonious as Obasanjo’s, evidence would have been readily provided that the damaging allegations from Atiku are nothing other than a smear campaign embarked upon by a drowning man who would want other people to go down with him. But are they? I have a hunch they are not. That is why President Obasanjo is making no attempt at defending himself because there is nothing to defend. The first and last attempt made by Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, the president’s media aide to defend her boss over his role in the controversial N100 million donated by Joshua Dariye, Plateau State governor to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) only exposed the huge fraud that Obasanjo’s fight against corruption is.

Oyo’s inane defence only succeeded in exposing the president for what he is, a hypocrite.What this fight in the presidency which has nothing to do with improving the lot of long suffering Nigerians has done is to bring to the fore the sickening duplicity and two-facedness of the man who superintends over the affairs of this beleaguered nation.

If we take the Governor Joshua Dariye ill-advised N100 million donation to the PDP for instance, why on earth would a president who has reaped so much undeserved political capital from his deceitful fight against corruption connive with a vice president on whose trail the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was to cover up a crime committed against the state? Because by agreeing to clandestinely, as Mrs. Oyo admitted, help Atiku to cover up a fraudulent act which Ribadu, the “anti-corruption czar” is already investigating to the knowledge of the same president, then Obasanjo is as guilty, if not guiltier than Atiku if nothing else for deliberately obstructing and perverting the cause of justice.

But anybody who knows Mr. President well will attest to the fact that he is not one to suffer fools gladly particularly when those fools are his enemies (real or imagined). It is not in Obasanjo’s character to be so magnanimous even to friends, not to talk of an enemy whose back was already on the wall. The natural instinct would have been to finish off Atiku once and for all.

Did the president lie to the nation? Time will tell.The question that many have also asked in recent times is; if Obasanjo knew that he is as guilty as Atiku, why embark on this tortoise-like adventure from which it has become obvious that he cannot return until he is thoroughly disgraced? Put differently, if Mr. President knew that his cupboard was bristling with putrid smelling skeletons, why did he in the manner of the proverbial Nza bird challenge his god to a wrestling contest? Why would he cut his nose in order to spite his face?I can hazard two guesses.

First, Obasanjo has been taken hostage by a bunch of self-seeking ego massagers who have made him to believe that in a presidential system of government, the chief executive has such awesome powers that he is not only the state writ large, he is law unto himself. He was goaded by these rabble-rousers into waging this war that has eroded whatever is left of his credibility after the third term debacle.But beyond that, I see the mighty hand of God intervening again most decisively in the life of this nation. Like I wrote in this same column on August 15, 2006, this fight between Obasanjo, Atiku and to some extent Babangida is heavenly inspired. For too long, we have all been taken for a ride in this country by men of power who have no scruples and this is why Nigerians must insist that whoever is indicted in this matter must face the wrath of the law.

Here, the National Assembly rather than the EFCC, which has not hidden its bias, must thoroughly investigate this dance of shame, which has completely ridiculed
Nigeria in the comity of nations.It is sad that even at this crossroads of perfidy, some people are trying to burnish the president’s image. As far as I am concerned, Obasanjo has lost the moral high ground and is in no position to pontificate. To therefore insinuate as some public commentators are doing that Atiku should be dealt with now while the next government will deal with Obasanjo is the height of dishonesty. Such subterfuge can never be in the interest of this country.As far as I am concerned, Obasanjo rather than Atiku is the main issue in this graft probe and no one should make the mistake of thinking otherwise.

Dealing with Atiku and leaving Obasanjo to go scot-free in this matter will tantamount to pouring petrol on a pick pocket and setting him ablaze while giving an armed robber a slap on the wrist. Why do I say so? For seven years, Atiku has been portrayed as the most corrupt public official that Nigeria ever had. Nigerians have come to accept the story that as chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, the vice president abused his privileged position by converting the people’s patrimony to his personal wealth. Till date, there is no evidence to incriminate Atiku on that score. Instead, it has been proved that it is Obasanjo that partly owns Transcorp, a company that is buying up Nigeria.In any case, why would anybody who means well for Nigeria insist that Atiku must be prosecuted because his ABTI University received money from the slush Marine Float Account fund while Obasanjo whose Bells University also benefited from same be overlooked?

To be so infected with the Atiku-must-be-nailed virus, which seems to have become an epidemic in certain quarters is to completely miss the point. The issue is that both Obasanjo and Atiku have betrayed the public trust and must be sanctioned according to the laws of the land. If this were to be a society where leaders have qualms and value their integrity, the president in the face of these sordid revelations that increasingly question his credibility would have tendered his resignation after apologising profusely to bewildered Nigerians for gross betrayal of public trust.

If he does that today, he will automatically put Atiku on the spot and the vice president would not have any excuse but to also tender his resignation or be impeached. But of course, Mr. President does not harbour such thoughts because the war is about self and has absolutely nothing to do with the promotion of public good.Another issue, which this crisis particularly the disbursement of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund has brought to the fore is the fact that
Nigeria is a country of rent seekers, a country peopled by idle men and women who live solely on government patronage.It is interesting to note that Dr. Ahmadu Ali, chairman of the PDP received a N5 million donation from the PTDF. It goes without saying that that donation violated public funds expenditure guidelines. But it will be naÔve to assume that he is the only one. Which is why the challenge by Atiku that EFCC should publish the transactions in the Marine Float Account for Nigerians to see must be supported by all well-meaning citizens.

Beyond that, Nigerians must insist in knowing who and who got donations from the PTDF and for what reason(s). Was the Fund set up to finance private causes? How many of our big men got donations from the Fund to marry new wives and take new chieftaincy titles?If the EFCC wants to be seen as a credible organisation that is indeed waging war against corruption, it should take up that challenge. Perhaps Ribadu does not know but the fact remains that he is squandering the goodwill he has built in the past three years at such an alarming rate. Which is indeed sad because deep down, I think he still means well. He cannot afford to sacrifice his hard won reputation on the alter of political expediency.

The Ayo Fayose Mistake

The “Ayo Fayose Mistake”

Many Nigerians continue to lament what they call the deficiencies of the 1999 Constitution, which to them have made the document a recipe for disaster. Correct as such perception might be, it is, to my mind disingenuous for anyone to blame solely the constitution for the many problems bedevilling Nigeria today. Yes, Nigeria as a country could do with a less deficient constitution. But then, however deficient it is, our problems since the inception of this failing (if not already failed) attempt at democratic rule has more to do with the managers, if you like, operators of the constitution than with the document itself.

No constitution anywhere in the world is a perfect document. Not even the US constitution that has been in existence since its adoption in 1789 with its original seven articles and 26 amendments since then. That is why every constitution makes room for its own amendment. But even if we agree for the sake of argument that some countries have constitutions handed down to them from heaven, such constitutions would still produce disastrous results like the ones confronting us now if they are managed by the same kind of people, with the same mindset.

Constitutions could be written or unwritten. Whichever is the case, the fundamental underpinning of every constitution is that it outlines the basic laws or principles by which a country is governed. Every constitution essentially is the document or statute setting out the fundamental laws or bylaws of a country. And the difference between lawless and lawful societies is the extent to which those saddled with the responsibility of implementing the constitution do so faithfully in spite of what their self- interests are. In fact, what has happened in Nigeria since 1999 is that a cabal has thrown overboard the country’s grundnorm and are ruling with a set of rules which only they can understand and interpret.

When the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of a country begins to interpret the constitution not from the point of view of law but political exigency, then there is trouble. When the state starts treating the pronouncements of the courts (the only arm of government mandated to interpret the constitution) with contempt, then danger is lurking. When individuals not only swear that court judgements would only be implemented over their dead bodies but go out of their way to instigate crisis, killing and maiming innocent citizens in the process as Chief Lamidi Adedibu is doing in Ibadan, with the state playing the ostrich, it is a danger signal.

I have argued consistently on this page that we are not building a lawful society. If anything, we have worked so hard in the past seven and half years to erect the building blocks of
Nigeria’s democratic edifice on the foundation of fraud and deceit. It is hypocritical for anyone to expect that such a structure will stand.  

Sadly, even if President Olusegun Obasanjo manages as long as he remains in power to sustain the system which he has erected outside the laws of the country, it will still unravel sooner or later. It happened in Mobutu Sese Seko’s Congo, in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Houiphet Boigny’s
Ivory Coast, etc. And nobody should make any mistake about it; Obasanjo will one day, even if he succeeds in transmuting into the country’s first life president next year, cease being
Nigeria’s head of state.

Nigeria remains mired in this morass it has found itself since independence because we have refused to learn from the mistakes of other countries or even from our own mistakes. We are too arrogant to acknowledge our own failures and retrace our steps foe fear of being considered weak even when we know we are mere mortals that are fallible. The same hubris that has left George Bush’s America stuck in Iraq is holding our country hostage.

President Obasanjo was quoted as saying in  Ekiti State recently that his party, the PDP made a mistake in former Governor Ayo Fayose. “Bringing the governor in the first instance was a mistake but when we allow the mistakes to be repeated is the danger.” It may well be true that Fayose was a mistake but is the president and his party of garrison commanders doing anything to avert such mistakes in the future? The answer is a categorical no. And as the president acknowledged, that is the danger staring us in the face not only in 2007 but even beyond. But the president knows the truth which is that he is solely culpable for the so-called “Ayo Fayose mistake.” He knows that the mistake stemmed from the fact that Fayose’s emergence as a governor was the decision of a cabal, solely answerable to him; a cabal that took it upon itself to foist Fayose on Ekiti State rather than allow the people who should have made the ultimate choice in a democracy to do so. Fayose was not alone. I have argued severally on this page that many of those we are spending scarce government resources probing for one official misdemeanour or another today are men and women who would not have won election if the people were allowed to make the choice in 2003. We could have saved ourselves the inconveniences. Majority of those in positions of authority today were imposed on the people on whose behalf they claim to be exercising power.

Having acknowledged the dangers inherent in the very negative attitude of a cabal arrogating to itself the powers of choosing for the people their leaders instead of allowing them to exercise their right of franchise, one would have expected that the president would give democracy a shot in the arm by loosening his grip on the process that throws up leaders. But to so believe would amount to a gross misreading of the real meaning of Obasanjo’s Ekiti sermon because there is nothing he has done in recent times that should give anybody the confidence that he has realised his mistakes and is prepared to make amends.

Instead, as the president was grandstanding in Ado Ekiti, he was at the same time busy entrenching the Ayo Fayose mistake from Oyo State to Anambra. The same 2003 scenario that threw up the characters who Obasanjo is today bemoaning is playing itself out. Rather than convince the people on why they should elect them as their representatives next year, almost everybody from councillorship aspirants to the so-called presidential aspirants are looking up to Aso Rock for victory. Rather than signing their social contract with the people, whose mandate they need in a normal situation to win elections, they would rather sign it with the president. Why won’t we continue to make the Ayo Fayose mistake? 

Democracy is touted as the best form of government because it gives the people the opportunity to choose their leaders and provides for checks and balances. On these two fundamental elements, Nigeria’s home grown democracy is very deficient. Nigerians have been completely shut out of the decision making process in terms of who represents them at all levels of government. In the same vein, we have only one arm of government (the executive) now in
Nigeria instead of three. The other two (legislature and judiciary) have effectively become mere appendages to the executive.

Concentrating such powers in the hands of only one man, even if he is an Angel is very unhealthy for any polity. Unfortunately for us, Angels are known to live in heaven, not among men and certainly not in Nigeria.    

Corruption: Head Or Tail, Governors Lose

Corruption: Head Or Tail, Governors Lose 

Let me state from the onset what this article is not about. It is not a defence of our hapless state governors who are becoming increasingly embattled as a result of the Federal Government’s “war” on corruption. This caveat is necessary because I believe that some of them have actually committed economic and political crimes, which in saner societies should attract life imprisonment.  So, one could easily understand the sentiment in certain quarters that the gale of impeachments sweeping across the land now is a well-deserved albeit long overdue comeuppance. But to treat the impunity and corruption at the state level in isolation to what obtains at the federal level, which is what the Nuhu Ribadu-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently doing smacks of hypocrisy. But this is a topic for another day. 

This article was informed by the concluding comments of Dr. Edwin Madunagu, the iconic activist in his article in The Guardian of November 9, 2006, titled “Perspectives and projections.” Hear him: “We must not mistake an extremely exploitative and enslaving economic and socio-political system for the massive corruption within it. To put the matter strongly: Corruption is the lubricant of this system. Without corruption, the elaborate system we are now running will make no sense, without corruption, the engine of the system will “knock.”What Dr. Madunagu is saying, simply put is that corruption in
Nigeria is systemic and runs deep not only at the state and local levels but also at the federal level. 

And from this, I make two personal submissions. The fact that the anti-corruption agencies, especially the EFCC do not have the political will to do at the centre what they are doing at the level of the federating units does not mean that governors are more corrupt than those who make authoritative allocation of values at the centre.  Secondly, this war against corruption, desirable as it may be is not waged so that the wretched lot of the masses could be improved. It is all part of the vicious struggle for power come 2007. Granted, some have argued that if in the process of decimating themselves, the ghost of corruption is exorcised from the body-politic, so be it. No well-meaning
Nigeria would argue with this sentiment because it goes without saying that corruption is at the root of most, if not all our problems. But I am afraid Nigeria will not be a better country come 2007 in spite of this so-called anti-corruption war because there is no war in the first place; it is all about vendetta and struggle for power. And by remaining passive on-lookers, Nigerians are not helping matters. 

In fact, it is this passivity that enamours corruption. How do I mean? Look at it this way.
Nigeria is a country where people believe that the wealth of the state belongs not to them but to those in government. Thus, our patrimony belongs to President Obasanjo while the resources of the states belong to the governors. It is this warped reasoning that informs the unbearable pressure that is often times mounted on these officials by rent seekers. This pressure comes from, but is not limited to political godfathers, party officials and legislators and refusal to oblige them in some cases could have serious political implications.  At the federal level, the president has been able to curtail this pressure particularly since his second term primarily because he now has total control of the state’s coercive instruments. Rather than being blackmailed by rent seekers, he is now the one that is using the resources of the state to blackmail, intimidate, coerce and corrupt both political friends and foes depending on the particular goal he aims to achieve. The governors do not have such leverage.  

Many of the so-called big men in Nigeria are indeed idlers who live only on government patronage. Any governor who does not want his government disrupted must not only “settle” members of the state House of Assembly but pay monthly stipend to both the state’s “political timbers and calibres” (apologies to Dr K.0 Mbadiwe) and party officials (state and national). This is beside the fact that every state governor automatically becomes the major financier of his political party. Or is anybody still under the illusion that it was only Joshua Dariye that “donated” N100m to PDP for the 2003 elections? If he is not, then, why is nobody talking about the other donations? When Chief Chekwas Okorie takes umbrage at Mr. Peter Obi for not representing the interest of APGA while in government, he is saying nothing other than the fact that Obi didn’t give him and the party a blank cheque to cash from the Anambra State treasury. And that brings me to the core of this article, which is Madunagu’s assertion that corruption is the lubricant of the Nigerian system. The five impeachments we have witnessed so far have all been linked to corruption one way or the other. Ironically, even those who have resisted its snares have also been sent to the impeachment guillotine. Rasheed Ladoja was impeached despite the fact that he refused to sign out the state’s patrimony to Lamidu Adedibu and his cohorts. Obi suffered the same fate because he refused to deploy the state resources in buying off the political hounds baying for his blood. Both were labelled penny pinchers. On the other hand, Alao-Akala has even been promised a return ticket as “governor” of  Oyo State because he has effectively handed over the state treasury to Adedibu. I laugh whenever Nigerians label the governors corrupt people who deserve to be strung on the pole while at the same time criticising the likes of Ladoja and Obi as deserving of the fate that befell them because they don’t know what it takes to be politicians in Nigeria. The implication is that head or tail, the governors are bound to lose because this war has nothing to do with corruption. If a governor is evidently corrupt but aligns himself with what Madunagu calls the “current ruling block in
Nigeria,” his sins remain covered and EFCC looks the other way. If on the other hand a governor is corrupt but at the same time aligns himself with tendencies opposed to the ruling block, his sins are exposed, and EFCC is unleashed on him, not because of corruption but because he is on the wrong side of the political divide. This is what has happened to Dariye, Fayose and Alamieyeseigha. 

To make matters worse, even if a governor is above board but is perceived as somebody who may not easily lend himself to helping in the accomplishment of the questionable goals of the ruling block, he is impeached all the same. And how is this accomplished? The ruling power block uses the same corruptive instruments which the governor repudiated and for which he ought to be given a gold medal to induce the state lawmakers and the local godfathers like Adedibu to effect the impeachment. That is what happened to Ladoja and Obi. In a sense therefore, nobody is fighting corruption. What is going on is vicious power struggle among factions of the ruling elite with governors as fall guys. 

Using My Name To Fleece Nigerians Ikechukwu, I guess you are enjoying your stay at
Cardiff. I don’t know if you still remember me but I once wrote to commend your article on an issue related to the kind of ruler
Nigeria needs, a feedback which you published the following week with my telephone number.  

However, that has got me into trouble. Someone has been calling me for more than one month now claiming to be you! Surprised? It didn’t end there. The guy told me to buy credit cards for him. I fell for it the first time because I was so embarrassed to hear that the great writer Ikechukwu would request as a matter of urgency recharge cards because of a peculiar situation he found himself. My response was immediate that day. However, I got curious when he kept demanding for more credit cards. At that point, I refused picking his calls despite numerous flashes. 

Luck ran out on him when I read an article of yours which suggested that you are now in
Cardiff for a course. A week later, the fake Ikechukwu flashed again and this time, I called back and asked after his work and whereabouts. He told me he was in Lagos and working pretty hard. As I write, he doesn’t know that I am already onto his game. I will warn him off but I fear he might have damaged your reputation with several people by demanding credit cards, thereby making you look cheap. I still have his number and should you decide to contact the police to track him down, I can hold back from calling and abusing him. But like I said, it is your name and reputation that need cleaning up.-pius.a.isume@exxonmobil.com 

I got this e-mail from a fan, Pius Isume who works with Exxon-Mobil. I remember speaking with him once. He sent a rejoinder to a piece I wrote on leadership, which was so well-informed that I not only published it but had about ten minutes discussion with him on phone. But that was the first and last time we spoke until I got his mail last Tuesday. The GSM line with which this fellow is fleecing people in my name is 08063610652. I wish the police could track him down and punish him deservedly. 

I thanked Pius for alerting me and apologised for the sad experience since the guy got his telephone number through my column. I just hope his e-mail address which I have used here won’t open for him a floodgate of 419 letters such as I receive everyday.   But while I sympathise with all those who may have fallen for this scam, innocently thinking that they were indeed bailing me out of a precarious financial position, let me state unequivocally that it is not in my character to be so beggarly and the calls are definitely not from me. Anyone who gets such calls should alert the police immediately so as to get the criminals behind this scam arrested.                                  

Nigeria And The Metaphor of ADC Airline’s Flight 053

Nigeria And The Metaphor of ADC Airline’s Flight

053 

It is extremely difficult, no matter how hard one tries, for any well meaning citizen not to be exasperated at the miserable Nigerian situation. For some others, they have even passed the stage of exasperation and are in fact, hibernating in the rather frightful realm of despondency. I have had enough time in the past one month to reflect on our tragic circumstances and honestly, I am yet to fathom why we are where we are. Where did we get it wrong? Can’t Nigeria function like any other normal country? Why are we insisting that only countries like Somalia must be our role models? Why is Nigeria not working (apologies to Gov. Chimaroke Nnamani of  the “Enugu State is working” fame)? Is ours the only country in the world with multiplicity of religious, linguistic and ethnic groups? Is Nigeria the most populous country in the world? Do we have the largest landmass with the most difficult terrain in the world? Are we the richest or poorest country in the world? Do we have the most educated or the least educated population in the world? Is ours the only country that was colonised? Is Nigeria the only country in the world that had the misfortune of being ruled by soldiers for so long a time? Is Nigeria the only country that practices presidential system of government? Is Nigeria the only country where elections are held periodically? The questions are legion but simply put, what is it that makes ours such a peculiar country that only bad news filter out to the outside world almost all the time?  At a five-day leadership training workshop, which the 2006/2007 Chevening scholars had at the Pan-African University, Lekki  prior to our departure, it was stressed that we are ambassadors of the country and therefore should endeavour at all times to project the good image of the country. Of course, that should go without saying since none of us has any other country other than Nigeria. We have to be patriotic, after all, other countries have their problems too. 

Then, one month after, the only news that you get from your country are all bad news. If a plane is not crashing and claiming precious lives; militants are kidnapping oil workers in the Niger Delta; unity schools are about to be auctioned to the highest bidder(s) (perhaps to Transcorp); governors are being impeached on trumped up charges; the police are using live bullets to disperse peaceful protesters in Jos, killing some in the process; Anambra women peacefully protesting the kangaroo impeachment of their governor are tear gassed by the police;  the Inspector- General of Police (who is a lawyer) is pouring scorn on a lucid and pithy judgement delivered by a court of competent jurisdiction; an individual musters the effrontery to vow that over his dead body would a judgement delivered by a Court of Appeal, the second highest appellate court in the land be implemented; a so-called governor is busy swearing that no court can remove him since god made him a governor; the president and his deputy are dancing frenetically at the market square with no shred of cloth to cover their nakedness; etc, etc. How lawless can a society become? How much deeper shall we descend into this morass before we can say enough is enough?  A friend of mine from Luxembourg alerted me penultimate Sunday morning of yet another fatal plane crash in Nigeria. He had just watched the news on CNN and ran to my room to tell me. “That is about the sixth major air disaster in your country in the past twelve months?” he asked. I told him it was the fourth and not the sixth and I saw the incredulous look on his face and knew that more questions were coming. “Even if it is the fourth, that is scandalous; why is your airspace so unsafe?” To be a good ambassador and in order not to be accused of running my country down, I told him it is not as bad as he is making it out to be. I told him that most of the accidents are caused by bad weather and moreover no country in the world is immune to air disasters. He shrugged and left.  Was I happy thereafter? No! Because I knew that four plane crashes within 12 months is indefensible and I cannot think of any country in the world in this 21^st

century that can equal that record not to talk of beating it. So, while it is true that no country is immune to accidents, air disasters inclusive, the regularity as in the case of Nigeria is the issue. Again, Nigeria has one of the friendliest of weather in the world and therefore, it would be highly disingenuous for anyone to continuously heap the blame of our incessant air disasters on the doorstep of bad weather because planes still manage to fly in climes with more treacherous weather.  I have refrained from commenting on most of these fatal crashes since aircraft started dropping from the Nigerian airspace like over-ripped pawpaw with predictable regularity because most commentators have cashed in on these very unfortunate incidents to engage in what I will call trafficking in human misery. 

But this latest crash that claimed the lives of 96 people has thrown up an issue which in my thinking is rather significant. The former Aviation Minister, Babalola Borisade blamed the pilot of the ill-fated ADC plane, Captain Atanda Kolawole for the crash and vowed that it would be the last time “some little fellows” would be allowed to cause the country embarrassment. Of course, his position was informed by the report that the Air Traffic Controllers advised the pilot to tarry awhile because of bad weather but he spurned the advice and the consequence of his “obduracy” was the death of 96 people a minute later. One report even quoted the pilot as saying that, God was in control and that nothing would happen. I had my doubts that any sane pilot would jump into the aircraft and fly after being warned that the weather was perilous. This doubt a friend of mine, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) has re-enforced. Hear him: “The minister said that the crash was caused by the pilot’s refusal to heed the advise of the Air Traffic Controller that the weather was bad. Yet the same Controller authorised the plane to take off? This is absolutely unacceptable as no aircraft flies without authorisation from the control towers. Without being immodest, I have worked at the Police Airwing and this I know for sure.” 

Assuming that report is false but Borisade hung unto it all the same to blame the pilot presumably in order that the country may not be “embarrassed,” is it not even less embarrassing and scandalous that the traffic controllers didn’t warn the pilot because they had no idea of how treacherous the weather had become and he flew himself and 95 others to their untimely deaths unwittingly than that he knew and decided to be a suicide bomber intent on committing mass murder which is what his action (if indeed he was warned but he chose to spurn the warning) would amount to?  If on the other hand the pilot was warned as Borisade alleged but he nevertheless chose to fly, knowing full well that there is no parking lot up there, does it not prove that we may have lost it all as a country? Is that not the ultimate proof that Nigeria has become a very lawless country, that ours is a society where anything goes? 

The unfortunate fact though is that if indeed it is true that Captain Kolawole took such grave risk for no reason whatsoever, then he is kindred spirit with those who are piloting the affairs of the Nigerian state because our rulers (not leaders) have not proved through their actions and even inactions to be better in any way. By recklessly defying court orders, instituting the rule of man rather than the rule of law, heating up the polity by orchestrating all manner of political shenanigans and fanning the embers of political violence, the pilots of the aircraft which is the Nigerian state are disdainfully defying the advice of the few voices of reason still keeping vigil at the nation’s control tower. The end result is bound to be as catastrophic and ruinous as the fate that befell the ADC airline’s flight 053 from Abuja to Sokoto penultimate Sunday. And no one should make any mistake about that.    

           

Gregynog, Just Like Obudu Cattle Ranch

Gregynog, Just Like Obudu Cattle Ranch   

“This place is magnificent and heavenly, simply out of this world. In fact, I lack appropriate adjectives to describe it.” That was how Casmir Igbokwe, a Nigerian described the scenery that confronted him on stepping out of the bus at the Gregynog estate. The Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies had last month organised a three-day retreat for International Journalism students to horn their skills in research dissertations writing. And what other environment could be more conducive than Gregynog?  What came to my mind on disembarking from the bus and beholding the spectacular panoroma was the famous Obudu Cattle Ranch back home in Cross River State, which Donald Duke has given a face-lift in recent years.   

Perching on top of a hill near the quiet village of Tregynon, about six miles north of Newtown in Powys, Gregynog is a perfect retreat centre. Its location gives vent to its atmospheric aura. Hidden away in the peaceful Montgomeryshire countryside in the woodlands of mid-Wales, Gregynog’s essence lies in the fact that it traverses two worlds, having allowed itself to be infected by the virus of Information Technology of the modern world and yet clinging tenaciously to its heritage rooted firmly in the distant past.  It is because of its ability to traverse these two worlds that Gregynog has become the retreat haven of both the mainstream academia and the arts community in the United Kingdom and beyond. The tranquillity that pervades the estate is underscored by its seeming ambivalent romance with information technology. It has enough of these facilities that will ensure that residents are not completely cut off from the outside world and yet few to ensure that they don’t distract rather than facilitate learning. Though there are a few Internet points within the hall, the majority of mobile telephone networks do not work at Gregynog. There are however three public telephones available for visitors use with two located on the ground floor corridor and the third in the courtyard reception area. Guests are requested to remain quiet after midnight.“This environment is created to oil the wheels of creativity,” said Kouloumas Christos, a Greek when he walked round the grounds.  The sunken gardens with their green foliage and arboretum ensconced in a rolling countryside are as alluring as they are seductive and the ambience of seclusion which Gregynog wears like an epaulette contributed immensely in making it the retreat paradise that it is. The Hall, (which is the name of the main building), is surrounded by 750 acres of gardens, woodland and farmland.  “The estate,” according to James Picot, a native of Newtown “incorporates miles of woodland walks, spectacular views of the countryside and the  Severn Valley, a beautiful lily pond and the atmospheric Great Wood, a site of special scientific interest. The formal gardens, set within a backdrop of imperious conifers, are truly glorious.  

“The history of Gregynog dates back to the 12^th century and various Halls have occupied the site since then,” explains Mary Oldham, part time Liberian, who looks after the in-house library which is open to residents only. “But the current Hall was built in the 1840s by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, first Baron Sudeley and is one of the earliest examples of a concrete clad building still in existence.”  The current history of Gregynog dates back to 1924 when it became home to the famous Davies sisters – Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, art-collectors and granddaughters of David Davies Llandinam, a business tycoon of the Victorian era. The estate later became the property of the University of Wales in 1963 as expressed in the Will of the sisters after their deaths in 1951 and 1963 respectively. Arts aficionados, the Davies sisters made the estate an arts centre in the 20^th century. The Hall housed a famous collection of impressionistic paintings including works by Monet and Renoir now hanging in the National Gallery of Wales. Even now, many works of art from their collection are still on display in the Hall. They also founded the Gregynog festival, which from 1932 to 1938 attracted leading figures from the world of classic music such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Edward Elgar.  

On taking over the estate, which they converted into a residential conference and education centre, Gregynog’s music tradition was revived by the University of Wales and the Gregynog Festival Company and a music festival is staged every June. Performers since then included Benjamin Britten and Bryn Terfel. Occasionally too, instrumental and choral performances are staged alongside folk and jazz.  During the 1970’s and 1980’s the Gregynog Arts Fellowships attracted poets, musicians, sculptors, book designers, wood cutters and painters.  Apart from the Hall, which has 47 bedrooms including 12 en-suite, with a maximum capacity of 98 residents, Gregynog has two other facilities – Garden Cottage and Courtyard flat. Situated about ten minutes walk from the Hall on a private drive in an elevated position, Garden Cottage comprises a dining room, lounge, fully fitted kitchen, six bedrooms sleeping 12 people. The rental for the Cottage Gardens which includes VAT, electricity, heating of hot water, bed linen and towels is £650 per week or £100 per day. On the other hand, the Courtyard Flat adjacent to the Hall and ideal for a short break or self-catering holiday comprises of a lounge, fully equipped fitted kitchen, two adjoining bedrooms (one double and one single) and a bathroom. It attracts a weekly charge of £350 or £50 per day. Residents are not allowed to bring in alcohol onto the premises as Gregynog holds a full drinks license bar which opens from 6 pm till midnight. 

As a retreat centre, Gregynog is in a class of its own. With a temperature always at freezing point even at the hottest of weathers; two hours away from Birmingham, Manchester, Chester and Liverpool and three hours away from Cardiff, Gregynog which is now part of the UK National Gardens Scheme with its green pasture surrounded by mature woodland has an atmosphere of total peace and tranquillity, perhaps only comparable to our own Obudu Cattle Ranch.   

The Future belongs To Asia (2)

The Future Belongs To Asia (2)

17th October, 2006

By Ikechukwu Amaechi,ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com  

So, why do I say that the future belongs to Asia? Or put differently, that the 21st century is the Asian century? If we all agree that the most precious asset any nation desirous of advancement, whether in the socio-economic, political, technological, or whatever sphere can cling on to tenaciously is the development of its human capital through rigorous capacity building, then there is no doubting the fact that the Asians hold the ace.

Education is the magic wand that demystifies the rather perplexing complexities of development in all spheres of human endeavour. No nation willingly transfers its technology. Countries desirous of development strive to equip their citizenry with the skills that would leapfrog not only access to such knowledge but the acquisition of the competence that will make it a fait accompli. The only way this could be done is through education.

A first time visitor to Cardiff University would be pardoned if he thinks he is in an Asian community. Yet, Cardiff is the capital of Wales, a European nation, one of the four that make up the United Kingdom. But Asians from China, India, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, etc constitute more than 70 percent of the entire student population. In my class (International Journalism) for instance, we have 62 students. More than 40 are Asians. Almost 20 of them are Chinese. There are only six Africans (two Nigerians, two Kenyans, One Gambian, and a lady from Tanzania.) The story is the same in the three other Master of Arts (MA) courses (International Public Relations, Political Communications and Journalism Studies) that the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies is offering this academic year.

The story is the same in most if not all the other schools in the university. Solomon Anyiam, is the only Nigerian and indeed African in a class of 21 people studying International Planning and Development. In this same class, there are 14 Chinese and six Europeans. A friend of mine, Gungor Osman, French national of Turkish origins says there are 150 people offering his course, International Economics, Banking and Finance. Over 70 percent of the students in this class are Asians and half of this 70 percent are Chinese. Africans in this class are less than one percent.

The situation is also the same in the MBA class that has the highest number of students in the entire university. In the engineering and science courses, there is no difference. Niu Xing Hua, a Chinese friend of mine who is studying Masters in Business Administration disclosed that even with their present population, the number of Chinese students in Europe particularly in the
UK is reducing. His explanation; “There was a time Americans made it extremely difficult for students from China to get visa to study in their country, so, many of us had no choice but to come to Europe. But now, the Americans have realised what they were losing and they have significantly relaxed the visa conditions and in recent years, the Chinese student population in the
UK has dropped by about 40 percent as many ultimately prefer American to British education.”The major difference between leadership in these Asian countries and ours is that they appreciate the dominant role education plays in the life of a nation and therefore have clear-cut policies which make it possible for their citizens to acquire the best of it from wherever it could be offered anywhere in the world.

There is no doubting the fact that British and American education are still rated among the best in the world. Most of the Asian students I have spoken to here in Cardiff are on scholarship either administered as a deliberate state policy or by private foundations. Others came courtesy of education loans administered by the state with very liberal repayment terms. The reverse is the case with Nigerians. I am yet to see any Nigerian who is in this university courtesy of a scholarship from the Nigerian government or even an education loan scheme. Many are either self-sponsored or sent here by their parents or relations. The few of us on scholarship came courtesy of the benevolence of foreign agencies like the British Council. In the past seven and half years, it is only a few state governments like Ebonyi that have had the presence of mind and the vision to formulate scholarship programmes for the benefit of the people. The sad thing is that many of those who are super-intending over the affairs of Nigeria both at the federal and state levels are beneficiaries of sundry scholarship schemes even those provided by their communities.

Now, how can Nigeria in the next 20 years compete favourably in a globalised economic environment? Everyone knows that oil which we all look up to today is a wasting asset, which has become a curse rather than a blessing. So when I talk of the tunnel vision of the Nigerian leadership, it is not an exaggeration. You need to step into a typical UK university classroom to appreciate how backward our educational facilities back home are. And you cannot afford not to be angry when President Olusegun Obasanjo thumps his chest in self-glorification over achievements that only himself and perhaps his lickspittles see. In the history of Nigeria as an independent nation, we have not earned much more money than we have done in the past seven and half years under the Obasanjo presidency. Yet, we have never been poorer in terms of infrastructural development and social services. Most of the roads have collapsed; electricity supply is at its epileptic worse. Nigerians have never been poorer. So, where have all the billions of dollars which the country has earned from sale of crude oil since Obasanjo became president gone to? Why are we not making any progress in real terms in spite of the huge resources at the disposal of the leadership?

This ought to be the question that should concentrate the mind of a progressive leadership.The answer lies in the very negative value system of our people and the inability of the leadership to appreciate those things that give impetus to development.

In a speech he delivered at the University of Alberta, Canada on September 23, 2006, and titled Ideas, Not Money, Alleviate Poverty, Philip Emeagwali, the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize winner who was voted history’s greatest scientist of African descent and the 35th greatest African of all time in a survey for the September 2004 issue of the London-based New African magazine stated: “I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely I thought wealth is determined by the money or property in one’s possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: “Ideas are capital. The rest is just money.” I was struck by the simplicity of such an eloquent and forceful idea…The potential for progress and poverty alleviation in
Africa relies on capital generated from the power within our minds, not from our ability to pick minerals from the ground or seek debt relief and foreign assistance.”

Quoting the first annual report by J.P. Morgan Chase, which reads: “The power of intellectual capital is the ability to breed ideas that ignite value,” Emeagwali arrived at a very profound conclusion. “For Africa, poverty will be reduced when intellectual capital is increased and leveraged to export knowledge and ideas…the intellectual capital needed to produce products and services will lead to the path of poverty alleviation. Intellectual capital, defined as the collective knowledge of the people, increases productivity. The latter- by driving economic growth- alleviates poverty, always and everywhere, even in Africa.

Productivity is the engine that drives global economic growth…Unless Africa significantly increases its intellectual capital, the continent will remain irrelevant in the 21st century and even beyond…There is simply no other way to succeed.”I doubt if anybody can controvert Emeagwali’s argument. And the only way any country can significantly increase its intellectual capital is through the qualitative education of its citizenry.

I have always pondered over what I will call the Nigerian paradox, the inherent contradiction of a country too rich to be poor and at the same time too poor to be rich; a country rich in monetary terms and yet abjectly poor in all facets of human development until I read Emeagwali’s speech. Is anyone still wondering why in spite of the enormous income we have earned and still continue to earn from the sale of crude oil, Nigerians still remain desperately poor and the economy stagnated? It is because the intellectual capital that pulls the levers of development is non existent. I chuckle whenever those in the corridors of power make the bogus claim that Nigeria is marching sure-footedly on the canvass of development and economic prosperity. Of course, they would always point at the “huge” foreign reserve as evidence of such economic turnaround. Emeagwali tells us that our foreign reserve is “just money” that can only finance imports. Where are the ideas, the intellectual capital that will drive the process of converting this money into wealth by producing “products and services,” that “will lead to the path of poverty alleviation?”  

Ironically, we are even making little or no contribution to the process that leads to the earning of the huge foreign reserve. We add no value to the crude oil, of which we are the sixth or seventh largest producer in the world and which is the major source of our income. Is it not appalling and inexcusable that the crude extracted from the bowels of our earth is refined in Europe and elsewhere and resold to us at what the president would gleefully call competitive international market price? Emeagwali asserts that the three poverty alleviation paths which most African countries are treading –gaining of debt relief, foreign assistance, and investments from Western nations – are all wrong headed. Unfortunately these are the core elements of Obasanjo’s reform policies.

The Future Belongs To Asia (1)

The Future Belongs To Asia (1)

10th October, 2006

Ikechukwu Amaechi, ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com

My sojourn to the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, Wales in the past one week has reinforced my belief that those who wish Nigeria well must ensure that the outcome of the 2007 elections reflects the true wishes of the Nigerian people. In other words, no-matter what it takes, the votes of Nigerians must be the sole determinant factor in deciding who succeeds Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria on May 29, 2007.

Of course, it goes without saying that the civil society, which has gone to sleep in the past seven and half years must also ensure that the electorate are not only mobilised but also given the necessary political education that will enable them make informed choices when the time comes. They must be told unequivocally that their vote is the key with which to unlock the padlock which nature in its inimitable ways uses to lock the future. Why do I say all these? I have come to appreciate much more poignantly that no nation develops by chance. Development is not by happenstance. It is the end product of carefully thought out processes and activities initiated by leaders who not only have vision but are also conscious of where they are leading their countries and the legacies they want to leave behind. The key to the development of any society lies with the quality of human capital available to such a society and any country that is desirous of joining the comity of developed nations on a sustainable basis must build human capacity through education. That is what the Asians are doing. And that is why the tomorrow of mankind belongs to them. I will come back to this shortly.

Suffice it to say that this vision of a better tomorrow and its fanatical pursuit is a function of leadership. Leadership is the answer to almost, if not all problems confronting us as a people. As the last seven years has proved beyond all doubt, leaders with tunnel vision will always cause more damage than good. President Olusegun Obasanjo may have had very noble intentions for the country. It may as well be that he still means well for Nigeria. But the fact remains that he lacks the 21st century leadership skills, the competence and expertise which ought to drive and give impetus to his good intentions for the benefit of Nigerians. I stand to be corrected.

But despite all protestations to the contrary by government officials, the average Nigerian is worse off today than he was seven years ago. The cost of living has risen astronomically and Nigerians are literarily eating from the dustbin. The energy crisis is escalating by the day, unemployment is on the increase and industries are closing down due to high cost of doing business. Security of lives and property is at its nadir and Nigeria today, more than at any other time typifies the classical Hobbessian state of nature where life is nasty, brutish and short.

Our reputation in the international community is not even better today than it was yesterday. No thanks to the dance of shame currently going on in Aso Rock. Now, some people will argue that our external reserves is at an all-time high of almost $45 billion, a fact which guarantees that we can finance our imports. Some others would also harp on the point that we are no longer a debtor-nation. While these are achievements that cannot be denied this government, there is the need to point out that accumulating foreign reserves in the manner we have done is not the work of genius.

Nigeria, just like every other oil producing country has had it so good in recent years with the rising price of crude oil. But like I said earlier, I have learnt not to blame President Obasanjo for these failings. They are beyond him. But the tragic error of predicating such a critical decision of who leads a post-Sani Abacha Nigeria on the whims and caprices of the trio of Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Aliyu Gusau must be an eternal lesson of how not to pick a country’s leader. That also goes for the vexatious notion of “the man the North can trust.” Now, the so-called North has found out to its utter chagrin the futility of reducing leadership of a country to such inane consideration. Again, they have come to the rude awareness that good leadership goes beyond such primordial and self-centred sentiments because if a country is mismanaged, it affects not only those who distrust the leader but even those that trust him. But if we can forgive ourselves that the circumstances that threw up Obasanjo in 1999 did not create the room for us to actually make the strategic input we ought to have made, we cannot plead such alibi in 2007. And this is why I strongly believe that the likes of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Muhammadu Buhari, Gusau, etc who are presently masquerading as presidential aspirants should jettison their ambition and align with the critical mass of the Nigerian people to elect a president who would jumpstart Nigeria’s rise to socio-economic and political eminence. If they fail to do so on their own volition, they should be humiliated at the polls.

Nigerians should make a resounding statement with their votes that never again will men with tunnel vision be allowed to impose their unwholesome will on the rest of us. Many Nigerians may not have realised this but the fact remains that in spite of the orchestrated war of attrition threatening to tear the ruling elite particularly those in the PDP apart, they are essentially the same in character and they hold the rest of us in contempt. They don’t care a hoot about the masses of our people. The only things they think about are money and power and who they steal it from makes no difference to them.

Never in our 46-year history as an independent country have so few taken so much from so many for so long. And that explains my amazement at all the people who just can’t seem to see through the web of deceit pervading our entire political landscape and therefore pick up cudgels at the drop of a hat to clobber to death anyone who dares challenge Obasanjo to come to equity in his so-called fight against corruption with clean hands.

To some people, such innocuous suggestion, which in any case, any sincere leader who is serious about fighting corruption should not wait to be reminded, is a pointer that somebody is defending one against the other in the titanic Aso Rock war. Of course, nothing can be farther from the truth.  

Christmas: Buy more, pay less

 Christmas: Buy more, pay less Prices tumble as retail shops sharpen their competitive edges                                                               Ikechukwu Amaechi “For all your Christmas wishes, Argos it,” is the catchphrase on the cover of the glossy catalogue of Argos, a retail shop at the City Centre,
Cardiff. The catalogue, tagged the “ultimate gift guide,” and which showcases over 2000 gift products, is one of the promotional tools it is using to entice customers.  But
Argos is not alone in this fight for more customers, which Maria Picot, sales assistant, calls “seasonal business warfare.” Many retail shops in
Cardiff are using various sales gimmicks to attract more customers this season.   Christmas is a time of the year mostly marked by conviviality and increase in shopping activities; a period when people buy and give sundry gift items.  Paradoxically, as the tempo of shopping activities begins to gather momentum, prices are plummeting because of remarkable reduction in product prices by most retail shops in
Cardiff. At the
Argos, customers now pay less 20 percent of the catalogue price for most products. In some cases, the price slash is as high as 50 percent. For instance, Philips Coolskin shaver that sold for £148.99 in September currently costs $74.49 and anyone who buys Kodak 7MP digital camera automatically saves £100, the price having been reduced from £229.99 to £129.99. Commenting on this phenomenon, Tony Daniels, a market analyst based in
Cardiff argues that slashing prices at a period of increased shopping activities shows how badly retail shops are faring. “The fact is that they have been losing customers lately as more people embrace unconventional ways of shopping through the internet.”  But Picot disagrees. “It is all about competition,” she says, while explaining the sales promotion gimmicks. “What we are doing is basically to get more customers in and other shops are doing the same. Many have reduced the prices of their products by at least 10 percent.” Besides the slash in prices,
Argos is also giving out £5 and £10 free gift cards for every £50 and £100 worth of purchase.  At Clothing Profile, another retail shop less than a pole from
Argos, all old stocks are now sold at half price and 10 percent is slashed off prices of new ones.  “What we are doing now is clearance sales and the idea is to sell off our old stocks and get ready for the New Year,” says James Seagrin, a sales assistant. “Since November 1 when we started, our sales have increased remarkably. We now have more customers, attracted obviously by the low prices.”  As the business managers continue to strategise on how to make the most sales this season, customers are having more than the full worth of their money’s value for every purchase they make. Mr James Appiah, a
Cardiff
University student who bought a George Foreman grill at half the previous in-store price from
Argos on Saturday, says the competition is healthy. “It is good for everybody. While they are sharpening their competitive edges, luring more customers and making bigger sales, we are buying more and paying less.”                                                                                                                           497 words