General Muhammadu Buhari

2007: Again, We Have Lost It 

Many a time, you would hear some Nigerians, those who claim to wear epaulettes of patriotism, take umbrage at some others who genuinely agonise over the country’s inability to make any appreciable progress on the democratic front. To them, it is nonsensical to expect Nigeria to be up and running democratically because the country itself is only but a tot, yet to be weaned on the tenets of democracy.

It does not bother such people that Nigeria is 46. If you dare cite example with an event in the US, they will pillory you, arguing that America became independent in late 18^th century and has practised democracy for over two centuries.  But those who use age to rationalise our insalubrious political conduct forget that in the same western hemisphere, there is also a country called Haiti, the world’s first black-led republic which became independent in 1804; the first Caribbean state to achieve independence. Today, Haiti remains the poorest nation in the Americas without a scintilla of democratic culture.  

Again, our self-acclaimed patriots would situate Haiti’s difficulties in its tortuous history. They forget that until 1775 when war broke out between the British and the American colonists, leading to the 1776 declaration of independence by the colonists and eventual recognition of US independence by
Britain in 1783, the former was a colony of the latter.  Right here in Africa, Liberia which was founded in 1821 as a haven for freed American slaves became independent in 1847 and adopted a US-style constitution. It was never an official US colony or a colony of any other country. Yet, until last year, Liberia remained a hell on earth, while Ghana, a country poised to celebrate her golden jubilee this year has become an exemplar of a thriving democratic country. I have given these examples just to buttress the point that age has little or nothing to do with a country’s ability to grapple with the intricacies of democracy. What counts is the sincerity of purpose and vision of the leadership. The people on the other hand must be eternally vigilant. Therefore, that Nigeria is being nourished on an exiguous democratic diet has less to do with the fact that it got its independence from Britain 46 years ago. But it has everything to do with the treachery and perfidy of leadership, and the docility of the followers. Democracy is a game of benchmarks. There must be minimum levels of expectations by us, from those who aspire to rule. Positions of leadership should not be an all-comers affair. A man who aspires to lead must evince certain qualities. And the people must imbue in the process of leadership selection a certain level of authority. The process of selecting the leaders of a country should be a very serious one. It should not be reduced to a circus. That is what makes the difference between America and Haiti, Ghana and Liberia, Benin Republic and Nigeria; countries with discernible democratic ethos and those that have repudiated same

This difference explains why, almost two years to America’s presidential election, the entire country has become electrified by the mere act of aspirants taking the putative steps of setting up exploratory committees, which is no more than the declaration of their intention to explore further their intention of aspiring for America’s presidency in 2008.

In the US, both the aspirants and the citizenry know what the issues are. They appreciate the problems facing America. They are desirous of solving those problems and that will form the kernel of the campaigns from the primary to the general election. The candidates must, in very explicit manner, tell the people where they stand on those issues and what answers they would bring to bear on the myriad of problems confronting America today.

The debate has started in earnest. The people are scrutinising rigorously not only the private lives of those who have taken the tentative step of making their aspirations known, they are querying their antecedents. Thus Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York senator who voted, authorising George Bush to wage what Chinua Achebe would call a ‘war of blame’ in Iraq but who in recent times is chanting the anti-war mantra is being asked to explain the difference between ‘authorisation’ and ‘declaration’ of war.

Two years before the election and only with her declaration of intention, Americans are reminding her of the scandals that buffeted the administrations of her husband in which she was very visible and played roles far weightier than those of a first lady, right from the little state of Arkansas to the White House. But here in Nigeria, two months to the general election, those who call themselves frontrunners are unable to articulate the reason why they want to be president. Yet, the issues are straightforward. It is self-evident that Nigeria is in a deep hole. Forty-six years after independence, Nigeria’s socio-economic status remains dire. The country occupies the unenviable status as one of the 20 counties in the world with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) in the ranking of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Standard of living is one of the lowest in the world; same as life expectancy. The country’s infrastructural backbone has broken down completely and corruption remains rife. Security of lives and properly has become a mirage, while unemployment has hit the roof. Per capita income embarrassingly remains one of the lowest in the world. A low intensity war is being waged in the creeks by Niger Delta militants against the Nigerian state. So, the least the candidates are expected to do by now is to come up with unambiguous, well thought-out policies that would address these problems and by so doing signal the beginning of the long and difficult climb out of the very deep hole our leaders have dug.

But what have we seen so far? The candidates are saying it is too much of an expectation. PDP presidential candidate wants our votes because he supports the present administration’s reforms programme. Whatever it is! Most of those in the opposition want our votes because they are opposed to the programme. Why? We don’t know. None of them seems to have an original idea how to pull
Nigeria out of this hole. And you would expect the people to be scandalised. No! They have constituted themselves into an orchestra, clapping and cheering, obviously beside themselves with joy.

Thus, on Wednesday, January 25, Umaru Yara’Adua, PDP flag bearer was in Anambra to meet with the people. At the palace of the traditional ruler of Awka, Obi Gibson Nwosu, he told Anambrarians why he wants to be their president. Hear him: “My party and myself, we are seeking to reunite because our party and our president are doing great reforms that seek to transform completely our great nation so that we join other developed nations of the world to become a developed industrial nation and we are going to make sure that we leave in peace under democratic rule, in harmony with one another, in prosperity. This is the vision of our president and the Peoples Democratic Party and this is what is going to be my vision and those of my colleagues when we form the government in May 2007 by the grace of God.” How inane can a speech be?

 Then on Saturday, the party formally flagged off its campaign at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. Again, hear Yara’Adua: “We will do everything within our power to realise the PDP dream. We are sincere, honest and determined to ensure that Nigeria achieves greatness. On this, there is no going back. I want to call on all Nigerians wherever they are to choose the path of PDP, to choose the path of greatness, to choose the path of progress.”  

But this rather vacuous speech begs obvious questions. What is this so-called PDP dream that Yara’Adua wants to realise and for which he wants Nigerians to elect him president? What steps will he take to realise this dream assuming there is a dream? Why must Nigerians buy into this dream? The implication is that either the man hasn’t any idea what he wants to do to turn around the damning fortunes of the country or lacks the ability to articulate these ideas and communicate same in an intelligible manner to the people, or both. Sincerity and honesty of a leader, important as they are, do not on their own necessarily guaranty a nation’s greatness. Such virtues can only compliment the vision of the leader. A leader must have an idea of what the problems of his country are, what the people want and what is expected of him and articulate distinct, comprehensible, coherent and lucid policies to tackle those problems so as to meet the people’s expectations. If Yara’Adua has any, he is yet to tell Nigerians what they are. It is not enough for a man aspiring for the highest office in a country, a man asking 140 million people to put their destiny in his hands to hide under the policies of his party and say nothing of how he intends to pilot the affairs of the state. When the political chips are down, the president who is the Commander-in-Chief takes the decisions and not the party.   

But, he is not alone. Of the motley crowd that call themselves presidential candidates, only one or two have an idea of what the issues are and how to address them. Unfortunately, they are the very people that have been written off as not having what it takes to win elections in Nigeria.  The implication of all these is that again, we may have lost it. Many Nigerians had hoped that 2007 would present a very good opportunity for us to get it right. As the elections draw closer, that hope has become forlorn despite the flatulent boasts to the contrary in some quarters. We have an infinite capacity to prove our worst detractors right always. At every turn in the nation’s tortuous democratic peregrination, we keep making the same tragic mistakes that diminished us in the past. Even when we pretend to be making an effort at using our chequered history as a compass to navigate out of turbulent political storm, which the delicate art of nation building induces, such effort is at best perfunctory.                       

UN Job: Did Obasanjo Block Okonjo-Iweala? 

A Vietnamese friend drew my attention to the story last week. A politically discerning lady and a journalist with over ten years experience, we struck a relationship in our very first week in
Cardiff. Since then, discussion of international politics has become our pastime.

 

When the new UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon indicated his intention to appoint a woman from one of the developing countries, preferably Africa, as his deputy and the name of
Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala started buzzing in diplomatic circles, she sought to know who the woman is. I told her that she was our immediate past Finance and Foreign Affairs Minister, a Harvard-trained economist and former senior staff of the World Bank.

 

I assured her that if Okonjo-Iweala’s name had been mentioned, then the job may well be hers. “Is she that good?” she asked. “Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “Ngozi is a genius. A damn hard worker and very intelligent woman, she turned around the macro-economic policies of the government and
Nigeria is the better for it. She is one of the best Finance Ministers any country could have,” I said, despite my reservations over some of the policies she foisted on the country all in the name of reforms.

 

You can then imagine my embarrassment when, last Wednesday, the lady confronted me with the question of why
Nigeria’s president blocked Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment at the UN. I dismissed the allegation immediately telling her that the Secretary-General for reasons best known to him preferred the Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha-Rose Migiro to Ngozi and that the decision had nothing to do with the president of my country. She insisted that Ki-moon preferred Okonjo-Iweala but went for the Tanzanian because President Obasanjo could not give the requisite endorsement. Seeing my incredulity, she referred me to the story published by an Australian newspaper on the internet which Thisday newspaper eventually published last Friday. 

I am inclined to believing Mrs. Remi Oyo, the President’s media aide who dismissed the report as nothing but a tissue of lie. It would be unimaginable to believe otherwise; that a country’s president, out of spite, would prevent a citizen from bringing home the honour and rare privilege of being the world’s number two civil servant.

 

 Unfortunately, Obasanjo’s reputation for vindictiveness would make many believe the worst of him. The former minister bruised his huge, imperial sense-of-self by literarily walking out on him when she resigned. For a man so used to not only seeing ministers fidget before him but also fawn and massage his ego, Okonjo-Iweala’s audacity may have been recorded as a crime that must be punished.

 

It will be disastrous if the president saw her UN job bid as pay back time, an opportunity to extract his vengeful pound of flesh as it is being insinuated in diplomatic circles. Like I said earlier, it is unthinkable that any president would deny his country such an opportunity even if his worst enemy were to be the primary beneficiary. But with President Olusegun Obasanjo, no act, no matter how unseemly is unbecoming. Therefore, it is not enough that he has denied the allegation; the National Assembly should through its Foreign Affairs committees investigate the circumstances that led to Okonjo-Iweala’s failure at the UN. And if it is true that the president had any hand in it, then he has crossed the Rubicon and must be sanctioned.             

 

      

 

Peter Obi

‘Lawmakers’ As Thugs 

By Ikechukwu Amaechiikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.comhttp://www.amadikwa.wordpress.com  

Once again, the political mood in the beleaguered state of Anambra is febrile. It hasn’t been any better since 1999 though. But last week, the vile characters who call themselves lawmakers in the state House of Assembly raised the din of the contrived political crisis a notch higher. And by so doing, they finally left no one in doubt that they are nothing other than ruffians. And Anambrarians must be highly mortified that these pig-ignorant people claim to be making laws on their behalf for the good governance of the state.

 

But for how long will the people allow this impunity and brazen arrogance of power to go unchallenged, given that the reprehensible conduct of a few, continues to make the state and its indigenes plumb the depths of ignominy, almost in perpetuity?

 

Last Friday, the Mike Balonwu-led faction of the House proved beyond doubt that decorum and even legality are beyond their ken. That was the day they proved themselves to be no more than political thugs. To show how unruly they are and their scant regard for civilised conduct, the pro-impeachment lawmakers physically went to the Anambra State Government House to stop the governor from performing her constitutional duties.

 

The drama started on Wednesday. The National Judicial Council (NJC) wrote the

Anambra
State governor reaffirming the suspension of the disgraced Chief Judge, Chuka Okoli, and urged her to appoint an acting Chief Judge in his stead.

 

Justice Okoli was axed over his blameful role in the illegal impeachment of the de facto and de jure governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi. He was not alone. The same punishment was meted out to his counterparts in other states that had similar cases. In fact, the Chief Judge of

Plateau
State who was equally suspended has since been replaced. It is a measure of the inexorable descent of Anambra into the chasm of hooliganism that while the other Chief Judges took their fate calmly, Okoli, goaded by his godfathers, challenged the NJC to a brawl.

 

Even when the NJC bared its fangs and declared him a persona-non-grata, the lawmakers thought they could save the job of their lickspittle Chief Judge, thus setting the stage for last Friday’s show of shame. They pooh-poohed the Council, claiming it usurped the powers of the state legislature by suspending Okoli. Having thus pontificated, they ordered him to ignore the suspension.

 

But this time around, they didn’t reckon with the determination of Governor Virgy Etiaba to get it right, even if this once, in a state blighted by political banditry. When they realised their game of deceit was up, they resorted to filibustering.  On Friday morning, they rushed out a resolution urging the governor and the Judicial Service Commission to retire Justice Umegbolu Nri-Ezedi, the man who by virtue of his being next in hierarchy to Okoli, should be the acting Chief Judge, “without further delay.”

 

Is it not laughable that this bunch of lawbreakers only realised that Justice Nri-Ezedi was 72 years and therefore should have retired from service, on the day he was to be sworn in as acting Chief Judge? Yet, despite their claim of having the evidence to prove their allegation, they could not even avail themselves with the document at their sitting. How could a people who hold such lofty office descend so low as to resorting to barefaced lies?

 

The resolution, no doubt was a shot across the bow to Etiaba. But unfortunately for them, it didn’t cut an ice with her. Desperate characters that they are, they resorted to thuggery, invading, literarily speaking, the executive council chambers where guests and top government functionaries were already seated to witness the swearing-in and stalling the event for six hours. They only lifted their siege when Etiaba left for

Abia
State. But they were beaten to their own game as the governor came back and hurriedly swore in the acting Chief Judge.

 

The action of the lawmakers which in every sense material is tantamount to taking the governor hostage and preventing her from carrying out her constitutional responsibilities poignantly illustrates how low they are prepared to descend not only in pursuit of their self-centred and lucre-induced agenda but also inordinate quest for power without responsibility. It equally shows how far off we all are, eight years after, from enthroning sustainable democratic culture.

 

Granted, Section 271, sub-section (1) of the 1999 Constitution confers on the House the powers to confirm the appointment of a Chief Judge as made by the governor on the recommendation of the NJC, yet, sub-section (4) states unequivocally: “If the office of Chief Judge of a state is vacant or if the person holding the office is for any reason unable to perform the functions of the office, then until a person has been appointed to and has assumed the functions of that office, or until the person holding the office has resumed those functions, the governor of the state shall appoint the most senior judge of the High Court to perform those functions.” By heeding the advice of the NJC, Etiaba acted within the powers of her office. So, why the puerile flexing of political muscles as exhibited by the lawmakers?

 

This latest act of impunity should raise a number of questions in the minds of Anambrarians as the general election approaches. Why would Balonwu and his co-travellers on the boulevard of infamy physically attempt stopping the governor from carrying out her lawful duties? Is it part of their lawmaking responsibilities? What manner of desperation would inform such ignoble conduct? What is in this desperation for the people who they claim to represent?

 

While it would be uncharitable to single out Anambra for chastisement since what is happening in the state is only but a reflection of the burgeoning national culture of lawlessness, scant regard for rule of law and utter contempt for judicial pronouncements, which are the unenviable legacies of the impetuous Obasanjo presidency, Anambra’s case is peculiar. The inexplicable docility of the majority in the face of insulting impudence of a tiny minority is what stokes the smouldering embers of political gangsterism in the state.  Sooner than later, Anambrarians will realise that they won’t have the luxury of blaming Obasanjo for their political woes in perpetuity. Those who have made the state the butt of all national jokes are known. It is true that Obasanjo, their godfather remains the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces until after the elections and may not have any qualms manipulating the polls in their favour.

 

But they can only succeed if the people acquiesce. That is why the April elections should matter to every Anambrarian, as indeed every Nigerian.

Kano
State performed the feat in 2003. Anambra could, and in fact should, do same in 2007.

In Praise Of President Olusegun Obasanjo 

By 1kechukwu Amaechi ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com, http://www.amadikwa.wordpress.com  

They came from all parts of Igboland, some in crutches, others in wheel chairs; most, if not all, of them wizened. But even in their perceptible frailties, it was easy to notice the unmistakable glint in their eyes.

These are men who finally kissed hope goodbye 37 years ago. Victims of a fratricidal war, the declaration and prosecution of which they had no control over, they became, to borrow a cliché, sacrificial lambs at the end of the bloody strife; punished for “crimes” if any, they share only vicarious liability. They are part of the 1033 former police officers from the five Southeast states of Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Anambra who had converged at the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to receive cheques for their pension in fulfilment of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s promise six years ago.

Their sad story started almost four decades ago when the General Yakubu Gowon-led Federal Military Government dismissed “Biafran officers” from the Nigerian Police through Decree 46 of August 15, 1970. Their offence? They found themselves on the wrong side of the war. Truth be told, many of these officers had little or no say in the fate that befell them, being as it were, victims of a grim circumstance way beyond their control. Some may not even have believed in the philosophy that gave impetus to the war, whatever its merits were at the material time.

The termination of their appointments was part of a two-legged scotched earth policy aimed at crippling “Biafrans” financially; a plot hatched and clinically executed by the same people who saw starvation as a legitimate weapon of war and enforced a regime of food blockade against the East while the war lasted.

The first leg was the policy which reduced the wealth of every Igbo, no-matter how rich to only £20 after the war, thereby brazenly and unconscionably appropriating the riches of a people whose financial standing had already been dealt a devastating blow by the war. Sacking South easterners, who survived the hostilities with no homes, no money and no businesses to fall back on, from their places of work, was the final attempt to escalate their financial misery. And, come to think of it, these policies came on the heels of the 1971 Indigenous Enterprises Promotion Decree.

President Obasanjo promised to correct this long standing injustice in May 2000, during the first anniversary of his administration. To start with, he converted their dismissal to retirement and announced that the Federal Government would pay their entitlements in full. In July 2006, he approved the release of about N75 billion for the payment of outstanding arrears of pensions, including those of Biafran policemen, thereby putting some spine behind his words. In February last year, the government issued the policemen with retirement letters through the Police Pensions Board, which qualified them for pensions.

The gathering of these old men, brazenly purloined for years by the Nigerian state, at the Enugu Campus of the UNN, was to collect their cheques. Those from Cross River, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Delta, which at the time constituted the now defunct Eastern Region, converged in Port Harcourt for the same purpose. While those who are still alive were issued cheques in their own names, those who have died would have their cheques issued in the names of their next-of-kin. And most importantly, this is only the first phase of the exercise, which has been declared a continuous one.

Coming from Obasanjo whose heart, many would swear, does not overflow with the milk of kindness, and whose policies in government lack human face, this act which is an exemplar in magnanimity, is indeed a tectonic shift in policy and a loud disclaimer to the pretence of sundry regimes, military and civilian, that have held sway in the country since the end of the civil war. While the fulsome praises heaped on him by Mr. Charles Machie national chairman, Association of Retired War Affected Police Officers (AWAPO), may sound rather hyperbolic, this rare act of magnanimity should be commended by all and sundry. At the end of the day, the money is not the issue and some of the beneficiaries could as well do without it but the symbolism of the act matters.

There is no arguing the fact that in seeing through this six-year promise, the president has exhibited tremendous political will, knowing that some forces bent on perpetuating the injustices of the civil war would rather prefer that the status quo remained. These reactionary forces have ensured in 37 years and through seven regimes including the Murtala/Obasanjo government of the late 1970s that issues such as the benefits of former Nigerian officers trapped in the Biafran enclave during the war remained taboo.

Even when AWAPO, the umbrella organisation for the retired officers formally petitioned General Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998, as the then military head of state, over their plight, he conveniently ignored them.

Yet, General Gowon had not only declared at the end of the war in January 1970 that there was “no victor, no vanquished,” but also embarked on the project of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation. Is it not disingenuous that the same regime embarked on an orchestrated campaign of persecution, as evidenced in the sack of the police officers? How could someone claim to be rehabilitating a people, and yet formulate policies aimed at persecuting them?

Will this gesture by President Obasanjo in the twilight of his eight-year administration bring a permanent closure to issues of marginalisation, if not outright persecution of South easterners in Nigeria? No! But it is a significant step. What the president has proved with this singular act is that with political will, issues that tend to constantly remind us of our bitter past and fuel separatist sentiments can be confronted frontally and dealt with appropriately.

Unfortunately, such issues still abound. That the Igbo are being made to pay a heavy price for having the guts to challenge the injustices that have become even more manifest in today’s Nigeria at the time they did is evident for all to see. Till date, the infrastructures in the Southeast, particularly the roads, which the war destroyed, remain in scandalous state. Construction of a second bridge across River Niger, as socially, economically and politically imperative as it is, remains sacrificed on the alter of post-war prejudice. The glass-ceiling placed on the career of military officers of Igbo extraction remains 37 years after the war and the constant pacification of Igbo towns and villages in the name of fighting an unarmed group – Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) – has become a pastime.

The latest wrinkle is the result of the 2006 population census, already endorsed by the National Council of State, which effectively made the Igbo one of the least populated ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. In a country where population is solely used for the sharing of national wealth rather than planning and developmental purposes, it goes without saying that the result has dire consequences for the Igbo nation.

But sometimes, the Igbo have themselves to blame for their woes in Nigeria by their inexplicable naivety.  It is instructive that while the Yoruba that were allocated the second highest number are vehemently protesting the result of the census, there is no whimper from the Southeast. Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State publicly repudiated the census figures but the five Southeast governors who are members of the Council of State endorsed them with relish. Yet, at 13.72 million, the population of Kano (9.38 million) and Jigawa (4.34 million), two North western states that used to be one, almost equals the population of the entire Southeast put at 16.4 million. This same census figures has been rejected by the Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo-led Yoruba Council of Elders as “totally unacceptable.” What is Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s position on this matter that has grave consequences for the people it purports to lead? Your guess is good as mine.

While the country’s leaders over the years have found it convenient to play the ostrich with the very important project of national reconciliation by failing to enthrone equity in the conduct of national affairs, the issues that gave birth to Biafra continue to fester. In fact, they are at the core of the insurgency in the Niger Delta which is threatening the very foundation of the Nigerian state.

Nigerian leaders have over the years totally gone off the deep end with nobody to call them to sanity. Many of them would bristle at the mere mention of this fact, but it goes without saying that for so long, we have been ruled by men without character and vision. But as we move towards the elections, part of the responsibility of the electorate is to make hay out of the process by identifying and electing those leaders who will have the courage of their conviction to enthrone justice and equity in the land by ensuring a permanent closure to those ever-present wrinkles, which seek to divide rather than unite us as a people, like Obasanjo has done with this rather uncharacteristic show of generosity of spirit.

  Magazines in the blogosphere world 

In the past decade, personal publishing has dramatically changed the way journalism is practiced, thus raising question on the future of magazines in an era of digital revolution. 

The pictures were as grisly as they were enthralling. Moments after the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006, the graphic details were in the public domain. Interestingly, the ‘New Media’ beat the ‘Mainstream Media’ to what arguably was the biggest story of 2006. 

Just like in the September 7, 2005 terrorist attack in
London when eyewitness camera phone photos became a major part in the media’s coverage of the bombings, an amateur video shot using a camera phone was the major source of news on Saddam’s execution. The amateur video containing low-quality footage of the entire hanging was also notable for the fact that, unlike the official footage, it included sound: witnesses could be heard taunting Saddam.[1] 

With increasing number of young people, those Rupert Murdock, a media mogul, calls “digital natives” pitching their news tent in the blogosphere world, questions have arisen as to the future of magazines.  

Ever since Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist at the Cern particle physics laboratory in
Switzerland, invented the World Wide Web in 1989, journalism has undergone radical transformation. At the heart of this change is the unconventional media or what Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News, calls the “We Media.” The blog, a digital newswire, facilitated by the proliferation of the internet, low production and distribution costs, ease of use and really simple syndication (RSS), is the engine that drives this new and powerful push-pull publishing concept.[2] 

In the past decade since this phenomenon gained currency, the question has been consistently asked; why blogging?  The attraction of personal publishing lies in its ability to change the power structures in journalism, giving yesterday’s readers the option of being today’s journalists and tomorrow’s preferred news aggregators.[3] Teenage kids, Murdoch noted in a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, on April 13, 2005, “Want news on demand, continuously updated. They want a point of view about not just what happened, but why it happened…they want to be able to use the information in a larger community.”[4]   

Blogging merges this democratisation of the media with speed of news delivery. “The central virtue of blogging, I’ve decided, is that in the proverbial agora, or online marketplace of ideas, bloggers are like Socrates on speed,”[5] writes Chris Mooney, the 2005 winner of the Scientific America’s Science and Technology Web award. The result is that today blogs number well over 30 million worldwide, promoted by the often-free blogging service providers like Blogger and WordPress. An estimated 75,000 new blogs are created everyday, an average of one new blog a second.[6]  

Unarguably, the “We Media” comes with enormous capabilities which seem to give it an edge over the mainstream media, particularly the print version. The blogosphere, “can do lots of things better than we can currently do – including fragmentation and connectivity and community. It is wonderfully enabling, intoxicatingly democratic and exhilaratingly anarchic,” says Alan Rusbridger.[7] Traditional printing compared to personal publishing remains an expensive process. As Shel
Israel, author of the book Naked Conversations puts it: “In the information age, the newspaper has become a cumbersome and inefficient distribution mechanism. If you want fast delivery of news, paper is a stage coach competing with jet planes.”[8]   

Is personal publishing about to consign magazines to the garbage bin of history? Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson think so.  “The year is 2014, and people have access to a breadth and depth of information unimaginable in an earlier age. Everyone contributes in some way. Everyone takes part to create a living, breathing mediascape. However, the press, as you knew it, has ceased to exist. Twentieth century news organisations are an afterthought, a lonely remnant of a not too distant past,”[9] the two
California bloggers proclaim.  

But many industry pundits disagree. While acknowledging the challenges posed by blogosphere, the preponderant opinion is that strong symbiotic relationships have evolved between blogging and journalism, with the former acting as both a check on journalistic inaccuracy and source of opinion on which journalists increasingly rely.[10]  

Personal publishing carries its own baggage, which remain the strength of the print media. Unlike blogging, traditional print media is still the custodian of the core values of journalism – accuracy, objectivity, reliability and pursuit of truth. Consumers of journalism don’t seem to be in a hurry to sacrifice these values on the alter of speed. “There are snakes in this new media ‘Garden of Eden,” writes Patrick Baltatzis. “Rumours seem to have a natural habitat in the blog world, as well as ranting and personal opinions. The issues of trust and reliability are difficult.”[11]  

Realising however the challenges posed by the new era, magazines are changing the ways they had hitherto approached journalism. Not only have they gone online, establishing their own websites, many in a bid to cultivate new audiences have resorted to blogging some beats or sections that ordinarily would have run in print, thereby, using fewer resources and maximising the use of journalists. 

They do this by either encouraging their staff to blog or hiring the services of professional bloggers. Going online has also enabled them to streamline their operations, changing the way they write and edit stories and interacting more with the audience. Besides, in 2005, Bill Gates predicted that the Internet would attract $30 billion in advertising revenue annually within the next five years.[12] Realising that their traditional revenue sources are increasingly being eroded as advertising increasingly migrates to the internet, magazines have also gone online in order to put their hand in the online advertising pie. 

Where will all these ultimately leave magazines in the 21^st century? Only time will tell. But as Rusbridger, noted: “The newspaper of the future may or may not look like a newspaper – it could be printed on paper, on a screen or exist in electronic ink on a sheet of plastic. But it will behave like a newspaper.”[13] Ditto for magazines!                                                                                                                                                                                                               (981 words) Bibliography 

 

Baltatzis, P., Is Blogging Innovating Journalism? Innovation Journalism, Vol.3 No.4, May 29, 2006 

Bauder, D., Saddam execution images shown on TV, Web, International Business Times, January 2, 2007 http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070102/Saddam-web-tv-htm 

Hammersley, B., Media: New Media: Time to blog on, The Guardian, May 20, 2002 

Israel, S., Merging Newspapers and Blogshttp://redcouch.typepad.com, March 9, 2006  

Mooney, C., How blogging changed journalism – almosthttp://www.Post-Gazette.com, February 2, 2003 

Naughton, J., What’s the secret of blogging? It’s personal, Guardian Unlimited, July 23, 2006 

Paulman, K., Do you trust blogs? The Spokesman Review, March 9, 2006 http://www.spokesmanreview.com 

Rusbridger, A., Is it all over for bloggers?http://www.MediaGuardian.co.uk, June 12, 2006 

Silver, J., It’s the thought that counts, The Guardian, March 6 2006 

Sloan, R., and Thompson, M., Media: Its 2014 – We’re all journalists now, The Observer, June 26, 2005 

---

[1] International Business Times,  02-01-2007

[2]Innovation Journalism, Vol. 3 No. 4, 29-05-2006

[3] Ibid

[4] www.MediaGuardian.co.uk, 14-04-2005

[5] www.Post-Gazette.com, 02-02-2003

[6] Sunday Guardian, 03-07-2006

[7] www.MediaGuardian.co.uk, 12-06-2006

[8] http://redcouch.typad.com

[9] The Observer, 26-06-2005

[10] Guardian Unlimited, 23-07-2006

[11] Op. Cit.

[12] http://www.MediaGuardian.co.uk, 14-04-2005

[13] Op Cit

How Lawless Can A People Get? 

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

 

If I were President Olusegun Obasanjo, I would be nursing a very deep sense of unease now; I would be clearly worried over some of the emerging trends in the country.
Nigeria is gradually but inexorably becoming a very lawless state and this is frightening. If I were him, I would be concerned about my legacy, the type of society I would bequeath not only to this generation but those yet unborn. I am saying this because Nigeria under Obasanjo’s watch is gradually proving to be no better than a country like
Somalia. And anybody who thinks this is an exaggeration should simply pause and listen to some of the comments coming out of Ibadan, Oyo State capital in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement on the Governor Rasheed Ladoja impeachment case. 

I couldn’t believe it myself that some of these statements are being made in a country that lays claim to being governed by the rule of law. It doesn’t matter if the threats being made by Alao Akala and Lamidi Adedibu are nothing but empty braggadocio and grandstanding of people worsted in the court of law. That these threats are being made at all and openly with impunity is the issue. And in any case, why would Adedibu’s threats be taken lightly? Hasn’t the man a track record of delivering on his threats? 

No-matter the political battle Obasanjo claims to be fighting; no-matter the political score(s) he is striving to settle, the fact that he is allowing
Nigeria to slip into a lawless jungle is the most atrocious legacy any leader could aspire to leave behind. Not even General Sani Abacha, with all his malevolence descended to that level. Obasanjo is behaving as if there is no life after 2007. How short can human memory be? 

If a report in The Guardian newspaper of Friday, December 8 concerning Adedibu’s utterances shortly after the Supreme Court verdict is anything to go by, then there is every reason for all of us to be worried. According to the newspaper, Adedibu holding court at his ‘

Molete
Republic’ and surrounded by his hordes of thugs boasted that Governor Ladoja can never return to the Agodi Government House. Said he: “I have predicted what may happen and I said if the Supreme Court still confirms the declarative judgement, it is not helpful to Ladoja….Akala is not a party to the suit, so no order of the apex court is binding on him. Ladoja cannot come because the law is not on his side. The court must issue an order to the police and no such order has been made by the court. 

“It is not the court that installed Akala or Ladoja, it is the people and the wish of the people is that they don’t want Ladoja again and they put Akala there. So, how can the court upturn the wish of the people? Ladoja can never come to rule

Oyo
State. If he is still interested in becoming governor, let him go to another political party to test his popularity. As far as we are concerned, he cannot come back here to upstage Akala.” How cheeky can someone get?  

Imagine Adedidu, not only interpreting Supreme Court judgement but also literarily sitting in judgement over the Justices of Nigeria’s apex court, some of the best legal minds in the world, questioning their competence and authority. 

I know that some people will ask; why blame Obasanjo for statements made by Adedibu? I will resist the urge of saying that both are two sides of the same coin though that is indeed what they are. But the fact remains that Obasanjo is the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the man on whose table the bulk stops. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Moreover, Obasanjo has in the past seven and half years wielded absolute power in
Nigeria and does not fight shy of using same. So, if any individual or group of people are threatening the peace of the country or a part of if, it behoves the man whose responsibility it is to act to do so. Obasanjo has for long shirked from this sacred responsibility unless in situations where his very selfish and narrow political interests are at stake. 

The fact that the president welcomed the Supreme Court verdict and directed the police and other security agencies to immediately implement it does not distance him from Adedibu’s premeditated comments. If anything, it even makes his case worse. That Adedibu is making this audacious statement even after the president supposedly made an unequivocal commitment to the restoration of Ladoja to his position smacks of a sinister plot. In the first place, Adedibu is a faithful student of Obasanjo who has in the past shown unbelievable contempt for court judgements even those given by the Supreme Court as the
Lagos case typifies. 

So, the speed with which the presidency accepted this verdict is quite uncharacteristic. It can only be compared to the speed with which Obasanjo accepted the defeat of his third term project in the National Assembly. We are all living witnesses to what he has done since then over the same matter which he claimed was dead and buried. So could it be that while Obasanjo is making a public show of his acceptance of the Supreme Court ruling in the Ladoja case, he is at the same time prodding Adedibu to reject the verdict and precipitate a violent and bloody crisis so as to have the excuse to declare a state of emergency and deny Ladoja the fruits of his almost one-year legal battle? 

If that is not the new game plan, then Obasanjo must act fast to rein in Adedibu because his Molete declaration is a very serious challenge to the president’s authority. If the president of Nigeria is saying that the ruling of the highest court in the land must be obeyed without any delay and has in fact ordered his security chiefs to act immediately and an ordinary citizen is sitting down in the comforts of his living room to give counter orders, then the president should not only be worried, but should act fast to redeem the vanishing glory and prestige of his office. But why wouldn’t Adedibu disparage the judiciary when the president and federal government agencies including the EFCC are leading the dangerous campaign to discredit the judiciary?  

When Akala’s reaction to the judgement is thrown into the mix, then the augury becomes starker. My people have a saying that when a bird is dancing in the middle of the road, the drummer is always somewhere in the evil bush. While rejecting the November 1 judgement of the Court of Appeal, Akala said he would quit office if the Supreme Court nullifies Ladoja’s impeachment. Now that the Supreme Court has done just that, Akala has brazenly gone back on his words. 

Not only did he go on air through his SSG, Chief Olayiwola Olakojo to urge the people to disregard the Supreme Court judgement, he actually caused Olakojo and Diran Odeyemi, his media adviser to address a press conference pooh-poohing the judiciary and warning Ladoja of the futility of any attempt to reclaim his mandate. 

“Ladoja should not make that mistake. He dare not make such mistake. The Yoruba have a saying that there cannot be two kings in a town. Akala is still the governor of this state and not Ladoja and he will continue to be governor after 2007…. Ladoja has not been reinstated, he dare not come to the office to say that he wants to resume. We will not allow it,” Olakojo said. 

In every society governed by law, the judiciary is the last hope of the common man. The courts are sacred institutions and members of the Bench must be respected. Ridiculing the judiciary and making the pronouncements of law courts not worth more than the papers on which they are written is the first step to anarchy. 

Most worrisome is his concluding statement: “It is one thing for the court to give judgement; it is another thing to enforce it. So I urge you journalists not to publish that Ladoja has been reinstated as governor.” Even the state’s Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Mr Michael Lana had the effrontery to insult the Justices, calling their judgement “mere academic exercise” and “wild goose chase.” And instead of ordering the immediate arrest of these men, Obasanjo is busy meeting with Adedibu and Akala in Ota. Since I read these statements, I have not stopped wondering. It is only the president that can cause this judgement to be enforced since the police and other agents of state coercion are solely answerable to him. Could it be that the Adedibus of Oyo State know what many of us don’t know? Could such privileged information be the reason behind their swank?  I have a hunch that these agents of darkness are still up to some mischief in

Oyo
State. They are yet to play their joker. After all, was it not the PDP secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, who said while announcing the intention of his party last Friday to take a look at the judgement that: “In this business, it is not over until it is over.” Could that have been a Freudian slip? If a case is not over after the Supreme Court has given a ruling, when then will it be over? If the president refuses to call his Ibadan attack dogs to order and their utterances and actions lead to violence, then he should be held responsible for any life lost in the event of any crisis.  

But if he is the one goading them, my simple advice is that he should remember that history has a way of repeating itself. In 1993, rather than siding the cause of justice by supporting Chief MKO Abiola, winner of the June 12 presidential election, he signed a pact with evil, by helping to set up the illegal Ernest Shonekan-led interim government, all in a bid to spite his kinsman. For that act of transgression, he nearly paid with his life when the evil tree he helped to plant bore the iniquitous and malevolent fruit called Abacha. Sadly he is at it again.

2007 And The Illusion Of Free And Fair Polls 

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

President Olusegun Obasanjo has promised Nigerians and indeed the international community for the umpteenth time that his administration would ensure that a free and fair election is held in 2007. Apart from being
Nigeria’s president since May 29, 1999, he is presently the defacto – that is, to all intents and purposes and in reality – leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

But the president is not the only one who is staking his “huge reputation” on the freeness and fairness of the conduct of the forthcoming polls. Professor Maurice Iwu had told everybody who cared to listen that he would conduct a free and fair election that would make the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by late Chief MKO Abiola and annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida look like an exercise carried out by pupils in the kindergarten. Iwu is the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the electoral umpire. He would like to be remembered as the man who broke the jinx of elections in
Nigeria, thereby giving multiparty liberal democracy a chance to flourish. 

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has assured that the ultimate measure of his success in office would be the extent to which he ensures that evil and corrupt men are chased out of the corridors of power, never to come back again. He has sworn that the era of fraudulent men using their ill-gotten wealth to buy the votes of the hapless masses and wangle themselves to power is gone for good. Mallam Ribadu is the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He would like to be remembered as the man who put corruption on the leash and gave Nigerians a new lease of life.  

The success or otherwise of the 2007 elections depends to a very large extent on what the trio do with their good offices. I would believe also that they have every reason to ensure that the elections become huge success. If for nothing else, they would be engraving their names on stone as the men who did what was hitherto thought impossible in
Nigeria – superintending the conduct of free and fair elections. Interestingly, they have all vowed out of their own volition, without any prompting by the Nigerian people, to make the supreme sacrifice if need be so that
Nigeria will have a new beginning. 

Apart from the president, I have had a one-on-one with both Iwu and Ribadu and I came out each time with the impression that the axiomatic Daniel had come to judgement. They were passionate and convincing. They came across as men on a mission to reverse the ill-fortune of
Nigeria on matters of election. Both swore that it would no longer be “business as usual” in
Nigeria. I think it was Professor Iwu who coined the rather enticing phrase of “business unusual” in pointing out the way forward. 

To succeed in this noble mission of bequeathing Nigerians the legacy of free and fair elections that would ensure that the choices of the people as expressed through the ballot box not only remain sacrosanct but also that those with the mandate of the people actually take over the reins of power from those currently holding it, the trio, through their good offices must individually and collectively ensure that the old ways of doing things are put on a leash. 

Unfortunately, six months to May 29, 2007, the day these men ought to look back with pride and thump their chest for a job well done and mission accomplished, things are changing for the worse. If nothing is done and urgently too to halt this drift, 2007 would go down in the annals of elections in
Nigeria as the worst. 

My reasons for this assertion are two-legged. First, INEC has bungled the most elementary of all the processes that culminate in a free and fair election, which is registration of voters. It is not enough to inveigle us with the idea of electronic registration of voters because at the end of the day, the bottom-line remains that Nigerians want to be registered so as to exercise their right of franchise. Whether the registration is done manually or electronically is not much of a concern to them.  As it is now, INEC has done such a poor job of what I consider its most fundamental task in the chain of activities that will ultimately lead to a free and fair election, effectively dispelling the illusion that it could grapple with the ultimate task. Not even Dr Abel Guobadia, Iwu’s predecessor in office could have fared so badly. 

Secondly, if the outcome of the two congresses so far held by the PDP for the purpose of nominating candidates for next year’s general elections is anything to go by, there is nothing to show that Ribadu can or indeed has the capacity to rein in and stop money bags whose sources of wealth are questionable from hijacking the process. Evil men are still in control. Money is still everything. The people still have no say in choosing who flies the flag of their party in the elections. Nothing has changed and rather than “business unusual,” it is still business as usual. The dramatis personae are even more brazen now and it is still the same old cabal at work and Ribadu knows them. 

Then we come to the PDP itself, the only party that has flagged off its congresses. Again, nothing has changed. What has happened so far is a replay of the 2003 primaries that culminated in what Obasanjo recently called the Ayo Fayose Mistake. The culture of imposition of candidates on the party is still rife. The essence of primary elections is to give party members the chance to elect those that would contest the general elections on the platform of the party. This is not a privilege but a right. But as expected, PDP, the self-acclaimed largest party in
Africa has denied its members this right. Instead, the people have been served a cocktail of brigandage, killings and maiming.  

In

Rivers
State where Dr Peter Odili was declared winner with almost 100 percent of the people casting their ballot for him in 2003 even before INEC officials came back from the creeks with the results of the true verdict of the people, at least eight Nigerians were reportedly killed. In almost all the states, there was violence. In

Anambra
State, the Chuma Nzeribes are still at work. Results of congresses are still being written inside the bedroom of the most violent and powerful of the politicians. The culture of manufacturing several lists of candidates and substituting the names of winners with those of losers even after the general elections have been held has rear its ugly head again. The ward congress produced parallel results’ sheets. In fact, the exercise in five states – Delta, Bayelsa, Benue, Imo and Cross River – were cancelled outright while four local governments each were cancelled in Lagos, Kogi, Kaduna and Oyo. Out there, it is a jungle where might is right and how “successful” one is as a politician is not only a direct reflection of how brutal and nasty he is but also his ability to do the unthinkable. 

Congresses by their very nature are not supposed to be complex exercises, but they signpost the democratic temperament of a political party. It would be the height of illusion to expect a political party that cannot guarantee its internal democracy to quietly hitch a ride on the national democratic coaster without precipitating an accident. 

As I write, almost 20 people have collected PDP presidential nomination form. As the congresses progress to culminate in the national convention in December where the party will elect its presidential flag bearer, these manipulations would continue. The orgy of violence is bound to exacerbate; the killings would continue and the party members would have anything but the right to candidates of their choice. Yet, Obasanjo is telling those who care to listen that he is poised to give Nigerians a free and fair election in 2007. 

Now, through primaries, a party selects its best materials, which it would then present to the electorate during the general election for endorsement. Primaries afford the party the opportunity to put its best foot forward. A party that bungles its primaries can only expect to win the elections through fraud, which is what PDP has planned to do. 

It would be too much of an expectation; in fact, it would be foolhardy for anyone to hope that a political party that revels in rigging its own primaries would compete fairly with other political parties at the general elections. 

The most interesting thing though is that the president, INEC and EFCC chairmen, all of who have a role to play in straightening out the PDP bad boys are feigning ignorance of what is happening. Yet, they are promising a free and fair election in 2007. What an illusion.

Traffickers In Human Misery 

 Ikechukwu Amaechi 

My colleague and friend, Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye’s article, The Magnificent Poison House published on November 1, made an interesting reading as usual. Ever passionate, he brought his indubitable perspicuity to bear on an issue that should be of paramount concern to all.I am joining the debate today not necessary because of his open invitation to all of us to join him in waging his self-appointed moral crusade against the “unrepentant merchants of death,” meaning (tobacco companies) but to present certain facts at my disposal to enable the Nigerian government do the right thing. And the right thing to my mind is not to call for the total abolition of tobacco companies and their products, which in any case is not plausible since cigarette has not been classified as an illegal product or hard drug like cocaine. But the need for government to stringently control the activities of tobacco companies through legislation as it is the case in the West cannot be overemphasised.As part of my assessment in one of the first semester courses (Information Gathering and Analysis-1), I am expected to write an analytical feature on one of the
UK companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange. And guess what? My company is the British American Tobacco (BAT); the same company with the “magnificent poison house” along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which Ugochukwu wrote about.In the course of my extensive research on the company for the purpose of writing the article, I have stumbled on certain facts which to my mind will not only help in contextualising the debate but also help government to act appropriately. Here, I won’t bore you with the history of BAT. Suffice it to say that the company’s birth was the consequence of a 1902 joint venture agreement between the
United Kingdom’s Imperial Tobacco Company and the American Tobacco Company. The parent companies agreed not to trade in each other’s domestic territory and to assign trademarks, export businesses and overseas subsidiaries to the venture.BAT’s history ever since has been one of mergers, acquisition and de-mergers. Today, BAT with about 11 percent of the global market is the world’s second largest tobacco company, after Philip Morris which has 18 percent. Its international brands include Dunhill, Kent, State Express 555, Pall Mall, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant, Benson and Hedges, Winfield, John Player, Lucky Strike, Kool, and Viceroy, though BAT does not necessarily own the rights to all these brands in every nation they are marketed.At the same time, it owns local brands like Jockey Club in Argentina, Wills in India,
North
State in Finland, Courtleigh in South Africa, Xon in Uzbekistan, Yava Gold in
Russia, etc. Though BAT is based, and manufactures cigarettes in the
UK, it sells most of them abroad. In effect, it controls only six percent of the
UK market. Therefore, out of the 853 billion cigarettes which BAT reportedly sold worldwide in 2004 for instance, only a fraction was sold in the
UK.This fact explains the paradox of tobacco companies in recent times, which is also the challenge of third world countries including
Nigeria. In the last five years, BAT has increased its share price by 143 percent, despite increasing global restrictions on tobacco advertising. In January 2002, BAT shares were trading at £6.00 each. In five years, they have made a quantum leap, and are currently selling at £14.59. This is in spite of the fact that volume of its products continues to decline. In the 2006 third-quarter financial report which the company presented to the public on Thursday, October 26, operating profit rose eight percent to £2.1 billion. But at the same time, revenue slipped 1.7 percent to £2.44 billion. The slip in revenue was as a result of the decrease in the volume sold by its subsidiaries which fell 1.1 percent to 173.4 billion.Writing on the performance of BAT in the Daily Telegraph of Friday, October 27, 2006, Harry Wallop noted: “For a wheezing declining industry, cigarette manufacturing certainly has a knack of turning out decent figures.” And the question is; how could a company with diminishing volumes in the market be maximising shareholders’ value at the same time?BAT is doing well because the decrease in volume is not a global trend. While they are steadily losing their traditionally developed world markets in Europe due to increasing restrictions on tobacco advertising and anti-tobacco legislation, the tobacco companies are concentrating their energies in the third world market including
Nigeria where as usual, anything goes in the name of privatisation.In his third quarter report, Jan du Plessis, BAT chairman admitted that sales in
Western Europe fell because of higher taxes, prohibitions on advertising and smoking bans. The company sold 1.8 percent fewer cigarettes in
Europe in the first nine months of the year compared with the same quarter in 2005. The Lucky Strike brand suffered a four percent fall in volume for the quarter after poor sales in Germany and
Japan.On the contrary, sales and profit in
Africa’s tobacco market was on the upward swing. Let me crave your indulgence to quote du Plessis. “In
South Africa, despite the weaker average rand exchange rate, good profit growth was achieved as a result of higher margins. There was an improved product mix, as both Dunhill and Rothmans continued their strong growth, although market share was slightly down.“In
Nigeria, despite excise driven increases, market share grew. Higher prices, together with mix improvements and productivity gains, helped to deliver a higher profit.“In
Iran, volumes continued to grow and overall market share increased, resulting in higher profit. Profit in the Arabian Gulf markets rose as volumes increased, mainly driven by good results from Dunhill in
Saudi Arabia.”The paradox of increasing profit and share price in the face of shrinking volume is the outcome of strategic planning by BAT. Faced with a very hostile European market, the company has shifted attention to African countries where there are no laws to curtail their impunity and immoral market practices. Even where there are laws, they are observed more in the breach. European countries are daily tightening the noose on these merchants of death. But even at that, BAT had for so long found many imaginative ways to keep its brands in the public eye. It has particularly promoted its brands through the glamour of sports. In 1996, the company secured the sponsorship of the Cricket World Cup which was branded the “Wills World Cup”, thereby achieving a high level of brand recognition for the Wills cigarette brand in
India where young cricket fans were a key target market. Until recently, it had also used the glamour of motor sport – Formular 1 – to promote its Lucky Strike brand. In the
US, state governments are battling the tobacco companies with stringent legislation that are biting hard, while at the same time raising taxes on tobacco products. Recently, the state of California which accounts for about seven percent of total cigarette consumption in the
US initiated a legislation –Proposition 86 – which aims at quadrupling the excise tax on a pack of cigarettes to $3.47 from 87 cents. Three other states –Missouri, South Dakota and
Arizona – also had tobacco taxes on the ballot. These stringent legislations are aimed at promoting anti-smoking culture in countries that appreciate the dangers of cigarette to their citizenry. But besides governments, individuals whose lives have been ruined are also taking the battle to the tobacco companies globally. BAT for instance has been the subject of thousands of product liability cases for a number of years. Of course, these are countries where governments protect their citizens and individuals also know their rights and are always prepared to protect them using the law courts. In
Nigeria, these two cultures are lacking. As long as BAT pays huge taxes annually, which in any case are stolen by those in government, they could as well pour petrol on all Nigerians in the style of the general overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Dr. King and set them ablaze for all anybody cares. The government has nothing but absolute contempt for the welfare of the people and would always take sides with the multinationals against its own citizens as they are doing with the oil companies against the people of Niger Delta. It is not enough to ban outdoor advertising of tobacco products in
Nigeria, a ban which BAT ingeniously circumvents at will, there must be clear-cut legislation aimed at putting a leash on the activities of this company if our youth must be rescued from their evil clutches and saved from imminent catastrophe. If Europeans with all their advancement in medicine and well-equipped hospitals are still wary of the very harmful effects of tobacco consumption, what more Nigeria where available medical facilities are hardly adequate for the treatment of the most common of ailments.Again, anybody who has been lured into smoking with disastrous consequences can successfully sue BAT. These cases are won daily in Europe and America, why not
Nigeria? BAT should and could be held accountable for the death it is consciously hawking on the streets of
Nigeria, decimating our most productive population. Unless this will to hold them accountable is manifested, the company would continue with its nefarious trade – trafficking in human misery.

At Last, Nzeribe Is Complaining  

Ikechukwu Amaechi 

Sometime in 2003, shortly after the general elections, Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe, the man who had represented Orlu Senatorial zone since 1983, met with some journalists at the Airport Hotel Lagos. I was one of them. He had been re-elected for the fifth time as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

I can’t quite remember now why he invited us but he won the election despite his suspension from the Senate prior to the polls by the Chief Pius Anyim-lead leadership and he probably wanted to impress on us that he was the axiomatic political cat with nine lives. Nzeribe was at his hubristic best. He took a swipe at Pius Anyim, asking where those that rudely shut the Senate doors in his face were. Reminded that many people, including international observers who monitored the polls had decried the conduct, saying they woefully failed the test of credibility, he chuckled. “That is the antics of losers. To them elections will never be free and fair. But the fact that somebody is complaining that he was rigged out of an election is an admittance of failure. Have you ever heard me complain that I was rigged out? No! Because, I go out there and win my elections. That is how to measure success. I don’t come out of any electoral contest to lament that I was rigged out,” he boasted.

He told us many stories, including his sojourn in Ghana and relationship with the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah. But the story I found most telling was how on the night the military struck on December 31, 2003, he left his fellow senators whom he had invited to an all-night party in his hotel room at Federal Palace Hotel and headed for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, on his way out of the country. The senators were still frolicking when the soldiers rounded them up and herded them into various detention camps and the man who invited them and who most likely had a hint of the coup was safely outside Nigerian shores. That was quintessential Nzeribe.  After the parley, Nzeribe left immediately for the airport on his way to Abuja and I drove him in my car. I had told him at the parley how much I hated his politics and I had expected him to flare up. Surprisingly, he didn’t. Instead, he took my comment calmly, saying he was comfortable with my position. But he wanted to know my reasons. That informed his decision to ride with me to the airport. I used the very short time the journey lasted to see if I could understand Nzeribe better but I couldn’t. The man was simply inscrutable.  

True to his boast, since 1982 when he took Nigeria’s political centre-stage by storm, he had always “won” every election he contested. To him, all there was to politics was victory at the polls. How such victories come about is none of his worries. He believes in the Machiavellian doctrine of the end justifying the means. He had so much dominated the political landscape of Imo State that not a few have come to believe that the Orlu Senatorial seat was his for keeps.

All that changed dramatically on Sunday, December 3, 2006, when his 24-year political stranglehold on the hapless people of Orlu came to an end. And Nzeribe, the man who always goes out to win his elections no-matter the odds and does not wait to complain that he was out-rigged now holds the wrong end of the political stick. He lost.

And suddenly unmasked and striped of his hubris, the man is not only complaining to all who care to listen that he had been outsmarted, but has indeed petitioned the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) apparatchik in Abuja. For once in 24 years, he has been politically outsmarted. Perhaps, the only other time he had found himself in this unenviable political winter was when Anyim threw him out in the cold after he had assured Aso Rock that he was going to orchestrate the Senate President’s ouster like he did to Dr. Chuba Okadigbo.  

But if only he would pause and listen to the din of celebrations reverberating in the whole of Imo State, if not Nigeria, over his defeat by Hon. Osita Izunaso, member of the House of Representatives, a man young enough to be his son, he would appreciate the fact that in 24 years, he had become a political nuisance who the people would give anything to get off their back. And that is the tragedy of Nzeribe. Izunaso did not defeat him; rather the Ogbuagu Damanze of Oguta had defeated himself politically a long time ago and the people were waiting for the most opportune time to serve him his just desert. Therefore, even a dog would have conveniently handed him a resounding defeat without much ado. And for a man who held out some hope when he happened on the political scene in 1983 and won the senatorial election on the platform of the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), that is catastrophic.  Many non-Igbo have always wondered how a man like Nzeribe would be voted by any people to represent them in government. But truth be told, nobody elects Nzeribe, he elects himself on behalf of the people. Perhaps, the first and only time he campaigned, contested and won election in Nigeria was in 1983 when he teamed up with the likes of the legendary Sam Mbakwe of blessed memory to ensure that the “landslide” victory of the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which had already dislodged NPP in Anambra was given a short shrift in Imo. All the other victories he appropriated right from the ill-fated Babangida era till the 2003 election were by hook or crook.  

Nzeribe represents the ugliest face of Nigeria’s politics. His is not only a classic study in the arrogance of power; it is a study in the gross misuse of authority. You only need to look at his politics and appreciate why Nigeria is not making any progress democratically. Politics should be about the people. Power ought to be about service. Power that is acquired for its own sake, as an end in itself can never advance the cause of humanity. Unfortunately, for Nzeribe, power is an end, rather than a means to some ennobling goals in the service of humanity. For the 24 years, he had bestridden the political landscape; his people have been the worse for it. Never in the over two decades did Nzeribe draw the attention of the nation to any problems his people had. And to imagine that the problems of his people are legion. Many parts of the senatorial zone are ravaged by erosion. If they had a representative who cared a hoot about them, those places would have long been declared disaster areas.

In his 8,760 days as a senator, he neither added value to the lives of his people or the community itself. But if his 24 years was a disservice to Orlu people, it was a disaster for the Igbo race whose cause he had always betrayed and whose collective hopes and aspirations he had always sacrificed on the alter of his reactionary politics. It is difficult to fathom what drives Nzeribe and what informed the political decisions he took all these years. Perhaps, only himself would answer that question. If he were not reputed to be fabulously rich, one would have concluded that he was driven solely by the lure of filthy lucre. But one thing was certain. The ennobling values of altruism, self-sacrifice, philanthropy, compassion and benevolence, which are the hallmark of leadership, were anathema to him. 

If Nzeribe is a man given to introspection, as he enters his season of political winter, he would have had time to reflect on life generally and its essence. Unfortunately, his type are not given to soul-searching. But his ignominious fall will be an eternal lesson to all men of power.

No-matter how long it takes, a day of reckoning must come when every man shall give account of his stewardship. Nzeribe’s day came on December 3 and he was found grossly wanting. It is sad that what promised to be a brilliant political career has ended on such a terrible note with nothing good to be remembered for. But it is also consoling that while Nzeribe wasted everybody’s time for such a long period, he was also doing a great disservice to himself. A disservice for which he will for long be loathed and despised. Poetic justice you would say.

   Late Godwin Agbroko 

Who Killed Godwin Agbroko?   Ikechukwu Amaechi 

As you are reading this article, it will be four days since the brutal murder of Mr. Godwin Agbroko, veteran journalist and chairman, ThisDay Editorial Board. Having worked so hard for the day, Agbroko reportedly left his Apapa office for home on Friday, December 22 at about 10pm, to spend what remains of the day with his family. Christmas was just three days away and New Year, less than two weeks. Like most people, he had his plans for the remaining part of the year and 2007. But he never made it home. He was felled by assassins’ bullets at the Daleko fly-over, Iyana-Isolo. Within an hour after leaving office, the wife whom he must have called to tell he was on his way home became a widow and his five children, fatherless. The dinner that waited for him on the table would never be eaten. Too early in the day, you would say, to answer the all-important question; who committed this dastardly crime. But I dare make a prediction: Agbroko’s death would be reduced to an argument. In the weeks and months and years to come, the argument would come in different hues – he was killed by armed robbers; no, it was the fatal consequence of a private business relationship gone awry; no, the crime was committed by detractors from his village; no, it was committed by those who had a score to settle with his chairman, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, and trying so had to get at him without any luck, they went after Agbroko knowing that his death would hurt his organisation; no, his colleagues in the office who coveted his position organised the killing; no, he was the unfortunate victim of miscreants (Area Boys) that are lords of the Mushin-Isolo manor, etc, etc.  

Perhaps, by the time you are reading this article, police would have arrested some of his colleagues in the office. So much noise would be made at

Panti Street

office of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The Commissioner of Police in
Lagos would personally take over the matter. At some point, the Inspector General of Police Sunday Ehindero would abandon the Funsho Williams’ case to take charge of the investigation. In the coming days, there will be a flurry of activities in police circles which will all amount to nothing. Just like the title of the column which one of Agbroko’s children, Rounah maintained in ThisDay while she was still in the university; that is the way the cookie crumbles in
Nigeria.  

At the end of the day, Agbroko would become another footnote in
Nigeria’s criminal history just like Bola Ige, Marshal Harry, A.K Dikibo, Agbeyegbe, Funsho Williams, Ayodeji Daramola, Abubakar Rimi’s wife and a host of others before him and the many more that are sure to come after him. That is the tragedy of our time. The expectation of many on May 29, 1999 when General Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as the second executive president of
Nigeria was a future of political stability, economic prosperity and security of lives and property after the days of the locusts.  In answer to our prayers, God in His infinite mercy showered his economic blessings on the nation, providing the leadership the wherewithal with which to translate the expectation of the people into reality.  In eight years,
Nigeria earned more money from crude oil than it had earned at any other time in its 46-year history. Ironically, rather than having “life in abundance,” poverty, misery, wretchedness, gloom and death stalk the land, walking on all fours. 

According to ThisDay report which was quite sketchy on Saturday, a police source that pleaded anonymity insinuated that Agbroko was a victim of armed robbery. According to the “officer,” three policemen and two bystanders were also killed in the area at about the same time Agbroko was killed. The implication of this bit of information is that the same hoodlums who killed him also killed five other people and therefore, his could not have been a premeditated murder. I have a hunch that somebody is deliberately trying to sell a dummy to Nigerians. What is the motive of this “mass murderer” who would kill six people in a row including three policemen? Or was Agbroko a victim of armed robbery which has spiked in recent times? If he was, why didn’t they remove anything from his car? God’s greatest gift to mankind is the gift of life and the most fundamental of all rights is the right to life. That is why the primary responsibility of every government is to ensure that the lives and property of the citizenry are given maximum protection. Life is the fulcrum around which every other thing resolves. Without life, nothing else maters! In other words, the bitter pill that is the gross failure of the Obasanjo government would have been a lot easier to swallow if in spite of the abject poverty and misery that have become the lot of Nigerians in the past eight years, they were sure that baring any extra-ordinary circumstance, a man who leaves his house in the morning would return safely whenever he finishes with the business of the day. A situation where everyone has been forced by the incompetence of the government to believe that each day would be his last, and may in fact be, is the greatest harm Obasanjo has done to this country. 

Except during the 30-month fratricidal war, at no other time in
Nigeria’s history has life been this cheap. Time was when armed robbers would carry out their nefarious trade in the dead of the night, ensuring that their operation never lasted more than 30 minutes. Not anymore. These days, they would lay siege on a neighbourhood for hours on end, daring the police and even the army. The next day, police authorities would praise their men, painting a glowing picture of gallant officers who succeeded in chasing the hoodlums away after several hours of their successful operation without making any arrests. In the month of December alone, armed gangs wreaked havoc in different parts of Lagos and
Ibadan leaving in their trail sorrow, blood and death. Whenever a Nigerian is gruesomely murdered, the police would disingenuously weave in the theory of armed robbery into the plot. Last week, one of the personal aides of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Umar Pariya, was almost murdered in his
Abuja home. The
Abuja police, even without carrying out a preliminary investigation concluded shamelessly that it was a case of armed robbery as if that makes the crime less grievous and the mind-boggling irresponsibility of the Nigerian state less galling. 

Whether Agbroko was a victim of armed robbery or premeditated murder, the state remains culpable. There is every reason why a vicious and fascist state such as ours would want an influential voice such as Agbroko’s permanently silenced at a time like this. His searing criticism of the folly and shenanigans of the government through his column, This Nation, is enough incentive, given the temperament of this reactionary state. But it is even a bigger indictment if Agbroko was killed by armed robbers because whoever killed him and for whatever reason(s), it is a supreme irony that a man who survived the brutality of the Abacha junta would be so wantonly wasted in a democracy he helped fight the junta to enthrone. Some Nigerians who have embedded themselves in the cocoon of infantile patriotism would raise the point that violent crimes are not the exclusive preserve of
Nigeria and Nigerians. But that argument begs the issue because while it may be true that violent crimes are higher in Europe and
America, no crime goes unpunished in those climes. No matter how long it takes, the long arm of the law will catch up with the real culprits, not hapless people framed up over crimes committed by hoodlums under the protection of the state. 

The case of Chief Bola Ige, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice remains instructive. Five years after his gruesome murder in his bedroom while he was the country’s chief law officer, the IG said last week as reported in the Punch newspaper that the case was permanently closed, never to be reopened. Yet, the eight people charged with the murder are today walking the streets free men. In fact, one of them Chief Iyiola Omisore “won” election into the Senate while he was still in detention, charged with the murder. So, why would the police close the murder case when the killers of Ige have not been found? Or have the police found out that the former governor of old Oyo
State committed suicide, or in fact died peacefully in his sleep?   The murder of Agbroko hurts because at the end of the day, it will be reduced to infantile argument just like Bola Ige’s case by those whose duty it is to protect us. While the game of obfuscation is going on, the merchants of death would be plotting how to eliminate their next victim. And to imagine that Agbroko devoted his entire adult life rendering service to his fatherland with his pen, striving to create a more humane, just and prosperous society where every man would be able to realise his potentials and actualise himself. See how he has been rewarded.