Dariye, Hiding Behind Constitutionality

In Jos, Plateau state, Joshua Dariye, governor and fugitive of the British law has been under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a couple of years now. He has been engaged in a tussle to hang on to power (and therefore guaranteed immunity from prosecution) through all sorts of underhanded tactics including bribery and intimidation of all 24 members of the Plateau state legislative assembly. 16 of these legislators have been indicted in their own separate acts of graft (many in complicity with the governor) and are currently incarcerated for these by the EFCC, leaving the Plateau state house with only 8 sitting members.

Over the past few weeks, this 8 member house has been trying to constitute a panel to hear the allegations of graft leveled against Dariye, and institute impeachment proceedings as a fall out, if the governor is found wanton. 2 of the 8 legislators have declined participation in the proceedings, raising the question of the constitutionality of the panel since the Plateau state constitution requires that such a panel be constituted by at least one-third of the 24 legislative members, and not the one-fourth that the current 6 member panel constitutes. This segues into the issue of whether the 16 Plateau state legislative house members in EFCC net should not automatically lose their positions as legislators and therefore be replaced by newly elected ones in freshly held run-off elections.

Expensive as it may be, replacing these compromised 16 legislators by new ones will afford the constitution of a panel to hear the case against the governor from a full house of 24 members. That way, not only will the issue of constitutionality not arise, it will also mitigate any bias or malafide intentions that may exist between the governor and the 8 legislator who are not in complicity with the governor in his indictment. Also, it will remove any suspicion that those 6 legislators that make up the current controversial panel are a tool of the EFCC. In addition, it will restore the loss of representation at the state assembly for the constituencies from which the incarcerated legislators hail.

The case against Dariye appears very strong. It will be a shame to bungle it up and let the man go scot-free on the basis of unconstitutionality.

Kalu, Bakassi Boys or EFCC Justice?

The Nigerian media in the past week has been rife with the unfolding impeachment proceedings in Ekiti and Plateau states, as well as hostage takings in the Niger Delta and the Atiku battle against the EFCC report. One more brewing story which I found pretty interesting was the indictment of Mrs. Eunice Kalu, mother of the Abia state governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, along with eighteen others and the fracas that ensued in an attempt to take her into custody. Kalu was one of the youngest governors elected in the 1999 elections at the age of 39. He seemed to want to project an image of a new breed progressive, who was self assured and legitimate.

He is alleged by his paid supporters to have achieved so much at such a young age, having succeeded exceedingly well in business, academia and politics, they boast. Indeed, he is referred to as one of the youngest Nigerian millionaires ever, industrialist, investor, holder of doctorate degrees etc. With such a sleek and coruscating profile, I became more curious. "All that glitters," my third grade teacher often retorted, "is not gold." I took some time to do some research on this fellow, Kalu. My first stop was his website: - http://www.orjikalu.com/biography.php . The immediate impression the discerning mind would have from viewing the website is that this is a fellow hungry for self-aggrandizement. The layout and verbiage reveal someone trying very hard to appear erudite and sophisticated. The unnecessary verbosity and grammatical inappropriateness and errors that leap out from the web pages give away the crass essence of the promoter.

It is alleged that Kalu was a student at the University of Maiduguri in the early 1980s but did not graduate because he could not meet the academic requirements. While a student at Maiduguri, it is rumoured, Kalu was a "dan dauda" (male prostitute) and pimp to a number of influential northern Nigerian alhajis and military men, and that this was his break into business, acting as a front for these influential northerners in the beginning, then later becoming a conduit through whom many were said to have laundered their ill-acquired monies. This preoccupation, it is alleged, had Kalu kicked out of the University of Maiduguri as he was unable to satisfy his academic requirements.

Kalu attempted to use his newly acquired wealth to buy some respectability. He procured for himself a BSc degree from the Abia state University, where no one can recall ever seeing him attending any classes. He also wheedled his way on the board, as chairman, of the badly run and now defunct Cooperative and Commerce Bank Plc. Hungry for limelight, and self promotion, Kalu continued to cavort around with these influential alhajis and military men, seizing all photo opportunities at their private and public functions, to which he was often self-invited. He flashed pictures of himself and these men to whosoever would care, and adorned his residence and office with same to give credence to his supposed close association with them. Having built this aura of "connectectedness" to the powers that be, Kalu wilily extracted favors and contracts from unsuspecting associates with the promise of connecting them to his influential friends. Sometimes, it is alleged, he would outrightly claim to be representing one or more of his powerful military friends as he demanded favors from government officials, who obliged him because they were scared out of their wits and careful not to offend these powers that be, and the pecking order that prevailed during the military dictatorships of the 1980s to 1990s.

With the advent of democracy in 1999, Kalu took advantage of all the chaos and flux that existed, used all sorts of underhanded tactics and thuggery to quell all legitimate opponents and hijacked the governorship of Abia state. Having at his disposal, the state's press machinery, Kalu continued his loud and arrogant self-promotion, bleating his half-baked rhetoric while at the same time helping himself to the state's coffers along with members of his immediate family, including his mother. Under the pretext of fighting crime, Kalu took advantage of the fact that the Nigerian Police found it difficult to meet the demands of crime fighting as a result of years of systematic emasculation by the successive military dictatorships of the 1980s and 1990s. With the Nigerian Police so depleted and demonized, Kalu introduced a vigilante group, "The Bakassi Boys," who were in essence, Kalu's personal army.

The Bakassi Boys, a rowdy band of misanthropic (often drugged) murderers, committed perhaps the worst human rights abuses ever in Nigeria. Under the pretext of routing out criminal elements, this vigilante group was involved in extortion, torture, extra judiciary killings and various other atrocities. They were the accusers, investigators, prosecutors, judge, jury and executioners. All crimes were punishable by death, delivered (literally) by way of a thousand cuts, amputations and decapitation. Sometimes, this pervertion of justice was extended to hapless family members of the criminal so fingered. The Bakassi Boys took no prisoners, hence there was no imprisonment, just gulags of the condemned awaiting execution. All that needed to happen was for one to be accused as a suspected criminal, and as swiftly as the accusation, the "criminal" was condemned and promptly executed, regardless of the veracity of the accusation, or the nature of the crime. It is alleged that the Bakassi Boys were also used by Kalu to settle personal scores, subjugate his opponents and strike fear into the indigenes of the state in the manner of his military dictator friends in the 1980s and 1990s.

To clean up Nigeria's image, as regards human rights abuses, in the international community, the Obasanjo government demanded that the vigilante group be disbanded, there began Kalu's loathing of Obasanjo. This became a full blown "front-page" smear attack when the Bakassi Boys were declared an illegal group and banned by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Kalu's vitriol increased, casting aspersions and making spurious accusations and loudmouth claims, touting his supposed influence and roiling in a characteristic classless, indecorous and self-righteous manner.

There has been an EFCC probe for a while now on how Kalu has been systematically looting the Abia state coffers, but he has been hiding behind the immunity provision in the constitution. It is alleged that members of his immediate family are involved in the systematic fraud and so they have also been under scrutiny. Last week's indictment of his mother and eighteen others is a fall out of this. Rather than respect the law, Kalu is shielding his mother from interrogation by the EFCC. This of course is typical and expected of the opportunistic conniver that is Kalu. It is alleged that plans are underway to smuggle his mother out of the country through Cameroun, while he has filed an injunction against the indictment in a court in Umuahia.

Here is a man who brought in a vigilante group to wreck mayhem on petty criminals and innocents alike, now seeking redress from the court denied the many souls, guilty and innocent alike, who were brutally murdered by the Bakassi Boys without a prayer. Kalu, would you rather the Bakassi Boys be let loose on you and your mother, or face the EFCC indictment? If you, your mother and cohort have your noses clean, the honorable thing to do (not that you are being accused of being honorable) is to let the law take its course.

Nigerian States' Government Houses - Cesspools of Corruption

It must be a tough job for the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). In the past couple of years under the leadership of Nuhu Ribadu, the commission has built a reputation of efficacy and irreproachability. They have gone after big wig fraudsters including the notorious $245 million Brazilian bank scam, governors indicted in acts of embezzlement, an Inspector General of Police and now the Vice President. The stature of the perpetrators the commission has gone after tells of its sterling quality and professionalism.

In the dark ages of IBB and Abacha, the existence of such a commission would have been just to subjugate the common folk and perceived enemies of the dictatorships, especially since the dictators themselves were steeped in institutional corruption, systematically and deliberately looting the coffers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Indeed, these dark ages of Nigerian history saw entrenched a culture of corruption and blatant disregard of law and order such that it was expected of a government or private official in all institutions across the land to extort, embezzle and commit frank acts of fraud for self-enrichment at the detriment of the populace who they serve. In fact, one popular refrain during these dictatorships was - "use what you have to get what you want." This culture spilled over to the first term of the Obasanjo presidency, when we saw various government officials continuing to illicitly enrich themselves through acts of graft.

When the EFCC first came on the scene, many of these grafters thought it was going to be business as usual. They thought their stupendous illicitly acquired wealth would render them untouchable, and those who were governors, were banking on the immunity clause in the May 1999 constitution to protect them from prosecution. How wrong they were. The top echelon of the EFCC has proved to be irreproachable. Refusing to be sullied by bribery, blackmail or intimidation, they have gone after the biggest fish in the land. This has sent many of the governors running scared, particularly those who would be completing their maximum of two terms in May 2007 and who have been indicted in acts of graft.

Knowing that they have a date with the law, many are trying all sorts of blackmail tactics ranging from slander smears in the press to claims of selective indictments and other sorts of diabolical intrigues. The truth is if these governors are honorable, they would waive their immunity protection and subject themselves to the EFCC probes to prove their noses are clean. Clinton did this in the Monica Lewinski debacle when he was accused of perjury because he denied having sexual relations with the intern, enough to warrant impeachment proceedings against him.

Many Nigerians who hold public positions, as we know, are not honorable and as such it will be unlikely that any of the indicted governors will submit to a probe. To make matters worse many of the state assemblies are in complicity with the governors in perpetrating the acts of graft, rendering it virtually impossible that they would institute impeachment proceedings against their governors. Plateau state is a perfect example of this, with many of the legislators themselves arrested for their own acts of graft separate from the governor's. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out come May 29, 2007, after which the immunity protection of these indicted governors would no longer hold.

Crude Oil, the Bane of Nigeria

Pundits have severally proclaimed that the bane of Nigeria's sociopolitical and economic malaise is crude oil. The tussle to control the vast wealth that spews from beneath the mangroves of the Niger Delta and surrounding territorial waters has been central to all the conflicts that have befallen the country. From the days of Isaac Boro to the Nigerian Civil war, the Babangida and Abacha illegal usurpation of power and the recent onslaught by MOSOP, MEND and the ilk all have been impelled in some form by the hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Niger-Delta.

Add this to the incompetent and avaricious leadership, and a helpless populace and the result is chaos, exactly what we have today in Nigeria. Past and present leaders in Nigeria have abused their positions to engage in blatant acts of fraud and embezzlement, helping themselves to billions of dollars of the proceeds from the sale of the Niger-Delta crude oil. The late Abacha is reputed to have looted $3 billion, and his predecessor, Babangida, about $5 billion as alleged in the popular press. And these are just two out of several hundreds, perhaps thousands, of embezzlers.

Contemporary events in the news indicate that this culture of nauseating corruption is ever more so rife. With the indictment of several high-ranking government officials including incumbent governors, directors, an Inspector General of Police, businessmen and recently, the Vice President, there cannot be a more apt testament to the degree of debasement that the Nigerian polity has fallen to. In this cesspool of corruption, it is not out of place to have the kind of chaos expressed in the form of piracy, kidnapping, extortion, arson and sabotage that we have in the Niger-Delta. Using the pretext of governmental neglect (which is a truism) these criminals in the Niger-Delta wreak mayhem as they maim, murder and kidnap innocent civilians in exchange for ransoms. They couch their criminality in spurious social activism and time and again oil operators and the government fall for this and seek to pacify them by paying their ransom demands.

The solution to all this is simple. First, the Federal government should hunt these criminals down with the utmost force at its disposal, treating the crises strictly as the criminal acts that they are. Then the federal government should divest its interests in the oil sector and squarely concentrate on its role as a regulatory and monitoring body. If the NNPC were dissolved and the Nigerian government seeks its revenues purely through taxation and excise fees and duties then it would be more likely that we have government officials who are more accountable to the populace. It would force the state governments to be more creative about revenue generation rather than be the bottomless pits that they are into which the FGN keeps throwing away monies that are wont to be embezzled by the various state government officials.

Since a very high percentage of Nigerian businesses and individuals avoid or evade taxes, the general attitude is one of apathy towards acts of embezzlement and fraud. Perhaps if all Nigerian individuals and businesses paid their appropriate tax dues they would be more intolerant of gross acts of corruption and criminality perpetrated by various government officials and private citizens across the country, including those miscreants in the Niger-Delta and other hot spots in Nigeria.

Nigerian Leaders Hark! What is the Value of a Man?

Airplane crashes are joltingly painful, especially to friends and relatives of the crash victims, yet, they are poignant reminders of the ephemeral nature of life. Without warning, in a fleeting moment all the substance and stature of the human being is brought to an abrupt and screeching eternal halt. We carp and squabble over money, power, politics, ideologies and things that are of meaningless consequence on the scale of the eternity of time and the infinity of space that makeup life and existence.

For those who died in the September 17, 2006 Army plane crash in Kwande, Benue State , it is the end of all these meaningless carping, squabbling and jostling. All their families and everyone with whom they interacted in the course of their lives have left are memories. The years and efforts put into their jobs and relationships reduced to mere electrical impulses transmitted across the tiny spaces (synapses) between the networks of connections (dendrites) and cells (neurons) that make up the brain and nervous system.

The worth of a man is often dictated by the type of memories we hold of him after he dies. We hold on to these memories cherishing the fond and good ones and trying to forget the not so good. Sometimes, there are those memories that are too grim to forget. Often, these are borne out of the actions or inactions of a man or woman in a given situation. In men who by fate find themselves in positions of authority and leadership, these actions or inactions often have far-reaching and compelling impacts on large sections of the society.

Good leaders often are remembered fondly with feelings of euphoric nostalgia and yearning. Bad leaders are remembered with loathsome bitterness and regret. Often, it is not that the good leader was pristine and perfect through and through, and did not falter or do any bad deeds, or that the bad leader is outrightly evil and did not do any good deed. It is the degree of these deeds and the level and type of impact (negative or positive) the deeds have on the society that determines a good or bad leader. On this scale, Hitler was most certainly an evil and bad leader. There is no question also that Abacha, Mobutu and Idi-Amin likewise were bad leaders who left indelible negative memories in societies which they led. In the same vein, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi are undoubtedly two of the greatest leaders of the 20th century.

Understandably, most leaders fall between the two extreme types of leaders given that one would expect a stochastic distribution of types of leaders. For some reason, Nigeria seems to have a more than disproportionate share of leaders of the Mobutu and Abacha ilk, perhaps because years of despotic and dehumanizing reign of military dictatorship has inured Nigerians to the anguish of bad leadership. Being on the left tail of the normal distribution for so long has warped the reasoning of the average Nigerian to the extent that he justifies acts that are flat out wrong and deplorable by flimsy self-serving strange, if not moronic logic.

Nigerian leaders would do well to strive to leave more positive impacting memories on the citizenry that they lead by doing good deeds and staying within the ambits of the law as they dispatch their responsibilities. Take the case of the late Finance director of INEC, who led a lie as a pastor while looting the government coffers to the tune of 7 billion Naira. Surely that individual has left an indelible negativity in the collective memories of Nigeria , likewise has Tafa Balogun, ex IG of Police and many other leaders in Nigeria . It would not be inaccurate to say that such Nigerians have led worthless and destructive lives. And for those who believe in life after death, the damnation is double barreled. Not only are the memories they leave behind forever seen as profane and despicable, these individuals are equally self-condemned to eternal damnation as defined by any of the major creeds in Nigeria that they are likely to belong. In the end, the true value of a man is measured by how many lives one has impacted positively and not how much wealth he amassed.

It is worthless to acquire wealth without impacting peoples’ lives positively with it, and even worse to acquire wealth illegally as many Nigerian leaders do. The world’s two richest people Bill Gates and Warren Buffet realize this and are giving back to the world almost all their wealth through philanthropy. These indeed are two great men and big men of the kind never seen in Nigeria.

The writer of this article pays his respect to the 13 people who lost their lives in the Military aircraft crash last Sunday and pray that their families find the strength to bear the loss. Were Nigeria a well run society perhaps this might not have happened. Perhaps the army would have had newer aircrafts with better trained pilots and air traffic control staff. Perhaps there would have been a well structured emergency response procedure in place and rescue teams to rendered adequate and prompt help immediately after the crash. But that is if only governors, presidents, directors, vice presidents, legislators, civil servants and private and corporate executives would stop looting millions of dollars and pounds to acquire homes in Europe and America and fund profligate life styles. Until all the brigandage stops, Nigerians unfortunately would be bereft of the true value of life.

Nigerian Presidency 2007 - “Kingibe, the Dark Horse?”

Ambassador Babagana Kingibe’s declaration to vie for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last Thursday is yet another punt in the political game leading up to the 2007 Nigerian presidential election. Kingibe could not have come out at a more auspicious time. Had he made his intention known earlier than now, he probably would have been marked for cavil and calumny by other aspirants who had made theirs known (tacit or overt) long ago. Babangida and Atiku, two who had, are under the scrutiny of every Nigerian and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and deservedly so, given the huge wealth both individuals have purportedly amassed allegedly by virtue of their positions in government.

With both men stewing in the morass of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PDTF) and the Globacom deals, it is hard to see how either man will escape unscathed by the time the dust settles on these allegations. If the case of impropriety and frank fraud either man is accused of is proven, then disqualification from vying for the presidency will be the least of their problems. There appears to be some veracity in the allegations though, as the key conduit, Adenuga, through whom the illicitly acquired wealth is alleged to have been laundered is at large, having fled to Ghana over a fortnight ago to escape interrogation by the EFCC.

There have been speculations of a dark horse in the PDP fold, one believed to have the blessing of Mr. Obasanjo and who enjoys some sort of local and international regard and acclaim, and not tainted with allegations of corrupt self-enrichment. Mr. Kingibe seems to fit this profile and may indeed be the dark horse if there ever was one. He is currently a special OAU envoy in Sudan and was a one time chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the early 1990s. Kingibe was also the running mate to the late MKO Abiola, the widely acclaimed winner of the aborted June 12, 1993 presidential elections.

This may count for some political leverage with the western Nigerian electorate. Even though it should not matter, being from the same “geopolitical zone” as Atiku gives him some regional acceptability as well as deals a dilutory blow to the Atiku political machinery. Kingibe is a charismatic orator, with a good command of the English language and a keenly developed diplomatic mien evident in the way he responds to questions and comments. He has also cultivated a grassroots and populist following and so belongs to that rare breed of Nigerian political elites who enjoy the sincere patronage and trust of the common-folk.

The Kingibe candidacy is one that will be keenly watched particularly since majority of the other possible candidates come from the fold of the present PDP governors, most of whom according to the EFCC, are involved in some acts of gross abuse of power or graft. Added to this, none of these PDP governors enjoys as wide a followership as Kingibe. Which ever way this goes, Kingibe and his supporters would have to court the PDP echelon and party stalwarts from the South-south and south-east to get their backing since both regions have vowed to wrest power come 2007.

Atiku's Bundle

In developed societies where the rule of law, order and decorum prevail, the right thing for any public office holder indicted in acts of impropriety or abuse of office is to resign. Over and over again we have seen this happen in the USA and Britain. Only last week, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair announced that he would be leaving office next May because his party has lost confidence in his leadership. The US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has tendered his resignation several times in the last couple of years because of popular criticism of his handling of the US invasion of Iraq, only to be turned down by President Bush. Even though the cases leveled against these two men are not gross acts of corruption, Blair and Rumsfeld understand the import of loss of confidence in a public officer by the populace.

Atiku has been accused not only of complicity in misuse of power but the outright abuse of power and perpetration of acts of gross corruption by the systematic manner in which the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PDTF) under his control was used to fund various shady deals ranging from the iGate/NDTV deal to the Marine Float and Globacom deals. The fall out of these is still unraveling. Only on Friday, September 8, 2006 the head of iGate, Mr. Vernon Jackson a Kentucky, USA businessman, was sentenced to an 87 months jail term, plus 2 years probation upon completion of the jail term by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia. William Jefferson, the US congressman linked in the iGate bribery scheme with Atiku is under FBI investigation. Mr. Mike Adenuga, the conduit through whom Atiku is alleged to have purchased shares in Globacom with PDTF funds expropriated by Atiku for that purpose, has fled Nigeria for Ghana en-route to England to join his twenty-something year old sons, executive officers in Globacom and who also had earlier fled Nigeria to escape investigation by the EFCC.

These charges are serious and not to be taken lightly. In what appears to be a bold-faced attempt of self preservation, Atiku has gone to court to seek an injunction to stop the report of the findings of investigations of these allegations from being tabled before the National Assembly. In addition, he has gone further to claim that the monies paid into the accounts of his company, Marine Float Limited, was under the joint control of him and President Obasanjo as the monies were meant to be used for the Obasanjo/Atiku reelection campaign. If indeed this was the intended use of the monies how come they were not held in an appropriately named account? Why was the account not under the control of the PDP? What does the paper trail as regards the outflow of monies from the account reveal? Were expenses incurred for the Obasanjo/Atiku reelection campaign paid out from the account or was the account used to fund private projects of Atiku’s or Obasanjo’s? These are questions to which answers can be easily obtained through forensic accounting.

Atiku acknowledges that 100 million naira was paid by the Plateau state governor, Joshua Dariye to Marine Float towards the Obasanjo/Atiku reelection in August 2001, two years before the 2003 reelection. The question that arises here is: - Is there any legal grounds on which a state governor is permitted to make such a contribution from the coffers of his state to the presidential campaign? None exists the last time I checked. On this ground alone, the Vice President is liable, along with the governor of Plateau state, who as we know, is a fugitive of the British justice system, having jumped bail in 2004 in London to escape charges of money laundering. For all we know Dariye and Atiku may have been in cahoots in looting the coffers of the state and the 100 million naira was Atiku’s share. Or perhaps Atiku used the Marine Float account to fraudulently obtain monies from donors by intimidation using the Obasanjo/Atiku reelection as a cover. Either way, Atiku is clearly at abeyance with the law with the Marine Float Limited affair.

Undoubtedly, Atiku and Babangida played pivotal roles in the 1999 election of Obasanjo as president. It is unlikely that Obasanjo could have mustered the resources and support he enjoyed in the campaign leading up to his nomination as the PDP candidate and his eventual election as president without the roles played by these two individuals. That however does not render them untouchable or immune to investigation to the extent that there are questions about their conducts in business and as high level officers of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The world over and throughout history, people in public leadership positions are expected to conduct their affairs beyond reproach. As William Shakespeare put it, “Ceaser’s wife must be above suspicion.” But you don’t automatically attain this just by virtue of your leadership position, it is something that is earned through personal conduct and actions, and which can be easily cross-referenced in its transparency. If indeed they are beyond reproach, Atiku, his supporters and business partners (Adenuga in particular) should be forthwith with the truth and allow for the proper proceedings to take its course rather than cry wolf and make accusatory statements and recriminations to garner undeserved ill-willed sentiments against the investigators, the Federal Executive Council and President Obasanjo.

It is hoped that when the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters finally comes out with its guidelines on procedures on the deliberation of the report which has been tabled before it with a letter from the president that the senators dispatch their duties without bias and partisanship.

“NUHU RIBADU: LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT GUILT CAST THE FIRST STONE.” - Rejoinder to Akinsanya Juliuson

It is unclear what Akinsanya Juliuson was trying to say in his special feature of September 11, 2006 on the nigeriannews.com website, titled: - “NUHU RIBADU: LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT GUILT CAST THE FIRST STONE.” The article, from my perspective, was a Hodgepodge of banal Nigerian sayings and incoherent ramblings and philosophizing of what appears to be Juliuson’s perception of life.

Was Juliuson trying to make allusions to the EFCC chairman’s conduct in his execution of his duties? Was he extolling or excoriating them? From the title, one may deduce that Juliuson was probably doing the latter, but like the typical Nigerian politician, Juliuson was cryptic in his pronouncements, which were interspersed with “biblical rhetoric” to suffuse some element of piety in the write up. He claims that he does not judge people, but Juliuson’s article seemes to be warning the EFCC chairman to tone down his activities or face some damnation. “Man is such a harsh judge. We so readily want our own indiscretions and mistakes to be over looked, but seldom are willing to overlook someone else's. Why does it sometimes seem as if we revel in the chance to find fault in others? Is it because we feel better about our own shortcomings when we compare them to those who are more obviously flawed?” Juliuson writes. Is he making reference to Ribadu’s knack for saying it as it is not caring the “status” of the person under investigation?

Juliuson also continues: - “Honesty is not the best policy in Nigeria of today. Sensitivity is. Some people are born insensitive, some achieve insensitivity and others have insensitivity thrust upon them. This is not the right quotation. But I am sure we all know why I make that remark now. We are dealing with several silly someones, several brood of vipers.” Obviously Juliuson condones dishonesty, acts of criminality and gross corruption that the EFCC is trying to excise from the Nigerian polity. Juliuson should know that the law is no respecter of social status. Criminals, regardless of their status are prosecuted if investigated and found wanton. One thing Juliuson must understand is that as a commission set up to combat corruption, the EFCC has the statutory obligation to prosecute all those found to be wanton in their investigations. All the commission does is argue the case before a judge, who, based on the evidence provided by the commission, and the argument of put forth by the defendant decides the case.

It is true that the default in law is "innocent until proven guilty" and this is upheld by the prosecution process followed by the EFCC. But that aside, come on Juliuson, how much is the salary of these so called “persecuted” that they live the profligate lifestyles that they lead? Alamieyesiegha’s salary as governor was not denominated in pounds and dollars, and even if it was, it was hardly so much so that he could afford to keep one million pounds in the house he bought in London only a few years ago when he became governor. Besides, Alamieyeseigha was apprehended by the British police, an unbiased and autonomous organization.

If the Atiku/Adenuga case is what sparked Juliuson’s article, let it be known that the case is connected to the US congressman, Jefferson’s saga, which has been under the FBI investigation for a while now, and that the evidence provided in the report was collated through an international joint effort between the FBI and the EFCC. It is no secret that Adenuga (purported whiz kid) has been a conduit through whom a number of Nigerian present and past leadership have funneled funds looted from the coffers of Nigeria since the mid 1980s.

To use one of the banal Nigerian sayings that Juliuson omitted in his incoherent write-up, “let us call a spade a spade.” The EFCC has been doing an excellent job since the young man; Ribadu has been at the helm. The commission deserves, from all Nigerians, the highest praise and respect. The most tendered reservation people have of the commission is that it has gone after some highly placed members of the society, and that these folks do not deserve to be investigated and interrogated. Well, if there is some question about the source of wealth of these individuals, particularly if their gross remuneration while they held government positions are insufficient to afford them their level of wealth, investigating them is the only way to clear up the discrepancy.

The one thing that Juliuson seemed to get right is that the EFCC chairman, in his stoic and committed manner of delivery of his duties, is putting himself and family at great personal danger given the degree of influence and vindictive capabilities of the individuals he is going after. But this is the hallmark of a brave and valiant man in the battle against corruption. By being reticent and condoning depravity and corruption, and sweeping it under the carpet, as recommended by Juliuson, the EFCC or any other agency charged with the job of combating corruption would be tantamount to selling its soul, as Juliuson seems to have done in the name of his incoherent and grossly erroneous notion of what he thinks “decorum” should be.

Alamieyeseigha the Ignominious

The Alamieyeseigha case is such a sad one. Now the man claims to be ill and requires treatment abroad. On top of that he claims his dastardly escape was orchestrated by the Metropolitan Police of London. How morally bankrupt and shameless can one be? Rather than be contrite for his debased acts, this man stands bold-facedly and lies about the circumstances surrounding his escape. He was reported to have boasted about having supernatural powers and attributed his bail jump to this.

That Alamieyeseigha is ill is probably true. All you need do is look at the monstrosity of a man to arrive at the conclusion that there must be something physiologically amiss with the sorry sod. But it is anyone’s guess that the ailment that befalls him stems from years of self abuse and overindulgence. Folks of Alamieyeseigha’s crass ilk, commonly referred to as “bushmen” in Nigerian colloquialism are wont to overindulge, self abuse and break the law all in some ill-informed perception of “enjoying themselves” whereas all they are doing is exhibiting there classlessness and denigrating their personal health.

As for the accusation that the Metropolitan police aided his escape, Alamieyeseigha is only exhibiting his low intelligence and confirming what a pathological lair he is, and the extent of his depravity and moral bankruptcy. Having ascended to office and perpetuated himself in the Bayelsa government house through acts of cavil, intrigue and boldfaced criminality, Alamieyeseigha does not know better to appreciate that on the world stage, such dingy parochial machinations do not hold. He is better served to accept that he is nothing but a common criminal whose low mental capacity and egregious avarice have led him to his present situation.

Recently, he has claimed to be ill and require medical attention abroad. The medical attention he claims to currently need could easily be rendered in Nigeria if only he and his thieving ilk would use public funds at their control to provide good schools and hospitals, and other social amenities they are supposed to provide rather that steal the monies. At least as a detainee, Alamieyeseigha is availed of specialist medical attention in Nigeria. How many of his fellow detainees accused of lesser crimes have the same privilege? For a man who in no small way has contributed to the deplorable situation of Nigerian social amenities through his acts looting and gross corruption, Alamieyeseigha is asking for too much.

Many a petty thief, driven by hunger and abject and wanton poverty, lost their lives in Yenagoa through lynching and jungle justice for stealing as little as a few hundred naira’s worth of items while Alamieyeseigha was governor of the state stealing hundreds of millions of naira, pounds and dollars. His acts of graft and outright theft of government funds no doubt have caused untold hardship, hunger, suffering, degeneration of social values and even death because of the lack of social infrastructure and amenities that would have been provided by the funds he looted. Alamieyeseigha should stop being a big cry-baby coward and accept his fate like the common criminal that he is.

Brilliant, Bold & Visionary

As the curtains close on yet another adventure in the Nigerian quest for nationhood, the political arena is becoming more and more frenzied and perturbed. Many politicians are scheming, forging alliances and making nice with the powers-that-be and the electorate to position themselves in the right light for the 2007 elections. Already, there are reports of violence, assassinations, intimidation and back-stabbing.

What makes the 2007 elections critical is all the events that have played out since 1999 when Obasanjo was elected president. Successes include the completion and implementation of the wireless telecommunication licenses, formation of EFCC and last year’s $18 billion Paris club debt relief. Topical issues tabled in both houses of the legislature include furniture allowance, impeachment of a couple of senate presidents and the speaker of the house, impeachment threats made by both houses of the legislature to the president over issues including disputes over appropriation bills among others. We have had a couple of governors arrested both abroad and at home over corruption and murder allegations, assassination of the attorney general of the federation, trials of Abacha henchmen, a couple of plane crashes, dissolution of various federal government parastatals and the formation of equally ineffective ones. We have seen the escalation of violence, hostage taking and terrorism in the Niger-Delta. Also, we have witnessed the recently scuttled “third-term agenda” being fomented and dealt a death blow by the senate.

In addition to these, we have seen the price of crude oil, Nigeria’s primary foreign exchange earner soar to as high as $75 per barrel and more. More money now accrues to the federation account and by induction more resources are available to the state and local governments which all get their sustenance from the federal government allocations they periodically get. Hence there is more agitation by all the local and state governments across the land, especially those in the oil producing regions, for more money to be allocated to them.



Against this backdrop it is no wonder that many career politicians are jostling for power in order to control this windfall of resources that are accruing to the Nigerian government as a result of high oil prices. There is absolutely nothing wrong in vying for election since it is the right of every Nigerian. What is wrong is to do so with the intent to defraud the Nigerian populace through embezzlement and gross acts of abuse of authority as have been the case with many present and past elected and self-imposed leadership. What Nigeria does not need are the green-eyed monsters of the Abacha ilk with sticky fingers, dubious intent and vile hearts. What Nigeria needs in the coming years are men and women of substance who are brilliant enough to understand what makes good governance, bold enough to stand up to proponents of the status quo where graft, nepotism, tribalism and injustice prevail, and visionary enough to chart a new course for the Nigerian Nation.

Niger-Delta Crude Oil Source a la Sonny Odogwu

“Money miss road” is a popular pejorative in Nigeria used to describe those to whom wealth seems to have come undeservedly. In a society that measures the worth of a man by how much wealth he has amassed regardless of the means of acquisition, integrity or substance of his mind, this cliché it seems is out of place. A few days ago, one of these “money miss roads,” Sonny Odogwu, is credited to have made some arcane and ill-informed statements of the source of crude oil in the Niger-Delta. He is said to have proclaimed that the oil reservoirs in the Niger-Delta are fed by underground tributaries with sources in North Africa, and that if Northern Nigerians were greedy that they could stanch this flow since the tributaries run through the Northern part Nigeria as they course southward to fill the reservoirs in the Niger-Delta.

How bizarre, this theory! One wonders how Mr. Odogwu arrived at this convoluted and erroneous theory. It boggles the mind that a man of Mr. Odogwu’s stature can make such an out rightly wrong statement. He definitely has a very creative and vivid imagination and would be better served contriving fictional stories for “Nollywood” rather than making commentaries on issues he is grossly uninformed about. This only goes to show how shallow and unenlightened the so called Nigerian elites of Mr. Odogwu’s ilk are.

Crude oil, as any lay person who bothers to check would find, results from millions of years of marination under pressure of dead organic matter of plant and animal origin, and microscopic marine organisms that have been trapped under the earth's crust. It follows therefore that these reservoirs in the Niger-Delta were in place long before the existence of the entity called Nigeria and certainly long before the very first human settlers in the Niger-Delta. To posit that crude oil flows from North Africa to the Niger-Delta is not only grossly erroneous and misleading but shows the mental substance of Mr. Odogwu. He is well advised to in future do some research before giving interviews, or keep mum on subjects of which he is ignorant.

The Warped Logic of Zoning the Presidency

I just read an article in the Nigerian Tribune of June the 24^th 2006 by Jacob Segun Olatunji & Bankole Makinde titled “South South May Boycott the Elections.” It tries to surmise the reason why the so called leaders of the “south-south” geopolitical zone want all the 37 registered political parties to field a south-southern candidate. Their reason is that the north has produced the president or head of state for 34 of the 45 years of Nigerian independence and therefore it is the turn of the south-south geopolitical region to produce the next president. Anything less, they say, they will boycott the 2007 elections. Let’s try to decompose the reasoning behind this proposition.

If the current political dispensation is a democracy, is imposing such a demand not tantamount to blackmail and hijacking the democratic process? Subscribing to such a formula of zoning is only a perpetuation of regional, sectional and ethno-centric politics that has bedeviled the system and stunted development in Nigeria for decades now. Would it not be better for the president to be elected based on merit rather than zoning or ethno-centricism? That way, there is no sense of entitlement, and we know we truly have the people’s choice in office rather than a compromise president whose ascension to power is just because he is from a particular zone of Nigeria. All progressive peoples of the world would agree that this is a regressive and tribalistic approach to democracy.

Proponents of this formula subscribe to it because they assume that there are some benefits that would accrue to the region from which the president comes. This goes to suggest that the president who is supposed to be nationalistic and impartial would favour his ethnic or regional ilk over other Nigerians. Would such a president not be unfair, perhaps even criminal?

The only traits that should matter in the next president are integrity, vision and intellect. The region from which the president comes should not even arise. The Nigerian entity would only truly be democratic when the so called “leaders of thought” and old brigade ethnocentric tribalistic politicians and their protégées stop taking the Nigerian people for a ride by playing up ethnic and sectional sentiments whenever it suits their political ends.

Third Term Bid Dead, But not yet Uhuru for Nigerians

Kudos to the few members of the Nigerian Senate and National Assembly opposed to the third term bid for thwarting the attempt to impose on the good people of Nigeria the ill-intentioned will of a powerful minority of politicians in the fold of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in particular the PDP Chairman, Ahmadu Ali, Chief Aneni and other higher echelon party stalwarts. This goes to show that there might be some hope for democracy after all in Nigeria. Amidst threats of excommunication from the party, amongst other methods of intimidation, these members of the legislative arm of government have nevertheless been able to uphold the will of the common masses of Nigeria.

Obasanjo’s address yesterday morning asking that the Nigerian people accept the decision of the senate and national assembly not to amend the constitution to increase the two term limit of elected executive government officials to three strikes any discerning observer as an acceptance of defeat by the president and his cohort. It confirms everyone’s suspicion that the bid for the third term, if not orchestrated by Obasanjo, at least had the consent of the president. To have remarked earlier that he would make his decision to run for a third term known only if there was a constitutional amendment indicates that Obasanjo had perhaps been nursing the idea of holding on to power after the completion of his second term in 2007. Well, the senate has spared him the trouble, and made the decision for Obasanjo. He will not be vying for election in 2007

Power indeed corrupts absolutely. Obasanjo practically had power handed over to him in 1999, having been released from prison in late June of 1998 clueless and disheveled; he was groomed and sold to the Nigerian people as a consensus candidate. Despite his gross unpopularity in Southern Nigeria (especially in Southwestern Nigeria), he was able to win the elections largely because of the support he got from the Northern politicians, in particular from what was then dubbed the Yar-Adua political machine headed up by Abubakar Atiku, hence the latter’s nomination as Obasanjo’s running mate. One wonders therefore why Obasanjo and Atiku seem to have fallen out despite the latter’s pivotal role in securing the presidency for the former. But of course politics in Nigeria, and indeed the world over, is a game of deceit, betrayal, intrigue and back-stabbing. Perhaps there was a pact that Atiku will take over from his boss after the second term. The third term bid was clearly an impediment to such a pact, if indeed it existed.

Now that it is clear that Obasanjo is not eligible to vie for the presidency in 2007, the road is clear for Atiku. Alas it is not yet Uhuru for Nigerians. Let’s allow conjecture to run wild a little here. If Atiku were to inherit the presidency from his boss should Nigerians expect any real difference in the quality of governance? Probably not. No doubt, all the ardent Obasanjo men and apologists would be relieved of their positions, shooed from the Rock and replaced with the new president’s men and apologists. There would be window dressing hither and thither, but the DNA of the Nigerian way of governance would remain intact. No one should expect any patent difference in the way business is conducted in Aso Rock and the two legislative chambers. Horse trading will still go on, calumny, cavil and intrigue will continue to prevail. Threats of impeachment and appeasement by monetary awards and bribery will continue. It will be business as usual so long as a large proportion of the class of 2007 legislators or their protégées transform to the class of 2011 legislators and worse if Atiku acts true to type and enfranchise corruption as have been variously alleged in the popular press media. Alas, it’s not yet Uhuru for Nigerians.

Constitutional Amendment Proceedings – The Senators’ Biggest Job Interview Yet.

The constitutional amendment finally tabled before the senate last week is sure to spark an interesting debate. Among the issues for deliberation are a proposal to create more states, derivation formula, rotational presidency and term limit change amongst others. Of the one hundred and sixteen proposals for deliberation, the matter of term limit amendment is anticipated to generate the most controversy and tension in the proceedings. Thus far, about twenty nine senators have lent their voices to deliberations on the matter and while some have made clear statements on their stand on the matter, others are tongue-in-check and equivocal.

It is no surprise that this is so since senators are politicians, whose stock in trade is double speak, and prevarication. Added to this is the allegation that some persons representing incumbent chiefs executive of the states and the powers that be in Aso Rock are lobbying these senators and making offers of gifts of millions of Naira, some of which have been purportedly paid into the bank accounts of these senators in Abuja. If this is true, then what we have is a situation where these tongue-in-cheek senators are either dancing to the tune of the piper, or signaling to the agents of the chiefs executive their availability for sale by dithering on the issue.

The proceeding is being televised live by the African Independent Television Network, giving the Nigerian populace instantaneous updates. Some people have requested that this be disallowed as it might hamper some senators from taking their true positions. How can this be? The amendment of the constitution is an epoch making event in the life of democracy in Nigeria, and as such, it is only proper to capture it live and on audio-visual record for posterity. It is suspected that those who advocate for a media-blackout want this for ulterior motives. Without live update and public scrutiny enabled by the live television coverage, proponents of the third term think they might be able to engineer the outcome of the proceedings in their favour.

As Abraham Lincoln remarked in his November 19, 1863 Gettysburg address, democracy is the “government of the people, by the people for the people.” The Nigerian people, for whom the Nigerian government is constituted, and whose representatives make up the Nigerian senate, have every right to be updated in real time what their representatives are deliberating on, and how properly they are being represented. In fact, there should be more television stations covering the proceedings to increase the reach and improve the openness and “transparency” of the process. It is the biggest job interview yet for the senators, so it would serve them well to be on their best behaviour.

How they comport themselves and vote will determine what path their political careers will take. The sellouts will most likely lose their seats in the next elections, if the electorate is discerning enough, having failed to do the bid of their constituencies and therefore botching the job interview that the constitutional amendment is. Let us hope that the senators keep this in perspective as they deliberate on the term limit and the one hundred and fifteen other proposals before them.

"Who the Cap Fits" all Over Again.

In the last days of the draconian Abacha regime, there was a sham of an advertorial ran by all the major television stations (NTA and private) and Newspapers captioned: “Who the Cap Fits.” In the montage, there was a military cap morphing into an embroidered traditional northern Nigerian cap (fula) or a southern Nigerian cap (fila abeti aja) to the tagline - "Who the Cap Fits." It was all a tasteless attempt by the Abacha regime to sell the Abacha candidacy to the Nigerian populace, never minding that 99.99% of Nigerians were disgusted by the ploy and the rogue general.

The Abacha regime was so out of touch with the populace that the general requested that all religious leaders and followers across the land gathered in Abuja to pray for the Nigerian nation and the general himself. Well, God it seemed answered the prayers of this multitude of Nigerians. On June 8, 1998, the best thing that could have happened to Nigeria under the circumstances did. The 54 year-old tyrant suffered a heart attack and died. His machinations to transform from a military dictator to a civilian dictator never came to fruition.

The third term being canvassed for the Obasanjo regime is reminiscent of the sham that characterized Abacha's last year in office. Just as there was no sincerity and justice then, it is clear that proponents of the third term bid share the same warped vision as did the lackeys of Abacha. What is even more arcane is the fact that President Obasanjo, who was imprisoned by Abacha along with Shehu Musa Yar' Adua and others who were against the self perpetuation bid of Abacha, is keeping mum as all the crass politicking and moral dishonesty is going on. This lends great credence to the perception of most that Obasanjo is indeed behind all these and is interested in perpetuating himself in power.

The Abdulsalami Abubakar government that released Obasanjo from prison could easily have decided to leave him in prison and not care about the delivery of justice. Abdulsalami Abubakar could easily have decided to hold on to power and not institute the political process that ensued and eventually led to Obasanjo being elected as the president of Nigeria despite the fact that he was highly unpopular in certain sectors of Nigeria.

President Obasanjo is surely taking the wrong turn in history by allowing his lackeys to scheme for a third term for him. The signs are there that this is not only an immoral and unjust scheme, but a very unpopular and dangerous one. It is highly likely to lead to violent and prolonged civil strife between those for and against the bid, in which several tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of Nigerians would lose their lives and many more their livelihood and homes. Is a term of 4 more years really worth the risk of this happening? Even if the argument for a third term can be justified, should not the present executive office holders be exempted from benefiting from the proposed constitutional amendment so as to remove any bias from the process? This is especially so since when they were elected into office, there was a term limit of two prescribed by the constitution, which they all swore to uphold.

If Obasanjo truly loves Nigeria as he claims he does should he not come out and make a definitive statement saying that he is not interested in a third term to put paid to all the dissonance in the Nigerian polity? At 70 years of age, Obasanjo is an old man who should be retired and taking things easy. Ruling Nigeria must be tasking for one so advanced in age. Should not a younger person be there at the helm to breathe freshness and vitality into the office? Obasanjo has done a great job in getting Nigeria into the world stage as evident in the $18 billion debt forgiveness he negotiated for the country last year. The EFCC is doing a phenomenal job. This is the time to leave the stage, when the ovation is loudest. By staying an extra 4 years with so many people opposed to the bid, all the good that have been associated with Obasanjo will be eroded and the question then will be: “Who Does the Cap of the Greatest Nigerian Despot Fit?”

Ali - Democrat or Zombie?

Senator Ahmadu Ali, the PDP National chairman is reputed to have mandated party leaders and members of the National Assembly and Senate elected under the PDP umbrella to back the third term agenda or leave the party. If this is true, and PDP is an acronym for Peoples Democratic Party, then one is right to ask the question: who indeed should leave the party?

PDP is a democratic entity and not the property of one individual. What makes a democracy is the right of choice and freedom of association. Democracy has been touted as the raison d'etre of the PDP. One can not proclaim to be a democrat while at the same time lead by decrees and orders. If indeed the PDP National chairman, who is supposed to be the embodiment of the party made such a statement should that not be enough grounds for impeaching him?

Ali should appreciate that in a democracy no one has the right to coerce people into making a choice they are not in agreement with. These are not military times. Ali spent the greater part of his adult life as a soldier, and having served under the Murtala/Obasanjo led regime of the 1970s perhaps still has that soldier boy mentality of blind loyalty. The kind immortalized in Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's song - "Zombie." Thanks to the death of Abacha and the dictates of the times the zombies have been sent back to the barracks where they belong in times of peace.

Undoubtedly, there are many ex-military men playing the Nigerian political field right now and it is only fair to let them do so in the burgeoning Nigerian democracy since they represent a stakeholder group in the Nigerian polity. That however does not bestow on them the audacity or right to dictate and impose their will on the rest of Nigerians. When power has been given to the people, it is "one man one vote." Ali's vote does not carry anymore weight than any other Nigerian's just like Obasanjo's does not weigh more than a talakawa's.

The common Nigerian to whom power belongs should not be bullied into doing Ali’s will. The office of the chairman of the PDP should represent the entire cross section of opinions of all Nigerians and not just those of the professional sycophants, who inspite of the fact that President Obasanjo has not explicitly said that he wants a third term are unjustly and insidiously slowly ingraining the idea into the Nigerian polity, distracting from other more beneficial salient issues.

Ali should be a true democrat and allow people to air their opinions. As difficult as this may be for a man who wore a Khaki uniform for most of his career, having traded his Khaki for a Babanriga, Ali should stop acting like a zombie and learn some political etiquette.

Nigerian Nazi Groups

The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is unequivocally a secessionist group, just as well are OPC and MOSOP. Supporting such groups or sympathizing with their cause is tantamount to treasonable felony as described by the law of the land. The Nigerian civil war, fought almost 40 years ago was a senseless frenzy of blood letting resulting in the death of over one million Nigerians on both sides of the war. And it was all as a result of tribalist sentiments allowed to run wild.

All over Nigeria sectional groups are once again cropping up, all purporting to represent and further the causes of groups that are often described along ethnic, regional or religious grounds. We have the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Afenifere, Egbe Omo Oduduwa, Odua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), Ohaneze Ndiigbo to name the most vociferous ones. All these groups are shamelessly xenophobic and bleat patent bigotry bordering on hatred for ethnic or sectional groups other than theirs. In their rhetoric one discerns the myopia, tribalism and blatant perversion of the commonalities that describe their respective interest groups. Just like Hitler’s Nazi rhetoric, they twist logic and distort the truth in a bid to warp the minds of the common Nigerian for their support. The poor unsuspecting common folk, like the German citizen of the 1930s feeds off these distorted logic and innuendos and the result is catastrophic. Many Nigerian youths have become misguided, paranoid and patently xenophobic; as a result, we have perennial senseless civil strife just like the recent ones in Maiduguri and Onitsha that spread to other parts of Northern and Eastern Nigeria respectively.

If only these tribalists could see beyond their avarice and quest for personal aggrandizement, wealth and power, they would see that there is so much to be gained from peaceful co-existence and diversity. The most advanced and richest nation the world has ever known, the USA, is what it is today because of the degree of diversity of its citizenry and the fact that people are given opportunities to express themselves so long as they exhibit some value-adding talent regardless of race, creed or social class. Most importantly, the rule of law prevails in the USA, and it is applied equitably regardless of status and social position.

The problem with Nigeria today has nothing to do with the various causes for which these rabidly tribalist groups purport to be fighting. It is multi-factored and includes lack of truth and justice, wholesale corruption, gross unenlightenment of the leadership and followership alike, and the abject poverty that has been inflicted on the populace by the devious leadership. By keeping the populace impoverished and uneducated, the ruling class has been able to easily manipulate them for their selfish ends. In the early days of the 3rd republic for example, when it was found that Governor Bola Tinubu had lied about his educational qualifications, Pa Abraham Adesanya, an Afenifere chieftain is credited to have asked members of his tribalist group and affiliates not to launder their dirty linen in public, while the same groups had been so vitriolic in an earlier similar episode involving impeached House Speaker, Salisu Buhari, who had likewise lied about his educational qualification. Such is the double standard applied by these tribalist organizations.

Hitler applied double standard and distorted logic in Nazi Germany and it resulted in the death of about 50 million people worldwide in World War II. These tribalist groups are doing the same thing in Nigeria with the perennial ethnic cleansings that take place every now and then. If the Hausas are not killing the Igbos in Kano or Maiduguri, it is the Yorubas killing the Igbo traders in Lagos, or Fulani cattle herdsmen in Ibadan, or the Igbos killing the Hausa ram sellers in Onitsha, or perhaps the Jukuns killing the Tivs in Taraba state. Is there no respect for the sacredness of human life? Just because a person does not share the same mother-tongue or religious faith as the next does not render the person less human.

Rather than sow seeds of division, hatred, bigotry and xenophobia would not a better Nigeria be engendered if these tribalist leaders came together to confer truthfully and sincerely, without any divisive motives on how best to get Nigeria along the path of economic and social development? Should they not be beating the drums of National patrotism rather than whipping up descriminatory and myopic tribal sentiments which are only destructive to the wellbeing of the people whose cause they purport to be protecting?

These tribalist and sectional groups are regressive and should be eschewed by all progressive Nigerians who would like to see a truly democratic Nigeria where truth and justice are equitably applied.

Niger Delta Hostage Saga

The hostage taking in the Niger Delta has dragged on too long. MEND, or whatever appellation they go by should know that their continual holding of the hostages only serves to highlight their level of depravity and utter lack of political savvy. The government of Obasanjo has been very lenient with these folks and likewise the British and American.

All it will take is a sneak attack by the special forces of Her Majesty's Royal Marines or the US Navy to nix their position and free the hostages. But perhaps for some political reasons, and maybe out of respect for the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the British and Americans have opted to stand down for now. If MEND does not release the hostages and soon too, they may very well be taken out like the common criminals and seadogs that they are.

It is a shame that a band of bandits who are self-confessed criminals can hold Nigeria and indeed the entire global oil industry to ransom the way these individuals have. It boggles the mind even more that President Obasanjo seems preoccupied with all the scheming for a third term to notice that by allowing the situation to prevail and with the continual disruption of oil production in the Niger Delta, the Nigerian government revenue is being decimated, a situation bound to make governance difficult if he gets the third term he is purported to be pursuing.

The expedient thing to do is to organize a covert special commando operation to neutralize MEND and extract the hostages from the throes of this diabolical group. If the Nigerian military forces are not skilled enough to carry this out, the Obasanjo government should enlist the help of the Royal Marines or the US Marines special ops teams.

Allowing MEND to roam the Niger Delta with free rein may sooner attain the criminal group a local folk legendary status and inspire other misguided youth of the Niger Delta and perhaps elsewhere in Nigeria to take up arms at the slightest of grievances. There should be no negotiating with these criminals and terrorists. They should be stamped out with the full might of the Nigerian, British and American military to serve as a deterrent to other misguided youth organizations in the Niger Delta and indeed the entire Nigerian polity that may be harboring similar diabolical ideas.

No Privileges without Responsibility

I was fortunate to have met Eliot Spitzer, the New York Attorney General who is vying for the governorship of the state of New York in the next elections in late 2006. What struck me was the man’s intellect and profound understanding of salient issues, and what need to be done to move the state of New York forward economically and socially. It is no surprise that having been the Attorney General of the state that houses the world’s financial capital since January 1999, and having engaged in and won many battles with some of the biggest names on Wall Street, Mr. Spitzer clearly is a determined and focused social advocate.

He belongs to that rare breed of politicians who understand that profound social changes are best achieved through advocacy by holders of government offices and innovative application of the legal system. He has taken on the world’s largest businesses to reduce environmental pollution, tackled the largest investment banks on Wall Street about their complicity in misleading investors through doctored analyst reports and engendered prescription drug reforms among other things.

Mr. Spitzer attended some of the world’s finest educational institutions, having attended Princeton and the Harvard Law School. Some of the big businesses he has gone after are led by alumni of his alma matter, but this notwithstanding has not deterred him from his pursuit of reform.

The Nigerian polity could do with a few Eliot Spitzers. There is a need for people of high intellect, pristine moral standards and ethical courage to aspire to and ascend political offices. We need to have politicians who are not afraid to tackle corruption and through creative use of the legal system stimulate profound social changes. In order for this to prevail, there is a need to institutionalize ways of imparting ethics in the youth as early on in their lives as possible. There is a need for a situation where people have a clear perception of what is wrong and right, and what is legal and illegal and take responsibility for righting wrongs and setting in motion legal processes to redress illegalities.

It does not make sense for a group of people as vocal as Nigerians to demand truth, justice and fair play but not practice these themselves in every aspect of their lives and in their own little corner of Nigeria. If you demand constant supply of electricity, telecommunication services and clean water, then you must responsibly pay utility bills and not collude with corrupt officers of utility corporations to evade dues. If you demand good roads, public schools and quality health care, you must pay taxes and intelligently question how your taxes are disbursed and spent by public officers. If however you evade taxes and don’t pay utility bills, you truly have no ethical or legitimate grounds on which to demand these services.

There can be no privileges without responsibility. They go hand in hand. If Nigerians irresponsibly allow people of questionable character and competence to ascend to government offices through political apathy, or condone, encourage, perhaps even participate in fraudulent acts such as vote rigging or exchanging votes for money, where lies the legitimate grounds from which to complain.

Many politicians take advantage of the low level of enlightenment and abject poverty that still prevails in Nigeria to manipulate people to achieve their dubious ends. The low level of enlightenment makes it easy for these devious politicians to sow seeds of xenophobia with ethnic, religious and regional flavors. A case in mind is the recent senseless religious unrests in Northern and Eastern Nigeria, particularly in Maiduguri and Onitsha. It cannot be more asinine and patently illogical that innocent lives were lost because some misinformed and misguided individuals were incited by equally unenlightened leaders to riot over cartoons that were published last year in far away Denmark. Undoubtedly most of these rioters have absolutely no idea where Denmark is on the world map.

Why did not the Nigerian security agents act swiftly to quell the attacks? Why did the politicians, especially those with family ties across these religious and ethnic divides not make any public appeals for peace? The Vice President, Atiku, is from Northeastern Nigeria and is married to Titi, from the Southwest. Similarly, ex-head of state, Ibrahim Babangida is a moslem Northerner whose wife, Mariam is from Southeastern Nigeria, and who were both married in a church. Should these ties not be have been highlighted to help douse the riots? Rather, these politicians chose to keep mum. One can almost predict that in the next few weeks there is going to be a deluged of accusations and recriminations about what and who sparked off the riots.

The Obasanjo government should investigate the riots and make arrests of culprits both in Northern and Eastern Nigeria and bring to book guilty parties in these acts of ethnic cleansing as a signal to rioters that such criminal acts will not be tolerated. The truth is there can be no privileges without responsibility. And it's about time Nigerians understand this. People should be held accountable for their actions.

MEND - Non Compos Mentis Gang of Pirates

It is unconscionable and grossly maladroit that the situation in the Niger Delta has been allowed to deteriorate the way it has. We all acknowledge that there are very serious environmental degradation issues facing the people of the region, whose leadership has for so long paid lip-service to the matter and lived fat off the largesse and patronage of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and erring oil companies in return for their reticence and ineptitude. This of cause has resulted in the explosion of activist groups of all ilks, some with legitimate causes and others with illegitimate self-serving agenda.

From MOSOP to MEND, the clarion call has been for supporters to fight against the iniquities perpetrated by the FGN and oil companies in the communities. Countless souls have been lost to the cause, many of whom have been caught in the cross-fire between the FGN and activist groups.

The past few weeks have seen the escalation of frank terrorist acts by MEND in the wake of its spate of attacks on oil installations and kidnappings. The brazenness of these attacks and sophistication of the weaponry employed leaves one to wonder if indeed the Nigerian security agencies are up to the task of keeping peace and law and order in these regions.

The FGN should not stand akimbo and allow the breakdown of law and order to the extent that several of its security agents have been murdered as a result of MEND's seemingly unchallenged ambushes and acts of lawlessness. Even if they indeed have a legitimate cause, by setting fire to oil installations, murdering several Nigerian security agents and innocent civilians alike and kidnapping employees of oil operators, MEND has crossed the line, and no self-respecting government would condone such criminal acts.

MEND has several times admitted that it is a gang of pirates and oil bunkerers. Should the FGN be doing business with criminals? There are intelligence reports that MEND enjoyed the patronage of the impeached Bayelsa state governor, Alamieyeseigha, who bought their peace and quiet by paying protection money to the pirate organization in the name of security vote. In fact, one of MEND's primary demands in its January hostage taking was the release and reinstatement of the impeached and indicted governor.

It is disgraceful to say the least that this gang of a few hundred criminals can hold the FGN and indeed the world oil market to ransom. Their acts have led to the suspension of oil production activities in large sections of the Niger Delta, resulting in substantial reduction in daily national oil output (in excess of 10%) and indeed loss of revenue to the FGN. Allowing MEND free rein to terrorize folks with impunity in the Niger Delta puts the FGN in a bad light. It means that the FGN cannot protect the live and property of its citizens and expatriate workers. With no guarantees of security, economic activities are seriously hampered. The region will continue to suffer its state of abject underdevelopment as no business would invest in the unstable region.

The Niger Delta issue is a delicate one, but this is largely because many of these so called freedom fighters are dishonest, self-serving organizations whose agenda is to extort money from the FGN and oil operators. All one needs to do is ask what MEND and its ilk and affiliates do with all the monies they have over the decades gotten from the oil operators, the FGN and its agencies. The monies are shared amongst the leadership of these spurious groups and their patrons while the innocent indigenes of the Niger Delta are left to suffer the consequences of the environmental degradation that these organizations themselves perpetrate in their acts of sabotage and bunkering, during which they blow up oil pipelines in order to steal oil.

There should be no pretences. The FGN should stop seeking to be politically correct by its inaction while its security agents and innocent citizens are being maimed and murdered in addition to the attendant loss of revenue resulting from the shut down of oil production activities in these troubled regions. The solution, politically unpopular as it may be, is to come down hard on these murderers with maximum force. Route out every single member of these terrorist organizations and bring them to book. At the same time, the FGN should seek to do business with law abiding bonafide environmentalist groups who are genuinely pursuing the Niger Delta cause and not those wreaking havoc and asking for ransoms and billions of dollars in reparation to be paid to their leadership. No one has bothered to ask these pirates how the reparation money they demand would be disbursed to the common Niger Delta folk if the FGN is naive enough to grant their wish.

The FGN set up agencies such as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) into which it has poured several billions of dollars to cater to the developmental issues of Niger Delta. These agencies have been headed variously by indigenes of the Niger Delta since their inception in the 1960s, but alas have made little impact because they are replete with corruption. Should not these environmentalist groups in a concerted manner be directing their effort at ensuring that these agencies are properly run rather than perpetrating random acts of terror? Is it not better to garner the support of the international community through advocacy at international fora such as the United Nations assembly, Common wealth of Nations, European Union sessions etc? By their dastardly acts of terror, these belligerent groups deplore the Niger Delta cause, rendering it an unpopular cause to back by influential international environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who have the clout to engender lasting change in the region.

Where are the Honorable Men & Women in Plateau State?

The chronicle of events in Plateau state over the past few weeks has reduced the state to a theater of farce. On the one hand, we have a governor who has admitted to impropriety with the state’s ecological fund to the tune of 1.6 billion Naira, (Approximately $12 million); on the other we have people who are lending their support to him because he has fingered others with whom he allegedly committed the impropriety.

What boggles the mind is that rather than condemn this abominable conduct, the members of the state’s assembly who are supposed to check the state chief executive officer’s conduct are suing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for effecting an order freezing the state’s accounts and federal allocation in the wake of the morass the governor has worked himself into.

It is true that stanching funding to the state will create hardships and make governance difficult. But that is precisely what the EFCC seeks to achieve. By so doing it first of all renders unavailable funds prone to potential misappropriation, and second hopes to galvanize the honorable members of the state house of assembly to investigate allegations of graft and gross misconduct committed by the governor and subsequently impeach him if he is found wanton, to strip him of the immunity from prosecution he enjoys as governor, and allow for his indictment. If indeed honorable members of the state assembly are worthy their epithet, then it behooves them to judiciously and without bias, to investigate the allegation and cooperate with the EFCC to resolve the issue rather that assume an antagonistic posture that suggests their wholesale complicity in the matter.

They argue that the EFCC has no right to freeze the state accounts, but fail to acknowledge that the money comes from the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and as such the FGN has every right to question how the money is disbursed. Let me remind my honorable plateau state members and governor Dariye that in as much as plateau state is entitled to the FGN subvention, they are answerable not only to plateau state indigenes but every Nigerian citizen, all of whom to which monies allocated to states and FGN agencies belong. If you think because you are in plateau state, you can misappropriate FGN derived state funds, you must be grossly disillusioned. The money belongs to every Nigerian and must be properly accounted for.

Dariye was arrested and charged for money laundering in the United Kingdom in late 2004. He jumped bail and escaped to Nigeria back to the Plateau state government house, yet not one public figure in plateau state questioned this. Rather, we have so called prominent plateau politicians under the umbrella of Plateau Consultative Assembly paying the indicted and fugitive governor homage at the government house, in Rayfield, Jos to register their support. What exactly are they supporting? What message are they sending? Is it that they condone acts of graft, or that they are shameless and of dubious and crass political substance, or perhaps that they are in cahoots with the governor in the alleged acts of fiduciary impropriety?

Are there no honorable men and women in Plateau state? Are they all cronies of Dariye? If a state government and its house assembly have decided to institutionalize corruption, then the FGN has every right to withhold its subvention. The FGN has the primary responsibility to look out for the over 3 million citizens of plateau state, if the few hundred people elected and appointed to represent them are so blinded by greed and frank insincerity to do so.

The honorable thing for any public official to do under these circumstances in the civilized world is to resign, but of course water will sooner be squeezed out of a diamond than for Dariye to do this. Since Dariye would not resign and his cronies in the state assembly are reluctant to investigate him, then withholding the state’s subvention is the right thing for the FGN to do. After all, no right thinking person will keep his money carelessly where it will easily be stolen. Until the issue is resolved, it will be unwise for the FGN to continue to fund the state at the risk of the monies being frittered away into some state government official’s private bank account.

JCRC Throws out Three Terms of 4 Years Proposal - A Good Start

Members of the Nigerian national assembly Joint Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (JCRC) finally got it right yesterday when they resolved to exclude the three terms of four years for executive offices of the president and state governors proposal from the list of proposals for review. By so doing they have shown moral courage and integrity, and proved that they are not mere instruments of injustice and insincerity in the hands of the various governors and other political pundits and stakeholders that have given support to the proposal.

Of the 36 state governors in Nigeria, all but 9 have lent their support to the three term proposal. It begs the question if and how those governors in support are different from the sit-tight military regimes most of them were vociferously against in the days of Abacha and IBB. Asking for three terms of four years each means that a certain governor or president could be in power for a total of twelve years, far more than any government, military or civilian has stayed continuously in power. Regardless of performance, we may be stuck with the same executive officer for 12 years. This is how despots are made. By 2007, many of those clamoring for a third term to be added to their tenure would have been in power for eight years and yet have no real achievement to show for their leadership. Many have turned the state coffers into their personal piggy banks and I suspect that the reason why they seek a third term is so that they will continue to enjoy the protection of the immunity clause in the constitution, that way shielding themselves from indictment for graft and other acts of gross misconduct.

The JCRC should seriously take a look at this clause in the 1999 constitution of blanket immunity for executive officers, particularly the governors, because as has been proven by Mbadinuju, Alamieyeseigha and Dariye it is prone to abuse and ridicule. If there is anything positive that should result from the work of the committee, it should be reviewing this seriously flawed aspect of the constitution and making it applicable only to legitimate acts of governance. Nobody should be immune from prosecution for heinous crimes such as murder and graft for which some ex-governors have been indicted. Democracy is based on the principles of equality and justice and our elected officers are expected not only to dispense these but also to abide by them. If defined properly and applied correctly, immunity clauses are embedded in the constitution to enable the dispensation of justice and equity and not protect unjust and iniquitous governors from prosecution.

Another proposal that the JCRC should consider throwing out of their scope of deliberation is the issue of rotational presidency. There is no sincere logic other than selfish tribalism and rabid jingoism driving proponents of rotational presidency. Crafting a constitutional instrument to legitimize this will be the greatest disservice to democracy and justice. Not only will it breed mediocrity and an unwarranted sense of entitlement, it will deprive the Nigerian populace of the most able leadership at each point in time since the available choices will be limited only to candidates from the region to which the presidency has been zoned. If there are six zones as being proposed, then we are talking of excluding 83.33% of the potential pool of candidates, a gross miscarriage of justice and frank perversion of democracy.

Malu's Murkiness

Erstwhile Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Victor Malu's statement yesterday at the Arewa Consultative Forum (AFC) meeting is unfortunate, and to say the least shameful. It only goes to show the level of depravity, decadence and arcane sense of entitlement that permeates the Nigerian military, borne of years of their illegitimate usurpation of power. Victor Malu should know that had he forcibly taken over from a democratically elected government, not only would he have committed a treasonable felony, but he would have constituted an illegitimate government. Nigeria clearly deserves a more discerning mind at the helm. If Malu wants power, he should vie for it at the polls and not seize it like the other rogue military misadventurists before him.

Just because a soldier is given the opportunity to serve his country does not mean that he has the right to bully everybody with the military resources at his disposal and seize power to lord it over the same people he has sworn to protect. Military governments are not only a gross betrayal of trust and duty; they are anachronistic and have no place in the present global political landscape.

The many years of military incursion into governance in Nigeria undoubtedly is the bane of the country's present socio-economic, cultural and political predicament. The military is trained in the art of violence and war, not governance. They have done a woeful job at governance each time they have expropriated power from the people. All the despotism and the greater portion of the corrupt acts of graft, human rights abuses and embezzlement of public funds have been perpetrated by and during military regimes. The intermittent interferrence of the Nigerian military in governance has been the reason why Nigeria is politically immature and economically inept. But this notion is probably too abstract and complex to grasp, and lost on a bitter mind such as Malu's.

It is no wonder that President Obasanjo relieved him of his post. He was obviously drunk on the power that he had been bestowed as the Chief of Army Staff, and now that he is bereft of it, he is a bitter sulking sod. The Nigerian Army and indeed the entire Nigerian polity would be better off if people like Malu were not given audience. Gunk bleeds from a broken mind. And we should be spared the grief of listenning to it. We can only hope he has not succeeded in tainting the minds of the younger men and women of the Nigerian military. He should be thankful that he made this base statement in democratic times. I doubt that he would have dared to make such an unguarded statement under a military regime (Abacha would have skinned him alive). It is ironic that he regrets not snuffing out the very same freedom he currently enjoys just because he disapproves of the president's style.

Malu, what would you have done, had you succeeded in taking over from OBJ and some bitter ex-COAS uttered the very same statement you made at the ACF meeting? I bet you would have charged the sorry sod for treason. Should the same fate apply to you under the present dispensation?