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The past one week has been one of the most momentous in the life of the nation. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu dared the undared, and triumphed. He passed a knotty test of leadership. The first of its kind. Under a haze of threats of strike by labour unions over the abrogation of petrol subsidy, President Tinubu showed peerless leadership, preparation, and attunement. When preparation meets leadership, Tinubu happens.
THE PETROL SUBSIDY BLUES
With mounting national debts, desiccating revenue, haemorrhaging economy, corruption, and shadowy sectoral enterprise, the removal of subsidy on petrol is coming at an auspicious time. It is either we slither down the snaky tunnel to certain economic peril or we buck up, pull together, and confront this bogeyman menacing us for decades.
Tough decisions are expected. President Tinubu affirmed a fait accompli when he said in his inaugural address that petrol subsidy ‘’is gone’’. The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 signed by former President Buhari already made the petrol subsidy regime inoperative. Although the effective abolishment of the scheme was delayed until the end of June 2023, there are no funds to finance the deficit.
But the President had been forthright and genuine about his intentions on petrol subsidy. He said during the campaigns that he would not maintain the parlous order, and that he would stop the haemorrhage.
Nigeria had been borrowing to fund petrol subsidy. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) was spending as much as N400 billion every month to subsidise the petrol price. According to Mele Kyari, NNPCL CEO, Nigeria has racked up $6 billion in petrol subsidy debts. The scheme is projected to have wolved over N11 trillion in eight years. This is clearly not sustainable, not even for any avidly populist government. Without an accurate data of Nigeria’s daily petrol consumption quota, the petrol subsidy regime was nebulous and prone to abuse, and chronic venality. Much of the subsidised product is believed to be smuggled to neighbouring West African countries by profiteers.
The argument for petrol subsidy retention is an emotive one that obviates the filth in the system. Nigeria is a quasi-socialist country, a highly subsidised country. Corruption thrives partly because of the regime of subsidies.
EARNING PUBLIC TRUST
The President once said he had prepared himself, all his life, to lead Nigeria. His artful management of the concomitants and corollaries of the petrol subsidy removal accents this conviction. He has triumphed where many leaders failed. How did he do it?
On Monday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) suspended the planned strike. Earlier, the Joint Health Workers Union of Nigeria (JOHESU) suspended its planned strike as well. A government delegation had been meeting with the labour unions, negotiating terms of entente. The president, himself, had met with the leadership of JOHESU. He did not stay behind the ornated walls of his office while his aides do the jaw-jawing. He got his hands on the wheel.
The President was unambiguous about his proposition to the unions – providing palliatives, particularly minimum wage review — to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal. At a meeting with some governors, the president had said: “We need to do some arithmetic and soul searching on the minimum wage. We will have to take a look at that together, and the revenue. We must strengthen the source and application of our revenue.’’
The federal government and the labour unions agreed to ‘’establish a joint committee to review the proposal for any wage increase or award and establish a framework and timeline for implementation” and ‘’to review World Bank Financed Cash Transfer scheme and propose inclusion of low-income earners in the programme.’’
Evidently, the President anticipated a problem and primed a solution.
During the campaigns, the President made a valiant statement on axing petrol subsidy and other economic blackholes. What many considered a political suicide attempt at the time. But he stuck to his guns.
He said: “By all means, you must have electricity. And you won’t pay for estimated billing anymore. When I become president, multiple exchange rates will go away. Write it down. How can we be subsidising fuel consumption of Cameroon, Niger, Benin Republic? No matter how long you protest, we are going to remove subsidy. We can do it. We are educated enough.’’
The honesty, courage and forthrightness exemplified by the President in this instance was infectious. He did not dilly-dally or play around the critical issue with political chicanery; he made a firm statement and asked Nigerians to hold him to his word.
And staying true to principle, his first presidential dispatch was to permanently seal the drainpipe. He showed sincerity of purpose, genuineness, and clarity of mind. Honesty is infectious. Nigerians saw the sincerity of the President and the decisiveness of his leadership. He did not get into the saddle and change from Rock and Roll to Rhythm and Blues; he maintained the same tempo; the same energy, the same oomph; the same vision, the same truth, and the same purpose. When preparation meets leadership, Tinubu happens.
The President has earned public trust and goodwill for his honesty and firmness of character. He is aware. Two days after his inauguration, two law enforcement agencies got into a public brawl. He did not dither. He did not vacillate. He did not look away. He issued a stern reprimand.
Nigeria has a leader who is not afraid of taking tough decisions for the greater good. The President may have prepared himself for leadership, but destiny prepared him for Nigeria at this time.
A major issue during the week, was the advice by a member of Nigeria Interreligious Council (NIREC) and former National Director of Legal and Public Affairs, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Evangelist Samuel Kwankur, to the Northern leaders to caution the former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to refrain from inflammatory statements capable of setting Nigeria on fire.
Kwankur was reacting to statements credited to the former governor in which he allegedly told his audience before handing over to his successor that the Islamic dominance in Kaduna had come to stay and had been successfully replicated at the federal level.
El-Rufai spoke in Hausa. I only have a passing understanding of the language. But those that are versed in it, allege that he had sniggered that the emergence of Bola Tinubu had silenced CAN, the umbrella body of Christians in the country and that he would ensure an uninterrupted Islam-dominated government in Kaduna and at the national level for the next 20 years and beyond.
Now, in a highly volatile and religion-sensitive setting as Nigeria and especially, a complex entity as Kaduna, the remarks by the former governor, are uncalled for. They are not edifying. At his age and the positions he had held, either as governor, Director-General, Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, El-Rufai, should be seen and addressed as an elder. Elders are cautious and measured in outings and utterances.
Age and position mellow the activism in one and make him sober and reflective. But this does not seem the case for the former governor. In fact, it can only take those not familiar with his antecedents to be surprised that he could be associated with the careless comments attributed to him. He is free with words and deploys them at will, not minding the consequences.
On the alleged Islamisation comments, he was on familiar track. Recall that as a governor, he had, in flagrant disregard to the complex cultural and religious sensitivities of Kaduna, appointed a fellow Muslim, Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, as deputy and carried on as if it did not matter. He even encouraged his successor and protégé, Senator Uba Sani, to follow the odious step.
For El-Rufai, a man of brief size and height, controversy seems a second name. He courts it and revels in it, even at the cost of public good. He is never tired of playing games with important issues. To him, everything is politics and politics is everything.
Recall when he threatened international election observers that they would be evacuated in body bags if they ventured into the country to monitor the 2019 presidential elections. Recall, also, when he claimed being asked to offer bribes by Senators during his screening for ministerial appointment, during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency but when pressed to provide evidence on his claims, he chickened out, saying God was his witness.
Once on this space, I had noted that the former governor acts the good boy, when it suits his agenda and hits hard when he has an interest to pursue. He has not deviated from that path. For him, scruples are matters of convenience to be observed when necessary but can be discarded, if need be. He is shrewd. And cold! The trend, now, is the scramble by leading members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for appointments at the centre. El-Rufai is equally on heat, sort of, in that regard and needed to court the attention of President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, his fellow Muslims.
Of course, there is nothing wrong in his aspiration for any job or position that animates him. He is also free to support any candidate of any religious persuasion that excites him. They are all within his constitutional rights. The beauty of democracy is plurality of views and opinions. It is a game of numbers but certainly not without principles and guidelines. El-Rufai should not be allowed to re-write those rules while pursuing his personal interest. He cannot be allowed to create the bubble and move on, as he has always done. He should be stopped from his antics before they do enormous harm on Kaduna state and the country at large.
Kaduna was the capital of the defunct Northern Region and the seat of government from where the late Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, provided people-oriented governance to the region. Till date, it remains the pride of the North and every Northerner of note. Nigeria has always passed for a secular state where no particular faith has dominance over others. There is no state religion. The situation should remain so.
The danger in the careless remarks by El-Rufai, is that they are capable of setting the country on the edge. The immediate past Muhammadu Buhari administration did not manage the diversities in the country very well. It rather widened the major fault lines among the citizens on ethnic and religious grounds. El-Rufai was close to the government and a visible ally to Buhari. A system with people like him on drivers’ seats can hardly make progress.
Tinubu and Shettima need to be on the watch. The controversies and contentions surrounding their emergence are yet to settle. The suspicion on their same-faith ticket is still thick. They also have the huge tasks of national healing and reconciling the various tendencies in the land. Nigeria has witnessed so much waste of its citizens over avoidable circumstances to allow petty issues as religion and choice of leadership burden it more.
Recent reports by the people of Southern Kaduna, under the aegis of Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA), that 518 people have been killed, 20 villages ransacked, 18 burnt down, and thousands of victims rendered refugees across many communities from 2017 till date, over the persistent attacks and killings in Atyapland in the Zangon Kataff Local Government Area of Kaduna State, should matter to the new authorities in the state and Abuja. El-Rufai was the governor at the time of these gruesome occurrences. The figure speaks volume of what lies ahead if he is allowed to forge ahead with his Islamisation agenda.
Speaking of late Chiefs Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola politics, I have a pertinent personal testimony to tender. I had a pretty early and unique exposure to Nigerian politics which can be literally cited as baptism of fire. I was born into one of the contradictions of Yoruba politics which fostered in me a lifelong skeptical attitude towards the totality of Nigerian politics and its received wisdoms.
My first memory of life on this planet was as a witness to an arson attack on our residence, as me and my grandmother fled the scene. She had earlier refused entreaties to leave the compound because in her consideration, her son had not committed any crime, let alone, the generic accusation of public office theft, with which, the Western regional political leadership under the premiership of Ladoke Akintola were collectively tarred. Her son and my father, was Chief Oduola Osuntokun, who served as cabinet minister from 1955 to 1966 straddling the premiership of Chiefs Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola.
Why would, perhaps, one of the most ethically upright and conscientious public servant of his generation be subjected to the censure and demonisation that was visited on those who took sides with Akintola in the violent Awolowo/Akintola schism that rocked the Western region from 1962 to 1966? It is on record that, as Minister, he midwifed the establishment of the ikeja, ilupeju and bodija housing estates without allocating a single plot of land, directly or by proxy to himself.
More significant was the character witness of being the only Minister exonerated by the Justice Kayode Esho panel that was charged by the first military governor of the Western region, Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi to probe the preceding Akintola government. Neither did he partake of the widespread election rigging that characterised the 1965 regional elections in the Western region were the testimonies of his opponents in the four general elections he contested to be believed.
This was the riddle I had to grapple with as a child growing up in the Yoruba society of the late sixties and early seventies. Yet, in acknowledgement of one of those rare moments of ‘good things happening to good people’
I would, at this juncture, want to express my immense appreciation and gratitude to the Odua group of companies, for deeming my dad worthy of adoption as a political role model in its memorialisation of Yoruba exemplars. The debt of gratitude I owe, commensurately escalates, with the choice of my uncle, Professor Olukayode Osuntokun for the same recognition in the academic/ professional category.
In earnest, the phenomenon of Awolowo’s embodiment of Yoruba politics, began with the formation of the egbe omo Oduduwa in 1948. ‘In 1951 he founded the Action Group, with some of the Egbe’s members as its nucleus, and in the process became the party’s first president. In the same year, the party won the first elections held in the Western Region, and Awolowo subsequently served as leader of government business and minister for local government.
From 1954 to 1959, as premier of the Western Region, he worked, assiduously, to establish the imperishable legacy of the socioeconomic transformation of the Western region with such enormously successful progressive policies as free universal primary education and free health care for children. The constitutional provision of
regional autonomy that undergirded the practice of Nigerian federalism gave him the latitude to make a peerless impact on the socioeconomic development of the Western region and thereby eternally capture the imagination of the Yoruba people.
From the authentic and the original to the mutant and superficial, the Awolowo political brand has run the gamut of the Action Group, AG, Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the Alliance for Democracy, AD until all pretences and affectation of any such brand were thrown overboard at the formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC in 2015.
The stillborn outreach of Awolowo to the similarly rigorous modernisation platform of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and the NCNC was resurrected in the formation of the United Progressives Grand Alliance between the AG and the NCNC (shorn of its Western region component) in 1964. ‘Up until the eve of the civil war, argues Ralph Uwechue, Nigerian politics was dominated by the big three tribes….In this triangular fight the key to victory was the combination of any two sides. It did not matter which two’
This was the political challenge and context that subsequently tasked Awolowo in his bid to become the Prime Minister of Nigeria in 1960. Thus advised, he reached out for a coalition with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC (dominated by the Igbo writ large Eastern region). For reasons that were not quite clear, his hands of fellowship were spurned by Azikiwe in preference for Ahmadu Bello and the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC.
Beyond the speculation of a tit for tat display of ethnic chauvinism, semblance of an explanation may be found in the calculations of patronage politics and benefits accruable to any of the southern regional rivals that secures an alliance with the Northern region partnership. In the event, the most insidious by-product of this alliance was the lapse into ideological normlessness and a resultant prioritisation of the politics of consumption over the sacrificial and tasking politics of development.
The coup and counter coup of 1966 and its ultimate degeneration into the civil war in 1967 required Awolowo and the Yoruba to make a choice of which side to support between the North and the East. It was a no easy choice and it would take the strategic cultivation of Awolowo by the northern dominated federal government and the non strategic implacability of Ojukwu and the Eastern regional political elite to break the tie. Integral to the choice was the notion that whichever party that released Awolowo from prison was always guaranteed to reap a debt of gratitude from the Yoruba political leader.
Nonetheless, the natural allies of the North among the Yoruba was the Akintola faction and this dialectical contradiction reasserted itself in the political isolation of Awolowo to its regional stronghold in the 1979 presidential election. The fact that he felt compelled to seek recourse to the incredulous (and non-starter) presidential ticket comprising himself and Philip Umeadi from the South East was an indication of his
insurmountable political distance from the north. The futile defiant gesture of this presidential ticket ironically bolstered his credentials as the avenging angel of the progressive political movement of Nigeria.
The bitter political reality of Nigeria was that Awolowo would only have a fighting chance of realising his presidential ambition once he was ready to capitulate and played the protégé to the mentorship of the feudal conservative North. This option of self-abnegation (otherwise coined political compromise) was, of course, one step too far for Awolowo to contemplate and the reality must have dawned on him even if he gave the impression of being oblivious of it.
Out of the ashes of Awolowo’s frustrations as leader of opposition at the national Parliament, rose his belligerent backward glance at the position he voluntarily relinquished and bestowed on Akintola. As the tension between the two intensified, so did pressure grow on Akintola to seek a powerful external ally in the regionally controlled federal government. In the circumstance, Akintola entertained no compunction in accepting the terms of the relationship including, especially, the implication to serve as proxy for Sir Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa.
A critical aspect of the ensuing patron/client relationship was the entitlement to increased patronage (appointments, scholarships etc) from the federal government. This sense of entitlement played out in a chauvinistic inter ethnic jostling between the East and the West for the dispensation of pork from the senior partner.
The struggle was theatrically captured in a witty rendition by Akintola in his peerless mastery of Yoruba illocution and lores. It was accomplished through a dexterous manipulation of the surname of Dr Ikechukwu Ikejiani who was the chairman of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, ECN. Intended to illustrate the lopsided patronage of the Igbo to the disadvantage of the Yoruba at the federal government level, Akintola parodies “Ikinni a ni, ikeji a ni, iketa a ni”. Pronounced in Yoruba tonation, Ikejiani means, the ‘second one is given’.
Deriving from this deliberate malappropriation, the late Premier draws a sketch of a tendentious marginalisation of the Yoruba corresponding to the gluttonous satiety of the Igbo. He then contrived a three line stanza to prove the point, with a preceding ‘Ikinni a ni’ (the first is given) to Ikeji a ni (the second one is given) followed by Iketa a ni (the third one equally takes!).
Ultimately, the objective of Akintola was (for the Yoruba) to supplant the Igbo as the new favoured beneficiary of federal government largesse
The incendiary tribal jingoism was perniciously echoed in the ivory towers and the point of incidence was the university of Lagos. In the words of Tim Livsey, “The University of Lagos, like the universities at Ibadan and Ife, was affected by the rise of the NNDP (Akintola’s party), which had formed a coalition with the NPC in the federal government. The NNDP took the federal education portfolio, and installed nominees on the University of Lagos council”.
“A crisis broke out in February 1965 when the university council announced that Prof Eni Njoku, the founding vice-chancellor, would be replaced by Dr Saburi Biobaku. Njoku was considered a capable administrator, and his dismissal was widely understood in ethno-political terms because he was Igbo and supported the NCNC. ‘It will be difficult for the Council’, noted the ‘West African Pilot’, ‘to escape the charge that it has practised naked tribalism’’.
Like Akintola before him, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s politics is predicated on the victimisation of the Igbo on one hand and voluntary (albeit gainful) submission to the protective custody of the Muslim North on another. The former was unfurled in raw and open display of latent genocidal threat to the Igbo during the 2023 general elections in Lagos while the latter was heralded by a subordinate partnership in the formation of the APC and a crowning Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket.
Substantially and within the context of Yoruba politics, the emergence of Tinubu as the President of Nigeria is an epiphenomenon of the transition from Awolowo politics to Akintola politics. Indeed, it is the ultimate triumph of Akintola’s vision of Nigerian politics encapsulated in a menu comprising pragmatic hostility against the Igbo; pragmatic deference to the north and pragmatic monetisation of politics.
Whether President Bola Tinubu exhibited extraordinary courage speaking about removing subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at his inauguration is debatable.
In raising the debate, we should consider whether Tinubu or any other person elected now has any choice but to end this subsidy regime. The answer is no and for at least two reasons.
The first is that Nigeria is in dire financial straits. Saving the trillions the government claims to spend on subsidies yearly will save us some trouble.
Secondly, the Petroleum Industry Act, of 2021 has already initiated a new legal and governance structure for the oil and gas sector, and payment of subsidies has no place there. In fact, but for the incompetence of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, which suspended the implementation of the Act, Nigeria would, by now, have taken its baby steps and contended with the initial challenges of the policy. But our leaders, taking governance for a joke, are mostly after populism.
Doesn’t this contradict the suggestion that Tinubu did not display unusual courage at Eagle Square? No.
The point is that Tinubu became President when Nigeria had no choice but to do something about this subsidy regime. This is the reason Vice President Kashim Shettima told the media: “… either we get rid of the subsidy, or the fuel subsidy gets rid of the Nigerian nation….” This decision had to be made, courage or no courage.
While speaking about courage, however, we should also ponder whether courage is just a raw display of ability. I don’t think so, especially concerning leadership and public policy. Accompanying a leader’s audacity must be discretion and compassion for the people. Even more so in a society that requires multi-level changes.
I agree that Tinubu espoused change in that off-the-cuff declaration at Eagle Square. But one person or even a select few cannot change a country. It is a fallacy that democracy won’t accommodate. Enduring change occurs when people buy into and pursue a vision with as much vigour as their leader. The measure of effective leadership is how much success you make in transmitting your vision to others; only then can you achieve change. I suggest that discretion about timing, communication, and compassion for the people are embedded in courage.
One of the most phenomenal stories of the rebirth of nations is Singapore under the leadership of the inimitable Lee Kuan Yew.
Although Yew sometimes tended towards benevolent dictatorship, he made deliberate efforts to raise social consciousness and gain the understanding and support of his people through mass mobilisation. His government’s “greatest asset was the trust and confidence of the people.”
In his book, From Third World to First World, he discusses when he wanted to reduce traffic congestion around the capital. He explains: “…I learned that if I wanted to get an important proposal accepted at all levels, I should first float the ideas with my ministers, who will then discuss them with the permanent secretaries and officials. After I got their reactions, I would discuss the proposal with those who had to make it work. If, like the transport system, it concerned large numbers of people, I would get the issue into the media for public discussion. Hence, before we decided on an underground mass rapid transit, we had a public debate for a year….”
On another occasion, he reckoned that nurturing talents for the country’s future depended on reducing the rate male graduates married “less educated and less intelligent women.”
Yew went on prime-time television to say that these men were stupid, which brought consternation. To douse the tension, he presented a 1980 study conducted in Minnesota, United States, showing that nearly 80 percent of a person’s makeup is from nature and about 20 percent from nurture. He established a Social Development Unit headed by a lady who exemplified his vision to facilitate the actualisation of the revolution he envisioned.
Soon, many of those upset at his “discriminatory” and “disrespectful” position saw the point. The government achieved this through continuous public sensitisation and consensus building. That process of change management, which includes getting the people’s buy-in, is what successive governments need to improve in Nigeria. President Tinubu must resist the temptation to take Nigerians for granted by first taking actions that impact their lives and explaining them later. This is more so because he inherited a considerable trust deficit between the government and the governed, and he must work hard to restore confidence.
Concerning removing subsidies, for instance, there are sound economic arguments to band around. But in convincing the people, we must maintain sight of the socio-political and governance issues involved. This includes the tentative nature of gains made from previous attempts to remove subsidies and the unconvincing results of subsidy removal on diesel, kerosene, and aviation fuel. What did the common man gain from this other than a price increase?
Indeed, the opacity in the oil and gas sector makes the petrol subsidy a corruption haven. There are arguments that Nigeria would do much better subsidising production than consumption. This is even though petrol is a factor of production for many small and medium-scale enterprises in the country. They also say that the masses only have tokenistic benefits from the tonnes of money invested in fuel subsidies. The idea is that rather than fund the indulgences of the rich, who drive multiple cars, conserving the trillions otherwise spent on subsidies and investing in same social services and physical infrastructural development does more for the people.
All of these make good sense, yet the government should make Nigerians understand why they must first undergo the pains of subsidy removal before enjoying the dividends of good governance.
And it is a fundamental question. When you consider that the most frequent excuses given by successive governments and analysts revolve around massive corruption and the smuggling of petrol to neighbouring countries, you wonder why the government cannot tackle corruption and make its Customs service more efficient. These are basic crimes that are within the purview of a responsible government. How does the government outsource the solution by adopting a decision that hurts the people? Why can’t government deal with crime?
We can extend this argument to ask how a government that can’t secure its border hopes to wrestle with oil theft or deal with the problem of light weapons and small arms. How is it the people’s lot to bear the pain of the government’s failure to make the refineries work after reportedly spending $25 billion on maintenance in the same country where a new refinery was just completed for $18.5 billion?
How do you justify fostering economic hardship on the people when government officials throw ostentation in their faces? When politicians live large amid the same people who strive to survive? How is it that in all the years that we have attempted to remove subsidy, successive governments have failed to strengthen the processes and remove some, if not all, of the opacity around governance? It is so bad that the immediate past President went from declaring that there was nothing like subsidy in 2012 to ending up as the leader that spent over N11.75 trillion on the same phantom! How?
So, as the Tinubu administration commits itself to removing subsidies, it must give cognisance to the rights of Nigerians to know and be treated well in the process. This is not so much about palliatives as it is about ensuring that government explains its past failures and enunciates specific benefits from this policy. These promises should also be specific, measurable, and time-bound such the people can hold the government accountable.
The government must also show its capacity to govern effectively. We must stop giving citizens (who, by electing leaders yield their destinies to the government) the impression that certain crimes defy the government’s capacity. Bring everyone who has cheated the country to book and show that no one is above the law.
Government must also reduce waste and the glitz associated with public office. Above all, there must be more transparency and accountability in public offices. No society governed by the level of arrogant opaqueness in Nigeria will make sustainable progress, subsidy, or no subsidy.
Nigeria is more divided than ever, and the politicians of Nigeria have gone completely mad. It is as though everybody is now totally beyond control. Nigerians have replaced the Constitution with just one word: Impunity.
Of course in this matter of impunity, there is no difference between the parties and the politicians because crossing party lines rampantly like harlots-on-heat is all the rage. There is no redemption in sight for the odious lot. These wanton Nigerian politicians need to be reminded of what happened in Ghana back in 1979.
Then Flight Lieutenant John Jerry Rawlings decided to have a say in the power equation of Ghana by shooting to death three former Heads of State, Generals Ignatius Acheampong, Afrifa, and Fred Akuffo.
Nigerian politicians always lamely assert: “It can never happen here. Nigeria is not Ghana bla… bla… bla…” We only need to be reminded that there is always a first time. Democracy should not be reduced to blackmail as is being currently done in Nigeria. Things are going mightily wrong here, and the leaders appear not to notice.
Hunger has reached unprecedented levels in the history of the country. In the Second Republic, the then Transport Minister Umaru Dikko infamously said that there was no hunger in Nigeria because the people had not started eating from the refuse dumps.
Nobody in their right mind can deny that Nigerians are today scavenging for food from the refuse heaps behind the homes of the rich and powerful. Cost of living is now out of the reach of the so-called average Nigerian. Little wonder most people now take refuge in betting and gambling, and generally wiling away time in the new-fangled churches that promise all kinds of miracles.
The rulers ought to see that there exists in Nigeria today a separation of the government from the people. In one of his more famous poems, the late German playwright Bertolt Brecht made the suggestion that the government ought to dissolve the people and elect another “people” since the people had forfeited confidence in the government!
It is this kind of dangerous pass that leads to bloody revolution. It appears as though the powers-that-be are not in the know that much of the world views Nigeria as a joke, a lost cause. Every report emanating from all cardinal points point to the fact that Nigeria is actually a failed state.
The uncontrolled killing spree of the Fulani herdsmen grates the mind. The vexed matter of Biafra is on the upsurge. The Niger Delta insurgency is threatening to come back in full force. Kidnapping is now the rule rather than the exception. Mind boggling robberies take place with the police running for their dear lives.
Security which ought to be the first guarantee of the government is only observed in the breach. For every Nigerian, it is now OYO (i.e. On Your Own!). Something needs to be given now. When Acheampong was carrying on in Ghana with the largesse of incumbency, he thought quite little of the danger that Rawlings represented.
The initial mutiny of Rawlings was of course thwarted and he was thrown into prison, awaiting execution, only for his group to upturn the apple cart which led to the public execution of Acheampong, Afrifa and Akuffo on charges of corruption.
Things change and remain the same in Nigeria – or in fact get worse: Inconclusive elections… Hopeless budgets… Endless fuel queues… Collapsing currency… Diabolical darkness… Forex abracadabra… Presidential tourism… Judicial absurdities…
People are more or less left embracing self-help. The overconfidence of our ruling politicians reminds me of a passage I read in the trashy fiction of my teenage years, to wit, James Hadley Chase in The Sucker Punch: “It is only when a guy gets so full of confidence in his ability that he is wide open for the sucker punch. I have seen it happen again and again in my racket. A guy commits murder, fakes an alibi and thinks he can cover up. Then wham! And he is flat on his back. Only he’s damn sight worse than a busted jaw.”
Our caterwauling politicians are not unlike the ungainly crooks in the genre thrillers of James Hadley Chase. They will, like all the fictional characters, come to a tacky end in the archetypal mode that stresses: Crime does not pay.
We need to be reminded that the democracy that Ghana is being praised for today came at a steep cost. Rawlings was the man who made change possible in Ghana. It is so saddening that Nigeria may end up needing the shock treatment like that of good old J.J. Rawlings to get its bearing right.
Of course it is not too late in the day for Nigerian leaders to tell themselves the home truth and thus avert the doom that the Rawlings treatment portends. This is not a warning – it is a revelation.
The storm in Sudan has been raging for almost two months and it has shown no sign of abating. More than 1, 800 persons have been killed and no less than 1.6 million have been displaced. Aljazeera has reported that Saudi Arabia and the United States brokered peace talks have been suspended. It is a blame game on which party breached the ceasefire agreement yesterday and who punctured the delicate calm understanding today. The combatants are by now well known. They are the mainstream armed forces loyal to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Head of Government on the one hand, and the Rapid Support Forces on the other headed by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. These consist of paramilitaries loyal to former warlord Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti. Muscle flexing between the two senior officers was deliberately triggered by the fallen President Omar al-Bashir now standing trial at The Hague. The speculation was that he set one party against the other so that he could hold on to power through the impossibility of marriage of minds against his brutal and despicable rulership. He was eventually kicked out in 2019, but the seed of a power struggle had long been sowed even before then according to reports. As is usually the case when rivalry is driven by envy and hate, complicated by conceit, the situation drifted to the point the two parties had to choose between peace and war. Unfortunately, as they were armed and could be said to be equally matched, they elected the latter—war!
Over the ages when confronted with that choice, man has always fallen for war and destruction. Do we need to cast our minds back to history? Has the war between Ukraine and Russia not proven the point and, indeed, gotten complicated before our very eyes with the attendant and unbelievably mindless destruction of lives and property? Let’s reflect upon it. Consider it: homelessness, long and hopeless columns of displaced people fleeing to safety. On the last count, 1.6 million. It is easier to destroy than to build. Because building requires effort, man will rather permit indolence to prevail than allow exertion to take the front burner in the struggle with himself. Consequently, the recourse to war and the attendant ruination, hiding under the cover of national integrity, prestige, and justice. Only on Tuesday, a dam in Ukraine was blown with bombs, blamed on Russia enemy action. Over 80 communities were reportedly being evacuated. On Wednesday, six missiles described as “unstoppable” were shot down by Ukraine.
The inalienable property every human being is endued is the gift of free will, the freedom to choose. To be or not to be. And every choice has consequences, some grave and ruinous while others uplift and build up. They could engender peace and harmony if the choice springs from the thought of peace, from the high, noble, and that which is pure.
Justice is desirable and attainable. It must be a goal. But there is a lack of understanding of what the terms mean, that is national integrity, prestige, and justice. Take for example, Justice. Justice is severe. And usually, we go out in search of justice from others and not from ourselves. But justice must start from self. When a man is first severe with himself, he will be just to others. Man resorts to war for his own self-glory, power, influence, acknowledgment, and admiration. We human beings seek to attract attention to ourselves and cultivate fame rather than the nobility of the spirit. We work deliberately to be known in history. The battle is with oneself and not with his neighbour. According to the higher knowledge spreading on earth today, each has enough on his hands to battle — with himself until the end of his life in this world.
The Rapid Support Forces was set up by President Bashir to crush the rebellion which had festered for more than 20 years in Southern Darfur that had complained of political and economic exclusion by the central government. At the end of the military action in Darfur, the two parties cooperated to oust President Bashir in 2019. There was collaborative working in power sharing between the military and the civilians that led the protests which triggered the fall of President Bashir. This arrangement broke down following continuing protests over economic difficulties in the country. The coup brought the military back into governance, but this again did not reduce the protests because the civilians wanted oversight over the military in power and demanded the fusion of the two separate arms of the Armed Forces, the mainstream and the Rapid Support Forces. Hamdan Dagolo (Hemedti) threw his weight behind the transition to democratic order. This raised fresh tension because this did not go down well with the military ruler, Burhan. Justice was also demanded for the killings of pro-democracy activists which occurred in 2019 and for those killed by the security forces since the 2021 coup. They were said to be no fewer than 125 activists and protesters.
It is unfortunate that when the drive to hostilities came to a head on the cliff, it could not be arrested and there was a headlong plunge into the valley, turning Sudan into a land of war. This is proof that mankind has not advanced a jot from the point they were thousands of years back when savagery and merry-making were man’s ultimate and when he found fulfillment in war. It is only the instruments of war and merry-making and raiment that have changed, not man himself. In place of swords, machetes, and arrows by warriors on horses, there are now Abrams tanks, Challenger 2 and Leopards 2 tanks; B-52 bombers and Jaguar bombers, missiles, marines, and chemical weapons and nuclear bombs.
Progress lies in everyone changing, from the leaders to the led, in everyone genuinely seeking true knowledge, and having firm volition for what is good and in giving purity to our thoughts. The knowledge that must be sought must be the one that explains the origin of man, his tasks, and his goals. With the attainment of such knowledge, it can then be seen whether wars are part of the tasks and whether they advance a human being towards his goal in the world. Terrible and terrifying consequences of war have been visited on Ukraine as well as Sudan since hostilities came to a head in the two countries; first to the human person and then to their land, environment, and property. The consequences will return to those flying the bombers themselves or those firing long-range tanks, Leopard 2, no matter how heroic they may feel after every raid on their targets. For every injury and death brought by the wars, there are horrifying consequences, indeed, encompassing indescribable torments, beyond the earthly. The citizens will live in anxiety for their lives until the hostilities cease completely.
How then does a war start? It brews from wrong living by human beings even if they are far-flung at the other end of the world. The consequences return in reciprocity to their authors. All around us is living, vacuous as it may appear. There is ceaseless surging and weaving around each person. A new carpet of fate is woven without stop which a person will be compelled to experience at a later date. The hour of return will depend on the nature of the seed sown. We learn in higher knowledge spreading across the globe today that at each moment, a person stands in the reactions of his past activities. He is connected with the threads he has spun, threads from the radiations of his volition. He who spins threads of goodness in all his activities, for example, is enveloped in kindness to him, in peace and upliftment. In a similar outworking, there is no one who is evil that gets away with it, nor is there anyone who does good and gives understanding consideration to his fellowman who is himself not ennobled. As it is for goodness and compassion, so is it with peace. He who wants peace must long and work for it, otherwise, the weaving will be such that he will fall into the hands of those with his nature, who don’t want peace. He will be entrapped in the company or acquaintanceship of those with tendencies for evil. A man cannot do evil and be unfair to others and expect peace — even if he fasts and prays until Kingdom come, for the Lord, the Creator, cannot be mocked. Prayers must be said in deeds.
Every seed sown through activities of each person goes through nurturing and nourishment, through every maturation process until it bears fruits which the sower is compelled to harvest. The fruits come multiplied. A seed of an orange planted comes at harvest with multiple orange fruits and from year to year until the tree is either cut or uprooted. It is the same as with a seed of the mango. Every activity that proceeds from a person attracts similar activities from other people. The activities form fields of power and activity where they are nourished until fruits appear and ripen. Once these fruits have taken on form ethereally, it is a question of time before they manifest physically. Those who contribute to the cultivation of the fields are not just from one part of the world but are found wherever there are human beings. At the time of harvest, every contributor will have his share corresponding to the measure of his contribution. It follows that an action for which another person who may be a complete stranger living at another end of the world is being condemned and pilloried has been strengthened by the critic, unknown to him. That there is unabated crisis engulfing many parts of the world is because the field of wrong activity and evil is ever widening. This will continue to be until the nourishment itself ceases. In the two wars that the world is witnessing, the Ukraine-Russian war and the war in Sudan, the so-called superpowers are competing for superiority and in the display of weaponry technological advancement!
What is palpable today is the rate at which the fruits ripen, the acceleration and intensification at which eruption occurs whether in economic or political spheres. And sudden deaths! All this is a consequence of increased motion brought about by intensified Light pressure under which our world is held in these times. What used to take long is no longer so. Threats that used to take years before a resolution was found, either at a round-table conference or in war now take a few weeks, or a few months before they translate into a war or open hostilities of a lesser degree.
The activities referred to cover thoughts, speeches, and actions. Those who get caught in hostilities are those who are homogeneous to providing anchorage for the returning fruits at a particular time. They get caught either by engaging in direct war, its conception or planning, or by getting wounded or killed in demonstrations in different parts of the world which may be removed from the theatre of the war itself. At this height of the Russian-Ukraine War, those who have not contributed to its ensuing either through wrong concepts, comments, opinions, or actions are bound to know peace in their hearts and environment.
In other words, it can be seen from the foregoing that the escalating wars pre-date the dispute between Ukraine and Russia and the subsequent invasion of the latter; or the internal antagonism in Sudan. The excuses and rationalization are only tools that are in the hands of actors who found themselves thrown up for the manifestation of earlier events pressing for materialization. It is the tools the entire world debates, not the cause. The materialization must find itself in cocky, stubborn fellows. If it were not so, how do we explain the rigid positions of the combatants? Everyone who participates in the crisis in whatever form, from the design of the arms to the manufacture and sale will be held to account and this will mean his having to go, himself, through intensified upheavals greater than the ongoing wars in the two zones.
Through the beaming In the Light of Truth, mankind is helped to see the immutability of the Laws of Nature which are living and self-acting as the eyes and self-enforcers of the Will of God, the Almighty Creator. They ensure that every deviation from what is right is brought to the attention of the protagonist so that, in love and justice, he can free himself from the guilt by going through it.
The outbreak of war is manifestly a sign of the decline of humanity despite all the helps through enlightenment over millennia. Man has devoted a greater part of his energy and time to fashioning weapons of destruction than to what will remake the world. The tool for remaking the world is as spelt out In the Light of Truth which answers all questions of life and existence. Man has reached his wits-end. He has to grow up to avoid the calamity that the two wars signal. It is not too late for the parties involved to stop these wars. It is a question of the decision to long for peace.
Two key personalities – Festus Keyamo and Nasir el Rufai - who played important roles in the just-concluded Buhari era have just proven two adages to be absolutely true. For el Rufai, there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face, and for Keyamo, all that glitters is not gold. These two men, who have probably been role models for many, have recently unraveled in the most embarrassing and shameful manner, so much so that those who held them in high esteem would be having second thoughts by now. None of us, especially from Southern Nigeria, had ever suspected that Nasir el Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, is a religious and tribal bigot; an extremist and a Muslim fundamentalist. For decades, this man has carefully burnished his image as a cosmopolitan, liberal and open-minded professional who attended a Catholic school in Kaduna in his early days, spent time in Abeokuta during NYSC and cultivated friends and contacts from every part of the country. He served as a no-nonsense minister of FCT during the second term of the Obasanjo administration and was highly regarded as one of the four technocrats and reformists of that administration (the others were Dr. Oby Ezekwesili; Ngozi Okoji-Iweala and Esther Nenadi). But in a recent video which has since been viewed by millions of Nigerians, el Rufai is heard spewing derogatory and hateful words against Christians and promoting Islamic fundamentalist agenda.
I cannot bear to repeat some of the words that he said because they’re so repulsive, offensive and repugnant. The entire Christian community in the country, and even moderate Muslims have been scandalized, outraged and embarrassed by el Rufai’s bigotry. A lot of people are asking: Is this the real el Rufai we had always known; or is this video AI-generated? People who know him well, like the Chairman of Kaduna chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Joseph Hayab, says the video is the real el Rufai and that the former governor is a chameleonic pretender who had been hiding his true colours for political expediency. I had expected that by now, President Tinubu would have condemned el Rufai’s vile and dangerous sentiments in its entirety and distanced himself from them, more so since the kernel of the message was a direct reference to the President and his Muslim-Muslim. If the new administration does not immediately repudiate these incendiary statements, many would go away with the impression that they probably reflect the thinking of the government, especially since the President himself had never condemned those who stoked ethnic violence in Lagos during the governorship election. The el Rufai video reminds us of the character portrait former President Obasanjo painted of him in his memoire, My Watch. Obasanjo describes el Rufai as a pathological liar with ‘’inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue’’. He says el Rufai has a penchant to destroy the character of people, including relations and those close to him. I now agree.
His eight-year tenure as governor recorded the greatest number of interreligious killings, abductions and violence, especially in Southern Kaduna which is home to persons of Christian faith and minority ethnic groups. The people of Southern Kaduna have consistently maintained that the various attacks were meant to achieve ethnic cleansing and total annihilation of the various non-Fulani tribes in the area. They accused the federal government of Muhammadu Buhari and state government of doing little or nothing to protect them. But as governor, el Rufai’s routine response to these criticisms was to point to the fact that he’s appointed people of Christian faith and some from other parts of the country into his cabinet. But we know that such appointments are mere tokenism. The real insights into his dark mind are in the trending video.
Festus Keyamo has also unraveled in the most unimaginable fashion. He served the Buhari administration as Minister of State, in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity. Keyamo went into public service with the reputation of a SAN and criminal prosecutor who took on many corrupt persons for the for the EFCC. In Lagos, where he began his career, we all knew him as a human rights activist trained by the legendary Gani Fawenhinmi. His political career started in 2018 when he was appointed Spokesperson for the re-election President Buhari, the same role he served at the Tinubu Campaign, even though he was still serving in government. But as the 2022 campaign season became more and more intense, Keyamo became more and more inflammable and vitriolic. He boasted ceaselessly on TV that he’s the best prosecutor in the country. On Wednesday, May 24, at the valedictory session of FEC, Keyamo read a prepared speech in which he told the President, Vice President and other members of Council that the position of Minister of State he had occupied for four years was illegal and unconstitutional. One member of Council told me, ‘’I could not raise my face to look at the President when I heard those words’’. Silence and embarrassment enveloped the chamber. It was an unprecedented self-indictment by a SAN who ought to know the implication of such a thoughtless remark. Immediately, Nigerians made a mockery of him, with some asking that he refund all the salaries and allowances he’d earned for occupying an illegal position.
But the worst was yet to come. Last week, a judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice James Omotosho dismissed Keyamo’s case against the ICPC and Atiku Abubarkar as frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court processes and slammed him with a N10 million fine that would attract a 10% per annum interest charge. The judge said Keyamo acted as if he was ‘’an errand boy’’, adding that ‘’it was high time public officers knew that statutory agencies should not be used to settle public discord’’. The SAN had, in the heat of the last year’s campaigns, asked the court to compel the ICPC and Code of Conduct Bureau to investigate Atiku Abubarkar for corruption. He had given the two agencies 72 hours to conduct their investigations. But the court ruled that ‘’the plaintiff should know that these agencies are at liberty on when to investigate and when to conclude’’. Immediately after the judgement, Atiku’s media office issued a statement, asking the senior advocate to throw his law degree away because it is worthless. ‘’Keyamo’s incompetence has been confirmed by Justice Omotosho. One wonders how he was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate’’, the statement said. I can’t remember when last a judge and a presidential candidate upbraided a senior lawyer in those kinds of words in the same week. These two embarrassing incidents should be a sobering and learning moment for Keyamo. I advise him to introspect his activities during the campaigns and his conducts as a public officer. Afterall, at 53, he is not too old to unlearn bad habits and pick up good ones.
Homosexuality has in contemporary times been hotly debated and discussed but with little attention paid to the persons involved. I have been guilty of this excessive concentration on its politics and diplomacy; its local and international misuse, and its commercialisation, to the detriment of the human beings involved.
During pregnancy, some babies may not be fully developed. This situation during fetal development may lead to birth defects such as missing limbs and other physical malfunctions. Some babies may be born without genitals; girls born without vagina are said to have vaginal agenesis.
There is also what is classified as ambigous genetalia; these are babies born without clearly defined male or female genitals. There are, of course, hermaphrodites: babies born having both male and female genitals. There are also babies born that do not fit into the male and female binaries; a baby may be born with large clitoris but no vagina opening; another could be born with labia-like scrotum.
There are females whose bodies produce high testosterone which leads to increased muscle and bone mass giving them a male physique. This is natural and nobody should be punished for their natural makeup. This is why I opposed the International Association of Athletics Federations, IAAF, when it ruled that 800 metres Olympics Champion, Caster Semenya must take drugs to suppress such hormone. It is possible for such females to feel they are men, just as there are males who feel they are female.
These various birth circumstances and other natural cases may lead to different sexual preferences including being chosen by nature to be homosexuals rather than they making that choice. Now, there is no way such a choice can be criminalized.
Homosexuals are as old as the rest of humanity and had not been seen as a challenge to other peoples. This was largely the case until powerful people, for their own ends, became proselytes of homosexuality and began championing it. They began presenting society as a dualistic composition and a competition between homosexuals and non-homosexuals. They present homosexuals as the minority group in society with special needs and entitled to special privileges, recognition and empowerment. These tribe of the rich and powerful, seek to turn the world upside down like they did in Iraq; manufacturing essentially non-existent conflicts. They have gone out not just to try to promote and impose a gay culture on the rest of humanity, but also to punish people who resist. This they are doing to a number of African countries. But the issue is not about race. It is more about those who benefit from any given situation which is the intuitive nature of the capitalist mind set.
Things got to a head in Hungary when 134 members of the Parliament on December 15, 2020, ratified a law that reinforced the right of Hungarians to self-identify in accordance with their sex at birth. The new law emphasized that: “The foundation of the family is marriage and the parent-child relationship.” It added for emphasis that: “The mother is a woman, the father is a man.”
Some other countries reacted in more drastic ways by not just criminalising homosexuality but also exploiting popular sentiments to bare their fascist fangs by imposing the death penalty.
The challenge to homosexuality is not the sexual orientation, but its exploitation, commercialisation and weaponisation.
There are well funded non-governmental organisations, NGOs, that are going round the world spreading the ‘gospel’ of homosexuality and recruiting even children. There are cartoons and films depicting homosexuality as the way of life for the powerful and rich.
There are school text books for kids on homosexuality. Soon, it may be part of the basic curriculum in nursery and primary schools. Last week, a message that went viral was titled: ‘Inclusion of sex and homosexuality in Nigerian Primary and Secondary School Textbooks’. It purports to list text books and pages promoting homosexuality, vulgarity and abortion. There are now homosexual children clothes lines in the West.
Just as some groups in the West promoted the so-called war of the sexes, so are they promoting the war of sexual orientation. Pro-homosexual NGOs have penetrated various strata of society. Given the prevalence of poverty in many parts of Africa, the NGOs are at the mercy of Western donors and many tend to align with the changing focus of their donors. So, if an NGO gets funding to promote homosexuality, that precisely is what it is going to do as it must justify the funds it is receiving. The same goes for anti-homosexual NGOs many of which are being promoted by churches in the United States. These American churches have since 2007, sent over $54 million promoting anti-gay campaigns in Africa. Globally, they spent over $280 million. The American Fellowship Foundation alone in ten years from 2008, spent over $20 million on Uganda.
On March 8, 2022, the United States government announced a $2.6 billion 2023 budget for foreign aid to promote gendrer equality and equity. A lot of this will go to promoting homosexuality which is lumped with checking discrimination amongst girls and indigenous women. Since 2012, the US government has spent $41 million promoting gay rights.
The question is: if the West is interested in Africa’s development, why impose economic sanctions because the continent refuses to be dictated to on sexual preferences?
Africa is being turned into a battle ground. No lessons appear to have been learnt in the split of the Anglican Church when Canterbury tried to impose the homosexual culture. In fact, it was the Nigeria Church that led the revolt.
What this type of diplomacy has resulted in, is the mobilisation of other citizens against gays. This has led to serious antagonism against our homosexual brothers and sisters. This backlash is the cause of the rising tide against homosexuals and the spate of draconian laws against them.
The approach of some of the Western countries offend the sensibilities of many African peoples. They need to understand that the challenge in Africa is not the sexual orientation of peoples but the struggle for existential survival. Such countries need to realise that their ways are not our ways; our people are not their people, our culture is not their culture and our future is not their future. So they need to treat other people with respect.
It is almost impossible, and in any case, not advisable for homosexuals to have their own distinct communities in Africa. A change of perception and approach will lead to mutual existence by all.
The first weekend of this month, apparently started on merriment note for the Nigerian world record holder for longest cheffing hours at a stretch in a Cookathon of over 100 hours — Hilda Baci, but it ended in attrition with debilitating anticlimax after she came under attack from an acclaimed Animals Rights crusader, Jackie Idimogu following a viral video showing her devour dog meat with gleeful braggadocio.
The incident was a comic relief for so many Nigerians who had been under depressive melancholy following the knee jerk declaration by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his swearing-in ceremony that "Fuel subsidy is gone!" As the two videos found their ways into social media, attention was temporarily shifted from the biting harsh economic atmosphere in the country, resulting from the hiked fuel prices, to discourses on the morality or otherwise of Hilda's "escapade" with dog meat.
While the debate raged on, some commentators toddled between moral relativism and ethical extremism. One rose in defense of Hilda, affirming her right to eat any flesh meat of edible animals; the other in condemnation, proclaiming "an international charter" against dog meat eaters. The former argued that there's nothing wrong and special about dogs, neither is there any impediment against one who choose to eat any animal that one relishes its meat. But the later argued that dogs are pets, nicknamed "man's friends" and not a livestock like goats, and therefore it is unfair to eat their flesh meats.
The denouement of public emotional exercises on the subject matter came without delineated definition of terms. As usual, in the court of public opinions, gavels are slammed at different and often contradicting notes.
What is a dog? What is a livestock? Who holds the authority to define which animal should be pet and which should be livestock? For instance World Health Organization (WHO) defines which disease should be designated as pandemic or not. In the case of animal status speciation, one would ask, who defines it? Does Nigeria have animal rights law? Does our culture(s) uniformly define what phylum or class of animals should be eaten or not?
Honest answers to these questions can help us elucidate on the hullabaloo and understand the justification of the position(s) each party favoured in the conversation.
Nigeria (like the world) is a multiethnic, multicultural society. And every ethnic group has what appeals to it. For instance, python which is revered and never killed or eaten in Anambra State is a cherished proteinous delicacy in Ebonyi State. But does Anambrarians have any moral temerity to berate Ebonyians for enjoying a creature they choose not to eat?
To a typical Nsukka man, the meat of wild rabbit (ewi) is a good source of protein diet. But to a native Nnewi man, it is a revered sacred vicarious animal of Édò deity (the ancestral deity of community protection to Nnewi people). It is against the custom of the land to kill it or even treat it with levity. If one, by accident, kills a bush rabbit, one is bound by tradition to accord it a full burial rite, to appease the gods.
Same goes to some other wild cold-bloodied animals such as reptiles amongst not a few communities in the Southeast.
Some of them avoid these animals due to their belief that certain species of animals are impure/unclean, while others do same out of traditional religious piety. It was a common practice among ancient adherents of Judaism (Lev. 11:1-48), until after Christ (Acts 10:9-15).
Everyone in Nigeria knows that three states of Plateau, Cross River and Akwaibom have widespread and prevailing dog meat-eating culture that dates back to antiquity. Hilda is a proud Akwaibomite, and I doubt if that makes any sense to Jackie. Does she know that her inflammatory advocacy and berating comments on Hilda may be offending not just Akwaibom and Cross River and Plateau people but also to every other states whose citizenry delight in dog meat?
It is understandable that the Western world has culture of keeping some animal species as pets (e.g parrots, tilapia fish in aquariums, cats, dogs etc). But such zoonotic acquiescence was never given global appeal. While England for instance, has Animal Welfare Act through which it fined French and West Ham United star Kurt Zouma in February last year, for kicking his cat, countries like China, South Korea, Philippines republic have reputation for eating cats without incurring the guilt of conscience or hurdle of civil law.
As posited above, from religious point of view, some can argue that Hilda, like every other Christian is justified to eat any animal created by God which she deem safe as contained in Acts 10:9-16.
In Islam, pork (flesh meat of pig) is outlawed. The main reason pork is forbidden for Muslims is because it says in the Holy Quran that some food is allowed, while others are explicitly declared "haram," which means forbidden. And pork is one of those forbidden foods. In fact, it stands boldly written in their holy book: “He has forbidden you only dead animals, and blood, and the swine, and that which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for other than God.” (Quran 2:173).
But in the streets of Nigeria, pork barbecue spots are common sights, yet our Muslim brothers and sisters never attacked Christians who patronize spots, as Jackie attacked Hilda for relishing dog meat.
Contextually, Jackie seems to be indicting Hilda more from place of emotions than reason. When she brought her recent rare feat of Cookathon in the foray, she triggered suspicion of envy among critics.
“And now that the torchlight of the world is on Nigeria through Hilda, she decide that what she want to show the world is that Nigerians are dog eaters? No, no. I’m making this video to refute the fact that Nigerians are not dog eaters” emphasized Jackie in her video.
Was she trying to blackmail Hilda from being true to her native culture? Or is she merely envious of her chef d'œuvre accomplishment that she had to injure her chances of getting the official recognition plaque by inciting the managers of Guinness Book of Records to say that she is "brutal" to pets? How do they even connect?
On the flip side, she seemingly posed like someone doing image-laundering for Nigeria by saying she made the "video to refute the fact that Nigerians are not dog eaters.”
How does her video help Nigeria? Will her Nigeria's "non-dog eating" status make Nigeria be ranked more prominently than China, Korea and other first world countries in Asia that delight in the meat?
Another unsettling aspect of her "righteous" advocacy for dog rights is her desperation to impose European culture of idolizing selected animals (pets) as man's friends. Irredentism with a touch of neocolonialist mentality. To many Africans nay Nigerians, dogs are treated in line with what they truly are — a carnivores (flesh eaters) of the fox family that can be handled like every other animal, or domesticated like fowls.
However, another critical look at Hilda's video reveals scandalous flippancy in the way she ate the meat which doesn't send good message to our younger generations who look up to her as role model. She displayed such voracious savagery in devouring the meat while persuading her 'accomplice' — Enioluwa Adeoluwa to have a bite. A hideous lack of table manners, judging from culinary ethical point of view. Popular Igbo adage say that "onye a na-ekiri ekiri adiro mma igba oto" — Icon of admiration ought not scandalize him/herself. To whom much is given, much is accepted.
May daylight spare us!
Globally, subsidies, whether for food, transportation, energy or housing, are part of good governance. So, the issue is not subsidies but who benefit from them. In Nigeria, subsidies are primarily of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. I will highlight a few, how they are being manipulated and how huge sums of money can be recovered not just to subsidize fuel but also provide funds for development.
1. Diversion of N40 billion from Federation Account
A company, Continental Transfert Technique had been hired by the Ministry of Interior to collect the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC) Fee of $2,000 per annum from every expatriate in Nigeria. The revenue from 2019 comes to an average of N40 billion per annum. This collection which violates Section 162 of the Constitution and provisions of the Immigration Act 2015, is then shared on percentages of Federal Government, 30, Interior Ministry, 7, Immigration Service, and Continental Transfert Technique, 58 per-cent.
We challenged this illegality at the Federal High Court and won the cases. The court directed the NIS to collect the funds henceforth and remit same to the Federation Account. But the contractor and the federal government appealed against the judgment and have continued to share the N40 billion per annum.
2. Additional Revenue of $1.5 billion payable to Federation Account
In July 2015, I drew the attention of the Federal Government to the fact that the 15-year fiscal incentives given to the oil and gas companies operating under the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act had expired in June 2014. When the Federal Government ignored our request, we drafted a Bill for the amendment of the law. The Bill which was adopted and sponsored by Senator T. Orji scaled the first reading in the Senate but was not passed before the dissolution of the 8th National Assembly.
However, the same Bill was modified and passed by both houses of the 9th National Assembly and assented to by President Buhari on November 4, 2019. In justifying the passage of this Bill, Senate President Ahmed Lawan announced that the new law would increase the revenue of the nation by not less than $1.5 billion per annum.
3. Outstanding royalties of $62 billion
In campaigning for the amendment of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, I requested the Federal Government to collect outstanding royalties payable by the International Oil Companies under the Act. The Federal Government admitted that the country had lost a whopping sum of $60 billion. But my demand for the collection of the huge fund was ignored.
The governments of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States then approached the Supreme Court which on October 20, 2018 ordered the Federal Government to collect the royalties for the past 18 years. The Federal Government confirmed that the outstanding royalty withheld by the IOCs is $62 billion but has refused to collect it.
4. FG denied revenue of $500 million by a group of corrupt public officers
The international Cargo Tracking Note Scheme to protect international shipping and prevent the movement of dangerous cargo and arms shipments was introduced into Nigeria in 2010 via an agreement between the Nigerian Port Authority and TPMS, a private company. Barely a year later, the agreement was suspended. When our attention was drawn to the illegal suspension of the Cargo Tracking Note system, we protested and the suspension was lifted on May 28, 2015 only to be suspended again in 2016.
In 2022, President Buhari issued an executive order which authorized a company to operate the Cargo Tracking Note. But 5 companies sponsored by top government functionaries overruled the President and hijacked the contract. The company that won the contract has since sued the federal government at the Federal High Court. Meanwhile, Nigeria has lost at least $500 million while the security of the nation has been compromised by a bunch of corrupt public officers.
5. Sale of public assets and enterprises
Successive regimes have been selling assets and enterprises owned by the Federal Government to members of the ruling class in the name of privatisation. The buyers turned round to engage in asset stripping. According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises, between 2004 and 2002, the federal government sold 142 public enterprises to members of the ruling class.
The 10 per cent shares reserved for the staff of every privatised enterprise have been cornered by the so called "core investors" contrary to the provision of section 5(3) òf the Privatization and Commercialization Act.
6. $7 billion fixed in 14 banks
Sometime in 2006, the CBN yanked off $7 billion from the nation’s foreign reserves and fixed it in 14 commercial banks in Nigeria. The deposit and the accrued interests were not recovered from the banks. When I reported the matter to one one of the anti-graft agencies, the CBN claimed that it had forgiven “the forbearance”.
7. Sale of Polaris by Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank by CBN
The CBN took over Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank, spent trillions of Naira to revitalise them only to turn round to sell them under the table. For instance, CBN invested N1.3 trillion in Polaris Bank but sold it for N50 billion!
8. Theft of Crude oil
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020. Immediate past National Security Adviser, General Babagana said that Nigeria might lose $23 billion in 2023 to crude oil theft.
9. Theft of gold and other solid minerals
The theft of the nation’s mineral resources is not limited to crude as solid minerals are equally smuggled out of the country by highly placed criminal elements. Former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr Uche Ogah recently disclosed that private jets are being used by the rich for gold smuggling in Nigeria. He stated this at an investigative hearing on $9 billion annual loss to illegal mining and smuggling of gold organised by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, Mines, Steel Development and Metallurgy. During his contribution at the hearing, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu disclosed that Nigeria lost close to $54b from 2012-2018 due to illegal smuggling of gold.
10. AMCON is owed N5.4 trillion by the rich
A few years ago, commercial banks were going to collapse due to toxic loans taken by members of the ruling class. To prevent the impending economic doom, the Federal Government set up the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to buy off the loans with trillions of Naira provided by the CBN. AMCON has not been able to recover the loans of N5.4 trillion from about 370 corporate bodies.
11. Indiscriminate import duty waivers
A few privileged members of the business community buy dollars at official rate while they are allowed to import all manners of goods into the country. In the last 5 years, import duties worth N16 trillion were waived for them.
12. Effort to track and monitor tankers conveying fuel sabotage by NNPC
On August 8, 2018, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the installation of technology monitoring schemes and structures under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) for N17 billion. The technology which was designed to track and monitor tankers conveying fuel and other petroleum products was not acquired while the N17 billion approved for it was diverted.
13. N10 trillion diverted by CEOs of Government enterprises
The Buhari government revealed on December 19, 2018 that government enterprises including the CBN owed about N10 trillion in unremitted operating surplus as at August 2018. The details were provided. The said sum of N10 trillion remains unpaid.
14. N6 trillion unpaid ground rents by buyers of Government properties
On March 29, 2023, the Senate noted that since 1992, over two million houses across the 36 states and the FCT had been built and allocated to beneficiaries by the federal government without evidence of payment of ground rent on the properties. Consequently, the Senate set up an Ad Hoc Committee to recover over N6 trillion unpaid ground rents from property owners in the country.
15. Stolen crude oil valued at $29.17 billion
A group of lawyers engaged by NIMASA confirmed that 60.2 million barrels of crude oil valued at $12.7 billion of crude oil was stolen and illegally exported to the United States of America between January 2011 and 2014. This has not been recovered. Also, the House of Representatives investigated and confirmed that undeclared crude oil worth $17 billion was exported to global destinations during the same period. The affected companies are known but government seems to lack the will to bring them to book and recover the sum of $29.7 billion being the value of the stolen crude.
16. Oil theft of N16.25 trillion
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) revealed that between 2009 and 2020 Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to oil theft. The security forces have not been able to stop the stealing and smuggling of crude oil from Nigeria.
However, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd (TSSNL), a private company discovered pipelines through which crude oil was being diverted from a 40,000 barrel per day Forcados pipeline to the high seas for export. The indicted oil companies including an IOC involved in this grand theft are yet to be prosecuted.
17. Deduction of collection costs by FIRS & NCS
The Federal Inland Revenue Service and Nigeria Customs Service are allowed by their enabling laws to deduct percentages of the taxes and duties collected by them as collection costs. Thus, the FIRS between 2016 and 2020 made N533.39 billion deductions while Nigeria Customs Service withdrew N128.64 billion as cost of collection in 2022.
The laws which allow agencies of the Federal Government to deduct collection costs are contrary and inconsistent with section 162 of the Constitution which provides that all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation shall be paid into the Federation Account.
18. Diversion of $6.065 billion approved for turn-around maintenance of refineries
Between 1993 and 2016, successive regimes spent, through the NNPC, about $6.065 billon on the so-called turn around maintenance and rehabilitation of the four refineries at various times.
It is public knowledge that the turn-around maintenance of the refineries was not carried out. Therefore, the contractors should be invited by the EFCC and compelled to refund the said sum of $6.025 billion.
19. Investment in Dangote refinery and rehabilitation of 4 refineries
The Federal Government has invested $2.7 billion in Dangote Refinery while the NNPCL will supply the refinery with 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Furthermore, the Government has awarded the contracts for the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt for $1.5 billion, as well as Kaduna and Warri refineries for $1.4 billion.
We are compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress to monitor the ongoing rehabilitation and upgrade of the 4 refineries.
20. Special salaries for top public officers, security votes, and pension for governors
Top public officers have illegally taken themselves out of the general salary structure. For instance, contrary to section 70 of the Constitution which provides that the salaries and allowances of legislators shall be fixed by the Revenue Allocation Mobilization and Fiscal Commission the members of the National Assembly are paid emoluments ranging from N13 million to N15 million per month.
In addition to their salaries the 36 State Governors are paid security votes running into hundreds of millions per month. The largesse has since been extended to all senior public officers, including heads of ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal and state governments, as well as local government chairmen. The security votes paid to senior public officers are about N241 billion per annum.
As if such subsidy is not enough, state governors have been placed on scandalous pension of billions of Naira. But due to public criticisms, the Lagos State Government has halved the pension for ex-governors while the Governments of Kwara, Imo, and Zamfara States have abolished the payment of the outrageous pension to former governors and deputies. We call on all other state governments to emulate the example of the aforementioned 3 state governments.
21. Diversion of dividend and feed gas of $33 billion by NNPCL
Nigeria LNG Limited is jointly owned by Nigeria and the OICs. The 49% shares of Nigeria in the joint venture were paid for from the Federation Account in 1989. On March 29, 2021, former President Buhari disclosed that the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) had generated $114 billion in revenues, paid $9 billion in taxes, $18 billion as dividend and $15 billion in Feed Gas Purchase to the Federal Government. However, rather than pay the fund into the federation account as constitutionally directed, the $33.9 billion dividend and feed gas was diverted by the NNPCL.
22. Diversion of trillions of Naira through fuel subsidy fund
Notwithstanding the allocation of 445,000 barrels of crude oil to NNPC per day for domestic consumption, it has been confirmed that the figures for fuel importation in Nigeria between 1999 and 2023 are as follows:
1. 1999-2006 =N813 billion;
2. 2007-2009= N794 billion;
3. 2010-2014= N3.9 trillion;
4. 2015-2023= N11 trillion.
Last week, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari stunned the nation when he said that the federal government still owes the company N2.8 trillion in fuel subsidy payments. But the monumental fraud that has characterized the fuel subsidy scam has been confirmed by the Buhari regime.
Thus, on March 27, 2022, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva publicly lamented the controversies surrounding the amount of petrol that the nation consumes daily, said the subsidy regime encouraged criminal activities like smuggling, which in turn impact negatively on the nation’s oil resources. He said that, “I am told the figure sometimes rise to as high as 90 or over 100 million litres. I don’t know how that happens. At this rate, I have said if anyone is looking at a criminal enterprise, look no further than the fuel subsidy.” The criminal enterprise ought to be probed by the Bola Tinubu administration.
Conclusion
It is crystal clear form the foregoing that members of the ruling class are heavily subsidized by the peripheral capitalist system while the masses are subjected to excruciating economic pains. We are therefore compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress as well as the progressive extraction of the civil society to mount pressure on the federal government to stop the dollarisation of the national economy, indiscriminate grant of duty waivers, theft of crude oil, gold, and other mineral resources and recover the nation’s looted wealth. In other words, these ‘subsidies’ should be recovered while the nation’s refineries are fixed so that the country can provide genuine subsidies that can make life livable in Nigeria.
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NO TO HISTORICAL REVISIONISTS
I will not allow historical revisionists the opportunity to quickly rewrite Nigeria’s recent history - especially of former president Mohammadu Buhari’s dismal performance and misgovernance of Nigeria in the last 8 years. True, the fawners, bootlickers, toady flatterers and clappers, who benefited greatly from his warped tenure, are ever ready to applaud, clap and “rankadede” him forever. I am not one of them. I never was. Never will be. Or are you? Let me however thank President Buhari (as I had done severally before now), for decorating me with the prestigious National honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), the 4th highest honour in Nigeria. This adds to my 2009 National honour of Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR). Buhari did this notwithstanding my strident criticism of his governance and leadership style throughout his 8 disastrous years of poor governance. He sure has tons of guts and strong balls to have taken my frequent disagreements with him in good faith. He earned my deep respect and admiration in this regard of large-heartedness. This is because not many in his huge shoes would have done so, given the same circumstances. However, whilst thanking the ex president, I will not be fair to history, the present and future generations yet unborn, if I do not give my earnest, but humble assessment of his 8 years misgovenance of Nigeria. It was simply squandering of riches. Missed opportunities! Missteps. False steps. This is where BUHAROCRACY comes in. he wobbled. He fumbled. He dawdled. He groggled. He literally crumbled. Buharocracy is the concept of government. But, let me background this writeup with my neologism.
I have since evolved OZEKPEDIA- my own neologism – my coinage of new words and phrases that appear not to exist before, but which I now throw up to achieve popular or institutional recognition and thus get accepted in the mainstream English language. It is in this regard I have since minted fresh words such as ELECTIONOCRACY (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/595657-nigerian-politicians-and-the-go-to-court-antics-by-mike-ozekhome.html); SELECTOCRACY (https://mikeozekhomeschambers.com/building-bridges-for-a-new-nigeria/); EXECUTOCRACY (https://independent.ng/building-bridges-for-a-new-nigeria/); LEGISLATOCRACY (https://barristerng.com/is-this-the-nigeria-of-our-dream-a-lecture-by-chief-mike-ozekhome-san-on-ambrose-alli-day/); and JUDOCRACY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8ByKVWWj0).
I had also coined, with reference to former President Buhari not treating Nigeria as one unified “Federal Republic of Nigeria”, some aberrative terms employed and practised by Buhari in his peculiar style of governance. Buhari practised "Federal Republic of the North"; or "The Northern Republic of Nigeria"; or "Republic of Northern Nigeria”; or “Republic of Federal North”; or “Northern Nigeria Republic”; or “Republic of Northern Nigeria and other vassal states". (See http://mikeozekhomeschambers.com/nigerian-leaders-and-the-ephemerality-of-power/; The Cable, "It is illegal for Buhari to Solely Appoint IP, says Ozekhome, https://www.the cableng; 6/4/21). (https://www.capitalpost.ng/nba-fractionalisation-jibrin-okutepa-san-sorely-missed-the-point-Ozekhome/); (https://ourpeoplesfm1041.com.ng/2021/01/16/remove-that-fatwa-from-bishop-kukahs-head-by-mike-ozekhome-san/); https://www.latestnigeriannews.com/p/153190/remove-that-fatwa-from-bishop-kukahs-head-ozekhome.html).
I did not coin, but I have since used and popularised “Amala politics”; “Gbegiri politics”; “Come-and-chop politics”; and “Stomach infrastructure politics”, etc. But, I have also minted into our political lexicon, words such as “tuwo sinkafa politics” “politrician”, “militrician”, “civitrician”, and “politics of akpu”, “edikang ikon”, and “politics of omisaghue and amato”. In one of my outings as far back as May 11, 2015 (even before Buhari was sworn in for his first term), titled, “Era of Decampment: Politicians Without Principles” (see https://globalpatriotnews.com/opinion-era-of-decampment-politicians-without-principle/), I wrote as follows:
“The “come-and-chop” or “chop-I-chop” politics syndrome found its name into the Nigerian political lexicon long before Fayose. Long before now, we had colourful politicians like Busari Adelakun (Eruobodo) and Lamidi Adedibu, who popularised “amala” or “gbegiri” politics. Some call it “akpu”, “edikang ikon”, “tuwo sinkafa” politics. I call it “politics of “omhisaghue and amato” (don’t ask me what these mean in my Etsako, Weppa- Wanno language).
“This genre of politics is simply anchored on the cheap principle of sharing (never baking) the national cake amongst family members, old school mates, kinsmen, religious peers, business companions, political affiliates, etc. It is a euphemism for freely stealing from the national treasury and pillaging our commonwealth.
“It thrives on cronyism, tribalism, nepotism, undue favouritism, clannishness, religious bigotry, ethnic chauvinism and ethno-religious jingoism. It abhors merit. It detests brilliance. It enthrones mediocrity. As a principle, “come and chop” politics advocates that the strongest continuously pummels and subdues the strong into a comatose position of irreversibility, while the already weak ones are battered into oblivion and totally interred or entombed alive.
“The Nigerian politician (sorry, politrician) is at once a “Militrician” (Military top brass turned into politicians and “Civitrician” (civilians practising politics). The Nigerian Politician has corrupted politics and madly stripped it of its inherent nobility and integrity.
“Like common whores, they prostitute from one political party to another, never ashamed to return to an earlier party that he left with éclat and celebration to eat his vomit. Whether the party is PDP, APC, AD, APP, AC, ACN, CPC, ANPP, the Nigerian Politician gallivants about shamelessly, strutting from one party to the other. He lacks morality. He is allergic to political decorum or democratic nuances. He is a loose cannon. The same political class rotates offices amongst themselves. The same faces, but different offices. Once a local government chairman, he aspires to be member of a state House of Assembly; then House of Representatives; then Senate.
“Later, he leaves Senate to become a Governor; or from his gubernatorial seat to become a Senator. Over the years, it is the same dramatis personnel. No new entrants. No fresh ideas. Power is rotated from father to son, mother to daughter, brother to brother and kinsman to kinswoman. Little wonder that Nigeria has not grown. Even her purported development has been without actual and real development. She continues to suffer the fate of the barber’s chair of perpetual motion and rotation on its axis, but without progress. Her growth is stunted, for there is no manure or fertilizer to resuscitate the parched soil.”
On OZEKPEDIA, therefore, do not blame me or come after my jugular for daring to challenge Collins, Websters, Blacks and Oxford English Dictionaries. This was how Andrew Le Breton first conceptualized 28 Volumes of the Encyclopedia in French. It was later translated by Dennis Diderot, an 18th Century French Philosopher, Art Critic and writer, between 1751 and 1772. Indeed, it was actually an avid writer and admirer, who after following my writeups for a very long time, sent me the coinages – “OZEKPEDIA”, “OZEKMATICS” and “OZEKDICTIONARY”. He was referring to many of my writeups, including those on the requirement that the Nigerian President must compulsorily need to have 25% votes of FCT, Abuja; and my linguistics; syntax and prose style. I thank him immensely.
Thus, as at today, we have ENCYCLOPEDIA (1751-1772); SMITHSONIA (1846); WIKIPEDIA (2001); SCHOLARPEDIA (2006); LEGALPEDIA (2007); and EUROPEDIA (2008). Now, enters OZEKPEDIA (2023). So, help me God. Amen.
OZEKPEDIA AND BUHAROCRACY
Nigeria had her independence on October 1, 1960. She was however totally severed off the umbilical cord of imperialism in 1963 - when she became a Republic. Since then, the story of her leadership travails has become an unending tragedy; a cesspool and affront on the labours of our heroes past. The Nigerian polity became engulfed in the grip of series of military juntas under the thin guise of salvaging the decaying system. This went on until 1999, when a democratic government was ushered in. This year makes it 24 years of uninterrupted democracy. But it seems - like a man with a heavy load of web on his face – that Nigeria is still undergoing a vicious cycling and recycling of her leaders, de - die - in - diem.
In times of much uncertainty and untrammeled corruption bazaar, Nigeria was so unfortunate to have been governed by an apparently pretentious man who was almost deified and canonized. Buhari, like a man who never believes that once beaten, twice shy – ensured that Nigeria was beaten twice by the same man - Buhari. First as a military dictator. Later as a civilian ruler (not a democratic leader, in my humble estimation). I hope we are now awake from our self-imposed slumber and selective amnesia in this democracy.
NIGERIA IS FAR FROM PRACTISING DEMOCRACY
Strictu sensu, Nigeria, in my humble view, does not practise democracy. Rather, we practise other “cracies” (not democracy), which I have coined from my dictionary - Ozekpedia. These are Judocracy, Electionocracy, Executocracy, Selectocracy and Legislatocracy. (See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=93SFQYIpkpU; https://www.page36news.com/2021/10/02/mike-ozekhome-says-we-are-not-practicing-democracy-in-nigeria-declares-that-what-we-have-under-president-muhammadu-buhari-others-is-election-ocracy-where-the-leaders-elect-themselves-into-office-o/amp/;
BUHAROCRACY
I have today, added another “cracy”, but this particular cracy is crazy – ‘Buharocracy.’ Buharocracy is a type of cracy, where government is 'abysmally ignoramus, zero-idealistic, and dictatorially at it's crescendo.' Little wonder, popular African singer, late Anikulapo-Kuti, in one of the ‘Abami Eda’s songs, “Beast of No Nation”, sang, “Na craze world be dat, craze world, No be outside Buhari dey, craze world, na craze man be dat, craze world.” (See https://punchng.com/fans-remember-felas-lyrics-on-democracy-day/). Fela warned us then, but Nigerians feigned deafness; maybe because they said he smoked weed. Nigerians forgot that to be fore-warned, is to be fore-armed. Former President of America, Barrack Obama, once admonished, “I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy, and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.”
Oh, see where our refusal and neglect to pay attention to history have landed us!. Leadership, to be sure, would also be accounted for in the last days of human existence. Taking solace from the Bible; “Blessed are you, o land, whose King is of nobility and whose instructions Princes eat at the appropriate time - for strength and not for drunkenness." An Islamic cleric, Ma’qil narrated, “I heard Rasulullah (SAW) saying: “Any man whom Allah has given the authority of ruling some people and he does not look after them in an honest manner, will never feel even the smell of Paradise.” (Sahih Muslim).
John G. Lake, once told us, “the man with a groan never moved the world except to more groans.” Buhari tried very hard to flourish himself like a saint in white apparel, when in fact, he was the chief repository of negative governance. Therefore, Stanley Baldwin was not wrong when he said, “Dictatorship is like a giant beech - tree - very magnificent to look at in it's prime, but nothing grows underneath.” Where have the 8 wasted years of the once feared “anti - corruption Czar” led us to today? I don't know. Or, do you?
The voyage of Nigeria since May 29, 2015, through May 29, 2023, (being the second and final coming of Buharocracy), amounted to a craze of all cracies.
There are many “cracies” corrupted from the word “Democracy”, as shown in Ozekpedia above. When Abraham Lincoln on 19th November, 1863, eulogized “Democracy” during his Gettysburg Declaration as “government of the people by the people and for the people”, he could never have imagined that subsequent world leaders would corrupt this beautiful term invented by the ancient Athenians of Greece in 507 BC, following a turbulent era of aristocracy and tyranny. “Demos” derived from Greek, meaning “people”, or “population”. “Crasy” means “rule”, “government”, “governing body”. So, democracy is government of the people.
BUHAROCRACY AND ITS EFFECT
Buharocracy is a form of government where the people expect so much, but get nothing; or at best, so little in return. It is a system of government in which the ruler, during campaigns and in his manifesto, promises so much; but brazenly discards and trashes all promises upon being voted in by the people. In Buharocracy, the ruler freely deceives the people. He is a maximum dictator, rules by precepts, rather than by examples. The concept allows the ruler to ride slipshod on his people; destroy institutions, enkindle divisions; and enthrone cyronynism, prebendalism, nepotism, favouritism, ethnicity, sectionalism, tribalism and religious bigotry.
Under Buharocracy, rule of law is literally suspended in place of so called National Security, a veneer for self interest or government interest. Under Buharocracy, the elected rules, rather than governs. He tells the people, “do what I say and not what I do”. Because the ruler suffers grave disconnect with the people, he feigns amnesia of their sufferings and despondency. He neither sympathises, nor empathises. He lives in a make-belief world; a world garnished with grandeur of illusion. The ruler is permitted to discard his hitherto pretentious Spartan-like life. He indulges in vain-glorious affluence, pomp, pageantry and razzmatazz. Kakaaki trumpets escort him to the airport when travelling, and also welcome him back from his frequent medical trips abroad. The maximum dictator under Buharocracy is deaf, dumb and numb to the feelings, yearnings and aspirations of his beleaguered and vanquished citizens rendered prostrate through misgovernance, high-handedness, corruption, insecurity and jack-bootism. He would rather build rail lines, refineries and industries in a neighbouring country like Niger, wherein he has his own firm roots of origin, to the detriment of his own country – Nigeria – that elected him into office. Restructuring and true federalism are an anathema to Buharocracy. That is Buharocracy for you. And more ...
Telecom Sector Contributes N2.508 Trillion to Nigeria’s GDP
The telecommunications and Information Services sector in Nigeria has, in the first quarter 2023, delivered a handsome N2.508 trillion in terms of financial value contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), representing 14.13 per cent.
Figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the sector recorded a 4.3 per cent. increase from its performance in the last quarter of 2022 when it recorded 13.55 per cent.
When compared on a year-on-year basis, the growth showed positive progression from 12.94 per cent. in the first quarter of 2022 , to the 2023 figure of 14.13, which is an approximate growth by 9.19 per cent. .
The percentage of telecom contribution to GDP was calculated from 46 distinct sectors of the economy, which constitute telecom and information services baskets.
The Nigerian telecom industry has continued its show of positive outlook, which is credited to the innovative and predictable telecom regulatory environment promoted, and implemented by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
One of the key highlights of the telecom industry performance within the period was the generation of $820.8 Million for the federal government from 5G spectrum licences fees paid by three eventual winning operators, MTN, MAFAB and Airtel.
Following the issuance of the licences in December 2021 to MTN and MAFAB, both companies have launched 5G services. Airtel, which received its licence in December 2022, is set to launch services this month, June 2023.
Another major development in the sector was the launch of Starlinks broadband services, a satellite-based wireless broadband services with potential nationwide coverage. This followed the issuance of licence to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX by the Commission. The services are now available in different parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the growth statistics of the telecom industry are showing an impressive record of contributions to the economy. The number of phone subscribers as at April 2023, stood at 223.6 million subscribers, scoring a teledensity of 117 per cent. . Internet subscribers for the same period were 157 million while Broadband subscriptions stood at 92 Million, translating to 48 per cent. broadband penetration in the country.
Reuben Muoka
Director, Public Affairs
A young Lagosian friend was in Abuja last week and decided to pay me a visit. I had not seen her for a long time so when welcoming her, I joked, “Eyinlokan” (meaning it’s your turn, in reference to the inauguration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu which she had earlier told me brought her to town). But she interjected, “Uncle Segun, you are in the old; the slogan now is ‘awalawanbe’”, (meaning, ‘we are now fully in charge’ or to put it in pidgin, ‘we full ground remain’). Since we often learn important lessons from jokes, my concern is that under the current dispensation ‘Awalawanbe’ can connote either service for the public good or hubris.
President Tinubu came to office with a pledge to take tough decisions – exactly what times like this demand if Nigeria is to overcome its enormous challenges. That he has started to act in such direction is also not in doubt. With just four cynical words, “fuel subsidy is gone”, Tinubu may have succeeded where his predecessors failed. On Monday, the last (and biggest) resistance on the issue of fuel subsidy removal fell with the decision by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to suspend its nationwide strike earlier scheduled to commence yesterday. In deference to the judgement of the National Industrial Court, the NLC opted to join negotiations with the federal government. But as Professor Olatunji Dare pointed out in his column on Tuesday, the usual ‘palliatives’ will not do for the most vulnerable Nigerians. “The protections (that the federal government needs to offer) will have to be substantial, well-targeted, and delivered transparently,” he wrote. I believe that for the first time, Nigerians have resigned themselves to the reality that the fuel subsidy regime is indeed gone. As an aside, I learnt during the week that in the sociology department of a Nigerian University, one ‘Ogbologbo’ lecturer has already tasked his students to write a term paper on ‘The impact of fuel subsidy removal on inter-state adultery’!
Meanwhile, fighting corruption may not have been a campaign issue for Tinubu but I have a feeling that he may be the one who dismantles the architecture of this wholesale corruption in Nigeria. If you successfully remove the subsidy element from the downstream sector of the petroleum industry and free the exchange rate of scandalous arbitrage, those two actions alone could take away as much as 50 percent of the public private partnership (PPP) corruption in Nigeria. We can then begin to deal with the equally monumental retail corruption that feeds from abuse of power and lack of transparency and accountability in the public space. For those who may not understand how subsidy enables unwholesome practices, they can go through my 857-page e-book, ‘The Verbatim Report: The Inside Story of the Fuel Subsidy Scam’ published in 2013. It is available on my web portal, olusegunadeniyi.com for free download: http://bit.ly/1EY9s80.
However, now that he has succeeded in removing the fuel subsidy, it would pay the president to also extend ‘tough decisions’ to his own immediate family. Nothing erodes the credibility of a Nigerian leader as quickly as when family members constitute themselves into principalities and powers. Unlike Lagos, Abuja is a small town where there are no secrets. And inside Aso Rock, there are flies on every wall (perhaps the ubiquitous ‘demons’ that my friend, Reuben Abati keeps talking about). Already, tales abound of entitled persons who want to create ‘Office of The First Son’, ‘Office of The First Daughter’, ‘Office of The First Cousin’ etc. It is in the interest of the president to crush such inordinate ambitions before they become a problem for him and his administration.
The early days represent the most important period for any government in Nigeria because that is when appointments are made. It is also a period for signaling. Already, Abuja is filled with the usual job seekers, so this is also the season for influence peddlers. Displaying ‘Awalawanbe’ by people who were not on the ballot on 25th February will be counterproductive for Tinubu and his administration. Even if we discount the controversy that trailed his election, Tinubu still came to office with 37 percent of the total votes cast. That means almost two thirds of Nigerians who exercised their franchise on 25th February did not vote for him. Statistically, that is a very narrow mandate. Yet, with less than two weeks in office, he has succeeded in getting Nigerians to bear the pains and disruptions associated with the removal of fuel subsidy. That is a big gesture that the president and his handlers should not misread.
Under his predecessor, there were shadow presidents (young and old) who carved out empires for themselves and were engaged in all kinds of shenanigans. But given the contradictions in his personal and political life, Tinubu would not get away with such infractions. The challenge of the moment is how he can rise above himself to establish a legacy that could cleanse his past sins and prepare him for heroic statesmanship. It is not impossible. If Tinubu runs a minimally credible government with sensible policies that promote economic recovery and national unity, he may regain elite solidarity and consensus. If his policies improve the general welfare of ordinary people, his popular support will also improve and blur his electoral and personal handicaps.
For that to happen, President Tinubu needs to be ‘aware’ of what is going on around him at this most critical period!
APC and the 2015 Echoes
Election of National Assembly presiding officers should be routine, especially since voting is only by members. But in Nigeria, nothing is ever straightforward. We now have a situation where contenders for the offices of Senate President, Deputy Senate President, House of Representatives Speaker, and Deputy are running expensive media campaigns. And the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) seems not to have learnt any lesson from what happened eight years ago. With ill-gotten money from ‘Paris Club refund’, some fat cats think they can buy the Senate gavel and the rest of us should go to hell on the issue of fairness, equity, and diversity in a plural state. They must not succeed.
Now, let me make something clear. To build a society where majority of the people are lifted out of poverty, there must be collaboration between the executive and the legislature. That precisely is how the presidential system of government which we copied from the United States was designed to function. And for that reason, it is important for the National Assembly leadership to work in harmony with the executive, especially when the ruling party is in the majority at the federal level. However, the idea of checks and balances would not work if the legislature were shackled by the executive as we can also see in practically all the 36 states of the country today.
To that extent, the next National Assembly cannot be an appendage of the executive. As the institution with the power of the purse, it should not only be independent, but it should also be seen to be so. I am therefore advocating that when they convene next week, members should be allowed to elect their presiding officers without any form of coercion from the executive. That is also hoping that the members themselves will be responsible enough to consider the necessity for ethno-religious balancing in the country. While most Nigerians would agree that the 9th Senate under Saraki was far more productive than the outgoing 9th under Lawan, the manner of his emergence as Senate President was a problem for the APC right from the beginning.
As a reminder and warning, I want to recall excerpts from my 11th June 2015 column, ‘Saraki, Dogara and APC’s Naivety’.
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Following the election of Dr. Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and House of Representatives’ Speaker respectively on Tuesday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, released a cynical statement. He told the APC to “stop whining and accept the will of the people, respect the independence of the legislature, as the PDP is not responsible for their naivety and crass inexperience.”
I believe that the APC leaders will do well to heed Metuh’s admonition. To imagine that the person you needed to truncate a legally convened legislative session is the Inspector General of Police rather than the Clerk of the National Assembly was poor judgement. And not following on what was happening within the PDP camp was a sign that the APC leaders still need to learn the ropes when it comes to high-wire politics in Abuja.
The night before the election, 47 PDP Senators had gathered at the Apo Legislative Quarters’ residence of the immediate past Senate President David Mark to present to him three options. Option one: Exploit the division within the rank of the APC by sponsoring Mark to contest for the office of Senate President. The argument was that by the Senate rule, all that a winner needed was a simple majority and since neither of the two APC contenders (Ahmed Lawan and Bukola Saraki) would likely step down for the other, Mark would get more votes. And once that happened, Mark could take the gavel. The only thing the APC could do in such situation would be to go to court. But Mark declined the offer. Option two: Conduct a mock poll among themselves (the PDP Senators in attendance) on who between the two APC candidates, (Lawan or Saraki) they should back but with the proviso that PDP would produce the Deputy Senate President. That was something they were not prepared to negotiate. Option three: Allow the APC to nominate a candidate, then counter-nominate another APC Senator and give him their block vote in what would amount to divide and rule.
This option has a precedent. A similar scenario played out at the Cross River State House of Assembly in 1991 during the transition to civil rule programme of General Ibrahim Babangida when there were two political parties, the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). While Mr. Clement Ebri of the NRC won the gubernatorial election, his party secured only 12 of the 25 seats in the House of Assembly with the SDP winning the remaining 13. On the day of the election of Speaker, there was drama. The moment the SDP nominated its candidate for the office, a member from the NRC nominated another SDP member to be Speaker and he went on to win on the strength of his own vote added to that of the 12 NRC members. As it would happen, the said SDP member had done a deal with the NRC by trading away the position of Deputy Speaker.
By Monday night, at the end of what was the third PDP meeting in Mark’s house, it was the second option that prevailed. But with 32 of the 49 PDP Senators coming from the South-east and South-south, there was a strong argument at the meeting that Lawan, most favoured by Mark, holds extreme views when it comes to the issue of North and South. “He is, in fact, seen as a northern irredentist. From the PIB debate to confirmation of appointments to state of emergency and insurgency debates, Lawan employs hurtful, arrogant, and clearly divisive dictions”, said a returning Senator from the South-east. That gave Saraki a huge advantage.
However, the biggest odd against Saraki was that he had long-running ego issues with Mark who considers him arrogant and disrespectful. There was also an argument at the meeting that supporting Saraki by PDP would be like rewarding bad behaviour since he was one of the people who brought the party down. However, Ekweremadu argued in Saraki’s favour that he is more cosmopolitan and nationalistic in his approach to issues. A PDP Senator also told Mark that since Saraki was once a member of the family, it would be easier to work with him than with someone like Lawan who had never been a member of PDP in the last 16 years of his membership of National Assembly (eight years in the House and eight in the Senate).
So, even before the PDP Senators began to cast their mock ballots, it had been concluded that with Lawan being the choice of the APC, it was more pragmatic to go with Saraki who had been sounded out and had agreed to run with a PDP man for the office of Deputy Senate President. The choice of Ekweremadu was also strategic because, being very close to Mark, that helped to douse whatever ill-feeling the former Senate President may harbour against Saraki. There was also a strong sentiment against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the meeting as many of the Senators argued that a vote for Lawan would be a vote for the APC National Leader. It was the same sentiment that was employed against Femi Gbajabiamila in the House of Representatives.
With the mock poll conducted among the PDP Senators while Mark and Ekweremadu abstained, Saraki polled 28 votes and Lawan secured 17 votes. By this time, the acting PDP National Chairman, Chief Uche Secondus and Metuh, who were practically in Mark’s house throughout Monday, had entered the fray to seal the decision of the Senators as that of the party. Saraki was then brought into the meeting where he agreed to offer the position of Deputy Senate President to the PDP, specifically to Ekweremadu.
However, once the APC leaders got wind of the PDP decision, a meeting was immediately scheduled for 9am at the International Conference Centre (ICC), just one hour ahead of the time that the National Assembly was supposed to be inaugurated. Meanwhile, since the president had already transmitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly the proclamation order and did not withdraw it, Mark and Ekweremadu, experienced in such matters (with sufficient clout to put pressure on the Clerk) knew the APC Senators were misreading the rule of the game by staying away from their inaugural session on the pretext of holding a party meeting elsewhere. To worsen matters, attempts were made to use the police to prevent the National Assembly members from entering the premises. Who gave the directive is still a matter of speculations, but it only infuriated the PDP Senators who rallied behind Saraki who had also got some of his APC senate colleagues to attend the session. By 6am, Saraki was already inside the National Assembly premises.
10am on the dot, the Clerk of the National Assembly commenced the session for the election of principal officers in the Senate. With Lawan and several of his APC colleagues still marooned at the ICC, Saraki was nominated for the post of Senate President and since he was unopposed with enough senators to make a simple majority, there was no contest. By the time the APC leaders and the senators (who were still expecting the president to arrive the ICC) realised the futility of their action, it was all over. Many of course rushed back to the National Assembly only to meet Saraki holding the gavel as the Senate President…
ENDNOTE: Enough said!
The African Migrants
In October 2021, I received a call from Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, seeking permission to take excerpts from my book, ‘From Frying Pan to Fire: How African Migrants Risk Everything in their Futile Search for a Better Life in Europe’, for a project he was working on. He laughed when I told him that I would feel honoured if he took the entire contents of the book. A few days later, I got a mail from Ms Tanya Larkins, an award-winning writer who teaches at the department of English, Tufts University, United States. She said she was acting on behalf of Soyinka for a publication, ‘The Black in the Mediterranean Blue’ in the anniversary issue of ‘TRANSITION: The magazine of Africa and the Disapora’. After signing and returning the permission request document, I heard nothing again from her.
Last week, I eventually received a copy of the 463-page publication where seven pages were devoted to excerpts from my book. Guest edited by Soyinka with Ms Alessadra Di Miao, the central theme is the perils of irregular migration from the continent, especially across the Mediterranean Sea. With contributions from 78 respected intellectuals and professionals from across the world, (many either of African or Italian descent), the publication is very compelling. As Di Miao, who teaches African Literature and Post-colonial studies at the University of Palermo, Italy, reminds readers, “today’s migrants tread the same ancient slave-routes dating back to the Roman Empire.”
Reading through the collection is rather sobering. But it should also be a clarion call for African leaders. If we create the enabling environment for our young people to thrive, they would not be risking their lives on the Mediterranean Sea. “Between the covers of this special edition,” Soyinka wrote in the introduction, “our readers will encounter some truly harrowing narratives of the Mediterranean experience. The defining morality of these ‘encounters of a close shave’ is ultimately—Choice. Many had none.”
I’m getting ahead of myself. Father’s Day is still next Sunday. But after the Executive Editor of LeVogue, LEADERSHIP’s Fashion and Lifestyle magazine, Nikki Odu-Khiran, asked me if I could write a piece to mark the day, it got me thinking.
If my father, who passed on May 28, 2000, ever had to write on Father’s Day, what would he have written? Of course, he wouldn’t have written anything. A pensioner who worked as a storekeeper at the Apapa (Lagos) Quays of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) before he retired in 1996, Robert could barely write.
But my, oh, my, he could hold a crowd with his speech. And if you wanted to get him going, then talk politics, especially about Nigeria’s Civil War.
I can imagine what he would have said about Father’s Day back then. Being a father in his time is different from being a father today. And if my children have to write about Father’s Day two and a half decades from now, they’ll probably be using the same lens of wistful contemplation. Every generation thinks its burden is the heaviest.
My father would not be surprised, for example, that I didn’t know his real age and never once asked him until he passed. Of course, I wrote 84 in his obit because I had to write something. I got that from asking several sources I thought would know. Not from him. For the over four decades that he lived and as far back as I can remember, I never could ask him his age.
What it meant to be a father was for the son to stay in his place. Father’s authority was final, unquestionable. Mucking about asking him about his age would have been crossing a line.
Fast forward 2023. My children not only ask me to “surrender” my PIN number and God-knows-what-else, my four-year-old granddaughter asks me my name, my mother’s name, and once teased her own mother to call my wife by name. And that, of course, is woke.
I’m not sure my father would have thought so. Perhaps if he had lived to see his great-granddaughter, he would have half-jokingly, half-embarrassingly dismissed such precociousness as a regrettable
consequence of the new-age bug.
If my father wanted me to become anything other than a journalist, I’m not sure there was much I could have done about it. You studied what you were told, which was often either law, medicine or engineering. Being a father at the time meant laying down the rules about virtually everything from your child’s hairstyle to their course of study. And being a son meant one thing: obedience.
Fortunately, my father wasn’t really interested in my career choice. All he wanted was for me to be the best in any career I wanted, a concession which I still find hard to explain, given his dominance in my life.
My father believed that staying away from booze, parties and girls was the beginning of wisdom and kept a long cane to enforce it. You really couldn’t blame him. Ajegunle, where I grew up, was one of the most congested slums of Lagos at the time. Booze was cheap, parties rampant, and girls plenty.
Of course, boys being boys (and occasionally with the connivance of my mother), I sneaked off to parties a few times, stayed out late and swigged a few bottles of beer. I even wrote frothy love letters with lines from James Hadley Chase.
However, when I crossed the line like when I went off on my own to see a football match at the National Stadium where dozens died in the post-game stampede, my mother gave me the full measure of a fan belt hung on the door lintel until I was covered in welts and near passing out, while my father turned a blind eye.
Of my many transgressions growing up, bringing a girl home, even when I was over 21, would have been considered a cardinal sin. It didn’t matter that I was out of secondary school and in higher school for my HSC, my father often warned, sternly, that hanging out with a girl when he was still responsible for me meant that I was in a hurry to relieve him of any further fatherly responsibility. His favourite phrase was, “If you get any girl pregnant, you’re done for!”
I’m sort of stuck in that groove. Tried as I have to be a modern-day dad, my children — all in their adult years — still know I felt a bit awkward, especially in the very early stages of their relationships. I think psychologists call it conditioning.
It’s futile, isn’t it? I mean for a father, these days, to worry too much about the social life of their grown-up children? You worry as they grow up, hoping they will pass every stage of growth when they should. Then you worry when they start making friends, hoping they will survive peer pressure.
Then you worry when they start going out, hoping they will keep the right company; you worry when they start going to school hoping that for all the huge bills you pay (and for their own sake) they will make good grades and turn out well.
Then when they finish, you also worry about how they will get a good job; how they would marry and who they would marry; and perhaps when they would have children. And when the grandchildren come, the worry cycle starts again.
I guess my father had all these worries, too, maybe less so in many ways than my mother had them. Yet, in a way, he had far more control of things than I could ever hope to have over my own children. If he didn’t want me to go out to a party, to see Ian Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me or any of Amitabh Bachchan’s hit movies, for example, which I rarely did, he only needed to say the word and, very often, that was that.
As a father today, however, if I don’t want my child to go to a party, he could bring the party home by phone. And if I don’t want him to go to the movie, he could watch Netflix on a speed dial.
If I told him that too many bananas and sweets could unleash the village masquerades on him, which was what my mother told me obviously for my own good, he could simply ask Google. And I’ve just been told that if I give my son a timeout, thanks to the next big thing, Apple’s Vision Pro, he could simply recreate his own new world indoors.
I wasn’t a sheltered kid. Back in the day, my father was happy to put my school “chop money” into my hand every school day and off I went, either alone or with other students, covering a distance of at least 25 kilometres to and from school through shortcuts and winding street corners on foot. We didn’t have to worry about kidnappers.
It’s a different world today. Being a father when my children were much younger also meant being their driver for school runs, popping up on Open Day and fretting about what age they should get a phone, things my father would have considered helicopter parenting.
Sometimes, being a modern-day father can feel like the Chartterjees in the legal drama Mrs. Chartterjee Vs Norway, only in the domestic sense, where your own grown-up children take the place of the Norwegian authorities.
Today’s children have a completely different code of how they want their own children raised, nurtured and treated, different from what your mother or father taught you!
And increasingly, a number of them relate to you differently. On this Father’s Day, for example, if you’re nice, your son might even offer you a bottle of beer! The mere thought of it would make my father turn in his grave. I can almost hear him say, “this generation is done for!” Is it?