Vision 2020 down the drain

Yar'Adua's vision in logjam.



Apapa - Oshodi road in disgraceful condition

Lesson on Oath taking

Political Quote

In the way (African) politics is being conducted today there is little, if any, room for empathy and self-reflection. Criticism is perceived as personal rather than institutional. Blame is laid on circumstances beyond one's own control or on an enemy -real or perceived- that is responsible for anything gone wrong. Much political energy is devoted to defeating opponents. Politics, therefore, is typically a zero-sum game and conflicts abound.

- Goran Hyden, African Politics in Comparative Perspestive, pg 233.

Sunday

Excellent report about how Nobody knows how much oil we sell.

Sunday School

Reuben Abati on When Will Nigeria Ever Make It?

There is nothing more exasperating, living in Nigeria, studying Nigeria, and analysing Nigeria, and being Nigerian, than the realization that our lives have become one long piece of monotonous repetition of failures and uncertainties. We celebrate our capacity to manage the crisis in our lives, the optimism that is derived from our religiousity and our capacity like tragic heroes, to suffer and endure, but for a nation that seeks to make progress, the biggest challenge remains the development challenge. We seem rooted in one spot, gyrating on our axis, and nothing, absolutely nothing appears to work.

Abati is best when he is not writing platonic dialogues.


Meanwhile Nigerian pilgrimages to arabland discovered that no place holy like home.

OF the 181 countries that participated in the 2007 Hajj operations that ended a few days ago in Saudi Arabia, only Nigeria had a separate camp, as departure point for airlifting of pilgrims back home.

Disbelief and disappointment etched boldly on the faces of the third batch of pilgrims from Lagos State as they arrived at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah on Tuesday night.

They discovered that only Nigerians were being attended to at what looked like an abandoned place hurriedly prepared for the operation.

However, investigation, especially from the regular guests to the Holy Land, revealed that the port of arrival used to be the same spot for departure for all pilgrims.

In fact, nationals from other countries such as Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana and Senegal departed from where they arrived for the hajj operations. But not so for the Nigerians.

Continuing, the irrelevant and incompetent Oyo state government wasted N17.5 million building statue of an unknown soldier in place of Awolowo's statue destroyed by Ladoja and Adedibu's thugs back in 2003. No one is amused. From the News editorial:

The revelation that the statue was constructed at a whopping cost of N17.5 million is quite ridiculous, annoying and leaves much to be desired. It is an eloquent testimony to the fact that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is a party given to wastefulness and corrupt tendencies. Alao-Akala’s action has been condemned by prominent citizens. Lam Adesina described it as sacrilegious and regretted that anti-democratic forces had taken over the reins of the Oyo State government. His predecessor, Alhaji Ladoja, said the step taken by the governor showed his low level of reasoning and mentality regarding democratic norms.

And Rivers state government take over Ateke Tom’s properties here

RIVERS State government yesterday moved to cut Tom Ateke to size when Governor Rotimi Amaechi said that the militant leader’s properties would be converted to government’s use.

And to give effect to the move, the governor directed the state ministry of health to move into the Evil Forest, an area considered to be Ateke’s base in Okochiri, Okrika, and build a health centre for the use of the people there.

Amaechi, who spoke, yesterday, in Port-Harcourt, pointed out that his administration would not relent on its onslaught against militants and cultists in Rivers State.

Explaining that his administration had a responsibility to protect lives and properties, he urged residents of the state to ignore text messages and newspaper reports of plan to invade the state by unknown gunmen.

Ambiguity And Illegality : The Ribadu Case

We Nigerians are ambiguous lots. Our leaders far more. They have mastered the language of ambiguity. This gives flexibility to their manipulations. Their illegal manipulations. These in turns absolve them of responsibility. In Nigeria with our leaders the bulk stop everywhere and at nowhere. This vagueness is the bane of governance in our dear nation when no one, even the president, is not responsible for anything.


The case of Mr. Nuhu Ribadu's illegal removal as head of EFCC is typical. Isn't Mr. Ribadu on fixed tenure? Can the Inspector General of police send people on course at random, subject to his whims and caprices, or is it based on rule and procedure already set out? Is this course a requisite to head EFCC? Isn't the President the only one legally capable of removing Mr. Ribadu from office? And even he (the President) must have judicious justification to do so? There are many many questions of these nature which no one is answering and the press with their sensational reportings that warp reality are not to be rely on.

Ordinarily, removing Mr. Ribadu should not become a controversial issue if that is what the government decide. However the removal is cloaked and ambiguous. Lacking straightforwardness. This leads to speculations, distrust and suspicion which undermine the political process. Ambiguity is so much embedded in our governance that it is used even when it serve no purpose other than cloud more the already clouded political perspective. Mr. Yar'Adua should know that as the president he is perfectly within the law to remove any appointed public officer he deemed fit but he need not hide behind his finger when doing so.

Happy New Year

Happy new year to all. Wishing all the best in 2008.

I hope there will be more blogging this year.

obasanjo tell story

"A Blot on the Conscience of the World" -- Soyinka

Soyinka appeal on the Darfur crisis and comment on vast ranging issues in Nigeria as well as on his recently published memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir in a 2 parts interview on Democracy Now

Part 1 and Part 2

Excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: So what do you think has to happen right now?

WOLE SOYINKA: Well, first of all, there is another dimension. There’s another zone of responsibility, which nobody has said much about. Now, these crimes which are being committed, there’s a direct stated, quite overt and boastful purpose to it. The Janjaweed, when they kill, when they murder, burn and rape, they say clearly that they want to Arab-ize Darfur, that part of Africa. In other words, they’re acting on behalf of some very distorted notion of Arabism. Therefore, those on behalf of whom these crimes are being committed, I mean, in their name, so to speak, the Arab world, the Arab League, in particular, also has a primary responsibility to call their erring member to order.

Sudan, after all, wears two identities. It’s a member of the Africa Union, it’s a member of the Arab League. And it’s not enough to leave this task to the Africa Union. The Arab League has a clear responsibility, and I think that if a family member of the Arab world, you know, if a family member errs, then the entire family has a responsibility to say, “You cannot do this in our name. And if you do this, we expel you, we cut you off, we denounce you, and we proscribe you from our community.” I expect that kind of action of deep and profound moral integrity from the Arab world.

AMY GOODMAN: Wole Soyinka joined us in our studio yesterday. I began by asking him about the title of his book.

WOLE SOYINKA: Alright, I'll tell you the history of the title. My first working title was “Beyond the Word,” which is a literal explication of the contents of the book, of the nature of the events which are described in the book. But then one of my editors -- I went through three editors, by the way. All of them were on a very positive kind of direction. One of the editors ran into that poem of mine, which contains the lines “Traveler, you must set forth at dawn.” Title is “Death in the Dawn.” And she became very enamored of that title. When she proposed it, I said, “No, no, no.” And then I tried it out on some of my friends, and they said, “No, that's more lyrical, more poetic.” I said, “Yes, I know it is, but, you know, why? Why must –” So, I actually took a straw vote on that with some of my colleagues and so on -- “Beyond the Word,” “You Must Set Forth at Dawn.” And it came -- the voting came to about 60-40. And since I'm a true democrat, I decided to go with "You Must Set Forth at Dawn.

Nigeria, News, Soyinka, Democracy

Gluttons

The miser and the glutton are two facetious buzzards: one hides his store, and the other stores his hide.

Nigeria is never in short supply of professional underminers. Those whose sole duty as citizens is simply to retard the nation's progress. The likes of Arthur Nzeribe quickly come to mind. Nzeribe remains Nigeria's quintessential underminer-in-chief. His Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) played protagonist role in the prompt annulment of the freest and fairest election back in 1993 and served as the lunchpad for the nation's journey, with Abacha as ship captain, to the back of the beyond as one observer would later termed that whole period. Nzeribe nowadays, due to strength, is restricting his handiwork to local politics where he recently irked the temper of his constituents. As Nzeribe fade to background people like Chris Uba are coming out of internship to duly step into their undermining role lest the country begin to quickly find stability. But Uba still have lots undermining to do in the future.



In the meantime, gluttons like Ken Nnamani, Ibrahim Mantu and Ahmadu Ali swaddle the landscape. The first two are, respectively, the President and the Deputy President of the Senate while the third is the chairman of that political gang/party called PDP. While Nnamani has decided to keep his activity to stuffing his face and nothing else for now, the last two are "belle fools" looking for trouble. They are in the vanguard of the tenure elongation imbroglio threatning the nation's nascent democratic dispensation. Gluttons of course are known to consume immoderately to the point of waste and thereby dig their own graves with their teeth according to a french proverb.

Nigeria, News, Africa

Quick Sunday Postscript

From the Republic of Benin, there are a few things Obasanjo could learn about democracy. Also, Ghana's democracy is described as "strong" while Obasanjo's government is considers as "increasingly repressive". And from Jamaica a columnist from that little carribean nation thinks even Jamaicans would feel better about the state of their nation if they see Obasanjo's gigantic Nigeria.

Nigeria, News, Ghana, Jamaica, Africa

Nigeria's Stunted Democracy

According to democracy scholar Larry Diamond's maximalist criterion for democratic consolidation, democracy should "become so broadly and profoundly legitimate, and so habitually practiced and observed, that it is unlikely to break down." Needless to say Obasanjo has failed this criterion. Seven full years after the return to democracy we are still unsure how it work, if it work or when it work. Nigerians are being required in a democracy to get police permit before they can be allow to hold public meetings or demonstrations. Laws are being proposed without regard or consultations with those to be affected by their possible outcomes. Oppositions are being stiffled at every corner and is recently approaching the Abacha level. Courts' rulings are selectively and opportunistically executed. The list is endless.

Democracy entail adherence to the rule of law to work minimally and definitely tolerance of oppositions to maximally survive without fear of it breaking down. When oppositions are unsure of ballot box as the only effective route to power they become despair and won't care if democracy crashes or survive. At present Obasanjo is the number one threat to the survival of democracy in Nigeria poking hot rod at its very heart.

Nigeria, News, Africa, Democracy

Obasanjo's Score Card

The following graphic show the pains and gains of Obasanjo's regime over the past 6-7 years he is in office. As it clearly show we have more poor people, more unemployed, products cost more and the stress all these bring takes their toll first with the higher infant mortality and death rates and second with the general life expectancy declination. As for the gains more people can communicate on their mobiles, increase in literacy and of course the partial reduction/write-off of the country's external debt.



Nigeria, News, Democracy

Taylor's vacation is over

Now this is a good news. The warlord can now account for all the distress he caused the subregion throughout the 90s.

40 million in Nigerian polio immunization drive

By Christine Jaulmes

Nigeria is the last polio-endemic country in Africa, with the world’s highest number of reported cases in 2005. Now the National Programme on Immunization (NPI), supported by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other partners, aims to immunize every child in Nigeria against polio.

The country’s second round of National Immunization Days concluded last week, using a unique approach to vaccinate more than 40 million children under the age of five. Teams of workers went directly to homes, stood in market stalls and even boarded boats to rural islands in order to ensure that no child would be missed.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_31797.html

Zimbabwean Farmers Find a New Life in Nigeria

Forced out of Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe's infamous land-reform program, a small group of white farmers is taking advantage of a second chance in Nigeria.

Bukola Saraki, the governor of Kwara State, wooed the white commercial farmers despite some local opposition. He hopes to harness the expertise of the farmers from Zimbabwe to jump-start Nigeria's commercial agricultural sector. Nigeria spends billions annually on food imports.

Farmer Dan Swart says teaching people "the finer points of farming and finance" could "make Nigeria the breadbasket of West Africa."

A first-year yield of 4,000 tons of corn may be "the biggest single yield in Nigeria for the last 40 years," says farmer Alan Jack. He coordinated the move to Kwara state and he's recruiting an additional 40 farmers to join the initial band of 13.

As he prepared to fly to Zimbabwe to recruit more white farmers, Alan Jack said he looked forward to coming back to Nigeria, his new home.

"We're very happy here," he says. "We're back doing what we do best, which is farm... Africa needs more success stories."

Un-informed Experts At It Again

The recent articles on Nigeria by Jeffrey Tayler, Worse Than Iraq? for the Atlantic Monthly and G. Pascal Zachary, Nigeria: The Next Quagmire? for Alertnet.org attenuated both writers', and to larger extent western experts' analyses of events in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general as lacking. Both authors wrote on Nigeria because they believed it is the next Iraq. Their un-informed knowledge of Nigeria led them to supposed the recent militancy in the Niger Delta region as evidence of bigger implosion to come. We might be reminded that that road was paved for them by the impertinent and subversive U.S intelligence report "warning" that Nigeria might break up in 15 years with no new evidence other than the Nigeria's ever recurring ethnic afflictions. And since all the recent oil price increases are blamed on the unrest in Nigeria it is natural for the experts to dust up their expertise cap and don it. Now suddenly Nigeria's oil has become so influential as to cause ripples around the world. This is suspect and this is where the ruling politicians must be very very careful on security. Under the military rule dangers like this were minimum not because the military juntas cared more about the national security than their gullible civillian counterparts but rather for fear of usurpation. And so during all the destructive military years it was impossible neither for U.S intelligence warning about Nigeria disintegrating in no time nor experts comparing it to Iraq. They all generally kept their "expertise" opinion to human right violations by the juntas and could go no further. But now democracy has changed that.

Now while both writers' recordings of the Nigeria crisis are basically correct, these however were nothing new as the country has grappled with them since 1914's amalgamation and even fought a destructive civil war because of them and so their conclusion: that Nigeria is on the verge of civil war and implosion and might be the next Iraq betrayed ignorant. That both writers suffixed their titles with question mark merely confirmed this fact.

But of course the Nigerian lukeworm politicians and their policies on national security hasn't helped matter. Atiku's recent call for U.S assistance on the Niger Delta crisis is one example. Why would Nigeria need Americans to maintain security within its own border? The Nigerian Army send troops for peace-keeping to troubled spots around the world but cannot maintain same at home? Also retired Gen. Victor Malu, the former COAS had warned Obasanjo against giving the Americans too much leeway at the Defence Headquaters. He was not heard but instead removed. All these are risky national security policies. Outside of subversive outside elements Nigeria's chances of implosion are as slim as America making Iraq peaceful again.

Nigeria, News

Notes On Niger Delta Crisis

Stealing, fighting, seeking power
From Africa Confidential

Some of the militant leaders linked to the attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta earn tens of thousands of dollars from contracts with the oil majors. The FNDIC leaders Kingsley Otuaro and Messio German run contracting companies working with the oil majors. In Okerenkoko, Messio’s Integrate Production System Surveillance (IPSS) signed a second annual contract with Shell in November to provide security for the company’s huge Jones Creek flow station, where Okerenkoko is one of five ‘host communities’. Messio says the first contract was worth 24 million naira (US$164,000). The second, running from 1 November to 31 October, was for an initial N18 mn. ($123,000), including ‘incident-free bonuses’ of N3.6 mn. ($24,700) a quarter.
IPSS is not officially registered and its contracts look like disguised protection payments. ‘I sincerely believe MEND will not blow up any pipeline [in Okerenkoko] because the security boys would not allow it’, says Messio. He adds that pipeline vandalisation used to be common until a memorandum from him and Otuaro prompted Shell to hire IPSS.
Messio says Shell has since hired local contracting firms all over Delta state. Similar arrangements in Bayelsa are a source of friction between rival Ijaw communities. Shell admits it faces ‘pressure for cash payments for non-legitimate reasons’, but ruled in 2003 that it would no longer pay communities except for legitimate business reasons. Chevron’s similar clean-up last year involved a Global Memorandum of Understanding, designed to end practices such as the hiring of ‘ghost workers’ to pacify local youths. It also said it was ending the designation of ‘host communities’ for its flow stations (oil rigs have ‘impacted communities’) but the message does not seem to have reached the creeks.
An outfit called The Host Communities of Nigeria wants a constitutional amendment to ensure that 13 per cent of government oil revenues go directly to them, rather than to the state governments which, they say, steal most of the money. Leaders in this move are FNDIC’s Messio and the Gbaramatu chiefs.
Shell has been targeted by MEND in the latest violence but not Chevron, the opposite of what happened in 2003. Then, Chevron facilities were attacked in both Ijaw and Itsekiri areas. Ijaws felt that Itsekiris were getting a disproportionate number of oil jobs (Ijaws call that ‘differentials’).
Otuaro denies any link with MEND and says that Shell is targetted because it is less responsive to ‘opinion leaders’ such as himself, especially in paying for trips to the creeks to calm down angry youths or give jobs to local people. complains that Shell refused work to one of his contracting companies, Bruz-Otus, when drilling new wells around Jones Creek last year. Shadro Services Limited, which is owned by Otuaro and his brother Shadrack Otuaro, has lucrative contracts with Shell at Jones Creek and the Egwa oilfield. This pattern of business and militancy is repeated across the region.

Nigeria, News, Niger Delta

Extradite Charles Taylor Now!

Now that the Liberian government has done what the Nigerian government was asking but never really wanted, an extradition request for Taylor, Obasanjo should finally give in and let justice prevail. The man who caused over ten years of carnage in his country and de-established the subregion shouldn't be walking free. Extradite Taylor Now!

How third term campaigners hijacked hearing in South West

By Loremikan, Campaign for Democracy, CD

IT will not be strange to you that we in the UAD and the CDHR for years, have been deliberating on the need to have a people’s participatory constitutional and democratic government. As a matter of fact we intensified our work on the concept of constitutionalism immediately we had a civilian administration in 1999, despite our reservation on the persons and parties that found themselves in our various public offices.

Between that 1999 and 2003, we had promoted, hosted, organized seminars, workshops, and lectures across the six geo-political zones of the country. While CDHR as an organisation, has promoted and floated over 40 Constitutional Clubs in the higher institutions of the country. Till date, some of these clubs still operate and promote our interest in certain universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education in the country and UAD has drafted a model Constitution for Nigeria as a reference point for Constitutional amendments. Essentially, our concern on the issue of constitutionalism that is significant to human development and progress, encouraged our presence at Osogbo on February 22 and 23, 2006.

However, we got to Osogbo only to find out that the gathering there is a pre-determined one. We were confronted with a group of persons, including public officers who have made up their minds, on who to admit to the venue, who to recognize, and who to allow to make speech. As if that was all, the gathering have also agreed somewhere, somehow on who and what the speakers should say. Namely extension of the present administration or call for a third term for the offices of the president, vice president, governors and deputy governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

You will only appreciate what we went through if you were with us at Osogbo. Right at the main gate of the Osun State House of Assembly Complex, were fully armed security operatives, made up of regular police, mobile police and operatives of State Security Services. Our experience with this law enforcement officers suggested they have instruction not to allow certain persons, groups or organisations into the complex.

Aside these, people who came with different opinions as to the third term agenda for the President and Governors were shouted down, intimidated and insulted in manners liable to insinuating public disorder. While this was going on, members of the Panel could not caution the over zealous pro-third term agents lurking around the hearing premises.

A glaring example was that of Mr. Bamidele Aturu who was not allowed to express the position of his organization based on an untenable excuse that he refused to apologise for or withdraw a statement he made earlier concerning the South-west Governors’ dilemma on the third term issue. After series of bullying, intimidation, witch-hunting and untold insults from the pro-third term people, Mr. Bamidele Aturu was ushered out by security operatives at the instance of the panel leadership. We view this as a flagrant violation of our fundamental human rights to expression of opinions and fair hearing as entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Africa Peoples’’ Charter on Human and Political Rights and even the subsisting much faulted 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Moreso, we berate in strong terms, the conduct of the hearing exercise which was made an exclusive reserve of PDP office holders and gladiators only. Contrary opinions were supplanted to give way to the self-serving third term agenda of President Olusegun Obasanjo. While the stage-managed close door hearing exercise was going on inside the Assembly Complex, the armed mobile policemen at the gate of the Complex have already descended on persons who have also being alleged to have come with contrary positions, as opposed to the conspiratorial third term agenda. Mr. Abiodun Aremu, the Convener of the United Action for Democracy (UAD), Mr. Muyiwa Jimoh, the President of Apapa Youth Movement, Lagos and several student activists from higher institutions in the South-west were molested, brutalized, assaulted, stripped half-naked; their two hands were callously tied backwards with their wears after which they were bundled into the Mobile Police truck with Registration Number PF 5645 SPY and then taken to an unknown destination.

On the second day of the panel’s hearing which was Thursday, 23rd February, 2006, the panel’s disposition towards many organizations that attended the hearing showed that the entire process was masterminded and pre-programmed to uphold the selfish vendetta of the PDP-led Administration most especially the much touted third term agenda.

Several civil society organizations like the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights represented by Mr. Shina Loremikan, Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) represented by Dr. Bamgbose (UNAAB), Electoral network Reform represented by Mr. Eze, Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN) which Barrister Biola Akiode came to represent were all barred from expressing their positions.

In a swift turn of events and abject disservice to public conscience, some imaginary Non-governmental organizations that were not in existence up to the last six months were assembled by the pro-third term PDP gladiators and the panel subsequently granted them the opportunity to present their memoranda thereby lending credence to their treacherous third term phenomenon while organizations like CDHR, CFCR, GECORN, ASUU, ERN, CF, JODAR and NADL all of which have made serious contributions to Constitution-making since the year 1999 were disallowed from ventilating their views in the just concluded exercise. An organization like CDHR organized a Conference on the 1999 Constitution, Constitutionalism, Democracy and the Rule of Law in the year 2000 and subsequently published a book which was a compendium of the series of contributions made at the conference.

The book “Path to Peoples’’ Constitution\” was the memorandum intended for presentation by CDHR at the public hearing but the panel and its staff frustrated all efforts at expressing the popular opinions of Nigerians on the 1999 Constitutions as contained in the book.

The hearing exercise was abruptly brought to an end before noon on Thursday, 23rd February, 2006 with the panel not adducing any reason for closing so early an event which should reasonably last till 6.00 pm in the evening. All the organizations mentioned, despite being registered after much persuasion were denied the opportunity of expressing their positions. The entire exercise was therefore a close door meeting for the ratification of the third term agenda of Obasanjo. We strongly detest this development and view it as a serious threat to the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria for it is in itself a gross misrepresentation of the popular interest and aspirations of the Nigerian people. On a last note, we demand for an unconditional release of the Convener of UAD and the twenty-three activists that are presently detained at Ayetoro Police Station, Osogbo, Osun State.

The names of the organizations prevented from airing their views at the South-West public hearing on the review of 1999 Constitution at Osogbo, Osun State on Wednesday, 22nd February, 2006 (1) Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) (2) Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER) (3) United Action for Democracy (UAD) (4) Apapa Youth Movement (5) Citizens Forum for Constitutional Reform (CFCR) (6) Children’’s Rights (7) Women Advocacy, Research and Documentation Dentre (WARD C) (8) National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL) (9) Campaign for Democracy (CD) (10) Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) (11) Citizens’ Forum (CF) (12) National Association of Labour and Civil Society Organisation (NALACSO) (13) All-Nigeria Autobike Owners and Workers Association (ANACOWA) (14) The Grassroots Initiative (GI)