Not a role model

•From her gruff and boorish conduct, Patience Jonathan is no exemplary First Lady

At the height of General Ibrahim Babangida’s rule of total domination, Olanrewaju Adepoju, a Yoruba recording and performance poet in an LP, let out a biting rebuke, with an awesome pun on the Babangida name, a direct fallout from the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment crisis: “Baba-ngida, Iya-ngida, Omo na ngida!” [Literally: “Daddy is involved, mummy is involved, and even the child is warming up to join the fray!”]

In Julius Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the famed English playwright told a disapproving tale of how spousal excesses turned an otherwise good man, Macbeth, into a monster; by pushing him into regicide. Lady Macbeth’s continuous goading pushed Macbeth to kill King Duncan, his benefactor. But it also led the couple, who usurped the Scottish throne, to self-destroy.

Both Adepoju and Shakespeare, therefore, spoke of the danger of excessive spousal interference in public office. In Adepoju’s view, the Babangida government was becoming a family affair, particularly given Mrs Maryam Babangida’s larger-than-life Better Life for Rural Women programme. Shakespeare also told a gripping dramatic tale of how Lady Macbeth destroyed her husband and herself.

On the office and place of the First Lady, in Nigeria’s often troubled polity and politics, there perhaps would be no unanimity. But nobody can say First Lady intervention in governance is intrinsically evil.

One thing is clear, though: the Constitution does not expressly make provision for the office. So many, clearly upset by the excesses of many a First Lady, have declared the office illegal. But that is not necessarily so. The office can earn itself a place in the mind of the populace by convention, if it is perceived to be of public good; its occupants comport themselves with decorum, honour and dignity; and are perceived to be assets, not liabilities, to the office of the President or Governor. This is more so, when the Constitution does not expressly preclude the office and activity of the First Lady.

A caveat, here: this newspaper has, and indeed every Nigerian should have, the highest regard for the office of the Nigerian President; and that of the state Governor. Though no elected officers like their spouses, this honour and courtesy should extend to their wives (or husbands, if they are female); who are expected to reciprocate the honour with decorum and grace.

It is on suspect comportment that First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, does a lot of disservice to what should be, if well handled, the institution of the First Lady.

Even before the highly reported friction between President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Mrs Jonathan had mostly generated negative vibes. Many complain of her perceived lexical challenge, making insensitive statements and also her convoy shutting down every city or town she has visited. Lagosians have an abiding bitter tale to tell of her visits. So do domiciles of Port Harcourt; still talking of a city meltdown, just because the First Lady was in town for a private wedding. What was even more galling was the reported abandonment of a function by Governor Amaechi, just because the First Lady’s security cordon had blocked every place.

That action, extremely provocative and insensitive, should be decried by all. The impunity itself is condemnable, coming from a person who is no constitutional official of the state. Besides, to think that Mrs Jonathan was openly rubbing in the quarrel between her husband, the president and Governor Amaechi, two state officials, was proxy battle most absurd. Aside, the question of waste: so, because Mrs Jonathan was visiting, literally the whole of the Police should choke the state, in a country whose parlous security requires every hand to be on deck?

But it was on the score of careless and tactless talk that Mrs Jonathan disrespected the office of the Rivers State Governor and undermined the honour, integrity and majesty of the Nigerian Presidency. In the midst of the cream of Rivers State, Patience Jonathan lampooned the governor, claiming, not without open spite, that Port Harcourt, the state capital, had lost its glory. In an infantile bid to win friends for a most embarrassing and thoughtless talk, she compared the present to the tenure of some past governors who were present at the occasion, leaving her guests little choice but to nod in embarrassed agreement. That was bad grace of the highest order.

It was not even the first time Mrs Jonathan would resort to such public lampoon of a sitting governor. The first was the open spat over the Okirika waterfront resettlement scheme. On that occasion, even with the governor present, Mrs Jonathan went on a rude and crude lecture binge, haranguing the governor on his faulty diction. Her only reasons were that she was the wife of the president and also an Okirika native who had returned in glory to pillory an errant governor.

For the president to avert a constitutional crisis, he should call his spouse to order. Under the spirit of Nigeria’s federal Constitution, not even the president can talk down on a governor. The president deserves everyone’s respect. But he is no prefect over any governor. From the presidential fiasco arising from the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) election, it should be clear to the president by now that even he cannot enforce powers he does not have. If the president cannot do that, what gives his spouse the conceit that she could do so? President Jonathan must not give the impression that he has been emasculated by his beloved Dame. Even if that were true, that should start and end in the presidential court; and not extend to where it can cause the president avoidable trouble.

Mrs Jonathan should change her rather reckless, rude and crude ways. Though every Nigerian has the bounden duty to respect the high office of President, the rude conduct of his spouse exasperates everyone to want to feel otherwise. All over, Mrs Jonathan appears a liability: her controversial promotion as Permanent Secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service is a huge dent to the anti-corruption war; her proxy battle on behalf of her husband is a great but needless tension to Nigeria’s delicate federalism; and her rather unguarded comments on her travails, while abroad on medical tourism, was a study in lack of grace.

President Jonathan should move to save the dignity of his Presidency from spousal assault. Even after the Jonathans must have left, the Nigerian Presidency would still be there. It behoves them then to preserve it, as others before them had tried to do, warts and all.

A First Lady should be seen for her good deeds, and seldom heard for her rude thoughts.

Culled from the Nation Newspaper Editorial, 20TH of June, 2013.

Let us stop this madness

Let us stop this madness

Recent events in our polity, and the postulations of elected and appointed officials of government, seem to suggest that our development is held back, not by vision-less and greedy leaders but by the sheer docility of the populace. Since the beginning of 2012, it has been one monumental scam and scandal after another. Perpetrators of these scams are all alive, walking the streets as free men (and women). Nigerians are used to the idea that things will remain as they have always been due to the lack of political will on the part of the leadership. A political scientist who presided over a panel discussion at a premiere of a documentary on corruption in Abuja a couple of days ago stated that what we call lack of political will on the part of the leadership, should not really bear that description. He rather sees it as the lack of sufficient push and demand from those who are the victims of the maladministration and greed of the leaders. This redefinition seems more apt as a description of what happens in Nigeria. It is a fact of life that Nigerians are a long-suffering people and very easy to enslave in virtually all aspects of their lives.

Related to this is the constant attempt at capacity-building in the public sector. Conference after conference, meeting after meeting and workshop after workshop have proverbially built the capacity of public servants on a wide array of subjects. Yet, in those endeavours where they have received the new teachings and capacity, they fail woefully to deliver services to the people. Essentially, what is lacking in these offices and officials is not capacity. It is clearly a lack of integrity. Virtually every Ministry, Department or Agency of government requests resources to buy library books which is also part of capacity-building in an anti-intellectual environment. But, how many ranking officials of the Nigerian state have in the search of new ideas, read a book in the last three years?

Why do we find it difficult as a people to ask for our basic rights and that things are done the right way? It appears that we have accepted that corruption is a necessity and a way of life to the extent that we see people in public office as having a socially accepted opportunity to steal and loot. We expect them to take their turn in the belief that it may get to our turn tomorrow or the turn of someone very close to us who can facilitate our access to the treasury. It is like a relay race and the baton is exchanged from one set of government officials to another in the full glare of the victims of the senseless race. Rather than jeering and taking steps to block the tracks and stop the race, it appears the victims are cheering and clapping. But it is self evident that the resources will never be enough to satisfy everyone’s greed and that the finite resources need to be very well managed to even satisfy our needs. Thus, from the size of our population and available resources, the opportunity to steal will only be available to not more than five per cent of the population thereby leaving the remaining 95 per cent in the lurch.

So, why are we, the majority of the population still clapping and cheering? Are we satisfied with the life we are living, the poverty, darkness and hopelessness that we endure? Are we satisfied with the gridlock in the system? We clap and cheer when we take no step to stop the race and pretend that it is well when everything is wrong. When our rights are violated, instead of seeking remedies to a logical conclusion, we hand over everything to God or we shirk from a fight to claim our rights because we do not have the time! Meanwhile, we have been created in the image and likeness of God who has given us all the powers and things we need to conquer and inherit the earth. And those in authority understand that we do have the stamina that is required for the marathon race involved in claiming rights – the scenario suits them perfectly as they continue with more impunity and violations. We clap and cheer when we refuse to be a part of mass action to protest inhuman and oppressive policies or even to show those in authority that we are angry with the system they have designed to enslave us.

Using the federal budget as an example, there is a rat race among the departments of government on who will use the appropriation process to corner public resources for private ends. The examples of these requests are legion. There is the huge and insensitive demand for travels, transport and training, the repetitive demands for refreshment, meals and welfare packages; agencies under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources that will demand hundreds of millions of naira for exactly the same project, statutory transfers that are not disaggregated and made known to the public, among others. Appropriated and available resources for capital budget implementation are deliberately withheld by the Government while salaries and overheads are fully drawn down. The NEITI Reports reveal that there are public and private agencies in the petroleum sector who withheld over $9.8bn public revenue since 1999 and no one dares to ask them to refund it. Yet, the executive is requesting legislative approval to borrow less than this stolen sum. The list is endless. But what is the reaction of the majority of Nigerians – silence. This silence cannot be golden because it is the silence of a slave who before his master cannot summon the courage to utter a word.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the fuel subsidy crisis, it is imperative for Nigerians to rediscover the spirit of the protest, to draw boundaries against official corruption, to demand accountability and to make it clear to those who have held us in contempt over the years that their time is over. Let us write letters, send text messages, and use the social media to approach our leaders. We need to file law suits, picket institutions, organise street protests in accordance with our freedom of association and movement and refuse to be intimidated by anyone, no matter how highly placed. Let us begin to use the instrument of recall against those officials who have let us down. Indeed, let us make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who is in leadership position but seeks after his undue comfort to the detriment of the nation. It is time for the millions of unemployed youths to organise and strategise to face a common enemy. You need to organise across ethnic and religious boundaries. Taking to crime will not solve the problem. Nothing will change until we sufficiently demand for change. In history, there has never been and in Nigeria, there will never be political will for beneficiaries of the rot to clean the system. Our destiny lies in taking back our country and our future with concerted action aimed at cleansing the system of corruption and maladministration.

 December 3, 2012 by Eze Onyekpere (censoj@gmail.com; 08127235995)

Osun Sets Up Awolowo Centre For Philosophy, Ideology, Good Governance

In its efforts to ensure the preservation of the teachings and ideology of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the state government of Osun has set up an institute in his name.
According to the governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, the institute would be called Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance and it is located at the former Osun State Transport Head Office at Ogo-Oluwa in Osogbo, the state capital.
It would be headed by Professor Moses Akin Makinde, an erudite Professor of Philosophy, who has studied and written extensively on many aspects of political and philosophical thoughts of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
“The centre will not only further immortalize Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a profound philosopher and ideologue, who blazed the trail in putting up good governance into effect in the old Western Region of Nigeria, the centre is dedicated to providing qualitative learning, research and discourse in the areas of philosophy, ideology and good governance.
It is hoped that the centre would attract scholars, politicians, and persons with interest in philosophy, ideology and good governance with a view to deepening the humanist and democratic values enunciated by Chief Awolowo,” said Aregbesola.
The governor further stated that the centre is the state of Osun’s contribution to strengthening democracy and good governance, according to the governor, “genuine and profound thinking is imperative for genuine and profound action, particularly in the areas of democracy and good governance”.

Politics, Stilted by Absence of Ideology

Politics, Stilted by Absence of Ideology

 

Even at 52, Nigeria’s brand of politics is still lacking in the ideology required to strengthen her evolving democracy, writes Olawale Olaleye

Like an unfathomable riddle, the nation’s political experiment has still presented a quintessential case study in ideology-based practice. For many a pundit, through their wired intrigues and practice, it is not difficult to discern that politicians in the country generally form political parties for the sole purpose of contesting and winning elections. It is not so much the establishment of political platforms set up for the purpose of development and on the basis of deep political and economic convictions.

Often times, emerging political gatherings – of old and young politicians – are celebrated but without introspection on whether or not such gatherings are fixed on set goals. Since independence, Nigeria has had a flurry of political associations and parties. Whilst some died no sooner than they were birthed, others evolved with time and metamorphosed into new ones but only in name.

However, between the First and Second Republics, political parties that existed were ideology driven. They included the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) – dominated by Northern Nigeria; the Action Group (AG) – dominated by the people of South-western Nigeria; National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), as it came to be called after 1960 – dominated by people of South-eastern extraction. They were believed to be ideology-driven because at the time, it was clear what each of the parties stood for, as much as the clear differences that existed between them, barring the ethnic leanings.

For instance, the NPC was conservative and not very inclined towards the hurried exit of the British colonial masters, pre-independence. The AG, as it were, was more socialist in outlook with Marxists doctrinal beliefs that the state should be paternalistic. However, the NCNC could be referred to as liberal or centrist, with a somewhat moderate stance on issues. Indeed, this was believed to have accounted for its significant following in the South-west.

Perhaps, as many have argued, strong fiscal federalism, coupled with regionalism after independence, strengthened the political parties at the time, as each strove to produce results in their region of dominance. The regions in turn were responsible for socio-economic development in areas like health and education, leaving the center to confront issues such as finance, international relations, customs, immigration, national security and related sectors, exclusive to it.

Talking about ideology-based politics, Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s example usually comes handy because of his welfarist approach to governance. His party, the Action Group, grew in stature beyond the confines of the Western Region as his lieutenants ensured that the party’s decisions were implemented down the line. The result of such carefully conceptualised programmes was the progress witnessed in the entire region, which stoked competition in other regions. Awolowo was clearly a step ahead of his contemporaries because of his disposition to progressive politics.

To think that Awolowo maintained the tempo when he inaugurated the Unity Party of Nigeria in the Second Republic also showed consistency. The UPN under his leadership had a clear-cut ideology akin to that of the defunct AG and the cardinal points were broad. The five states that emerged under the party’s control outrivaled others in grassroots development and were in sync with the party’s integrated rural development approach.

But soon after the military interregnum, true fiscal federalism was crippled, thus paving the way for today’s centrist structure. Since then, successive political parties have not reintroduced ideologically based politics.
Observers believe that ideal political parties must have a recognisable personality and character. But with the mushroom of political parties in contemporary Nigeria, nothing appears to be exciting about their pattern of politics, especially when the players are can be deemed to have been recycled and whose primary reason for forming new parties or crossing over to others is to regain the power and influence they had lost in their former folds. This, pundits say, is contrary to what underscores ideological politics where parties are vehicles for development with a disciplined commitment to good governance and party ethos.

Playing opposition politics, analysts contended, goes beyond flowery rhetoric. It is connected more with well-organised machinery that criticises intelligently, chips in accolades where necessary and carefully provides alternatives to governance and leadership as well as policy execution.

But what is prevalent now are pretenders who make noise for the purpose of negotiating with those in authority, for as long as they can play out their deception into believing they command sizeable political followings that can prejudice the political interests of opponents in a given equation.

Unfortunately, the hypocrisy of the present formation, analysts say, is that certain members of a political party will publicly deride their party and still not toe the honourable path of quitting on the pretext that as founding members, they would not quit for people who do not know how far they’d come. Such disposition, observers believe, is inimical to the interest of ideology-based politics.

It is yet a common denominator in virtually all the parties in contemporary Nigeria– from the PDP to ACN, CPC, APGA and ANPP. The opposite is the case in other climes. Anyone who despises his party and sees it as undemocratic in practice on the basis of ideology quits and goes ahead to either form a new party or pitch tent with those whose ideologies tally with his. Such attitude is believed to demonstrate the democratic practice of the individual as evident in his principle.

This, notwithstanding, observers often found excuses for the nation’s present situation. One of the very common arguments is that the return to democracy in 1999 saw an individual, late Chief Bola Ige, participate in the drafting of the constitution and manifestos of virtually all the political parties, a situation that gave birth to the parties brandishing nearly the same constitution and manifestos without distinctive differences. To date, there has been no conscious effort to carve out distinct identities and leanings, despite the claim by some to either being progressive or conservative.
But as Nigeria marks her 52 independence anniversary, analysts believe that a conscious shift in the direction of ideological politics will not only help redefine her structure, it will also enhance her democratic tenets and consequently begin to evolve into the dreams of her founding fathers.