Presidents who rule African countries in their 70s

The retirement age in Uganda, East Africa, is 55! The lady who told me happens to be from that country and it hit me rather hard when I realized that the president of that country Yoweri Musevani, is 75 years old and has refused to step down. In fact the news from the country says that he is contemplating live presidency! The continent of Africa is very sick, I challenge anyone to convince me otherwise. Why would Ugandans allow a 75 year old man dominate them? He has been president for close to 37 years and right now he is not willing to step aside. What a continent! Zimbabweans just got rid of Robert Mugabe who has been in that position of president since the Southern Africa country gained independence in 1981!
Do these old men think that there is wisdom in not wanting to leave office for other people to run the business of governance? The age of presidents is a reoccurring decimal in many African countries: Nigeria and Ghana are other examples. Both presidents are in their 70s. Many of the youth in these countries feel that they are being smothered out of active participation in politics. Nigeria recently announced a constitutional amendment that would change the course of multiple political parties and restrict the number of registered parties to what the national assembly say are manageable numbers.  Every politicians should know when he has over stayed his welcome and should be able to quit the scene. But not Museveni. He believes he is real ma coy!

Lets nudge these Southern Senators!

So the southern caucus of Nigerian Senators were able to find their way to Calabar to discuss grave issues that are of vital concern to the southern part of the country called Nigeria. Of course, that big grammar means that they are likely going to talk about restructuring and resource control, issues that they strangely left in the hands of a Northern All Progressives Congress (APC) Governor in the name of El Rufai. Governor El Rufai couldn't care less about resource control and restructuring, he is too busy distracting Kaduna state citizens and indeed the whole nation with his education reforms which every governor seems to admire and may blindly copy.
Granted that we cannot afford semi literate teachers to handle our children anymore,but that is not the main issue in Kaduna today. El Rufai is yet to deal with Fulani killer herdsmen or Killer Fulani Herdsmen(do they mean the same?) till date. We do not know who attacked the various settlements in Southern Kaduna and it appears that these killings might be buried. There is something macabre playing out in cattle herdsmen who can ransack a village, kill people and go free.The other day when Arewa youths gave a quit notice to Igbo people living in the North, El Rufai vowed to have them arrested. Till date nothing has been done.
But back to the Sourthern Senators. Most of them have neither defined or understood how to present the case of restructuring and resource control in the Senate without angering their northern counter parts. Are the trappings of office so sweet that they cannot even focus on the future of the people that elected them? If they do not get it right this time when will they? These senators need a nudge so they can wake up from their eldorado slumber and start working for the people they represent. If the people want restructuring and resource control,they had better handle it pronto!

The sit tight strategy of the Nigerian politician

The Nigerian politician is a rarebreed. At the level of a governor, a legislator or even a local government chairman he has developed a system that enables him to run roughshod over the electorate, keep them at his beck and call even as he engages in activites and programmes that are not necessarily to the advantage of those who supposedly voted him into office.  He schemes and plots his way to perpetuity in office moving  from one position to another and a gulllble electorate that suffer from ethnic and religious prejudices back him to hilt, even when he is hurting them with his selfish principles. It’s a tragedy.  But it subsists in the Nigerian nation. Here is a break down of the common approach that the politicians in Nigeria often use in winning elections and keeping themselves in power.

1.       Look for a Godfatther: There are not many politicians in Nigeria who do not have a godfather. The Nigerian scene of political contest has replaced the mentor/protégé relationship that exists in other climes around the world with something more crude and belittling in godfatherism. A so called elder statesman holds the hand of a younger politician who he has signed a pact with and practically tells the electorate that “this is the person they should vote for”. The mentor’s approach to this is slightly different since all the elder politician does is show his support for the younger with the hope that his older breed of followers and loyalists will follow suit in with their support.  The Godfather is expected to swing the nomination for his candidate within the party and  help convince delegates and even induce them to vote for the person of his choice. This inducement could mean outright bribery at times so the Godfather ought to have deep pockets. 

2.       Once the nomination is obtained in the party the next step is to campaign for and contest the elections. There are many forces that could sway a candidate into office. Some virutally unknown candidates would ride on the “coat tails” of a popular candidate and get into political office merely because they are in the same party. We saw this play out a lot during the Buhari 2015 victory in which many unknown candidates in the legislative and even at the gubernatorial level came into office. Many of them had merely taken the gamble to see what could come out of it. At the end of the day, they do not take their responsibility seriously and are merely out to enjoy the trappings of office for as long as possible.  Elections can be won in different ways. Politiicians in this part of the world work hard to influence the outcome of the ballot. Bribing electoral officials, tip voters to vote in their favor, nothing should be put past these desperadoes who would do anything to achieve their goal.

3.       Once in office, its good to begin with a few populists moves in form of projects or what we love to call “dividends of democracy” to entice the populace and make them feel you are on their side. Usually the opposite is the case. A few years in power and the real politician will manifest. Many of them behave like the proverbial mad man who uses the hoe to plough the field to his favor. During this stage of his political scheme, the incumbent gets involved in as many projects or contracts as possible. The idea is to have as many sources of returns or finance as he is able to. The objective is to build a nest egg. Some of them virtually dip their hands into the treasury and take out what they need. Others funnel the resources they need through contracts to friendly companies or companies in which they have interests so they  can reap the benefits directly.

4.       While building a nest full of eggs, its important for the politicians to spread as many favors as possible around. Help people, give contracts and carry your party members along so that  you can build a support base and when its time for you to leave office you have a support system in place. If you have built enough wealth then this support system will last. Money is the name of the political game in Nigeria, numbers help, but money helps to garner  numbers. Most political office holders spend a full term or two terms unless of course they out play the game and get schemed out in the whole process.  If a governor , for instance, can carry all the key party members in his state along, have the state house of assembly in his pocket and continue to spread the money around the party members, he would remain popular in the party even if he does not do much for the electorate that voted him into power.  Once the nest egg is built you are ready to leave office. Leaving office could mean moving into another political office, where possible, one that is juicy enough for you to double dip. (Double dipping is a situation where a political officer holder who has lived out his term receive emoluments from the former office as well as a new office to which he has just been (s)elected.

5.       Often you may miss the opportunity to get selected or elected into another position. If this happens, you are open to litigation over the money you made away with in the former office. The best way out is to hire legal muscle that would confuse the court and delay the case into perpetuity, until  its either discarded or forgotten.

Many politicians in Nigeria have used this strategy in various forms and situations and got lucky. They have enriched themselves and their families into many generations to come with stolen or embezzled loot which would remain irrecoverable forever. 

Nigeria is the country of the Blind

In H.G Wells novel, The Country of the Blind, a mountaineer falls into a hidden valley in South America where all the inhabitants have been blind for generations. The mountaineer has the initial reaction of superiority. After all, he can see. In the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king!

But in this land its not so. The soicety is constructed around the norm of blindness, so his sight provides no advantages, but rather seeing is a disadvantage here. If he wants to be accepted and intergrated, he must either act or become blind. The acitivty is the community is built around blindness. Work is done at night, there are no lights, colours have no meaning, buildings have no windows. The mountaineers underdeveloped alternative senses mean he cannot participate  fully in the culture of the community. To fit in he must either turn blind or denounce his sight.

The politics of Nigeria is really no different from any democracy in the world when we refer to the stance and disposition towards what favors me and my party. To this end politiicans are blinded by conceited conviction of knowing all and making wild assumptions about the society they represent.

Those who join the fray with the lofty ideals to help society often get caught up in a rat race for power and resource control that susbsititute the critical issues that concern the majority for the trivial and insignificant and are bogged down by mind, power and wealth seeking games that serve as distractions from the real reason for the elective position.

For instance in Nigeria, there is a loud hue and cry over the need for resturucting and resource control. Leaders of the lawmaking bidies who are wont to legislate over such demands have turned a deaf ear and have suddenly become dumb about such issues. In fact, they have developed  blindness to the rather lopsideed distribution of resources by the federal governrment. The oil rich parts of the country, mainly South Souh Nigeria has been the main source of revenue generation for the country. And states that do not have a drop of oil are slurpping up dividends that they have in no way earned. Save the rather obnoxious fact that they share a country with those stattes that produce it.

The closest reaction to the agitation has been a rather casual call for the 2014 national conference findings and recommendations. The llegislators asked the executive for a copy of what has become public knoledge already. The genral attitude of Nigeria’s lawmaking bodies to the call for restructuring is is lackadaisical and defiant. The legislative are behaving like the bliind generation in HG Wells The Country of The Blind.

Could such defiance be as a result of the trappings of office? OR could it be because of an overwhelming number of notherners in the national assembly that would shut such a discussion down shouldl it even be brought forward?  The call for a true federalism has characterised the rhetoric of Abubakar Atiku, a former vice president who appears to be preparing to run for the presidency in 2019. Atiku has been clever in his bandying of popular opinion. Many people ask if he is given a chance and eventually wins would his rhetoric not change?

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)has had resource control and restructuring on its front burner before it got into power. Now the APC doesn’t seem to know what the two concepts mean anymore. There is something about political power in Nigetria that dulls the senses. Political offices create tunnel vision. The office holder only sees what he wants to see and in many cases is blinded to the most important things.

Can another election herald in another group of office holders that see and listen better? Its difficult to tell. Who Knows if the new legislators would not develop blindness when they need their sight most?

Buhari's endorsement of El Rufai's teacher sack.

Merely endorsing what El Rufai, the governor of Kaduna wishes to do concerning the teachers of his state is not really enough. The one-day retreat on education reforms summoned by the presidency should lead to real reforms. Even though every speaker expressed dismay at the standards in Kaduna teaching service, I think the Vice President,a former academic himself made a very important statement.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo told the gathering of ministers and bureaucrats that its time that we pay more attention to Science. The advanced and emerging economies of the world place premium on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The question arises: From the hundreds of thousands of graduates that are leaving our universities every year what value have we gained in scientific and technological development from their learning? Nigeria does not present a proper ground for the practice of many of the skills that scientists learn in school these days. Many who have trained in Nigeria feel frustrated that they are unable to practice here or are restricted by the limited choices that they have.
If we heard Osinbajo right, we are lagging behind in scientific development, engineering and technology and its time for the county's educational system to address this. With all the universities of technology and numerous departments of science in the various citadels of higher learning its time for something to change. This is urgent. Brazil, Russia, India and China are the real emerging economies in this world and in the turn of the century they will have a stronghold on industrial development which would be difficult to rival. Would Nigeria just remain one big market? What future contributes to industrialization and scientific development will this giant of Africa make? Where will we be in the turn of the century?These are the questions.

Lai Mohammed's hasty pronouncements

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister for Information in Nigeria is making a lot of enemies with his utterances in recent times. How on earth could he say Nigerian movie and TV producers should not venture beyond the shores of Nigeria to produce their products? Is Mohammad trying to ignorantly fix a restriction on creativity or perhaps his pronouncements are made from a passionate desire for Nigeria to develop? Recently, Mohammed also added insult to this injury when he said Nigerian companies should stop promoting foreign sports competitions, arguing that Nigerian companies have a duty to support Nigerian sporting activity like the Nigerian Professional Football League(NPFL).
It appears that Mohammed did not consult anyone before arriving at his conclusions. There are an array of industry professionals under his purview who would have given him proper insight to the challenges many Nigerian practitioners of movies and music face within the shores of Nigeria. Mohammed has failed to see the opportunities his ministry and indeed the government would derive from partnering with and catering for the creative industry.
In the United States of America, the government has made tremendous contributions to the growth of the industry via an enabling environment, funding, provision of props at minimal or no costs at all, providing real life locations when there is a need and creating and enforcing copy right and infringement laws that have helped reduce and control piracy.
The stance of the government of Nigeria as projected by Mohammed not only smacks of ignorance, but also demonstrates desperation for funds on the part of the government. Unknown to Mohammed, it is relatively cheaper and more rewarding to shoot many Nigerian movies and musicals in South Africa where the post production facilities are world class, security is guaranteed and electricity is stable. Production crews who produce and edit in Nigeria often go through a myriad of difficulties, many of which are caused by the unhealthy environment in which they have to work. On the sporting side, competitions like the NPFL need to brace up to the challenge of being properly organized if they want to attract more sponsors. Nobody forces a company to sponsor a competition that does not give its product the mileage it deserves. The number of people who watch the NPFL world wide could never be compared to the English Premiership which is viewed around the world by over a billion enthusiasts and has grown to become a business that has fueled various other businesses around the world. Speaking of Nigeria alone, the EPL produces thousands of indirect jobs via betting, viewing centres and Satellite TV rights. On the movies side, TV stations in Nigeria run on non stop diesel generators. For the production component, not all programmes aired can be provided by the TV stations and so they have tor rely on a myriad of private producers to supply them content. Among these suppliers of content are a few who are willing to seek the best quality in the world for their productions so that they can have a market anywhere they go.
In the final analysis, the government of Nigeria might be highly patriotic in its pronouncements with a view to keeping the financial resources at home, but the minister should not allow his patriotism to be rooted in ignorance of how the creative and sports marketing industries operate. The order of things should be research before you make pronouncements.

Femi Fani Kayode and Bode Geogre arent good enough for PDP now.

Femi Fani-Kayode and Bode George are definitely not the best that the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP)  can present for the position of National Chairman of the once biggest party in Africa at this time. The two men just have too much baggage and to carry that into the party which desperately begs for repacking would do more harm than good. Do we not understand how important leadership is? Fani-Kayode is still answering to the courts for cases that bother on corruption, he has also become Nigeria's number one conspiracy theorist on what some dreamers have called "the Islamization of Nigeria". It seems that he has forgotten that there are northern Muslims in his great party, many of whom are frowning at his recent rhetoric.
Bode George does not even have the clout to muster the members of PDP in South West not to talk of being respected nationally in the party. There is brief jail experience that he had over a National Ports Authority case. The performance of PDP in the South West in the last general elections of which he also helped coordinate was a massive failure. Beyond winning Ekiti state which was mainly the effort of Ayo Fayose and Musiliu Obanikoro, PDP has little or no foothold in the South West. Although isolated performance problems in some of the states in the South West like Osun State which is reeling in a debt of salaries and others could turn the voters against the APC.
The PDP desperately needs a newer candidate who can help give it a new face and galvanize people to vote for the party in the next general elections. One thing would work for the main opposition party. The inefficiency and mediocrity of the ruling All Progressives Congress could be a deciding factor in the next elections.
Strangely enough, in spite of all the accusations of kleptomania, theft, embezzlement and misappropriation, many Nigerians have begun to believe that the Goodluck Jonathan led administration which had PDP at the centre was better than what Nigerians are currently witnessing with the APC that promised a change in the way the country would be run. In many elections around the world and even in the one that took place in Nigeria that brought the APC into power, the electorate are known to vote against the arrogance, insensitivity and lackluster performance of a ruling body. That may well take place in Nigeria. The APC have a year to prove it is the better party. Nigerians are watching.

The strategy of 300

Can you free your mind of worry and focus on creativity and strategy? That's the hallmark of a great mind. The great minds in warfare as well as business, domestic affairs and even politics have been able to reduce panic and worry to the barest minimum when they are under pressure and focus on creativity and strategy. There are many examples of people that did this in real life, but to suit our purposes here, lets consider King Leonidas of the mythical Sparta City which is listed among the Greek city states. Leonidas in surrounded by the mighty army of Persia and he can only spare 300 fighting men to defend his kingdom. Another general would have freaked out and decided that the battle is lost already. But not Leonidas. He leads his army to a narrow pass on the outskirts of his empire and lays in wait for the army of the Persians. The pass is so narrow that only a few numbers of the enemy can approach them at a time. Leonidas' strategy is to fight his battle here and hold the enemy off for as long as possible, if possible win. The Spartans kill so many Persians and hold them off for so long that the Persian King begins to doubt his superiority which is based on numbers and weaponry. The Spartans have spears, swords and shields but they have learned to use them efficiently. Even though Leonidas and his army loses the battle to the Persians, the fame of his army spreads beyond that kingdom and sends shivers down the spines of those who hear it.
We learn a useful lesson from the story. Superiority begins in the mind and not necessarily with numbers or tools. As people who want to succeed, we have to think over and above our circumstances, and find a way out of our dilemmas.
In every situation instead of spending valuable time and efforts worrying about our circumstances, it would be better for us to knuckle down and ask ourselves some pertinent questions: What is the cause of this problem? How can I resolve it? What tools are available and what plan can work here. Instead of getting stressed and worried, we ought focus on a plan that could help get us out of the situation. Noe that there are always tools that can be used. Sometimes we are so morose that we cannot see them.
Gideon of ancient Israel lived in fear of his enemies.In fact when we are introduced to him in the story In the book of Judges of the Bible, he is busy hiding his food from the enemy who had made a constant raid on the farmers of his time. An encounter changes Gideon's life such that he realizes that instead of running and hiding from the enemy he can actually face them and win the battle.
Battles are only won if we fight them with a view to winning. Competitions are usually entered by contestants to win. Our mind is a very important tool that we must use positively to promote our cause and not negatively to worry, spot and analyze all the problems we may face. In the story, Gideon triumphs over the enemy who have also surrounded his city. with just 300 men in his own army. Originally he summons 32,000 but it is revealed to him by God that he does not need that number of people to win. And so the reduction takes place and he has 300 men left. At the end, he wins the battle with his army and a farmer has become a successful General.
IF you can free your mind of worry and focus on creativity and strategy, you will move forward. Sometimes, the battles, triumphs and problems are given to make us stronger. So, lets not waste time worrying. With God on our side we can win.
The process includes remembering that:
No situation is totally hopeless. So we must 1.create a mindset that believes an answer exists 2Eliminate any crippling concept of hopelessness 3. Highlight what our needs are 4. Look around us for tools to achieve our purpose, there are always tools so what can we use?5. Ask yourself what is good about the situation or what makes it positive, we must always look for something good to hold on to.
Remember, God will help us if we allow Him to.

A tale of two speakers

Does it not seem like robbing Peter to pay Paul if  the Lagos State House of Assembly  reduces pensions of former governors in the state only to slyly add the names of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker to the Pension list?

Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa  told civil society organizations. that the House is amending the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension) Law. The amendment is titled, Public Office Holders (Payment of Pensions) Amendment Bill, 2016.

“The bill has been read first time and awaiting second reading. The intention of this bill the legislator claims is to save taxpayers’ money while addressing the cost implication of some parts of the law.

  The law allows a former governor and the deputy to have a house each in Lagos and Abuja, while both governor and the deputy are also entitled to six and five vehicles respectively.

  The amendment seeks to ensure that both the governor and the deputy will be limited to a house in Lagos where they served, as well as have three and two vehicles respectively.

  The amendment also seeks to give due recognition to the legislature by allowing the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker to benefit from the pension scheme.

 In Abia State, the Speaker was involved in fracas that led to the hospitalization of Federal Road Safety officers. Speaker, Chikwendu Kalu has allegedly ordered the shooting of officers who stopped a vehicle that was transporting his wife. The driver of the vehicle refused to stop that the designated point only to stop at a distance. The speaker was summoned and order the shooting.The police allegedly shot an officer of the FRSC and other officers on the beat were also beaten up.

Rice importation has not been reduced.

To say that Nigeria has reduced the importation of rice by 90% as stated by the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Professor Yemi Osinbajo in his Democracy Day address might not be entirely true. Nigerians consume an amazing quantity of rice which borders on 500 metric tonnes a year! The government's policy on agriculture has led to attempts by farmers all over the country to seek to improve the production of rice up to levels considered to make the country self sufficient in rice production. The new target offered by the minister of agriculture is December 2017. The belief is that all the rice farms around the country would have started harvesting their investments. There are a tremendous number of farms in the middle belt of Nigeria and the south eastern state of Ebonyi that have focused on rice production. The collaboration between Kebbi and Lagos states which has led to the production of LAKE Rice has also contributed to a considerable increase in rice production in Nigeria. As at last year, statistics reveal that 18 states in Nigeria produce a a total of 5.7million metric tonnes. Even with all the combined production of the farms in the various states, the production is no where near the 500 million metric tons a year consumption level that the country requires. The United Kingdom's department of International Development DFID reports that a marker and growth rate of 7.9million tons each year was set in 2015 and that the country has not been able to meet the cut off. 

If Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh enforces the ban on rice this December it would only lead to an increase in smuggling. Currently in Nigeria, rice importation takes place legally through sea boarders, but there is high wave of illegal trade taking place through the land borders via smuggling. The general fear is that the ban would only increase the activity of smugglers through borders like the notorious Idi Iroko in Ogun State.

Another crucial factor is the price of rice locally produced.If and when the ban is instituted, prices of locally grown   rice cannot exceed that of smuggled rice or else the market for smuggling would be encouraged. 

Buhari and Osinbajo are wasting time

Liberal democracy requires an interplay of lobbying activities for it to thrive. The executive led by the president or prime minister as the case may be, goes into a negotiation with the legislative in order to drive his agenda and make the ordinary citizen of the country feel his presence. 

Nigeria under the Buhari-Osinbajo Presidency does not seem to understand this functionality or perhaps there is a belief that policy can be created and driven and can thrive with out the help of the legislative arm of governance. Sadly, the success of the executive hinges on its ability to influence voting patterns in the National Assembly and use the bills once passed into law to drive policy. In over two years of the Buhari Osinbajo presidency, this synergy has failed to take place and the National Assembly appears to be setting the agenda, thereby running roughshod over the executive. Presidents are supposed to lead the agenda of a polity, this presidency seems to be following the dictates of the legislature. The 8th Assembly might not be any liberal minded Nigerians' ideal representation. Never has there been such  a group of strange bed fellows. Ex military governors, erudite scholars, controversial polemicists all rolled into a gathering of seemingly infallible powerful and rich egoistic pontificators who fight to enforce their agenda over that of the populace they are supposed to represent. The Senate also consists of quite a number of former governors who are being tried by the courts of the nation for offenses bothering on corruption. 

Odd as it may seem, some eminent Nigerians submit that Nigerians ought to respect the institution of the Senate, since its the highest law making body of the land with the special duties of an oversight over executive activity. But is it possible to separate an institution from the individuals that occupy it? Is the whole not made up of the parts? If an institution, no matter how lofty, is made up of individuals who have not earned public trust, can it demand respect from the people it appears to represent? These and many other questions are what are on the minds of many Nigerians who observe the daily activity of these legislators who claim to represent Nigerians. 

Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki recently hailed the senate sighting the number of bills, many which have become laws, that have been passed in the two years of law making. Ninety six was the number of bills highlighted as having been passed by the lawmakers. Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the House of Representatives also shares the sentiment. But with the myriad of bills passed, how come Nigerians have not started living a better life? A close assessment of the country shows that few gains have been made since democracy begun in Nigeria in 1999.

If there is anything like dividends of democracy, the people in government are the only ones who are seemingly enjoying them. Besides the presidency not understanding the arts of negotiation and lobbying, Buhari and Osinbajo appear to believe that they can actually run the country without the lawmakers. The Acting President Prof Osinbajo recently remarked that they do not need the Senate to approve the nomination of the Ibrahim Magu, The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC). Even Speaker Dogara has consistently but erroneously referred to the executive as the government, whereas constitutionally, the government refers to the executive, legislative and the judiciary. There are appears to be a constant struggle for supremacy between the legislative and executive. Instead of complimenting each other they appear to be competing against each other.  The judiciary has been constantly approached to explain issues that could be and really should be sorted out at the negotiation table. For instance, the appropriation and budget composition. Liberal democracies around the world draw up budgets via an interplay of horsetrading and negotiation. The executive might set the agenda, but the legislative also has input. Why can our own bodies not understand this? Should such misunderstandings really be subject to the intervention of the courts? Is this not really a waste of time? Another rather embarrassing situation is the Federal Government from the offices of the Attorney General seeking to try the Senate President at a code of conduct bureau. How on earth does the executive expect cooperation from the leader of the senate if it is trying him for corruption or perjury? The option would be to remove the Senate President by lobbying his removal among legislators in the Senate, or work with him and make sure that the Presidency achieves its agenda. Its a catch 22. Without the interplay of the Executive and the Legislative there would be no success of this government and as Buhari and Osinbajo have recently begun to find out. Time is of essence.

Nigeria's moral compass is lost

Prejudice: a judgment or opinion made without adequate knowledge;bias intolerance or hatred of other races.

In H.G Wells short story, "The Country of the Blind", a mountain climber falls into a valley and finds himself in a country where 15 generations of blind people have lived.  His reaction is to think, "I can dominate this place, because, as the saying goes, "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king".  He is in for a shock for he discovers that the whole society is constructed around the blindness of its people. His sight, a meaningless advantage is rather a hindrance and he cannot integrate. The country of the blind is unique in itself. All work undertaken at night, houses have not windows, colours are meaningless. All explanations and considerations based on sight have no meaning. In order to fit in the mountaineer has to conform to the dominant norms of the society and either have his eyes removed or pretend to be blind.

The Nigerian nation has many dominant prejudices:gender, ethicity and religion are all an issue. Those who aspire to leadership use prejudices rather and values and ideas as stepping stones. Most of the time we find that people who do not know the game or refuse to play it, do not make head way in politics in Nigeria. Every part of the country has its dominant social group which will to a large extent determine the pace of development and the personality involved in the process.  Social dominance has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. If the group in contention have viable plans for society then there is some measure of development, If however, the group of leaders are more concerned about their personal gain, then society would be stunted and growth and development would remain at a stand still. 

In eighteen years of democracy Nigeria has been at a stand still in terms of development. The same problems which the nation suffered in 1999 are the ones being faced by people in the country and even worst ones. One of the greatest problems bestriding the country is the inability of the farmers in Nigeria to feed the nation. Over a trillion Naira is spent of food imports every year. The major imports are rice, sugar, groundnut oil and flour. Time and again since 1999 the governments of the country have worked out policy that would help grow food within Nigeria so that the country does not have to keep relying of other nations to feed it. The sad tragedy is even in 2017 Nigeria is still importing food. The government of the day has tried to give agriculture more attention. But the smuggling of commodities like rice and  frozen fish, as well as frozen poultry has undermined those efforts. A frustrated Minister for Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh threatened to close the borders in between Benin Republic and Nigeria if the smuggling is not stopped. But the threats have fallen on deaf ears. Anyone would lives in the towns around Idi- Iroko the border town would know that smuggling is still thriving with aid of law enforcement officers who are supposed bring down to the barest minimum. 

The policy makers merely sit in Abuja and make policy. There is no one to drive such policy. And even when they take broad leaps like attempting to grow rice and reduce the reliance on foreign food, it is usually inadequate and ineffective since the prices of imported foods cannot be met. Lack luster agricultural development is just one of the major challenges the country faces but critical analysis shows a lack of commitment on the part of policy makers who do not really care if their laws and policies help the Nigerian nation or not. Nobody is really driving policy. Billions have been looted from the public treasury over a period of forty years and inept law enforcement has not been able to bring people responsible to book. Nigeria totters on a low moral ground. This is the root of most of the problems that the country faces and there appears to be no way out of this maze. Nigeria's moral compass is lost. The judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man and people are suffering in more ways than can be counted. 

Why do we trace the central problem of the country to lack of proper morals? People with sound morals do not neglect their country for personal gain, steal from the country at the slightest opportunity, take such money abroad and come back Nigeria as if nothing happened. There appears to be no redeeming factor in the nation because like the sighted man in the land of the blind, those who care about what happens around them are very few and the majority who are part of the trend are ruled the prejudices that keep them from thinking straight. It is a sad situation. Do those of us who know but refuse to acknowledge the problems continue to act as if nothing is wrong. Do those who are position of leadership continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the generality? Who will put an end to all this? Can the man who sees clearly put society in order and create a new trend of thinking and acting. If there is such a person, now is the time for him to stand up.

The demagogue, prejudices and poverty

  

Demagogue: Advanced learners Dictionary of English Language Meaning:A political orator who derives power from appealing to popular prejudices

If a majority of people in country find it hard to get the basic things in life in the midst of state controlled wealth that is of enormous proportions, there are bound to be consequences. All manner of agitators would creep out of the wood work expressing the failure of the state and claiming to have a better antidote to the suffering of the people. Sometimes such agitation could culminate in armed struggle for self determination; in other occasions it could simply lead to a few people gathering together to express their displeasure about prevailing circumstances. Often in the middle of all this a demagogue is created, more by the pressures of society and the drive of an individual or group and through oratory he can summon a gathering of people.

In Nigeria the term: marginalization has entered the political lexicon and it is used to describe a situation in which a part of the country does not get enough representation or resources from the central government.  Such terms as Islamization and Hausa Fulani domination have characterized the speech of many of the outspoken people. It appears that the exuberant policy of Federal Character has eaten into the consciousness of the Nigerian to make him think that he must be represented at cabinet positions of president even beyond the 36 ministers which the constitution says must reflect the states of the federation without exception.  Fairness and equity have replaced competence in governance and what we get is mediocre results and horrible outcomes.

The demagogue has become so popular today, whipping up ethnic, tribal and religious sentiment has been his stock in trade. He rides on popular but detrimental sentiments to get noticed or to get into political position. The irony is, if he does get political power, he hardly ever does better than those he replaced.  Ahmed Sani Yerimah is a good example. He rode into office in impoverished Zamfara state bandying  Sharia as the answer to the problems of the people. On getting elected, eight years down the line nothing appears to have changed by way of poverty in Zamfara state and Yerimah is now in the Senate. To add insult to injury, Zamfara in recent times is one of the states worse hit by Cerebral Spinal Meningitis an ailment which the incumbent governor of the state described as punished from God for the sins of the people of the state. Emir of Kano Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi II told a gathering that Zamfara State started Sharia in Nigeria; it has the highest rate of poverty in the country today. In essence, religion has become a political tool of deception used by the demagogue to enthrone himself . Yerimah currently faces charges of corruption at the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences (ICPC).  Other states also instituted Sharia in 1999 the same year that the former Zamfara governor did and the results are practically the same.  Its widely believed that poverty and neglect is the cause of the Boko Haram militants on slaught in the northern part of Nigeria. The leaders in the north have made trips the United Arab Emirate, particularly Dubai where Islam is liberal . They see the level of development there, but they tend to close their eyes.

In the south east, the demagogue has taken a different form. Groups agitating for the Sovereign state of Biafra hold sway. Many of them use distorted versions of history to capture the imagination of a youthful populace who do not know what really happened during Nigeria’s civil war. The Nigerian Civil War, better known as the Biafran War, (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. ... Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Some people who were not even born during the war period and have a distorted version of history and are whipping up ethnic and tribal sentiment claiming the rest of Nigeria hates the Igbo nation. This is an irony. The Igbo, one of the smaller ethnic groups in Nigeria have lived among the Hausa , Yoruba and other groups for centuries and command a lot of the economic prowess in the nation. Known for their business acumen and painstaking trade activity, the Igbo are situated all over Nigeria, providing goods and services in some of the most remote parts of the country. Their nationalistic and communal instinct puts them among the groups that develop their homestead through self help programmes. A traveler through Igbo land in the south east would be surprised at the level of real estate development found in some interior parts of the South East.  Again the demagogue has infected the thinking of people in the environment such that impassable roads, lack of pipe borne water is blamed on the Federal Government instead of the state governors who have been fleecing their people for decades and ignoring the calls to develop their states. A case in point is Abia state where 16years of democratic governance has yielded very little development such that the incumbent governor is burdened with filling in the numerous gaps that his predecessors have left. It’s a tragedy of monumental proportions.

The most popular demagogue in the South East is Nnamdi Kanu who has hit it big with the youth in the South East states. Kanu is championing secession of states in that part of Nigeria to create the Sovereign state of Biafra. His oratory mixed with hate speech started via Radio Biafra which sent such hateful messages into Nigeria that it’s a wonder that violence had not broken out long ago. Kanu, feeling he was not making enough impact from his base in the UK migrated to Nigeria, a place he once called a zoo in one of his broadcasts, and got locked up to boot. He is now on bail as popular as ever. A lot of what Kanu says is not true. But locking him up has given him attention and he has become the conscience of many people of eastern origin who truly believe that they are marginalized.

The Niger Delta agitation is one that dates back to Isaac Adaka Boro Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro (September 10, 1938 – May 9, 1968), fondly called "Boro", was a celebrated Nigerian nationalist and Nigerian civil war hero. He was one of the pioneers of minority rights activism in Nigeria. Boro believed that people of the Niger Delta deserved a fair share of the natural resources of the area of which they have been deprived.  Present day agitators have taken the shape of the demagogue getting billions from the federal government but pocketing it, not really caring about the people that they claim to represent. Again people in the Niger Delta area seem to find it easy to forgive their governors who have made away with billions of dollars in wealth. They tend to blame the federal government of Nigeria and the oil extraction companies who have degraded their land and waters for generations and have not found it necessary to develop the environment.

Government Ekpemupolo ("Tompolo")(born 1971) is a Nigerian militant commander of the disbanded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta

For years Ekpemupolo was a commander in various guerrilla groups in the Niger Delta which were all agitating against the insensitivity of the Federal Government and the international oil companies towards to exploitation and degradation of the Niger Delta. Ekpemupolo's wealth, derived mainly from oil bunkering, played a major role in founding both MEND and also his own fighters.

Ekpemupolo embraced amnesty on October 4th 2009, in order to allow for peace in the area, and for the government and oil companies to carry out development projects, and provide jobs and training.  Ekpemupolo is believed to have been rewarded handsomely by government and has become very rich in the process. But his people still agitate. This has been the practice of many people in the region. We must not over look the fact that massive neglect and corruption has occurred among government institutions that were created to help develop the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) is known for its numerous uncompleted projects and contracts in the region and recently the Ministry of the Niger Delta joined the fray of government regulatory bodies that are supposed to help develop the Niger Delta. Progress is slow and virtually none existent in this area.  

South West Nigeria, where the former  capital,. Lagos is situated, is possibly the most developed  part of the country beyond Abuja the Federal Capital Territory. Many people believe this is due to the foundation erected by the legendary Obafemi Awolowo whose policies after independence gave the Western part of Nigeria a leg up compared to many other parts. Apart from that, many people resided in Lagos and its environs because of government duty and trade and this led to the development of the area.  Politics in the south west has its root in sociocultural groups that metamorphosed into political parties. The Egbe Omo Oduduwa is one of the most renown. In today’s world, the Afenifere seeks to influence the politics of South West Nigeria, but many people look at this group with disdain and find much to be desired. In the last elections in 2015 the Afenifere backed incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Members of the group received gratification for their support and as such pitted themselves against other people in that part of the nation who felt betrayed by this. Jonathan instituted a National Conference in 2014 which was convened to discuss the vital reforms needed by the nation Nigeria. Many of the issues raised at the conference were of vital importance to the continuous harmonious existence of the Nigerian nation. Resource control and restructuring were key issues. Ironically, Jonathan was not able to implement any of the reforms before he left the presidency. Many people believe that he used it as a political bargaining chip to seek reelection. Right now the demagogues in the South west, many of whom benefitted from the Jonathan administration immensely, are crying out for resource control and restructuring. Nobody seems to realize that these same people have become richer and more influential as a result of the cries that they had made during the past administration. It appears that this is the age of the demagogue. Cry out loud enough, get a few people to follow you, it doesn’t matter if what you are crying for has been established before or whether you have integrity or not. The louder you can cry and the more people you can get to follow and listen to you, the better. You are bound to make money from it. Become a demagogue today.

Nasarrawa Governor Makura demolishes private radio

Security operatives and officials of the Nasarawa State Urban Development Board (NUDB)  demolished a private radio station in the city, ‘Breeze FM’. 

 Police shot sporadically at the premises of the station to disperse crowds who attempted to resist the demolition.Hundreds of sympathizers arrived the radio station as earlier as 6am, but no one was injured in the incident.

Speaking with newsmen shortly after the exercise, owner of station, Nawani Aboki, said that the reason for the demolition was political and that it was aimed at gagging the Press. 

Aboki said, “Due process was not followed. You can see that the wall is down now. It was marked yesterday and was demolished this morning. Like we said, he had a different reason for it.  Whatever reason he gives officially is not the real one. This demolition was carried out because I don’t belong to the same political party as the governor. He is afraid that the station might not support his political ambition. Part of the reasons is that the station aired a report on the ongoing Labour strike in the state.”

Aboki added, “we have the right to air the Labour strike news.  We even begged the government to come and present it’s part but they declined. I want to assure him that what he thought he killed will remain, will come back and grow.

“Let him continue to do what he likes but his time is also coming to an end. We wish him well but we will meet in court. We must remain calm in this situation. Let’s not take laws into our hands; let us ensure that we follow due process and we all will meet in court.”

But Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Ahmed Tukur, said that radio station was demolished for violating building regulations and that the station was one among the five structures demolished yesterday.

 He said shops at the police A division and a house belonging to the elder brother of the governor were also demolished.

Tukur added that the station was not targeted for anything other than issues that have to do with building plan. He maintained that the structure was approved as a residential area and that the station’s mast was hazardous to people in the area.

 “If tomorrow the station acquires an appropriate site, government will approve it immediately. The governor has no ulterior motive against the station. About three different independent radio stations in the state reported the Labour strike and they were not affected by this action,” he said.

Efforts to gets the Nasarawa State Ubarn Development Board  (NUDB) to react to the development proved abortive as our correspondent could not reach the chairman of the board, just as his subordinates declined to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, the state branch of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned the action. 

Addressing newsmen, the state NUJ chairman, Dogo Shama, described the government as an “open attack on the Press, adding that it was aimed at depriving citizens of  the right to balanced reports. 

Shama said the state council of the NUJ will take action against what he called government’s attempt to gag the Press. He added that the chapter would liaise with the national body of the NUJ for further action.

 “If there was any problem with the station or its location, government should have resolved the matter in a matured manner,” he said.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/al-makura-demolishes-private-radio-station/198574.html

The Youngest French leader since Napoleon, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron

                                                                              

                                                                          Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (

French: [ɛmanɥɛl makʁɔ̃]; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who is the President-elect of France. A former civil servant and investment banker, he studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, completed a master's of public affairs at Sciences Po, and graduated from the École nationale d'administration (ENA) in 2004. He worked as an Inspector of Finances in the Inspectorate General of Finances (IGF) and then became an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque.
A member of the Socialist Party (PS) from 2006 to 2009, Macron was appointed as deputy secretary-general under François Hollande's first government in 2012. He was appointed Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in 2014 under the Second Valls Government, where he pushed through business-friendly reforms. He resigned in August 2016 to launch a bid in the 2017 presidential election. In November 2016, Macron declared that he would run in the election under the banner of En Marche!, a centrist  political movement he founded in April 2016. Ideologically, he has been characterised as a centrist and a liberal.
Macron qualified for the runoff after the first round of the election on 23 April 2017. He easily won the second round of the presidential election on 7 May according to preliminary results, making the candidate of the National Front, Marine Le Pen, concede. At 39, he will become the youngest President in French history and the youngest French head of state since Napoleon.

Macron was a member of the social party (PS) from 2006 to 2009

 From 2012 to 2014, he served as deputy secretary-general of the Élysée, a senior role in President Hollande's staff.  He was appointed as the Minister of Economy and Finance in the second Valls Cabinet on 26 August 2014, replacing Arnaud Montebourg.  As Minister of the Economy, Macron was at the forefront of pushing through business-friendly reforms. On 17 February 2015, prime minister Manuel Valls pushed Macron's signature law package through a reluctant parliament using the special 49.3 procedure.

In August 2015, Macron stated that he was no longer a member of the PS and was now an Independent Macron founded an independent political party, En Marche!, in Amiens on 6 April 2016. A liberal, progressive political movement, the party and Macron were both reprimanded by President Hollande.  On 30 August 2016, Macron resigned from the government ahead of the 2017 presidential election.  On 16 November 2016, Macron formally declared his candidacy for the French presidency after months of speculation. In his announcement speech, Macron called for a "democratic revolution" and promised to "unblock France".

Macron attracted criticism for the time taken to spell out a formal program during his campaign; despite declaring in November, he had still not released a complete set of proposals by February, attracting both attacks from critics and concern among allies and supporters.  He eventually laid out his 150-page formal program on 2 March, publishing it online and discussing it at a marathon press conference that day. Macron accumulated a wide array of supporters, securing endorsements from François Bayrou of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the ecologist candidate François de Rugy of the primary of the left, and Socialist MP Richard Ferrand, secretary-general of En Marche!, as well as numerous others – many of them from the Socialist Party, but also a significant number of centrist and centre-right politicians. The Grand Mosque of Paris urged French Muslims to vote en masse for Macron.Many foreign politicians have voiced support for Macron, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,  and former US President Barack Obama.

In March 2017, Macron's digital campaign manager, Mounir Mahjoubi, told Britain's Sky News that Russia is behind "high level attacks" on Macron, and said that its state media are "the first source of false information". He said: "We are accusing RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Sputnik News (of being) the first source of false information shared about our candidate...On the evening of 5 May 2017, just before the French Presidential Election on 7 May, it was reported that nine gigabytes of Macron's campaign emails had been anonymously posted to Pastebin, a document-sharing site. In a statement on the same evening, Macron's political movement, En Marche!, said: "The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information"