A Falling Out of Thieves or Old Men Behaving Badly?

‘When rogues fall out, truth is revealed, and honest men get justice.’ (1838 A. Jackson Letter 26 Mar. in Correspondence (1931) V. 545)
The rogues have fallen out, and honest men may come by their own. (1866 C. Kingsley Hereward the Wake xv)
When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own (Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs)

While there is said to be honour among thieves, an inequality or a sharp deal in the distribution of booty has often cast the apple of discord into the midst of a band of formerly seemingly harmonious plunderers.  Of such a nature seems to be the present falling out of two owners of Nigeria, twice-leader, (military and democratic) Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) and former military dictator and strongman, the self-styled “Evil genius”, also popularly known as “Maradona”, Ibrahim Babagida (IBB).

Actually they have never been the best of mutual admirers or friends, and this is not really the first time they’ve fallen out. In fact, they’ve fallen out since birth. What had actually bound them together were the military “esprit de corps” and their mutual plundering, raping and negligence of Nigeria in which they have, more than any other past and present rulers of Nigeria combined, plunged their people into despair, poverty, untold hardship and misery. They would do well to acknowledge and repent their culpability in this allegation.

Looks like all is not well between two members of the Axis of Evil, and like I opined, all has never been well between these two dinosaurs of Nigerian politics. I call them dinosaurs because, like these extinct animals, IBB and OBJ are excessively big and the next course in their lives will be to become extinct, because earth, and indeed, Nigeria, has no room for them. Is the world missing dinosaurs these days? No. An empathic No; all they are good for since they became extinct is to teach us lessons in survival.

Were dinosaurs ever any use to the world? Well, this is arguable; I suspect in those millions of years ago, with hardly any human around (so the archaeologists and scientists told us) dinosaurs were ruling the roost, brainless brutes rampaging all over the land without any defined purpose. However, I guess they must have served some purpose in the evolutionary development of Man and the Earth. So all their existence was not totally useless, if you ask me.

Have you seen the comparisons to these our two former leaders? While the exchange between IBB and OBJ should not be considered mainly for its puerile and repugnant conformation, it confirms to us the minds (or mindlessness) of the leaders we have, unfortunately, allowed us, willingly or unwillingly, ride roughshod over us for over 50 years. It is not a pretty sight.

Compatriots, it is not a laughing matter! It is very serious. We just don’t stand back and enjoy these two dinosaurs hammer each other. We have to look at this from another angle? 

Somebody told me they were putting up an act, and that we will soon see Babangida rush over to Otta to make up with Obasanjo, and say all kind of words to the effect that, “Obasanjo is my Oga, I mean no disrespect, and I was misquoted by the irresponsible Nigerian Press”.  Such miserable and shameless act in public? From two leaders recognised (or perhaps not?) all over the world, who ruled with iron-hands over 150 million people for a combined total of 18 years? I don’t think so!

Have the two descended so low? Like hell no; they have been descending low for a long time. Leaders who steal from their people have always descended into the lowest part of the human cesspool.

I say it is no laughing matter to us; the only people who will be laughing are the newspaper editors and owners, who are selling papers because of the reprehensible antics of two corrupt and unrepentant old foggies.

Can you imagine Bill Clinton and George Bush Jnr having a go at each other this way? It again shows the immaturity and senseless personality of our African leaders. These are not statesmen as they would like us to perceive them, but outright rogues, opportunists and charlatans, who found themselves in power because of our very own apathy and carelessness. Yes, we must share the blame.

A digression here: Admiral Augustus Aikomu, who was Babangida’ one time Vice President or Vice leader or whatever they called themselves in those days, died a couple of days ago. Like we always do, a lot of encomiums were heaped upon the man. Sorry, I am not one to dance over a dead man’s grave, but I suppose that whenever anybody dies in our society, we tend to be sentimental and totally ignore that person’s life and his works when he was alive. Apologies to my good people of Edo State, where Aikhomu hailed from, but what exactly did the man do for the progress and welfare of the people of Edo State, except perhaps his family and close friends? Incidentally he was part of the corrupt administration of the same IBB, wasn’t he? As far as I am concerned, people like him (and we have so many of them in our dear country) are not missed at all. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones, so let it be with him, to paraphrase Shakespeare in Julius Caesar.

Back to my dinosaurs: This is again not just a matter of old men behaving badly and calling each other names. Apart from not respecting themselves and being shameless or not ashamed of the evil they perpetrated against their countrymen and women, as former Presidents, they obviously know a lot of secrets about each other.

I am more interested in knowing what these secrets and the hold they hold over each other are. But, unfortunately, being Africans, these secrets will probably go with them to their graves, because to spill them out will hasten their demise. And as a matter of national interest and security, spilling those beans might well cause a disruption in the polity. So I don’t see them doing that. Their advisers and those who tremendously benefitted financially under them will call them to order. I can already envisage emissaries going to and fro from Otta to Minna, trying to patch things up. I am sure by now; the two dinosaurs are already regretting opening their mouths at each other.

That tells you another thing or two about the intellect and wisdom of our leaders. And why we have been unfortunate to have this ilk of people ruling us for so long.

Look at it: Obasanjo calling Babangida a “fool” – one thing Babangida is not, despite all his shortcomings, is that he’s a fool. However, it could be that in his old age, he’s becoming senile. Unrepentant, he is, of course. Then Babangida calling Obasanjo a “plunderer” – well, I have no defence for Obasanjo here, but he is not the only plunderer of our nation, Babangida is too.

Whatever, the plain truth is that both of them are not telling us the truth of the matter, and they probably never will. If Babangida is insinuating that Obasanjo wasted the petrodollars that came his way by not addressing the needs of the country, and Obasanjo said Babangida should bury his head in shame for not building a single power project plant during his eight years in power; let us ask both of them – what needs of the people were addressed by both of them when they were respectively in power for 8 years each; where is the $12 billion that Nigeria made as a result of the Kuwait War windfall that accrued to Babangida, and also where are the $16 billion power projects of Obasanjo?

Talk of the kettle calling the pot black! For me, it is okay for them to wash their dirty linens in public, but of course, they have also shamed Nigeria. According to football parlance, the two of them should be charged for putting the country into disrepute (but of course, they already have, anyway). These are leaders not trusted by other world leaders, who look upon them with contempt. I am not absolutely sure about this but the general rumour is that Babangida will not be issued any visa to enter the United States (He was only allowed to enter the US on compassionate grounds to see his dying wife, Mariam, just over a year and a half ago)

That Nigerians, their own people, hate them is not a fault of anybody, but theirs alone. And believe me, we do really have good and just cause to hate our leaders, past and present, be it Federal, State, Local, Lawmakers, and civil servants. We do have just cause. When you see our neglected and under-equipped hospitals, underfunded and neglected schools and universities, our death-traps called roads; our corrupt authorities; unnecessary deaths, hardship, poverty and misery on the streets; high unemployment, crime, insecurity of life and properties, overpaid and underworked lawmakers; arrogant, corrupt, brainless, visionless and thieving government officials and politicians; decayed infrastructures; who wouldn’t hate our leaders?

My opinion is that Obasanjo and Babangida are birds of the same bloody feathers. They are both rogues in power, or as the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang, Vagabonds In Power (VIP), and I am not mincing my words, though I know, according to our traditions and culture, we should respect our elders/leaders. But elders must also respect their juniors too. Leaders must also learn to follow too. Not these people. They don’t respect us; they don’t follow anybody except themselves. But they want to be followed always. On the total, they came, saw, looted and left their people counting the cost, the counting of which may be for a very long time.

On the human perspective of this shameful act, I suspect all this “bad belle” is because IBB is angry and that OBJ failed to hand over power to him as previously agreed amongst them. Remember, IBB “stepped aside” because of June 12. Stepping aside means he had the intention of coming back later, but OBJ checkmated him effectively. IBB had the misplaced confidence that Nigeria is there for him to take anytime. Wrong, boy!

For Obasanjo, he hated younger people to disrespect him. (Nobody is even sure of how old he is) He is senior to Babangida in the Army and in age, and that IBB could be so bold to disrespect him or go against him is anathema to his sense of tradition and culture.

Moreover, a very SHAME ON THEM; after visiting prolonged poverty and misery on their people, they now want to entertain us with more of their idiocy and irresponsibility. Nigerians do not need this kind of entertainment; we are already judged one of the happiest people in the world, despite the hardship and sufferings we undergo in our daily lives as a result of the irresponsibility, depravity, selfishness, greed, idiocy, arrogance and negligence of Obasanjo and Babangida and their ilk.

But, my people, it is not enough to call them names and be angry with them; it is not enough to chide them and slap them on the wrists like little children; it is not enough to laugh at their antics and say, waoo, let’s wait till they burn themselves out; we need to take them and others remaining of their ilk out permanently. These people are still breeding like-minded, corrupt, arrogant, despicable and brainless future leaders like themselves; we need to nip them in the bud before they grow.

How do we do this? We tell them we’ve had enough of them.

I just have to say the Truth as I see it always.

Blame! Blame! Blame! Blame Someone Else! – A Nigerian Political Pastime

“Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 percent; those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers or VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds. ” Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, 15 January 1966

Thus said the late Major Kaduna Nzeogwu (one of the first casualties of our descent into oblivion and desperation) 45 years ago, almost half a century ago, and my countrymen and women, everything he spoke about then still happens today, in fact, has gotten worse and has eaten deep into the fabrics of our nation Nigeria, the so-called Giant of Africa. More like the “Corruption Cesspool of the World” to me!

Politicians, especially the Nigerian species, are an intriguing and confounding breed. I like to hope and think of them as a breed that will soon become extinct, like the dinosaurs, but unfortunately for the people the have chosen to visit their irresponsibility and corruption on, these breed of conscienceless charlatans seem to be breeding more and waxing stronger, at the great expense of their people.. This is probably due to some genetic aberration from their fathers, or predecessors who have passed on to them the hardy genes of survival. I hope not, or else, there will not be any hope left for these battered and raped people called Nigerians.

It is tempting to think of these politicians and pseudo-leaders as pathological liars and absolutely corrupt breed with an appetite for destruction, not construction. As devious, scheming minds, so desperate for power and personal aggrandisement that they are willing to risk the reputations and livelihoods of all around them, they are ready to kill and loot and rape. 

Of course if you are liar, you will be corrupt, and if you are corrupt you are likely to kill to cover up your corruption. But one thing, which comes out of these corrupt, pathological and murderous liars, is that they are mostly cowards. Yes, these people are mostly COWARDS.

Perhaps there is also something appealing about these people, almost always male, so seemingly daring that women flock to them because of the power, wealth and devil-may care gung-ho they seem to exude.

Compatriots, I have always maintained that the problem of Nigeria is not that of religious or tribal diversities. We can co-exist peacefully together in one nation, if only we have the right, honest, sincere leaders, and followers of different mind-set, too, mind you! Corruption is the main problem, and corruption is usually fuelled and nurtured by bad leadership and aided and abetted by an indifferent followership. So bad and corrupt leaders will use every means, including religious and tribal differences, to maintain their grip on wealth and power.

At any rate, this article is written because a friend and patriot, Comrade Ephraim Adinlofu, directed my attention to an interview, granted the Sun Newspapers by a former Minister during the military government of Babangida, Mr Tony Momoh. This is an excerpt from the Interview with The Sun Newspaper (Wednesday 14 Sept 2011)

“Sun: But some people accuse ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo as the problem of PDP
Tony Momoh:  No. Obasanjo is not the problem of PDP. I see Obasanjo with due respect as a very strong leader, a strong leader, but highly arbitrary. He was the problem of Nigeria, not just PDP. Obasanjo had all the opportunities to grow this country, restructure this country. 

Because of the manipulated support they had in the National Assembly and all the state Assemblies, they would have changed the constitution to decongest the political space, and then empower the regions, and let people move at their own pace. In other words, go back to the regional system because our presidential system does not seem to be working. And working for Nigeria is more of a business than service. Obasanjo was in a position to do it. I even wrote to him to do it. 
That, ought to be his mission.”  

After reading this interview, I just sat down and started what I call a deep intellectual and spiritual reflection on Nigeria: the critical question is and has always been: What is wrong with our leaders? Is there genetic dimension to their inability to perform? Listening and reading Tony Momoh, I was amused. Just as I laugh anytime I read about Atiku's commentaries on Obasanjo. These people have no honour at all. Even among thieves, there is honour, but in Nigeria, there is none. Just hearing and reading Babangida, Atiku, Richard Akinjide (another spoiler of Nigeria) Momoh and their ilk moaning, I feel sick. Momoh was, once a Minister under Babangida. I cannot remember him rebuking Babangida for annulling the June 12, 1993 election. I cannot really! Even if it means leaving the country and making the condemnation from outside the shores of Nigeria; he never did. 
 
The fact is that if you escape your responsibility by not doing the right thing when you are in power, or be critical when you are a Minister, you should not moan when your inactions begins to haunt you years after you have left the scene and have blown away your opportunity to make a big difference.. Tony Momoh, IBB, Atiku and OBJ, and even Buhari, had every opportunity given to them on the platter of sometimes gold to make our institutions and country strong, but they never did. Today, they are all moaning, spewing out nattering nabobs. If they had done that or help to do that, today, they will not be shouting to high heavens that PDP rigged the election or that Jonathan should not have been the presidential candidate of the PDP. With the exception of the June 12, 1993 election, all subsequent elections have always been rigged. 
 
So what effort did they make whilst in power to make sure that the electoral, police and the judicial institutions were made independent and strong before they left the power scene, what effort? You see how people get their recompense! They think they can - after they have left office and from their bedroom - mould the future of Nigeria to their fancy at any time. If IBB had allowed June 12 election to stand, I have the strongest feeling that by now, Nigeria would have overtaken South Africa. The West knew what Nigeria is capable of, but does the West have the genuine progress and interest of Nigeria at heart? No, they are after their interest but, who do you blame? Comprador Nigerian bourgeoisies and their military counterparts. 

Another punch: during the "Save Nigeria March" of late Yar ‘Adua's era, Pastor Tunde Bakare, the vice-presidential candidate to Buhari, thundered, (and this was carried by virtually as front page burner in most Nigerian daily papers): "I wish Nzeogwu’s coup had succeeded"! I thought he was joking then. And had then asked myself another question: Why did Pastor Bakare make that declaration? What must have crossed his mind at that point in Nigeria's history for him (Pastor Bakare) to make such a sensitive deposition?

One of those who countered that coup, a celebrated "hero" in the Nigeria contextual game of ethnic and religious chicanery, told Nigerians to their face that he made a huge profit in the sale of his crude oil bloc located in the Niger-Delta; that after paying tax, - and perhaps sharing some of the huge gain to his children, - he was still left with more than US$500 million! You know who I am talking about, don't you? (In fact I wrote an article about this – “Pseudo-Leaders And Nigerian Politics” Nigeria Village Square, 23 March 2008. http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8830&Itemid=154 )  We now know why he participated in that counter coup of July 1966. Opportunists and profiteers are never in short supply in Nigeria! So, why should we still continue to blame the international community, specifically Britain and the USA, in the underdevelopment of Nigeria? Not at all! I no longer blame them. We have got ourselves to blame after 51 years of Independence. 

That is another of our problems as a people. Instead of accepting blames and mistakes and working collectively for solutions, we dismiss the mistakes; pass the blame to others and trying to find individual solutions to collective problems. A very good example of this is the way we deal with electricity problem in Nigeria. We all rush to but generators, but we never confront the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, and their respective officials and take them to task, and ask for their heads, for their failure to supply us with electricity in this 21^stCentury.
 
To be frank, what Tony Momoh said is true, but considering he was part of the problems of Nigeria, it should not be coming from him, as explained above. There is yet to be a Nigerian leader who had the ability, the strength, the resources, the force, the power, etc to make Nigeria better than Obasanjo.

God was even on his side. I will never understand how he managed to throw this chance to become a true Statesman in the mould of Mandela and Kennedy away to become a much ridiculed man, accused of corruption and vilified everywhere. He had the best chance more than any other leader, military or civilian, but he blew it. God will not forgive him, because God gave him two chances, even three, such as He had hardly given to any man in the history of the whole world.

But greed at his age made him throw it away. Yes, Tony Momoh was right. But he was part of Nigeria’s problem, so it behoves him to offer solutions.

And you know what? Another leader who could have done Nigeria right was Babangida, although to a much lesser extent.  It would have given Babangida an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of God and Man. He threw it away too, and after so many years, he tried to seek redemption, but due to the fact that a horse will always die a horse, and a leopard can never change its spots, Babangida could not escape his fate and his reputation for corruption, immorality, deceit and chicanery, but unfortunately for him, he could not accept that fact, and instead continued to ridicule himself while trying by all means to outdo his former boss, Obasanjo by trying a comeback to power every time. I think that has finally been laid to rest now, having attained the age of 70. Or maybe not!

What a waste!

Acknowledgement: I am ever so grateful to my friend, brother, colleague and co-writer, Comrade Ephraim Adinlofu for giving me almost 100% germ of the idea and materials to write this article. Comrade, it is mostly your ideas that always inspire me to write despite my sometimes lethargy and pessimism about our country. 

Defining Achievement, Performance and Humility of Nigeria’s Political Class

As I was having a brainwave and contemplating what to write about the topic of our political leaders’ “achievement," “performance” and their “humility”, it occurred to me that I personally don’t resound with the concept of focusing life on achieving end results outside of myself. The English dictionary’s definition of ‘achieve - to bring to a successful conclusion; accomplish; attain; to gain as by hard work or effort - states that by its nature, achievement or accomplishment is a result, a conclusiveness.  We all must accomplish things in order to function in life, for example, go to school, earn a degree or two or four, earn a living, marry and set up your own family, and see your children through education, but is that all that achievement means?  It may be that achievement is not a completion or conclusion, but an ongoing metamorphosis of who we are inside.

What brought this to mind is the level of praise we tend to heap on our dubious pseudo-leaders as well as their often exaggerated and non-existent achievement or accomplishment. Apart from the fact that most of them are illegally in power either by forcing their way in by pointing a gun at our and at each other heads (the military) or by snatching ballot boxes, thumb printing ballot papers and generally rigging and murdering their way to power, they do not deserve any accolade, they are really, if we forgive them for doing these things to us, doing the job they are being paid hefty amount of salaries for.

When are we going to realise and let these people know that they are just doing what we are paying them those billions to do?  And believe me, we are a very lucky country indeed to be able to afford such payments, but do we know it? They are not doing us a favour by employing us, or by building roads for us, or building a hospital or two, or by creating endless and purposeless quangoes; that is what we are paying then to do, for crying out loud. But they all pipe as if they have achieved something that nobody can ever do, except them. Damnit, no Governor is doing me a favour by building classrooms for my children, or tarring the front of my house; I am already paying then to do that. And I am not going to thank them for doing it.

In a thriving and working democracy, there is really very little or no room for recognising achievement or accomplishment by individual politicians or leaders, who, I keep reiterating, are mostly mediocre and fraudulent by their actions, because we, the people who elected or voted them in (unfortunately even though they rigged their way in,  by allowing them to stay in power, we have to take responsibility for their actions) expect them to accomplish certain tasks for us to make our lives better. The best we can do is recognising them and commending them for doing their jobs. There really is nothing wrong in this. Anybody who does a good job (please note that I am not calling it a favour, but a job) deserves recognition, commendation and thanks, so that such person will be further motivated to do more. It is a normal civil thing to do.

But why are we praising Mr Governor or Mr Local Government Chairman for building a road, or a classroom or providing bore holes or hospitals for us. That is his job. That is what he promised us he will do. That is what we are paying him to do, and he must do it. And we are even thanking them for making money out of the road contract, because in most cases, these contracts are inflated so that they can make some money or they have received a bribe before awarding the contract. They rarely ever do things for us in good faith.

There is a little bit of answer for this. For example, because Osun State ex-Governor Oyinlola sat on his backside doing nothing for eight years, when Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola took over from Oyinlola, within 100 days, he had made a difference by employing 20,000 youths. Yes we can commend Aregbesola. But he really has not achieved, he’s just doing what we expect him to do. I hope we will not take it our “minimum standard”.

What we should be applying to these jokers is Quality Assurance, not Quality Control (as a Food Scientist). Quality Assurance is “are we doing the right thing?” which is monitoring performance and quality throughout the process, as opposed to “have we done the right thing” (Quality Control) after the process is complete and might have gone wrong from the beginning.

At our various jobs in life, our employers often recognize our efforts for doing our jobs, which he is paying us to do, by giving us promotion, awards, bonuses, etc. But he will not sing our praises to the high heavens.

We really need to educate ourselves and our people to let them know that these political opportunists are our servants, not our masters. We pay them, yet they still steal from us; we respect them because of they say we should, yet they hold us in great contempt; we sacrifice our lives for them, yet they take us for granted and think they have a right to rule us. No, they dont. We need to let our people know all these, or else we will not be able to sustain this democracy. Their arrogance and their dishonesty without any tangible performance or accomplishment is just too much for me.

Performance, like achievement is also something you expect from somebody you employ. So if we are all agog and carried away by the fact that Governor Fashola of Lagos State is performing, well, that is what we expect of him in the first place; however, because he has set his mind and heart on doing his job as it should be done, yes, we must commend him, but not turn him into a Messiah or a minor god.

Laura L. Brown, in The Meaning of Achievement, asked “Does a mother "achieve" raising her children to be conscious, contributing members of society?  Is that an end result or an ongoing endeavour?  Is something considered an "achievement" only if we win first prize?  Or only under certain circumstances?  Or only when someone is there to be witness?

Where do we learn what is considered an achievement?  How, as a society, are we valuing the contributions and participation of each member in our group- government, family, neighbourhood, community, workplace, city, nation, and world?”

“We recognize and sometimes reward people for "achieving" milestones that we have determined significant, like graduation from high school or college, receiving a promotion, winning a sports tournament.  However, there are no public acknowledgements of ongoing perseverance through troubled times or difficult circumstances, no matter how long they last.  No one is waiting to throw you a party for being a reliable, loyal, giving, and genuine human being.  Are those not also achievements?”, further asked Laura L. Brown.

I can look back at my life and list off the accomplishments that I think I should have  been recognized for attaining, though most of them in retrospect do not matter to me anywhere near as much as the unseen, intangible and internal achievements for which there were no celebrations, congratulations, bonuses, or public announcements.  Ultimately, those "achievements" and the accolades (and attention) that accompanied them faded away and what was left were the experiences, the knowledge, the growth and understanding toward a personal evolution as a resident of this planet at this particular moment in time.

Achievements, what I believe to be the real accomplishments of human beings cannot be measured by society in so much as they are not finite and continue to evolve and expand.  Is there a point at which one achieves ultimate compassion or concern for others’ well being?  Is there a gauge for how much love given or received is deserving of a celebration or recognition?  The pursuit of knowledge, excellence, performance and the desire to share it with others as an ongoing lifelong endeavour will never reach an end point as is required by the definition of ‘achievement’. 

In Nigeria, we are used to asking our leaders, whom we appointed or elected to serve us (even the military are allowed by us to rule), whose salaries we pay and who live free and feed fat off us to give us a minimum standard. Why do we as a people not always demand the best standard? Why do we get even less than “minimum standard” and we start licking these corrupt idiots’ arse?

I was in a seminar organised by the National Association of Seadogs (aka Pyrates Confraternity) where the chairman was the veteran journalist, Felic Adenaike and the guest speaker was the well-known social critic and columnist, Dr Tony Marinho, and he was so miffed by what we as a people demand of our leaders. Why do we always demand the minimum standard, he asked? Why not at least optimum standard if we cannot get the highest. We are undervaluing ourselves and giving these opportunists the chance not to even perform. We put ourselves at a disadvantage by giving the leaders the excuse not to perform, or if you like, not to perform.

In any society, leaders or anybody that sticks out his/her neck to lead a people must perform to the best of his/her ability to ensure the people they are leading get the best, totally without any personal gain. That is, the highest standard.

In Nigeria, when a Governor or local Government Chairman gives a contractor inflated contract to merely scrape the road surface, and pour tar or asphalt on it which will last until the beginning of the rainy season when the tar or thinly laid asphalt would be washed away, usually within 3 months, we are still happy that the road was tarred in the first place, but we never see that “that minimum standard” was a waste of everybody’s money and a fraud committed on us. The same contractor will spend thousands congratulating the corrupt Governor on the pages of newspapers for “achievement” after 100 days or first year anniversary in power. Yet, the contract has not been fulfilled and the people do not see the impact of the project on their lives and community. Does this sound right? Yet, these brainless leaders go about posing – not posing, but actually believing they are - like gods and meting out money to their close family and business friends.

To be frank, I don’t think it is even a good thing to congratulate people, especially our Nigerian leaders for doing jobs we pay them to do and are not even doing well or with sincerity. It swells their heads and makes them think they are super-humans and invaluable to society when in reality, the world, and the country can do without them. Compatriots, please just look back to 50 years ago, how many leaders, military, politician, civil servant can we really say have done their service to this country with complete and undiluted honesty and sincerity and complete selflessness? How many can we honestly count? Not a lot and that explains why after 50 years of self-rule, we are in this quagmire of underdevelopment, poverty, corruption and destitution, despite our vast wealth.

Under our reprehensible and utterly disgusting hero-worshipping culture (no, I don’t even want to call these people heroes, because they are certainly not my heroes), there is no way excellence in governance can be achieved in Nigeria. Ministers, commissioners, so-called special advisers and assistants, top civil servants, board chairpersons and other appointees appointed by various tiers of governments always owe their loyalty and service to those who appointed them. They never feel or realise or work that they were appointed to serve the people of the country and not their masters or political parties. It is disgusting and nauseating to see most of these appointees the way they defer and denigrate themselves in the presence of their masters. I have very little respect, if any, for most of them and especially their masters.

I hate it when I see our money being spent by these useless and brainless leaders congratulating themselves, or actually doing propaganda and proclaiming non-existent achievements and/or performance on the pages of newspapers and on radio and TV. First, they are wasting money which could better be used for more serious and urgent public needs; secondly, they are lying their heads off and think they are pulling the wool over our eyes, and thirdly, they are just doing the jobs we are paying them to do, so why are they congratulating themselves, or why are some sycophants congratulating them for doing their job

In Nigeria, for the past five decades, when it comes to the resources and the income of the state, the common Nigerians are taken advantage of by ignorant, greedy, selfish, corrupt civil or armed political looters. There is nothing more deserving than dedication to public service mainly because it is a sacrifice to abandon the desire to make money and serve the people. Not in Africa. Looting the treasury until it is empty is the goal. 

Hear Farouk Martins in his article “Nigeria: Debates By Political Looters May Distort Achievements” (14 March 2011), “Africans like the rest of the world have been blessed with skilful managers of resources and money of the state. No matter what our differences were with some past leaders, in retrospect, Nkrumah was dedicated, Awolowo was a skilful manager, Pa Ojukwu was a good businessman, Aminu Kanu was the best political leader and Mandela’s goodwill is world class. Nevertheless, when we are faced with a choice of leadership, we allow extroverts to snatch debates by appealing to our hearts. Many of us have called for part-time political leaders in Africa with the hope that the attraction to loot will be curtailed and minimized. However, when we see men that have served the country with no expectation to be paid back in salary or gratuity, we discard them as losers. We have a string of human right activists, philanthropists and professional students or professors that cannot be elected. There is no doubt that our interpretation of achievement is skewed”. 

I am personally of the belief that contemporary challenges of development in Nigeria demand a critical and deliberate re-invention of the philosophy of governance and political leadership which must reflect a profound understanding of the very great tasks ahead of us as a nation and as a people. The liberation of the African continent at the moment would require that leadership considerations are determined by such virtues as strength of character, intellectual depth as well as dedication and commitment of the personages involved. Authentic leaders of this country must, of necessity, be those that are imbued with vision, audacity, firmness, clarity of purpose, sympathetic spirit, trustworthiness, patriotism, coherence, a strong drive for positive action, optimism, modesty, humility and dynamism.

When you look at it, African leaders’ problems are a cultural thing, a flaw in our culture. Our rulers, even in ancient days were absolute rulers. They were treated like gods,(perhaps the fault of the people they rule themselves?) and demand absolute obedience and rule their people rarely with compassion, but with the conviction that they are meant to rule and their people are just pawns or serfs, there to do their bidding and anything they do for their people are favours. They were rarely humble; in fact a humble king, oba, sultan or emir was considered a weakling.

This flaw has been carried forward to the present days, whether military or democracy and that is why you rarely see an African leader behaving with humility and compassion to his people. African, and indeed, Nigerian leaders really do have a need to approach the socio-political environment with humility. Furthermore, these leaders, expectedly because of the way they force themselves on top are relatively unprepared, uninformed, uneducated and inexperienced about the context of governance. In fact, they are completely ignorant and do not know what governance is, not to talk of good governance. Thus, they need humility and a willingness to learn and serve in terms of their own understanding of the context, humility in terms of their certainty regarding their own worldview, and humility about their assumptions concerning the motivations and goals of the great work and responsibilities ahead of them.

Only then, but then most forcefully, should leaders display the courage to pursue what they believe is the right course of action. Young, brilliant and dynamic leaders who best represent competence and excellence in public service, intelligence in the service of the people, governance not dictated by politics but politics dictated by good governance, not motivated by ludicrous propaganda but ordered by visible accomplishments, integrity and humility, are what we need in this country if we want to progress.

Right now, I can hardly see these coming, at least not for a very long time; perhaps after my death. Our cultural an moral values need to be revisited, reviewed and reworked to give us a system that will benefit our societies, and not only for Nigeria, but indeed our raped and looted continent, Africa.

Let the Truth be said always.

The Unimaginative and Purposeless Political Recycling

This article is not intended to offend anyone personally but recent developments in the nation’s socio-political environment warrant comments and focus on the situation so readers of this medium can be fully apprised of developments around them.

When I opened the pages of the newspapers recently and read that the PDP, which had been ruling since 1999 had come up with a list of 270 nominees for Ministerial and other positions for the new (?) incoming government of Goodluck Jonathan, I was aghast. First, I thought that after 12 years directing the affairs of this country, the PDP hierarchy and followers still haven’t leant anything, and will never learn, about what governance and service to the nation are.

Secondly, the PDP seems not to be heeding the voice of the people of Nigeria, calling on all our political leaders to CHANGE, as exhibited by the will of the people during this election. Nigerians, from the market woman to the office worker, from the peasant farmer to the teacher, wanted and yearned for change in the polity and the running of this nation. It was loud and clear, “Enough is Enough”, and we expressed and exercised our democratic duty by showing how many politicians, serving and aspiring, were thoroughly and definitively rejected at the polls. We saw how our people were resolute throughout and were alert to, and blocked attempts to rig and manipulate votes and procedures.

INEC Chief, Attahiru Jega, while we may be saluting and praising his tenacity, courage and sincerity, certainly had his work cut out by the positive, resolute attitude, support and encouragement of the majority of Nigerians who ensured that we had a relatively credible, free and fair election, despite many attempts by unscrupulous politicians to hijack our democracy and force themselves on us.

Now the PDP wants to undo all this good work and movement towards Change for a better, or at least, improving Nigeria, by bringing in failed, corrupt, useless, selfish, greedy, inept and politically dead charlatans; the same people who had made absolutely no impact on the development of this country in the last 20 years; leaders who had not only failed their people, but who had also stolen from their people and perpetuated a state of permanent poverty, misery , poor health, poor education and without hope and visited all kinds of evils – religious riots, kidnappings, thuggery, assassinations, etc – on them.

Why does our government keep recycling politicians who have been voted out of office? The answers are not too difficult to answer really, but everything boils down to corruption. Corruption breeds greed, mediocrity, selfishness, egoism, nepotism, tribalism, self-importance, charlatanism, ineptitude, inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and all the other reasons why, for the past 50 years, we do not seem to have moved forward as far as progress and development are concerned.

Once you’re in Nigeria’s corridor of power (as we like to call it), you’ve probably earned yourself and your family a lifetime contract. Even death is separation from your family out of the political arrangement in Nigeria, because in the event of your death, your children, and most likely, their children too, inherit a donation agreement. There are two things fundamentally wrong in the distribution of political positions in Nigeria. First, once in power, we take it as normal to be in power until it is over with the kind permission of death.

Secondly is the system whereby an incoming executive – President and Governor – has his cabinet nominated for him by his party. There are again several fallouts from this. One, it shows glaringly that the executive is not ready, has not been prepared for his position. Second, he cannot perform because he does not have any inkling of the capability, qualification and even loyalty of his cabinet, and may not even be able to exercise control over them. Third, it shows that this democracy is all about party politics, whereby people in positions of authority owe their allegiance to their party and not to the people.

Clearly in such situations, government and governance cannot be in the interest of the people, but for personal, selfish, greedy and corrupt reasons. We therefore have the same clueless idiots riding roughshod over us. Hence we have no chance of any real development. We see these everyday of our lives, how corruption has made the country near moribund. These people nominated by the party owe their position to the party and to the Executive who may decide to discard them anytime, not really for non-performance, but for disloyalty, either to the party or to the Executive. A case in point, even ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, admitted that during his first term in power, he hardly knew his Ministers. Can you imagine the mess the Government of Nigeria was in then? And this was replicated all throughout the Federation in the states too. Commissioners were mostly chosen for the Governors because of political party considerations.

There it is my brothers and sisters; look at it, in our governments, it is either the same people who have ruled before or their children and family members, or friends or those they sponsor. These people then go into government with only one purpose in mind: make as much money as they can at the expense of good governance and the people.

The strong influence of a culture of corruption, injustice and inequality, favouritism, greed and tribal nepotism in Nigeria, self-interest dominates national interest.

Dazzling slogans must not deceive us. Our pseudo-leaders have used and adopted new speeches and slogans, using intimidation, fear, bribery and falsification of peoples will, that is political corruption via election rigging and manipulation. They have been very successful in these evils. Whatever the substance and form of changes we are hoping for; it cannot be but the recycling policy of the old corrupt pattern, which helps prolongation of the distrusted incumbent authority and enhancing the culture of corruption, with the Nigerian masses the main victim.

The elections of April 2011, where the Peoples Democratic Party still gained the majority votes mostly by hook or crook (Although I will concede that this election has been the most credible, freest and fairest in recent times), is in the danger of leading to the following equation:

The same people = the same mentality = the same actions = no progress

The result will be the recycling of the old prototype, in fact there will be no change if this recycling of discredited, failed and corrupt politicians is allowed to happen .

What the real change seeks is a knowledge-based society, which is difficult to flourish under corrupt rule that has characterized the Nigerian society for decades; we need a society open to new ideas that develops a spirit of critics and enquiry, and has the courage to look at unwelcome realities and addresses them.

We know that corrupt leaders are wholly interested in survival; they take extra care of people with bribery, favouritism, etc. Therefore, we need to starve such leaders of the comforts of power. We have to keep them out.

Nigeria needs a revolutionary change through implementation of a “Cultural Renaissance Project”. The new elite must be the opposite of the current ruling monopoly and must be detached and disinterested in the notorious materialistic rapacity of the current Nigerian rulers and irresponsible politicians.

New faces are necessary to bring about such a revolutionary change. New elite must come to the front of the political action for real change. All changes made by the current political elite are artificial by nature. A real change needs a real break with the current establishment; the break must be socio-political, economical, cultural and psychological.

The new elite should have a history of opposition against the misuse of power, against nepotism, corruption, and creating a narrow-based political structure run by their own families and for their profit. Otherwise change in Nigeria will remain cosmetic.

I would have loved to comment on the alleged (I call it alleged, because I refuse to believe President, with all the hopes of Nigerians resting on his shoulders, would be daft enough to accept or even to consider it) PDP Nominations List, but I am happy that the Punch Newspapers have at least identified some of these greedy politicians who we must call on President Jonathan not to consider appointing either as Ministers or Ambassadors. In fact, most of these people ought to be in jail, or if we want to spare them, we should ensure they never get near a ballot box or any seat of responsibility and power ever again in their lives.

These include the chameleonic “Any Government In Power” Ojo Maduekwe; the failed role model to the youth of this country called Dimeji Bankole, ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives; the women we thought will prove to Nigerians that women can do it better, but instead were even worse in terms of corruption and ineptitude than their male counterparts – Josephine Anenih, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the near-illiterate hairdresser, Patricia Etteh; the professor of Arabic Studies turned Minister of Education, Hajia Ruquayat Rufai.

The PDP list contains shameless and failed ex-Governors like Olusegun Agagu, who called himself an academician but could not bring himself to return to university teaching where he started despite having served at various times (or is it served himself?) as Deputy Governor, Minister and Governor; the utterly abysmal, election-rigger and inept Olagunsoye Oyinlola who has an unparalleled record of ineptitude and non-performance both as a military and a civilian governor; the dubious fraudster (alleged) turned politician and Imo state ex-Governor, Ikedi Ohakim; the clueless but jovial sacked policeman Alao-Akala, who during his tenure turned Oyo State into a blood-soaked battlefield.

To be frank I was surprised the names of Ogun ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel and ex-Senator Iyabo Obasanjo were not included, but then the former had fallen out of favour with the party a while back, and for the latter, the father must have told her to cool down a bit.

Serving Ministers such as Attorney-General Mohammed Adoke (he was even worse than his predecessor, Michael Aondoaka) must not be retained. Adoke has not done anything worth mentioning except to promote and provide protection for corruption. Ex-Senator Ayo Arise from Ekiti State was caught running around Ekiti State during the re-run elections in 2009 with armed thugs and guns and of course the murderous ex-Senator Iyiola Omisore of Osun State, who if not because of divine intervention, would probably have become the Governor now ( I must be the happiest man in Nigeria when Aregbesola was declared Governor of Osun State by the courts, in December 2010 thus truncating the ambition and plans of Omisore to become the Governor of the state by hook or crook, even then he was seen accompanied by thugs in Ife firing shots into the air in an attempt to scare away voters and hijack the ballot boxes during the last elections).

In fact things have gotten so desperate for the PDP that they are even trying to compensate ex-Deputy Governors with ministerial appointments – Taofeek Arapaja of Oyo State; Mrs Olusola Obada of Osun State are examples; and even the wife of Boni Haruna, ex-Governor of Adamawa State made the list. And of course, all the PDP gubernatorial candidates in the last elections who lost are in line to be compensated – Tunji Olurin of Ogun State; Ade Dosunmu of Lagos State (just like Musiliu Obanikoro was compensated with an Ambassadorial appointment in 2007). Again things must be really bad (for Ibadan people at least) if Jumoke Akinjide, the daughter of former Justice Minister Richard Akinjide, who lost in her first ever bid to be a Senator, is suddenly made a Minister of this country, just because she bears the name Akinjide. Lord have mercy on us!

To God be the Glory for answering the prayers of Nigerians to get rid of bad and unscrupulous leaders. We are getting there gradually. By 2015, we would have routed them completely and evil, greedy, selfish, visionless, corrupt leaders will become endangered, if not extinct species, by God’s grace and the will of the Nigerian people. Of course some of them still remain, but if they have to learn anything coming to the next elections in 2015, they would have learnt that Nigerians will not give in to them again; that we will not tolerate them; that we will not be intimidated by them and that we will stand up to their tricks and thuggery.

There are 150 million people in this country. 150 million people to choose from to help run the country properly. There is no dearth of brilliant minds and committed and patriotic Nigeria within and outside the country, in fact, like they say the greatest resources of a nation are its people. For Nigeria, this is even more so from all indications in indices. Why do we have to keep recycling the same set of failed politicians and unscrupulous officials who have never shown any kind of selfless service to this country, but instead, have over the decades, been lining their own pockets and for self-aggrandisement?

With these same set of dishonest people, Nigeria is not going to go anywhere and our dreams of being a strong, developed, and progressive nation will continue to be an illusion, a mirage. Please take an impartial look at most of the names mentioned above and you will see why the country was being branded a “failed nation” by even some Nigerians. You will see why Nigerians are very sceptical and cynical about their governments and governors and officials. You will see why there is anarchy, disorderliness, inefficiency and corruption in the polity and society. You will see why we cannot grow as a people and as a nation.

President Jonathan must be resolute and pick the best people for his cabinet and not pander to the party bigwigs whose interest in the progress of Nigeria is the furthest from their minds and plans, but put self-interest and self-survival before the welfare of the people of this country.

No, we don’t want these deceitful, dishonest, insincere and corrupt people in power as our Ministers and representatives anymore. We have rejected most of them at the polls, and they must not be compensated for failure.

Let the Truth be said always.