Buhari, Change And Democratic Tyranny

By Arthur Nwankwo |

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana

One thing you cannot take away from most Nigerians is their penchant for collective amnesia. Despite the lessons of our history, we seem to learn nothing. On several occasions, especially in times like this, most Nigerians find themselves in a state of apparent exhaustion, as though drained of all their physical and mental energies; in a kind of torpor from which we are aroused only by difficulty and hardship. I have come to appreciate the fact that of all human institutions, none is as pervasive and inescapable as the state.

As socio-political beings, God has destined man to live together; to form groups for physical and emotional sustenance. In forming such groups, the most powerful group, which man has formed is the state. In line with the principles of “social contract”, it is to the state that we grant, explicitly and implicitly, willingly and unwillingly, powers that affect every aspect of our lives. History has shown that when the state exercises its coercive powers without restraint we have little choice about this grant, and we may find ourselves with hardly anything beyond the hope for survival. In such circumstances, we can only take recourse to history to raise society’s consciousness to prevent the birth of tyranny; to avoid finding ourselves with no choices except suffering oppression and brutality.

The present government of Muhammadu Buhari is a direct threat to this country. Make no mistake about this – the lessons of history weigh heavily in this direction. I have in one of my earlier articles drawn attention to the activities that heralded the collapse of the ancient Mali Empire. In about 1203, Sumanguru (the Sorcerer King) took over what was left of old Ghana Empire. He was cruel and killed all that challenged his power. He killed many Malinka people but did not kill one of the crippled princes named Sundiata. In 1235, Sundiata crushed Sumanguru’s forces. This victory was the beginning of the new Mali Empire. Sundiata took control of the gold-producing regions and became Mali’s national hero.

Sundiata’s first major assignment was to eliminate all those who helped him to power; introduced a regime of monster and brutality comparable only to the monstrous Maghreb warrior, Samouri Ibn Lafiya Toure of the infamous ‘earth-scorch’ policy – much in the mould of modern day Boko Haram attacks. A few years in power, the people of the ancient Mali Empire would actually come to realise that he was more brutal and sadistic than Samanguru.

History is coterminous with the fact that brutal leaders all over the world have always emerged under the veneer of changing the status-quo in favour of the society. This trend sign-posted the emergence of Adolph Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Joseph Stalin in former USSR, Nimiery in Sudan, Jean-Bedel Bokassa in Central African Republic and Mobutu Sese Seko in Congo. This was also the trend that greeted Buhari’s jackboot dictatorship in 1983. Despite the euphoria that greeted the emergence of his military junta, his colleagues booted him out on August 27, 1985.

General Muhammadu Buhari, more than anything else, would be remembered as the coupist who led a severe military dictatorship that imprisoned its opponents without trial, publicly executed convicts by firing squad, arrested journalists who criticised it, ran an Orwellian intelligence apparatus that bugged the phones of government ministers; a man whose overthrow three decades ago was welcomed with relief by his countrymen, and who lost three consecutive presidential elections in 12 years. That such a character could be considered electable in any civil society would be unthinkable. But in a country like Nigeria, where majority of the people have been condemned to very short and embarrassing memories, such electoral “abracadabra” is possible. As a military ruler, Buhari’s uncompromising temperament invited opposition. Today, as a civilianised president, he has reinvented the Buhari persona with intensity and yet again inviting fierce opposition.

In the run-in to the last general election, I followed painstakingly the campaigns especially that of General Muhammadu Buhari and the APC change mantra. Like many discerning Nigerians, I had come to the inevitable conclusion that both the APC and Muhammadu Buhari displayed galling emptiness and hollowness. I also came to the conclusion that given Buhari’s poor intellectual capacity; those promoting his candidacy had other reasons for backing him, essentially because Buhari lacks the requisite credentials to launch Nigeria on the path of genuine rebirth. Events in the past 14 months have proved me right.

That, as a people, we have not learned very much from the lessons of history is, to me, the most important of all the lessons of Nigerian history. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge noted, if men could learn from history, it would teach men so much! But in Nigeria, ethnic, religious and prebendal passion and political party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern which shines only on the waves behind. Perhaps this explains Hegel’s conclusion that people and governments neither learn anything from history, nor acted on principles deduced from it.

Today, in the name of change, we have gone back 31 years in history to exhume memories of hardship, brutality and bestiality. As I have noted earlier, Buhari’s method of fighting corruption 31 years ago failed woefully and presently he is still reintroducing the same old strategy.

I have always asked this question: Can a man known for his uncompromising and rigid tendencies resolve issues that require tactical adroitness and pragmatic flexibility? I do not think so! His anti-corruption war has failed because of “sacred cow syndrome”. He is afraid of stepping on powerful toes and has made the corruption war apparently very selective. What Nigeria needs now is a reconstructive surgeon who must perform a painful operation in order to extricate a painful ailment and not a bulldozer or robot. Buhari is not a constructive surgeon and therefore lacks the requisite credentials to perform Nigeria’s surgical operation.

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Will The Real Muhammadu Buhari Please Stand Up

By Tabia Princewill

Nigerians are intensely political people, full of fire and outrage in their support or ability to undermine any figure of authority. Ours should have been the greatest of democracies, given our profound interest in public affairs. Unlike many Western countries where belief in any ideology is waning and voter turn-out is lacklustre, Nigeria is a country where fortunately and unfortunately dogma endures: we believe in many things (many unsubstantiated, antiquated convictions with destructive powers) but we differ from our Western counterparts in our unwillingness to critically assess and scrutinise said beliefs, hiding behind ethnicity and religion to justify those mysteries which enrich a few at the expense of the many.

Our rigid support system, based on how we worship, or what part of the country we come from, shows our mistaken understanding of political participation which is more a conspiracy to commit, support and justify theft than anything else. Politics rarely goes beyond, in the immortal words of Patience Jonathan: “na we time ” (to do what? I’ll leave that to the readers’ imagination).Now a crucial question poses itself: in the battle between the old, corrupt ways and the new, can the President rid himself of those undesired elements, even if they may be his nearest and dearest, who could ultimately cost him his re-election?

Our society is not educated (or mature) enough to turn partisan debates into civic engagement: country first, rather than party first, is a concept which continuously eludes us. However, APC must be wary of Nigerian disillusionment. Nigerians have slowly begun to realise their power: if they no longer believe in the APC because its narrative is unconvincing (a far cry from its fervent pre-election sense of national urgency), because, it seems, many in APC look all too comfortable with the old ways they campaigned against, then this would spell the end for the party. Nigerians won’t accept to be fed the romanticised notions of ethnic or primordial loyalty which dictate support based on everything other than rational considerations of performance: it’s already happening. A party that consistently gets votes in the modern world isn’t one that puts food on the table by sporadically donating relief items, it is, instead, one that empowers and prepares people for self-reliance.

What Nigerians really need, right now, is for the real Muhammadu Buhari to please stand up. I’m following the aftermath of the political conventions in America. There are so many lessons to be learned about what involvement in politics truly means, about the part every individual citizen has to play in mending a country and telling a new story. Ours (both our tragic story and heart-breaking country) needs Buhari, if he can let go of some of his friends before it is too late.

Perhaps his experience of being removed from power by striking at the heart of the cabal which enjoys and profits from Nigeria’s dysfunction, made him more of a realist. Perhaps it turned the soldier into a politician who is more ready to compromise by keeping some of those undesirable elements close, despite the scandals and unanswered questions, because of the greater damage they could do behind his back. Perhaps the strategist in Buhari can still surprise us. But we need the man who doesn’t pander to the interests or fear-mongering of corrupt individuals who either use militants or separatism as blackmail. He doesn’t have to have all the answers (those who voted for Buhari were no fools, no one mistook him for a policy wonk) but he must surround himself with more qualified, talented people who can provide said answers. Enough of the recommendations and placements based on rumoured or alleged familial connections, etc.

His communications team never tapped into his strengths and never sold a post-election plan or vision. The cynics might say there wasn’t one. But Buhari’s personal narrative, his knowledge of the civil war and all it wrought upon us in ethnic politics, could serve to unify this country, if he had the right people to articulate and sell his personal thoughts and memories to the masses. Obama once said: “There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.” I doubt many around our President fully understand the power of words. Many of the criticisms currently directed at the President, including the perceived lack of economic direction, would be far less if only there was someone regularly speaking to Nigerians, explaining the reasons for the hardships and detailing a way out, as opposed to ignoring the problems in the “Jonathanesque” way previously criticised.

The President does occasionally mention our values but not enough in connection to economic realities. Everything about the collapse of our economy, our reliance on FX dependent imported goods, etc, is a direct consequence of our shallow mind-set, never mind the elite schools many in our society will tell you they attended. We think and behave like paupers, semi-illiterates, awed by meaningless things. We’re paying the price for it now. A communications team should have used the President’s personal story, his humble beginnings, to inspire us to think differently about money and its uses. Very few people remember policy in detail but they remember the stories told about said policies: the intellectual passion, the storytelling prowess shown in the US when discussing the American idea is totally absent in Nigeria. Those few would-be intellectuals Nigerian Presidents have around them are often relics of an unfortunate past. Few are creative enough to craft the new policies we need to catapult ourselves into modernity and by extension, prosperity. The Muhammadu Buhari we need at this point must find a way to synthesize the old and the new. Not by providing jobs and opportunities for his friends’ children as is often the case in Nigeria but by allowing real talent to thrive. If the best man can get the job in Nigeria, half of our problems would be solved.

DOGARA

In Nigeria, offensiveness seems to be a legitimate form of engagement or even defence. The idea that padding the budget isn’t illegal isn’t just a dangerous one, it’s a testimony to the mind-set of politicians who think Nigeria is a country to be ruled rather than governed. Is decriminalising an accusation not a form of self-indictment? It amounts to saying “even if I did do it, it isn’t a crime”. Either way, one now sees the legislature has little grasp of its true functions. Only the executive is allowed to re-write the budget and replace projects, etc. Lawmakers are only empowered to trim sums, not allocate money themselves! Then of course there’s:”You mean I can’t come and see my President? Do I need any reason to come and see my President? It was a private visit.” Therein lies the problem. Without a doubt, Obama receives private visits—many in private locations. The White House or in this case, State House, belongs to every citizen and it is their right to scrutinise what goes on within it. But to a Nigerian politician, the state is often a private rather than a public affair. How this all ends will undoubtedly reveal who the real Buhari is and either bode ill or well for APC’s future.

CBN

Either not everyone in government is on the same page or the “real” Buhari is someone else entirely. After being told that subsidised rates would be reserved for more essential and productive functions of the economy, and that parents who send their children abroad can “afford” to source for FX in the parallel market, subsidised rates are given to pilgrims (both Muslims and Christians). Prayers can’t on their own boost Nigeria’s revenue, never mind what some fanatics, hiding under the cover of religion to help themselves to Nigeria’s resources, will tell you. Prayers are immaterial in a country of hypocrisy and generalised stealing. Sai Baba who so hated waste, where are you?

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Nothing Like Single Mother

By Luke Onyekakeyah

I was provoked by the story in the Punch newspaper of Friday, August 5, involving our amiable Nollywood star actress, Kate Henshaw, concerning a lady sex worker, identified as Mary, who allegedly abandoned her child Michael, at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.

Our sister Kate has been unduly traumatised for doing good to a helpless woman and her child. But there is nothing to regret about, for it is written, blessed are those who suffer for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Sister Kate should rejoice and be glad that her name is written in heaven.

I decided to take a critical look at the principal actor, in this case, Mary, who in our society, may be referred to as a “single mother.” I am nauseated, indeed, upset, by the nomenclature “single mother”, which is wrongly applied to women such as Mary, whereas, in the real sense of the word, Mary is not single; she, indeed, has partnered with four different men for whom she had four children. How then could she be said to be single?

According to the story, Kate Henshaw’s attention was drawn to the condition of the mother and her child through the social media, while they begged around the Onikan area of Lagos State. Mary’s youngest child, Michael, who she had for a Malian man, was said to have been born with a cancerous growth in the face. Cashing in on the boy’s condition, Mary was taking him to beg on the streets of Lagos.

Henshaw said she was tagged on Twitter sometime in March, 2016, and she was touched by the plight of the boy and took interest to help him. She said she asked people to find both mother and child, and after a while, they were found at Osborne, Ikoyi, a suburb of Lagos.

From there, she said someone assisted her in getting a bed space for the sick child at LUTH and both the mother and child were admitted. She reported the matter to Project Alert on Violence Against Women, a non-governmental organisation involving the Lagos State Government. But Mary was said to have initially refused to cooperate with the hospital until she was threatened with arrest.

Henshaw said the attitude of Michael’s 30-year old mother prompted a DNA test, which confirmed that she was the biological mother of the child. Mary was said to be aggressive to the nurses and other mothers in the hospital ward, to the extent that on April 24, she fought with a hospital maid and was sent out of the ward. She was re-accepted after the hospital was begged and she promised to be of good behaviour.

Furthermore, Henshaw said they visited Mary’s relatives in Irawo, Ikorodu, where they discovered that she had three other children for different men, who she left to the care of her aged mother. Then, on June 9, 2016, Mary finally abandoned her baby at the hospital absconded.

What prompted this comment is the term “single mother”, though not directly used in the story. Is it proper to call Mary a “single mother”, when in actual fact, she has a chain of partners all over the place and could even have the fifth child, and more, since she is still young? The story identified Mary as “a sex worker”, which to me, is a more appropriate classification for her kind. Does the nomenclature “single mother” make any sense?

Let’s begin by defining the terms “single” and “mother” for better understanding and appreciation. The Encarta Dictionary defines “single” to mean, one; considered individually; without spouse or partner, etc. The third meaning clearly explains the fact that a man or woman can only be appropriately called single if he/she has no spouse or partner. In marital classification, a woman can only claim to be single if, truly, she has no spouse or partner, meaning, that she is available for marriage. In biblical times, such a single girl would be a virgin, pure and undefiled. Viewed from this angle, no woman is single if she has had a child. Referring to a woman who has chain of failed spouses and or partners all over the place as “single mother” is a misnomer. It is totally incorrect to do that anywhere in the world.

This position would further be strengthened with the definition of mother. The same Encarta Dictionary defines “mother” as female parent – a woman who has a child; also, a woman acting as parent of a child to whom she has not given birth to. Whereas, the first woman who has born a child cannot be rightly called a single mother, even, if she is living without a spouse or partner; only a woman acting as parent to a child whom she has not given birth to could be rightfully called a single mother, if she has never had a spouse or partner.

Based on the foregoing, there is nothing like single mother among the host of women/ladies who never married officially but have children from men of their choice. The fact that a woman has given birth to children means she has had a spouse or partner. And, quite often, those partners are very much around the corner still “servicing” the so-called “single mothers.”

I would like to clarify that a divorced or separated lady is not in this category. Such ladies are recognised by society as divorced or separated. But as for the free women who prefer not to get married but would like to have children from any man of their choice, they are better referred to as ‘unclassified mother. ’ This is a better nomenclature under marital status than free woman, which might be offensive.

As civilisation goes haywire under the post modernisation information age, age-long cherished family values are discarded. Today, there are no less than eight gender classifications over and above the traditional male and female genders. We now have lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (transsexual) (LGBT) subcultures. A man who has changed his sex to a woman might have a child and would like to be addressed as “single mother”!

As lots of women and even men would prefer to have children without getting married in the traditional way, it is important to understand that none of these people can rightly be called “single mother” or “single father”, so long as they have had a spouse or partner.

10 Point Recipe For Getting Along With People

By Dr. Mike Omotosho

My 10-point recipe for getting along with people :

A. Learn to remember people's names .

B. Be someone who is easy to get along with.

C. Guard against the impression that you know it all.

D. Acquire an easy going nature , so that things don't ruffle you.

E. Cultivate the quality of being interesting. -

F. Study to get the "scratchy" features out of your personality.

G. Drain off your grievances and heal your misunderstandin
gs.

H. Practice liking people until you genuinely do .

I. Never miss a chance to praise people .

J. Give spiritual strength to people and they'll give genuine affection back.

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Hypocrisy Of The Kano Puritans

Kano, the ancient commercial nerve of northern Nigeria, home to the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote and the finest politicians this country has ever seen, the likes of Abubakar Rimi, Aminu Kano and Maitama Sule “danmasaninkano” just to mention but a few.

This great city with all of its impeccable historical antecedents, part of which earned it the nickname “tumbingiwa” (the huge elephant), has struggled to live up to its full potential. Its groundnut pyramids have gone extinct, it’s once thriving hides and skin industry has gone comatose, its numerous industries have become residential estates for the elite and its tye and dye heritage has been reduced to a few pages on historical books taught in a few secondary schools.

As governments, civil society and social entrepreneurs strive to take Kano back to its glory days, a few clerics, overly vocal with antiquated ideas and little apprehension of the city’s potential have become marine drill sergeants barking orders to a gullible populace. These clerics (usually in the minority but seem to have the loudest voices) are bereaved of tangible ideas capable of advancing the lives of people but will stick a clog in wheel of any meaningful and progressive initiative. Their often repugnant and conquistadorial messages have been the chief instigator of many crises that have claimed innocent lives over the years.

To think that these puritans will galvanise public action against a film village capable of creating 4500 jobs but lose their voice to the devastating hunger of children in northern Nigeria particularly those in IDP camps, the millions of almajiris helplessly roaming the streets of Kano or the alarming maternal mortality rate in the north is simply beyond me. Their argument is that the film village will encourage immoral sexual activities and promote the abuse of hard drugs, perhaps, a visit to sabon-gari in Kano will only show how legendary their hypocrisy is. Without the risk of sounding grandiloquent, their ‘monafiki’ is vintage. According to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Kano has the highest drug abuse rate based on number of seizures, arrests of addicts and convictions of arrested dealers.It might also interest you to know that Kano has the highest divorce rate in the country to the extent that the state has to organise and pay for mass weddings to reduce the backlog.

These puritans were vehemently against the fight against polio which was clearly ravaging the society with hundreds of thousands of children losing the use of their hands and feet. They stirred up series of propaganda about the polio vaccines and discouraged parents from having their children inoculated. Imagine the millions of children whose lives will have been dead on arrival if the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and Dangote were not brave and passionate enough to have followed through with the project to eradicate polio. Those clerics should hide their face in shame today knowing that polio in Kano is no more.

It was Ghannouchi the leader of the Islamic party in Tunisia who uttered the following words “we want religious activity to be completely independent from political activity. This is good for politicians because they will no longer be accused of manipulating religion for political means and good for religion because it will not be held hostage to politics”. Morocco, another Muslim nation has tourism representing a key segment of its economic outlook. In 2013, the sector contributed 17.2 billion dollars representing 18.7 percent of the total GDP. When many Muslim nations, like the UAE, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and a host of others are opening their doors to the world and separating religion from politics or socio economic development, Kano state under a secular nation seeks to shut its doors to global trends and advancements ostensibly for religious purposes championed by hypocritical puritans.

These guys were so blind to the fact that a film village hands them a fantastic tool for societal engineering and to shape behaviour. They were so blinded by hypocrisy that they missed out on an opportunity to export ideas, culture and even their religious beliefs via the film village.

I rest my case with the words of my friend and professor of Islamic studies at the Bayero University Kano (but won’t have me mention his name) who opened his Ramadan lecture in 2011, after returning from the United States on a brief trip. “I have been to a non-Islamic country and I have seen real Muslims, I am back to a highly Islamic state and have not found true Muslims”.

It is time these puritans stopped holding us hostage. ‘Allah yataimaka’.

Ayodele Adio a social critic, wrote from Lagos

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Nigeria’s Journey To A New Low

By Ayo Oyoze Baje |

Your leaders have no respect for their people.
They believe that their personal interests are the interests of the people.
They take people’s resources and turn them into personal wealth.
There is a level of poverty in Nigeria that should be unacceptable.
-Nelson Mandela

The statistics are simply scary. I mean the inexcusable social inequality and injustice in my dear fatherland, Nigeria. These are characterised by the pervasive poverty level, the irredeemably corrupt, conscienceless, kleptomaniac ruling elite; blindly driven by the greed for personal gains and of course, the grinding wheels of the acquiescent and ignorant led majority.

Looked at the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a summary rule for assessing long-term progress in the three basic dimensions of human development, there is nothing to write home about. The three key areas of long-term healthy life, access to knowledge and decent standard of living paint a parlous picture of pure deprivation of the long-suffering masses.

For instance, Nigeria’s HDI for 2014 stood at 0.514, putting the country among the lowest in the low developing category. In fact, Nigeria placed 152 out of the 188 countries and territories so assessed. And it was the only oil-producing country languishing in that shameful socio-economic stratum. Also, according to the 2015 HD Report Work for Human Development for 188 countries assessed by the United Nations, life expectancy index was 0.44, education index was 0.59 while the GDP index and HDI value were placed at 0.36 and 0.466 respectively.

Furthermore, between 2005 and 2014 Nigeria’s HDI value rose from 0.467 to 0.514 (10.1%) an average of 1.07%.When the value is discounted for inequality the HDI falls to 0.320, a loss of 37.8 % due to inequality in the distribution of HDI dimension indices. Sadly, Nigeria sordid social inequality was comparable to that of Ethiopia and Congo (DR) at 29.4% and 36.2 % respectively.

Do not be confounded by these figures. What all these translate to is that there is hunger in the land. Incidentally, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo not too long ago admitted that about 110 million Nigerians were still living below poverty line despite the policies of past governments to improve their welfare. His reason was that the policies were wrongly formulated and as a result did not have direct impact on the people. Said he: “When you look at the economic and social policies, and you look at the level of illiteracy in parts of the country, some are extremely bad and some with cases of about 80% or 90% of children out of school, and other cases of unimaginable decayed infrastructure.” According to him, “governments have not been accountable to the people, otherwise policies should have roots in the real conditions of the people.” He aired his view during a courtesy visit by members of the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), at the State House, Abuja. But Nigerians want their leaders to walk the talk.

Between May and July 2016 inflation rate galloped from 13.7% to 15.6%. Compared to that of South Africa of 6.3 %, Republic of Niger of 2.3 %, Zimbabwe of -1% and Mali of -0.4% there is nothing to cheer about. And all that is because the dynamics of consumables and essential needs such as food, kerosene, transportation, housing and utilities. The reason is the close correlation which exists between fuel hike and inflation. Nigerians may have endured it all in their characteristic legendary resilience but the sudden hike in fuel price from about N97 to N145 per litre has had deleterious effects on the quality of life of the average Nigerian. As it happened in Venezuela so it did in Nigeria.

One had expected that the political helmsmen of the current administration would concentrate much more energy on re-jigging the economy coming at a time of the free fall of oil prices in the international market. We had admonished Mr. President back in 2015 to assemble a team of top technocrats and seasoned economists, who know their onions; irrespective of their political or religious persuasions and be ready to listen to them. But that was never done.

As usual the tightening of monetary policies has led to devaluation of the naira. Since we do not produce or export much of home-grown products, importers would spend more naira to the dollar. With insurgency in the North-East, which has led to food shortages in addition to hike in the price of farm products, a recycling of economic policies will not get us out of the wood. Our policy makers should think out of the box. We need foreign exchange for industrialisation. We should stop transferring our economic fortunes to foreign hands. We need to revisit the policy of liberalisation and the social benefits of privatisation.

And of greater significance is the need to critically address the obscenely high cost of accessing political power as well as running the machinery of government. The governors and the legislators should come to terms with the harsh economic realities and tread the path of frugality as President Buhari has amply demonstrated so as to become true servant leaders as late President Umaru Yar’ Adua advocated. With another steamy soap opera of the alleged budget padding fiasco playing itself out at the House of Representatives, while the Sarakigate is still rolling, it is obvious, as one has identified back in 2001 that here in Nigeria, corruption has many colours. It does not belong to any political party, ethnic group or religious belief.

Our political leaders should therefore, reflect on the wise counsel of the Nigeria Democratic Liberty Forum, NDLF, New York (June, 2010):

“While other nations are faced with the challenges of the 21st Century, we are bogged down by the avarice of the elite. Every time we believe we have seen the worst from our country, the shameless, opportunistic power grabbers take us back to a new low.”

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