The House of Representatives’ committees on Justice and Aviation on Thursday submitted a 12-page report on the grounding of Bombardier B700 Global Express (N565RS) said to belong to the Rivers State Government. Those looking for a neutral and objective report on this highly politicized issue should look elsewhere. Otherwise, they will be thoroughly disappointed. Instead of providing clarity and closure, the report throws up critical questions, especially on the motives and the credibility of the committees and the House itself.

The first give-away of possible partisanship and of a potentially predictable outcome was embedded in the motion that gave rise to the mandate of the committees. In his motion of 30 April 2013, Hon. Ahmed Idris urged the House to investigate the grounding of the aircraft because the House was concerned that: “this incident raises serious concerns as to the abuse of powers by the Executive and the use of state machinery to witch-hunt perceived political opponents which is extremely dangerous and detrimental to any democracy and tends towards dictatorship and draconian tendencies typical of military era.” (Emphasis mine). 

The failure to qualify and even disguise words such “abuse of powers by the Executive,” “use of state machinery to witch-hunt perceived political opponents” clearly foreshadowed the outcome that was delivered on Thursday. One should be forgiven for thinking that a motion that proceeded with such a prejudiced mindset could be nothing else but a choreographed attempt to work to a preferred answer. If one wants to be charitable, this failure to properly clothe the hidden agenda could be excused on the grounds of inelegance in wording. But the way some members of the committee conducted themselves during the public hearing and the serial damage done to fairness and logic in their final report suggested that the report itself could have been written at the same time with the motion, and that the public hearing was just a tendentious shopping for details, a thinly veiled attempt at fulfilling all righteousness.

At this point some disclosure is in order. I have followed this issue closely and I attended the hearing organized by the committees on 14 May 2013 as a consultant to one of the invited parties, Caverton Helicopters. Despite my initial misgivings but more on account of the huge respect I used to have for some principal officers of the House, I was ready to give the committees the benefit of the doubt. But the proceedings gave little ground for such optimism as it was clear that some of the members had made up their minds even before listening to the invited parties. One member kept interrupting invitees whose testimonies did not further the sexed-up narrative of political prosecution. Another member famously staged a walkout on account of being angry. And yet another member kept making side remarks and issuing veiled and open threats of possible prosecution. Meanwhile, no one posed any tough question to the Rivers’ delegation or asked any member of the delegation to substantiate any of their claims. It was more than an easy ride for the Rivers’ crew.

Now that the committees have done their job, it is time to ask them some questions based on the simple premise that as our representatives they are, in theory at least, put in that position to  act on behalf of their individual constituencies and all Nigerian citizens, not just for themselves and their allies.

Let’s start with the not so tiny matter of how a commissioner in Rivers State sent a scanned copy of the report out to some journalists by 9.16 am on Thursday 23 May 2013 when the House did not commence seating until around 11am that day. This suggests that the Rivers government had copies of the report before it was officially laid before the House. Is it customary for reports of the House to be given to parties involved in a case before it is presented to plenary? Were other parties involved (the Ministry of Aviation and its agencies and Caverton Helicopters) provided copies too? How did Rivers get a copy? Is this ethical legislative conduct? What does that say about the credibility of the report? And of the good names of the committees and the House?

Two, Rivers State Government was curiously given a clean bill of health on all issues, including the egregious one of flying a plane with expired flight clearance. The last and disputed clearance that the plane secured had expired on 2 April 2013. Because foreign planes are allowed two days of grace, this means it was illegal for the plane to fly the Nigerian airspace from 4 April 2013. Throughout the hearing no one asked the Rivers State delegation why a state government (a custodian of law) was flying a plane illegally a clear two weeks after expiration of its flight permit. Rather, the committee turned the heat on the regulators for not doing their jobs properly. But if such allegation of regulatory laxity could be treated as fair, wait for item #10 under Observations and Conclusions on page 10 of the report: “Rivers State operated its aircraft with expired clearance between 2^nd and 26^th of April 2013; but several other aircraft are suspected to be in similar situation; isolation of Rivers State Government for reprimand becomes difficult to deny.” (Emphasis mine).

Wow, wow, wow! This is not even the excuse by the Rivers State Government. It doesn’t have to bother: the committees will shop for excuses for it. If we break this apologia down for people who went to night school like myself, this is what it means: someone caught committing a crime can claim s/he is being witch-hunted because others have not been caught. If you need a lame justification for impunity, you can’t get a worse one. And to think that such justification for breaking laws is coming from an institution that is charged with making laws for society. What?

On a related matter, the pilot failed to write all the names of the occupants of the plane when its take-off was delayed in Akure on 26 April 2013. The pilot wrote only the name of the governor, the titles of his aides and “five others.” During the hearing, the pilot of the plane Capt. Tosin Odulaja agreed his co-pilot erred. But what do the committees have to say about this infraction? “This is clearly contrary to the regulation. However the committee established that several other manifests previously filed by the captain constantly mentioned one name only, “Rotimi Amaechi,” and there was never a recorded delayed start up on that account before the Akure event.”(Emphasis mine). In desperate pursuit of the persecution narrative, the committee seems unable to make up its mind. After stating that failure to fill out manifest with all names in full is contrary to regulation, the committees supplants itself by vending an excuse that what is contrary to regulation shouldn’t be a big issue because it wasn’t objected to in the past. God Almighty, what kind of logic is that?

In the second of their five recommendations, the committees called on the Attorney-General of the Federation to consider prosecuting Caverton Helicopters “for providing information that led the authorities to believe that Rivers State Government falsified documents thereby leading to grounding of its aircraft.” Even when this call is merely advisory, it is important to know how the committee arrived at such a weighty recommendation.

For the purpose of those who have not been following this issue closely, Caverton Helicopters was contacted by ACASS, a Canadian firm, to apply for permission to import a plane for Rivers State Government in 2012. On the basis of this, the company sent a request to the Minister of Aviation on 27^th August 2012. However, ACASS later informed Caverton Helicopters to stay action since it was no longer in charge of the aircraft. Caverton Helicopters said that was the last dealing it has on the aircraft. However, the company later discovered that since January this year several applications had been filed in its name to request for flight permits for the foreign registered aircraft to fly within Nigeria, the last of which expired on 2 April 2013. The company insists that these requests for flight permits for the aircraft were forged. Rivers State Government insists it was Caverton that the requests were not forged.

There have been spirited attempts to create a side narrative as an adjunct to the persecution narrative by saying pressure was put on Caverton Helicopters to deny the Rivers State Government and to conflate request for importation with request for flight permits. The two are not, and cannot be, the same. As far back as February this year, the pilot of the aircraft confirmed to Eurocontol, an over-flight agency, that Caverton Helicopters had nothing to do with the aircraft and that all bills should be sent to him. A clear two months after, the pilot and his employers are changing their story. Despite all the information made available to it, the committees through their report claim that there is agency relationship between Caverton Helicopters and Rivers State, without any shred of evidence, and giving the impression that if the company wrote a letter of request on 27 August 2012, it also wrote the subsequent ones. The company has challenged the Rivers State Government to provide evidence of any contract, any mandate, and any payment to it for the said services. Or would a private company have provided services to it for free and without documentation?

Essentially this is an issue of claim and counter-claim by two parties, and one that warrants thorough investigation. But without doing more than listening to two opposing accounts, without conducting independent investigations, without calling in forensic experts and security agencies to examine the issue of forgery, the committees declare, ex-cathedra: “if there was falsification, it was indeed not carried out by Rivers State Government….” (Emphasis mine). The Rivers State Government couldn’t have written it better! Pray, except by special oracular insight, how did the committees arrive at this conclusion upon which they built their recommendation for prosecution? Can partisanship descend to lower depths?

*Adio is the lead consultant at Think-Tank Consult and Publisher of Metropole magazine 

Chief Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, let me start with a Yoruba proverb that states: if it takes a man 20 years to prepare for madness when is he going to develop full-blown lunacy by biting the trees? This ancient adage is very relevant to the message I have for you today. I’m reasonably convinced that we have completed our 20-year cycle of preparing for insanity and we are almost ready to explode and go stark raving mad into the streets except a miracle happens. Those who doubt this analysis and prediction should cool temper and read me through. It is pertinent to remind us of how we meandered our way into this mess since History is not one of our favourite or compulsory subjects.
I intend to demonstrate that nothing has changed in 20 years to convince me that our politicians have learnt any lessons. Sadly the same politicians that created monumental problems at the time are back at their game. For them life begins and ends with being in power not just for the fun of it but because it represents the surest path by which they can gluttonly enrich themselves. It is a game they enjoy at the expense of their compatriots because they do not care even if most Nigerians perish in the process of their power struggle. The time has come to tell the story again with the hope it will help us prepare for the challenges ahead. The Jonathan-Amaechi debacle in particular should be situated in our contemporary history.
On June 12, 1993, Nigerians united for the first time to vote for a Presidential candidate with true national appeal. That mystical election remains in the spiritual realm till this day going by all indices. Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the generalissimo of Yorubaland, was locked in a contest with Alhaji Bashir Tofa from the populous and groundnut city of Kano.  Abiola was a candidate of the Social Democratic Party while Tofa was the candidate of the National Republican Party, an establishment candidate, so to say. Abiola’s party was not as formidable as that of Tofa, or so it seemed. Abiola’s party had fewer Governors to Tofa’s. Tofa’s party was an offshoot  of the old National Party of Nigeria which collapsed under the blistering coup of Generals MuhammaduBuhari and Babatunde Idiagbon. It was that coup that first launched the then Colonel Sani Abacha into national attention and prominence.
Abiola had a hell of a fight on his hands and a Mount Everest to climb if he must achieve his presidential dream and actualise his ambition. His first battle was how he was going to secure the ticket of his political party. He had such men of timber and calibre like Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to beat in the SDP primaries. Now try to picture the fact that Kingibe was already a seasoned politician and Chairman of the party SDP while AtikuAbubakar was a sizzling upcoming politician and the anointed godson of Katsina’s Al Capone, Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. To compound Abiola’s headache, Kingibe enjoyed the overwhelming and unflinching support of the SDP Governors who called the shots at the time like some of the ones we have around today.
I was a witness to the battle of the titans in Jos and saw how Abiola and his team held endless meetings and negotiated compulsory deals with the powerful men of that period. Abiola kept wakeful days and sleepless nights trying to broker agreements with different Mafia dons here and there. It was a sacrifice he had to make for the sake of democracy in Nigeria. When asked why he had to subject himself to such ordeal just for the sake of becoming a President especially when he was already bigger in stature than most African leaders, his response was that he had realised the impossibility of banishing poverty from the lives of most Nigerians with his humongous personal fortune. But he was ready to redistribute the common wealth of Nigerians for the general need of the people than for the personal greed of a few. He believed that it would take a personality like him who was already generously endowed with wealth by God to embark on such re-distribution. This was in effect some form of reparation, an international crusade which he spearheaded. As a disciple, I believed totally in his sincerity. Abiola probably spent more money daily than he ever made. He was never shy of touching the lives of everyone, everywhere and at everytime.
Abiola’s legendary generosity would come in handy in 1993. His fame had spread across continents like an ocean and he needed no introduction to most people anywhere he went.  Indeed, his incursion into politics was supposed to have been payback time for him. Even then, it was not a rosy ride. His epic journey was bumpy all the way and he was forced by circumstances to navigate through shark-infested waters. He managed to persuade General Yar’Adua to get Atiku Abubakar to step down. The next hurdle was to convince the omnipotent Governors that he was a better candidate to lead the party and not Sai Baba, Kingibe. That was very tough because he was supposed to compensate Atiku Abubakar whose magnanimity gave him a slight edge in the race. The Governors, I wonder where they all are today, also insisted he must pick their man, Kingibe after Abiola had obtained the party ticket.
It was a state of anomie as Abiola had thought he was going to pick a Northern Christian as his running made. The controversy was so combustive that Abiola couldn’t announce his Vice Presidential candidate even as he flagged off his campaign in Kaduna. He had earlier assured his media team of which I was a member that he was going to announce a Christian candidate until we suddenly received the shocking news from his wife Dr Doyinsola Hamidat Abiola that he’d been forced to eat humble pie by those who wanted Kingibe and a Muslim as Vice President. This decision threw our camp into total commotion. The media team comprising of Dele Alake, Segun Babatope, Tunji Bello and company had the unenviable task of defending a Muslim-Muslim ticket in a country where religion was always a volatile issue. I remember a former Governor of the old Ondo State, Pa Adekunle Ajasin, telling Abiola that the Muslim-Muslim concoction was like murdering Jesus Christ a second time but Abiola doused the boiling tension by jocularly remarking that he was not in Calvary.
We climaxed Abiola’s marathon campaign with the launch of the works of Drs Yemi Ogunbiyi and Chidi Amuta on June 9, 1993. I left Nigeria later that evening for Vienna, Austria, where the gadfly Chief Abdul-Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, the quintessential symbol of radicalism and advocacy in Nigeria was billed to receive the Bruno Kreisky Award for Human Rights on June 11, 1993. Abiola had sent me with a congratulatory letter to Chief Fawehinmi. I was in Vienna from June 10 to 12 when I left for London but tried to monitor developments in our dear country. By June 13, all available reports indicated a clear lead for Abiola in the presidential race.Nothing could have prepared me for what would happen in the next 48 hours.
I had managed to reach Mr Nduka Obaigbena on June 14, two days after the election. Our relationship had always been close and exciting. In 1992, I was the founding Editor of his Leaders & Company which gave birth to THISDAY. The decision of Abiola to go into politics would separate us but not sever our cordial association. I followed Abiola while he followed Bashir Tofa but we remained in constant touch. In reality, we were both close to Abiola but it was in the nature of politics to drive a wedge between associates. Nduka wasted no time in telling me to reach Abiola as quickly as possible because he heard from impeccable sources that some powerful cabal were mounting pressure on President Babangida not to hand over power to Abiola. I politely told Nduka to perish the thought as it was practically impossible for anyone to contemplate such a dastardly act. But Nduka was right while I was wrong.
Our biggest error was in under-estimating what desperate and despicable people could do. No one would have thought it was possible to throw one’s child away with the bath water. When I told Chief Fawehinmi what I had heard, after he joined me in London later that day, he thought I was hallucinating. He said he was ready to die in prison if such a thing ever happened. Sadly there are no longer many principled people like Gani Fawehinmi around these days.

As always, the ubiquitous, but negligible, members of the cabal thought themselves wiser than the rest of us. They had to decide for us like parents treat their kindergarten kids. Eventually, the election was annulled in a most savage manner. And all hell broke loose with its ashes sprinkling all across our land. A nation of peace became a country of perennial pestilence. A land overflowing with milk and honey became a famished wasteland. The cabal simply moved on to plot fresh evil and abandoned President Babangida to bear the cross alone. As a man of military training and discipline, he has not been able to spill the beans and tell the whole world why such a beautiful baby had to be mercilessly murdered at childbirth.
It is a big lesson for all of us. The leaders of today would soon understand the futility of playing God. Some of the actors of those days are still very much around. They are not only in government; they are fully entrenched in power. And they have no intention of allowing others steer the wheel of our common destiny.
As I write this, on a long haul flight, the intrigues are brewing in Abuja. The brewers are tearing at themselves over transient power. Those who had always misled men of power are erecting a masterpiece of confusion. The President’s men want him to prove his manhood by killing off a Governor. They are beating their tam-tam drum of war and setting the whole nation carelessly onfire as prodigals do. It is obvious they will not back off until they seek and receive their pound of flesh from a man they see as a recalcitrant child.
Someone should please educate us sincerely on what President Goodluck Jonathan stands to gain if he succeeds in annihilating whatever imaginary ambition he thinks Governor Rotimi Amaechi has. Those accusing Amaechi of arrogance for simply exercising his rights are not being charitable. It is always in the character of confident and opinionated people to have the toga of pride wrapped around them by less confident people. While growing up, the greatest attack against Chief Obafemi Awolowo was that of haughtiness. It was when I started reading his highly cerebral works that I understood why his crucifixion was a priority for his enemies.
In my view, Rotimi Amaechi’s battles and travails are necessary for our Federalism to germinate and grow. It is a fight for all believers of the democratic process because no one has a monopoly of ambition. No one should coerce him into abandoning his own dreams just because the gods are angry. The Governors who want to be seen as being close to the President are making a total mess of our fledgling democracy by heating up the polity unnecessarily. If 36 Governors cannot conduct a free and fair election, then we are in bigger trouble than we ever imagined.
Mr President should remember the story of June 12, 1993. When tomorrow comes he will bear his cross alone because the gladiators would have moved on to new suitors.

Chido Onumah

“Indiscipline pervades our life so completely that one may be justified in calling it the condition par excellence of contemporary Nigerian society”- Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria.

Prof. Chinua Achebe, literary giant, celebrated author, humanist and patriot par excellence, who was buried yesterday, was Nigeria’s gift to Africa, and indeed, the world. Like most people, I first encountered Achebe through his numerous books before I met him in person. I shall return to the unforgettable encounter with him four years ago.

Anywhere you go around the world, there are certain things about Nigeria that feature prominently in conversations with those who want to know about the country: corruption, the various forms of advance fee fraud or 419 as it is known locally, ethnic/religious strife, football – when Eagles were really super, and of course, Chinua Achebe or Things Fall Apart, the literary classic that has sold millions of copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages.

A decade ago, I was in the tiny Caribbean Island of Haiti where I had gone to work with and report on people living with the dreaded HIV/AIDS. Amongst the first persons I met in the rundown capital, Port-au-Prince, was a Haitian dentist. Immediately I introduced myself as a Nigerian journalist, the first question he asked, to my utter surprise, was “Do you know Agbani Darego?” I had been away from Nigeria for some time and did not know much about Miss Darego (Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, 2001) though I had read a report of her being the first Black African to be crowned Miss World in 2001.

I answered my interlocutor in the affirmative. He gushed about how beautiful Miss Darego was and Nigerian women were in general. He said he had met a few while studying dentistry in the US. Next question, Chinua Achebe. Of course I knew Achebe. I had read Things Fall Apart, but had not met its celebrated author. My friend then went on to tell me his Things Fall Apart story.

I have had many such encounters, the latest being during a study tour of Kenya in June 2012. It is mark of the greatness of Achebe and the impact of his literary prowess. There are a few Nigerians I grew up admiring. Achebe was one of them. The others being the literary genius, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the iconoclast Prof Chinweizu, and my ideological mentor, Dr. Edwin Madunagu. I read most of their work and followed their activities closely.

For some reason, in my young mind, I felt Achebe was not “political” enough. Then I read The Trouble with Nigeria. It reminded me of my political bible, The Communist Manifesto. You could read it a million times over and it would appear fresh each time because of its eternal verities. Achebe believed in Nigeria. That much was evident in his statement that, “There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else”.

However, Achebe did not let his love for Nigeria blind him to the fact that, “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth”.

Three decades after Achebe wrote those words, Nigeria remains a country adrift, a soulless nation where rulers pervert justice and babies are bought and sold like commodities. Today, ethnic bigots, religious zealots and all manner of charlatans and imbeciles bestride our political, economic and social space.

Four years ago, my organisation, the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy, launched a project titled “Make Your Votes Count” as part of efforts to conscientize Nigerians, particularly our youth, on the need for active participation in the electoral process by voting and protecting their votes. We had gotten permission from some of the personalities we used in the promotional posters and banners, including Profs. Wole Soyinka and Pat Utomi. We needed to get in touch with Prof. Achebe whose image we had also used.

So when I received information that Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, was hosting the first ever Achebe Colloquium on Africa in December, 2009, I went in search of Achebe. I arrived New York City in early December 2009, in a whirlwind tour of the US which took me to Washington DC, Maryland, Boston and Providence, to promote our project. That was when the Turai Yar’Adua cabal in Nigeria was running amok.

Omoyele Sowore, the irrepressible publisher of Saharareporters.com hosted me. An interview at Saharareporters’ studios was followed by a joint interview on the situation in Nigeria at the National Public Radio (NPR). I left Sowore to pursue my other programmes. We connected again at Boston’s Logan International Airport a few days later on our way to the Achebe Colloquium.

We were joined in the one hour drive from Boston to Providence by Prof. Richard Joseph, the John Evans Professor of International History and Politics at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.  Known as the “father of prebendalism”, Prof Joseph, an expert on African governance, political economy, and democratization, was at one time a lecturer in political
science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Expectedly, our discussion focused on the situation in Nigeria; how a country with so much promise had been brought to it knees because of bad leadership. I arrived the Achebe Colloquium with so much foreboding. I didn’t know if I would be able to see Achebe and present my “gift”. I shared my apprehension with a former schoolmate, E.C. Osondu, an assistant professor of literature and resident of Providence who said he felt Achebe would like the poster we made in his honour.  I also talked to Sowore who agreed to introduce me to one of Achebe’s sons, Chidi. As it turned out, my worry was misplaced.

The introduction done, Chidi, who obviously was impressed with what I wanted to share with his famous father, asked me to wait for an opportunity to approach Achebe once the crowd around him had thinned out. Getting the crowd around Achebe to ease off was not going to be an easy task, but I was prepared to wait. Prof. Soyinka, Achebe’s archenemy in the eyes of “literary hustlers and motor-park intellectuals”, walked in and exchanged pleasantries with Prof. Achebe who was in a wheelchair at the back of the hall. Other dignitaries followed as participants trickled in.

I did eventually get a chance to introduce myself and my mission to Prof. Achebe. I told him how honoured we were to have his words and image as one of the faces of our electoral project. I presented the colourful posters to him and just as I was thinking of the right words to convey our apology for not seeking his permission, he looked up at me and in a measured tone said, “I like this. I’ll keep it”. I handed him extra copies which he placed on the table in front of him. He talked briefly about why we needed to get our electoral process right. I was elated. Of course, I didn’t miss the photo opportunity, a request Achebe graciously granted. I knew how busy he was and I did not want to abuse the privilege. Mission accomplished, I took my seat amongst other participants.

The 2009 Achebe Colloquium on Africa with the theme “A Nation in Crisis and the Urgency of National Reform” was well attended and a huge success. Nigerians at the event included Prof. Okey Ndibe, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra State, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, VC, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State and Emeka Ihedioha, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. The communiqué at the end of the Colloquium noted that “elections in Nigeria have become progressively worse in quality over the years, and that this fact has gravely affected the country’s international strategic significance”.

I left the Achebe Colloquium fulfilled. Achebe was a dogged fighter. He taught us courage, sacrifice and optimism even in the face of adversity; he taught us love for country, not in the manner our rulers have debased the term and made us a laughing stock around the world. We should, therefore, celebrate Achebe in death rather than mourn him. While celebrating Achebe, we need to discover “where the rain started beating us” as a nation. We need to have a genuine and peaceful national dialogue which Achebe so eloquently espoused rather than the current monologue of threats and bombs.

I was thinking of approaching Achebe to write a blurb for my new book, Nigeria is Negotiable, when I received the news of his death. For Nigeria, Africa and humanity in general, Achebe’s death is a huge loss. It is sad that many of those whom Achebe had nothing but contempt for while he was alive for the way they desecrated our nation are the ones crying loudest and lining the streets to honour him in death.

My utmost hope is that nobody will mourn all those who have brought us to this sad end; those who make our women die at childbirth and children from preventable diseases; those who have turned our young men to drug addicts, kidnappers, militants and terrorists and our young women to victims of the sex trade.

For those who have made a vocation of “explaining” why Achebe was not awarded the Nobel Prize and diminishing him in the process, I have just three words: shame on you.

—————————————————————————————————-

Chido Onumah is the Coordinator, African Centre for Media & Information Literacy, and writes from Abuja. conumah@hotmail.com

“I also don’t believe in drugs. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn’t do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, ‘I have powders; if you put up three, four thousand dollar investment, we can make fifty thousand distributing.’ So they can’t resist.”  — Don Zaluchi in The Godfather.

The default state of the human being is to be lazy. It’s that simple really. Why work hard if you can get the same rewards doing nothing? Or next to nothing. Thus it is that when you are in a position of relative trust, all sorts of characters will approach you and make you offers that you can’t refuse. Offers such as a nice cut from almost 2kg of crack worth about N180 millions…
There are only two known ways to keep that kind of laziness/poverty/greed/whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it at bay, and those are either the death penalty, or a verrrrrrrrry long holiday.
Still on the theme of laziness/poverty/greed/whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it, in Owode, Ogun state, to pay his kids’ school fees, Agboola Kolawole, aged 40, took the skulls of 4 of his relatives who no longer needed them and sold each for N8 thousands. More reason for me to be cremated when I’m gone eh?
Bits and bobs
No one can accuse pastors of laziness. In this Op Ed on YNaija, Victor Ikeji attempts to analyse the church’s aggressive drive for customers.
Hakeem Ogunniran has been awarded N5 millions by a Lagos court based on the emotional trauma caused by Air Nigeria’s negligence. Here’s hoping that this will open the door for more suits against them and other airlines in Nigeria who regularly cause people trauma “due to operational reasons”.
According to the Vanguard, the NGF may soon have two chairmen as a result of “subterranean moves” by the Prez. Yes, you read right, and I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Meanwhile, in a nation at war, it has emerged that Oo Nwoye was dead right. Libyan weapons found their way to our shores.
Right of reply
Chris wrote,
I have issues with your evasive approach to issues.generally. Please don’t sound like el rufai or take a sophist bent. You polarize ur view points simply based by points raised. Take a concrete stand sometimes, after all Newspapers Editorials boldly do that
Chxta responds,
The only reason I put this here is so that hopefully someone would send this to Uncle Nasir. It’s kinda interesting to learn that he has an evasive approach to issues. Generally. And polarises his view points simply based by points raised. And doesn’t take a concrete stand sometimes as newspaper editorials boldly do.
Orhie Oddiri wrote,
There is NO JUSTIFICATION WHATSOEVER for the terror, mayhem and carnage Boko Haram is unleashing on this country. I don’t care if they murdered their leader and their next of kin.
Is that the right response to perceived hurt inflicted on one’s person? Is it ok for the families of kidnap victims to take guns, go into the forest and slaughter everyone in there? Is it ok for the militants in the Niger-Delta to vandalise pipelines because they believe the Niger-Delta has been marginalised?
You’re condoning vigilanteism and worse. You yourself once said that the response to the Fulani herdsmen was not to drive them away from Delta, but to report whatever grievances they have. That’s what should have happened in the case of Boko Haram.

Chxta responds,
Err, I don’t remember justifying the terror, mayhem and carnage that #BokoHaram used to unleash (they have been put to bed now). What I pointed out is that when you fail to address the root causes of a problem, and consistently leave a group or groups with a sense of unjust treatment, there is a very high possibility that they will eventually take up arms to get “justice” for themselves.
I believe that I have given examples in previous write ups.
Yusuf Sani wrote,
If a country wants to grow, law and order must be where it should start from, unfortunately for us in Nigeria, that’s not the case. All of us who believes in Nigerian, let us use the next opportunity that will come our way in 2015 if at all it will come, to vote out the present government and hope for better days.
Chxta responds,
Yusuf, the first part of your statement I totally agree with. On the second part, our country will not improve simply by voting out the present government. To be honest, if the opposition fails to present a sensible candidate, then we would be on a hiding to nothing. The price of freedom/democracy is eternal vigilance. What we must learn to do is to watch our leaders regardless of who they are, and bring them to account regardless of what part of the country they hail from.

In his book on visionary leadership, Burt Nanus made an apt quote that pertinently captures what is currently happening in Nigeria’s aviation sector. Nanus wrote “there is no more powerful engine driving an organisation toward excellence and long range success than an attractive, worthwhile, achievable vision for the future, widely shared”.

For several years, the airports in Nigeria deteriorated into nothingness and became the poster of our collective shame. The worse of the lot of these critical aviation infrastructures were the smaller airport terminals –especially the ones erroneously referred to as unviable routes.  However all that is in the past now as all airports across the length and breadth of Nigeria are receiving the requisite attention irrespective of geography, most importantly strategic partnerships are being formed by stakeholders to ensure that their functionality is sustainable. They greatest strategic thinking however is the marriage of agriculture, aviation and commerce. The trio of these are set to transform the small holder farmer from a life of despondent subsistence farming to a life of reaping bountiful harvests of immense values for what was sown.

In the weeks building up to the commissioning of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu political naysayers whose stock in trade has become the onerous task of revisionism and re-writing the trends and transformation strides of the current government; they found it expedient, latched on the familiar band wagon of negativism that the airport commissioning and subsequent town hall was done strategically to gain and garner South Eastern votes in the coming 2015 elections. The subtle question however to these naysayers is that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is the President of Nigeria and as such since he has sworn to protect the integrity of the constitution, then it has become a mandamus to spread evenly the dividends of democracy.

As the President rightly pointed out, the South East Zone, as an industrial and business hub needs the requisite aviation infrastructure to function. No serious business region all over the world will overlook the imperativeness of air travel.

As he made to cut the ribbon, to launch the terminal and its facilities, the President, wearing the resplendent black Kaftan, adorned the ubiquitous red cap of pristine honour associated with nobility in the South East declared “I commission this airport terminal for the entire use of the region”. This statement typifies the present government’s commitment to further grow Enugu into a hub of air travel.

On completion, International Terminal has a total floor area of 25,000 square meters and the capacity to handle 500,000 passengers per annum. The entire project will cost 13.3 billion naira and it is expected that it will be completed within 24 months.

According to the Minister of Aviation, “the five terminals across the country are not the only elements of this transformation process; even before starting these five new projects we started remodelling all 22 current terminals in FAAN network. In fact, next week we will witness the commissioning of Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport Owerri Terminal and the Yola Airport Terminal”.

The transformation flight of the Ministry of Aviation of which the minister, Princess Stella Oduah, confessed that the President Jonathan is the motivator and inspiration is not done yet, the flight’s trajectory continues to transverse the length and breadth of the country, seeking to sustain the positive turning fortunes of the ministry. In the parochial and irrational thinking that sometimes pervades Africa it is often assumed that women cannot deliver when entrusted with the task of delivering dividends of democracy. However President Jonathan’s leap of faith by appointing several female ministers is paying off in sectors such as finance, housing, education and above all aviation. One doesn’t need to go far to see why Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah is referred to as the amazon. She is bequeathing diligent service and a robust functional aviation sector to Nigeria and Nigerians.

To the extent that freedom means the power to determine action without external regulation and religion refers to a set of beliefs and the practices associated with holding those beliefs, then there is no constitution anywhere in the world that can guarantee such a freedom. Statements purporting to recognize or guarantee the freedom of religion in this sense as a right of all citizens in whatever constitutional documents or international charters are in fact redundant verbiage that crumbles the moment you attempt to apply them in the real world.

It isn’t hard at all to see the hollowness of this guarantee; consider the fervour and total conviction with which Mal. Shekau, Reverend King and Baba Alakyo (the Ombatse Chief Priest) express their so called freedom of religion and it becomes instantly clear that the only thing that can in fact be guaranteed is freedom of belief. However, the moment that you contemplate such a guarantee, you should realize how pointless it is because you can’t prevent a man from believing as he chooses anyway.

However, once religion leaves our minds and enters the sphere where it starts to interact with others in the society, it is a self-evident truth that that aspect of religion must and will always be regulated. This is so because, while by nature many of the major religions of the world have a sizable number of coincident ideas, they are generally contradictory on fundamental points and ultimately mutually exclusive.

Importantly, religious contradiction and exclusivity is not merely inter-religious, there is a deep level of intra-religious contradiction and exclusivity across the world which often boils over into serious conflicts sometimes of international dimensions as the Irish Catholic /Protestant wars and global Shiite/Sunni conflicts amply demonstrate.

The inevitable result is that in a plural or multi-religious society, it becomes impossible to guarantee that all religious views and practices be upheld as rights since those views are generally not subject to debate and typically do not produce any sustainable consensus. No constitution anywhere for instance will guarantee Reverend King the right to conduct exorcism by burning ‘suspected witches’ because that right will instantly conflict with other principles that promote the peaceful coexistence of people in society.

While Reverend King is an extreme case it nevertheless illustrates the folly of the concept. However, there are more nuanced cases like the current issue of the regulation of the use of Hijab in Lagos public schools. One can understand the angst of the Muslim population that a practice as harmless (and possibly helpful) as trying to cover your body as modesty might suggest can become an issue but as I asked a few friends while discussing the matter, are Muslims willing to consider and extend the same right to dress in religion mandated clothing to the child of a herbalist who wants to come to school in a tattered red jacket, studded with cowries and splattered with chicken blood and feathers?

I think not!

Therefore, I find it somewhat curious when someone in Nigeria decides to self-righteously push the genuine cause of  Palestinians half way across the world because they are his ‘brothers’ but sees absolutely nothing wrong with his next door neighbour being denied rights (to build a place of worship for instance) in his own country simply because he believes differently. Also, isn’t it a tad hypocritical to rant about religious discrimination being meted out to the New York Muslim community when some tried to stop the building of a mosque near ground zero while also having zero opinion about the fact that no other religious group is allowed to build a place of worship in Saudi-Arabia or even be seen with any sort of religious emblem other than Islamic ones? Or be required to pay a special tax (Jizya) for being an ‘unbeliever’? Or any of the long list of discriminatory laws that apply to non-Muslims in that bastion of Islam.

Nevertheless, it must be conceded that religion can be a force for good and although I know many who will disagree, I am convinced that without ideas of morality drawn from religious beliefs, society will inevitably go down a slippery road to anarchy. Now it is important to not lose the opportunity that this Hijab saga offers us as a nation to think and talk about how we can preserve some level of morality in our society without trying to overtly legislate our religious opinions.

One critical obstacle that we need to scale to have an effective dialogue is to realize that it is impractical to expect that understanding can be reached if any one group believes that their religious views are the standard of morality that must willy-nilly be accepted as state policy especially as those opinions are even still hotly contested within their own small religious group. While I as a Christian for instance believe that the Bible (as can be gleaned in the verses following) enjoins me to respect all civic rules, and where those rules conflict with the law of God be ready for acts of civil disobedience and to embrace the attendant punishment that the civic rules prescribe, there is a valid and fundamental question of whether other religious groups are similarly willing to be subject to civic rules and where they disagree, submit themselves to the prescribed penalties rather than take up arms against the society and state in ‘self defence’.

Be a good citizen. All governments are under God. Insofar as there is peace and order, it’s God’s order. So live responsibly as a citizen. You’re irresponsible to the state, then you’re irresponsible with God, and God will hold you responsible. (Rom 13:1-2 MSG)

But so that it doesn’t go any further, let’s silence them with threats so they won’t dare to use Jesus’ name ever again with anyone.” called them back and warned them that they were on no account ever again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Peter and John spoke right back, “Whether it’s right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. As for us, there’s no question–we can’t keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.” (Acts 4:17-20 MSG)

…There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless (Heb 11:35-37 MSG)

The reality is that when rubber hits the road, we have to concede that such idealistic concepts as guaranteeing a universal right to freedom of religion are just things that keep people at the UN in their jobs. Even America, the chief enforcer of the world (even as it maintains a hypocritical posture of pursuing the rights of all people to practice their religion freely) realizes that most rights are contextual and ultimately negotiated; as this report shows (in paragraph 4), America as a matter of state policy ‘looks the other way’ for ‘strategic reasons’ when some countries abuse these so called guaranteed rights.

As we continue this dialogue as a nation, it is important to acknowledge and work from the mindset that the only path that can guarantee peace is to be willing to extend to other people, the same treatment that we want for ourselves. That rule remains golden.

Greetings! First off, apologies for the mistakes in yesterday’s newsletter, and thanks to those who pointed them out. They have been rectified on the blog, and whatever punishment that Adora feels is appropriate  I will gladly receive.
Yes, mistakes/errors/insert-expletive-here are something that we don’t punish in Nigeria. Which is one of the things that contribute to our culture of impunity where certain geezers believe that they can say/do anything, and there will be no repercussion whatsoever. Now consider if in 2009 the person who shot Muhammed Yusuf had been arrested and brought to justice? Consider if the person that gave the order for that extra-judicial killing had been tracked down and brought to justice? It is only logical to assume that had those follow ups happened, then we would not be witnessing the current war in our country’s north-east.
Consider that 46 of our security agents were killed just over two weeks ago, and one ethnic jingoist later, we are yet to hear of any major arrests connected to that killing. Now another ethnic group have made the complaint that the same group accused of killing the security agents have killed seven of their own, and there has been nothing to it. Make no mistakes, if the Fulani grievances are not addressed, they will feel obliged to take the law into their hands, and the vehicle of impunity will roll on with reckless abandon.
Bits and bobs
Speaking of impunity, an alleged #BokoHaram commander was killed on Sunday, 120 chaps turned up for his funeral on Monday. They are currently having a tête-a-tête with the JTF.
Their more sensible comrades have taken to the mountains.
Still on impunity, we have once again been reminded that in 2015 our votes would not count.
The new passport to free air if you’re accused of a crime in our country is to claim to have brucellosis. Then your passport would be given you because our hospitals can’t sort you out.
“One blow, seven die” was a phrase I grew up hearing used to describe particularly strong people. Well, apparently, a single blow can kill provided the puncher is wearing a certain ring.
Water is life. In Ghana, the scramble for T.B. Joshua’s holy water left 4 dead.
Right of reply  From Friday,

Oo Nwoye wrote (in response to Od Davids), This thing don turn mini social network . My response to Od and Chxta: (We have to assume a paragraph of text can solve this problem) If I were president, I would go after the known leaders and not the foot soldiers. Give them the LAST warning and institute a special accelerated court that would go from trial to death sentence is a matter of 2 months. For the fun/impact of it of it, I will ensure one of the known big men ring leaders (ex Govs, Senators etc) gets a death sentence and is pardoned a few hours to the execution. While doing that, I will instigate unprecedented economic activity of rebuilding the destroyed cities. I will apply same in parallel in the South of Nigeria. When there is consequence for action and that consequence is applied to EVERYONE, 90% of the problems would be solve. Of course, if I were president, I would not have supported the invasion of Libya where more weapons and fighters are on their way to Nigeria. Or have Asari Dokubo as my protector and spokes person. Well, we have to start from somewhere.

Laniyan Kehinde wrote, I beg to disagree with you. I think the north declared war on the north and Jonathan only assisted in sustaining the war. He had no choice in this matter but to take on the insurgents on the terms they have said they wanted. Didnt you see this in all Boko Haram has published till date? If you have not, then do more study. Even going by your analysis of the origin of the ideology of Boko Haram, the north has been so negligent and Jonathan should not be blamed for this war. Most leqders in north prefer to engqge in denial than fqce the fact, for example El-Rufai once said on the TV that Jonathan is the promoter of Boko Haram. Today he has stopped comenting. You said the ideology of Boko Haram did not come from Islam. Your conclusion is not correct. That ideology certainly did not come from Christianity. Few examples of moderate Islamic countries is not enough for you not to trace the origin to a variant of Islamic ideology. Examples of such abound for us to draw a conlusion different from yours.

   Chxta responds, I only take exception to your attempt to make Islam look like a religion of murder. Fact: every religion is open to interpretation by all sorts of yahoos for their own ends. Fact: Islam has done more good for this world than it has evil. (You might want to read about the Dark Ages) Fact: Christianity does not have a shortage of its own yahoos either. (You might want to read about the Ku Klux Klan) Recommended reading: Exodus 21: 12-17 KJV.

Khadijat wrote, One particular paragraph of your’s, though, I absolutely reject. (No Sirs, you declared war on your own people by not taking care of them. #BokoHaram has provided them an alternative, no matter how flawed that alternative may be. #BokoHaram has provided them with what you have so spectacularly failed to provide them.) emphasis mine. What is this alternative to which you refer. Schools, medical care, infrastructure, security, livelihoods?????? Why would people support BH? The same phantoms who kill muslims and others and cause even more to be killed by a knee-jerk JTF. No no no….the only thing BH has brought to Northern brethren is LOSS, PAIN and FEAR as if we didn’t have enough on our plates being at near zero levels on all indicators that matter. While these two elephants fight, we the grass have little chance. I do not know if the SoE is a good idea, but definitely something had to be done and I pray that the Lord who has dominion over all matters will bring this nightmare to an end.

Chxta responds, Hi Khadijat, Boko Haram provided a commune for the people who had more or less been abandoned by their governments. One thing that Muhammed Yusuf and his band did back then was to make sure that people were fed and catered for. I have no reason to believe that that practice did not continue even after he was murdered. Consider what such a thing would mean to someone who’s income for a month sometimes never exceeds naira talatin…

From yesterday,

Maduabuchi Okoye wrote, let Boko haram go to blazes with their fish,we in the East can do without their useless fish

 Chxta responds, Very succinctly put Madu. Now tell me, which one state in the East is a paragon of efficiency? Is it Abia that is retrenching “non-indigenes” who happen to be from Imo from their civil service? Or is it Ebonyi who have denied Ibeto the right to run Nkalagu Cement simply because he is not from that state, and in the process crippling a viable economic channel?

Slowly but surely, the resort to ethnic preservation and protection – which is a natural outcome of deep ethnic consciousness – will continue to spread in irritating spaces like Nigeria so long as leaders wilfully deploy the principle of injustice as the principal tool of governance. Without meaning to exaggerate its disadvantage, it is this undeclared but obvious adoption of immoral and unjust system of administration, consistently enforced with the backing of security agents and hired mercenaries, which always widens the crack in a society and provokes bloody violence among its people from time to time.

In Nasarawa state since 1999, a disgusting wave of organised persecution of the Eggon ethnic group has been sweeping across the landscape with ferocious intensity. The situation is both sickening and depressing, leaving no choice for many natives but to reflect the sad expression of an endangered species in a territory where they are clearly the majority.

The most enlightened, the most liberal and the largest of the 29 ethnic groups in the state, the Eggons account for more than half the population of the state (2, 040, 097m according to 2005 census) which has 13 local government councils. Their ancestral home is Nasarawa-Eggon, which is one of the local government councils. But they also come from and heavily populate Akwanga and Lafia local governments, while also maintaining huge presence in the remaining local governments of the state, created 16 years ago by former Head of State General Sani Abacha. Indeed, the Eggons fought for the creation of the state.

In Lafia, the state capital, and in the quiet town of Akwanga, the Eggons own most of the land and noticeably outnumber other ethnic groups; yet they never show a desire or tendency to dominate or exercise excessive control or authority over others. Ironically, the orchestrated campaign of hate was launched just when jubilations were yet to die down over the return to democracy.

And for the record, the originator of the terrible regime of oppression, ill-treatment, abuse, discrimination and vicious physical attacks against an ordinarily peaceful tribe was no less than the greatest beneficiary of democracy in the state, Abdullahi Adamu, who is from Keffi in Nasarawa west senatorial district and became Governor as the Military returned to the barracks.

In a highly controversial move which the Eggons interpreted as a design to undermine them, Adamu, who was then only a couple of days in office, announced a directive that all local government staff in the state serving in local government councils other than councils of their origin should relocate to their local government while still keeping their rank and status. Staff of local governments who were not indigenes of the state were not affected by the directive.

As a result of this weird policy, all the state’s indigenes of Eggon extraction who were staff of various local government councils were redeployed to Nasarawa Eggon local government, even when they presented documents showing that, yes, they were Eggons but did not originate from Nasarawa Eggon local council. In Lafia local government council, a screening committee set up to determine who was an indigene ridiculously went ahead to recommend thus, “All Eggon tribe in Lafia are non-indigenes…. and should not be allowed to stay in Lafia Government Service as indigenes.”

Based on this imprudent advice, Lafia council straightaway redeployed from Lafia to Nasarawa Eggon 34 staff who claimed Lafia as their council of origin, insisting that Nasarawa Eggon was their council of origin. Dissatisfied, the affected staff went to court to challenge the Governor and the state government’s policy which they regarded as a breach of Section 42 of the Constitution which vested in every citizen of Nigeria a right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of belonging to a community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion and political opinion. The case dragged up to the supreme court which eventually gave judgment in favour of the plaintiffs on July 6, 2012. The court ordered Lafia council to reabsorb the staff and pay them their full salaries and other benefits.

Despite this humiliation at the judiciary, Governor Abdullahi Adamu virtually devoted his eight years in office tormenting the Eggons, unmoved by the fact that the first occupant of the throne of his ancestors in Keffi owed his origin to a woman of Eggon extraction. This despicable course of action continued under his successor, Akwe Doma, who hails from Doma local government in the Nasarawa south senatorial district. Rather than work for the collective good, he used the power of his office to ignite hostilities of his Alago kinsmen and other ethnic groups against the Eggons.

Throughout the twelve years shared between these two Peoples Democratic Party administrations, there was no meaningful development in the state such that today, it is no surprise that every major town including the capital Lafia, look like rundown camps of a defeated army. Nothing in the name of physical infrastructure will swell the head of the casual observer of developments in the state.

The third civilian governor, Tanko Al-Makura, a Kwandere man also from Nasarawa south like Akwe Doma but from a different party, Congress for Progressive Change, was expected to make a difference. But he did not. Instead, he has followed in the horrendous footsteps of his predecessors, deploying various abominable methods, including importing mercenary herdsmen, to engage in a bitter warfare with the Eggon people.

In the last one year Eggons have also suffered a series of attacks from smaller ethnic groups – sometimes in collaboration with Fulanis – in Asakio and Agyaragu and in some other parts of the state, of course, all this with the support of government in a bid to neutralise a perceived growing influence of the Eggons. Over the last couple of months, about 240 Eggons are known to have been killed and more than 2,000 houses razed to the ground as their villages came under heavy Fulani attack.

It was at this point that the Eggons felt that definitely, time has come for them to defend themselves not just against internal antagonists, but also against state-induced alien aggressors. And it is legitimate, as they will be doing this according to the provisions of Article 20 of the African Charter on Human Rights which declares the right of all peoples to existence and proclaims their “unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination.” The Article also says they shall freely determine their political status and pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen.

In the struggle to preserve the Eggon nation, a purely spiritual body called Ombatse, which is just like any other religious body in the world, emerged to revive the famous and well-regarded tradition of the Eggons passed on to them by their ancestors. They receive converts and have a shrine where they regularly worship. Membership is restricted to only male full-blooded Eggons and their sole objective is to cleanse their land of all the troubles besetting it. One of these troubles, the one that’s been given them serious headache, is the constant ill-treatment and violence perpetrated by the state government and their agents.

They were meeting peacefully on November 17, 2012, on the hills of Alagoni, off Nasarawa Eggon, when some soldiers suddenly arrived in trucks and started firing at them. Of course they did not respond, and when the soldiers saw that nothing happened to their targets they fled. This caused a massive protest by the people, leading to the closure of Lafia-Akwanga road for hours until the governor arrived. They demanded to know where the soldiers came from and who sent them. The road was not opened until the governor appealed to them and assured that he would investigate. Nothing of such ever happened.

And just when the Fulanis realised that they had all along been deceived into an unnecessary fight and were wrapping up a peace deal with the Eggons, heavily armed policemen and state security agents in still unknown number of trucks on Tuesday May 7, struck at Alakyo, the base of Baba Alakyo the spiritual leader of Ombatse, just a few kilometres away from Lafia. There was no report of crisis of any kind in the town; their mission, according to the authorities, was to go and arrest Baba Alakyo. But the unstated real intention, to the average Eggon, was to launch an attack that would forever wipe off a body that has been mischievously labelled a militia group.

Unfortunately, scores of policemen and all the state security agents died in the botched mission. The Eggons also say they lost 21 natives and many were wounded. Had the assault succeeded, it’s most likely that the authorities would have simply announced that “unknown gunmen” had attacked Alakyo and many people had been killed. And that would have ended it. But as it is, with the police still embarrassingly unable to release the exact number of its men on the mission, it shouldn’t end there. The world really needs to know the truth, and the most credible path to finding out what happened and close the annoying chapter of allegations and counter-allegations is for the governor to immediately set up a judicial panel of enquiry on the Alakyo fiasco.

After all, this is a governor who ought to be grateful to the Eggons for supporting him and ensuring his victory at the 2011 elections by denying Akwe Doma a second term and massively voting for him at a time the people were calling for a governor from Nasarawa north – the only district that has never produced a governor.  Having secured their votes following the promise Al-Makura made to the Eggons to run for only one term, the least he could do as governor is to surpass the expectations of the people of the state.  This might make the Eggons change their minds and say since he has delivered in his first term, better he is left alone to go for a second term.

But having been victims of repeated official harassments, sponsored attacks and serially disappointing leadership for the past 14 years, the Eggons would be justified to want to have one of their own occupy the governor’s seat for the first time in the immediate future. Therefore, the state government should from this moment change its style by ensuring all ethnic groups are given a sense of belonging, for to continue to hatch Machiavellian plans aimed at crushing a particular ethnic group just because it poses a major threat to somebody’s political ambition will be counter-productive.

Godwin Onyeacholem is a journalist based in Abuja gonyeacholem@gmail.com

According to the last reliable data we have, which comes from 2007, Nigeria produces 600,000 metric tonnes of fish per annum. In that year, we imported 740,000 metric tonnes of fish. In that year, demand was 2.66 million metric tonnes, which implied that we had a national shortfall that year of 1.32million metric tonnes of fish. Considering that fish accounts for 35% of our animal protein, that shortfall is huge. One more statistic, the Lake Chad Basin accounts for almost a third of our fish production.

These statistics, are backed up by this report from This Day this morning in its story which informs us that prices of fish and beef in Lagos are on the rise because of the state of emergency in our country’s north-east. This incident goes to show just how interdependent we are in this country. Some of us refuse to admit it, but we all need each other, and that is what makes Thursday’s protest by as many as 400 Catholic priests in Imo state even more ridiculous.

The Robes were protesting the fact that the Pope in his wisdom decided to appoint another Robe, Monsignor Okpalaeke, also an Igbo chap, as Bishop of Ahiara. Seeing that Catholics believe that any pronouncement m
According to the last reliable data we have, which comes from 2007, Nigeria produces 600,000 metric tonnes of fish per annum. In that year, we imported 740,000 metric tonnes of fish. In that year, demand was 2ade by the Pope ex cathedra is infallible, were I Pope, I’d de-robe every last one of those geezers.

Bits and bobs

The war in the north-east rages on, but it appears that we are winning.

Apparently all of my Urhobo friends would take to the streets in their birthday suits if GEJ refuses to run for Prez in two years. I love the comment that went with that story, so Ese, Benji, Tega et all, make una exercise before that protest o. I want to see toned bodies, not flab.

In Abuja, Mrs Achebe and children have been listed as special guests to the funeral of Onye Nkwuzi.

ThisDay has sorted its staff. The tragedy is that it took a Mexican stand-off to achieve that.

P.S: No right of reply today as I have a meeting in a few minutes. Quite a few emails came in response to Friday’s newsletter tomorrow, including a sermon. I’ll respond tomorrow.
P.S2: The Sokoto/Kebbi area produces more fish than the Borno area. How about that?