NIG.STUDENT FORUM (ASUU PROTESTS) PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE! PRESS RELEASE!! PRESS RELEASE!!!

BEING PRESS RELEASE ISSUED WITH REGARDS TO THE JUST CONCLUDED 5 MONTHS ASUU STRIKE.

Monday, 23rd December 2013.

1.     INTRODUCTION.

Fellow Nigerian students, you would recall that we had intended staging a Nationwide Mother of all Protests to press home and to draw global attention to our plight for having been shut out of our various campuses as the just concluded ASUU strike reached a stage that it seemed the government has gone to sleep over the matter and our destinies shoved aside.

HELLO NIGERIAN STUDENTS: JUST BEFORE WE FOOLISHLY RETURN BACK TO SCHOOL

I don’t know whether I should start this treatise by congratulating the Army of Nigerian students for what we have collectively waited for-An end to the protracted ASUU strike, which at a point, seemed like it won’t go shrivel, or whether to start by apologizing for my deliberate use of the rather harsh adjective -‘Foolish’ which I must say was not in a calculated attempt to drag traffic to this post and which I am staunchly unapologetic to, irrespective of whose ox is gored.  Not even after chanting my ‘wini mini mari mo’, could I get a preference, therefore, I have debased the essence of whichever, comes first, and would not congratulate us as our actions and reactions throughout the eon of the strike is not even worthy of any approbation as the irrationality and idiocy we displayed throughout the period was so towering that a description of us as ‘FOOLS’ will only amount to a mere understatement or sarcasm.

Welcome to Raymond Nkannebe's Blog! : A PASSIONATE LETTER TO NIGERIA

Welcome to Raymond Nkannebe's Blog! : A PASSIONATE LETTER TO NIGERIA

A PASSIONATE LETTER TO NIGERIA

Dear Nigeria,

In this ‘season’ of letters, in these days when missives have been flying left, right and center from those coming from people who could hardly pass as the conscience of society, to those who have discredited the records of the cash cow and home of sleaze- NNPC,  to those whose writers haven’t been bold enough to stand by the contents of their supposedly written letter and the attendant rejoinders that have greeted and continue to trail them, I have been jolted to grab my pen which I have constantly warned myself never to reach out to again, to write about the voluminous ills that have become of you. But somewhat uncannily, the more I take to that position, the more I come to the realization that it is a duty or an obligation which I cannot run away from hence the reason for sitting right here in what my boss likes to call an office but which I consider a cubicle to write you instead of replying and joining the bandwagon of rejoinders, that have become the in-thing lately.

THE AMINU WAZIRI TAMBUWAL INTERJECTION

During the last Media chat earlier this year when Mr. President spoke to Nigerians on a number of front burner issues, it was to my quagmire that I discovered he played down corruption as one of the major issues confronting or acting as a clog in the wheel of our progress. In his words, “although there is corruption in SOME (emphasis mine) sectors of the Nigerian government but the situation is not as bad as it is being portrayed”

THE AMINU WAZIRI TAMBUWAL INTERJECTION

During the last Media chat earlier this year when Mr. President spoke to Nigerians on a number of front burner issues, it was to my quagmire that I discovered he played down corruption as one of the major issues confronting or acting as a clog in the wheel of our progress. In his words, “although there is corruption in SOME (emphasis mine) sectors of the Nigerian government but the situation is not as bad as it is being portrayed”.

ASUU Strike, Nyesom Wike and FG’s Dementia

Just in case Mr. President and his cortege of advisers or “miss- advisers” have quickly forgotten as they are wont to, let us give them the benefit of doubt by reminding them or bringing them back from the margins of reason that we have long gone past the era of military junta where decrees are promulgated according to the whims and caprices of the de-facto leader but are met with little or no confrontations by the masses but rather, their bootlickers and sycophants massage their egos by telling them how ingenious they are, at the pass of each decree just to keep their jobs, be in their good books and to make sure their coffers don’t go arid this is even when it is clear that such promulgations are not only bereft of logic but only serve the narrow-minded interest of the ruler and have no direct or positive bearing on the general masses.

 

It was in the foregoing scenario that a certain General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and the ‘wicked’ General Sani Abacha had the effrontery to suppress the activities of the leadership of ASUU in the dark days of military rule even to the extent of promulgating strike actions by the Union as a Felony just to ruffle their plumage and keep them at bay. But while all such took place in those days, while such highhandedness and inhuman use of power to the injury was allowed to progress, it was not as though the leadership of the union feared the person of the rulers of the day, but I want to believe, it was because as law abiding citizens they were, while the rulers of the day, chose to define their laws and the punishment that precedes from them thereto how it suits them, they had no option but to dance to the dictates of the tune played by the piper even when the tunes from them weren’t anything close to today’s ‘Kukere’, ‘Azonto’ or ‘Etighis’, but somehow, they managed to dance to them grinningly as though enthralled in the maze of music but in reality, were only “suffering and smiling” (apologies to the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti).

 

 

But those days are now gone and are deposited in the archives of history where they belong and the only lesson derivable from them, is to make sure that such unbridled abuse of power do not find its way in our new discourse and whenever anybody irrespective of the office they occupy, attempt to re-invent or resonate  such  clannish use of power however mildly, we’d always rise in defense, shouting to the top of our voices reminding them that whereas the military came to power through the barrel of the gun, they came to power through the instrument of the ballot bought with our commonwealth and filled on election day for the candidate of our choice with our own hands and that the office lest they forget, is meant to be held in trust for us. That at law, they are only the Trustees and we are the beneficiaries or what may be called ‘cest que trust’ (him for whom the trust is held) and since we hold the forte, we must not allow those we gave mandate take us for a ride, for if we do so, then our roles as privies in this social contract or arrangement, becomes defeated.

 

 

Abraham Lincoln the 16^th president of the United States of America and the founder of modern day democracy picked his words carefully when he propounded that a true democratic government is one “of the people, by the people and for the people.” God bless the man. Except I am mistaken, as I write this, it is approximately 5,300 days since after Nigeria became a democratic state and whether we like it or not, I must say though we haven’t had it any easy but we have been able to elect our leaders successfully and successively through the instrument of the ballot and we have also been able to setup and sustain a governmental structures that are in consonance with what is obtainable in the near utopian democratic societies to wit: a National Assembly, a Judiciary and an Executive arm that lacks a textbook interference with the business of the legislative and judicial arm. A National Human Rights commission and so many other paraphernalia of a democratic state so much that I am tempted to consider the guillotine for anyone who betrays common logic by calling this democracy of ours a nascent one. We have evolved and our democracy is in full course therefore, it is our social and civic obligation as citizens and as privies to this social contract, to make sure that those whom we have relinquished the position to steer the ship of state, albeit with their reiterated pleas, do not sway what we have only given them to hold in trust for us, according to the trappings of their whims. The best they could do, both legally and logically, is to return the “trust property” by vacating the seat of power on which we have placed them. No more, no less than by acting in deference and securing an apartment for themselves in the estate of infamy.

 

 

We are concerned in today’s column with the recent developments rocking our ivory towers so-called. We must not rehash here, that students of Africa’s Largest Nation but not giant nation (except in poor population and governmental ineptitude) have been at home for almost 6 months as even the Almajiris that adorn the streets of Northern Nigeria have uncannily caught wind of this ugly scenario, (don’t ask me how )and so it is with the beggars that line up at the famous “iwo” junction in Ibadan  and not precluding the auto old-parts dealer at the ‘Obosi’ market in Onitsha, have all come to know one way or another that the universities have been under lock and key( the administrative blocks anyway, as the leadership of ASUU have come out to say that, at no time did they lock the universities). Haven said that, we shall give no heed to the genesis of the strike as it is our presumption that too many of us can say a thing or two about what led to the avoidable imbroglio.

 

 

Of particular emphasis is what a certain Barr. Nyesom Nwike, the Supervising minister of Education and incumbent minister of State for Education even though we know the man’s appointment amount to putting a square in a round hole as the man is by far, more acquainted with the goings-on in the Rivers state government house and Rivers state entirely more than he knows what has been the case with the seething problem involving the leadership of ASUU and the Federal Government (FG)- the two parties which he is meant to bring on the same page. A man who whether he likes it or not, has to go down as the most erratic minister of Education to oversee that gracious ministry. A man who visibly is best suited to be a Labour leader by virtue of his “agbero-like” mien and wont to aggressiveness. And so when with his latest outburst to the striking lecturers asking them to return to classes or risk losing their jobs in an uncivilly manner he was branded a thug, I couldn’t help but be in agreement with his new earned sobriquet as nothing else could have captured what he exhibited last Thursday as I watched the press conference from my 14” black and white television. Dear Nyesom wike, we have passed that era where labour disputes are resolved in that manner with threats of disengagement in order to browbeat the warring lecturers back to class. Even Mr. President whom I’ve always held in high esteem, much to my consternation gave his blessing to this undemocratic and ‘gestapoic’ conduct so much that I am tempted to join ranks with those who’ve labeled him a clueless president. No, and for emphasis purposes I must repeat, No, we have gone past that era and we cannot recede back into such inglorious efforts at resolving dispute that will only score us lower in the result sheet of Democratic nations whose leaders have led in consonance or in faith with the tenets of democracy thereby, further reducing GEJ’s chances of clinching the Mo-Ibrahim price for African Leadership which has become a taboo for African leaders to clinch in recent times, no thanks to their own unique but unconventional style of leadership that is in constant conflict with democracy canons and last to none.

 

 

Though I may be directly affected by this strike but I cannot in desperation endorse the FG latest ultimatum to the university lecturers. Not because I do not want to get back to school and bag my LL.B degree that is taking forever to be clinched, but because I happen to be a student in the school of thought that preaches “Due Process” in the discharge of governmental duties and in the day to day business of governance. As one hoping to partake in the ritual at the temple of justice, I do not think I will be appeased in body and soul if I endorse this act. Not only is it undemocratic, it betrays all doctrines of civility, equity, good conscience and natural justice. It is the climax of governmental abuse of political power and anyone who endorses such, in a democratic setting should not be considered a democrat who understands that respect for everyman and giving every man his due, is the blood that gives life to democracy. It is a crude, caustic and discordant act that holds no place in virtue and Natural law and thus shouldn’t be allowed to see the light of day lest we hand over to the next generation a precedent that will destroy their societal ethos, if they should stand by it.

 

I understand the FG’s sorrow; I can see the corner that they are boxed in, I can feel their pain and desperation but were we not told that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown? Does leadership ever fail to come with its joys and sorrows or does it ever fail to come with a price? This is the moment of truth. This is the moment when our leaders (here, Mr. President) is expected to display his ingenuity and adroitness at dispute resolution that will bring all the warring factions together and leave footprints on the sands of time which subsequent generation will learn from the philosophy. This is the time to prove to us, that yes, Leaders are born. It is the time to show that Nigerians were no fools when they collectively gave him their support and asking him to look after their affairs. If GEJ’s way of resolving this impasse is the “agbero” or “motor-park” way he has chosen to act by that ultimatum, then I am afraid, the Giant of Africa, as she likes to call herself, is yet to get it right at leadership. Where is the philosophy in that ultimatum that could be taught in schools someday? Is it this ‘pharoahic’ or Gestapo way that will serve as leadership ingenuity? I hope not.

 

 

Did not Dale Carnegie in his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” speak of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding fathers of the United states and the 6^th president of Pennsylvania to have said, “If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponents goodwill”? Or did not Siddhartha Gothama who will later become the Buddha say, “hatred is never ended by hatred or a dispute by a dispute but by tact, diplomacy, conciliation and a sympathetic desire to see the other person’s view-point” these are philosophical words on marble, but how has the FG ultimatum or totalitarian threat come close to this wise and noble reasoning’s?

 

 

Is leadership all about driving in motorcades and paying siren-visits to one particular high-profile occasion or the other? Is being the first citizen all about flying in private jets from one part of the world to the other and surrounded by a sea of aides who are always willing to do their bosses’ bidding? Where is that skill and display of leadership creativity and inventiveness that endears a leader to the peoples heart which has set leaders like Mahatma Gandhi of India, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Ayatolla Khameni of  Iran, Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore apart from their counterparts? Is it by such vulgar and aggressive rhetoric like, “Go back to the class or lose your job” or “you are a Widow, Go and die” that leaders become great? Nigeria must be one hell of a place to live in.

 

 

I may not share ASUU’s sentiment in their strike as we have made that clear in a recent article. And I have always been of the opinion that it is not just humongous funding that sets a country’s educational system apart but rather painstaking efforts from lecturers and in fact all stake but bot steak holders in the educational industry and their avowed willingness to make lemonade out of lemon and mountains out of molehills. But this is Nigeria where lecturers have chosen to push career and profit kobo (any kobo) and since the only language understood here, is money language, the lecturers have also learnt from it and in their befuddled and warped wits, they think Oxford , Cambridge, Harvard etc. which they like to make allusion to, were built on allowances for marking script, allowances for research, allowances for hazard, transfer of FG assets to universities and all the other allowances and clauses they have suddenly manufactured in their bid to ride in the same posh cars as the fools that sit in our red and green chambers discussing on how to float foreign accounts and syphon our commonwealth to God-knows-where more easily instead of how to eradicate ‘almajiris’ off the streets and attempt a bridge of the ever widening chasm between the rich and the poor, hence why we have called their bluff in previous articles.

 

 

But be that as it may, it does not give the leeway for GEJ, the thug, Wike and their degenerate ilk, to do murder to logic or crucify common sense on the cross of whimsical inanities, for to do so, is another invitation to national acrimony and another soft-walk to Kigali. Instead of solving the problem, it will only add salt to an already decaying injury and keep the same students they want to get back to school, stay more at home. It is dictatorial and autocratic, hence why so many Civil Society groups, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and other respected voices have all come out to register their disapproval of the move.

 

 

Abraham Lincoln once reprimanded a young Army officer for indulging in violent controversy with an associate. He said, “No man who is resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention still less can he afford to take the consequences including the vitiation of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you show no more than equal rights and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not heal the bite”. This goes out personally to Mr. President as nothing has ever been achieved in an atmosphere of rancor and even if achieved, do not come to stay.

 

 

I know that ASUU under its incumbent leader, Nasir Fagge may be proving obstinate in this particular fight as a result of the FG’s antecedents in recent history of going outside an agreement, so their holding tight to the trigger is quite understandable despite the much touted FG commitment to bring the whole imbroglio to an end, this is even when the leadership of ASUU have not come out in the public to acknowledge the receipt or payment of any kobo into any account. Also the controversial death of professor Festus iyayi, who is laid to rest as I write, may have bolstered ASUU to stand their ground as he who is already fallen suffers not another fall hence, why they have preferred to sit tight and fight it to the finish Irrespective of the fire and brimstone hurled at them from all angles.

 

Whichever way it turns out, this proves to be another big one for baba GEJ and his FG- how he handles it, will be used for or against him to his credit or to his discredit come 2015. He may choose to continue with his “motor-park” tactics and dig his own political grave by giving his ever increasing traducers what to go to town with. But this is not just about politics. This is about the common man, this is about our educational system, and this is about our future which we were promised a breadth of “Fresh Air”. If this is the Fresh Air, then I am sorry, I rather live at a dumpsite. Violence Street has never led to Success Avenue. Let GEJ and his FG be guided for this is another political dementia. God Bless Nigeria.

 

Follow me on twiter @RayNkah

                          

8 Things we learnt from Anambra Botched polls

The long anticipated Anambra state gubernatorial election has come and gone at least as far as this writer is concerned. I refuse to be among those inundated by the “Independent” National Electoral Commission’s crinkum-crancum as to the elections being ‘inconclusive’ and hence why a “Supplementary Election” must be conducted as none of the three frontrunners secured the majority vote and spread required by the Electoral Act to emerge winner on the first ballot.

In their calculation, even though the APGA candidate Willie Obiano secured the highest number of votes cast so far of about 174,710 out of the total 425,549 votes, his 79,754 votes more than that of the PDP candidate, Tony Nwoye’s 94,956 votes were less than the 113,113 that were cancelled by the commission as a result of various peccadilloes and logistic glitches in different polling units of the state as well as the 92,300 votes notched so-far by the APC candidate, Chris Ngige. In their warped calculation, it has become incidental in order to determine the ultimate winner and to do that, 113,113 votes will be on offer during the supplementary election to be contested among the troika of Obiano, Nwoye and Ngige on a date to be announced.

However, while many of us, may be aware of the foregoing, what many are oblivious of, or haven’t spared the time to think over, is the ‘cul-de-sac’ of the result that stands now to change after the supplementary, marginal, ‘jara’, ‘kyauta’ call it whatever you like election, that will be conducted. Reason being that, for any of the two-runners up, Nwoye and Ngige to overtake Obiano, he must secure at least 90% of the 113,113 votes expected to be on offer. For Naija? Someone must be kidding here.

Now, you don’t need to be a clairvoyant or a telepathic to know that such things only happen in the sports arena, let’s say in a football match where a team that may have been 2 goals down in the first period, comes back into the game, reply the goals and even take the day. A particular event that comes to mind here is the recent world cup qualifier between Portugal and Sweden. While Sweden had gone ahead to take the lead to peck the results at 2-1, in their favor, many of us were not surprised when the whole affair ended 3-2 in favor of Portugal. But such things hardly happen in politics and even if they do happen, not in Nigerian politics, hence the reason why we have described the election in our Quasi-electoral commission as a conclusive one, even though INEC says it is ‘inconclusive’.  Anyhow, when the waters get calm, and things get clearer, we shall see who was deceiving who.

As far as we are concerned, the only inconclusive part of the Anambra guber is the part where bloggers will be telling us, that some pastor foresaw, foretold, prophesied, or predicted all what has become of the entire election before now which leaves you wondering whether they have taken over Paul the Octopus who was renowned to have predicted the score line of great football events before it died few years ago. The only difference being that while Paul the Octopus does/did his predictions before the matches, our local pastors and their followers, prefer to tell us after the deed has been done how they had earlier on predicted it. Whether in a bid to court more followers to their churches in order to make up funds to secure more private Jets to fly to God-knows-where, you won’t be hearing that from us.

Since we have declared the Anambra ‘Tokunbo’ elections to be conclusive, we have chosen to bring to readers of this column, all what we observed from the whole outing. While they should serve as heads-up to all of us, they also call for our collective efforts in order to right the wrongs of this particular election and to also clean up the mess in subsequent ones, especially as Ekiti State indigenes prepare to go to the polls next year.

…………………..The 8 lessons we learnt from the Anambra elections goes thus:

1.     VOTERS ILLITERACY AND APATHY TO THE ELECTORAL PROCESS.

A democratic state with an illiterate voter population will hardly consolidate on the efforts of any electoral body. It will be like pouring water on a rock and expecting it to permeate or pouring water to firewood and expecting combustion to take place. That of course will be ‘impossicant’. With the electorates being an intrinsic part of the success of any election, we cannot afford to keep going to the polls with barely literate electorates especially those that reside in our rural areas as was seen in the recent Anambra election. When you hear cases of wrong voting, wrong thumb printing and other sundry issues associated with the cancellation of results due to poor voting, then it becomes clear that the electorates that took part in the process hardly went through any voter’s education. This trend has to be changed. The state electoral commissions should see this as a duty they must live up to by making sure, the electorates are armed with the requisite knowledge with which they shall tackle their civic responsibility as citizens who are enfranchised.

Beyond that, the issue of voters’ apathy was also a clog in the wheel of the Anambra elections. On the election-day proper, several youth refused to partake in the voting process. Either because they were reluctant to register or because ab-initio, they had no interest or confidence in the whole process. Many people were of the opinion that, whoever becomes the governor, it barely affects their lives positively as they will still have to hustle before they could put food on their table, get water to run in their homes, power their generators etc. on the other horn, are those who have no confidence in the electoral process as in their estimation, the result of the election will still go the way of the candidate favored by the electoral body as has been the case in previous elections.

These are all serious posers which the electoral body must look into and devise the means to tackle headlong. Democracy is about the confidence of the electorates in the system, and once that confidence suffers a set-back, democracy suffers.

2.     MONEY/LARGESE BASED CAMPAIGNS.

For public office seekers, money-based campaign is given more attention than a clear and well patterned manifesto-based campaign. Political office seekers have chosen to exploit the poverty of the electorates in order to win their votes. Many of those that habit the rural areas hardly care about the program of the government that needs their vote but rather what he has brought with him to get their votes. Hence, we saw bags of rice being shared by one candidate to the other. Wads of wrapper, free petroleum products, bags of salt, cash donations etc. we noticed that the electorates were more willing to vote for the candidate who was more benevolent with the largesse as against the program which the candidate hopes to deliver. Who cares about? What does it even matter? It will definitely take care of itself when the time comes. Sadly, this has been a recurrent trend in the politics of most developing countries and Nigeria likes to be I the vanguard of that. Strategic measures must be put in place by the electoral body to discontinue this practice. If possible, any candidate found wonting for alleged distribution of giveaways should be disqualified from the process since the electorates vulnerable and hungry as they are, cannot resist the temptation of collecting money from public office seekers. Not with empty stomachs and a pile of family problem begging for attention. It doesn’t bode way for our electoral process/ democracy.

3.     RELIGION AND POLITICS

Once again, the Anambra election has shown that South East politics is at the mercy of the Church- the Catholic Church to be precise. You can rob sand on the face of any political, traditional or socio-cultural group and get away with it but not the Church. Memories of the cold war between Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the Holy Ghost adoration ministry and his common enemy the then governor Chimaroke Nnamani and how the latter’s feud with the clergy man has made him lost political relevance in the state are still fresh here. We have not forgotten what led to the failure of the former governor of Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim in the buildup to the 2011 gubernatorial election. His alleged fisticuff with a certain priest cost him his re-election to the government house Owerri. It was also the same thing in the just concluded Anambra election. At a certain point it was rumored that the APC candidate Chris Ngige had a brawl with a certain priest. If not for the quick debunking of such claims by the leadership and supporters of the party, Ngige’s chances at the polls would have long been forgone. The ugly incident that took place at the St. Dominic Catholic Church, Uke that became branded as the “Uke Stampede” and a whole lot of other factors have proven that the South East has dragged religion into their politics with the Catholic Church being in the fore front of it all.

I was told by a friend that on the day of the election, some group of men and perceived political agents of APGA dressed in the garb of catholic priests, went to certain polling units and told the barely informed electorates that Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Labor Party (LP) has withdrawn from the polls and has just directed that his supporters should turn-in their votes for the APGA candidate. Another called to tell me how their parish priest told the congregations times without number at the close of his Sunday sermons to vote for continuity by casting their votes for the APGA candidate and so on and so forth.

 While we cannot place name and figures behind some of these posers, their authenticity and the individuals indicted, we should not gloss over them. The INEC in subsequent elections in the state and South East generally, should place a mandate on the Church not to partake in the campaign process or allow their body- movement to speak louder than their voice of the candidate or political party they endorse. Since they are role-models in the society, they should not in any way take part in the political gerrymandering since politics, we have been told severally is a ‘dirty game’ and hence must not be encroached upon by people whom society perceive as God’s representative on earth.

4.     APGA/APC AND  THE THING WITH ETHNIC/REGIONAL POLITICS

The Anambra election has once again shown that, regional/ethnic politics still has a lot to do with us and however we claim that we have moved beyond that, the thing still speaks for itself at any given opportunity. How? Good question but we shall show how.

While this writer cannot make a case as to the credibility of the Anambra polls, if the result we have seen so far is anything to go by, then one is left wondering why willie Obiano of APGA and a clear neophyte with no track record in politics could pull the amount of votes we have been told by INEC that he has pulled so far? Isn’t politics all about one’s popularity among the masses? How is it then that Chris Ngige with the result we have seen thus far, is left sprawling behind Tony Nwoye and Obiano who do not match by any margin his popularity? If you are confounded by this absurdity, I am not. The reason is not farfetched: Ethnic/regional politics still got a lot to do with us. I have heard political analysts argue times without number that if Chris Ngige were contesting under a different political party, and not what has been branded a Yoruba party-APC, the result of the election will no doubt go his way in a fair ballot system.  Alas, he has been christened by the media with the painful but soothing phrase, “A good Man in a wrong Party” and on which we formed the kernel of our article on this column titled: “Chris Ngige; A good man in a ‘wrong’ party” few days before the election proper. In a nutshell, it becomes so clear that Nigerians still practice ethnic or regional politics which was institutionalized by the first and second generation of Nigerian leaders and unfortunately, a practice which will still live with us for a very long time from what we have seen at the Anambra election. And believe me, I wish it were not so.

5.     LESSON FOR THE ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS (APC)

The newly formed APC whose arrowheads have been junketing from one part of the country to another to woo political stalwarts into their camp but relegating the masses whose votes they will soon come after, has got so much to learn from the election if anything is to go by the results INEC has issued so far.

While they reserve the right to allege massive rigging against them, they should take time out to ponder over how they intend to win over these masses in subsequent elections instead of fraternizing with political figures whose past records, continue to hunt Nigerians even to this day. Does not the recent election show that APC still has so much work begging for their attention?  Prima facie, the result of this election speaks volume of how the masses are yet to be told how the much touted transformation the APC never stops to make hoopla about can be achieved.

Lai Mohammed, who continues to bark like a dog on the pages of national dailies should learn to change his modus operandi and lay more emphasis on how to convince the masses that the APC has got a unique formula for the transformation of this comatose divide and not wasting energy in condemning and re-condemning every act of the present government at the Centre as opposition politicking, demands a lot more than that.

Beyond that, well informed Nigerians are already tired by such cheap political comments just to emphasize relevance and are beginning not to take them serious. They should go back to work and come up with a non-quixotic framework on how to better the lot of Nigerians if voted into power and how they hope to achieve same if voted in, and desist from the wanton bedlam and rabble-rousing that is almost becoming synonymous with them.

While they may have taken over the media (Social Media particularly), what we have seen at Anambra so far, is another testimony that elections are not won on social media as a great percentage of Nigerian voters are barely available on that space. Finally, Anambra election, controversial as it may be, should send a warning to them of which they must learn from, to put their house in order as they prepare for Ekiti  Decides,few months from now and the bigger task-2015 general elections.

6.     INEC’S QUESTIONABLE COMPETENCY

The charade in the name of gubernatorial election under the watch of Jega and his INEC that took place last weekend in Anambra state, has brought again to the fore and raised the issue of INEC’s competency to midwife an election that would be devoid of widespread irregularities and logistic quagmire or higgi-haggi.  Many Nigerians, with this recent shabby performance are already calling Jega’s head and this is understandable. The continuous under-performance by INEC leaves one with no other option but to ask how this body can fare or guarantee Nigerians of their capability despite the resources at its disposal.

Attahiru Jega’s appearance on National TV to tell Nigerians why things didn’t go out as planned is an indirect indication that he has not got what it takes to conduct an election that will be near general acceptability. Hear him, “We made all the preparations and decentralized the process of distribution of materials in order to ensure that they get to the polling units on time for the commencement of election before election day. Unfortunately and regrettably-we are humans. We can do all the preparations but if people are determined to subvert the process, one way or another, they will subvert it”. What an excuse! How low and lame! In civilized climes, Jega would have been forced to resign since he has clearly spoken though quite equivocally, that he lacks the nous, the onions and the charisma to discipline his staff and count on their delivery. Or what else is leadership about? I will not be surprised if Jega shocks us even more by alluding the electoral malady to an “Act of God”. Playing the religious card is one sure way to exonerate oneself from any liability even when it is clear they have goofed.

All said and done, Jega’s interjection has casted even more blanket of doubt as to his capability and competency to deliver in subsequent polls at least to quite a commendable standard.

7.     ANY HOPE FOR 2015?

In less than 24 calendar months, the 2015 general elections will be ‘born’. But even before then, Ekiti state indigenes will be going to the polls. Question then is: what is the hope for 2015? As one analyst succinctly put it… “Upholding the result of the Anambra election will be equivalent to pulling off electoral fraud in full view of the people. Anyone who endorses the result of that blemished election would have given INEC a blank script on which to write the name of its preferred governorship candidate” I concur. Inferentially, if this  ‘incompetent’ JEGA-aic INEC cannot conduct an election of just one state, how then can one beat his chest or wager a stake to the effect that 2015 will be a different story? That no doubt is the one billion naira question. Well, if you can, I personally would not, because I was not taught to put my money where there are no assurances from past antecedents that it will bring me returns. If accepting the result of this blemished election in the words of one political analyst amounts to giving INEC a blank script to write its preferred candidate, would the same feat not be repeated come 2015?

The Good Book says, “If men have chosen to use the green wood like this; what will happen when it is dry?” put into our own discourse, we  ask: If INEC is left drooling over the election of one state, what will happen when the entire nation go out to the polls come 2015? Food for thought I suppose, but one which we must all mind how we chew.

8.     ROLE OF ELECTION PETITION TRIBUNALS IN ELECTIONS

Another lesson to be gleaned from last weekend’s outing at Anambra is that Election Petition Tribunals due to INEC’s insensitivity (apologies to ASUU) have become another arm of our electoral body-INEC. While the role of any judiciary is adjudication and/or judicial determinism, there must be something radically wrong with that electoral system or process whose results are always a cause of a marathon of suits before the courts. It is either because the system is one that hardly performs its functions in the way they ought to have or it is nothing.

As it stands, it is only the courts that could clean up the mess which INEC has let out into the political atmosphere little wonder INEC is already making a case that it is only the courts that could declare the entire election as a jamboree, ultra-vires and ‘nudum-pactum’.

 While we can only wait for the determination of the courts to that effect the moment the tribunals begin to seat, we should be reminded that it doesn’t augur well for this democracy of ours we like to describe as a ‘NASCENT’ one even when it is clear that it has evolved.

LAST LINE

Altogether, it is sad that Anambra election which was touted to be a litmus test for future elections and indeed a foretaste for 2015 general elections has turned out a huge controversy that may not be resolved regardless of what INEC has called “supplementary elections” and no matter who becomes the governor-elect.

It is so, because the conduct of a free, fair and credible election is first and foremost a leadership operation that runs with uncommon discipline and harmony that must be manned from top to bottom by people who are trustworthy and well furnished with what is required of them.

The following lessons/observations are one which stare us in the face and which are barely new to us. To curb some of them, JEGA and his team has much to mull over, so much to learn from the deadlocked Anambra governorship poll. While I don’t think they have got the luxury of time to do that, we can only hope that they are able to make amends in subsequent elections. God bless Nigeria.

Follow me on twitter @RayNkah

         

Welcome to Linda Ikeji's Blog: Qatar Airline Makes Emergency Landing in Lagos

Welcome to Linda Ikeji's Blog: Qatar Airline Makes Emergency Landing in Lagos

SOLVING THE BOKO HARAM MENACE; THE BITTER TRUTH AND THE MANY PROBLEMS!

Long before now and ever since the nefarious and venomous enterprise of the dreaded Islamic sect reached its present acme, the crème de la crème of different organizations like the media, non- governmental organizations, private individuals, etc have in one way or the other offered solutions on steps to be taken to nip this wickedness and degradation of our socio-political eco-system in the bud as a result of the activities of the sect. Even the clergy aren’t an exception to this cause. Different panels have been constituted both at the state and federal level but at the end of the day, have amounted to little or almost nothing being achieved. The best way to have classified these efforts is like pouring water on rocky hills and expecting it to be permeable in betrayal of science and nature. All these efforts have defied all odds most possibly because we do not want to rise up to the challenge of telling ourselves the bitter truth by calling a spade a spade. We have chosen to call a spade a rake instead and the effects are way too voluminous today that one cannot in a hurry arrive at a compendium of them.

          May I save us these festivals of grammars and proceed to the tentacles that form the nub of this piece. Our refusal to haven hit the nail on the head but rather beating about the bush in expunging these elements of doom in our realm have succeeded in lending them a mysterious Nomen Clature which we all know they aren’t but have become as a result of our ignorance. Without mincing words, one need not be told, at least not again at this stage, that the reason why the Boko-Haram sect have refused to go the way of dialogue and subsequent embrace of peace is the persona and ethno-religious status of Mr. president- Good luck Ebele Jonathan and not just the government of the Peoples’ Democratic Party as has been paraded in the news both local and international alike. It’s no doubt a very harsh and controversial revelation I know, but let me die before you dig my grave.

          History shall bear me witness that ever since the uprising of 2009 in Maiduguri, North Eastern Nigeria when the Yar’ adua led administration declared a public war against the sect when they became un-restive and as a result killing a good number of them and even their leader in a controversial circumstance, the sect were to a great extent devoured and forced to lay down their arms against their immediate will which was the way all such groups have been tamed all over the world with the maitaseni incidence been a practical example in our own dispensation. Despite the international community, labeling the modus-operandi of the government back then as one of murder and public massacre of its citizens, it was all that was needed to quell the imbroglio back then and the ends justifying the means because it returned the instability that became the order of the day to a normal and habitable atmosphere. People moved about their activities freely and prosecution of victims started. The A.S.U.U strike that became a blessing during this period was soon called off and I returned back to school in one piece as well as other students to resume academic activities after the four months of paralysis in the education sector.

          All the rejuvenated problems we face today in the name of terrorism got a new birth immediately after the then president Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua took ill and was flown far away Arabia for treatment. Back home, instead of wishing the sick gentle man a quick recovery when his condition became epileptic, the big shots in government got themselves enmeshed in a cold war as to whether to invoke the provisions of section 144 of the constitution in determination of whether Mr. president is incapacitated or not or whether he has transmitted a written statement to the National Assembly to that effect. After much heated controversy, the then vice-president, was made the acting president after the doctrine of necessity was invoked and subsequently made the substantive president when the gentleman of goodwill bided goodbye to the fleshy part of the world. May JANNAH continue to be his abode (Ameen Summa Ameen).

          Our woes were compounded, when the new president haven kissed the wine of power, resolved to contest for the 2011 presidential elections in betrayal of the zoning formula already established in the party. As a result of the power of incumbency and probably untainted character, judging from his records in those days when he held sway at Bayelsa as the state governor, he was voted into power in a landslide victory including the north that were to produce the next president had the zoning formula not been crucified and trampled upon. For the many that couldn’t swallow the bitter pill of the president’s act, they went back and after having series of meetings vowed to make the election a failure immediately after he made his intention known. This was the point, the book haramites became the tool to send this message across. The group who before this time, had laid down their arms while counting their losses after the uprising, rushed for the gauntlet thrown at them and saw it as an opportunity to rent their spleen in vengeance for their deceased leader, his father in-law and so many others who got ‘martyred’ in that altercation.

          As such, they launched their first attack during the 50^th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence and subsequently marred the president’s campaign train by violence in many states leaving innocent citizens dead with many others injured during such attacks that became the second birth of Boko Haram backed by cabals in the same government, military and other paramilitaries synchronizing together to form a synergy that has made them a formidable force while leaving indelible scars on the face of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in fulfillment of their promises to make his government ungovernable. A fight that they have won so far to say but the least as a result of their guerilla tactics and faceless identity even though the government claims to know them while we count our loses at the birth of every new day. Bomb blasts have rocked almost the entire northern states with the seat of the caliphate being the newly deflowered leaving thousands maimed with a majority of the pack coming from the armed forces who are most vulnerable to their attacks. More so just like every other of such groups, they have taken the war to the streets leading a vendetta against private citizens who have entered their bad books as a result of ethno-religious affinity, as evidenced in their war against Christians and other non-Christians who forestall their goals either directly or indirectly.

          What picture, like Picasso have I been painting here it is very pertinent to ask at this juncture? The holy bitter truth has forever been coyed away from in solving and tackling the boko haram insurgency. This is a group who gets financial support in order to fast track their activities from influential individuals of which some have been indicted and many others fugitives from justice. Top governmental officials who doesn’t want Goodluck being in power are the many reasons we are torn apart like cats living among dogs. It is an unrivalled fact that the leaders of this sect are in government as the president and other analysts have pointed out but the only thing extant is to what aim?  This is the part of the puzzle that has not been solved. As many as have shyed away from it, I don’t want to join the train either. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, being the president in betrayal of the so-called principle of zoning has been and would continue to be the reasons the fundamentalists would not lay down their arms at least not any time soon since the political interest of the cabals who foot their bills have not been appeased to any extent. The only person that has come close to this naked truth was the former national security adviser, general owoye Azazi when he said that the P.D.P is the problem of BOKO HARAM. He came close to this truth in the sense that instead of particularizing he went the way of generalizing perhaps for reasons not to be separated from trying to secure his job and possible rousing up a national tumult but no sooner had he made this statement, than the security of his job suffered a quake and in no time he was shown the exit door. The cabals at work indeed and that is how things work in this country. And i ask: can Mr. President be the sacrificial lamb for our salvation? Can he be the carrier of our sins like EMAN did in wole Soyinka’s strong breed? And even if he does, will it alleviate all of our future problems politically?

          Nigeria is a state founded on the principle of unity and strength, peace and progress, therefore any competent citizen can arise from any of its wide spread wings under a political party and vie for an elective post in a general election. The issue of not subscribing to the tenets and conducts of a particular political party shouldn’t been a fertile ground of sowing seeds of discord that germinates into violence. So the argument of not playing in line with zoning should be a party problem and not a national one and therefore cannot hold water in any court of law in Nigeria but the cabals who rule from the outside would not subscribe to this not while they can still breathe. What then should be the solution it is rife to ask?

 should Goodluck EBELE Jonathan, resign from his seat as the president of this  comatose behamose of a nation in order to gratify the wicked demands of his political enemies and save us the ceremony of bloodshed that has subsumed us and would continue to? Or better still, should he refrain from running in the 2015 presidential election that analysts have seen as Nigeria’s last chance if the presidency doesn’t emerge from the North? Has our soft spot for amnesia made us forget the “biri jinni kare jinni” fable of a phrase where dogs and baboons would be let loose in an arena of battle if the P.D.P rigs the election? Am sure not many of us would have.

          On the other side of the coin, won’t the suggesting of a northerner to be the next president be an aberration of the principle of franchise and what would be the other regions reaction to it? What about the IGBO’S and the middle belt who haven’t tasted the seat of power in decades but have continued to be consoled and pacified with the spirit of federalism? Shall the totality of Nigerians become slaves to a particular region that has ruled this country more from the military days to the present day just because it is quicker to take to arms? Should the patience of the other regions be taken for cowardice? Too many questions with answers obviously in the negative which brings us to the forever postponed atmosphere to settle these whole differences- summoning a sovereign national conference where we shall discuss how far we have come and how further we can go or bringing to termination this forced marriage of regions.

          If a particular region cannot give its support to another just because it houses the presidency, then we should stop feigning this unity in diversity because it is not working. For this same unity in diversity has caused many wounds than it has healed. Lord lugard’s selfish/economic reasons for joining this matrimony of regions decades ago was never for our common good as a people as far as I know but rather for economic reasons.

          The boko haram insurgency, least I forget, is chiefly a political battle clothed with the fiber of religion to draw loyalists to it because religion has always been and will always be opium of the oppressed and can easily buy the heart of even the strongest in spirit. It is instigated by political blackmailers who are bent to reduce this government to debris to achieve inordinate demands……No  religion preaches violence and the Islam that I know doesn’t either. God bless Nigeria.

Follow me on twitter @yung_silky and I will follow back.