The Commonwealth Game that never was

The world was all in our backyard. The whole city of Abuja was agog and well lit. The splendour resonated in cities like Kaduna, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Lagos.

We were hosting the Commonwealth Games 2014. Nigeria, known for its strong belief in happenstance, coincidence and symbolism, could not miss the chance to showcase itself. It wanted the Commonwealth to know of how beautifully it had carried itself and its affairs for 100 years since the British colonialists amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates into a single country in 1914. Hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014 was part of the country’s centenary celebrations.

Long before 2014, it began the lobby to host the games. No one doubted that Nigeria’s sparkling capital city, Abuja, would easily trounce any other city to host the games. And so, despite stiff competition from the equally beautiful city of Glasgow in Scotland, Abuja nicked it. Like one commentator said then, “it was a choice between the ancient and modern and the modern clinched it”.

The planning for the event was as top class as Nigeria is known to offer. Lessons from the country’s hosting of the 1977 Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), the 1999 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the 2003 All Africa Games (organised by COJA) and the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup were all brought to bear in the planning for this event. Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, was brought in to re-enact the spectacular performance he produced in the 2003 All Africa Games. The combo of Nollywood and Nigeria’s music industry brought down the roof, same way they combined to increase our economy, moving it to the largest in Africa just a few months ago.

Although the Commonwealth Games, like its older sibling, the Olympics, are deemed hosted by a city, as opposed to a country, Abuja 2014 had a whiff of difference. Nigeria’s unity in diversity was displayed when different cities hosted some of the events based on comparative infrastructural, cultural and topographic advantages. Kano hosted basketball events while Maiduguri hosted shooting events in the famed Sambisa Forest. Lagos hosted the aquatic sports (reminding many of its famed former pride as the ‘State of Aquatic Splendour’) while Port Harcourt, by some strange coincidence, hosted the combat sports, some of which were held in the House of Assembly complex.

The cycling event was particularly interesting. Held in Abuja, it was flagged off by two of Nigeria’s celebrated cyclists, Ojo Maduekwe and his protege, Osita Chidoka, the new Minister of Aviation who made a show of riding their bicycles from their various homes to the flag off event. A request by Charly Boy Oputa to join the duo with his power bike was turned down. Thankfully, Maduekwe didn’t have an accident as he once did while riding to a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting some years back.

Our brilliance was not just with the hosting. The athletes themselves were stellar in performance, snatching medals in various sports, using their local comparative advantages. Prior to the competition, a special team of Niger Deltans, especially those of Ijaw ethnicity, had been polished in swimming. Some youths arrested from Abuja streets by the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) for illegal hawking won us medals in sprints and relays. They had been reformed and trained to put their skills, honed from running to escape arrests, into sprinting to win medals. By the time the games were closing, Nigeria was besting others for the top spot on the medals chart, same way it dusted Africa in grand style to be the largest economy.

Truly, Nigeria never had it so good and everyone called the feat ‘unprecedented’! That was when the political class moved in and our celebration was not the same again. Some people reminded everyone that we won on the basis of good luck, which they intentionally misspelled as ‘Goodluck’. But those on the opposite side of what we now call ‘divide’ said the best description of what happened was that Nigeria had made a clean ‘sweep’ of the medals and they made an effort to put a symbol of a broom in every congratulatory message to show how the medals were swept by Nigerians. In fact, some of the politicians began to remind us that the cities where the medals were won were in states controlled by particular political parties, represented by either the umblerra (sorry umbrella) or the broom. Some even talked about the ‘state of origin’ of these athletes, even when most of them lived in and were ‘discovered’ from their states of residence, often different from the so-called state of origin.

It was in the middle of all these that a blast sound from the exhaust pipe of a rickety taxi on the other lane jolted me from my daydreaming while taking a tiring ride from the airport to my hotel room. Thank goodness, it was not a bomb blast, but checking up news on my phone, I saw breaking news of twin bomb blasts in Kaduna. And there went up all my dreams.

For how long have I been sleeping? Only God knows. But the sleep and dream were sweet.

- See more at: http://www.thenicheng.com/the-commonwealth-game-that-never-was/#sthash.xULvJLfz.dpuf

Of paternity leave and longer maternity leave

This is great news coming from Lagos State. On Thursday, July 17, the state just announced a new policy creating 10 working days paternity leave to its employees, just as it increased maternity leave from three to six months with full pay. The policy is, however, for the first two births, while subsequent births will continue with the original order.

According to Dr. Yewande Adeshina, Special Adviser on Public Health to Lagos State Governor, the six months leave would enable the nursing mother observe the state’s recommended six months exclusive breastfeeding, and by then the baby is considered “strong enough to be left in decent creche for proper care, having gone through affection and nurturing by mother”.

But that also raises a good question. If this policy is meant to promote exclusive breastfeeding, why limit the six months maternity leave to the first two births? Is the state trying to discourage women from having more than two births? That requires further interrogation and engagement, but should not derogate from this commendable and progressive policy.

On a very personal note, I have been smiling at the strange coincidence that this announcement was made on a day I started paternity leave myself. Yes, I work for an organisation (ActionAid) which provides 10 working days of paternity leave, and this has been so since it started operations in Nigeria.

For many Nigerians, the very notion of paternity leave sounds so strange. And like many things that sound strange to us, we are wont to reject it at first, question and query it and even look for excuses why that shouldn’t be or is not workable. In fact, in my discussion of the news with some men that Thursday evening, a few persons wondered what the paternity leave days are meant to be used for when I told them I was on one at the moment. So I began to explain what I have been doing and ought to do with the leave days.

Child birth is a family event and should ideally involve the mother, the father and other family members to which the child belongs. The early hours and days after birth are very significant and should be made memorable. The trips to and from the hospital, feeding, bathing, carrying, cuddling the baby and receiving and entertaining visitors (very African) are huge tasks which are draining to the body and mind. They are best shared with close family members. Apart from the mother who gives birth to the baby, who else ought to share in that task, if not the father?

Paternity leave is therefore a good means of early father-child bonding. And yes, the work would never finish or collapse if the man stays away from it for a few days. After all, if the man were down on a hospital bed, the work would go on. And so, taking those days off for the purpose of family bonding should be encouraged.

On the extended maternity leave itself, it is interesting that some people have expressed pessimism. Again, it is because it looks strange to them that women should be ‘compensated’ with six ‘whole’ months of full pay after child birth. But why not when most offices do not provide (standard) creches for nursing mothers, even when it is proved that mothers need to breastfeed their babies exclusively for that period of time for the good health of the infants? A few persons actually admitted that they know this practice exists in some ‘developed’ countries and I asked: so why can’t we do same here in Nigeria, where we pride ourselves as having even greater family-centred values?

A friend even joked that the women may soon be returning from the elongated maternity leave with new pregnancies and ready for another round of maternity leave. I can only say that such incidents already happen with the current three months (or less) maternity leave. So let’s find another solution to that.

It has been suggested that this policy could technically lead to a preference for the recruitment of male, rather than female staff for fear of long period of absence from work. That is another devil we would have to work with the state to deal with.

While we celebrate Lagos State for leading the way among governments in Nigeria on this, we need more efforts to ensure that this is replicated by other governments, including the federal. This is one area we should encourage other governments to struggle to outdo each other.

Oops, sorry I have written enough for the day. I have to go back to cuddle the baby and justify my paternity leave.

Published in The Niche of Sunday July 20, 2014.- See more at: http://www.thenicheng.com/of-paternity-leave-and-longer-maternity-leave/#sthash.jzTV5VXq.dpuf

War chest, what war chest

Citizen A:

Our war chest is lean

And $1bn is needed

Lawmakers say 'aye'

Citizens ask why?

Citizen B:

Our glutton to feed

That this war must be won

What glutton we ask

What war and what chest?

Citizen A:

The glutton is government

The war insurgency

Citizen B:

Which war chest we ask again

Citizen A:

On paper it’s this war

In practice it is...

Sorry it’s quarter past 8pm

My bed time is here

I cannot talk more

Citizen B:

What has quarter past 8 got to do with sleep, war and war chest?

Citizen A:

Quarter past 8pm is 20:15 stupid!

Citizen B:

And the war chest?

Citizen A:

Sorry, I can’t help you. I said 2015, so use your head!

Who is afraid of Voluntary Organisations?

Does the Nigerian parliament really think of voluntary organisations as a major source of all the problems besetting our country today? And do the problems stem mainly from the fact that these voluntary organisations receive financial and other material gifts from outside Nigeria.  How else would one explain the reason behind the move by the House of Representatives to pass a law to restrict the activities of this group, albeit using covert means?

On Wednesday July 2, the House will hold a public hearing on the bill for an Act to: “regulate the acceptance and utilisation of financial/material contribution of donor agencies for voluntary organisations”.

Key provisions of the proposed law would lead to the conclusion that the whole proposal is unnecessary. The bill defines ‘voluntary organisation’ as ‘an association of individuals whether incorporated or not’ while ‘foreign financial contribution’ means ‘any financial donations or transfer made by a foreign source’. The immediate observation here is that this proposed law would regulate the financial transactions of virtually every group, including the ubiquitous ‘committee of friends’ set up to support friends at their wedding planning. It certainly covers organisations set up for defined interests such as cultural, economic, educational, religious and social programmes.

By the provision of the proposed section 2 of the bill, such organisations would be restricted from accepting any foreign financial and material contribution except with the permission of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). Thus, if our hypothetical committee of friends above must receive financial or ‘material’ support from a friend based in a foreign country, e.g. Togo, the committee must first get permission from the ICPC before it can receive such money. It would also have negative impact on foreign remittances by families to groups like town unions.

If this proposal becomes law, it would restrict religious groups from receiving any form of donations from individuals or groups outside the country. This would harm religious groups in two major ways. For those groups with headquarters in Nigeria it means that donations and contributions coming from their members or branches outside the country cannot be received unless the ICPC approves, just like religious groups cannot accept funds from their parent bodies or richer international partners for the advancement of their faith or even for the establishment or supporting of social causes like schools and homes for the less-privileged.

Similar restrictions would apply to international charities and philanthropic organisations such as the Lions Clubs and the Rotary Clubs, whose international foundations have been funding major intervention programmes in Nigeria. The Rotary for instance has been behind the polio eradication projects while the Lions have invested significant sums of money for the eradication of river blindness in Nigeria. All that major funding would be affected by the bottlenecks that would typically bedevil the ICPC process of people applying and waiting for months on end for the approval to come. And knowing that many of these interventions are usually emergencies, requiring prompt action to deploy finances this proposed law would bring more harm than good.

The proposed law attempts to create new duties and responsibilities on the ICPC, even where such duties have already been vested in other statutory bodies. For instance, the requirements about disclosure of sources of funds coming to an organisation from foreign sources are already covered under the Terrorism Prevention Act, the memorandum of understanding signed by the National Planning Commission with some of the voluntary organisations, the Companies and Allied Matters Act and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act. There already exist regulations making it mandatory for banks to report to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) certain payments made into individual or organisational accounts. It is clear that this additional and unnecessary legislation would only lead to more confusion.

But really, what is the reason for the proposal to enact a law as this? If it is about curbing crime, especially terrorism, the Terrorism Prevention Act already covers that. If it is to prevent money laundering, the Money Laundering Act is there. In fact if the above were the case then this bill would have been handled by parliamentary committees related to those issues. Curiously, this bill is being considered by the Committee on Civil Society and Donor Agencies. So we can safely say that this is targeted at curbing the activities of civil society groups. This is because the powers granted the ICPC to permit the receipt of foreign contribution is one that could be abused and used as instruments of control.

Furthermore, by proposing that the regulatory authority can prohibit a voluntary organisation from accepting foreign contribution if it is satisfied that such receipt is likely to affect the sovereignty and integrity of Nigeria, adverse diplomatic relation of any foreign country, cause religious disharmony, or lead to money laundering, the law would inadvertently create room for abuse. It might be similar to the recent overreaching attempt of the commissioner of police in the Federal Capital Territory who purported to ‘outlaw’ the civil actions of some citizens drawing attention to the abducted Chibok Girls.

This bill may be targeted at civil society groups but it would affect all voluntary organisations including churches and mosques. Go figure. So, really, who is afraid of the voluntary organisations, and why?

Every agency has its own crooks

So I set out on Friday afternoon to renew the papers for my car at the Vehicle Inspection Officer’s (VIO) office in Area 1, Abuja. I put a call through to a friend who works in that agency, but in another office location and she suggested which officer I should ask for when I get to the Area 1 office, someone I often meet for the same purpose though.

As I made to branch into the un-tarred part of the road to the VIO’s office, I noticed some of their personnel on the road, running checks on some vehicles to be sure they have their appropriate papers. And so this dude flagged me down, even as I had slowed down completely to negotiate the side road and avoid another car they had stopped. I told him, ‘gentleman I am actually on my way to renew my papers in your office’. He got into my car and asked to go along with me. He also pleads that I help pick up another man standing by there who was going with him to their office. As we moved, he asked to see my current papers and I gave to him, oblivious of the criminal intent of this VIO official.

We got to his office premises and he quickly came down and asked me to park properly and come after him. My fury button began to rise but I kept calm, parked the car and demand my papers from him. The VIO official, no let’s now call him the idiot (because he’d by then proved to be one) insists I must go with him to see his ‘oga’, with whom he expects me to discuss and renew the papers. I told him sternly that I came on my own freewill and I know where exactly I was heading and whom I was going to meet. The criminal-minded fellow would take none of that and says he wants to be ‘lenient’ with me. What on earth was that supposed to mean, I asked him, by which time he had walked into the portacabin housing his ‘oga’, who without even hearing me out had concluded (by her conduct) that her ‘dutiful’ staff had just apprehended an offender in the course of his duty for the day.

I allowed the criminal mind to state his case against me, which in his convoluted mind is that he stopped me and demanded to see my papers only for me to claim that I was actually heading to their office to renew my papers. I tried to correct him there that I was already turning into that side road with intention to go to their office when he approached me. And that was when his equally silly ‘oga’ cautioned me not to try to be ‘smart’.

What the cheek?! I blurted out and insisted I was there on a simple mission of renewing my papers and I did not understand the trash the two of them were talking about. While the man (see I have stopped calling him idiot because I am no longer angry about it) insisted he stopped me, I now told them the officer I was going to meet and the fact that I just spoke with another of their colleagues on phone before coming here.

Next, I asked the corrupt official that assuming his narrative is as he has stated, what is the offence he purports to have against me? You see, this ‘mumu’ of an officer, driven by one single interest: to extort money from a possible vulnerable motorist whose papers he thought were not updated, did not realise that my papers were yet to expire until next week. I then told him that the papers he was clutching on to as if his meals for the weekend depended on were still valid until next week. At that moment, he opened the papers and realised that he had made a fool of himself. His equally complicit superior seeing the shame they had brought on themselves in the full court of visitors and other motorists they may have harassed and squeezed some money from suddenly turned quiet. As a face saver, the man asked for my driver’s licence which I promptly produced and he shamelessly handed over my papers and disappeared while I storm out of the portacabin to transact the legitimate business I came for.

Ha, every agency has its own crooks. Chai! VIO, (pronounced around here as ‘fee-hai-oh’), una can cheat people o. All these lies you are telling, diaris God o!

LOOKING FOR GOOD CONSCIENCE IN PUBLIC SERVICE

Nigeria is a good reference point that good conscience cannot be legislated into existence in the conduct of public affairs. No matter how beautifully crafted a law is, there would always be lacunae. And once there is a lacuna, there would always be some smart (read crooked) operators and interpreters of the law to skew it to meet their ends. It is for this reason that I often say that the most dangerous crook is the one who wears a professional garb; be that person a lawyer, doctor, journalist, banker, engineer, clergy etc. They put their professional knowledge to crooked use to attain crooked results; they manipulate the system, justify the unjustifiable and defend the indefensible. Some apply this crooked means even in the exercise of public duties. And these scoundrels live among us.

We see these so often in the public space. For instance, in the course of law-making, many crooked things happen, including legislating to wealth. And so, for instance, a state legislature made up of persons who are largely helped into office or bought over by a state governor or are outright bootlickers to the governor, can in just one week pass any law proposed by that governor. And because the law, not wanting to unduly leash the legislature, never set any time for the passage of a law, the lawmakers can as well pass the law in a few hours. Even the budget law has been passed in less than two weeks in some states.

Take the case of the notorious passage of laws providing outrageous ‘retirement’ packages for state governors. Many of the laws were passed speedily with little opportunity given for debate or even citizens’ engagement. Public business therefore gets carried out as privately as possible or without any concern about public opinion or outcry.

Another area of abuse in public service is what many law officers of the state do. Let us start with the office of the attorney-general (AG). The constitution gives these officers the sole powers to institute, continue or discontinue any criminal prosecution. It did not give any guide as to when and why the AG could discontinue a case in court and so, in practice, the AG is a law unto him/herself.

There is however an expectation, which is often not met, that someone who holds such an important position would necessarily lift him/herself above the pedestrian level of thinking and the shenanigans that the partisan political class brings into governance. But what do we have instead? We see AGs who desecrate the temple of justice by working in cahoots with the executive arm or the politicos to abuse human rights of citizens and breach the clear positions of the constitution.

I recall how, under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the federal government used crooked means to attempt to remove some state governors from office. In Anambra, Oyo and Plateau states, the minority members of the Houses of Assembly claimed to have suspended the leadership and majority of the members and further purported to have impeached the state governors. While the shenanigans lasted, the federal government favoured the renegades with justification coming from the office of the federal attorney general.

Increasingly, every state facility is being used as personal property of the chief executive and of the political party they belong. At the federal level, the presidential villa regularly hosts meetings (board of trustees and national working committees) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while state government houses also host similar meetings of the respective political parties where each governor belongs. Flags and insignias of political parties are hoisted in government houses, offices of government officials and official cars, thus suggesting that the state is a territory which the political parties capture in political warfare and those facilities are the spoils of war. And when the state governors switch parties, as many of them do, the paraphernalia of the new party of allegiance drape the same old public facilities.

But why do public officers act, not in the public good, but for private gains? Sometimes, it may be sheer ignorance, but it seems that in many instances, these officials never cared for what the public good is about in the first place. This is where the National Orientation Agency (NOA) is again expected to work to fulfil its mandate. It needs to design programmes that would emphasise appreciation of the huge responsibility upon public officials. Professional bodies need to exercise more of their disciplinary roles on members, including when they pervert their professions while carrying out public service. Monitoring bodies and officials, including auditors, should insist on separating private and public costs when reviewing spending. That way, we would see less and less of private expenditure being forced on the rest of us as a collective.

- See more at: http://www.thenicheng.com/looking-for-good-conscience-in-public-service/#sthash.DckwyDev.dpuf

Poor England the football capital

Poor England! The sacred headquarters of world football. Dotted with football cathedrals and sanctuaries. Poor England. Where great football is played each week. Yet when it matters most, England, poor England gets buried. Buried by the great footballers it gives space to play in its football arenas. As I type this, I look around the room, far away here in Nigeria. I see long faces of disappointed fans as England gets unravelled again. (Written, June 19, 2014).