Of tin god governors and sulking senators

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me”.

The above popular quote of Pastor Martin Niemoller came home this past week as senators from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cried foul at the outcome of the ward congresses conducted last weekend by their party. The point must be made straightaway that none of the political parties in Nigeria, not the least, the PDP, has a reputation for free and fair democratic process. So really expecting the outcome of the party’s congress to be without complaint was asking for the impossible.

But then, Senators in Nigeria see themselves as a highly privileged lot, and they are. In fact they are over-pampered by a society very weak on standards and accountability. So our senators often find themselves riding high horses. To rub it in, they cannot do with merely being called senators, so they embellish their title and massage their egos with the epithet, ‘distinguished’, thus creating the superbly hollow title of ‘distinguished senator’ or simply, ‘distinguished’.

In another breath, being in the ‘ruling’ party, just like being of the ‘ruling house’ in some traditional chieftaincy traditions means that you can ride roughshod over others and even get away with blue murder sometimes, still because of our weak standards and system of accountability as a society.

Now, imagine that someone is not only a ‘distinguished’ senator but also member of the ruling party, PDP in Nigeria. That is a combo of privileges too awesome to imagine. Such people would literally be walking on air, not just riding on high horses. But for anyone who knows a thing about high horses, a time comes when their riders get down, either of their own volition or forcefully. When that happens, they realise how things feel everyday for those who cannot afford horses like them.

That is what happened to some PDP senators after the ward congress which indicated that the may be on their ways down their high horses. It turned out that those who did them in were their state governors, who, having amassed much larger electioneering war chests than the senators, hijacked the typically skewed and inherently undemocratic process in their parties. As many of the senators seek fresh terms in the senate, the governors; being on the homeward coast of their maximum two terms of four years each, have taken it upon themselves to demand a ‘right of first refusal’ as senatorial candidates.

It is all too laughable but that is Nigeria for you. First, the governors, just like the president and/or their supporters claimed that doing a second term in office is a given ‘right’, once they are sworn in the first time. Now, the governors have decided to push their luck farther by suggesting that after eight years as governor, they must be crowned with the senate seats as part of a retirement package. That is where the interests of the tin gods called state governors and those of the senators have collided and as is often the case with our politics, the interest of the persons with the deeper pockets (never mind the source) prevails, unless upturned by another interest with a much higher war chest, in this case the president. And that explains why the sulking senators were pushing him. And not wanting to upturn the applecart, he reportedly agreed on a ‘sharing’ formula whereby the governors get a senate seat they want and allow two senate seats for sitting senators. And the people? Who says they matter in political party equations here?

Many citizens have suffered in the hands of these tin gods in the states and the senators did nothing because they were not at the receiving ends. Often they dined and wined with their governors. So why are the senators sulking now simply because they have been outfoxed by smarter foxes? Oh please, these senators should let us be? All along when they were on chummy-chummy basis with their governors, sucking up to them and getting sundry benefits and support from their state coffers at the detriment of the citizens, we never heard of it. So now that they are suffering there are few people to speak up for them. As politicians, these same senators have helped create the very unfair and undemocratic cabal headed by governors. Interestingly some of these sulking senators are themselves former governors who wielded similar powers upon which they made themselves senators.

The sad fact about all this bickering is that the people and their interests do not matter at all. State governors and senators are fighting for elective positions between themselves and none is talking about wooing the people to vote them in. That sadly is how they play politics here and it is called ‘democracy’, their kind of democracy. Until they allow true democracy prevail, they will continue to suffer like this.

http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?p=166026 

How I met Stranger on the Shore, on a Bridge

I grew up listening to and picking up some good music, the type often said to be for mature minds. Well, I couldn’t possibly have got used to anything else but such music as I was my grandfather’s pet and whenever I was at his place, it was good jazz for the asking. I literally sat down at my maternal grandfather’s feet listening to music from his gramophone. As young as I was then (that was even before I started school) I still remember what ‘Papa’ or ‘Ete’ looked like – a tall, elderly man in white hair who regularly smoked ‘Bicycle’ cigarette. His love for tea drinking was unbeatable and I became his disciple in that lifestyle. He had a pump pot for brewing the stuff and even though I was but a toddler, dragging along my big belly-button about, I knew the tea time or could read the tell-tale signs and often arrived timeously with my cup in hand for my share.  Another remembrance of him was that whenever we the grand children visited him the visit often ended with gifts, including a packet of good old cabin biscuit.

I may no longer live up to the name ‘Ete Tea’, a designation I got from my late older cousin; but one thing my closeness to my grandpa has kept running in me is the taste for jazz music. So as I grew older I kept remembering some of my grandpa’s collections of jazz music whose names and artistes I never knew. I found myself humming to the tunes, yet no knowing how to search for them, even with technology because I didn’t know their titles or artistes.

Fast-forward to 2004 or thereabouts, somewhere in Lagos, some 27 years after the passage of grandpa, on my way to my office one afternoon. I saw on a pedestrian bridge, a young man displaying and selling some music CDs. I stopped and picked two volumes of The Jazz Album 2003. I got into the office that afternoon and decided to savour good jazz music. Track after track, I enjoyed; some familiar and some not so familiar. Then, just then, the track came on...one of my grandfather’s favourite jazz music and I SCREEEEEEAAAAAMED!  Oh my God, that was it. So what was it called again, I quickly checked – yea...it was ‘Stranger on the Shore’ by Acker Bilk! Boy, I had to search out this Acker Bilk guy online and savour his other songs. His artistry on the clarinet was awesome.

But why this long discussion about a Stranger on the Shore whom I ‘met’ at my grandpa’s feet and re-established contact with on the bridge, more than 30 years after? It is because, like we expect of every life, it comes to an end some day. And so, on Sunday November 2, 2014, Acker Bilk, whose real name was Bernard Stanley Bilk died at 85. He was a vocalist and clarinettist. His Stranger on the Shore lasted more than 50 weeks on the UK music chart for 1962, peaking at number two. It was also the first number one single in the US by a British artist. Many of us will surely miss him. 

Tambuwal’s defection and police’ ominous reaction

“In view of the recent defection by the Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tanbuwal, CFR, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the People Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC), and having regard to the clear provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has redeployed its personnel attached to his office.”

The above is how the Nigeria Police Force justified the decision of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to order the withdrawal of security personnel attached to Mr Tambuwal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

While the Nigerian Constitution frowns upon defection by legislators and specifies they must lose their seats, it gives exception for such defection in certain circumstances. Politicians have since the first legislature of the current democratic rule, always tried to rely on that exception as justification for their defections. Until a court of competent jurisdiction decides whether any particular defection should receive the punishment, all other positions on the issue are mere academic and at best, legal opinions. On that score, Tambuwal cannot be seen as having lost his seat as member of the House of Representatives.

Assuming, but not admitting that the IGP is right to the interpretation above, the same constitutional section has also stated in subsection 2, how a defecting member can lose his/her seat in parliament. It gives power to the Speaker of the House to “give effect to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, so however that the...Speaker of the House of Representatives or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House concerned that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of that member. Clearly, the decision not to recognise a person as member of the House lies within the House.

Yet another argument raised by those not happy with Tambuwal’s defection is that since he no longer belongs to the majority party in the House, he cannot remain the Speaker. That again is mere wishful thinking and opinion, not the law and not the intendment of the Constitution. By Section 50(1)(b) of the Constitution, there shall be  a Speaker of the House of Representatives, “who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves”. Nowhere in the Constitution is there any requirement that the Speaker must belong to the party with a majority in the House or that the person must be nominated or sponsored to the position by a political party. Interestingly, Tambuwal’s emergence as Speaker ran contrary to the wishes of his party then, the PDP, which actually proposed another member for the position. Tambuwal however won the position on his own merit, owing to the trust he had with majority of the representatives.

That said, the only lawful means to remove a speaker of the House is as provided by the Constitution under Section 50(2)(c). And to do so, they require the votes of “not less than two-thirds majority of the members of that House”, which is 241 members for the 360-member House of Representatives. Therefore, even if, for the purpose of argument, it can be proved that the right to lead the House is reserved for members of the party in majority or that Tambuwal no longer commands the support of at least 241 members of the House, the only way to prove and effect that is at a duly-constituted session of the House.  

For the police IGP to therefore purport not to recognise Tambuwal as Speaker and proceed to withdraw security aides attached to his office is an abuse of power and must be condemned. It is indeed a sad day and season for our country. Sad, because the IGP has not only usurped the interpretative powers of the court over the Constitution, but more because even in the interpretation, he is clearly confusing the law with his opinion. The last time we saw such happen was under Obasanjo when he and his cohorts created for themselves, the power to interpret the Supreme Court judgment asking the Federal Government to release funds meant for the local governments in Lagos State.

It is sad because the IGP is the chief custodian of law and order but he seems to have moved too fast to take a position which questions the neutrality of the organisation he sits atop. It is sad because the IGP, either intentionally or unintentionally has descended into the political playing field. And trust our politicos; they will attack him on all sides. The APC will accuse him of working for PDP and if he tries to reverse himself, he will be attacked by the PDP. And when that happens he will have no one but himself to blame.

It is a sad day and season because the IGP’s action is a sad reminder of the era of IGP Sunday Adewusi (1981 to 1983), where the police were accused of working in cahoots with the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the 1983 general elections. Such unholy alliance was part of what brought the Second Republic of Nigeria to its disastrous end. Another general election season is here, with elections expected in 2015 and here we are dancing to a similar ominous dance. Is anyone thinking?

See also at: http://www.thenicheng.com/tambuwals-defection-polices-ominous-reaction/#sthash.MymYxqNQ.dpbs

THE POWERFUL EFFECT OF A little MISTAKE

Today (October 31, 2014) has been a handful for me, actually for my phone. It started sometime after 9am when I got a call from a fellow who said he was interested in the job of a 'house help' as requested by me. House help? What house help? I told him he must have called a wrong number. Soon after we ended that call, another person called from Onitsha for the same purpose, saying a certain 'madam' needed house help and they were calling the number, my number to speak with the woman.
It was obvious to me that there was a mistake, but just to be sure, I called my OMATT (oh, don't be a learner, that means 'oga madam at the top') to ask if by any chance she sent out request to hire a 'house help' and forgot to inform me. The answer was negative.
So what was this about? some joke or what? Just then a woman called and this time spoke in Igbo, which language I don't understand (hey, don't just go there because I know where your mind is heading). Many more calls came in and several buzz (flash in our Nigerian parlance) of my line. Some even sent me 'call me back' messages.
I became curious and started asking later callers where they got the message from. I was told it was on a live radio programme in Anambra. That was when I knew it would be a long day of a troubled phone line, so help my battery God.
I searched for any such radio with a name like Radio Satianta (which is what I thought I heard one of the callers say when I asked him) with a view to asking them to correct their message but to no avail. So now it's been about 12 hours and whenever my phone rings and I can't tell who the caller is, I wonder if that is one of my potential 'house helps'.
And to think that all these troubles happened because someone made one 'little' mistake with a singe digit in the telephone number given on air. So, while some poor woman in need of a 'house help' is out there in Anambra wondering why nobody has shown interest by calling her, an innocent man here in Abuja is having his phone battery drained by misinformed prospects.
That, my friends, is the power of a LITTLE mistake.

And Nigeria conquered Ebola

This past week, Nigeria had its moment in the sun as the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially declared it ‘Ebola-free’. It was a journey that took us three months to complete. It also set us back financially. But more importantly and most painfully, we lost some of our wonderful citizens and health professionals. No need to brood over the fact that the virus was not autochthonous to Nigeria, but came from you-know-where and who. Let’s just allow ebola-gones be ebola-gones.

Let’s look at all the sides of that unfortunate incident and the nearly three-month long stress and fear we collectively went through as a country. It even led to panic measures such as the laughable bitter kola and the salt water therapies which also caused us international embarrassment. Of course, many people also made a tidy treasure of the situation in the sale of personal hygiene products at exorbitant prices.

On a brighter side, though, the situation brought us changed and more hygienic lifestyles. We learned not to take chances about a lot of things. Hand-washing became central to every gathering and hand sanitisers became new-found partners to many people. I observe that those little bottles of hand sanitisers have increasingly pushed out the bottles of ‘anointing oil’ often carried by some people like amulets.

Our victory over Ebola did not come easy. We even shut down our schools until we were properly prepared to handle students. Today in many schools, there are preventive measures taken against Ebola and other infections. And our children, whom we worried about more, are gradually becoming hygiene ambassadors, reminding others to wash their hands and use sanitisers regularly. I even hear there is an Ebola awareness anthem in one of the states. That’s the power of a campaign that targets everyone.

But we must recall the initial panic, where, as usual, we thought the solution necessarily lay outside Nigeria. I remember the desperation with which we went begging the United States for the use of a trial drug it kept close to its chest. And when we were denied, many citizens thought we were on the road to more suffering, while accusing the U.S. of double standards.

Talking about not just the U.S. but the Western world, the outbreak of Ebola also helped to unravel a few things about them. When the Ebola virus broke out in Nigeria, many citizens opined that we should stop flights from countries with high incidence of the virus or even close our borders to them. But a particular advisory supposedly from the Center for Diseases Control (CDC) of the U.S., quoted by some U.S. agencies, said it was unnecessary to do so as infection of co-passengers was very slim.

Fast forward to October (just three months after), with infections recorded in U.S. and a few Western countries, the attitude seems to have changed. Now flights from the ‘country’ they call Africa are held in suspicion. During the week, I had to call attention of online respondents on a U.S. news website that there are 54 countries in Africa and that even if three countries therein had cases of Ebola, it was no reason to stigmatise people from the entire continent. Apparently, the attitude of the West stemmed from more than double standards, but more about ignorance of geography. After all, didn’t the renowned Cable News Network (CNN) publish a West African map designating Nigeria where Niger is?

Well, it’s good to know that Ebola is out of the way now. We all deserve to share in the pride, just as we were together in the fear, panic and even stigmatisation while it lasted. The point must be made again that our sense of hygiene and attention to health issues has been the better for it after the dark cloud.

But we shouldn’t forget the sacrifices of our compatriots who went down with Ebola for the rest of us to stay safe. Neither should we forget the lessons and new lifestyle we imbibed during that sad period. We should sustain the tempo and remain alert. One fact we must acknowledge and work on is that if we came together to defeat Ebola, there are lots of other things we can come together to also fight and conquer. How about corruption? How about terrorism?

http://www.thenicheng.com/nigeria-conquered-ebola/#sthash.J4wnDWQR.dpbs 

Deepening culture of official extortion

With the introduction of access fees for prospective corps members under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), we can safely say that Nigeria has turned full circle in its culture of official extortion. Under the arrangement, fresh graduates, who are meant to undergo compulsory one year of service to fatherland, are now required to access their letter of mobilisation online; to do so, they are forced to pay N4,000 as access fee.

Before you think someone is just making that up to discredit the NYSC, listen to the ‘justification’ coming from the Director General of NYSC, Brig. Gen. Johnson Olawumi: “Benefits associated with the full computerisation of the mobilisation process are unquantifiable when lives of prospective corps members that would be saved from road accidents are taken into account.”

Wow! That must go down in record as one of the most imaginative official explanations for official extortion. In order words, for NYSC so loved the youth that it forced them to pay N4,000; that whosoever of them has to go for youth service shall not be exposed to road accident but be blessed virtually.

It is totally unacceptable to charge prospective corps members a fee for being called upon to serve their country, more so when the service is specified and made compulsory by law. Even if many see the service as a form of employment and therefore financially beneficial to the participants, it is still unconscionable to extort these youths on their way to working for the country or earning their potentially first income.

This bizarre way of doing things didn’t start with the NYSC though. Seven months ago, it was a shocked nation that found out that the Ministry of Interior was extorting N1,000 from each hapless youth desperate to be recruited into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). At the end of the day, the recruitment was so badly bungled, leading to scores of citizens being trampled to death in various locations across the country. And as it has become standard practice here, nobody was reprimanded, let alone punished, for either the extortion or the deaths of citizens. The dead simply died in vain and a certain Abba Moro, under whose watch the disaster happened, still struts on as minister.

It is even more worrisome to know that fees are also charged for applications into the military forces in Nigeria. In May this year, the Nigerian Army put a fee of N2,500 to access its recruitment application portal.

It would be important for NYSC and other fee-for-employment agencies to tell us which consultancy firms are behind these internet extortions on behalf of the organisations and where the proceeds from these are paid into and accounted for. Do these agencies pay these sums to the coffers of government? Do the sums form part of the revenues of government which, by the provisions of the constitution, must go into the consolidated revenue fund?

As straight-forward a fraud as these extortions seem, many citizens would still not get it that it is the responsibility of the person who wishes to hire someone to serve it to foot the bill for such hiring. But in Nigeria, we have perfected the art of working in reverse order, such that the ridiculous becomes the norm.

But even if some citizens do not appreciate the illegality in this or are weak to resist it, one expects the government, especially the legislature, to know better and put a stop to this.

The truth, though, is that the legislature has made very lame efforts in the past to curb this, but failed to ensure compliance. For instance, in October 2013, the House of Representatives joint committee on Public Service Matters, Employment, Labour and Productivity as well as those of Anti-corruption, National Ethics and Values directed the NIS to refund the illegal amount it charged applicants.

Apparently, the directive was ignored. Even when the disaster with the recruitment occurred five months later, nothing still happened to enforce the directive. The question then is: where is that committee in all these?

http://www.thenicheng.com/deepening-culture-extortion/#sthash.9upbHrI7.4WUYitUD.dpbs

Our democracy and representation disaster

An interesting incident during last week’s Sallah – an innocuous social media posting by me and a barrage of comments and queries following that – set me thinking about how much of democracy we have really imbibed in Nigeria after 15 years of, well, democratic rule. One must quickly make the point that at the heart of democracy is the representation of the interests of citizens by a select few, chosen by the majority. 

What triggered everything was the presentation of a greeting card to President Goodluck Jonathan by his Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Olajumoke Akinjide, wherein the media reported that she made the presentation ‘on behalf of residents of Abuja’.

Being a resident of Abuja myself and not being aware of any mandate we gave the minister to make the presentation, I posed a rhetoric question about that and soon enough I got a mixed bag of reactions. While I recognised each person’s entitlement to their views, I was worried, however, when citizens failed to see beyond the ordinary event of a card presentation and claims of representation.

I made the point that because Abuja residents did not discuss, agree, endorse, mandate or otherwise authorise a card issued on our behalf. The actions of the minister failed the test of representation known to democracy. In fact, if the report had said the card was presented by some Abuja residents (privileged, connected to or ‘worshipping’ in the corridors of power), I would not have complained.

And truly, I have no problem with anyone or any group of persons presenting or sending greeting cards to the president. I was simply using the event as a peg to raise issues as to how decisions are purportedly taken on behalf of citizens and mandates wrongly assumed and appropriated, without the knowledge of the supposed constituents. I was looking at issues of mandate, representation, citizens’ right to speak for themselves, public space etc.

I recall how, as a one year resident in the United Kingdom, I regularly received newsletter delivered to my house from the councillor of my constituency, informing me (and other residents) of previous and upcoming debates in the city council and seeking our views. On one occasion, we were informed of the debates for and against the proposed siting of a communications mast in our neighbourhood.

By contrast, in Nigeria, there is proliferation of cabals and caucuses, populated and constituted arbitrarily, and all purporting to speak for the rest of the society. Often, the only whiff of link to the people’s mandate is, as in the instant case, being appointed to a political position. It is specious for such persons to assume mandates that do not exist in a democracy.

I recall an interesting scenario during the attempt to foist ‘third term’ on Nigerians under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Then many senators kept saying in the chambers and to a live television audience that they had consulted their constituencies and their constituencies mandated them to support ‘third term’. A former state governor dismissed the claim of the senator representing him, saying the man never held any consultation with the people but was merely regurgitating the position of a select group of self-serving and self-preserving politicians that called itself the ‘state forum’. The senator never responded to that allegation.

  

It is in the character of many politicians to claim mandates and powers they know they don’t have. What is worrisome, however, is where the citizens, including the elite class, display ignorance of the illegitimacy of such claim or acquiesce thereto, sometimes for selfish or pecuniary interests. Somebody actually said that by the minister’s appointment, she is working daily on our behalf; so “she has the mandate to make any presentation for whoever is resident in Abuja”. It is this same mentality that makes state governors promise candidates in election that they will deliver all the votes of their states to the candidate, even when the governor has only one valid vote. And the citizens in that state will be celebrating in their ignorance that their ‘leader’ has spoken.

If after 15 years of uninterrupted constitutional governance, citizens are still locked in discussing such pedestrian issues as above, then we are far away from redemption and our democracy is skin deep. As we say around here, we don enter one chance vehicle.

- See more at: http://www.thenicheng.com/democracy-representation-disaster/#sthash.Z2tjvo9p.dpuf