What A Country!

“Oil below $60 as FG presents 2015 budget to N’Assembly” was the headline in one of the national dailies on Wednesday, December 17. The question I asked myself was: How come we squandered our petrodollars in times of plenty and now that crude oil price has slumped, we are biting our fingers and imposing short-sighted austerity measures? The same crude oil selling for less than $60 per barrel sold for well over $100 dollars consistently in the past four years. What did we do with its proceeds? Those who think we will continue to accrue bumper oil money should think again, as things have changed on the international market.  Things are changing fast, but like the bad planner that we are, we haven’t changed our economic dance steps to the rhythm of global realities.

Characteristic of our leaders, what we get is contradicting reports. Today, the President says “no shaking, oil prices will not affect us”, tomorrow the Minister of Finance would say “brace up for austerity measures”! Talk is cheap; all we do is talk about diversifying our economy to depend less on oil. But it ends there; nobody is thinking about the devastating disaster a sharp and continued drop in global demand for our crude oil would portend. The value of the naira drops daily, we all know the effect that has on our economy. Here we are!  Our appetite for immediate gratification has ensured that our country’s resources are plundered. As a result, we its people have become blind to sustainable routes to economic growth and development.

Now the queues have returned to filling stations, just in time when people are making plans to travel for Christmas and New Year festivities. Nigerians are still being charged the expensive old petroleum price when it has crashed. The truth is, at 97 naira per litre, even with total removal of subsidy, we are still paying too much for petrol going by the present reality. But our immediate gratification assumes topmost priority when we sell our God-given petroleum as crude oil and import it as finished products through some unwholesome middlemen. That is what we are paying for. So whilst I agree with PENGASSAN, we groan at the pain it causes us. But we must bear it and support them.

There are no measures attesting to our ability to ask: “what-if?” We do not even follow global trends to understand that today’s global economy does not support and cannot sustain our leaders’ avarice.  While we spend our petrodollars on concurrent luxuries such as exorbitant salaries and allowances for political office holders, those we sell to are getting closer and closer to energy self-sufficiency. In practical terms, our crude oil may be worth a lot less in an ever-changing world. Developed nations are dealing with this situation as they have lost so much of their manufacturing base to the Far East. We cannot afford to get caught with our pants down.       

Nigeria’s earnings from oil continue to plummet this year. It has been estimated that this might result in a $12billion shortfall of budgetary estimates, or more. And despite dipping our hands into the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to augment the deficit, we are still playing catch up. State governments have experienced as much as a 50 percent reduction in their allocations. The account that is supposed to be our Sovereign Wealth Fund, which should insulate our economy from external shocks, has also been plundered and drained. 

If oil price continues its free fall, production is disrupted and the 80,000-barrels-a-day oil theft goes on unabated, we will keep dipping into the ECA until it runs dry, as there is no magic to progress.

    

According to the Gross Summary of Statutory Revenue Allocation and VAT released by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in March 2013, apart from Akwa Ibom (N22, 205,383,781); Bayelsa (N13, 350,351,654); Delta (N17, 057,045,907); Rivers (N20, 934,686,737); Kano (N12, 333,095,855) and Lagos (N14, 219,026,551), no other state got up to 10billion naira from the Federation Account. In many of these states, internally generated revenue is near zero. For instance, Plateau State got N6, 099,168,412 during the month in review, and has only succeeded in generating just over 6billion in IGR between January and October. The state makes roughly 600million in IGR per month; a paltry 10 percent of its monthly allocation. This is why any reduction in the Federation Account allocation creates panic among states. This simply is not good enough.

The way to go is to look inwards. The Minister of Agriculture has promised that agric would be Nigeria’s petrol. Enugu should be saying the same about coal and Zamfara about gold. I could go on and on. But where will we find the investment today to make this a reality?

We need sound leadership, so apart from our security challenges, the economy should be another crucial reason why we must “shine our eyes” before casting our votes come February and thereafter protect those votes. 

OUR MEDIOCRE SITUATION

We are just having primaries and look at the rigging that is going on already. These are people of the same party, flouting their own rules; cheating themselves. Internal democracy has eluded both the ruling party and the so-called opposition party. What hope for the common man on the street? Where will we find this discipline that we so badly lack? This is why things just don’t work the way that they are supposed to over here. We are so insincere. We can turn it around in a very short time and very quickly enjoy the standards that we only witness elsewhere in the world. But are we prepared to do what it takes to achieve that?

We cannot think that we have either come to this world to only suffer or purely to enjoy. We must collectively all make sacrifices, otherwise our situation will implode and we will not have a country, either to lead or to be led in.  Remember the deal we have with God? He gave us something called “A free will.” A huge responsibility, we are allowed to do as we please but there are always consequences, either for the good or the bad. We shall atone for our actions. But it goes even further than that.  Each one of us has a built-in success mechanism, we are actually built to succeed but we have a free will! We are human and we will make mistakes and or make right or wrong choices. The quantum of these right or wrong decisions determines whether we are successful or not in the long term.

Why do some societies do better than others? It is because they are better prepared.  What patterns in our behaviour, in our environment make one set of people or certain individuals more disciplined, quicker to learn and more success-orientated than others?  Are we too uncomfortable or maybe even too comfortable? Do we feel that we have ownership of our society or do we feel powerless and on the fringes?

I think that the problem is that some of us are just able to hold the rest to ransom.  We think we are powerless to change the status quo, so if we cannot beat them then we join them or cower in fear, muttering “God dey”. Our structures have therefore been compromised. There are no consequences for bending rules or openly flouting them. Protocols have been broken. Impunity reigns and even judges collect money. If we still wonder why our democracy still fits into Fela’s definition of it as a “demonstration of craze”, the answer is in our inability do things the right way.

Do we have the kind of leadership that can properly enforce the structures that are in place, improve on them, give us ownership and create wealth for the nation? Is the infrastructure there to allow for this enabling environment? Do our current leaders understand that we need this infrastructure and without it cannot make progress? Do we have the brainpower to implement these sets of rules and give adequate consideration for the contract between us all? Are our taxes properly applied so that we all can take ownership of this big society and feel secure in the sense that our toil will not be in vain and will provide for our future?

We need to be able to answer all these questions in the affirmative, otherwise we will continue to fracture and live in the mess that is this mediocrity.  We are already experiencing the results of the negativity that is our society. We shall continue to be impoverished and will soon be beggars and cripples, orphans and widows, prematurely in our own land. Nothing in government is done on merit anymore. Imagine what it is to be up in arms as we become more desperate. It is being experienced all around us now. There is no dignity in it.

We must be interested in the polity around us and get up and be counted. We should not allow our destinies to be dictated by a cabal. We should be more resolute each time a bomb goes off and people are killed or maimed. We should hold our leaders to account for the failure in our society. And ensure that step by step we demand equity in the polity. We should choose and associate ourselves with potential leaders based on merit. Our future depends on it.

MY PRESIDENT!

Colourful posters, billboards, radio and TV jingles and newspaper adverts sponsored by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election in 2015 are all we hear and see these days. Despite not being the subject of this article, it is difficult not to talk about TAN when talking about Jonathan. Long before Jonathan shut down Abuja to state the obvious, “After seeking the face of God, in quiet reflection with my family and having listened to the call of our people nationwide...” TAN had commenced a full-fletched campaign for the president by securing signatures across the country “begging” him to run for 2015. Okada riders, whose activities are illegal in the Federal Capital, were said to have contributed for the president to purchase his nomination form. Widows, market women and youth groups were not left out of the financial assistance to Mr President!

So, one either turns on the radio to listen to how President Jonathan has achieved the unachievable on the economy, or switch on the TV and watch a “moving” comparison of Jonathan with the worlds greats, dead and alive. Colourful billboards capturing sector-by-sector pictographs of Jonathan’s achievements overwhelm us in Abuja. No doubt, a lot of energy was put into TAN and its media campaign. If a quarter of this effort were expended on the real business of governance, the president wouldn’t have required the services of TAN in the first place.

Now that the president has declared and the rented crowds which stormed Abuja to beseech him have been dispatched, we should ask ourselves: Has our president done enough to deserve re-election? On the economy, the president echoed the same figures and indices used by the finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, each time she tries hard to portray the economy as growing. But in reality, we know that the economy is only growing on paper. Our petrodollar-dependent economy has shown its vulnerability more than ever, now that consumer countries are seeking alternative sources of energy. We also know that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA), as well as states and local governments, have constantly been under-allocated from the federation account. This can’t be the mark of a buoyant economy.

     

Security is a no-go area. The president’s spin doctors have been tactical in handling government’s inability to tackle insecurity in the land by propounding various conspiracy theories.  Three times now government fighters have “killed” Shekau, the leader of the terrorist group Boko Haram, yet the man has risen three times from the dead to perpetrate even greater evil against the Nigerian people. Our army has been routed in the North East and the Boko Haram flag hoisted in Mubi, yet when Mr President took over power, Boko Haram was a small group of fundamentalist insurgents on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Borno State. Today, the group lays claim to 17 local government areas across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. It has also intensified its spread by attacking Bauchi and Gombe, Abuja, Kaduna, Kogi, Kano and Niger. We have Nigerian refugees in all the neighbouring states and our children are killed now on a daily basis.

The president said millions of youths have been employed in various schemes. But Abba Moro, his interior minister, is a living witness to that farce. Under his watch, thousands of unemployed Nigeria’s were defrauded, hundreds were wounded and many died trying to secure employment. SURE-P, which promised to re-invest proceeds from the subsidy removal into massive infrastructural development and job creation, is almost a forgotten entity. What we know of SURE-P is its red buses running the Nyanya-Berger route. What of the rest of Nigeria? No subsidy thief has been brought to justice as promised. We cannot even start talking about what has not been achieved in terms of corruption. Rather than improve, power supply has dropped because those power generating and distributing companies which PHCN was sold to lack the capacity to turn-around the power sector and rolling out the gas infrastructure is simply too slow.

Our health sector is still in shambles. Issues that led to the doctors’ strike shortly before the Ebola outbreak are still unresolved. We still have the second highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world and after the God-given success in containing Ebola, the health union is just about to go on strike again as the government has not honoured its commitments. What then are the yardsticks for measuring government’s achievements in this sector?

The government has decided to create new federal universities while existing ones wallow in poor funding and decayed infrastructure. There has been a steady decline in WAEC pass rates since 2011, so who will occupy these new universities and where are the jobs?

What we need is Fresh Air so, along with you, INEC willing, we shall conquer.

STRUCTURE AND THE LAW

At the last constitutional amendment exercise, lawmakers failed to address the issue of defection from one political party to another. It is clear that our politicians do not fully appreciate how dearly their vicissitude and manipulation of the polity will cost. This is one ill that is not peculiar to any political party; they are all of the same cloth and all abuse our mandates.  The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Party (APC), as well as the remnant of other parties such as APGA and Labour Party, are guilty of this political prostitution, they all applaud whenever a strong politician switches allegiance. However, the ruling party has not taken the formal announcement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, of his defection from the PDP to APC lightly.

Tambuwal has always been a double-edged sword and has fought vigorously for the independence of the House. This has not endeared him to his party. In this respect Tambuwal, the man, must be commended. He has tried to stand up for the truth and has gone against his party whenever he has felt that they are steering the polity off course. This quality is required and must be admired in the House of Representatives. He has spoken his mind and has on occasion criticized President Goodluck Jonathan. For instance, it was Tambuwal who made the “your-body-language-encourages-corruption” statement to the President.

President Jonathan and his party are now ready for a war that would consume Tambuwal’s political career and attempt to render him worthless to APC. His security detail has been withdrawn in a similar fashion to the fate of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and former Governor Murtala Nyako suffered when they defected. Meetings are being held to exploit loopholes in the 1999 Constitution to institute impeachment proceedings against Tambuwal the way the Emir of Kano was tactically removed from office as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. My two cents to Mr. President is that he should tread with caution.  The consequences can be grave in deciding how to tackle this matter if not handled with legitimacy and decorum. The Speaker is fully aware of his own strengths. He is aware of the fact that unseating him could lead to the PDP losing its fragile numerical strength in the House. What a mess all this uncertainty brings!

Section 50(1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution states thus: “There shall be a Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.” What party these principal officers should belong to is a matter for their determination. The PDP should not cry over spilled milk when, only weeks ago, they were the beneficiary of cross-carpeting in Governor Segun Mimiko. The people of Ondo State did not vote the PDP into power; they voted for the Labour Party. But the governor defected to the PDP without vacating his office as governor. Why the double standards?  A former APC executive, Tom Ikimi, recently decamped to the PDP to a rousing welcome, so was the case of former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff. What is different now?

    

Had we done the right thing by putting the matter of cross carpeting to bed ab initio in interpreting our constitution correctly, we would not be in this messy situation. Every politician here wants to take advantage of the lopsided advantage presented by this loophole, and now it is overheating the polity and threatening to disrupt civil order. My take on this issue of decamping has not changed: A defector who holds an elective seat is a thief if he/she defects and holds on to that seat. The people should not tolerate it because he/she has robbed the electorate. The courts should have been called upon a long time ago to clarify this. The last attempt by the High Court in Ekiti State to interpret a law, culminated in the court being overrun by thugs and the judge being beaten. And this is Nigeria in 2014!

As beneficiaries of our lax political system, our representatives in the legislative arm of government have refused to tackle the matter from the standpoints of morality, good governance and the law; something they swore to do. If Ondo people wanted a PDP candidate, they would have voted for the late Olusegun Agagu instead of Mimiko. If the Sokoto electorate wanted an APC rep, they wouldn’t have voted for Tambuwal. Ordinarily, mandates cannot be transferred unless an aggrieved party steps down and elections are held to replace him.

Institutionalizing weak institutions will blow up in our faces and will overheat the polity. The President would do well in protecting and tasking the Judiciary to clarify and put his house in order.

EBOLA AND SUCCESS

This is a spectacular success story. It shows that Ebola can be contained but we must be clear that we have only won a battle; the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola.

It was with these words that the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative, Rui Gama Vaz, declared Nigeria Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) free, after 42 days or two incubation periods of 21 days each. These days, with glad tidings few and far between, we cannot harp enough on the importance of this piece of cheering news. I have since read and watched various foreign media analyses on how we got this one right. However, we all seem to miss the divine intervention that was key to our success here. It must be now clear to the whole world that Nigeria is God’s own country. The divine so worked out for Nigeria that even our shortcomings became sources of strength in tackling Ebola. Hallelujah!

Our penchant for fright as a people is well perceived. Maybe this could be traced to years of demoralising military dictatorship and civilian recklessness. Our day-to-day life is ruled by fear so when the index case of Ebola was announced, we had more than enough reasons to panic. We knew how inadequate our health facilities were and how ill-equipped the few in existence were. We understand the situation of our land and sea borders; how porous and susceptible to external infiltration we are. In fact, we know how possible it is for aircraft to depart or enter our airports, and how due process can always be sacrificed when some naira notes exchange hands. Above all, doctors in the public health sector were on strike! Facing the menacing Ebola virus seemed insurmountable by our standards.

Right from the moment Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer set foot on our soil, God’s providence started fighting Ebola on our behalf. That this first case was recorded in Lagos (and not elsewhere else) was highly significant to its containment. And what if the man wasn’t admitted at Dr Ohiri’s First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, in Lagos, where one of his hero doctors, the late Ameyo Adadevoh, was on hand? Dr Adadevoh was harassed, pressured, intimidated and even threatened with a lawsuit to release Sawyer, but the hospital stood their ground and quarantined the diplomat. Those of us who know Obalende would understand the danger had they succumbed to intimidation and released Sawyer.  The late Dr Adadevoh was a great-grandchild of one of Nigeria’s early nationalists, Herbert Macaulay. May her soul rest in peace. Also, the majority of the 8 fatalities recorded during the outbreak were health workers. They were national heroes by the strictest definition of the word. Bravo to the private sector.

Above all, we saw how government should work during the outbreak. There was synergy, sincerity, accountability and a high sense of responsibility to the people. The Lagos State government and the Federal Ministry of Health worked collaboratively with development partners. There were joint press conferences and a single information clearinghouse. We didn’t have to hear from Professor Onyebuchi and then wait for Governor Fashola’s version.  Response and tracking mechanisms were near impeccable, as shown when the virus was transported to Rivers State. Once there, similar concerted effort, commitment and hard work were put into containing the situation. For once, we did not have to devise conspiracy theories and finger pointing. No political gimmicks played out, despite the fact that cases were recorded in Lagos and Rivers – APC-controlled states. Perhaps, this is an instructive factor in the victory over Ebola.

While we celebrate victory over Ebola, we should hearken to the counsel of Rui Gama Vaz that, “Nigeria’s geographical position and extensive borders makes the country vulnerable to additional imported cases of Ebola Virus Disease.” We must therefore share our success story with our ravaged West African brothers by teaching and comparing notes with them on how to tackle the disease. Also, there are still challenges in our health sector. This victory should not be used to mask those challenges. 

However, by far our biggest lesson in containing the Ebola virus is that we’ve been given a first hand template of how things should work. If we intend to grow as a nation, Ebola has offered us a model. We cannot solve our problems divided, embittered and intolerant. We cannot solve our problems without carrying the people along and without being accountable to them. The way to solve our problems is the way we cheer the Super Eagles when they do us proud and how we criticize them when we are let down. No APC, no PDP; no Christian, no Muslim; no North, no South; no Yoruba, no Ibo, no Hausa; just Nigeria. That is the way to go.

THE ALL-ABOUT-ME-NO-MATTER-WHAT SYNDROME

The Adamawa State power tussle, where the immediate-past acting governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, has returned to his previous post as the speaker of the house is a classic case. Fintiri’s four-month reign as the chief executive of the state highlighted the confusion that has been created in Adamawa by the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP’s) quest for power. From the onset, it was clear that an opportunistic Fintiri capitalized on the resolve of Abuja to dethrone former governor Murtala Nyako for waging war against Mr President. Fintiri offered to be used by the PDP, knowing full well that if he succeeded in booting out Nyako and his deputy, Bala Ngilari, he would be well positioned as acting governor to deploy machinery towards his election as a substantive governor.  The PDP and Fintiri struck a symbiotic accord founded on illegality. The speaker’s civilian coup was bankrolled by the PDP; the idea: to wrestle the state from the hands of the opposition All Progressives Party (APC) even though they are not popular there.

The deputy governor, a PDP stalwart, was coerced and bullied into resignation, despite his constitutional right to assume the office of governor in the absence of Nyako. The initial strategy was an impeachment joint ticket, but what was his crime? He is a PDP member and did not defect like his principal. Other PDP members should beware. He was forced to resign under duress and was booted out, until the court reinstated Ngilari as the governor as due process was not followed.  In Ekiti State, the courts have not been allowed to wade into the controversy, with an High Court Judge being beaten and now the courts being sealed by the military until the governor-elect is sworn in by which time the immunity clause would have taken effect and the law supposedly can do nothing. As social commentators and citizens we shouldn’t belittle the desperation of these people, as they are doing untold damage to the stability that rules and regulations and respect bring to the land.  

Our President (and I do not use the word “our” lightly) should understand that he is the leader of the country, the chief executive officer of the entire nation, not the poster child of his party. The president is definitely not just the leader of the PDP. These illegalities perpetrated under President Jonathan’s watch only lend credence to those who said his body language encourages corruption. Quite frankly, he did not create corruption; he inherited it. But whether he is putting enough into tackling it is another matter entirely. In a democracy, a strong opposition is key, because it brings balance and debate to our polity – essential ingredients for a healthy democracy.

Unfortunately, a similar crisis is happening in Rivers state, though they are being met with strong resistance. Both sides are perpetrating the abuse of power and lives have been lost. Edo State is brewing. Legislators are under constant attacks from “unknown” sources. Even the state Assembly is not immune from attack, with thugs shooting and damaging private and government property, all in the name of intimidation and impeachment.

In Ondo, the governor has returned to the PDP – the same party which but for the Judiciary, had stolen his mandate. Now, members of the state House of Assembly who have refused to decamp are being persecuted.  In Ekiti, I repeat, the Judiciary – the third arm of government – has been shut down and militarized so that the anointed Governor Fayose could escape prosecution for his lawlessness. Courts and Justice will only resume after his inauguration. What message are we teaching our youth? If the sanctity of the Judiciary cannot be protected, how can citizens look up to it to protect their rights? The NJC has let us down by not protecting and upholding the institutions from where they derive their legitimacy. We now see that politicians are bent on dismantling the legal instrument that brought them to power.  What will we be left with but a downward spiral to anarchy that nobody here will escape?

  

I feel ashamed to be a Nigerian when our leaders display such immaturity, violence and greed. I suppose it is a reflection of who we are, so it is no wonder the rest of the world looks down on us. What a disappointment to the black race! Our leader the President should appreciate that this is all happening under his watch. He should be mindful that at best he would be with us for another 4 years. Will this be worth it? Is this the legacy that he wants to leave behind? William Shakespeare said “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” We should all mark these words.

THE RULE OF LAW

For obvious reasons, events in Ekiti State cannot escape the socio-political radar. How often do we get to hear about an assault on a judge at a state High Court premises by thugs loyal to a governor-elect? Even those who are playing politics with the matter accept that Fayose’s supporters assaulted the judge in his presence. People like Senate President David Mark should understand that the Judiciary, our courts of law and judges are an institution – an arm of government, which interprets our laws and dispenses justice. Yet, when the Chief Judge of Ekiti submitted a petition to the National Judicial Council accusing Fayose and the police of complicity in the attack on and harassment of judges and court workers, all Mark could say, in spite of the unacceptable violent conduct, is that nobody could stop Fayose’s inauguration. Coming from the Number Three Citizen of the country who should be distancing himself from such behaviour, that is frightening.

Let us assume that the law does not know the person in question, with a case still pending with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); should we forget that by supervising the beating of a judge he has broken the law?  Judges are principal officers of government mandated by the constitution to defend the laws of the land in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies, such as the Police. But when a judge is battered in the presence of the police, we truly have something to fear. Like many other Nigerians, I wonder why it is taking an eternity for the National Judicial Council to respond adequately to the petition it received on the matter.

For its own self-preservation and for the preservation of the rule of law, the NJC should treat the matter at hand with the expediency it deserves. I understand that judges are members of the bench not the bar, yet the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has a role to play in mounting pressure too. If this could happen to a judge, it is a strong signal to the body of benchers about how much the dispensation of justice can be subjugated by politicians. This is not an option for us. The NBA and the NJC should unite in rejecting this now and protect our democracy regardless of political affiliation. The judiciary must be apolitical. We are talking about the bedrock of our coexistence here, in that no society can survive without a set of principles, rules and regulations, as well as interpreters and enforcers of such regulations. 

If we need to fight to uphold the sanctity of the Judiciary the way the Nigerian Labour Congress and the people should stand up over the attempted abuse of workers’ rights, we should. NUPENG/PENGASSAN would shut down the country by refusing to lift petroleum products over grievances with the government. Nothing should be too much to ensure that the rule of law is protected at all times.

The first arms-for-cash saga had already dealt our reputation a heavy blow in the international community. Now we have another $5.7 million confiscated by the South African authorities. At this point, we don’t know what to call this: Illegal arms dealing or money laundering…or both. The American government has already denied the allegation that we sought the black market because they refused to sell to us. Our National Assembly has confirmed that they knew nothing of this until it boomeranged.  They have also been denied the right to debate the matter; it having been dubbed a security issue. Very convenient!

Furthermore, the lack of noise from Louis Edet House – our police headquarters – is deafening, apart from the congratulatory messages to our acting inspector general of Police, who received a national honour for a job well done, no doubt!

We cannot continue to allow our politicians to weaken our institutions and run roughshod over our rules and regulations. Nobody is above the law. Democracy is not about demi-gods and emperors; it is necessarily people-centred and must be driven by strong institutions. Democracy presents choices and alternative opinions.  A healthy opposition is one of the hallmarks of a healthy democratic society, together with the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and the media. All these are made up of our peers.  Without these institutions, we cannot protect the system from dictatorship.  We should be careful, lest we spiral back to that dictatorship and abuse of power that led us to clamour for democracy in the first place. The ruling party must be mature enough to protect the separation of powers and the opposition, as they are part of our construct. We all have a lawyer o! Let him or her know that we expect them to rise and say no and that we will stand by them. Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.            

WHITHER NIGERIA?

I try my best to look at the brighter side of things each time I think, speak or write about Nigeria. I consider it a service to my country not to be a doomsday provocateur. But these days maintaining one’s sanity and positivity is becoming increasingly challenging. I have posited time and again that we have focused too much on electoral politics and that it weakens the same institutions we elect our leaders to superintend. Can there be democracy without the rule of law? Can the rule of law be upheld without a strong, independent judiciary and police force? If something urgent isn’t done to savage the situation, all plausible indices show that our dear country, Nigeria, is nose-diving into the abyss.

The big lie that we are is taking the shine off our potential for greatness; we have become a source of comedy to the international community. We are the laughingstock of the world, yet we seem clueless about it. It is only in Nigeria that a registered private jet would take off from the Presidential Wing of an international airport stacked with $9.3 million cash (a society preaching cashless economy) and land in another sovereign country in total disrespect for all known international protocols on money laundering. And when the authorities in South Africa arrested the two Nigerians and one Israeli in possession of the confiscated sum of money, a real Pandora’s Box was blown open: the three men were meant to procure weapons with the money on behalf of the Nigerian government! It turns out that the South African government didn’t license the company they intended to do business with! The whole thing stinks. Who are these people? Who are the arms intended for? Are these some of the arms we find with terrorists and cannot explain how they have arrived in our land?

If we were a sane society, we should be asking the airport authorities, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria and security agencies how they managed to miss what the South African authorities intercepted. We would have seen some high-level resignations and arrests. We should be getting answers on how the Nigerian government had to “borrow” a private jet belonging to a man of God to procure arms when there are 10-12 jets in the Presidential Fleet. Yet, we cannot ask questions or raise concern because we don’t have institutions strong enough to provide answers. Our legislators have stood down a debate on the matter, as they see no need.

  

While we were breaking all protocols and conventions known to man and flouting the local laws of a fellow African country, back home, a church building has collapsed, killing around 115 people on religious tourism. Of that number, 85 people were from – guess where – South Africa! An apparent case of negligence and violation of set regulations was twisted into a cock-and-bull story of terrorism and perhaps a witch-hunt. No protection for the believers; no information for us.  Even if our government is insensitive to the criminal and/or diplomatic implications of its actions in the $9.3 million scam and its inaction in the issue of the collapsed sanctuary, shouldn’t it at least be mindful of the wellbeing of its Diaspora citizens? The South African media has commenced a sneer campaign on Nigeria and Nigerians. We should be mindful that our own silence makes us complicit in it. 

Nigerians in South Africa are being targeted afresh for attacks because back home the recklessness continues and even if there were a probe, it would amount to nothing, as our rule of law continues to be trampled upon with impunity.

We may never know what brought down that Synagogue building. Nigeria is a country of absurdities and we seem OK with it.

So long as ethnicity, religion and venality are thrown in the mix of our extractive socio-political system, core institutions responsible for checks and balances will continue to be defeated. If we cannot speak the truth or protect our laws for fear of being labeled, then greater injustices will continue to ravage us. The power play unfolding in Taraba State is a microcosm of the corruption of our government and the weakness of our institutions. There are two governors in Taraba and no government. A parasitic cabal has retained an evidently incapacitated governor, thereby preventing the constitutional process that would have paved way for the transition of power to his deputy. The biggest losers in this distasteful opera are the people of Taraba whose state has been floating for the better part of two years.

Meanwhile our President is silent, but represented us at the United Nations Security Council meeting and gave an address on terrorism and how to prevent it.

Heaven help us! 

COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

I read that Washington Post editorial about the insensitive parody of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign by some supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan before I actually saw the posters. The one erected close to the ECOWAS Commission at Asokoro, Abuja, gave me an understanding that we all do not think in the same way and see things from very different perspectives.  The green-and-white #BringBackGoodluck2015 wasn’t only a poorly conceived, insensitive and myopic idea; it was an embarrassment to Nigeria and Nigerians.

  

Had the little minds that conceived such a distasteful association to the person of President Jonathan known what the BBOG hash tag stands for, if they understood what is at stake, they would not try to use it for political gain. Resorting to the adaptation of a symbol of pain, struggle and hope for political gains is a moral crime. For a tool devised to constantly remind the government that for five months those young girls have been held captive in the hands of terrorists to be so mocked leaves me with no words. It is an irony, a paradox and an indictment all at the same time. As claimed by the Presidency, it is possible that the group which perpetrated the evil act (yes, it is an evil act!) acted alone without the consent of Jonathan or any of his advisers. But, why did it take an editorial in a foreign newspaper for the action to be reversed? Were the cries in the social media prior to that Washington Post commentary not loud and clear enough?

We here are the constituency. If we know what we are doing as a people, our government, our leaders will listen to us first before being influenced by the views of outside bodies. While it is quite easy for the Presidency to claim its innocence of any complicity in the campaign faux pas, how does it explain the former Borno State governor escorting the President to Chad, after an Australian hostage negotiator, Stephen Davis, accused him of sponsoring Boko Haram and the Department of State Security released a statement saying Sheriff was under investigation. Although they came out to vehemently deny the allegation, Sheriff should not be seen to be hobnobbing with the President. It is not my duty to either defend or prosecute Sheriff, but his 2011 advertorial, wherein he tendered unreserved apology to Boko Haram for unknown reasons, is a traceable public document.  No court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced Sheriff guilty but with such an allegation dangling over his head I am not so sure that he is the best choice of ambassador! Our leaders should not only do the right thing, they should be seen to do it. 

On the bright side of things, the Defence Headquarters and all Nigerians should be proud of the fact that we still have amongst us, brave and determined men and women who are ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for the good of Nigeria. Injured Lt. Col. Adeboye Obasanjo, son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is one of them. Many wives have been made widows and many children made orphans since the insurgency started. We haven’t appreciated our soldiers enough. They are doing a sterling job even in very difficult circumstances and risk their lives every day to rid our land of terrorists. With the power his father wields, Adeboye could have chosen not to be deployed to the frontline but he has chosen to do so and we thank him and all others who are fighting the fight for securing our futures. 

It is at times like these, when so many things around us are not going well and our spirits are dampened and we despair, that we are given a boost of oxygen and a pick me up, and understand that all is not lost and we are not alone and we must fight on.  Nigeria is what we make of it, whether a comedy of errors, a tragic reality or a success in the making. At present, we poison our country with too many toxins. We should be mindful that these toxins would still be causing damage long after we are gone. It is for these reasons, with so many challenges confronting us as a nation, that we should all take an interest in the upcoming elections. Poor communication causes confusion, misunderstanding, conflict and inevitably insecurity and loss of life; precisely what we are experiencing now. Some amongst us accord the 2015 elections and only what they can gain from it more priority than these crises threatening our existence.

Think what you can do for Nigeria and not what Nigeria can do for you. Please get involved now and let us all fight to have a voice that is always heard.

DOCTORS’ DEMANDS

Whatever sigh of relief we heave at the news of the suspension of the strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Medical Association (MNA) is bound to be ephemeral. It is heart-warming that our doctors in the public health sector have, out of the Ebola emergency, decided to put a human face to their agitation. They have reasoned, but should we celebrate? This is an association whose members render essential services impossible to quantify; they are life savers whose plights should not be ignored.

But here we are in a country where government’s response to doctors’ grievances is mass sack. Between being a bad joke and an uninformed propaganda, the federal government announced the sack of these same doctors. 16,000+ medical doctors in the public sector, already grossly inadequate for a population of over 170 million people, were pronounced sacked in a democracy? It had to be a joke. And throughout the duration of the strike, government maintained a hard-line position. The general public was misinformed in a bid to portray the striking doctors as selfish, arrogant and implacable. Their demands were treated as if they were all about better wages and entitlements.

I took time to study the 24-point demands of the NMA and what I found could be classified into two groups. The first group of demands falls in the category of outstanding agreements officially reached by the government with the doctors during previous negotiations. As usual, those agreements are yet to be honoured. It is not so difficult to find instances where government enters into an agreement with a trade union and adamantly refuses to redeem its pledge; it is the same with ASUU, ASUP, NUT, NLC, etc.

The other category of demands made by the NMA concerns rational technical issues the government should be ashamed of refusing in the first place. For instance, the association demands the Office of the Surgeon-General, a professional among its members who should be saddled with the responsibility of medical bureaucracy. It wants the chairmen, Medical Advisory Committees in teaching hospitals and federal medical centres to be assisted by deputies. They demand the establishment of a health trust to upgrade public hospitals. The doctors want the position of Chief Medical Director/Medical Director to be occupied by a medical doctor as against using it to return political favours. Most importantly, they demand that government expedites the passage of the National Health Bill (NHB) and extend Universal Health Coverage to 100 percent from its current 30 percent.

How on earth are these self-centred claims?                     

We shouldn’t forget that our public hospitals are poorly stocked. There are cases where patients are made to pay for gloves and syringes. I have personally witnessed where a patient had to pay for the sanitary materials used during the evacuation of her miscarried foetus.  Aren’t these basics that should be available in every hospital? Why should any well-meaning government shirk the implementation of minimum standards in its health sector? We forget that resident doctors are also human beings who have families and responsibilities. If we don’t take care of them, then we should stop bemoaning brain drain, because it is going to continue on an unprecedented scale.

No doctor wants to work in public hospitals where there are not facilities. They either set up their own private practice or move in their droves to countries where things are done right. A    substantial percentage of members of the Association of Black Doctors in America are Nigerians. By implication, brain drain is one of the challenges faced by our health sector, occasioned by collapsed infrastructure, poor remuneration and a deficient healthcare master plan. All the doctors are asking is for government to tackle the problems in the health sector that have made Nigeria a medical scavenger.

Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa said, at an interactive session with officials of the Nigerian High Commission in India, in 2011, that she was stunned by the revelation that Indian middlemen collaborate with fraudulent Nigerians to extort innocent Nigerians in search of medical treatments in Indian. Victims pay as much as three times the actual medical costs, no thanks to the scandalous opportunity a breakdown in our health sector has presented callous syndicates. Does this worry our leaders?

Isn’t it distressing that Nigerians seek medical attention in such odd places as Ghana, Egypt, the UAE and India, because our system cannot take care of itself? Those who cannot afford such “luxury” are faced with the choice of exorbitant private hospitals and their near-inefficient public counterparts at home. Yet, it is the constitutional right of every Nigerian to be catered for by the government, or what do we think is meant in Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) by  “...the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”?

BEING PREPARED

Don’t let your lack of planning be my emergency. The “fire brigade approach” is synonymous with Nigeria. In fact, it is who we are and what we have come to stand for. There is nothing new about our laidback worry-about-the-consequences-later approach to problem solving or ignoring. We need to start doing things differently or the consequences will catch up with us and surely faster than we imagine.

After the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, was characterized by doping in the ranks of Team Nigeria, a wave of negative emotions ran through our sports administration and the Nigerian citizens alike. We were ashamed; our dear country was embarrassed.  We thought our sports authorities owed the nation the duty of ensuring that come Glasgow 2014, our athletes would come clean; win proudly or lose honourably. Signs of our fire brigade mentally began to tell when athletes could only camp for two weeks before the games. We spent weeks to prepare for an event others spent years to prepare for, yet we expect results! Team Nigeria was conveyed to Scotland in small batches, in one of the most bizarre travelling arrangements we can imagine. Then, we were queried concerning our lack of uniform team kits for our athletes; we couldn’t even get that right. When the curtains fell on Glasgow 2014, doping scandals marred the modest successes Nigeria recorded.

The story is similar as regards the outbreak of Ebola. When the virus was first announced in Guinea in March and started spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria’s minister of information, Labaran Maku, came out to say that there were measures already in place to prevent Ebola from entering the country. He even went further to state that even if the virus found its way into Nigeria, our health system had vaccines for treating it, as well as designated health facilities.  Five months later, we are a people in disarray over the virus. We even drink and bathe with salt.  It took the death of Patrick Sawyer, a visitor to Nigeria from Liberia, for us to wake up to the reality of a deadly disease.  Let us put this irony into perspective: a country with porous borders and poor medical facilities, with a population of over 170 million resides within a region where a deadly disease is spreading like wildfire and yet our doctors are on strike and the government thinks that that is OK. It speaks volumes about our psyche.

  

Our lack of preparedness and poor emergency response mechanisms are visible and equal in proportion in all ramifications. Whether in delivering social services, lawmaking, security, poverty eradication, job creation or politics, we just don’t tackle problems head on.

We have elections rapidly approaching, however, the election commission is never fully prepared and the country is always thrown into a state of insecurity. In both Ekiti and Osun where elections have just been concluded, many Nigerians were disenfranchised because INEC failed to provide them with permanent voter’s cards. The police force has been shown to be unprepared as the government had to draft in the army and the SSS in large numbers. One wonders who then is doing all the counter intelligence or fighting our war in the north east, when they are busy chaperoning election officials or keeping rival political parties at bay. Considering that these are just two out of 36 states of the federation, how do we expect free and fair 2015 general elections if the experiences in Ekiti and Osun have already proved less than salutary?

What happens in 2015? Already we put on the TV every morning and listen to various political parties making inarticulate sounds and drawing reactions from the security forces who only show their immaturity by reacting in public to the sad comedy show we see enacted on the news. It seems that our security chiefs cannot get enough of the spot light these days, whilst their operatives mask their faces in an apparent attempt to remain “under cover”!

We have 33 more states to conduct elections in. Where are we going to get the show of force that we have seen used in the last 2 elections? Will we revert to our usual practice of employing thugs to make up numbers and thereby create another copycat group like Boko Haram? It seems that we are making a habit of deploying soldiers, have we thought of its implication on the fight against terrorism?  Are we really prepared to withdraw troops from the battlefield and deploy them to secure ballot boxes, and what message are we sending to the military?

Eventually people must learn that mistakes are meant for learning and not repeating. We need to prepare or prepare to fail; this is remedy to our current state of unpreparedness.

A PARTY CONSTITUTED SYSTEM

Our funny party system is at the heart of our political failings. Today, one is a member of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), tomorrow he is in the “opposition” ranks of the All Progressives  Congress (APC), the day after he is yet again a member of the PDP.  One can also be a founding member of a party, only to switch lanes to another party before the blink of an eye. There are others whose party membership depends on what time of the day it is.  Yet others, like Governor Okorocha, hold the title of the “most travelled decampee”, having tasted almost all possible registered political parties in the land!

Not even in football would one find the dearth of ideology as is present amongst our political parties. Cristiano Ronaldo cannot “decamp” to Barcelona this week only to return to Real Madrid the following week. It is not that easy because each club is founded on certain fan/community loyalties. And this even applies to a foreign professional, who is paid.

It is lack of political awareness that is clogging our democracy. It is the reason why PDP is APC and APC is PDP.  It is why both – and all others – are failing. Ideology, a way of life, a belief system, a sense of belonging is what should make someone like Oyinlola stay in the PDP rather than to cross carpet to the APC days before the governorship election in Osun State. It is OK to argue and agree or agree to differ but parties and their constitutions must be strong enough to operate within a set of rules that all the members can respect and trust. In saner political climes, one’s membership of a party is as a result of a genuine alignment with its set of principles and beliefs.

So, those who move from one party to another are reflective of our poor political culture. The party is a brand, and brands command loyalty. The brand has a clearly stated goal and manifesto and promises to the electorate are drawn from a list of deliverables put forward by its management. A peep into the so-called manifestos of the PDP and APC tells an appalling story – the one reads like a poor copy of the other. This is why individuals are bigger than the party. Party supremacy is a hoax in the Nigerian system because its structure is so weak that it cedes power to its members elected into public offices as soon as elections are over. The president controls the machinery of his party at national level; the state governors do so at that level. Smaller parties with little national presence, such as the Labour Party and APGA, concede party supremacy to their respective governors in Ondo and Anambra. This way, we make emperors of our president and governors; power simply slips away from the hands of the people to the hands of their elected representatives, who are supposed to be servants to the people and representatives of their party’s creed.  

Our politics is immature, and this is why we have turbulence in the land. But there is hope. Al-Makura’s impeachment in Nassarawa has failed; hopefully, a herald of sanity. Whenever we thwart the will of a would-be dictator, we expand the boundaries of freedom.

However, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is not true that a governor cannot be impeached for cross carpeting. I am particularly buttressed in this view by the fact that a fundamental and qualifying step to becoming governor is that you must belong to a political party. It is part of the laziness and apathy of the PDP and APC that they have failed/refused to test this concept in impeachment proceedings. By the way, it is actually a travesty of justice when, in the name of immunity, allegations of a criminal act are not investigated. There are too many ironies in the provisions of our laws.

The summary of my position is that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. Any provision which protects potential criminals and postpones the legal process, whilst allowing the accused to continue to exercise functions of a state, is not only unconscionable but also inimical to the concepts of justice and democracy. It is this absurdity that makes elected officers jostle to tighten their grips on party machinery. This way, political power belongs to them, as well as the means of gaining it, so that they could operate above the law without the fear of being voted out as long as they are with the right political cohorts. 

We have to be citizen activists if we wish to properly enforce our laws. “The man dies in all who fail to act in the face of injustice,” said Soyinka. 

NIGERIAN APARTHEID

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State thought he had the solution to Nigeria’s security challenges. So he purportedly proposed an identity pass regime similar to that in Apartheid South Africa, where Nigerians in their own country would carry IDs to identify who belongs to what state or region. The statement credited to Okorocha is a fantastic idea coming from a state governor, only that the country’s full official nomenclature is the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We should be reminded that a federal system of government guarantees that any part of Nigeria is home to every Nigerian.

Sadly, the Imo State governor is not alone in this narrow-mindedness. In 2011, the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, directed all state ministries, departments and agencies to compile a list of non-indigenes on the payroll of the state with the intention of sending them back to their states of origin. Governor Orji said then that he wasn’t sacking those people but transferring them to their various states so that public service slots would be freed up for Abia citizens. Many of the “redeployed” workers had lived all their lives in Abia. They had contributed immensely to the development of the state, paid their taxes, exercised their franchise during elections, carried out their civic responsibilities in different sectors of the state, and suddenly somebody remembered that they were not from Abia after all.

Last year, it was Lagos State government, perceived as one of our more “progressive governments”, which intended to clean up the megacity by targeting purported misfits, rounding them up on the streets then shipped and dumped them in their “states of origin”. That had to be the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World! People who had committed no crime, because they were poor had to be categorized and “deported” within their own country under an obnoxious destitute transfer policy without respect for their fundamental rights and privileges as citizens of a federation. Even within individuals, we discriminate against one another. One of my staff who was searching for accommodation was asked what tribe he was by a landlord. It is that appalling. 

         

How long shall we see ourselves first as the state and ethnic group we come from, the religion we practice and the social class we belong to? Where lies our loyalty to the nation and the unity that such loyalty nurtures? We have some institutional policies put in place to engender inclusiveness but which have turned out to be counter-productive. The Federal Character, for instance, is a policy that has been hijacked and converted to an instrument of mediocrity and incompetence. An unqualified and incompetent citizen is awarded a position while those who merit it are rejected because of where they come from.  It is this misjudgment that leads to dedicated columns for “state of origin”, “local government”, “religion”, “tribe”, etc on documents and forms in Nigeria. Of what productive value is asking about someone’s religion or local government in, say, a recruitment exercise?

Our brand of apartheid takes its root in Nigeria’s most perennial question: the indigene-settler policy. The indigene-settler question has done nothing than further divide us along geo-ethnic lines. It is a paradox that we live in a federation where an indigene-settler policy is actually enshrined in our constitution. Nothing turns us against each other and breeds suspicion amongst us worse than the issue of indigene-settler. We are concerned that each time there is political distress or contestation for the national cake, people recede to the cocoonery of tribe, geo-political zone and religion. These reductionist tendencies cloak national integration and perpetuate underdevelopment of the country. While Nigeria is one geo-political expression, centrifugal and centripetal forces have coalesced to deny its residents their Nigerianess.

Forging national consensus has been Nigeria’s most enduring issue since 1914 when Flora Shaw contrived the noun that depicts the ‘land around the Niger River’. Early nationalists started the rat race that institutionalized ethnicity in the build-up to independence and on issues of regional governance. The military further polarized the people with the creation of states at unusual intervals. Each of Nigeria’s over 250 ethnic nationalities till today seek ‘self determination’, in what has become a regular mantra for ethnic jingoists. This becomes a self-imposed limitation for the country at a time when the world sees itself as a global village. Even matters that should ordinarily evoke patriotism and collective bargain have become mere expressions of ethno-religious pettiness.

We cannot have leaders who fuel division rather than foster unity. Any politician who cannot uphold …one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity is not fit to, and should not, lead us at any level. 

ABSOLUTISM

Why should laws be applied equally to all? If a small cabal has political power and the rest don’t, it is only natural that whatever is fair game for the cabal should be banned and punishable for the rest. It is only when many individuals and groups have a say in decisions and the political power to have a seat at the table that the idea that they should all be treated fairly starts making sense.  – Why Nations Fail

Democracy by its very definition is the embrace of a pluralistic society. We should not entertain absolute power as it delays development and that is why we remain a developing nation today.  We must never allow our enthusiasm or loyalty for our party to contravene the very rules which we swore to protect in a democratic setting. We must create and strengthen inclusive political institutions, which will in turn support inclusive economic institutions that will empower a broad segment of society and make for a more level political playing field.

Our democracy was not the replacement of our military dictatorship by another absolute power. It was a broad coalition made up of all of us. We rose up against absolutism and the emergence of our various political parties was a consequence of this. The RULE OF LAW, in its true sense, also emerged as a by-product of this process. With many parties at the table sharing power, it is natural to have laws and constraints applicable to all of them, lest one party start amassing too much power and ultimately undermine the very foundations of pluralism. We should take care not to throw away the good that we have established. Protecting this ideology does not mean that you are against one party or the other. It means that you are protecting the very principles that some of us have died for. Those in the midst of this melee should be mindful of this and our Nigerian Bar Association should protect the spirit of the law for all.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party, is attempting to take us down a very dark path. They seem intent in crippling the opposition by hook or by crook and making Nigeria a one-party state. A party which has an unhealthy resentment for dissenting voices is paralyzing the democracy we all labored for.  PDP politicians talk about “capturing” this state or that state, but, actually, that is exactly what the party is doing (and plans to do) with its corrupt impeachment or pardon policy.  

The PDP wants to be all-powerful and kill a healthy opposition. What then is our democracy? How do you have a premier league without opposition? Football teams need rival football teams lest they do not get any competitive games and the sport will not develop. The issue is really as simple as that. A strong healthy opposition is crucial to any democracy. If we cannot learn from developed countries, then let us use India as an example. In this year’s general election, the world’s largest democracy demonstrated the beauty of a healthy opposition clearly evident in the electorate’s voting pattern.   

Ekiti has been “captured” and a former governor who was impeached though never arraigned for fraud has been reinstalled by the PDP’s old boy network. Adamawa has been “conquered”. The governor there dared to speak up against his protector and benefactor, and worse still jumped ship and joined the opposition.  Nassarawa governor’s impeachment process has already begun. The same show of force, suppression and inducement, which was used to guarantee success in Ekiti, is in full sway in Osun ahead of the governorship election there. We know that Rivers, Oyo, Kwara, Edo, Kano and Imo are all on the radar.  Subsequent impeachments might even be messier than that which toppled Murtala Nyako. Of course, the former governor wasn’t a saint in office, but this doesn’t justify why the rule by law – not the rule of law – was deployed to remove him. 

State Houses of Assembly are being bribed into using political imbalance in favour of the ruling party. The Adamawa State House of Assembly, which, in 2013, passed a vote of confidence on the then PDP Nyako, suddenly finds him culpable of impeachable offences.  He is now found guilty of financial recklessness dating back to 2007. The House has certainly indicted itself, because, if this is true, then why did they close their eyes to it when Nyako was their son?

      

It was Nelson Mandela, after a life long struggle with the apartheid regime, that extended his hand to a former foe and declared that they needed each other as united they could build the Rainbow Nation but divided would destroy their homeland. Our leaders would do well to learn from his words.