Kukah’s Peace Committee at the Cost of “all the Money in the World” should be disbanded immediately

“I am all for peace but not for peace at any cost” – Greg Laurie

The first time I met Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah it was on a flight from Lagos to Abuja on the old Oriental Airlines. We were both in hurry to get to Abuja given the usual delay we had experienced in Lagos, something quite common with Nigerian domestic airlines. We boarded our flights and we sat next to each other. He had in his hand a book titled “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.”  I was quite elated to find a Nigerian priest open to alternatives argument outside of the usual religious dogma. At the time, a brief history of time was then the most popular science book by British physicist, Stephen Hawking. Since that time I have had fond memories of him. You can then imagine my deep sadness given his recent crusades for peace at the cost of “all the money in the world.”

First let’s give those who do not know the background to the story. In his recent interview on Channels Television, Bishop Kukah said  “the singular decision that Jonathan took and I think that, as Nigerians, we must become sufficiently serious and realise that that singular act is what has kept us as a nation. So, I think that even for that singular act alone, Nigerians must be appreciative of what President Jonathan did…even if he stole all the money in the world.” My initial retort as I read this is a loud yell, NO! Not again! How many times are we going to be subject to these never ending warped logic?

Elections are meant to produce winners and losers and when you lose an election you don’t hold the whole nation to temper tantrums like Jonathan’s henchmen, Godsday Orubebe did. Yes, Jonathan may have prevailed on his boys to hold their fires but what would they have done? They lost the Nigerian people. Even the people of Bayelsa, impoverished by their policies are about to vote out their Abuja appointed governor. The vast majority of Nigerian voted for President Muhammadu Buhari. No single protest followed Orubebe’s antics. Why because we had a peaceful election where Nigerians freely exercise their vote. The same free election that brought GEJ to power in 2011. Everyone including international observers who came acknowledged the victory of APC at the polls. Everyone, including Jonathan himself knew before the election that he was going to lose. This is why he postponed the election twice. Nigerian of all hue at the time were fed up with the dysfunctional PDP regime. Jonathan did not do us a favor by conceding election. He did himself a favor. Yes, he could have rigged the election or refused to concede but then he would have prepared himself to face opprobrium from the whole world. Yes, he could have taken the Lauren Gbagbo’s route but is he ready to end as Gbagbo did?

The Punch newspapers in its editorial yesterday write that the National Peace Committee has been “parading the corridors of power of late, scheming to exploit its connections at the highest level of government to advance a suspicious agenda.” My take is that such amorphous conglomeration of Nigerian top one percent has always been in control of Nigeria’s body politic. They have always been around the corridors of power, military or civilian. They are essentially responsible for the wasteland Nigeria has become. By whatever name you may call them, Nzeribe’s Association for Better Nigeria, or Kanu’s “Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha”. These so called non democratic elitist power grabbers understand only one thing and that is their own selfish interest. That is their directive principle. Period! They do not care about Nigeria or the Nigerian people and they are not representative of Nigerians.

Kukah said he empanelled the committee himself and brought others in, most of the folks he brought in to the committee are his friends, some of them with questionable history of corruption and abuse of the Nigerian masses. They exist only for their own self preservation.

The first mistake Buhari made as president of Nigeria is to give this committee an imprimatur of a governmental council. What an errant nonsense. An undemocratic and unconstitutional panel set up by a religious leader, populated by tainted character is not in the best interest of Nigeria. What is more, their minds are made up; they believe “ab initio” that anyone calling for investigation of corrupt practices under GEJ regime is disturbing the peace of Nigeria. Nigerian voted for change and not Kukah’s peace at any cost! President Buhari, please disband this council right now and return any government money that the council may have spend to the country’s coffers immediately.

Words of Wisdom

“I know that incivility is immoral and dangerous to democracy. People of faith in particular are called to speak and act on the assumption of shared human dignity. This does not rule out vigorous disagreement, but it forbids the cultivation of contempt and the issuing of threats.

I know that Trump is encouraging political fantasies. He is not preparing people for difficult choices, on, say, entitlements; he is assuring them that our problems could be easily solved if elites were not so corrupt. And he is wrong. Our problems are not easy.”- Michael Gerson

The Patent Hypocrisy of Saraki and his Like Minds Group

“Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue” -Paul Krugman

Sometimes Nigerian leaders absolutely lack any sense of self reflection. They are too consumed by their avarice, vaunted sense of self and venal ambition for power and wealth that they hardly see beyond their nose. This particularly rings true when I read about our newly minted senate president’s address to his party’s caucus on the election of the rest of senate vacant leadership position. According to Vanguard newspapers, Senator Bukola Saraki, a traitor to his own party, now have a new tune, and a song of unity. He was quoted to have said

 “It is time to bury the hatchet and renew that spirit of love, cooperation and trust in one another. The leadership of our party expect us to hit the ground running, and the Nigeria populace are waiting to see us in action to deliver on our promises and commitment. Let us start this journey of unity today and let the world see that yes, in the 8th Senate, we are one family. We should not allow ourselves to be distracted by the people around us or be carried away by the noise our there. Let us remain focused and determined.” 

The paper said he then went on to encourage his caucus senators to break into zones (can you believe it?) and elect leaders for the vacant senate positions. The newspapers quoted a source that said “Senator Saraki’s position was that the senators should follow the convention of allowing the zones to produce the leaders apportioned to them.” What a tool! Apparently the senators are being asked by Saraki to elect leaders apportioned to them by the same APC he himself refused to heed their directives and then elect leaders apportioned to them!

This of course is laughable given Saraki’s own antecedent two weeks earlier when he went above his own political party to align with the opposition and trade away the senate deputy president position just because his party zone the senate presidency to the Northeast. One thing is certain; a leopard cannot hide its true colors. Saraki’s betrayal of his own party for a selfish lucre is what is destabilizing the national assembly and his own political party. You can excoriate his respected Dad, Olusola Saraki for starting stomach infrastructure in Nigeria party politics, but one thing he is not known for is hypocrisy. The son on the other hand seems to have mastered the art of hypocrisy to a form. He is hell bent on positioning himself to run for presidency at the next presidential election, not even truth and loyalty can stand in his way. To him everything is fungible, after all, every Nigerian politician has a price they cannot refuse.

What his likes omits or choose to ignore is the will of the Nigerian masses. We may not have access to the smoke filled rooms where he wheels and deals for power, but what we have is a collective will to savage Nigeria from moral abyss brought upon it by spineless politicians like Bukola Saraki and we will not rest on oars until his perfidious ilk get thrown out of Nigeria’s power vortex. 

The Sad State of Nigeria: Mama Bisi's Children death from candle light inferno

No other story contextualized the sad state of Nigeria than this story culled from Vanguard

LAGOS—A two-year-old girl, identified as Uzoma, and her two siblings, Ufoma, 9, and Emeka, 7, have been burnt to death after fire gutted a three-room boys quarter at Egbeda in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.

Vanguard gathered that the inferno, which consumed the three siblings, a male and two females, started in their apartment at about 10p.m. when the children were sleeping.

Sources said the fire was discovered by passers-by, who raised the alarm to alert residents, as majority of tenants in the house were yet to return from work.

Vanguard gathered that the inferno was caused by a candle lit by their father, who locked the three children in his apartment and left for the hospital, where his wife was receiving post-natal care.

Effort to rescue the three children proved abortive.

Family escaped last year

A resident, who identified herself as Mama Bisi, lamented that a similar incident occurred last year when the entire members of the family were sleeping, adding, however, that they managed to escape.

She added that the children would have escaped the inferno if their father had yielded to the demands of his two-year-old daughter that they should go with him.

It was learned that the mother of the children was in the hospital where she delivered her baby last Friday.

The mother, it was gathered, would have been discharged from hospital but for lack of funds which delayed her discharge.

When Vanguard visited the scene, residents were wailing over the death of the children who were delivered through caesarean section.

Also, it was learned that the landlord of the building had been arrested by policemen attached to Shasha Police Station.

‘My son discovered the fire’

Mr. Christian Ononsolase, a commercial motorcycle operator, who spoke with emotion, explained how the incident happened.

He said: “I sent my son on an errand and on his way back, he discovered the fire and alerted the elders on the street.

“They raised alarm and everyone ran to the well to get water. But the fire had escalated.

“The fire was put out by officials of the Lagos State Fire Service, who were alerted a few minutes after the residents discovered that the fire had escalated than they expected.

“Many did not know that the children were in the building. It was after the fire was put out and we were assisting the occupants of the building to salvage what was left of their property that we discovered the children were locked up.”

Another resident, who identified himself as Bolu, said the fire was escalated by the gas cylinder in the building, which exploded.

Director of the State Fire Service, Mr. Rasaq Fadipe, confirmed the story.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/inferno-from-candle-light-consumes-3-siblings-in-lagos/#sthash.PiuMAZMX.dpuf

Can we Agree Never to hire Anyone from World Bank and IMF to manage Nigeria's Economy?

“Lagarde had nothing specific to say about which ideas she thinks are most important—much less what compromises might be required, much less which specific countries, companies, or people might have to suffer to reach those compromises. Her speech was worse than tiresome. It was almost Orwellian in its vacuity. By its end, I couldn’t tell if the head of the International Monetary Fund was as stupid as she seemed or merely pretending to be stupid because she believes we have no right to hear what she really thinks. I am not sure which would be worse”- Alex Berenson

Now that the wool has been uncovered from Nigerian’s eyes, can we now agree that the voodoo economics from Ngozi Okonjo Iweala (NOI) and her band of travelers are not suited for our country? Can we all agree never to hire anyone from the Brettonwoods to shepherd our economy? I mean never! In case you didn’t hear me I meant NEVER!

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) made many unforced errors during his inglorious 6 years reign over Nigerians and perhaps the most glaring was the appointment of NOI as defacto prime minister-coordinating minister on economy. A position unknown to Nigerian constitution and any extant laws or statutes. Before her appointment she had worked as managing director of World Bank. During her first stint as minister of finance under President Olusegun Obasanjo she was known as Madam Due Process and rode on the crest of Nigeria’s negotiated debt repayment, an exercise meant to repay Wall Street and Paris club for buying junk dubious debts owed by Nigeria’s corrupt prior administration at the detriment of infrastructure developments and services to the poor Nigerian masses.

Ms. Iweala along with her sidekicks Oby Ezekwesili drew huge salaries unknown under Nigerian civil service rules and regulation. They convinced their bosses that they can fix Nigeria’s economy by subjecting it to IMF failed policies and sophistries. We know better now. In 6 years, Ms. Iweala ran Nigeria’s economy to the ground. She looked the other way while many of GEJ ministers loot the economy. Her bid to convince state governors to hand her their statutory allocations were roundly rejected by the Governor’s forum-including those elected under PDP. That crisis contributed in large measure to the eventual loss of GEJ in last month Presidential election.

Under her tenure, salaries of political appointees exploded beyond the stratosphere. Politicians awarded humoungous benefits and emoluments to themselves while the poor masses suffer in silence. She is walking out the door with a vaunted claim of managing the highest GDP in Africa, even while Nigerians remain at the lowest nadir of poverty index worldwide. She and her boss celebrates the number of private leased leer jets packed at Nigeria’s airports by rich Nigerian while millions of Nigerian civil servants are being owed more than 5 months of salaries.

Why should we continue to listen this Brettonwoods prognosticators? They have failed every where they have been in Africa but unfortunately our leaders continue to turn to them for ideas and policy direction. One can only hope that Buhari will not take the bait and will stay away from World Bank and IMF personnel when he get’s to pick his own economic management team.

Of Old Media, Internet Infestations, Saharareporters and Nigeria’s Democracy

“Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue” -Paul Krugman

The interview by the publisher was meant to distinguish TheCable online news medium from other “internet infestations.” It appeared in the Punch newspapers on April 29, 2015 with a glamorous picture of Simon Kolawole, the publisher. The question was simple and innocuous: “Q: Some of the online publishers run a very thin staff structure. What is your own experience?” But the answer by Kolawole was non sequitor and gratuitous: “You have just touched on a raw point. Typically, online publishing is one-man business. You simply get a guy to manage the technical side of your website. You go from website to website stealing people’s stories and rewriting them for your site. With RSS feeds, life is even easier. …TheCable, however, was not designed along this model. ... I get offended when people classify us with blogs or news aggregators. I have nothing against bloggers or aggregators, but we are not a blog. Maybe we will start a blog someday. I don’t know. But we are certainly not a blog.”

Call it righteous indignation or empty posturing Simon Kolawole, surely knows what his online medium is not, a blog? Tufiakwa! (Nigeria speaks for NEVER!) Unfortunately, fate has a curious way of puncturing a balloon filled with hot air and that it did the same day when the interview was published by Punch newspapers. TheCable proved to all its readers that its quality is way below the blog its publishers criticized adroitly above. TheCable as we learned later from Professor Wole Soyinka, takes its place among other “internet infestations” lol!. On that day, theCable had published a routine reportorial piece apparently from its many paid reporters (you know as Simon quibbled: “We have reporters”) on Professor Wole Soyinka’s lecture at the Hutchins Centre, Harvard University. What was astounding is not the fact that TheCable seems to imply from its report that it has a reporter present at the venue but the outrageous lie about the quote attributed to Soyinka on Ndigbo voting patterns during the just concluded election. Like Soyinka himself said, only morons will believe that a man, who time and again had risked his life to foster ethnic harmony in Nigeria will ever made the kind of statement attributed to him by the Cable. The funny thing is to hear my 16 years old high students who has only been to Nigeria once argued vociferously on Facebooks with his friends how Uncle Wole will never said anything like that.

So much for The Cable hypocrisy, the shining light in the dark embers of Nigeria’s journalism during the just concluded election however belongs to another online medium, albeit one of the places Simon Kolawole derisively called “news aggregators.” A website that successfully upended old media in Nigeria: Saharareporters! It is an online media that celebrates citizen’s journalism. It encourages its readers to be their own reporters and Nigerians high and mighty have responded to its kind offer, turning that news medium to a “must visit” place for anyone interested in authentic Nigeria’s news.

Nigerian politicians are often the last to know and feel the pulse of the nation, more because of their singular insularity from the sufferings of their people and their well ensconced disconnect with Nigerian masses and its many denizens. During the just concluded elections we could see that disconnect in the divergent media deployment of the two main political parties. Given the fact that it controls the government at the center, PDP, believes that they have enough money to buy the old media and they, NTA, AIT, FRCN, NAN appears to easily capitulate to the government. They along with sundry other private newspapers whose editors and publishers owes them favors worked for the government at the center. As the election drew near, President Goodluck Jonathan completely seized the national airwaves, broadcasting scurrilous personal attack on the opposition leadership in the name of paid advertorial camouflaged as serious investigative journalism. What they conveniently forgets is that majority of Nigerians no longer gets their news from Nigeria’s old media. Majority of Nigerian youths, farmers and sundry other citizens now have smart phones and those who don’t have cable TVs. Nigeria’s old media like, the much maligned Nigeria premiership league is often after thought, something you tuned to when you are done with dinner and you are half dozing after a long hard slouch meandering through traffic in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Enugu or Port Harcourt. No one tune to NTA to get’s breaking news unless Nigeria has just won the World Cup and that is not going to happen soon. So where do people go to get their news: Saharareporters!

The saddest part of this saga is that the much maligned Saharareporters broke more news and did more investigatory journalism than the old media in Nigeria. The fact that some of the old media that appears to perform creditably during the election like Punch newspapers often took their lead story from Saharareporters is quite telling.

One could conveniently conclude that virtually every news piece that rocked the just concluded election was broken, not by old media but by Saharareporters and its citizens journalist. They told us of every corrupt move by the presidency and the governors. They report on the ministers and legist-looters who stole money. They were only matched by Punch newspapers, the only old media that periodically took apart every budget presentations of the current government. The opposition party also took advantage of PDP’s disconnect. On a day PDP postures to have GEJ addressed a 4 hour media chat they scampered and successfully arranged to have their candidate-GMB give an impromptu newsmaker interview to AlJazeera, CNN and BBC. They ended up owning that news circle and PDP media personalities were furious. They were calls for the arrest of GMB media handlers by Aso rock.

By far the most salient report that contributes most to our national discourse was Saharareporters expose on the Ekiti’s gubernatorial election. The revelation about the use of military to box in opposition candidates while the military give free rein to PDP candidates and their cronies on election helped Nigerian protect their votes.

One can make the error of reading too much into this type of narratives but the fact speaks for itself. If the last election had been held circa 1983, one could argue that PDP would have won the day no matter how unpopular it’s candidate might have been. Nigeria’s democracy need the new media much as it needs it’s old media to learn from their mistakes to grow our fledgling democracy. It is not that Saharareporters do not make mistakes very often they do but they are quick to admit it when they got it wrong. The problem with Nigeria’s old media is the arrogance and hypocrisy. Majority of breaking news we have had out of Nigeria in the last few years came from old media reporters whose editors and publishers are either too afraid or too compromised to publish hard hitting investigative piece turned in by their reporters. The latter very often release such piece to Saharareporters who published same out of the pernicious reach of Nigerian government officials in the US where the libel laws are a whole lot relaxed. There is no doubt that the publishers of Saharareporters would have been shut down if it has its offices in Nigeria. But that does not excuse the timidity of Nigeria’s old media. Very often the shackles on Nigeria journalist were that of their own mind. Some are too close to the government while others live in mortal fears of what will happen. In that environment you could hardly find courage.

The meticulous way Saharareporters took time to hire private investigators and voice confirmation specialist on the Ekiti election saga could be contrasted with TheCable moronic rush to judgment on the Soyinka’s story. That is a lesson for all internet infestations to learn. They that live in glass house should shudder to hurl rock objects across the confines of their homes. We have a long way to go to protect our hard earned democracy we need both old and new media functioning at their maximum capacity to get us there. Let’s celebrate Saharareporters even while we excoriate “internet infestations” whenever it rears its ugly head. 

Buhari's New Nigeria?

Many who frequents this blog will readily remember my oft refrain that the more things change the more they remain the same. Will this continue with the newly elected government in Nigeria? Time will tell. For now let's read excerpts from the interview the press did with our president elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.

There has been an influx of defectors from the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to your party, APC, since after your victory at the polls. Many think the development may destabilise the APC. How do you intend to manage the situation?

I think this is a question meant for the party. I wish John Oyegun was here to answer you because we have a system. Just because I am the presidential candidate and the president-elect, I don’t think  the system has allowed me to usurp the power of the party executives. But, certainly, in a multi-party democratic system, fundamentally, it is the number that matters for the people. But for the party, what matters is the ability to manage the number so that the majority will have its way and  there will be justice. No matter what happens to the PDP by May 29, I assure you or I assure them through you that there will be justice in the APC.

A new government, which you will head, will soon be inaugurated. Can you tell us what criteria you will be using in selecting those who you will work with?

It is a difficult time for Nigerians as you all know. I have said it in the past that, in the last 16 years, Nigeria has never realised the amount of revenue it received. The price of a barrel of crude oil rose to

 about 140 dollars and then  crashed to about 50 dollars. During the 16 years, we know what 

happened to some big companies that employ a lot of Nigerians and give them training facilities like the Nigeria Airways, Nigeria  National Shipping Line.

Even Nigeria Railway is managing to be on paper with some refurbished engines moving from Lagos to Ibadan and a few other places. If you go to their stations all over the country, you will realise that they are in a terrible shape. The important thing in a country with a huge population  of youths with more than 60 percent of them under the age of 30 who are unemployed is that you  need these institutions to give jobs and training to them. It is very disappointing that the PDP government virtually failed to use those resources to  grow the economy.

I think the worst thing is the lack of accountability and the terrible budgetary system. Imagine that over 90 percent of Nigerian budget is on recurrent. How can you sustain development in a country like Nigeria with only about 10 percent of your income? Things just have to change. There must be more money available for infrastructure, for investment in getting the factories back, employment and getting goods and services for the population. I think the sins of PDP will be coming out for several years to come.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/why-my-cabinet-will-be-small-president-elect-buhari/#sthash.huhASpGq.dpuf