Nigeria Content Online

Is Nigeria hungry for peace? Possibly. Is it
desperate for peace? I doubt it. Peace is fast becoming a synonym for
controlled conflict and a tool for creating power and wealth. This is
corruption, pure and plain. Corruption and conflict are unseemly
bedfellows.

Politicians engage in corruption and dress it up to
make it acceptable. President Obama recently made strenuous statements
condemning corruption in Afghanistan while his advisors spoke to the
media explaining that it was better to go soft on corruption among
government officials in Afghanistan rather than risk losing the support
of the Afghan Government.

After accepting amnesty some “former” militia
leaders in the Niger Delta are reported to be negotiating their support
with potential northern candidates for the presidency. Any candidate
engaging in such negotiations should be immediately barred from standing
as a candidate for the highest office in the land.

Southern candidates are not exempt from deals with
former militia and gang leaders. In the Niger Delta recruiting is in
full swing for gangs that will help secure the election of particular
candidates we have seen in previous elections. The old methods that have
yielded success in the past are hard to shake when people are desperate
for power.

These are indications that the amnesty in the Niger
Delta has not taken root. It is still fragile and the relatively few
arms that were turned in during the amnesty means there is a vast
quantity of weapons in non-government hands throughout Nigeria and in
particular in the Niger Delta. The potential for renewed conflict
remains high and thus the peace efforts need continued support.

The Catholic Bishop of the Niger Delta town of
Bomadi, Hyacinth Egbegbo, is urging the militants to stay calm saying
only a negotiated peace can bring lasting stability to the troubled
oil-rich region.

The Bishop is right. The amnesty with some add-ons
such as brief training courses and non-violence education is not enough
to sustain peace.

“Let us go for peace, not for any more struggles,”
said the bishop. “Armed struggle is not going to be in favour of any
Nigerian. So let us sit down at the table and see that we resolve these
problems amicably. I appeal to the boys to take their guns away from the
dialogue that is being initiated by the government because dialogue
with guns is not dialogue. So let us put the guns aside and speak words
of wisdom to each other so that we can come to a more amicable solution
to the problem.”

Some governors who will soon see the end of their
second term are very worried that their indemnity from prosecution will
soon expire. Will the EFCC pursue these “big men”? Not likely under the
current EFCC leadership which is simply too close to some of the big
men. Some governors have already anointed their successors and
reconstituted gangs to ensure their protégé will be elected and then do
all necessary to protect the godfather.

On 10th November 2010 former governors James Ibori
and Victor Attah will face trial before the Southwark Court in the UK.
David Edevbie, former Delta State Commissioner for Finance under James
Ibori, before serving as President Yar’Adua’s Principal Secretary, is
joined with Ibori and Attah in the Southwark Court in connection with
money-laundering charges. A conviction should send a shiver through the
spine of many facing the end of their immunity from prosecution. But
this is unlikely if Waziri retains leadership of the EFCC. She is the
insurance for the big men who have flouted Nigeria’s laws and enriched
themselves for state coffers thus ensuring those in poverty remain in
poverty.

The former militia leaders have an opportunity to
make a major contribution to building the nation of Nigeria. They can
starve conflict in the Niger Delta by honouring the amnesty. For its
part the federal government must widen the amnesty package and provide
sustained employment.

MEND has remained on the sideline in the amnesty
and election process thus far. This is a credible action. In similar
fashion Asari Dokubo honoured the terms of the 2004 Peace accord and
became a force for stability in a very turbulent period. But sitting on
the sidelines while some former militia leaders are paid large sums of
money is a difficult position to maintain. The temptation is high in a
country where over 100 million people live on $1 per day.

The EFCC should, with all vigour, investigate every
allegation of payment to form gangs, recruit former militia and subvert
the peace process.

Canon Dr Stephen Davis is Canon Emeritus at Coventry Cathedral and
has served as an advisor to President Obasanjo, Presidential Envoy under
President Yar’Adua and is the author of The Report on the Potential for
Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta.

One of the
specificities of Nigeria is that we have one of the largest numbers of
extremely poor people in the world. Indeed, about 70% of Nigerians live
below the poverty line while over 10 million primary school age children
are still out of school. In addition, about 100 children will die by
the age of 5 out of every 1,000 born in Nigeria while almost 800
pregnant women out of 100, 000 die during child birth in our country.

Tomorrow, Monday
20th, world leaders will begin a summit at the United Nations in New
York to assess progress in achieving the 8 millennium goals adopted at
the largest gathering ever of heads of state in September 2000. The hope
then was that by 2015, combined action would eradicate poverty, promote
human dignity and equality, and achieve peace, democracy and
environmental stability.

Ten years after the
commitments, the Nigerian situation is that although a lot of effort has
been made, we are still not sure of achieving any of the targets by
2015. It will be recalled that in pursuance of the goal of scaling up
and creating further traction for programmes aimed at achieving the
MDGs, Nigeria would commit to channelling about N100 billion ($750
million by the federal government and $250 million by the state
governments) annually to key poverty-reduction sectors.

In this regard,
between 2006 and 2010, N571 billion has been allocated for the MDG
programmes through annual appropriations by the federal government
alone. It is coordinated by the Office of Senior Special Assistant to
the President on MDGs (OSSAP) that has the responsibility of overseeing
the country’s efforts at achieving the MDGs. The programmes provide
water, health clinics, midwives and medical care, teacher training and
so on to poor communities.

One important
element of the programme is the annual Monitoring and Evaluation
(M&E) by independent consultants and civil society, and the centre I
work for has led the civil society component over the past three years.
Our reports cover all states in the federation and are objective and
results-based, providing dependable expenditure tracking and impact
assessment of projects. In addition to physical assessment of the
projects, the end users and beneficiaries’ views were sought through
individual informant interviews and focus group discussions using clear
benchmarks.

The latest report
covers projects executed under the 2008 federal budget and the results
show very high completion rates of over 86%. Completion relates to the
actual physical finishing of a project as well as an assessment of the
quality of execution of the project based on agreed benchmarks. Over and
beyond project completion, the Nigerian MDG programmes have over the
past five years set in motion a number of trends that are having a
positive impact on governmental processes.

The first is the
emergence of positive governmental responsiveness to our assessments.
Following the results of the monitoring of the 2006 budget which showed
that many of the projects were not executed by certain ministries and
agencies and even when they were, the distance between the federal
agencies and the beneficiary communities were so profound that neither
the affected states nor local governments were aware of ownership of the
projects. The federal government responded positively by creating new
project lines including the conditional grants scheme in which states,
and later, local governments, chose, provided part funding and executed
the projects.

This innovation has
created a higher sense of ownership in terms of choice and quality of
execution of projects. Even more important, the high standards of due
process mechanisms embedded in the project implementation plan have
significantly improved the accountability mechanisms in project
execution, therefore providing better value to beneficiary communities.

A third significant
result is that some of the non-performing MDAs identified in earlier
reports no longer benefit from the allocations and alternative better
performing institutions have taken over the said portfolios. This trend
is important, as it has now introduced sanctions for non-performance and
inefficiency thereby improving the conduct of government business.

The net result of
this process is the emergence of observable and measurable improvement
in performance and project delivery. Prior to the commencement of these
programmes, monitoring and evaluation had virtually disappeared from
government. However, today, we observe the establishment and
strengthening of M&E units in government departments.

The scaling up of
investment in the MDG sector in Nigeria and the improvement in
performance demonstrates that achieving the MDGs by 2015 is realistic if
we can build up on the institutional improvements and scale up further
the net investment not only by the three tiers of government – federal,
state and local, but also by the private sector and the international
community which remains a notoriously low key player in the Nigerian
arena.

As Nigeria engages
gear on the countdown to 2015, one key required strategy is the
increased involvement of communities in creating the demand, conception,
supervision, management and maintenance of projects that improve their
lives and livelihoods.

We must intensify
the fight against corruption and lack of transparency in government
while scaling up investments in the social sector to ensure that Nigeria
can show the world that the largest African country can and will attain
the MDGs by 2015. The ultimate message is that committed governance can
reverse the massive level of poverty Nigerians are suffering from.

As the drums of electoral war echo across the
land, amidst barely concealed preparations for victory celebrations, some
provisions in the electoral act have game-changing potentials capable of
throwing the elections wide open – thanks in part to ‘accidents’ like the
emergence of Attahiru Jega as INEC chair and the passage of the Electoral Act
2010.

For legislators better known for drawing huge,
illegal and unearned allowances and little else, the enactment of the Electoral
Act 2010 is an unusual achievement. The Act contains provisions which
substantially change the rules of future political competition. It also
restructures engagements among political actors, parties and umpires in several
ways.

By legislating that 21-day notices must be
given to INEC by every political party prior to primaries, congresses and
conventions – without the flexibility of a waiver by INEC, many parties stand
the risk of disqualification from participating in the 2011 Elections unless
strict compliance is observed. For instance, a political party wishing to
select its candidates through indirect primaries must notify INEC of this by
Sept. 18, 2010. The latest date for a party opting for direct primaries appears
to be Oct. 2. I wonder if the parties have noticed this requirement.

This notice is required because the new rules
also require every political party that adopts the indirect primaries system of
candidate selection to amend its constitution to incorporate the rules and
procedures for the emergence of delegates and the conduct of the primaries.
This in turn may require a special convention and the required 21 days notice
to INEC.

The PDP for instance just recently publicised
its guidelines, but did not announce when it would hold the national, emergency
or special convention to incorporate the guidelines into the PDP Constitution.
With respect to the almighty PDP, the adoption of the guidelines by its
national executive is not enough. A constitutional amendment is required which
means an emergency convention, at least, must be held 21 days or more from now.

The Act prohibits many of the shenanigans of
the past, like appointing hundreds of special assistants and making them
automatic delegates. Also barred are consensus candidates, delegates sponsored
by godfathers without primaries, and the last-minute replacement of candidates.
Henceforth, even unopposed aspirants must go through a yes-no vote in
primaries. Last minute replacement of those that contested primaries by
strangers that never participated is now illegal.

By far the most interesting provision relates
to the procedure for the emergence of the presidential and gubernatorial
candidates of political parties. Candidate selection will now take in 37
separate special conventions in each of the 36 states and Abuja, with a
national convention for ratification of the winner ­ with the highest number of
votes. With this requirement, the supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan
must persuade delegates to vote for him in disparate locations ­ mostly away
from Abuja.

With the tone of the arguments for and against
zoning, I do not see how the president can prevail in more than one or two out
of the 19 northern states. How the Goodluck team and some media outlets are
already declaring victory and expecting his coronation in the upcoming PDP
primaries remain a mystery to many unless he faces several candidates from that
geographical zone.

The same risk to incumbents applies to the
governors who will emerge from special congresses in each local government of
their respective states.

Without the delegate selections held in one
central location, for persuasion, bribery and intimidation as appropriate, how
they ultimately vote is truly difficult to control by the once-invincible
governors!

For the indirect primaries, the winner that
emerges in the congresses and conventions does not require a majority of half
of the votes plus one ­ but simply the highest number of votes cast. This
provision means no run-offs will ever be necessary as the first past the post
wins. I was therefore amused to see provisions for run-off in the published
guidelines of one of the political parties ­ the PDP.

The Act has also legislated the order of elections
to put the governors at a disadvantage. The attrition rate in the National
Assembly has been high ­ averaging 80% in each electoral cycle. As an example,
in my home state of Kaduna, only one member, Ado Audu Dogo, has been in the
House of Representatives since 1999! By scheduling their elections first, and
the governors last, the legislators have extracted their revenge and hope to
reduce the manipulation their elections have suffered due to gubernatorial
interference.

In the event a political party adopts the
direct primaries system, party members must be given equal opportunity to vote
directly for the candidates to various offices ­ without the need to elect
delegates. This further devolves power away from party apparatchiks to the
membership and cuts the delegate middleman. It is doubtful if any party will
choose this as it completely eliminates the control of outcomes of primaries
from the leaders of the various parties. Clearly, a direct primaries system is
the better, more democratic system that will be more prevalent in the long run.

So for those planning victory laps before the
race proper, it may be helpful to read the Electoral Act again.

El-Rufai is a former
minister of the FCT and a member of the PDP

The recent sacking of the Inspector General of
Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, again brings to the fore the debate about the
real value of Nigeria’s National Honours.

Mr. Onovo was given the honour in July, only to be
unceremoniously sacked six weeks later. At the time he was given the
award, a correspondent from this paper asked him if he thought he
deserved the honour given the appalling security situation in the
country.

An angry Mr. Onovo replied: “Answer [the question]
for yourself. You are a member of the public. If I don’t deserve it, say
so. I can’t answer stupid questions, because insecurity is all over the
world. There is no society where there is no crime. You can’t tell me
of any society, if you know one, tell me. So, I think it is not a proper
question and I will not answer it. “You have come to provoke. You
haven’t come to ask questions as journalists who want to know and who
want to disseminate information. Your question has spoilt my happy
mood.” When one however considers that the list of honorees included
Patricia Etteh, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was
forced to resign following allegations of financial mismanagement, it
becomes clear why Mr. Onovo harboured no reservations regarding his
receipt of the award.

When Mr. Onovo snapped at our reporter for
“spoiling” his mood, little did he know that an even more potent
mood-spoiler was in the horizon. After an unremarkable stint as
Inspector-General, marked by Boko Haram and the overrunning of South
eastern Nigeria by kidnappers, Mr. Onovo was removed. He has now gone
into the record books as the shortest serving Inspector General in the
history of the Nigeria Police Force.

The sack notwithstanding, he gets to keep a
renowned national honour, earned at the height of his infamy. (We should
point out that in 2006 he had previously bagged the Officer of the
Order of the Niger award).

In May this year, the international rights group,
Reporters without Borders, named Mr. Onovo one of world’s “40 predators
of the press”. By the time he left office Mr. Onovo had also built a
reputation as a serial disobeyer of court orders. In a profile of Mr.
Onovo by this paper, following the expiration of the tenure of his
predecessor, Mike Okiro, we noted that “[Onovo] was in charge of the
inconclusive investigation of the killing of Funsho Williams, a People’s
Democratic Party Governorship candidate in Lagos State.” President
Jonathan needs to be told that what has just happened with Mr. Onovo
cannot but inflict grave damage on the reputation of the National
Honours, a reputation already battered by the rejection of the awards in
recent years by such distinguished Nigerians as Gani Fawehinmi (Order
of the Federal Republic, 2008) and Chinua Achebe (Commander of the
Federal Republic, 2004).

The tradition of awarding National Honours to
serving political office holders and bureaucrats simply on the strength
of the offices they hold is wrong, and should be stopped forthwith.
National Honours should only be conferred on the basis of integrity,
outstanding career achievement and selfless service to the nation, not
on the basis of political office.

A look at the scandals that have trailed some of
the occupiers of the post of Inspector-General in recent years is enough
to convince any right thinking person that being the country’s number 1
cop is in no way a guarantee of honesty and integrity. National Honours
ought to be earned and never merely given. Mrs. Etteh, like Mr. Onovo,
and many other names on that list, were honoured simply because they
occupied certain positions; they did nothing to earn it.

Based on current tradition, we imagine that the new
Inspector-General of Police has automatically earned himself a place in
next year’s Honours List, regardless of his record. This is a travesty
of the meritocracy that the mechanism guiding the annual awards should
be.

We want the Federal Government to bring utmost
transparency to the nominating, short-listing and screening process. How
truly open is the nominating process? What role does the Presidency –
and specifically the President – play in the short-listing process? In
what situations or circumstances is a person liable to be disqualified?

If no real reform takes place regarding the annual
national awards, a time is coming when they will not be worth the paper
bearing the citations of the recipients. Indeed there are those who will
even argue that time is already here.

One of the most heartwarming aspects of life in Nigeria today is
the surge in artistic creativity in all its forms, a sign that the people are
appreciative of their own beauty and find fascination and self confirmation in
their Nigerianess despite the dysfunctionality or perhaps even maybe, because
of the dysfuntionality of the part of their lives that has to do with
governance and politics.

The vibrancy of Nigerian art can be explained by the immediacy
of the language and symbols we use to describe ourselves. So much of what we
are is still virgin, fresh and authentic and the energy of that Naija factor
infuses everything that makes it to these shores.

But change is stealing up on us in subtle ways as we struggle to
clear the tenacious undergrowth of urban squalor and mass unemployment seeking
the light of smooth highways and streamlined overpasses.

There is a sculptor whose name I confess I do not remember, who
has a fascination with feet. He makes huge depictions of feet, the kinds that
tell stories. Gnarled toes that have smoothed many untarred paths, sinewy
muscles that have forced their way through mud and silt, leathered soles that
are unrecognizable as skin. You see these works of art and you know they are
the tail end of another Nigerian story of cattle herders, of itinerant
pedicurists, of people who work by the sweat of their bodies.

Take Lagos, the mega city to be. One of its most enduring icons
is the teeming splash of yellow taxis and colour clad bodies, a surging mass
that has inspired many a painter and seen on a wall anywhere from Sidney
Australia to Sag Harbor New York spells Eko even to people who have never been
here.

The Item of my teenage years has gone. The streams we used to
bathe in curtained by a rich rainforest canopy of trees have melted away. We no
longer wash al fresco in open air showers built with walls of strung branches
latticed with palm fronds, rubbing the soles of our feet against stones to
clean off the dirt of the day. Bush paths have given way to motor able roads,
theoretically at least, but that is not the only kind of change I am talking
about.

There is a kind of change that still retains with it the romance
and humanity of the world it is moving away from. It is a feat that requires creative
thinking to achieve, the kind that replaces ugly dumps with plant stalls, that
removes and eyesore and provides employment at the same time.

Neatly stacked rows of baby palm trees and many other kinds of
plants are turning parts of Lagos into mini market gardens.

Orange uniformed women are sweeping highways, just the way we
used to sweep compounds. The first thing you would hear every morning apart
from cocks crowing or the drumming of Pa Agu Ogali’s Unity Church rousing
morning prayers (‘use me, my father use me’) was the swish swish of a broom on
the earthen ground.

We do not always recognize the true worth of our pioneers when they are with
us but one day when Lagos has come into its own and has melded its
irrepressible spirit with the dreams of the people who give it its heartbeat we
will remember its current governor. But the needs of those who form the bedrock
of this megapolis, its okada drivers, its civil servants, its omolankes, its
domestic workers its undocumented, its area boys and girls big and small, have
also to be considered in the great march towards urban splendour.

Here we are,
supposedly practicing democracy, which implies that we listen to all,
respect all and then accept the views of the majority. But our idea of
democracy is different: from the Executive to the Legislature, the rule
is to accept the majority opinion, only as long as it tallies with ours.

Secretly and truly,
we abhor the individual’s constitutional right to choose anything
freely, unless they agree to choose the same thing as us. This is why
many feel the PDP’s resolution on zoning was a cop-out and responsible
for this join-me-or-be-damned syndrome we now see! Devoid of spin, we
are now sure of some basic facts. That there was a zoning arrangement is
no longer in doubt. What is arguable (probably because the agreement
wasn’t in written form) is the precise terms and limits; which
information unfortunately, we have largely been left to garner from
colourful interpretations of various interest groups. Recollection of
what was agreed is selective. And it is this absence of express terms
that has led to that non-decision on zoning.

Yes, non-decision
because it caused a split in the ranks of the party. How will every
party member key into two opposing dreams, a northern (N) or southern
(S) dream?

N dreamt that zoning
remained, united the party and engendered a feeling of belonging among
all tribes and tongues. S dreamt that even if there was zoning, since S
didn’t change it unilaterally and has graciously provided food (oil) for
the whole nation for years, why wouldn’t everyone grant this waiver?

But N did not care
about acts of God; a deal’s a deal! The deal could or would not be
allowed to terminate even if fate conspired to do so. Why would S not
see the need to step down, avoid rancour and let the formula ride out
the next four years?

Now, if this was
truly the feeling of the majority, why pretend about it? The party
should have spelt it out in clear unambiguous language that it did not
accept the thinking that if an incumbent president, who is entitled to a
second term wants it, he should not be challenged from within his own
party for the ticket.

Zoning should have
been retained in spite of Divine uncontrollable rotation, if the
majority so desired. This would have showed the strength and resilience
of the soul of the party. Perhaps those out-zoned would have by now,
sought solace in other parties.

Perhaps too, the
party contradicted itself because of perceptions about its (lukewarm or
outrightly hostile) attitude to the constitutional right of its man, a
South-South vice president, who could possibly take advantage of a
political opening in the presidency. If the party didn’t like the
perception, should it not have lined up behind the incumbent, damning
the pro-zoning sentiment?

Thinking aloud now,
how would you have felt if you became an incumbent, not by any fault of
yours or conjuring by you, yet find that your party, which seemed happy
enough to have you as VP, is suddenly reluctant to consider you as a
viable president in the light of emerging circumstances? Is a VP not
expected to assume the post of a president if and when the need arises?

Ahh-haaa!
Conversely, must an incumbent force himself on a reluctant party? Must
an incumbent run under the party that brought him to prominence? If we
accept the omnipotent power of the Nigerian president, could any party
(including a ruling party!) defeat an incumbent presidential candidate,
even if he changes party? Could the party have withstood the audacity of
an incumbent president jumping ship as we saw governors do in Abia, Imo
or Bauchi States?

On the other hand,
the party recognised that events had reached a climax; unless they
wanted to be seen as fuelling adverse perceptions, they would have to
accept the inevitability of this incumbent’s constitutional right to
contest over and above the limits imposed by the PDP constitution.
Perfect shelter existed within S1 (3) of the 1999 Constitution:

‘’If any other law
is inconsistent with the provision of this Constitution, this
Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of
the inconsistency be void”.

S40 of the 1999
Constitution guarantees that ‘’every person shall be entitled to
assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular, he
MAY FORM or BELONG to ANY political party, trade union or any other
ASSOCIATION for the protection of his interests”. The only
qualification of this right is if the Electoral Commission denies such
an association official recognition.

The ability to
observe the sanctity of the right to choose freely, shows the elevation
of our civility, tolerance and respect for another’s opinion. If you
must convince, superior argument is all you can employ.

Would we have death
threats flying around if the PDP had taken a more decisive stand on the
issue of zoning? We’ll never know. But if we are to believe that the
resolution to retain zoning, yet allow a non-northerner, albeit an
incumbent, to run, was the best solution, why are some party members so
critical of the South-south indigene joining the campaign of a northern
candidate?

Are we now saying
that because the incumbent president is from the South-south, no one
from that region must participate in primaries to contest the
presidential election in 2011, even under the same party? Should any
other Ijaw man turn down the presidential ticket of another party?

But that, my friends, is a story for another day!

It was quite a
dramatic moment. Even more dramatic than the entrance of former South
African President Thabo Mbeki onto the stage to deliver a lecture in
Tshwane University of Technology’s Public Intellectual Lecture series.
He had been greeted with spontaneous and beautifully melodic deep
chanting that was both praise and acknowledgement of Mbeki and – against
a background of his failed bid to chair the ruling African National
Congress – a thumbing of the nose at current President Jacob Zuma.

Now, however, Mbeki
was barely into the stride of his lecture when a young man strode in
from the back of the hall. With awesome dreadlocks, shouting in Zulu
language, I mistook him for a praise singer bent on also hailing Mbeki.
Otherwise, why wasn’t he stopped as he approached? But on reaching the
stage, he hurled a poster at the former President. It was not a good
throw and barely made it to the foot of the podium as the interloper was
at last wrestled to the ground by security guards.

Mbeki of course,
reacted with the aplomb that we have come to expect of world leaders
confronted with flying shoes, tomatoes, or even aerodynamically
challenged missiles such as huge unwieldy posters. With barely a
second’s pause, he continued the lecture as the intruder – who, far from
being an Mbeki fan, had in fact been shouting slogans in support of
Zuma – was hustled out of the hall.

Having travelled to
South Africa for a Regional Conference on Civil Society and
Constitutional Reform organised by the National Democratic Institute and
the University of South Africa, it was my good fortune that this
surprise event had been made open to participants. Pondering Mbeki’s
career since he was forced out of office by his party led to musing
about the difference between the home lives of our own dear retired
leaders and those in South Africa.

Mbeki may or may not
be eyeing some other high office, but South Africans can rest assured
that there isn’t going to be another Mbeki presidency. However
enthusiastic his supporters inside the lecture hall, outside, in the
wider country, ANC supporters who appreciated the role played by South
Africa’s first post-apartheid president, Nelson Mandela, in stabilizing
and uniting the country in those early days of majority rule, criticise
Mbeki for failing to build on that stability and raise living standards
for the black majority during his own presidency.

Perhaps it is this
perceived failure and recognition that South African voters are fully
conscious that it is their support that maintains the ANC in power that
would make an Mbeki hesitate, even if it had been constitutionally
possible to return to power. So different from the arrogance of our own
dear former rulers.

It was during the
reign of Ibrahim Babangida that masses of workers were thrown out of
work by his “structural adjustment” policies, the middle class was
almost wiped out, corruption with “misappropriated” national funds
became an instrument of state policy while the rights and freedoms of
the Nigerian people were trampled upon through detentions without trial,
executions for trumped-up coup plots (as well as executions for actual
attempted coups) and newspaper proscriptions, while the nation’s
political progress was thrown back by a decade when the presidential
election of June 12th 1993 was annulled. An Mbeki might hesitate to
boast of such a record: Babangida revels in it and offers a repeat
performance! How lucky he is to be shielded by a Federal
Attorney-General who refuses to test his culpability over the Gulf War
oil windfall by a criminal prosecution. Nobody should be fooled by the
excuse that AGF Mohammed Bello Adoke can’t do anything because he isn’t
sure of the authenticity of the Okigbo Panel report presented to him by
civil society organisations in response to his claim that he had not
brought charges against Babangida because he didn’t have a genuine copy.

Adoke must know very
well that he would need to do a lot more than simply present a copy of
the Okigbo Panel report to secure a criminal conviction in any court of
law in Nigeria, but the shamelessness of his behaviour once his
ridiculous bluff was called, is a pointer to the corrosive effect of
former heads of state on the body politic. We need only consider the
game of smoke and mirrors that he is playing with the Halliburton case,
drawing up an elaborate charge sheet without arraigning any suspects and
expecting us to believe that matters are getting close to ex-President
Olusegun Obasanjo because one of those on the charge sheet, Bodunde
Adeyanju, is a former aide of his. Of course, trial judge David Okorowo,
refused to be part of the charade and in effect, tersely advised the
Ministry of Justice to return when they were serious.

But come to think of it, maybe our former leader takes inspiration
from South Africa’s current President? In 2008, Zuma was facing charges
for taking bribes from a French company. But when he emerged as ANC
front-runner for the office of president, these melted away …