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Friends and comrades of Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem were at the Yar’Adua Centre on 25th May to celebrate the life and work of this great African. He had made it easy by dying on AFRICA LIBERATION DAY, May 25th 2009 in a motor accident in Nairobi, Kenya. He was enroute to Kigali, Rwanda where he was to drum up support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He lived and died for Africa.

I was on election observation duties in Malawi when he died last year. The testimo-ny of his Africanness emerged the moment I announced his death at our review meeting in Blantyre. The Kenyan observer thought he was Kenyan and the Ugandan observer thought he was Ugandan, which he was because when he was in exile and Abacha had refused to renew his Nigerian passport, Musoveni had given him Ugandan nationality so that he could move around and organise the 7th Pan African Con-gress.Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was born on Janu-ary 6, 1961 in Funtua, Katsina State and saw no contradiction in being an indigene of both Funtua in Katsina State and Ogbomosho.

Taju studied at Bayero University Kano where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Political Science. He then bagged the pres-tigious Rhodes Fellowship and proceeded to Oxford University where he graduated with a D.Phil.At the Yar’Adua Centre celebration, Labaran Maku, Minister of State for Information and Communication and co-chair of the event captured the mood of the moment by recalling the greatness of the African past bequeathed to the world in the magnificent pyramids and the tragedy of continuous bondage from the times of the Romans to the contemporary infiltration and takeover of the continent by the Chinese. The greatest Africans he declared are those who engage in the struggle to unite and liber-ate Africans.The other co-chair, Amina az Zubair, Senior Special Adviser to the President on the Millennium Develop-ment Goals who worked with Taju when he was Afri-ca Director of the Millen-nium campaign stressed his commitment to defending the com-mon person and promoting people centered development.

For Muthono Wanyeki, Executive Director of the Ken-yan Human Rights Commission who rep-resented the Kenyan comrades at the event, her emphasis was on why we should all strive to emulate Taju’s dogged, non-judgmental and self-tasking approach to popular struggles.Other speakers at the symposium were Abu-bakar Momoh of Lagos State University who spoke on the philosophy of Pan Africanism, the Director of Political Affairs of ECOW-AS, Musah Abdel-Fatau who focused on the imperative of integration in contemporary Africa, Adele Jinadu who stressed the signifi-cance of Pan Africanism and Tar Ukoh of the Mambisa band fame who both entertained with his orchestra and gave a moving speech on the importance of culture in the struggle for political and economic libera-tion.It was a moving trib-ute to Taju who was appointed General-Sec-retary for the Secretariat organising the 7th Pan African Congress in Kampala, Uganda.

He organised a very successful Congress in 1994 with delegates from 47 countries It turned out to be one of the largest and most vibrant gatherings of Pan Africanists in many years. Though the theme of the Congress was ‘Africa: Facing the Future in Unity, Social Progress and Democracy’; the Congress was overshadowed by the unfolding genocide in Rwanda.In response, Tajudeen accompanied a del-egation from the Pan African Movement to Rwanda, for a first hand assessment of what was going on in the country, but the delegation fell into an ambush near Kigali from which Tajudeen was lucky to escape unhurt. Paul Kagame, the Rwandan President sent a per-sonal message to the symposium regretting his inability to be personally present at the celebration of someone he knew as a personal friend and a comrade in the struggle for the lib-eration of Africa,Beyond the Pan Africa Congress, Tajudeen remained perhaps the most vocal cru-sader for his dream of a ‘United States of Africa’.What will never cease to amaze those of us who knew this great African was how he found time to write? He ran a regular column, Thursday Postcard, syndicated to many newspapers including Daily Trust and Pambazuka.

We remember Taju for his intel-lect, his loud laughter and his infectious ‘irrev-erent’ sense of humour. He was many things to many people, he was a journalist and column-ist, a political scientist, a campaigner and an activist; but perhaps the role for which he will be missed the most, is his support for African institutions especially the civil society.He was the founding chair of the Centre for Democracy and Development where I work, the Director of Justice Africa and the Pan-Afri-can Development Education and Advocacy Programme to name but a few. In recognition of his contributions, the Trust Conglomerate awarded him the post humus award of African of the Year. It is edifying that even in death; Taju still speaks and is recognised for his tre-mendous contributions to the development of the continent. The celebration of his life took place simultaneously in Abuja, London, Nai-robi and Kampala. Taju left behind his widow Mounira and two daughters Aisha and Aida. May his ideas continue to inspire us.

Have you heard the one about the cheating husband whose wife catches him in flagrante delicto. The impu-dent adulterer denies everything and tries the ‘it-wasn’t-me’ defence: “Now who’re you gonna believe baby? Me? Or your lyin’ eyes?” A senior colleague had his strategy for dealing with armed robbers all prepared. Like poten-tial crime victims all over the world, he would calmly offer the robbers his watch, his wallet, car keys etc. and generally cooperate with the criminals. When it actually happened however, his instinctive reaction to the sudden attack was not part of his plan. It earned him a beat-ing and weeks on crutches.

Although he was defending himself against an unlawful attack, going along with the thugs would have been the ‘sensible’ response.But it doesn’t mean that it would have been ‘right’. It was, after all, the robbers who were doing the robbing. And when the highway rob-ber crept out of the bush and grabbed him, he … resisted.It was with these thoughts that one listened to Israeli officials trying to justify killing – on their own ship and on the high seas – nine civil-ians who were trying to relieve the trauma of Gaza, victim of an illegal blockade by the Israeli occupying power.The blockade has little to do with Israel’s all-important security, and everything to do with punishing ordinary people in Gaza: hence banned or blockaded items include musical instruments, A4 paper, chocolate, biscuits, toys and goats as well as cement and building materials that might allow essential recon-struction 18 months after the strip was pulverised by Israeli bombs.The Israeli govern-ment is trying to stand the disproportionate use of force complaint – of which it has itself been repeatedly accused – on its head.

So it is Israel that now complains that it was the activists who used dis-proportionate force. That is, instead of simply going along with the demands of the armed soldiers who forcefully occupied their boat, they … resisted.Here we have – writ small – the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian problem: people who found the homes in which they live attacked and occupied. And who … resisted.Israel has justified its own refusal to acknowledge Hamas or recognise its 2006 election victory because it maintains, “anyone who persists with the question of Israel’s right to exist is one whose agenda is to eliminate Israel and its Jewish inhabitants”. In the wake of the flotilla attack, its officials have been desperately repeating the words ‘Hamas’, ‘terrorists’, ‘existential threat’, ‘wipe out the State of Israel’, ‘attacked’, ‘right to exist’, ‘martyrs’ and ‘jihadis’ etc., in the hope that the old subliminal message (Hamas=Nazis+Final Solution/genocide) can still be transmitted.But the “Hamas doesn’t recognise Israel/wants to wipe it off the map and therefore plans to murder every Israeli” is an Israeli interpre-tation, not the world’s. There is no rational basis for equating the disappearance of a state with genocide.For sure, there is a history of violence between Israel and various Palestinian groups, but the death count between them – with so many more Palestinian deaths than Israeli – makes it inadvisable for Israel to insist that killings are indicative of genocidal intent. Indeed, that Israel’s army shoots at Hamas security forces when they try to arrest mili-tant groups in Gaza who do not accept even the idea of a ceasefire on firing rockets into Israel, speaks volumes about how useful the occasional rocket is to intra-Israeli politics and the presentation of Israel as the eternally threatened victim, surrounded by ‘hostile Arab states’.

Thus Hamas’ refusal to recognise Israel or to renounce violence as a legitimate weapon in the struggle against occupation provided a pretext for the European Union, the Pales-tinian Authority’s biggest donor, to withdraw financial support. Even after Hamas declared its willingness to observe a ceasefire, Israel was able to prevent any relief for Gaza by con-tinuing to insist that failure to recognise its right to exist equals plans for genocide. And as long as its main backers in the West accept that spin, and obfuscate Israel’s own use of violence behind the ‘right to defend itself’ argument, lit-tle need be said about the misery and humili-ation of daily life for Palestinians, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank.Now however the mask has slipped. It is obvious that attempts are being made to mas-sage the facts: the Israeli army quickly released its own version of selected moments from the raid, but tellingly, confiscated and still holds on to video shot by news organisations and others that might show the moment of actual engage-ment.But the stubborn fact is that civilian ships were subjected to a commando raid in inter-national waters.

At the end of the assault, nine civilians lay dead, with many more injured. The similarity between that attack and the activi-ties of pirates on the high seas is undeniable.And despite Israel’s increasingly shrill rep-etition of ‘jihadis’, ‘violent supporters of ter-rorism’, ‘anti-Semitic’, ‘iron bars’, ‘knives’ and above all ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’, it seems that this time, we are going to have to believe our own lyin’ eyes.

Till recently the
president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been my good friend:
someone I look up to and respect immensely; a ruler I believed to be a
true leader; the still water that runs deep in our national polity; a
man that survived the Alcatraz of treacherously lecherous cabalists in
the Villa. I mean, this dude is the first president we can proudly say
has a PhD that is not honorary since Nigerian shook off the shackles of
colonialism fifty years ago.

Yes, fifty years
ago and we are celebrating our golden jubilee come this October in a
very big way – and guess what our President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan did? The prudent president is seeking approval for a meagre
N9billion from the Senate to celebrate, when we are not in a recession!
This is Nigeria we are talking about here; the world’s HQ of big
ostentatious partying. Yet, our president is asking for ordinary N9
billion.

I know our number
one citizen has his hands full and his brain is overflowing with
solving the seven-point agenda Medusa, so no time to check the pulse of
the economic boom outside Aso Rock. But I think every now and then, he
should take some time off and talk to his staff, if he had been doing
this regularly, he would have realised that N9billion cannot buy five
fishes and two loaves of bread.

Ghana will soon be
laughing at us. Why? Because Ghana’s golden jubilee that shook the
entire world had a budget of $20 million and we are only surpassing
their budget with a pittance of about $ 40 million!

The question I want
to ask the president is, what are we going to do with all the money we
make from crude oil? Are we going to start burning the surplus in
cemeteries and taking baths with the ash? Our roads are better
designed, better tarred and better maintained than anywhere else in
this God created earth. Even if they weren’t, will N9 billion buy one
truckload of gravel to pave a kilometre? Of course not! N9 billion is
what we Nigerians throw to a tollbooth attendant on our roads paved
with gold.

Let’s assume that
we did not have constant power supply (God forbid bad thing) since we
gained independence, does the president think N9 billion will leave a
dent in making sure such a nightmare is rectified? I am not an engineer
but I know definitely that the money the president is requesting to
throw a Golden Jubilee party is too small to even buy a transformer for
my village in Esan.

The more I look at
this matter the more I wonder if my able President understands what
this independence means to our people? We are talking about celebrating
fifty years of good governance and undiluted democracy, coup and war
free, free scholarships, vibrant civil services, an eclectic middle
class, jobs for every graduate, no militancy and no foreign debt. I am
talking about half a century of being the GIANT OF AFRICA, which means
we have fared better post-colonially than any other African country. I
can already hear the guffaws from other African nations, berating us
for spending such a small amount to celebrate our independence.

And I can tell you
what Kenya is going to say: “I don’t think these Nigerians value their
independence at all, maybe because they did not experience the Mau Mau
Uprising.” And Angola would chuckle and say, “I doubt if those people
actually have oil money”.

Let’s even look at
the N9b breakdown – N2 billion for Ministries of Foreign Affairs,
Information and Communication and Women Affairs. And my question to Mr.
President – is this just “spraying” money? Does the president know how
much it will cost to rebrand a Golden Jubilee, or is Dora sleeping? And
he better be ready for the First Lady when she complains that the money
will not be enough to buy asoebi and gele for the guests of the
Ministry of Women Affairs.

Guess who will get
the beggarly amount of N1billion if the budget is approved? Our Uniform
Services – we are talking about our first class-trained police, army,
airforce and navy and let’s not leave out LASTMA. I think they should
protest and tell the president, enough is enough, we cannot even pay
our dry cleaners with that amount, so increase it sir.

And the budget
request further says that the Office of the Secretary to the Federation
will spend N6 billion. If I were the secretary, I would raise hell
because these days N6 billion is not enough to plan one’s daughter’s
first birthday party, not to talk of a Golden Jubilee.

Honestly, I think
the President should ask for more, we are not a poor nation and we love
to gbadum. We should show the world that all is well with us, we are an
oil-producing nation and we’ve had a stellar performance since we
decided to rule ourselves. We should let naira rain and spend it like
there is no tomorrow.

So Presido, please, before the Senate approves that ordinary N9
billion, raise the budget so we can raise the roof, come October 1st.

Just as some Nigerians were breathing easy that the avalanche of
sexual abuse that has rocked the Catholic world in the west will bypass us, the
case of Richard Burke surfaced this week. An Irish Bishop, Burke served as an
Archbishop in the Diocese of Benin City in Edo State and during his stint as a priest
in Warri, had a sexual relationship with a Dolores Atwood.

So far the priest has not denied the act, except to say that the
girl was twenty-one when they, “had a caring relationship that began in the
latter part of 1989, when she was 21 and I was 40. I was posted back to Ireland
in March 1990, and returned to Nigeria in April 199.” Atwood says she was 14
when the priest had sex with her, which would make it a case of sexual abuse.
In his letter of resignation Richard Burke apologized for failing to honour his
vow of celibacy.

That this singular case of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has
surfaced in Nigeria shouldn’t be surprising at all, what is somewhat puzzling
is that many more have not. Research shows that membership of the Catholic
Church in Africa skyrocketed from 1.9 million in 1900 to 130 million in 2000
and Nigeria boasts of about 25million out of that, yet only one case of sexual
abuse has come to light. Considering the fact that we live in a country where
talk about sexual abuse is almost non-existent we may never get to the bottom
of the issue. Even as we speak, many are more likely to berate Ms. Atwood
instead of questioning the priest’s wrong doing.

Revelations in the United States and Europe have also shown that
many of the sexually abused are young boys. In a society like ours, will any
Nigerian boy or man be able to come out and say, “I was sexually abused by my
priest”? Or if there are abused boys, would they understand what happened to
them as abuse? Many would rather die with the hurt and pain or simply dismiss
the encounter, while the priest walks free to prey on; such is the respect we
sometimes have for men of the cloth.

It is instructive that the St Patrick’s Missionary society ‘
found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse.” But the
Vatican is investigating further.

We live in a society where many laws are often disregarded and
often rarely enforced, a double tragedy because any errant priests would know
this and their abused victims would too. What will come of it if he or she were
to confess, apart from the priest resigning? Will our government seek redress
for its citizens? Do we have a solid judiciary system that will address the
issues?

It will be interesting to see how the Pope and the Vatican
respond to Ms. Atwood’s case in Nigeria. We have seen how the other nations
like America and Britain have shaken an apology out of the hesitant Holy Papal.

We never ask for apologies and very soon we start to hear “let’s
forgive and forget, nobody is perfect, everything is in God’s hands”; then
follows the usual – let us pray about it. But while we are praying about
priests sexually abusing our young ones, we should also start talking about it
and loudly too.

For many years, I’ve had this
unshakable belief that my vote will count one day. In spite of the
humiliation of June 12th, I’ve faithfully – or blindly voted since
then! I believe President Jonathan has the golden opportunity to
facilitate credible elections come 2011.

I think I speak for many Nigerians when
I say we are glad that Mr. Maurice Iwu was sacked. Whether Mr.
President was motivated by public opinion, international pressure or
sound advisers – we don’t know. We are only glad to be rid of Iwu. We
are however not deluded in thinking that Iwu was the only impediment
towards credible elections.

I am not an expert in electoral
matters, but I’m passionate about competitiveness, fairness and good
leadership. I’ve studied, observed, read articles and listened to
commentaries. I recently asked a group of “Concerned Nigerians” a
simple question: which three stakeholders could affect the outcome of
elections the most? I asked them to choose from the following: the
ruling party, INEC chairman, the Police, the voting public,
registration process and authentication, media, electoral officials and
party officials.

The ‘unrigged’ results came in – and
80% of those surveyed chose INEC chairman, the voting public and the
voters’ authentication process. While a survey of 20 people cannot be
compared to the detailed, yet-to-be-implemented Uwais report, I’d like
to focus on two of these results.

I believe an inspired voting public, a
courageous INEC chairman and a sound registration/authentication
process can counter the evil machinations of the ruling party, corrupt
electoral officials, misled policemen and desperate politicians. Of all
the stakeholders above, only the media seems to have scored above
average – and they should continue to sustain the coverage and in-depth
analysis of the players, factors and issues Choosing an INEC chairman
who has a proven track record of ‘delivering’, whose integrity cannot
be questioned and who can withstand pressure from the Presidency and
rogue politicians is the first step to restore confidence to the voting
public and the international community. We need someone who will spur
apathetic voters – those who complain more but have no faith in the
‘system’ – to rise up, register, participate and defend their votes.
This is the first step on this journey to credible elections.

May I recommend (to Mr. President and
his advisers), names like Nuhu Ribadu, El Rufai, Dora Akunyili, or
Christopher Kolade. While I believe there are many more Nigerians who
can fit the bill, we need ‘popular, renowned’ names that will re-jig
the ‘usual’ voters, motivate the ‘siddon-lookers’ – and strike some
fear in the hearts of rogue politicians.

Retired justices and university
chancellors’ may have integrity, but may also fail to bring the added
dimension of vibrancy and public inspiration – through regular
communication, assurance – and threats! Iwu was right about one thing –
voter apathy is a major issue. While experiences like June 12 and 2007
may seem to justify our ‘siddon look and complain’ stance, Nigerians
need to persevere. Most Nigerians want competence over zoning. If the
next president is a ‘youth’ at 45 and can provide us 8 hours of power
daily (let’s start with that!), we don’t care. If the next president
hails from Rivers, Bauchi or Edo – but rehabilitates our failing
educational and health systems – Nigerians in the Diaspora will vote!
If the new president is a ‘Madam’ President, and she can facilitate a
functional rail system, efficient ferries (and fixing the Lagos-Benin
expressway), …no shaking! All we are saying, President Jonathan is
‘consider the Uwais report, give us a vibrant and tough chairman and
let’s get on with the registration process. To Nigerians, I say this.
When we don’t register, vote and protect our votes – we facilitate
rigging. Prayer is good – but we must act too. We can’t blame INEC (and
government) for everything.

Will I prefer the status quo – and
elections in January/April 2011 or a reformed electoral process – and
deferred elections in November 2011; a two-party system, 10-party
system or unlimited? Should Jonathan run or not? These are debates for
another day!

Akanimo Ekong is Executive Director – Resourcery Plc