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Our
parliamentarians held a rather curious debate recently on the motion of
whether or not we are a ‘failed state’. The mere fact that this debate
was taking place at all was in itself an issue for concern. We as a
people have this penchant for sado-masochistic self-loathing; believing
everything about us to be a catalogue of unrequited evil. We take our
blessings for granted – good health, fulfilling careers, our families,
our friends and all the other good things with which we have been
blessed. Instead, we prefer to focus on our failings — on all the
things that are wrong with us as a people.

There is evidence
from Werner Heisenberg’s ‘indeterminacy principle’ in quantum physics
that sub-atomic particles do tend to adapt their characteristics to the
manner in which they are actually being observed. If this is true of
nature, how truer it must be for people and nations. If we choose to
focus on our collective foibles, then we are playing the game of
losers. You cannot use the word ‘stupid’ on your child for every small
mistake and not expect that child to grow up stupid. Was it not the
ancients who taught us that our universe was brought into being through
the mystery of the spoken word?

As we approach our Golden Jubilee, perhaps for once, it might do us some good to count our blessings.

Consider where the
Almighty has chosen to place us. Nigeria is the most strategically
located country in Africa. If we were the sun, our rays would irradiate
the length and breadth of the continent from our location on this most
strategic corner of Africa. We are the ‘heart of Africa’ not only in
metaphor but also in the literal mathematical-geometrical sense; the
bridgehead for reaching out to the rest of the continent in trade,
business and communications.

Unlike countries
such as Haiti, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Japan and the
United States, we have been spared from natural catastrophes such as
earthquakes, tornadoes and Tsunamis. What we have experienced as
natural disasters has been comparatively tame by world standards. Of
course, we have to worry about ecological problems such as
desertification in the North, environmental pollution in the Niger
Delta and gully erosion in the East. But these are largely man-made
disasters which we ourselves can reverse if we set our minds so to do.

Apart from the
1950s when we suffered a famine deliberately imposed by British
colonial policy which forced people to produce cash crops to feed the
factories of Europe following World War II, Nigeria has never undergone
the kind of dreadful experiences that Somalia and Ethiopia have
undergone. We do of course have incidences of malnutrition and we still
import some of our food. But much of this is down to the intellectual
laziness of our leaders more than anything else. If properly harnessed,
our soil could easily become the granary of our continent.

We are also a
gifted people; known the world over for our brilliance and ingenuity.
The world’s greatest living mathematician is one of our compatriots.
Nigerian scientists and professionals are flourishing all over the
world. Some of the luminous lights of our renascent Africa are to be
found on our shores, ours being a land of star-scattering thinkers,
artists and griots. We do our things with such style and panache that
shocks our friends and confounds our enemies alike. We have been spared
the heartbreaking inferiority complex that Global Apartheid has so
successfully inflicted on the psyche of the African people. We have a
supreme confidence that many of our detractors mistake for arrogance.

While our record in
economic development is rather mediocre and our people still wallow in
millennial misery, we can nonetheless point to a few notable strides.
In 1960, we had only one university. Today, we have sixty. We can
debate the standards, but we cannot deny that there has been an
explosion in school enrolment and in higher education. During the Gowon
years, we built more roads than the British did in their century-long
occupation of our country. Abuja is also a success; a capital city of
which we must all be proud. In spite of the challenges, we can claim to
have launched a satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1, into space. Nollywood has
become the toast of the global film industry, second in output only to
India, and well ahead of Hollywood.

And this house has
not fallen, in spite of civil war, in spite of the recurrent cycle of
ritual bloodbaths in the name of religion and ethnicity. Through all
the upheavals, our people have shown an extraordinary resilience.
Brutalised by the savagery of our leaders, they have kept hope alive.
We have even won the dubious prize for being the happiest people on
earth. Yes, we have often tempted the fates – teetered on the Niagara
Falls of history – but we have also managed to retreat from the cosmic
abysses of catastrophe.

I have travelled the length and breadth of our beautiful continent.
And I say it again, without any fear of contradiction, that we are the
greatest and most generous people in Africa. We welcome strangers with
a warmth that is unknown elsewhere. A peculiar people, ours is a
heritage of infinite possibilities. If only our leaders understood the
full meaning of our destiny, Nigeria would astonish the world.

Days ago, it emerged that 163 persons, most of them children, had died in Zamfara since March, from suspected lead poisoning. The victims were said to be mostly illegal gold miners, working in an area with high concentrations of lead. Apart from the dead, hundreds have also fallen ill.

Only days before that news emerged, hundreds of persons were hospitalized in Kaduna State after being exposed to poisonous fumes from a mysterious gas cylinder. According to news reports, the toxic gas was released when a welder attempted to open a cylinder. The gas rendered many of its victims unconscious, and affected even rescue personnel as well.

In a country with an age-old disdain for collecting statistics and monitoring trends, these incidents, tragically, are only a tip of the iceberg. The effects of most will not be sudden as in the above instances, but drawn out; slow deaths that no one will ever get to the bottom of.

Incidents like this are to be expected in a society like ours; it goes beyond ascribing the term lawless to the ease with which governance is conducted without any awareness of its basic requirements. The questions on the mind of any right-thinking Nigerian are these: where was the Zamfara State Government all the while a multitude of its citizens carried out illegal mining activities on its territory; and how did it escape the attention of the authorities that the land was contaminated with lead?

Viewers of the (in)famous BBC documentary Welcome to Lagos will recall that some of its major characters eked a living from setting fire to copper wires in a bid to retrieve pure copper which is then sold for profit. At least one of them in fact acknowledged that the venture posed serious health risks.

It is already well known that Nigeria is a major dumping ground for electronic waste (e-waste) from the West and from Asia – obsolete and often unsalvageable computers, mobile phones, TV sets, refrigerators, etc.
Lagos’ Alaba Market, reputed to be the biggest electronics market in West Africa, is an infinite storehouse of disused electronics from within and outside Nigeria. Much of this junk is pulled apart and smelted by a teeming army of otherwise jobless Nigerians, with the aim of extracting – in crude ways – valuable but highly toxic metals. This crude recycling is in all cases a death sentence, poisoning the soil, the air and the bodies of victims; increasing the likelihood of heart and respiratory diseases, cancer and genetic mutations.

On May 29 the Nigerian Customs Service seized a vessel carrying eight containers of e-waste, which arrived at the Tincan Island Port. Only in April yet another ship was detained at Tincan Island Port. Among its contents were containers of lead batteries. The fact that these ships keep showing up in our ports should be sufficient cause for alarm in government circles. It appears that potential dumpers of hazardous waste have identified Nigeria as an easy prey. They must have strong reasons for coming to that alarming conclusion.
We call on the National Environmental Standards Regulation and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and other relevant government agencies and law enforcement bodies to step up their surveillance. Proactive steps need to be taken regarding these scandals. We cannot afford to wait for these ships to show up on our shores before we take action.

Few Nigerians will forget the Koko tragedy, in which thousands of tonnes of toxic waste originating from Italy were dumped in Koko, present-day Delta State, polluting the air and soil and causing widespread sickness and death. But not many Nigerians will know that Probo Koala, the ship which dumped tonnes of toxic waste in Abidjan in 2006, killing several persons and making tens of thousands of others sick, stopped in Lagos shortly before going on to Abidjan.

Nigeria, it appears, lives perpetually on the edge of disaster. The seeming nonchalance of our authorities gives immense cause for concern. Despite the Zamfara tragedy, we are sure that the illegal mining which led to the death of hundreds (and which also causes the country to lose billions of dollars annually), will continue unhindered, once the dead are buried and the hue and cry has died down. Tragically, Sani Ahmed Yerima, Zamfara State Senator, and one of those who should be spearheading efforts to tackle this disaster, is at the moment caught up in trying to defend his choice of an under-aged wife. Talk of fiddling while the land lies poisoned.

We sympathize with the victims of these disasters, and call on our governments to wake up to their responsibilities. These clearly avoidable tragedies will continue to be inevitable as long as no lessons are learnt from the ones that have already happened.

Let’s be honest: Nobody would be talking about the Gore breakup were it not for The Kiss.

The Kiss doesn’t
get the top line on the Al Gore resume, of course. He did win a Nobel
Prize and an Oscar, after all. He also has won the enmity of every
climate-change denier/skeptic across the world.

What’s strange is
that Gore, of all people, has excited such emotions. What made The Kiss
so remarkable was that people weren’t necessarily sure Gore had human
emotions.

It wasn’t the
all-time great kiss. That would have to be the sailor-meets-nurse Times
Square kiss on V-J Day that made the cover of Life magazine.

The Gores’ kiss wasn’t exactly the Rodin sculpture either, although Al Gore has been accused of being at least semi-immobile.

(By the way, the most-cited Gore-breakup joke so far: Tipper gets half the Internet.)

But as political kisses go, it was certainly memorable, if not necessarily in a good way.

I was showing a
photograph of The Kiss to a friend at the office, who said, “I wish I
hadn’t seen that. It’s like having a hair caught in your throat.”

The kiss was almost
certainly staged. This is politics, after all. But real or fake or (my
guess) real and fake, The Kiss was meant to represent the notion that
the Gores were a real couple and nothing like the Clintons.

Without the Monica
Lewinsky affair, there would have been no kiss. There also would have
been no impeachment and possibly no George W. Bush presidency, just so
you understand the stakes.

Strangely, the
Clintons’ strange marriage continues, and now the Gores are splitting
up. That’s the bet that no one would have taken and everyone would have
lost. It’s a reminder of how little we actually know about other
people. Face it, we barely know ourselves.

In 2000, Al Gore
wanted to remove himself as far as possible from the Clinton drama.
Tipper Gore had said how upset she was that Hillary hadn’t left Bill.
Al Gore had said he felt personally betrayed.

No one was
officially more upset by Clinton’s behavior than the Gores. It was as
if the pair were getting their advice on the lovelorn from the Gallup
poll.

And yet, after Gore
lost the triple-overtime election to Bush, Bill Clinton left office
with 60 percent approval ratings. And Hillary Clinton, of course,
nearly became the nation’s first female president.

Whatever else,
though, the Clinton marriage is famously complicated. The Gores wanted
to show that their marriage was just like yours, if you, too, had been
married at the National Cathedral.

And so, we got The
Kiss, which was so embarrassingly real-looking – a kiss that seemed
more like a teenage grope – that it had to be mostly real, even if it
was planned.

But now people
wonder. The Gores have been married for 40 years. Forty years is
forever. Forty years is so long that everything that could happen to a
couple has already happened. The scars are all there to prove it.

You don’t wake up
after 40 years and suddenly discover something is wrong with your
partner. When you wake up after 40 years, you’re just glad you woke up
at all, even if your spouse’s underwear is on the floor.

But the Gores are
in their early 60s, which we like to say is the new early 40s, meaning
plenty of time to have a different, if not entirely new, life. They
were married at ages 21 and 22 to the tune of “All You Need Is Love.”
They had four kids, one who nearly died. They had enough highs and lows
for several lives. And apparently they just bought a new
multimillion-dollar mansion, this one a 6,900-square-foot carbon
footprint, for at least one of them to live in.

You’d like to hope
that this won’t turn into a Tiger Woods story or a Jesse James-Sandra
Bullock story. (Which proves, if nothing else, you’re asking for
trouble if you marry someone named Jesse James. Who’s the divorce
lawyer? Billy the Kid?)

If you want to read
a story about the Gores, read the Time piece from 2000 by Tamala
Edwards and Karen Tumulty, who quoted Gore as saying he and Tipper were
the “old cliché about opposites attracting.”

The authors pointed to a dinner party that Al gave to discuss the “declining role of metaphor in American life.”

Tipper, meanwhile,
liked to take the kids rollerblading in the Senate hallways. And, of
course, she played drums, despite her once-famous spat with Frank
Zappa.

Meanwhile, Al was writing books on climate change.

In other words, it
sounds like it was once a real marriage. Or as the great philosopher
Chuck Berry put it in his ode to young marriage: “C’est la vie, say the
old folks. It goes to show you never can tell.”

Mike Littwin is a columnist for The Denver Post

© The New York Times 2010

There
are “languages” of struggle and survival that flourish and characterise
life in the conflictive spaces of postcolonial Nigeria. These languages
may appear unattractive, unsophisticated, and too informal to engage
any attention, yet those simple and sometimes humorous expressions
signify interesting attempts by their users to wrestle with their
destinies in a cultural world that seems uninterested in accommodating
their dreams.

In the popular
discourse of some Onitsha, Aba, and Oshodi street traders, this trying
experience, this wrestling with one’s destiny, is expressed in a
code-switched slang: “oku di over!” (literally, “The fire is
excessive!”). The street traders have to race after vehicles in a
traffic jam. They have to chase after their money in the rain and in
the hot sun. They have to run from “Town Council” officials and from
the police, even after paying some fees secretly to be allowed to
operate.

Caught in the
in-between of civilization and barbarity, modernity and crude
existence, burning wealth and depressing poverty, they have to fight
and devour one another sometimes. Any of them operating at the
“battlefield” has to learn to muscle his or her way out. And the
“battlefield” is considered attractive, although tragic, for that is
where the sales talk faster in Naira.

Indeed, before
Governor Fashola sacked the Oshodi within Oshodi and around Oshodi,
there was an area on the Agege Motor Road which the street traders
designated “Warfront.” Not everyone dared go there to sell. Only those
who could show the redness in their eyes could, for indeed, at the
Oshodi “Warfront,” “oku di over .” If the shops have become too
expensive, or if one’s shop has been sacked times over by thieves,
demolition squads, or arsonists, one’s business inevitably ends up in
the streets. One becomes a “soldier” too if one’s business is war, or
if one’s life depends on wars of survival. Life has become a fire and
to survive one is expected to walk through it. oku di over.

Doing business that
is characterised as war, means that one’s idea of dealing with people
in other areas of life might be informed by the warrior psyche. Having
a theory of war in business life is not entirely negative, as we have
learned from modern applications of Sun Tzu’s ideas on the art of war
to entrepreneurship and business management. But where it operates on
the principles of ruthlessness, one gets really frightened.

Meet our
protagonists later – perhaps at the monthly town union meeting – and
ask them, “Nna, how now? A ma m na I gbuola ozu” (How are you, pal? I
trust that you have become extremely rich), and they respond, “For
where! Isi aputaghi at all!” (Not at all! The head was not even
redeemed). The ambiguity in the use of “isi” (head) in the response is
telling.

“Isi” could be the
clipped form of “isiego” (seed money or capital invested in the
business) or the investor’s head/life itself. And the capital is
actually one’s head which goes to war so as to be redeemed from shame
in a society where one has to have in order to have a say.

But after all the
skirmishes, at the “Warfront,” it is the same old story: Isi aputaghi
because oku di over! As one trader said jokingly, “Every year, na di
same ‘Obi Is a Boy’. Abi na which time Obi go grow become man?” Obi Is
a Boy, was an elementary school English reader that was popular in the
Igbo-speaking parts of Nigeria in the 70s. Beyond mere amplification of
one’s challenges in “warfront” trading “isi aputaghi ” itself signifies
a frightening engagement with risk and uncertainty in a context where
survival is defined as a struggle, where one has to fight to advance
from reading Obi Is a Boy, or continue to play “boy” every year.

Interestingly, too,
becoming extremely rich is metaphorically represented in the discourse
as “igbu ozu,” which literally refers to killing in the process of
looking for this wealth. As shown in many Nollywood films, some
business persons may get involved in moneymaking rituals or some
criminal activities to become rich. Already filled with negative
connotations, “igbu ozu” resonates with the idea that behind every “big
man” there is a big crime. The underlying logic to the desire for “igbu
ozu” in its negative sense is that one cannot continue to say “isi
aputaghi” forever, and so like Andy in “Living in Bondage”, one has to
try what the big boys in town have done, and then one’s language would
change to “ife adigo mma” (Things have become alright).

For some people,
surviving in the face of life’s many challenges requires faith, faith
that helps one to walk on the sea without sinking. But in the war
context of the small business that exist on Nigerian streets, the trial
of one’s faith is by fire, not by water. One learns from Robinson
Crusoe’s Man Friday to walk on hot coals without twitching in pain,
even if one’s nerves are telling one something different. That the fire
is excessively hot ironically means that one must walk through it to
reach manhood as recognized by Crusoe’s Man Friday. That’s the test of
one’s faith and courage to live in a land that devours its inhabitants,
a land where the fire and its heat are excessive.

oku di seriously over.

Nigeria’s long-suffering football fans
were dealt a cruel blow by the news that the only member of an
uninspiring Super Eagles squad that plays (albeit irregularly) for a
top club – Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel – would not play for the country in
the World Cup starting on Friday.

In characteristic fashion, the team’s
officials gave contradictory accounts of events. The co-ordinator,
Emmanuel Attah was quoted as saying: “We have dropped Mikel from the
World Cup after he told the team he did not want to put his career at
risk as his knee injury has yet to fully heal after a recent surgery.”
Media officer, Idah Peterside reportedly said that “Mikel suffered a
bruise to his ankle and a scan showed that he will not recover on
time.” A few hours later, Mikel issued a statement on Chelsea’s
website. Citing the knee problem, he stated: “I did not want to risk
any further damage, also I think it is in the best interest of the team
for me to withdraw rather than waste a slot.” Significantly, there was
no statement on the Nigerian Football Federation’s website, as was the
case with Michael Essien, whose withdrawal from the World Cup was first
announced on the Ghana Football Association’s website.

It will be recalled that the then
Nigerian Football Association (NFA) suspended Mikel indefinitely from
all national teams in June 2007, after he ruled himself out of a
Nations Cup qualifier against Uganda citing a hamstring injury.

On that occasion, Chelsea sent a letter
on his behalf stating that he was undergoing treatment in London but
failed to release him for independent assessment by Nigeria’s doctors.

As well as missing games for the Super
Eagles, Mikel also failed to respond to calls to play for the country’s
under-23 team. This led to his absence at the 2008 Olympic Games where
the Dream Team lost in the final to an Argentinean team inspired by
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.

Against this background, Mikel was
under the spotlight from the time he joined the rest of the Super
Eagles squad late at their pre-World Cup training camp in London a week
ago.

The manager Lars Lagerback considered
him fit enough for inclusion in the provision 30-man squad and
repeatedly gave reassurances over his fitness. Although he rested the
midfielder in the friendly against Colombia last weekend Lagerback
explained that “this was just a precaution” and that “there was nothing
wrong” with the player.

Annexe 1 of the FIFA Regulations on the
Status and Transfer of Players provide detailed rules on the release of
players to their national teams.

Paragraph 4 stipulates that: “A player
who due to injury or illness is unable to comply with a call-up from
the association that he is eligible to represent on the basis of his
nationality shall, if the association so requires, agree to undergo a
medical examination by a doctor of that association’s choice.” The
NFA’s request for an independent assessment of Mikel’s apparent injury
in 2007 was denied by the player and Chelsea. On that occasion, the NFA
did not appear to have requested FIFA to sanction either the player or
Chelsea.

Similarly, the statements coming out of
South Africa this time indicate that it was the player, rather than the
NFF, that decided that he could not play in the World Cup.

Again this contrasts with the case of
Michael Essien, who was assessed and ruled out of the World Cup by a
combined team of medical experts from the Ghana Football Association
and Chelsea.

In order to qualify for a work permit
under UK immigration law, a player from outside the European Union must
have played for his country in at least 75% of its competitive “A” team
international matches (including World Cup finals and qualifiers and
the African Cup of Nations finals and qualifiers).

Furthermore, the player’s country must
be at or above 70th place in the official FIFA World Rankings when
averaged over the 2 years before the date of the application.

Therefore, any Nigerian footballer who
does not otherwise have a right to work in the UK cannot play
professional football in England or Scotland or Wales unless he plays
for Nigeria consistently and Nigeria maintains a decent ranking by FIFA.

Indeed, it is fair to say that had
Mikel not been recalled to the Super Eagles following his apology to
the nation in 2008, he would not qualify for a work permit under UK law
today.

Footballers’ careers are extremely
short, as they are dependent on their bodies that are constantly
exposed to risk and subject to rapid decline. Therefore, it is
perfectly understandable that they should take scrupulous care of
themselves, especially as they depend on football to provide for them
and their dependents long after their retirement.

But the privileged position footballers
enjoy in their countries of origin should come with some
responsibility, particularly where they rely on playing for their
country to further their careers abroad. In these circumstances, no
player should be allowed to use and dump his country when it suits him.
This is why FIFA empowers the local football associations to have the
final say on matters relating to the participation of eligible players
in international competitions.

After
the UEFA Championship League finals when Inter Milan’s coach announced
that he would be joining Real Madrid, I had my first M word. His
statement brought the phrase from the movie Jerry McGuire to my mind
show me the money.

So my first M word is money. What? You didn’t think it was Mourinho, did you?

Everyone can tell a story about money. There’s one
for when we have it, one for when we lacked it and one for when we were
at that parking lot and it was right there near our car asking to be
picked up.

The stories from women in relationships with
someone wealthy are usually about ladies running after their men. While
the women in relationships where they aren’t as wealthy, tell stories
with pursed lips and a hint of regret about how they could have been
with Shehu, who is now the Governor of some statesome state.

Whatever the stories, money is important in every
relationship because it determines what decisions we make, from how
much time we spend together to where we live and the car we drive.

That being said, I want to explore a different
side of money; the side that subtly reminds me of a mistress and should
be picked up on.

We spend hours at work daily. We are constantly
looking for ways to make money. We juggle many things and many men,
particularly those abroad, find themselves holding down multiple jobs,
working night shifts and the women sleep alone night after night. This
time, the woman taking him away, is money.

When he finally comes home, he’s fatigued and
however alluring your negligee, Mr. Man needs his beauty sleep.
Besides, junior is already whimpering in his bed anyway, so you have to
get up there and then.

Resentment soon begins to build because you hardly
see him and you are tired of words like ‘ Honey, I’m doing it for us’,’
I have to work all weekend on a show’, ‘I need that overtime’.

In some cases, where you do see him, he’s snapping
about every item that is finished in the house whichhouse, which does
nothing to help the fact that you are tired of lonely nights and need
some.

You scamper from here and there and devise new
ways to make what you have last a little while longer but it is just
never enough.

The pettiest things set you both off and you argue
on top of your voices when money is absent. Not to mention the
frustration of holding off those passionate dreams that once meant the
world to you but would never see fruition without money.

Evidently, we need money to live, however, we must
realise that money will never be enough and so we ought to actively
ensure that it doesn’t take over our lives.

Studies state money as a major cause of broken
relationships but I think it can also be the glue that keeps them
together with proper planning, budgeting, becoming and staying debt
free so that we enjoy our marriages.

And there is my other M word; Marriage. I could
not have an A-Z series on marriage without it. After all, the goal of
marriage is staying married.

What we encounter as we navigate through sometimes
murky waters in marriage varies and how we relate with money can help
the navigation process.

I personally define marriage as the welding
together of two hearts, lives and people so that they are inseparable
and learn to live as one.

The learning experience is long, emotion packed
and worth every step because nothing on earth beats the knowledge that
this one person gets you, flaws and all yet willingly holds on to your
hand whispering, I’ll walk life’s road with you anyway.

Money well managed, makes marriage that much more magnificent.

M is for Money and Marriage!

A
year ago the Ogun State government announced that it was going to the
capital market to raise a N50 billion bond, to finance a number of
projects, ranging from an airport to stadia to roads and industrial
parks. The state government did approach the Securities and Exchange
Commission, but didn’t go much farther than that. A feud with the State
House of Assembly led to the issuing by the House of “Resolution 167”,
which placed an embargo on the fund-raising process.

Barely a year after Governor Daniel announced the
bond plan (the first phase would have seen the state raising N28
billion), the Ogun State government is now lamenting that the state is
insolvent, and desperately needs to borrow money to pay salaries, fund
the running of government, repay part of its not-insubstantial debt,
and carry out debt servicing. The lofty infrastructure projects for
which the bond had originally been meant (according to what Governor
Daniel said in 2009) have evidently fallen to the bottom of the
priority list.

It is curious that, barely a year to the end of
the Daniel administration, Ogun State government is desperate to raise
billions of naira from the capital market, for the purpose of paying
debts, most of which were incurred by the same government. This
argument was made most eloquently by the Vice Chancellor of an
Abeokuta-based private university, Crescent University, Professor
Sheriffdeen Tella. In a letter to the State House of Assembly,
commending it for the decision not to give approval to Governor
Daniel’s bond plans, the economist described the Ogun State
Government’s plan as “ridiculous” arguing that any fresh debts incurred
at this time ought to go into profit-yielding investments, not into the
payment of old debt. He asked the government to reveal “what was done
with earlier loans and why such projects are not yet bringing returns
to offset such loans.” It all sounds like unimpeachable common sense.
But apparently the Ogun State government doesn’t see it that way. The
state commissioner of information, Sina Kawonise, speaking on behalf of
the government, lashed out at the Vice Chancellor. “You cannot describe
him as a renowned economist; he is an ordinary economist… To me, his
view is ill-informed; borne out of ignorance, and simply the view of a
motor park economist,” Kawonise said.

The Ogun State government is not alone in this
desperate bid to take on billions of naira worth of fresh debt even as
it enters its final days in office. Governor Oyinlola of Osun State
also wants to take an N18 billion loan from a consortium of banks. Like
their Ogun counterparts, Osun State’s legislators are wary.

Clearly there is a new epidemic in town – a last
minute mad rush for cash by state governments that have only months
left in office. Last June, Governor Gbenga Daniel, defending his
state’s fundraising plans, pointed to other states treading a similar
path. He said that more than 20 other states were “currently at various
stages of floating their own bond programmes.” We are worried by the
fact that these days most state governments seem to do nothing else
than complain that they are broke, and desperately need money to meet
their obligations. A look at newspaper headlines in recent times will
confirm this. We suspect that this refrain is no more than an excuse to
go in search of fresh loans, which will inevitably be used to fund the
war chests, presumably for the coming elections, and for life post-2011.

We wonder why our governments assume that the only
way to tackle insolvency is to seek new debt. What have they done about
cutting wasteful expenditure and putting an end to inflated contracts
and white elephant projects? What steps have been taken to eliminate
ghost workers, the bane of the Nigerian civil service? Someone needs to
urgently remind the Ogun State Information Commissioner that no amount
of thuggish indignation on his part will answer the questions that
Prof. Tella has raised.

It is high time Nigerians rose vociferously to
oppose these irrational decisions by the state governors. At this time
we desperately need more voices of reason, like Professor Tella. This
is also the time for state houses of assembly to prove to Nigerians
that they are not mere rubber stamps of the executive. Our state
governors have done enough harm already, failing to deliver good
governance even at the most basic levels. On no account must they be
allowed to mortgage an already fragile future.

The
conversation on this topic fell into two distinct chapters but both had
to do really with hubris, his hubris of course, and the
quintessentially Nigerian version of it. Both conversations were laced
with humour, the confident and safe humour of people who are sure they
will never end up in such dire straits.

What
possessed the man to go to Dubai? Even Farida Waziri, head of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which wants him for the
illegal disposal of 528 million shares belonging to Delta State in
Oceanic Bank, almost could not contain herself: “My initial reaction
when I heard of Ibori’s arrest was that of excitement, and surprise
too. Surprise because somebody said he had gone to Ghana. Some people
also said he is still somewhere in Delta, some say in his village in
Warri. My mind never went to Dubai.

“But
the MET police have a relationship with Dubai police. They told me that
if he is in Dubai they will get him; that it will be easier to track
him down. If he had gone to places like China or Japan, and then it
would have been difficult. I was very excited.” Ibori could comfortably
have lain low at home, hiding as it were, in plain sight, enjoying
wholesome Nigerian food under the protection of his people who had
sworn to defend their native son against his political detractors. It
did really strain credibility to try to imagine Mr. Ibori, PDP big man
and presidential campaign funder as a political prisoner, but Nigeria
is a land of infinite possibilities.

There
were suggestions that Mr. Ibori might even have fared better if he gave
himself up at home, even if that meant ending up in a Nigerian prison
where he would still have retained a modicum of power and influence
enough to ensure that even if he was a prisoner he would still be a
very important one, a VVIP.

Comparisons were made with Bode George, also a PDP bigman, now, as they
say cooling his heels in the VIP section of Kirirkiri Maximum Security
Prison in Lagos. Already the dust has settled around that momentous
event and the relentless cycle of life in Lagos and environs, Abuja and
the hinterlands, and in all other restless corners of our land, has
continued in its steady whirr, without Chief Bode George.

It
is not likely that the British Penal System has similar VIP wings or
that it would consider the likes of Mr. Ibori as candidates for
“special treatment”. The crimes he is alleged to have committed, along
with those he was found guilty of so many years ago, are pretty tawdry
in nature.

Almost 20 years ago, a much younger Ibori and his then girlfriend
Theresa Nkoyo Nakanda were found guilty and fined for theft. Ibori was
working as a cashier at Wickes Store in Ruislip,

London
and had allowed his girlfriend to leave with goods without paying for
them. The penalty was a fine of 300 pounds and costs of 450 pounds.
Seventeen years later Theresa, who had become Mrs. Ibori, was arrested
on November 1, 2007 at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of money
laundering.

It
was this angle that prompted the next conversation about the former
governor of Delta. Also charged with Mr. Ibori, in a case of money
laundering that began hearing at the Southwark Crown Court in London
are Bimpe Pogoson, Ibori’s former personal assistant on confidential
matters; Christie Ibori-Ibie, his sister, and Udoamaka Onuigbo
variously described as associate and girlfriend, and a lawyer Bhadresh
Gohil.

Ms.
Ibori-Ibie and Ms. Onuigbo were accused of “being a party to an
inflated price fraud in respect of the contract for the building of a
sports track for the Delta State government, as well as participating
in “the provision of an inflated invoice fraud in respect of the supply
of vehicles to the Delta State government.” Mr. Ibori had, until that
ill advised trip to Dubai, avoided a second encounter at the hands of
British justice and was able to follow from afar, the course of the
trials of his wife, associate cum former girlfriend and sister. That is
a fearsome number of women to leave carrying the can for actions that
you were in the primary position to spearhead as Delta State chief
executive.

But
that is not the end of the story. While the Mesdames were facing the
music in Southwark, Mr. Ibori was also frequently seen here in the
company of (at least) ‘a’ female. There is nothing illegal or
unNigerian about that. It is just that as a beloved Aunt of mine used
to say, in the sometimes rough and tumble world of male -female
relationships, you must leave cussing room.

It promises to be an interesting ride from now on, what with all the
possibilities for turning state witness and negotiating settlements.
Stay tuned!

On paper, the 2010 Electoral Act is an ambitious piece of draft
legislation. The Act seeks to repeal the 2006 Electoral Act, under which the
disgraceful 2007 general elections were conducted, and to introduce
unprecedented changes to the electoral process. One striking example is the
independent candidature model.

The Act also seeks to end the idea of state funding of political
parties. In addition, it seeks to confine election petition adjudications to a
sensible time frame, a departure from the current situation where cases are
still being decided by the courts three years after the elections that gave
rise to them.

The bill has its failings. In not seeking to alter the current
mechanism by which the Chairperson of INEC is appointed – the powers of appointment
and sack are currently vested in the President – it falls short of being truly
revolutionary.

There are those who will argue that the conferment of these
powers on the President is the principal defect of our current electoral
set-up. Indeed, speaking at the presentation of the Electoral Reform panel
report to former President Umar Yar’Adua at the Aso Villa in 2008, the Chair of
the panel Mr. Uwais said: “The independent national electoral commission and
the state independent electoral commission lack the requisite independence.
This is a key deficiency of our electoral process.”

To remedy this the Uwais-led panel recommended that the Head of
the Electoral Commission should be appointed by the National Judicial Council,
subject to the confirmation of the National Assembly.

It is indeed absurd to grant that power of appointment to the
President, a patently partisan individual, who clearly has vested interests in
the election process. Take the current scenario as an example: very soon
President Jonathan will appoint a substantive head for INEC. This appointee
will be the person who will oversee the conduct of the 2011 presidential
elections, in which, from all appearances, Mr. Jonathan will be not only a
contender, but also the candidate with the overwhelming advantages of
incumbency.

The failure of the 2010 Electoral Act to adopt the Uwais panel
recommendation on the appointment of an INEC chairman is its “key deficiency”.
As the 2011 elections approach, there are therefore no guarantees of the
autonomy of the electoral commission. We hope that as the draft bill undergoes
further deliberations in both chambers of the National Assembly, and as
Nigerians get a chance to make an input through public sittings of the
Assembly, the Act will be rendered free of glaring loopholes and deficiencies.

It must also be noted, however, that until the new Act is
signed into law by the President, it is merely a commendable listing of hopes
and aspirations, of no value to Nigerians and to the electoral process. As
things stand, the significantly flawed 2006 Act is still the final word on
elections in Nigeria. There is no guarantee that will change in time for next
year’s elections.

That 2006 Act, in the light of the massive changes that its
successor seeks to bring to it, represents the dark ages of the Nigerian
electoral process. It leaves INEC at the mercy of the Executive arm of
government, in terms of funding. It makes no provision for expeditious
adjudication of election petition cases. At the moment, Alphonsus Igbeke, a
member of the National Assembly – the arm of government in whose hands a speedy
overhaul of the Electoral Act lies – is still unsuccessfully trying to claim
his seat, three years after he was elected. Joy Emordi, who fraudulently
usurped his seat, has managed to hold on all the while by exploiting the
snail-like progress of the petition process. Unfortunately, Mrs. Emordi’s
antics are the rule, not an exception.

Instances like this hurriedly dispel whatever meager hopes
Nigerians have that the National Assembly is ready to ensure that 2011 does not
end up being a repeat of 2007.