TRIBALISM,NEPOTISM,CRONYISM AND GENERAL POVERTY

Nigeria is, in all definitions,a nation destined for greatness.God graciously blessed this nation with everything needed by any nation to be prosperous and progressive in terms of human and material resources.Nature blessed Nigeria with good weather,good soil for agriculture,solid mineral is just like MTN(everywhere you go),oil and gas in abudance, rivers and seas with their own potentials.That Nigeria is where she is presently beats all right thinking persons’ imaginations.But Nigeria is just a mere political expression with no life of her own without Nigerians.So it would be correct to submit that Nigeria is what Nigerians make her to be.

The Nigerian journey from sublime to ridiculous started in that era when Nigerians refused to see the big picture of national patriotism and instead embraced the evil of TRIBALISM.The truth is that the monster of CORRUPTION that is snuffing life out of Nigeria today was given life and nurtured in this era.Tribalism gave the unpatriotic Nigerians a safe refuge from lawful punishment for violating the laws of the land.All the scoundrels in the country found escape route from the law by whipping up tribal sentiment using press.National best practices were sacrificed on the altar of tribal or ethnic sentiments.Competence,capacity and patriotic characters were jettisoned  and our national system paved way for all sorts of practices depending on the tribe you belonged to and which tribe was at the helm of affairs.National causes were no more about national pride but about which tribe/ethnic benefited more in terms of financial loots or political patronages.Nigerian system was then unconsciously structured along this line that everyone in Nigeria was more conscious of his/her tribal identity than national identity.Patriotism was totally sentenced to death in this era.This went across our national activities including sport.This day,tribalism has taken another nomenclature.It’s now refered to as ZONING.

 

With increasing education(formal or informal process),our tribal lords found it increasingly difficult to keep feeding just on tribal sentiments.So the system graduated from tribalism to NEPOTISM.In fact,tribalism gave birth to nepotism.With nepotism,’me-and-my-family-only syndrome became the order of the day.What should go round in the economy will only be cornered by an insignificant percentage of the populace and their family members.The foundation for horrifying POVERTY was laid in this era.This is the reason why only privileged families dominated our societies in the recent past because the political and economic fortunes were structured for them only.Does anyone remember the era when certain families with no known economic means were the ones dominating(oppressing) your neighbourhood in those days?This was and still common a practice in the civil service till date.It’s the director’s wife’company that get the job/contract/land allocation(you know now).

 

With the increasing national challenges,our elites needed  safer means of accummulating wealth(without sweath of course) and so we graduated from nepotism to cronyism.Cronyism is the reigning practice at all levels of governance now.From local government to the federal level.Commonwealth is now being shared among the few that are very close to power.They are the friends of power and you always find them in the National Economic Management Team or its equivalent at the state and local government level(s).Has anyone questioned why just a handful few would donate tonnes of millions of naira to Presidential Library project of a sitting President or a PDP secretariat building project and at one time or the other,these unduly favoured few have had their names in major financial scandals that rocked our nation in recent past?If I may wake up your consciousness,FSR scandal or stock market price manipulation are the examples that come to mind.

 

Even judiciary that should be the last hope of the masses has lost its forthrightness,integrity and objectivity to political cronyism.Judgements are given out not on the basis of natural justice nor dictates of the constitution but on the basis of who you know(political and financial network) and how much your network is able to produce for settlement.The effect of cronyism came to its head in judiciary when people like James Ibori escaped justice in Nigeria and became so powerful in the system that would have seen him cooling off in jail instead.Thank goodness,justice came eventually in far away United Kingdom where cronyism is a great crime. Also,scandals like Harlliburton,Siemen, Pension Reform Task Team,banking frauds,parastatals/agenacy like NPA etc would forever escapeadequate justice as a result of cronyism.

 

The implications of tribalism,nepotism and cronyism are immense on our socio-economic cum political development.Tribalism singularly stunted our political development and stagnated our economic prosperity.It succeeded in fragmenting our national unity and gave us impression that our nation didn’t need the best-hand-for-the-job neither was competence nor capacity for proferring solutions to national challenges the required qualities to public offices(Any wonder why our leaders now depend on serenpidity to succeed rather than working hard for collective greatness).The most important thing was ‘our-brother-is-in-charge’.Unfortunately,it’s only the crooked elites that benefit from this arrangement.Nepotism and Cronyism have succeeded in channelling the commonwealth into the hands of very few citizens in the system.Check all the concessions being given by PDP government since 1999,all the licences granted and of late revelations from oil and gas sector(both upstream and downstream).Where majority is languishing in extreme poverty,and middle-class is being eroded by the day and yet very countable citizens are daily being announced as belonging to the richest persons in the world club,that system is bound to be guilty of cronyism.

 

The essence of this piece is to call to question our conscience for us to exorcise ourselves wherever we are guilty of any of these three evil and father of poverty,underdevelopment and disunity in our country.If we can go beyond tribalism(ZONING),nepotism and cronyism,our nation will achieve reasonable progress in so short a time.

So help us O Lord.

 

By Olatona Olabode

Follow on twitter @ amdegreat

 

Yar’adua, Jonathan have destroyed Obasanjo’s legacies – El Rufai

 

Former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday criticized the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, for failing to consolidate on the gains recorded by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in salvaging the nation’s economy.

El-Rufai said Obasanjo’s regime had laid a foundation which other incoming administration should build upon for the betterment of the poor masses.

He regretted that the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations squandered the inheritance from Obasanjo’s government.

He spoke while delivering a keynote address entitled; “13 years of civil rule: Few gains, many pains,” which he delivered yesterday at the opening of the 2012 Law Week of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Warri branch.

The former minister stated that achievements recorded in the advent of the present democratic dispensation from 1999 to 2007, particularly the lib-eralisation of the telecom-munication sector, which, according to him, brought in foreign investment, spurred ancillary business-es and put telephone in the hands of virtually every adult resident in the coun-try, could not be sustained and consolidated upon by successive governments.

The address of the former minister was presented by Chief Ayuba Giwa.

He said: “We saw the beginnings of a credible system, and even a skeletal mortgage scheme that as-sisted many of the buyers of Federal Government houses in Abuja. Nigeria won debt relief, consoli-dated its banking system and witnessed economic growth, no doubt assisted also by high oil prices.

“By 2007, the new govern-ment inherited vast reserve ($47bn) and ongoing series of power projects (NIPP), new rail system from Lagos to Kano ($8.3bn), Abuja metro ($800m) and vast ex-cess crude account ($23bn).

“In short, a basis to hit the ground running, com-plete ongoing projects, initiates new ones and continues the work of solving Nigeria’s problem was created. Alas, that did not happen.” El-Rufai also warned the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against rigging the 2015 general elections.

The chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, vowed that Nigerians would be mobilized to resist any attempt by the ruling party to “impose itself on the country once again in 2015”.

Warning that rigging portends dire consequences for the country in 2015, he asked the PDP to allow the wishes of Nigerians to prevail in the elections.

He lamented that party had truncated the wishes of Nigerians in the previous elections.

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Yar’adua, Jonathan have destroyed Obasanjo’s legacies – El Rufai

 

Former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday criticized the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, for failing to consolidate on the gains recorded by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in salvaging the nation’s economy.

El-Rufai said Obasanjo’s regime had laid a foundation which other incoming administration should build upon for the betterment of the poor masses.

He regretted that the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations squandered the inheritance from Obasanjo’s government.

He spoke while delivering a keynote address entitled; “13 years of civil rule: Few gains, many pains,” which he delivered yesterday at the opening of the 2012 Law Week of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Warri branch.

The former minister stated that achievements recorded in the advent of the present democratic dispensation from 1999 to 2007, particularly the lib-eralisation of the telecom-munication sector, which, according to him, brought in foreign investment, spurred ancillary business-es and put telephone in the hands of virtually every adult resident in the coun-try, could not be sustained and consolidated upon by successive governments.

The address of the former minister was presented by Chief Ayuba Giwa.

He said: “We saw the beginnings of a credible system, and even a skeletal mortgage scheme that as-sisted many of the buyers of Federal Government houses in Abuja. Nigeria won debt relief, consoli-dated its banking system and witnessed economic growth, no doubt assisted also by high oil prices.

“By 2007, the new govern-ment inherited vast reserve ($47bn) and ongoing series of power projects (NIPP), new rail system from Lagos to Kano ($8.3bn), Abuja metro ($800m) and vast ex-cess crude account ($23bn).

“In short, a basis to hit the ground running, com-plete ongoing projects, initiates new ones and continues the work of solving Nigeria’s problem was created. Alas, that did not happen.” El-Rufai also warned the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against rigging the 2015 general elections.

The chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, vowed that Nigerians would be mobilized to resist any attempt by the ruling party to “impose itself on the country once again in 2015”.

Warning that rigging portends dire consequences for the country in 2015, he asked the PDP to allow the wishes of Nigerians to prevail in the elections.

He lamented that party had truncated the wishes of Nigerians in the previous elections.

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DERIVATION AND DEPRIVATION II: THE ILL GOTTEN WEALTH OF OBASANJO By Muhammad Sageer

 

I found out one astonishing thing about most of our influential politicians in Nigeria,they are all bunch of looters united for a single cause. All they care about is money. Their interest is on how to dip their hands and loot from our treasury till there is no more left so the life of the people they govern will be miserable. The life of Obasanjo of today is an echo of his life after retirement 1st october 1979. Obasanjo whom one of his ministers said could not boast of more than twenty thousand naira in his bank account in 1999, today is one of the richest former presidents in the world. Obasanjo’s stupendous wealth is inversely proportional to the abject poverty that ravages Nigerians. Squalor swaggers on two legs in the country while the likes of obasanjo make millions everyday. Obasanjo’s investment ranges from oil,ethanol,hospitality business,farming,education and other businesses. The big question is: HOW DID HE ACQUIRE ALL THESE WEALTH? OBASANJO’S FARM: Established since 1978,Obasanjo farm has been producing fresh agricultural products for almost 30 years. According to Chief Fani-kayode, a former special assistant to obasanjo on public communications and one time minister of Aviation, Obasanjo’s farm makes an average of 30 million a month or 360 million per year. While in power, Obasanjo was so selfish that he wanted to be the richest farmer in Nigeria. He banned the importation of “GRANDPARENT STOCKS” (a variety of chickens), only his farm has the sole franchise for them. Obasanjo was the only one with authority to import and sell them to other poultry farmers in the country. When Obasanjo became president in 1999, he could boast of only one farm in Ota and in mambilla. By 2007,Obasanjo has developed farms in Ibadan, Iseyin, Lanlate, Igbo ora and Ibogun. Each of these farms boast of chinese experts. Obasanjo was busy flying presidential jets to foreign countries in the guise of scouring for foreign investment not for Nigeria but for his own selfish self. He has the biggest cattle ranch and hatchery in Africa located at Igbo ora(Oyo state). He has big fish farms in Lanlate,Ota and a big poultry in Ibogun. He procured appropriate medical facilities to insulate his chickens from the influenza pandemic that ravaged many poultry farmers years back. Other poultry farmers,however lost almost all their chickens. Their president was so selfish he only procured medical facilities for his chickens. Just like GEJ, Obasanjo also don’t give a damn about the people he govern or their welfare. Obasanjo made good for himself and his chickens while the masses he was governing as president have been wallowing at the lowest level of the global human development index. The chickens on his farm don’t feed on raw corn rather they feed on highly concentrated mineral fortified feeds. The ordinary man on the street of Tafawa-Balewa, Tilden-Fulani, Ningi, katagum, Zaki,(Bauchi state), Ajegunle, ketu, Agege,(Lagos state), Yelwa-shendam, Farin-gada, unguwar-rogo, unguwar-rimi, Gangare, Gada-Biu, Riyom,(Plateau state) find it hardly to afford a roasted corn or cooked corn. There is no chicken in Obasanjo’s farm that can be in want of water but the ordinary man in the street of Yemetu, Elekuro, Gege, Bere, Oje,(Oyo State), Tudun-wada, Zangon-kataf, panteka,Rigachuku,Soba, Gidan-waya,Jema’a, (Kaduna State) scoop water from gutters and brooks.

HOW DID A FARM WHICH WAS MORIBUND BEFORE OBASANJO CAME TO POWER BECAME SO RICH?  Obasanjo claimed that he secured a 2 billion naira loan. How on earth did a man who one of his closest minister said couldn’t boast of 20,000 naira in 1999 transformed to someone with a collateral of 6 billion naira to take a 2 billion naira loan? (Anyone conversant with the banking system knows that you need collateral of about 6 billion naira to raise a 2 billion naira loan.) The truth of the matter is obasanjo took or should i say stole from the 50 billion naira agriculture fund approved by his corrupt government when there are millions of farmers all across the country who should have been given that loan but were denied access to the loan. They wept and cried but the government as usual didn’t give a damn about them.

Obasanjo took advantage of the Land use decree law of 1978 which he promulgated(The law stipulates that all rights to land were vested in the governor of a state who has the sole authority to issue certificates of occupancy to those who want to secure land for residential, business and agricultural purposes). He didn’t just stop at Ota, his agenda was to expand to all geo-political zones of Nigeria.

The people of Gembu village in mambilla were harassed by obasanjo using force to acquire their land. They were disposed off their farmland by their commander-in-chief who doesn’t give a damn about them. The people of lekitaba were not left also. The people of Ishasi-Akute in Ogun state and Ayetoro in Lagos state were also disposed off their farms.

Obasanjo in 2001, acquired 10,000 hectares of land from Donald Duke of Cross River for his oil palm estate. Due to his selfishness, he wasn’t satisfied with Duke’s gesture. He grabbed an additional 5,000 hectares at Kwa plantation and took over the government oil palm nursery in Ochong(Cross River state). Obasanjo tricked the people of Cross River that he was into Cross River for what he called”AGRO-FORESTRY”(a scheme that allows the growth of forest friendly crops to restore virginity into degraded lands) before the people of that community knew it, a signboard was erected that read “OBASANJO FARMS,MFAMOSONG”. The people of that council protested but it was all in vain. Their leader, chief Daniel Asuquo who was the chairman of Akampa council was allegedly victimised. He lost his re-election bid and was detained for 18 months for alleged involvement in murder. It was only when the court ruled in his favor in 2004 that he regained his freedom. To show that he meant business, Obasanjo fixed the revival of a moribund dam in oyo state for the benefit of his farm. He also influenced the construction of a road from his Mfamosong farm to Calabar-Oban highway. Obasanjo’s oil palm mill on his plantation has been producing 10 tonnes of palm oil per day since 2000. The factory is under the supervision of a Malaysian. Majority of his oil mill staffs where recruited from Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Reasearch(NIFOR), Evborneka in Edo state. The staff quarters are located at Kwa Housing Estate. He also built a farm house on a former property of calabar sports club on Ekorenium road. Obasanjo also has an Oil palm estate in Ehuagie, Rivers state. He also owns two fish farms in Ota Ahoada and Ogbo communities. And other choice lands at Omuotude all in Rivers state.

EDUCATION: Obasanjo gave himself licence to establish a private university, the BELLS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. Obasanjo has always shown that he hates the poor. He dislikes the masses. Over 70 percent of students in our universities are from poor homes, students whose parents sell dry fish, leaves, vegetables, fruits, fairly used cloth(Gwanjo or Okrika). He killed our universities, he only wants private universities where fees range between 250,000 naira to 1 million naira per session.

BELLS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY is among the seven private universities approved by Obasanjo to himself and his friends in 2005. It has two campuses, one  in Ota, Ogun state and one in Badagry, Lagos. BELLS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY has a board of trustees which is the highest ruling body of the university. Professor Isaac Adeyemi is the vice-Chancellor; Mrs Oluyemi Gbadebo is the registrar; Adegoke Omotosho is the Bursar; Clement Omagbeni is the principal librarian.

TRANSCORP: A company emerged called Transcorp. Very few people know about Transcorp. Transcorp is Obasanjo’s other treasure box which was launched 17th November 2004. Transcorp emerged from the bowel of Aso rock, founded with the collaboration and connivance of Obasanjo. General Obasanjo alone owns 200 million shares. According to late Gani fawehinmi(may his soul Rest in peace),” there is no difference between Transcorp and obasanjo, except that a few friends like Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was brought in to run transcorp”.

I was ashamed when i saw Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke on channels TV during the capital market probe saying rubbish. In October 2005, Transcorp bought 51 percent stake in NICON hilton hotel and changed it to TRANSCORP HILTON for 13 billion naira. It bought NITEL in july 2006. Transcorp acquired not one but FOUR OIL BLOCS. They are OPL 218, 219, 209 and 220 on july 2005 under the leadership of Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.

Obasanjo was giving his company Transcorp a preferential treatment while he was president. Transcorp got approval from Obasanjo to build a 33.25 billion naira refinery in the lekki free trade zone in lagos. Obasanjo also gave Transcorp licence to build an independent power facility. Obasanjo’s hands are in different oil deals, some of which cut across countries. He has a friend called CARL MASTERS who is his go between for his shady oil deals abroad.

To me, obasanjo is the most corrupt Nigerian ever and i will never agree with anyone who says Obasanjo is not corrupt.  A man who went Bankrupt before 1999 is now the richest former head of state in africa and one of the richest former presidents in the world all in a space of 8 years he governed Nigeria.

Obasanjo has an ethanol factory at Akodo in Ibeju Lekki LGA of Lagos state. The foundation stone of the factory was laid on 5th october 2005. Very few Nigerians know of Obasanjo’s 7 billion naira presidential library. National and state’s library are dilapidated, most of the shelves are empty and the books found in few of the shelves are outdated. Obasanjo’s 7 billion naira presidential library was launched on 14th may,2005. The library have facilities like guest houses,cyber cafe,publishing resources,souvenir/gift shops,auditorium,(for seminars,exhibition,social events), amphitheatre and a museum. Others are artificial lake/stream/waterfall,garden/park,zoo,restaurant and a park.

The launch of the project was one of a kind. Mike Adenuga(Globacom/Con oil chairman) donated 350 million naira, Aliko Dangote(president Dangote Group) donated 220 million naira, Femi Otedola(chairman Zenon oil/AP) donated 250 million, Sunny Odogwu(chairman of Odogwu Group of companies) gave 200 million.

State governments were not left out in the rain of our common wealth. Each governor of our 36 states poured 100 million naira. Private sector chipped in 622 million naira, NPA gave 1 million dollars, Michael Ibru donated 50 million naira, Arisekola Alao donated 100 million naira, Sam Nwake 20 million naira, Dapo Abiodun 10 million naira, Oba sijuwade 10 million naira, Bayo kuku 5 million naira, Ernest Shonekan 1 million naira, Ogun state Obas 5 million naira, All aides of OBJ 2 million naira Obasanjo Holdings poured 100 million naira and the PDP donated 25 million naira.

All the donors of the gifts of money at the launch of the library were involved in all the scams and fraud that took place during Obasanjo’s years in office. Obasanjo connived and collaborated with them to loot our common wealth.

Follow me on twitter @muhammadsageer let’s unite and strategize on how to oust PDP out of power come 2015. GOD BLESS NIGERIA.

 

Of Irresponsible Presidential Convoys and an Imperial Visit By Pius Adesanmi

Premium Times and a number of other online news portals reported recently that a presidential convoy was involved in the sort of irresponsible behavior Nigerians have come to expect from Government officials on the move. The convoy was said to be coming back from the Abuja airport. Premium Times speculated that Vice President Namadi Sambo was the culprit. His office has since denied this, claiming that the Vice President was not in the convoy. Interestingly, the Vice President’s people did not deny the fundamental claims of eyewitness accounts. There had indeed been a presidential convoy driving at breakneck speed, clearing Nigerians out of the way in the usual fashion, endangering the lives of ordinary Nigerians, and, eventually, breaking the law by driving on the opposite site of the road into incoming traffic. None of this was denied. They just wanted the public to know that the Vice President was not in the convoy at the time of this particular act of lawlessness and irresponsibility.

Whether Vice-President Sambo was in the convoy or not is a moot point for me. Sometimes, presidency aides are funnier than they are foolish. What exactly are these clowning aides trying to tell us would have been done differently had the Vice President been in the convoy? That the convoy would have been less irresponsible? That other road users would have been respected and treated like Nigerian citizens who deserve of full human dignity? That the overzealous drivers, security agents, aides, and hangers-on in the convoy wouldn’t have veered onto the opposite lane and broken the law in the process? I think we are sufficiently familiar with the behavior of convoys and the atrocious psychology of Nigeria’s rulers to understand that the Vice President’s presence would not have changed anything. On the contrary, it would even have worsened the irresponsible behaviour of that convoy for his aides, drivers, and security goons would have been far more overzealous.

We know this because the convoy of the Nigerian government official is a universe of lawlessness and irresponsibility unto itself. Here is what I had to say about the sociology of the Nigerian convoy in a lecture I delivered to a Canadian audience back in 2009: “Permit me to enter some details on the psychology of Nigerian convoys for the benefit of our Canadian friends in this audience. That is what you call a motorcade here in Canada and also in the United States. Purely ceremonial here, the motorcade wears a human face and respects ordinary Canadians and extant speed limits. I have always argued that the convoy is Nigeria’s worst postcolonial tragedy. The convoy of the Nigerian government official is obscene ostentation, intimidation, unbridled arrogance, and abject alienation from the people. It is an isle of inebriation by power, an oasis of total lawlessness. In his convoy, the Nigerian government official – often an empty barrel also known locally as a “Big Man”, “Chief”, “Alhaji” or a combination of all three – is no longer human. The speed limit of his convoy is determined by how far the speedometer of each constituent bullet-proof SUV can go.”
In the said public lecture, I stated further that: “President Obama’s convoy comprises his limo, a decoy limo, one or two media buses and a few police outriders on motorcycles. That is the length of the convoy of a self-respecting Local Government Chairman in Nigeria. At higher levels, a respectable convoy should be at least one kilometer long. I am not going to tell you the price they normally invoice for an SUV. You will have a heart attack. I am not going to mention the soldiers and/or stern mobile police men wielding AK-47s and horse whips. I am not going to tell you that many Nigerians have been crushed by the convoys of our lawless and inhumane rulers over the years. The Nigerian convoy of course comes with the sort of siren blaring that you people here associate with the emergency services: police, ambulance, and fire engines. When you see a convoy and hear the wailing siren in Nigeria, you jump into a ditch or drive your car quickly off the road for the man of power to pass undisturbed by the people he is supposed to be serving. When the people of Nigeria eventually wake up, the convoy will be one of the first targets of their ire. It is one symbol of oppression that they need to take out. Violently if necessary.”

I delivered this lecture in 2009. Compare what I had to say then with Premium Times’s and other accounts of the behavior of the Vice President’s convoy – whether he was in it or not – and tell me if we have moved an inch from where we were in 2009. The irresponsible behavior of our officials and their convoys, which gave us Elizabeth Udoudo and Uzoma Okere, is still very much a part of our lives. Nothing has changed. In the same vein, I also wrote this piece, “Imperial Visit”, back in 2009 as a weekly columnist for Dele Olojede’s NEXT, after the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited my school, Carleton University, in Ottawa.

Please read it and see how relevant the piece is to this discussion of Vice President Sambo’s convoy – and other issues such as the treatment of Nigerians whenever Patience Jonathan and her convoy comes to town, the irresponsible closure of air spaces because of VIP movement, which endangers the lives of ordinary Nigerians. I feel very sad that a lecture I delivered and an op-ed I wrote in 2009 still read like a mirror of our lives in 2012. No movement. No motion. Nothing! Enjoy “Imperial Visit”.
Imperial Visit

By Pius Adesanmi
July 10, 2009

I am a sad and angry man. As I write, the Emperor and Empress of Japan are one floor above my office. My employer, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, is hosting Japan’s royal couple today. My office is located on the 19th floor of Dunton Tower, the tallest building on campus. The Emperor and his wife are being feted on the 20th floor. And I only got to know about this because I bumped into a colleague in the elevator (lift) while going downstairs for coffee break.

I should have known the moment I drove into campus but I was too preoccupied reviewing the things I have to do today as I walked from the car lot to my office building. My handler at NEXT had already sent her usual friendly reminder that this column was due and I was doing a mental review of the topic I have now jettisoned. When I got to my office, two emails from University Communications entitled “Imperial Visit” were in my inbox. I didn’t even open them. University Communications is always clogging your inbox with endless announcements, most of which I consider junk!

I was thus taken aback when my colleague jokingly asked in the elevator why I was going downstairs for coffee instead of upstairs for lunch with the imperial visitors. “Oh, you didn’t read the memo?”, he asked on noticing my puzzled expression. We got downstairs and it finally sunk in. Outside the building were the motorcade and several Ottawa police cars and outrider motorcycles. Polite-looking policemen and scores of men in black suit (with “agents” or “secret service” written all over them) were all over the place. Regular people moved around freely. Business as usual. If you were nowhere around Dunton Tower, you could be forgiven for mistaking today for another ordinary day on campus.

I rushed back to my office to read the two emails from University Communications. They were advisories on “movement restriction” during the imperial visit. Only the 20th floor of Dunton Tower would be closed!

Those on the 21st and 22nd floors still had access to their offices. I had access to mine on the 19th floor. Something about the tone of the two emails caught my attention: they sounded somewhat apologetic for the minimal inconvenience that the imperial visit would cause to the University community and the public. The entire logistics of the visit had been planned around respecting the humanity and dignity of every member of the campus community. The story is told of a Nigerian here who went to the cinema in the evening and kept wondering why the man sitting beside him seemed so familiar. Film over, the lights came on and the Nigerian discovered that his neighbor in the cinema hall was no other than Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada! I have not been able to verify this story but it is entirely plausible.

My mind wandered to Nigeria and I pictured what our friends in Abuja would have done to our people were they the ones hosting the couple having lunch just one floor above me! That’s when sadness and anger engulfed me. I thought about how many streets in Abuja they would have cleared and closed; I thought about their koboko and AK-47-wielding soldiers and mobile police men, high on paraga, flogging and jack-booting our people out of the way; I thought about the atrocious psychology of mediocre rulers who treat their people like dung that must be hidden from the sophisticated vision of every visitor in a convoy.

Whenever our friends in Abuja host even an ordinary European Union representative or some low-level officials of Western donor agencies, their mental reflex is how to flog our people out of the way. It is as if something tells them that official visits are incompatible with the humanity and dignity of the ordinary Nigerian. I went to get coffee and came back to my office with the Emperor and Empress of Japan one floor above me. Try the misfortune of being caught up in the convoy of a Nigerian Minister hosting a junior Minister from Burkina Faso! Tragically, our rulers are blissfully ignorant of the fact that some of the “foreign dignitaries” for whom they ruthlessly clear the eyesore that are Nigerians actually despise them precisely for doing that. In Paris, I’ve been privileged to have conversations along these lines with highly placed French officials who have tasted the splendor of Abuja’s convoys. They despise their hosts and it is not racism!

Pius Adesanmi

SaharaReporters

Of Irresponsible Presidential Convoys and an Imperial Visit By Pius Adesanmi

Premium Times and a number of other online news portals reported recently that a presidential convoy was involved in the sort of irresponsible behavior Nigerians have come to expect from Government officials on the move. The convoy was said to be coming back from the Abuja airport. Premium Times speculated that Vice President Namadi Sambo was the culprit. His office has since denied this, claiming that the Vice President was not in the convoy. Interestingly, the Vice President’s people did not deny the fundamental claims of eyewitness accounts. There had indeed been a presidential convoy driving at breakneck speed, clearing Nigerians out of the way in the usual fashion, endangering the lives of ordinary Nigerians, and, eventually, breaking the law by driving on the opposite site of the road into incoming traffic. None of this was denied. They just wanted the public to know that the Vice President was not in the convoy at the time of this particular act of lawlessness and irresponsibility.

Whether Vice-President Sambo was in the convoy or not is a moot point for me. Sometimes, presidency aides are funnier than they are foolish. What exactly are these clowning aides trying to tell us would have been done differently had the Vice President been in the convoy? That the convoy would have been less irresponsible? That other road users would have been respected and treated like Nigerian citizens who deserve of full human dignity? That the overzealous drivers, security agents, aides, and hangers-on in the convoy wouldn’t have veered onto the opposite lane and broken the law in the process? I think we are sufficiently familiar with the behavior of convoys and the atrocious psychology of Nigeria’s rulers to understand that the Vice President’s presence would not have changed anything. On the contrary, it would even have worsened the irresponsible behaviour of that convoy for his aides, drivers, and security goons would have been far more overzealous.

We know this because the convoy of the Nigerian government official is a universe of lawlessness and irresponsibility unto itself. Here is what I had to say about the sociology of the Nigerian convoy in a lecture I delivered to a Canadian audience back in 2009: “Permit me to enter some details on the psychology of Nigerian convoys for the benefit of our Canadian friends in this audience. That is what you call a motorcade here in Canada and also in the United States. Purely ceremonial here, the motorcade wears a human face and respects ordinary Canadians and extant speed limits. I have always argued that the convoy is Nigeria’s worst postcolonial tragedy. The convoy of the Nigerian government official is obscene ostentation, intimidation, unbridled arrogance, and abject alienation from the people. It is an isle of inebriation by power, an oasis of total lawlessness. In his convoy, the Nigerian government official – often an empty barrel also known locally as a “Big Man”, “Chief”, “Alhaji” or a combination of all three – is no longer human. The speed limit of his convoy is determined by how far the speedometer of each constituent bullet-proof SUV can go.”
In the said public lecture, I stated further that: “President Obama’s convoy comprises his limo, a decoy limo, one or two media buses and a few police outriders on motorcycles. That is the length of the convoy of a self-respecting Local Government Chairman in Nigeria. At higher levels, a respectable convoy should be at least one kilometer long. I am not going to tell you the price they normally invoice for an SUV. You will have a heart attack. I am not going to mention the soldiers and/or stern mobile police men wielding AK-47s and horse whips. I am not going to tell you that many Nigerians have been crushed by the convoys of our lawless and inhumane rulers over the years. The Nigerian convoy of course comes with the sort of siren blaring that you people here associate with the emergency services: police, ambulance, and fire engines. When you see a convoy and hear the wailing siren in Nigeria, you jump into a ditch or drive your car quickly off the road for the man of power to pass undisturbed by the people he is supposed to be serving. When the people of Nigeria eventually wake up, the convoy will be one of the first targets of their ire. It is one symbol of oppression that they need to take out. Violently if necessary.”

I delivered this lecture in 2009. Compare what I had to say then with Premium Times’s and other accounts of the behavior of the Vice President’s convoy – whether he was in it or not – and tell me if we have moved an inch from where we were in 2009. The irresponsible behavior of our officials and their convoys, which gave us Elizabeth Udoudo and Uzoma Okere, is still very much a part of our lives. Nothing has changed. In the same vein, I also wrote this piece, “Imperial Visit”, back in 2009 as a weekly columnist for Dele Olojede’s NEXT, after the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited my school, Carleton University, in Ottawa.

Please read it and see how relevant the piece is to this discussion of Vice President Sambo’s convoy – and other issues such as the treatment of Nigerians whenever Patience Jonathan and her convoy comes to town, the irresponsible closure of air spaces because of VIP movement, which endangers the lives of ordinary Nigerians. I feel very sad that a lecture I delivered and an op-ed I wrote in 2009 still read like a mirror of our lives in 2012. No movement. No motion. Nothing! Enjoy “Imperial Visit”.
Imperial Visit

By Pius Adesanmi
July 10, 2009

I am a sad and angry man. As I write, the Emperor and Empress of Japan are one floor above my office. My employer, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, is hosting Japan’s royal couple today. My office is located on the 19th floor of Dunton Tower, the tallest building on campus. The Emperor and his wife are being feted on the 20th floor. And I only got to know about this because I bumped into a colleague in the elevator (lift) while going downstairs for coffee break.

I should have known the moment I drove into campus but I was too preoccupied reviewing the things I have to do today as I walked from the car lot to my office building. My handler at NEXT had already sent her usual friendly reminder that this column was due and I was doing a mental review of the topic I have now jettisoned. When I got to my office, two emails from University Communications entitled “Imperial Visit” were in my inbox. I didn’t even open them. University Communications is always clogging your inbox with endless announcements, most of which I consider junk!

I was thus taken aback when my colleague jokingly asked in the elevator why I was going downstairs for coffee instead of upstairs for lunch with the imperial visitors. “Oh, you didn’t read the memo?”, he asked on noticing my puzzled expression. We got downstairs and it finally sunk in. Outside the building were the motorcade and several Ottawa police cars and outrider motorcycles. Polite-looking policemen and scores of men in black suit (with “agents” or “secret service” written all over them) were all over the place. Regular people moved around freely. Business as usual. If you were nowhere around Dunton Tower, you could be forgiven for mistaking today for another ordinary day on campus.

I rushed back to my office to read the two emails from University Communications. They were advisories on “movement restriction” during the imperial visit. Only the 20th floor of Dunton Tower would be closed!

Those on the 21st and 22nd floors still had access to their offices. I had access to mine on the 19th floor. Something about the tone of the two emails caught my attention: they sounded somewhat apologetic for the minimal inconvenience that the imperial visit would cause to the University community and the public. The entire logistics of the visit had been planned around respecting the humanity and dignity of every member of the campus community. The story is told of a Nigerian here who went to the cinema in the evening and kept wondering why the man sitting beside him seemed so familiar. Film over, the lights came on and the Nigerian discovered that his neighbor in the cinema hall was no other than Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada! I have not been able to verify this story but it is entirely plausible.

My mind wandered to Nigeria and I pictured what our friends in Abuja would have done to our people were they the ones hosting the couple having lunch just one floor above me! That’s when sadness and anger engulfed me. I thought about how many streets in Abuja they would have cleared and closed; I thought about their koboko and AK-47-wielding soldiers and mobile police men, high on paraga, flogging and jack-booting our people out of the way; I thought about the atrocious psychology of mediocre rulers who treat their people like dung that must be hidden from the sophisticated vision of every visitor in a convoy.

Whenever our friends in Abuja host even an ordinary European Union representative or some low-level officials of Western donor agencies, their mental reflex is how to flog our people out of the way. It is as if something tells them that official visits are incompatible with the humanity and dignity of the ordinary Nigerian. I went to get coffee and came back to my office with the Emperor and Empress of Japan one floor above me. Try the misfortune of being caught up in the convoy of a Nigerian Minister hosting a junior Minister from Burkina Faso! Tragically, our rulers are blissfully ignorant of the fact that some of the “foreign dignitaries” for whom they ruthlessly clear the eyesore that are Nigerians actually despise them precisely for doing that. In Paris, I’ve been privileged to have conversations along these lines with highly placed French officials who have tasted the splendor of Abuja’s convoys. They despise their hosts and it is not racism!

Pius Adesanmi

SaharaReporters

How N422bn was lost to Fuel Subsidy Fraud

 

Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede

The Federal Government committee set up to verify 2011 fuel subsidy payments to oil marketers and importers has uncovered 17 infringements committed by the companies, which have cost the nation N422,542,937,668.59 in overpayments, THISDAY has learnt.
The committee, headed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, with Sola David-Borha, Managing Director, StanbicIBTC Plc as secretary, was set up by the Federal Ministry of Finance last May to undertake a forensic audit and verify claims by oil marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and the payments made to them by the ministry.
The report, which was submitted on Tuesday to the presidency and finance ministry, a copy of which was obtained by THISDAY reporters from sources in the presidency last night, showed that there are 17 broad categories of infringements used to defraud the Federal Government.
In fulfilling its assignment, the committee used a team of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) examiners of the Banking Supervision and Trade Exchange Department, experienced bank auditors selected by the Chairman, Committee of Chief Inspectors of Banks and chief compliance officers of banks to review the subsidy payments made to the oil marketers, and went on to recommend that the N422 billion be refunded to the Federal Government and the companies investigated “provided that the parties involved in the transaction are unable to provide evidence contrary to the committee’s findings.”
The 17 infringements are: No evidence of sales proceeds in the banks – N157,549,854,482.55, meaning that the marketers did not have evidence of sales proceeds based on banks’ available records at the date of verification; •Subsidy payments without the signatures of external auditors and independent inspectors on shore tank certificates – N121,897,757,962.56; •Subsidy payments for which mother vessels were not found in locations claimed at the time of transshipment – N21,361,071,313.24; •Subsidy payments for which there were no shipping documents or evidence of payment for the products in foreign exchange – N20,463,525,859.79; and •$10 additional margin given to traders from November 2010 to 2011 with approval of the Federal Government contrary to the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) guidelines. Others include specially mentioned transactions with various infractions – N15,944,918,661.23; •Use of 1 per cent as bank spread instead of the maximum 50 kobo approved by the CBN in computation of foreign exchange rates used for subsidy payments – N14,021,193,230.89; •Subsidy payments for which the mother vessels could not be traced – N12,942,254,466.24; •Transactions disclaimed by banks – N12,154,918,932.18; •Subsidy payments without proof of existence of the mother vessel bill of lading or daughter vessel bill of lading – N11,762,998,358.89; and •Subsidy payments for which mother vessels were no longer operational at the time of transshipment – N8,138,502,416.70.
Also included in the report are infringements on subsidy payments for which there was no copy of the bill of lading for ship-to-ship transfer – N4,634,317,239.53; •Payment of subsidy claims with no mother vessel bill of lading in the file – N1,938,927,804.98; •Subsidy payments for which mother vessels were located in the Far East (China) and in the South Pacific when transshipment took place off the coast of Cotonou – N1,713,787,473.21; •Differences between subsidies advised by PPPRA and subsequent verification by external auditors – N747,534,804.00 •N20 million re-engagement fees not charged for non-performance by marketers – N200,000,000 •Difference between the volume on the shore tank certificates and the volume used for the subsidy payment – N33,383,300.79.
Following the widespread protests that followed the removal of subsidy on petrol and its subsequent partial reinstatement last January, there were claims for a thorough investigation of the subsidy regime. This prompted the Federal Government to set up the committee of technocrats, apart from the National Assembly’s committee, which presidency sources said, “was unduly politicised and plagued by high drama.”
The Federal Government committee was made up of Aig-Imoukhuede (chairman); Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu; Dr. Director General, Debt Management Office, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo; Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla; and Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Reginald Stanley.
Other members included former Group Executive Director, Finance and Accounts, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Michael Akorodare; Deputy Director, CBN, Mrs. Onyinye Ahuchogu; Mrs. David-Borha; National Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Mike Osatuyi; and Executive Secretary, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Mr. Obafemi Olawore

Two sides of a coin, like Free Sex, like Patriotism ~ J.J. @omojuwa

The most expensive sex is free sex – Woody Allen Everyone remembers the words of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” but very few people remember the other things he said in that 1961 inaugural address. More often than not, this Kennedy quotation is thrown at citizens by leaders who are either failing to do the right thing for the citizens or by those who want to blackmail citizens under the guise of patriotism. In that same address, President Kennedy said “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich,” and also said “ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.” There are reasons why these words matter. Patriotism is like free sex, it is indeed expensive, hence patriotism is neither in the real sense free and it is in fact not cheap.

Let us do a little talk about free sex. I believe people who have sex with themselves do it mostly in two forms; it is either paid for, or it is free. Those who pay for sex essentially engage the market norm of buying and selling. There is a negotiation process, there is an agreement, the sex and finally the walking away. After the sex, the relationship between the buyer and seller of the sex essentially ends. Whatever they discuss after that would amount to the beginning, most likely of a new negotiation. Free sex on the other hand is far more complex and relatively takes more time. More often than not, free sex takes place between two people dating or between friends who happen to find themselves in the “heat of the moment.” Either way, it requires certain commitments. When a man takes a woman out for the night and walks her to her door, he may ask to kiss her but if the woman refuses, the man is not expected to say something like “come woman, I have been taking you out all these days and spending money on you, all I ask is a kiss, at least for now.” If the man says that, the terms of their relationship will essentially shift from a social norm to a market one. If the woman at that point agrees to kiss him – which in rational cases which would not – the terms of their engagement would be based on commercial values as it simply means her kiss and eventually the sex was being paid for. It will never last beyond a market process eventually.

Except for modern day loose relationships, it costs a man time, many dinners, gifts, time bidding, patience and for some an element of luck to finally get that sex in the relationship. What they will not do is use the money and time they have spent as the central point of their bargain. Let us face it though, in real terms, the sex came about because all of those things the man did came to show some form of commitment and women essentially trust you when you’ve not only spoken of your love and care but when you have acted it. When a woman finally trusts you or at least yields to trusting you, she lets go of her body. The act of sleeping with you is the consummation of that submission.

What I have described here is a real relationship not the outliers that end up with sex on the first night. Placed side by side with the sex that was bargained and paid for, you’d see that like Woody Allen said, free sex is indeed the most expensive sex!

What has this got to do with patriotism? Everything! Whether or not you know it or admit it, generally speaking, Americans are more patriotic than Nigerians. Now, do not start thinking that is because of what Kennedy said about not asking what your country can do for you bla bla bla, it is because of so much more. An average American knows, and expects that when the chips are down, his country would be there. An average American knows that the purpose and essence of government is to serve him or her, an average American knows that government of the people, by the people and for the people more often than not turns out to be the case in their country. An average American knows that the death of one American is of great concern to the government and people of the United States. To cut the long story short, the average American knows and believes the state exists for him. Contrast these and the general perception of what it is to be an American citizen and what it is to be a Nigerian citizen and you’d easily see the reason for the gulf in patriotism. I have used America because an average Nigerian understands a description better when you use America. This is the same case with Sweden, with England, with close neighbours Ghana and indeed many countries where an average citizen always looks as though s/he could die for his country. Google the benefits that accrue to a fire man in America if he loses his life at the point of duty, then google that of the Nigerian police man who experiences the same fate. You expect the police man to face criminals in gun battles and be committed to the government and people they swore to defend but they remember their families at critical times like that and know that their families will be left alone and forgotten when they are gone.

Firefighters make their way over the ruins of the World Trade Center

The act of patriotism in citizens is essentially built overtime and it comes out of realities of what your country indeed had done and could do for you. Patriotism is free but it is extremely expensive. An average Nigerian in government wants to grab for him and his family. Everybody bids his/her time and looks to grab all they possibly can if/when they get the chance. The grab-grab mentality comes from the absence of not just patriotism but that of a sense of community. What happens to the families of a poor man who dies on duty? What kind of insurance exists for our school children and teachers? What happens to an average family after the bread winner is gone? We need to change our ways, we need to be true to ourselves, if the government of Nigeria as made up of Nigerians do not see and realise that, what a country gets out of its citizens is what it has invested therein, we would never rise beyond these dark tunnel. I do not swear, I only speak of realities of cause and effect, sowing and reaping, of universal laws that cannot be changed by any man or government no matter how they wish or pray against it. Prayers do not change the principles of God.

The police is a product of its government

It was Plato who said ““The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself,” and that depicts the reality of our country today because when Napoleon Bonaparte said ““In politics, stupidity is not a handicap,” he was looking at the make-up of an average Nigerian politician. We watch media chats; we see this on display on national television.

The greatness of our country is the duty of our citizenship

Let me conclude with the words of Richelle Mead in Vampire Academy, “The greatest and most powerful revolutions often start very quietly, hidden in the shadows. Remember that.” Never forget that a time would come in our nation when the Nigerian would not only be proud of Nigeria because that is what he sees other citizens of the world do or because government is embarking on a “proudly Nigerian” campaign. Our pride would eventually come from knowing that we the people are the government, that we the people matter to the government, that we the people of Nigeria can enjoy the respect of those we elect to office. That time, our presidents would not come from do-or-die processes, they will not shirk from debates, neither will they not give a damn about us, because they will see that the pool of patriotism of we the people could sweep them off even with the blood of their own guilt. That time would come, you can choose to believe or doubt it, I have chosen to live and prepare for it. That day will come like a thief in the night or like the rage of a sweeping tide. We must make that time come

Two sides of a coin, like Free Sex, like Patriotism ~ J.J. @omojuwa

 

The most expensive sex is free sex – Woody Allen Everyone remembers the words of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” but very few people remember the other things he said in that 1961 inaugural address. More often than not, this Kennedy quotation is thrown at citizens by leaders who are either failing to do the right thing for the citizens or by those who want to blackmail citizens under the guise of patriotism. In that same address, President Kennedy said “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich,” and also said “ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.” There are reasons why these words matter. Patriotism is like free sex, it is indeed expensive, hence patriotism is neither in the real sense free and it is in fact not cheap.

Let us do a little talk about free sex. I believe people who have sex with themselves do it mostly in two forms; it is either paid for, or it is free. Those who pay for sex essentially engage the market norm of buying and selling. There is a negotiation process, there is an agreement, the sex and finally the walking away. After the sex, the relationship between the buyer and seller of the sex essentially ends. Whatever they discuss after that would amount to the beginning, most likely of a new negotiation. Free sex on the other hand is far more complex and relatively takes more time. More often than not, free sex takes place between two people dating or between friends who happen to find themselves in the “heat of the moment.” Either way, it requires certain commitments. When a man takes a woman out for the night and walks her to her door, he may ask to kiss her but if the woman refuses, the man is not expected to say something like “come woman, I have been taking you out all these days and spending money on you, all I ask is a kiss, at least for now.” If the man says that, the terms of their relationship will essentially shift from a social norm to a market one. If the woman at that point agrees to kiss him – which in rational cases which would not – the terms of their engagement would be based on commercial values as it simply means her kiss and eventually the sex was being paid for. It will never last beyond a market process eventually.

Except for modern day loose relationships, it costs a man time, many dinners, gifts, time bidding, patience and for some an element of luck to finally get that sex in the relationship. What they will not do is use the money and time they have spent as the central point of their bargain. Let us face it though, in real terms, the sex came about because all of those things the man did came to show some form of commitment and women essentially trust you when you’ve not only spoken of your love and care but when you have acted it. When a woman finally trusts you or at least yields to trusting you, she lets go of her body. The act of sleeping with you is the consummation of that submission.

What I have described here is a real relationship not the outliers that end up with sex on the first night. Placed side by side with the sex that was bargained and paid for, you’d see that like Woody Allen said, free sex is indeed the most expensive sex! 

What has this got to do with patriotism? Everything! Whether or not you know it or admit it, generally speaking, Americans are more patriotic than Nigerians. Now, do not start thinking that is because of what Kennedy said about not asking what your country can do for you bla bla bla, it is because of so much more. An average American knows, and expects that when the chips are down, his country would be there. An average American knows that the purpose and essence of government is to serve him or her, an average American knows that government of the people, by the people and for the people more often than not turns out to be the case in their country. An average American knows that the death of one American is of great concern to the government and people of the United States. To cut the long story short, the average American knows and believes the state exists for him. Contrast these and the general perception of what it is to be an American citizen and what it is to be a Nigerian citizen and you’d easily see the reason for the gulf in patriotism. I have used America because an average Nigerian understands a description better when you use America. This is the same case with Sweden, with England, with close neighbours Ghana and indeed many countries where an average citizen always looks as though s/he could die for his country. Google the benefits that accrue to a fire man in America if he loses his life at the point of duty, then google that of the Nigerian police man who experiences the same fate. You expect the police man to face criminals in gun battles and be committed to the government and people they swore to defend but they remember their families at critical times like that and know that their families will be left alone and forgotten when they are gone.

Firefighters make their way over the ruins of the World Trade Center

The act of patriotism in citizens is essentially built overtime and it comes out of realities of what your country indeed had done and could do for you. Patriotism is free but it is extremely expensive. An average Nigerian in government wants to grab for him and his family. Everybody bids his/her time and looks to grab all they possibly can if/when they get the chance. The grab-grab mentality comes from the absence of not just patriotism but that of a sense of community. What happens to the families of a poor man who dies on duty? What kind of insurance exists for our school children and teachers? What happens to an average family after the bread winner is gone? We need to change our ways, we need to be true to ourselves, if the government of Nigeria as made up of Nigerians do not see and realise that, what a country gets out of its citizens is what it has invested therein, we would never rise beyond these dark tunnel. I do not swear, I only speak of realities of cause and effect, sowing and reaping, of universal laws that cannot be changed by any man or government no matter how they wish or pray against it. Prayers do not change the principles of God.

The police is a product of its government

It was Plato who said ““The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself,” and that depicts the reality of our country today because when Napoleon Bonaparte said ““In politics, stupidity is not a handicap,” he was looking at the make-up of an average Nigerian politician. We watch media chats; we see this on display on national television.

The greatness of our country is the duty of our citizenship

Let me conclude with the words of Richelle Mead in Vampire Academy, “The greatest and most powerful revolutions often start very quietly, hidden in the shadows. Remember that.” Never forget that a time would come in our nation when the Nigerian would not only be proud of Nigeria because that is what he sees other citizens of the world do or because government is embarking on a “proudly Nigerian” campaign. Our pride would eventually come from knowing that we the people are the government, that we the people matter to the government, that we the people of Nigeria can enjoy the respect of those we elect to office. That time, our presidents would not come from do-or-die processes, they will not shirk from debates, neither will they not give a damn about us, because they will see that the pool of patriotism of we the people could sweep them off even with the blood of their own guilt. That time would come, you can choose to believe or doubt it, I have chosen to live and prepare for it. That day will come like a thief in the night or like the rage of a sweeping tide. We must make that time come

Two sides of a coin, like Free Sex, like Patriotism ~ J.J. @omojuwa

 

The most expensive sex is free sex – Woody Allen Everyone remembers the words of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” but very few people remember the other things he said in that 1961 inaugural address. More often than not, this Kennedy quotation is thrown at citizens by leaders who are either failing to do the right thing for the citizens or by those who want to blackmail citizens under the guise of patriotism. In that same address, President Kennedy said “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich,” and also said “ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.” There are reasons why these words matter. Patriotism is like free sex, it is indeed expensive, hence patriotism is neither in the real sense free and it is in fact not cheap.

Let us do a little talk about free sex. I believe people who have sex with themselves do it mostly in two forms; it is either paid for, or it is free. Those who pay for sex essentially engage the market norm of buying and selling. There is a negotiation process, there is an agreement, the sex and finally the walking away. After the sex, the relationship between the buyer and seller of the sex essentially ends. Whatever they discuss after that would amount to the beginning, most likely of a new negotiation. Free sex on the other hand is far more complex and relatively takes more time. More often than not, free sex takes place between two people dating or between friends who happen to find themselves in the “heat of the moment.” Either way, it requires certain commitments. When a man takes a woman out for the night and walks her to her door, he may ask to kiss her but if the woman refuses, the man is not expected to say something like “come woman, I have been taking you out all these days and spending money on you, all I ask is a kiss, at least for now.” If the man says that, the terms of their relationship will essentially shift from a social norm to a market one. If the woman at that point agrees to kiss him – which in rational cases which would not – the terms of their engagement would be based on commercial values as it simply means her kiss and eventually the sex was being paid for. It will never last beyond a market process eventually.

Except for modern day loose relationships, it costs a man time, many dinners, gifts, time bidding, patience and for some an element of luck to finally get that sex in the relationship. What they will not do is use the money and time they have spent as the central point of their bargain. Let us face it though, in real terms, the sex came about because all of those things the man did came to show some form of commitment and women essentially trust you when you’ve not only spoken of your love and care but when you have acted it. When a woman finally trusts you or at least yields to trusting you, she lets go of her body. The act of sleeping with you is the consummation of that submission.

What I have described here is a real relationship not the outliers that end up with sex on the first night. Placed side by side with the sex that was bargained and paid for, you’d see that like Woody Allen said, free sex is indeed the most expensive sex! 

What has this got to do with patriotism? Everything! Whether or not you know it or admit it, generally speaking, Americans are more patriotic than Nigerians. Now, do not start thinking that is because of what Kennedy said about not asking what your country can do for you bla bla bla, it is because of so much more. An average American knows, and expects that when the chips are down, his country would be there. An average American knows that the purpose and essence of government is to serve him or her, an average American knows that government of the people, by the people and for the people more often than not turns out to be the case in their country. An average American knows that the death of one American is of great concern to the government and people of the United States. To cut the long story short, the average American knows and believes the state exists for him. Contrast these and the general perception of what it is to be an American citizen and what it is to be a Nigerian citizen and you’d easily see the reason for the gulf in patriotism. I have used America because an average Nigerian understands a description better when you use America. This is the same case with Sweden, with England, with close neighbours Ghana and indeed many countries where an average citizen always looks as though s/he could die for his country. Google the benefits that accrue to a fire man in America if he loses his life at the point of duty, then google that of the Nigerian police man who experiences the same fate. You expect the police man to face criminals in gun battles and be committed to the government and people they swore to defend but they remember their families at critical times like that and know that their families will be left alone and forgotten when they are gone.

Firefighters make their way over the ruins of the World Trade Center

The act of patriotism in citizens is essentially built overtime and it comes out of realities of what your country indeed had done and could do for you. Patriotism is free but it is extremely expensive. An average Nigerian in government wants to grab for him and his family. Everybody bids his/her time and looks to grab all they possibly can if/when they get the chance. The grab-grab mentality comes from the absence of not just patriotism but that of a sense of community. What happens to the families of a poor man who dies on duty? What kind of insurance exists for our school children and teachers? What happens to an average family after the bread winner is gone? We need to change our ways, we need to be true to ourselves, if the government of Nigeria as made up of Nigerians do not see and realise that, what a country gets out of its citizens is what it has invested therein, we would never rise beyond these dark tunnel. I do not swear, I only speak of realities of cause and effect, sowing and reaping, of universal laws that cannot be changed by any man or government no matter how they wish or pray against it. Prayers do not change the principles of God.

The police is a product of its government

It was Plato who said ““The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself,” and that depicts the reality of our country today because when Napoleon Bonaparte said ““In politics, stupidity is not a handicap,” he was looking at the make-up of an average Nigerian politician. We watch media chats; we see this on display on national television.

The greatness of our country is the duty of our citizenship

Let me conclude with the words of Richelle Mead in Vampire Academy, “The greatest and most powerful revolutions often start very quietly, hidden in the shadows. Remember that.” Never forget that a time would come in our nation when the Nigerian would not only be proud of Nigeria because that is what he sees other citizens of the world do or because government is embarking on a “proudly Nigerian” campaign. Our pride would eventually come from knowing that we the people are the government, that we the people matter to the government, that we the people of Nigeria can enjoy the respect of those we elect to office. That time, our presidents would not come from do-or-die processes, they will not shirk from debates, neither will they not give a damn about us, because they will see that the pool of patriotism of we the people could sweep them off even with the blood of their own guilt. That time would come, you can choose to believe or doubt it, I have chosen to live and prepare for it. That day will come like a thief in the night or like the rage of a sweeping tide. We must make that time come