Who is Optimistic About 2019?

20^th November, 2016

By: Amir Abdulazeez

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ew days before the U.S Presidential Elections, I became excessively addicted to many websites and social media platforms that provide regular updates regarding the activities of the candidates standing in the election and its likely outcome. There is this particular pro-Democrats page on Facebook whose updates two to three days before the election were largely and confidently about how Hillary Clinton is going to have a smooth ride over Donald Trump. Hours before the election, the tone of the updates from the page started showing some signs of nervousness and apparent decline in confidence. Immediately after it became clear that Donald Trump was unassailably going to win, the updates didn’t stop, rather, they quickly shifted towards rolling out plans and strategies on how to defeat the Republican in 2020.

The narrative above is to a large extent, a reflection of how thousands, if not millions of typical Nigerians are building up their minds towards 2019. While the pro-democrats are quick to start the plans of how to unseat the yet-to-assume-office President Trump without analysing the circumstances that made it possible for a person of Trump’s calibre to emerge president, some Nigerians are quick to go to the polls in 2019 to replace our current leaders without first finding solutions to the circumstances that makes it possible for the kind of inept leaders we have to emerge and keep emerging.

Ordinarily, we shouldn’t be talking of 2019 as we are only in 2016, but since talking about it appears to be what many Nigerians like, it isn’t completely out of place if we dedicate some paragraphs to it. However, we must accept the fact that by allowing 2019 to dominate our political discussions this early, we have subconsciously abandoned our duty of monitoring those currently calling the shots as well as the obligation of holding them accountable for as long as they remain in office. Meanwhile, how have we faired with the instruments our constitution gave us to checkmate our leaders without necessarily waiting for elections? For instance, how many legislators we accuse of wrongdoing have we recalled?

Just like 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015; 2019 is most likely not going to be much different in terms of the kind of leaders that will emerge. If we like, we may keep changing the individuals but as long as we don’t reform the system, the individuals will behave and remain the same. Now just think of this; has the attitude and conduct of an average Nigerian state governor in 1999 or 2003 been significantly different from that of 2011 or 2015? How about the national and state legislators, local government chairmen and councillors? This is not to say that there are no exceptions, but we can’t expect a negative system to produce positive results except in extremely rare cases.

While we look forward to 2019, we must remember that it is still largely the amount of money you have that mainly determines your success in primary elections; people win elections without any manifesto; party officials at virtually all levels are not elected but selected; godfathers are still the movers and shakers of politics; majority of Nigerians are still largely politically ignorant without any effective mechanism for voter education in place for the foreseeable future; election offenders and fraudsters are still not punished; local government elections are still a sham; there is no level playing ground for non-incumbents against incumbents; our courts are largely seen not to be doing justice to electoral disputes; our electoral laws are still at the mercy of senators who are more partisan than patriotic; a theoretically independent electoral commission and so many other unaddressed issues.   

The desperation through the employment of money, violence and fraud with which participants approached the recent gubernatorial elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Edo states as well as the numerous re-run elections in many states across the country is an unfortunate eye-opener of what to expect in 2019 elections. Leaders who keep emerging through such a process will neither care to reform the process, nor will they feel seriously obligated to deliver on their responsibilities.

Despite all these, we must acknowledge the fact that our political system have recorded some progress especially between 2007 to 2015, but it is still largely not what it supposed to be for obvious reasons. The defeat of PDP for instance represents a massive triumph for democracy not because those who collectively replaced them were very much significantly better, but because it signifies the dismantling of a monstrous cabal that was hell-bent on holding Nigeria ransom for only-God-knows when. The current crisis and lack of cohesion in the APC is a big plus and blessing in disguise for ordinary Nigerians because it may mean that the party will find it difficult to have the strength and energy to develop into a PDP-like cabal. Already some cracks in the APC are appearing to be beyond redemption. While, we advocate for strong and durable political parties in Nigeria, we abhor a situation where they become too strong to be answerable to Nigerians.

Apart from the defeat of PDP, we must acknowledge as another blessing the fact that elections between 2011 to 2015 are largely freer and fairer than those between 2003 and 2007. While we are happy about this development, we must be wary of the level of its collective sustainability as well as the increasingly monetized and abused process that usually paves way to such General Elections. We must accept that an election, even if free, cannot be fair if it was preceded by a rigged process.

There is this talk that secret preparations have reached advanced stage towards coming up with a third alternative party to APC and PDP by early to mid-2017. It is rumoured that the new party will be driven by aggrieved bigwigs from PDP and APC. This is very laughable to say the least. So, Nigerians should wait for politically aggrieved politicians with myopic partisan interests to lead the way in 2019? Anyway, they can always count on the gullibility of Nigerians, which is so much that a mere change of alphabets in a political party can make them pardon individuals who were and still are the major architects of their predicaments.

Those eagerly waiting for 2019 to replace President Buhari as the ultimate solution to our current problems, have the right to do so, but must broadly understand that our problem is far beyond that. Personally, after 18 months at the helm, I may have given up on Buhari becoming Nigeria’s version of Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania or Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana who unlike Buhari were able to unite their countrymen, but I still back him do very well before the end of his tenure, especially if he makes the necessary adjustments which are not beyond his ability. While I pray and hope, he does well, I also wish he initiate bold reforms that will sanitize party democracy in Nigeria and to organize in 2019, a more credible election than the one that brought him to power; and he shouldn’t be a candidate in it. Not seeking re-election in 2019 will consolidate the good legacy we hope he will build by the end of his tenure and will help him to peacefully retire amidst old age.   

Observably, one problem we are dangerously facing is how many Nigerians have concentrated their attention on the President thereby neglecting other numerous national, state, local and even traditional stakeholders in the Nigerian project. One of the reasons we are experiencing the current problems was our excessive concentration on Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, thinking that replacing him is the only and ultimate solution. Yes, we replaced him which was fine, but we went ahead to vote for so many incompetent legislators and state governors, which we are paying the price today.

In view of all these, there is honestly no basis for optimism towards 2019 without first a thorough reform of our political system electorally, judicially, morally and socially. The system we have in place keeps producing leaders that are more interested in politics and wealth than they are in governance and legacy. Few weeks to 2017, we may appear to be late, but we can still do something.

Where do we start? I don’t know? But here is an idea; how about we quickly start thinking of a political party backed by ordinary Nigerians and not one populated by aggrieved PDP and APC politicians; one that nobody will need millions of naira before clinching any of its tickets?

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

When Change Begins with Nobody

20^th September, 2016

By: Amir Abdulazeez

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here are so many things that signify a doomed society. One of such is when nobody wants to sacrifice and take responsibility of moving it forward. The history of the world is dotted with the stories of leaders and followers who made sacrifices to either pull their society out of backwardness or to move it further than it is on the prosperity ladder. That the Nigerian journey is still searching of how to progress and not actually progressing is most unfortunate as this means we are not even on the right road, not to talk of travelling it, no matter for how long.

The President Buhari administration’s launching of the ‘Change Begins with Me’ campaign was greeted with mixed reactions. While some agree even if theoretically that change begins with them, others feel that the change should begin with the president and his team. While this debate is needless to say the least, two things are clear; the new campaign is now over-politicized and already dead on arrival and we are once again on a habitual wild goose chase on how actually we should go about fixing Nigeria morally, socially, economically and politically.

First, one begins to wonder whether APC has any blueprint in the first place or it is now that it is coming up with one. During the campaigns, the party and its candidates strongly emphasized that it was the head that was wrong with the fish and once the head is not rotten, the body remains fresh. Some 16 months after clinching power, the party is now launching a campaign that suggests that it is the body of the fish and not the head that matters most. Granted that every society cannot move forward without its members actively playing a role, but APC should have properly coordinated this clearly and vigorously right during the campaigns or at least from the very beginning of its administration. That this is coming 16 months after been in power suggests that the party is embarking on a gradual and unfortunate journey to cluelessness on how to handle some critical issues.

It is evident that the APC did not utilize its early days in power when goodwill was more than abundant adequately. The apparent indecision of its government and its failure to hit the ground running in the guise of trading carefully and clearing of the PDP mess, are all coming back to haunt it. Many things that the ruling party ought to have initiated or executed during its first few weeks in power are now being introduced only recently. It took the presidency many months to appoint an INEC chairman for instance and well more than a year to appoint commissioners for the electoral body. Whether this also requires trading carefully and clearing some PDP mess is what many don’t understand. The commission is now dropping some hints of its potential inability to conduct a conclusive and credible 2019 elections.

The APC and the presidency have also failed largely to rise above the shackles of partisanship to run a truly unifying government. The way it is running its affairs largely reflects the results of the 2015 elections. The style and politics of the party is yet to be significantly different to that of the PDP. It gives the impressions of ‘everyone-is-a-wrongdoer-except-us’ and ‘we-came-to-rescue-Nigeria-alone’. The President appears to have critically left out important stakeholders from the onset of his government, the result of which we have seen clearly. The successes recorded by the APC government could be far more than this and some of the problems we are facing shouldn’t be as much especially the likes of the Niger Delta militancy.

Those who argue that change should begin from the president, his cabinet and the ruling party are only right if that doesn’t mean that they are pretending not to have any role to play in effecting that change themselves. Others that are arguing along the same line are doing it for political reasons, thanks to our culture of politicising almost everything. The word ‘Change’ consciously or subconsciously reinforcing the political dimension of the campaign itself is not helping matters. It would be better if the government can rebrand the campaign if possible to cleanse it of what largely looks like an APC affair.

It is true that the Presidency and the ruling party which also controls the National Assembly have not shown enough change yet. While the cost of governance is still seen as exorbitantly high, impunity in government dealings is still apparent. From so many alleged secret and unmerited recruitments in key government parastatals which used to be a regular practice of the past to the presidency allegedly turning a blind eye to allegations of corruption against some of its kitchen cabinet members, many citizens now feel change should begin from where these things are being done or perceived to be done.

Some Nigerians believe they have tolerated enough of the economic hardship currently in the land; they see themselves patient enough to have tolerated the chronic fuel scarcity at first and then price hike later. It is because the people were on the side of the government that the NLC strike against fuel price hike failed woefully. All these are in addition to the peoples’ perseverance and resilience in making sure that the APC government came to power. Because of these and many other obvious reasons, many citizens feels change or progress if we are to coin it apolitically, should not begin with them or at least, they shouldn’t be its focal point.

Those who argue that change should begin with citizens are only right if they are not doing such only for the purpose of partisanship and blindly defending the government or the party which they are sympathisers. One should genuinely believe progress begins with him for sacrificial and patriotic reasons. While some have patriotically accepted that they need to change their own attitude, if at all Nigeria stands any chance of progressing, others are only out to sycophantically defend every action of government. These kinds of people are everywhere and they have stubbornly refused to allow people who constructively criticize the government and genuinely want it to succeed to be listened to.

That the ordinary Nigerian has not done enough to move the nation forward is well documented. He sees the solutions to his country’s problems coming from all other quarters except himself and he always forget that alongside his other country men, he is the most critical stakeholder in nation-building. Many of the socio-political catastrophes inflicted on Nigeria by the PDP over the last 16 years were partly possible due to the fact that we lack active citizenship. Our ‘I-don’t-care’ attitude is legendary; beside our ethnic and religious problems, our greed, selfishness and carelessness have refused to allow us do simple things that would collectively place Nigeria on the prosperity map. We always think that other countries developed exclusively because of good leadership, we don’t seem to care to find out what roles citizens played in ensuring that such leadership existed and succeeded.

Since the debate is not about whether change or progress should begin or not, the debate is rather on where it should begin from, can we simply recommend that it should begin from everybody? No need for anyone to wait for the other; it should begin in earnest from both leaders and followers. It should begin from Buhari, Jonathan, APGA, APC, PDP, Modu Sheriff, Makarfi, Oyegun, Tinubu, Lai Mohammed, Femi Adesina, akara seller, university lecturer, student, shoe shiner and from everyone else.

Personally, I may have my reservations on APC and President Buhari, but my being Nigerian or wanting her to progress didn’t started with Buhari and APC and it is not going to end with them. My hope and efforts of being a good person and Nigerian will solidly remain irrespective of whether APC does its job or not. While I may pressurise President Buhari and his team as well as every other Nigerian to do the needful in their respective capacities, I would accept that #ProgressBeginsWithMe as an individual and I won’t compromise that.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

Muslims, Blasphemers and the Rise of Jungle Justice in Nigeria

25^th August, 2016

By: AmirAbdulazeez

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he phenomenon of jungle justice in Nigeria is not new even if recent incidences in Kano, Niger and Zamfara States have unfortunately brought it back to limelight. It didn’t started with the blasphemy-induced actions of some so-called Northern Muslim mobs burning or killing the abusers of Prophet Muhammad and Islam or those who  killed for allegedly refusing to fast during Ramadan; and it is not going to end with them. While we must worry about the causes and genesis of jungle justice, we must be more worried about its rise and why it keeps thriving as well as what it is turning our society into as a whole.

Without mincing words, the Nigerian justice system hasfailed almost completely to the extent that ordinary people seek to find justice through their own ways, and in a society where majority of the people are hungry, angry, idle and ignorant, jungle justice can just be one out of different barbaric methods people can resort to in stamping their authority. For almost every problem in Nigeria, disadvantaged people have developed an equivalent of jungle justice to get solutions. For unemployment, some are into prostitution, stealing, begging and cheating; for a collapsed education system, some have resort to exam malpractice; for an unstable economy and an uncertain future, some have resorted to pillaging our commonwealth; for a failed police and civil service, some have resorted to bribing their ways out of trouble. All these are jungle justices in their own rights.

When people feel so strong about issues in a system that is not working properly and with ignorance so prevalent, they resort to jungle justice. For instance, the phenomena of burning an alleged market thief alive using tyres became very popular in South-eastern Nigeria and Igbo-dominated places elsewhere for a reason. The Igbos have no better profession than trade and won’t allow thievery to constitute any threat to that profession especially when they are almost certain that under the justice system in the land, such thieves will manipulatively go scot-free, get lenient sentences or spend years without their trials concluded. What more then do you expect from a people who feel very strongly about their faith and see its defence even if ignorantly and lawlessly as one of the sure ways to heaven? Until and unless people begin to see the justice system as reliable and effective, we shall continue to witness jungle justice not just for blasphemy but for many other things, many of which may even be insignificant.

Defending Islam is not part of the objectives of this article as doing so would be futile especially when so many non-Muslims, particularly Christians have stubbornly refused to mark the difference between actions of some misguided Muslims and Islam itself. If you say jungle justice is part of Islam and not the action of few thugs masquerading as Northern Muslims for instance, it is just like you are conceding that blasphemy and abuse of others’ religion is part of Christianity and not the actions of few stupid profanitists disguising as Christians. However, many Muslims themselves have not helped Islam and had left Christians and non-Muslims with no logical option within their grasp than to blame Islam for the unislamic actions of some Muslims.

In the Islamic context, Prophet Muhammad is the greatest man in history; he is the greatest of all creatures that were created by God. Even among non-Muslims who may not categorically agree with this, there are many prominent people including renowned Christians who have acknowledged his exceptional and rare divine-given greatness; many among them agreed with his prophecy and message even if they didn’t agree in its superiority over their own faiths. Every Muslim who has a basic history of Prophet Muhammad’s character and adventures should learn a lot of positive things and conduct his own life base on them.

The problem with most present day Nigerian Muslims is their pretence of Islam. While they are Muslims in identity, hardly do you find any Islam in their actions and character. For instance, the prophet teaches us to be honest, caring, well-mannered, trust-worthy, peaceful, hard-working, just, tolerant, etc and we all know that the best way to show love to someone is to obey and adhere to his teachings. Why then would people who have largely ignored all the good things the Prophet stood for be barbarically killing others in the name of ‘protecting’ him without any recourse to law and order? People who stand for everything the prophet disparaged and prohibited; people who do not even adhere to Islamic teachings and principles; people with no regards for law and order are the same people trying to defend the religion with jungle justice without trial? How can this be acceptable? How can one be cowed into feeling that these people represent Islam? The irony is that some Muslims will exhibit a stiff intolerance to the abuse of the Prophet from non-Muslims and even from fellow Muslims as we witnessed last year in Kano, but they themselves will go on to betray and abuse all what he stands for. Alas! Many of them don’t even know what he stands for.

Another angle to this problem is that, in all of this blasphemy controversy, one question many people fail or deliberately choose not to ask or at least not asking publicly is why would a sensible human being abuse someone who is regarded to be the greatest personality ever by more than 1.5 billion people across the globe? What do you stand to benefit by abusing the Prophet of Islam and how does that promote your cause? Why would you live in the domain or stronghold of Muslims and still choose to be so careless while you know so well of the possible consequences? No matter the stupidity or rascality of the so-called Muslims engaging in jungle justice for blasphemy, one thing we are yet to hear or at least has not become common is someone among them publicly abusing Jesus Christ in a Christian dominated area. Have we also noticed that these jungle justice mongers’ actions are not exclusively restricted to Christians and non-Muslims; their actions extend even to fellow Muslims?

One terribly disturbing issue about this jungle justice versus blasphemy affair is the difficulty in ascertaining whether the accused victims did actually commit the blasphemy or the mob did committed their heinous acts sincerely for the sake of Islam. What is only certain is that all of us make prejudiced and highly subjective conclusions. This whole issue is gradually proving to be more socio-ethno-political than it is religious as it keeps polarizing Nigerians along their traditional weak lines. The Nigerian media have also not helped matters with its misinformed reportage. False as well as twisted stories with half-truths have been reported only for the actual versions of what happened to emerge later. The true versions never go viral as the initial false ones. One terrible fact also is that no one can predict when, how or where it is going to happen and therefore, we stand virtually a zero chance of preventing it. Before we blame anyone for not preventing it, we must understand the complexities involved. What we may however complain is about the failure of authorities to decisively deal with culprits even if doing so is also a little bit difficult as it is sometimes difficult to fish out the specific culprits out of a crowd.

Muslims must exemplify the love of Islam and Prophet Muhammad in their character and conduct. If many Muslims truly and sincerely adhere to the teachings of the prophet, Islam would not be suffering from its current battered image. They must report any suspected blasphemer to the law enforcement agencies and must never seek to take laws into their hands under whatever circumstance. Christians involved in blasphemy must understand that it is against their own religion and they stand to achieve nothing except chaos with such silly actions. Christian leaders can help by enlightening their followers and disowning such blasphemers publicly instead of defending them. It is only the collective actions of the good elements in both religions that would produce the desired results. Government on its part must strengthen its security response apparatus and the justice system to stand any chance of eliminating jungle justice from our society.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

May God Save the Nigerian Judiciary

11^th August, 2016

By: AmirAbdulazeez

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ew weeks before the end of the year 2015, some political pundits in Nigeria made a series of analyses on the major events and institutions that could shape the then upcoming year in the country. Some of these analysts emphasized that 2016 would be the year of the Nigerian Judiciary. It would be a year they said, that will serve as a litmus test for the Nigerian Judicial Arm of government as an institution that can self-reform not only under President Buhari but under a relatively new era ushered in by a critical election that has swept away many of those who are seen to have negatively dictated the course of politico-judicial events in the country from 1999 to 2015.

In the build up to 2016, major election cases that caught the public eye had reached advanced stages and were due for judgements at various times of the new year; many corruption cases especially those involving the arms deal scandal had begun as well as a host of others. Eight months into 2016, we can conclude from events that the judiciary has not lived up to expectation. President Buhari himself had said the judiciary so far was yet to perform its functions to the satisfaction of Nigerians.

With the remarkable progress made by the 2015 polls, the judiciary had the opportunity to end impunity, violence and rigging in our electoral system once and for all but however gave all of them a lifeline with those Supreme Court gubernatorial judgments of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and a host of other states. The judgements were widely condemned even by the most neutral of neutrals. With the nature with which the Nigerian electoral system had been bastardized since 2003, there was no way a successful 2015 elections alone could cleanse it. Many expected the judiciary to not only consolidate the gains of 2015, but to perfect it.

The lower election tribunals performed fairly but not up to expectations and the appeal courts did a job that was a little above average and would have done better if not for the different conflicting decisions made on similar cases that dominated their judgements. The Supreme Court upturned everything in what looks like exploiting some narrow loopholes for upholding the theoretical law at the expense of practical justice. The card reader which received wide appraisal as the major instrument that ended electoral impunity in the country was portrayed as ‘illegal’ or ‘unconstitutional’ by the court. Unfortunately, the seeds of those Supreme Court judgments have yielded the fruits of more violence, desperation and attempted rigging in many re-run and gubernatorial elections that followed the 2015 elections leading to so many inconclusive and suspended elections. A hitherto determined and confident INEC has been rendered helpless once again. The ‘win-at-all-cost’ and the ‘it-is-better-to-be-taken-to-court-than-to-go-to-court-on-election-matters’ mentalities have carried the day.

The prosecution of corruption cases began in earnest with some improved pace which made it appear as if the reforms through the Administration of Criminal Justice Act were working on one hand and the change mantra of the Buhari Government is positively affecting judicial proceedings on the other, but that had since slowed down and now cases are taking the familiar path of time wasting, endless adjournments and giving priority to technicalities against merit. However, apart from the internal court problems, the attitudes of lawyers as well as the prosecutors themselves have not helped matters. 

The number of reported judicial scandals involving judges that broke out in 2016 is a serious cause for worry. The reported scandal involving the renowned Lawyer Ricky Tarfa and Justice Ibrahim Auta of the Federal High Court is still fresh on our minds. Tarfa is among other things being accused of introducing and using his clients who have their families standing trial before the court of Justice Auta to donate money at a book launch in honour of the judge, thereby violating the code of conduct for judges in Nigeria. This is coming at a time the Justice Ayo Salami and ACN saga is still not forgotten. There are many other resolved and unresolved scandals involving judges that keep denting the image of the Nigerian Judiciary. There are perhaps hundreds of others that we may never hear of.

Recently, courts were reported to have given seven different conflicting judgements and rulings on the leadership saga of the People’s Democratic Party involving the two factions of Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi. From May 12, 2016 to July 28, 2016, the Federal High Court in Lagos, the FCT High Court (twice), Federal High court Abuja (twice) and the Federal High Court in Porthacourt have delivered one judgment, ruling and injunction or the other in favour or against the two factions and nobody knows what court will give what judgement or injunction on the same matter tomorrow. Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, a pro-democracy activist believes that judges listen to radio and read newspapers and if they do not, they should be forced to. He wondered why judges who are aware of previous rulings and judgments accept new cases on the same issue if the issue of compromise is not at stake. Jibrin also added while also citing Justice Akinola Aguda from a lecture he delivered in 1986 saying that, it is apparent today that we have moved beyond the power to acquire quality lawyers which in itself makes equality before the law impossible since others can’t afford such, to the purchase of judges.

The saga in Abia is the most recent example of how the judiciary are causing confusion and political instability. A Federal High Court in Abuja sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on June 27 on tax fraud and ordered INEC to issue fresh certificate of return to his runner-up opponent in the primary elections, Mr Sampson Ogah. Within hours, another court in Abia State (which is not a Court of Appeal) barred the state’s Chief Judge from swearing-in Ogah. It took the efforts of an Appeal Court which asked the parties to maintain status quo pending the determination of the case to douse the heated atmosphere in the state and restore temporary calm and stability.

Though many judges still maintain their integrity due to their exceptional individual conducts, but the integrity of the judiciary as a system has gradually eroded; the common man no longer sees it as his last hope, it is the special man that does. The abuse and disregard for court orders by those in power may not be unconnected to the general degradation of judicial integrity. It seems, the judiciary can no longer assert its full authority to protect itself from the incessant abuse of court orders by the executive and powerful individuals because it commands little respect in the eyes of many. While the legislature checks the excesses of the executive, the judiciary checks the excesses of both as well as itself. These are some of the things the National Judicial Council must look into and address. The allegations that corruption has eaten deep into the court registries and judicial administrative systems must also be addressed. The reported cases of alleged bribery and corruption among courts’ registrars, staff and officers who frustrate the smooth administration of justice must be investigated and dealt with.

Despite all these, it is fair that we acknowledge some external factors largely beyond its control that have led the Nigerian judiciary to find itself in its current state. The issue of inadequate manpower and poor funding are twin obstacles drawing it back. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Mahmud last year, when the members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary paid him a visit lamented that: ‘there are only 1074 judges of superior courts in the country, meaning that only one superior court judge adjudicates for 158,287 Nigerians based on conservative estimates. At the appeal courts, we now boast of one judge for 1,888,888 Nigerians and it is one Supreme Court judge for every 10 million Nigerians.” With these figures, one must understand the difficulties experienced by judges in discharging their duties. Other problems are excessive executive threat and political interference, corrupt system, general high cost of legal proceedings and a host of numerous others.

The National Judicial Council has been doing some clean-up over the years, even though that has not adequately tackled the problems at hand. Some judges have been sacked, some compulsorily retired and others suspended or sanctioned. However, these have not significantly proven to serve as deterrent to other judges. Therefore, the council should step up its efforts to cleanse the judiciary of all negative elements for optimal performance.

After so many years of anomalies and with the startling events that dominated late 2015 to early 2016, many expected the judiciary to significantly and positively change by now, but with what we are witnessing, that change is far from close and not even the reforms brought about by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act has significantly changed things so far. The problems are stubbornly getting more and more complex by the day and some of them look to be almost beyond redemption. With President Buhari himself helplessly admitting at a workshop for Nigerian judges at the National Judicial Institute recently, that the judiciary is blocking his progress particularly in the anti-corruption campaign, the only action left for us besides continuing to press for genuine reforms is to pray to God to save the Nigerian Judiciary.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

When Citizens 'Can't' Exercise Their Powers

5^th August, 2016

By: AmirAbdulazeez

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”- Thomas Jefferson

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ver the last eight months, Nigerians have been very angry with the National Assembly. Although, the discontent of Nigerians with their national lawmakers over the past 16 years has become habitual and almost permanent, several events in the 8^th National Assembly have accelerated this discontent. From Bukola Saraki’s refusal to resign over corruption allegations to the purchase of cars for lawmakers at ‘inflated’ prices down to the inability of both chambers to make their budget details clearly open and lately, to the on-going budget padding controversy; Nigerians have never probably being angrier with their representatives in the legislative arm than they are now. Add all of these to the social media bill controversy, the lawmakers’ quest to give their leaders life pension and immunity and Abdulmumini Jibrin’s latest cameo; then you can say, the sore relationship between Nigerians and their federal lawmakers have reached a point of no return.

One thing that will amaze a typical observer in all these is that no single lawmaker has been recalled by his constituents. Infact, no single formal and significant recall process of any lawmaker is currently on-going throughout the federation and probably, there will never be any. The constitution empowers the citizens to recall any lawmaker whose performance they are not satisfied with, but we probably enjoy only being angry and angrier.

While some Good Samaritan activists have made some attempts to ‘occupy’ the National Assembly in the past, others have employed physical attacks by pelting some of their representatives with stones and other objects in what looks like a bid to hold them accountable. However, it appears all these are not necessary, the lawmakers themselves have become immune to all these. One unpopular lawmaker who was disgraced in one of the Northern States and was alleged to have been physically manhandled by his angry constituents during the constitutional hearings in late 2013 was bold enough to openly seek for re-election within the space of months in the following year because he probably feels that was the only thing the people could do. They can’t go beyond that, they can’t recall him and most importantly they’ll definitely need him for his money. Our failure to constitutionally hold our lawmakers to account also translates to the fact that we cannot also hold the executive arm to account. Though we can’t recall a governor or president, but we can make him fear and respect our representatives and we can control him through them. We ask them to impeach a governor who abused his office or we recall them, simple!

Since 2003, the major political parties in every dispensation have in most cases being imposing candidates and technically selling their tickets to the highest bidder against the wish of the generality of the people. At the end, these parties shut out popular candidates and leave citizens with the narrow options of choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. For more than 12 years, Nigerians have been suffering from this without finding a way to free themselves. All we could do is to promote peoples’ candidacy by backing and massively voting for the smaller parties who have no money and power; after all it is through our votes that the big parties became rich and powerful. Popular candidates who decamp to smaller parties in the hope that their personal acceptability will see them through end up getting disappointed just because citizens only want to vote candidates in big parties. One funny thing is that, after deliberately making the wrong choice amidst other overlooked alternatives, people come back to complain of limited choices.

Well, one must wonder, how can such a feat be achieved in a society where the monumental electoral frauds of 2003 and 2007 was not only allowed to take place, but was also swept under the carpet with little or no resistance? You begin to wonder whether we have citizens or just people whose aim is to survive or whether the citizens are actually concerned? As helpless as we seemed at that time, we could still protest by boycotting all future elections in mass until authorities correct the anomalies of those elections. At the end, it took more of the braveness and critical reforms of an astute Attahiru Jega to sanitize the electoral system than the people’s discontent.

Few weeks ago, when the price of a bag of Sugar suddenly sky-rocketed from around N9,000 to N15,000 within few weeks, I was compelled to pay a visit to a friend who was a trader in the popular Singer Market in Kano in order to clarify whether that was inflation or sheer craziness. In the course of our discussions, he confessed to me that it was the latter and that it was somewhat artificial and designed majorly by the marketers; then I kept wondering to myself on whether Nigerians or even Kano people can simply organize themselves and boycott sugar for a week or two and see whether these marketers would behave themselves? Nothing will happen to us if we boycott sugar even for months, we can use honey or just sacrifice taking sugar-sweetened foods for a while. It was from my discussions with him that I also understood that though the current bad state of the economy is contributing to inflation, but a chunk of it is been driven artificially by some traders and enemies of progress and this has been made possible because Nigerians have not thought of developing any significant resistance to all these kinds of illogicality.

The Nigerian leadership system has being taken people for granted for so many years simply because citizens have largely failed to develop a way of dealing with the problem. A typical public office holder feels he can get away with whatever actions he perpetrates while in power because he’ll face little or no consequences from the citizens. Some say we need revolution or an Arab Spring, but the truth is that we can make leaders sit up by simple civil actions without any violence. When you hear governments and leaders resigning over the fear of their citizens, you begin to wonder if such can happen in Nigeria. The Immediate past British Prime Minister resigned not because he had committed any crime or because he was asked to, but because his plans for his country’s future are contrary to that of his citizens and he fears the consequences of such a situation even after his party won massive support in the most recent National Elections.

It is worthy to note that there have been individuals and civil society organizations that have consistently and commendably stood against bad governance in Nigeria over the years. However, the actions of these individuals and organizations get drowned in the general lack of patriotism, support, awareness and inactions of the citizens. The citizens themselves have occasionally made things happen like in the 2012 subsidy removal protest for example, but that was a rare feat which no one can predict when such can be repeated with remarkable success.

Several factors contribute to citizens being unable to develop any resistance against bad governance and other atrocities against them. The chief among them, some will say, is ignorance. However, most of the actions we need to carry out to better our society need only basic knowledge and understanding to execute. What mostly is lacking is the patriotism and sacrifice. Ethnic, religious, political and regional differences are also a major reason why Nigerians fail to unite to fight for their cause. However, when problems come, they don’t select any religion or tribe and when leaders misgovern, they destroy the whole state and not only one region or two. Some other factors include greediness and money worshipping, poverty, laziness, lack of orientation and organization. Our general dislike for law, order and due process is also a major factor preventing us from holding our leaders accountable. It is only when citizens obey the law then will they have the guts and courage to question those on top. We have abdicated our responsibility as the ones who should primarily make our society a better place.

One wonders why public corruption continues to thrive and win in our society in spite of our so-called fight against it. The simple explanation is that we as citizens do not only encourage it, we also promote it. We condemn any appointed or elected public office holder who fails to get rich or distribute money. We demand money from public officers instead of accountability and transparency. We worship and revere looters and abuse those who retire with an unblemished record. If things go down like this up to the end (God forbid); the Nigerian story would not only be that of a failed leadership but of a failed followership as well.

We can change all these; we can make everyone in Nigeria accountable for his actions. Nigerian citizens are brave, strong and resistant. They could achieve many things if they unite, organize and dedicate themselves. The civilian JTF who rose against insurgency in the North east are Nigerians. The different activists and civil society organizations who have consistently and bravely fought bad governance are Nigerians. The people who blocked Obasanjo’s hypothetical third term bid are Nigerians. The people of Azare town who fought and defeated heavily armed robbers without guns are Nigerians. Goodluck Jonathan, the man who bravely sacrificed his ambition amidst uncertain consequences even if he could do otherwise is a Nigerian. Muhammadu Buhari, the man who contested four times and was allegedly cheated out on several occasions but still endured to serve his country is a Nigerian. The pregnant woman from Kaduna state who joined the queue to get accredited during the 2011 elections, went home to deliver and came back to vote is a Nigerian. Chief Ogbonnaya Onu and Bola Tinubu, who have resisted all attempts to join PDP and stayed put in opposition for 16 years are Nigerians. David Mark, possibly the longest consecutively serving Senator in the history of Africa is a Nigerian. Godsday Orubebe who summoned the super courage to outrageously ridicule himself before the whole world is also a Nigerian.   

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

The Challenge before the Nigerian Academia

23^rd June, 2016

By: Amir Abdulazeez

T

he year 2015 was quite eventful in the area of academic research, scientific progress and advancing knowledge globally. However, the year just like many others, silently passed without some tangibly significant innovative break-through from the Nigerian Academia. For example, it has been 30 years since a new antibiotic drug was discovered. Early last year, a team from North-eastern University in Massachusetts, U.S.A discovered Teixobactin. The team used the drug to successfully treat resistant disease-infected mice and hope to begin human trials within two years. This new drug according to them could be instrumental in treating the mutated, resistant diseases that have become immune to the old antibiotics that we have been using over the last 30 years. Its method of discovery they say, could lead to more antibiotic findings.

In that same year, it was discovered that a fourth state of matter apart from solid, liquid and gas existed. A bionic lens with the potential to revolutionize eye care, designed to give patients perfect vision and ease eye operations was also invented by one Dr. Gareth Webb. A superior stethoscope with a smart adapter was also invented; it makes it possible for physicians to download heartbeat data to a smart phone. Water was discovered in planet Mars, a potential HIV vaccine and many other scientific discoveries were made over the same period, 2015.

The cold war between the USSR and USA that followed after the end of World War II was fought through different means. The Scientists and Academia of both countries played significant roles in trying to make discoveries that will strengthen their countries and outwit its rival. It was some of these discoveries that engineered the space race and popularized the use of artificial space satellites for gathering enormous information about the earth for human utilization. When Russia launched Sputnik in October, 1957, the world’s first artificial satellite, it was almost certain that world history would never be the same afterwards.

In the absence of reliable data, we may assume that the number of Nigerian professors that are still alive to be in the region of possibly 2500 or more especially if we consider the fact that there are more than 130 universities in Nigeria. Some first generation universities like University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria may be having as much as or more than a hundred professors each. Such number of professors can change the fate of the world through research, not to talk of a nation. Apart from Wole Soyinka who won the Nobel Prize in literature, no Nigerian has ever won the prize in any of the categories; Chemistry, Physics, Economics, etc. Many of the winners did so because they did things that made great impacts in their countries or in the world at large. The British-born Swede, Agnus Deaton won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare which helped governments to improve policy through tools such as household surveys and tax changes.

Although many Nigerian Academicians and scientist have remarkably left their marks across various fields of knowledge, we are yet to effectively build on their foundation. Moreover, we are yet to transform many of our past and present academic achievements into tangible and impactful actions for development. The academia itself appears to be generally stagnant. Chinua Achebe (Literature), Akin Mabogunje (Geography), Iya Abubakar (Mathematics), Egrinya Eneji (Agronomy), John Ogbu (Anthropology), Seyi Oyesola (Medicine) and Bisi Ezerioha (Engineering) are some of the few Nigerians that left their marks.

Some few Nigerian researchers and academics that made some significant breakthrough in impactful researches and inventions mostly did so outside Nigeria and those researches are owned by those countries that sponsored them, many of them are no longer even Nigerians, they’ve changed nationalities. Bisi Ezerioha for instance built some of the most powerful engines for Honda and Porsche. Another typical example is the Onitsha born but American made Philip Emeagwali. He was voted the greatest African scientist and the 35^th greatest African of all time in a survey by New African Magazine in 2004. Former US president Bill Clinton described him as an example of what Nigerians could achieve when given the opportunity.

Individually, some very few Nigerian academics have achieved success and made appreciable progress, but collectively, the Nigerian academia generally lacks innovation, motivation and impact. Several internal and external factors are responsible for this. These factors include but are not limited to poor funding, corruption, lack of patriotism, poor self-belief and confidence, over dependence on foreign products, lack of vision, absence of self-challenge, invisibility and poor promotion, misplaced priorities and poor sense of responsibility. The issue is that many of the impactful researches conducted elsewhere are not beyond the intellectual capacity of our academics. The problem is that, we apparently don’t see the academia as a major sector for driving national development and innovation.

Seyi Oyesola, a University of Lagos trained doctor helped co-invented the ‘Hospital in the box’ in faraway United States. The Kaduna-born Jelani Aliyu helps design cars for General Motors. The Delta State born Oviemo Ovadje is credited with the invention of the Emergency Auto Blood Transfusion System (EAT-SET). Enugu born Sebastine Chinonye researched on wind-propelled turbines to generate electricity. Federal University of Technology Minna graduate Shehu Saleh Balami designed a solid fuel rocket in 2008. We have several examples of these Nigerians whose work were either done abroad or were done here but not adequately promoted, conceptualized, developed and put into effective use.

Some few months ago, I was walking through the corridors of the postgraduate school of one of Nigeria’s second generation universities when I noticed a very dusty and dirty room through one of its windows. When I asked, I was told that it is the room where postgraduate researches of Masters Degrees and PhDs are being kept. From the way the room looks, one has the impression that the only time when the room is opened is when the postgraduate school wants to ‘dump’ more research projects inside. Nobody knows when those researches would be ever consumed and by whom. One can’t even certify the quality and effectiveness of those researches. The best bet is that most of those researches are just the normal average researches conducted for the purpose of obtaining the degrees and not necessarily to add anything to knowledge.

Nigerian universities themselves are fast turning into commercial centers of aggressive and exploitative revenue generation instead of centers of research and innovation. This is due mostly to poor funding from government coupled with the universities’ inability to devise professional and non-exploitative means of self-funding. I heard of a university that charges N 11,000 for a simple academic transcript whereas a friend who studied in lowly-rated Uganda narrated how you are just a click away from freely obtaining your academic transcript on the university’s website.  

Right from independence to date, Nigerians have exclusively looked up to her leaders to solve the nation’s problems. While they can’t be blamed for such, it would have been better if we expect more from other stakeholders like the academia, especially that the leaders at all levels have largely proven to be unequal to the task of nation-building improving lives of the citizens. We must demand more from not only the academia but from all other major stakeholders. Government is not only the vehicle to progress; after all many academics failed to perform up to expectations when they were in government.

I was humbly opportune to be a member of an intellectual online forum with a multi-national membership. A topic of discussion about the central role played by academicians in moving the world forward in general and their individual countries in particular. A participant discussed at length how research findings from academicians effectively revolutionized the agricultural and energy sectors in Israel. Another narrated how the education sector partly contributed to the rapid growth and development of Singapore. Others discussed how their number of Nobel Prize winners across different fields helped boosted their countries’ reputation and increased global connection. I was left wondering whether there was one sector in Nigeria, be it Agriculture, power, industrial, technological, Medical or any other that has been effectively changed or improved through research from the Nigerian Academia? It is either the quality researches are not there or the attempts made are inadequate, unworthy, not promoted and not utilized.   

Despite the huge setbacks in the Nigerian education system which is primarily caused by poor funding and negligence, the Nigerian academicians still need to do more. They must defy all odds and take it upon themselves to use their various fields to collectively rescue the nation and set it on the path of prosperity. Whatever their excuses, they can’t absolve themselves from blame regarding the general Nigerian predicament. This is much more crucial and critical; particularly that it has become clear that we need more than good leadership to succeed.

Between ‘True Federalism’ and ‘True Leadership’

1^st June, 2016

By: AmirAbdulazeez

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hree things are apparently no longer in doubt as far as the Nigerian project is concerned. One, as much as 75% or more of the 36 oil-money dependent states, cannot independently sustain themselves economically to a significant level, now and perhaps forever. Two, Nigerians may never be able to sincerely and patriotically shelve their ethnic, religious, political and selfish differences to pursue collective national prosperity. With the more divisive orientation we are giving to the upcoming generation of Nigerians, we can even be certain about this. Three, leadership failure has done so much damage to Nigeria and her citizens that no one can precisely predict how long it will take for citizens’ hope, trust and confidence on leadership at ‘all’ levels to be fully restored.

The solutions to some or all of the above problems have been argued by some people to lie with what they call ‘true federalism’. Others bluntly call it ‘resource control’. Although, we are operating under a federal system already, proponents of true federalism wants the system to be reviewed so as to give less power to the center and more autonomy to the states. With this, they say, states can have more control (some say full control) over their natural resources and economy and thereafter remit ‘some’ of their earnings to the Federal Government. While advocates of this kind of restructuring think it is the best way to achieve national development, obvious reality points that many landlocked states or regions in Nigeria outside the oil-rich areas would simply collapse economically under such an arrangement.

Few days ago, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) warned via a communique after a one-day stakeholders’ conference that violent agitations won’t end in Nigeria unless we begin to practice true federalism. The group, according to media reports noted that while the 2009 Presidential Amnesty Programme brought temporary peace to the Niger Delta region, the crucial issues that forms the basis for the agitation i.e. resource control and true federalism are still left unaddressed. The IYC insisted that ‘the only solution to intermittent crisis in the Niger Delta region, which has led to recent resurgence in attacks on oil installations by militant groups, is for the Buhari-led government to address the resource control and ownership question’. 

While true federalism may have some benefits-the major of which are making every section of the country to sit up and become productive and self-dependent for effective national development as well as allowing everyone to develop or under develop at his own pace; in our own case, it may have little or nothing to do with solving Nigeria’s problems, especially the aforementioned. The simple truth is that, there is no reform or structural adjustment that will thrive without true leadership. The problems of the Niger-Delta region and all other regions in Nigeria are typical examples of leadership failure and poor resource management. If you are to have all the resources and autonomy in this world, you will still remain in problems if you lack good leadership that gives priority to prudent and optimal resource management. If we like, let us discover oil or gold in every state in Nigeria, we may never witness development until the day we collectively unite to bring to an end the menace of bad leadership and squandering of resources by few among us at all levels-from federal to local governments.

Out of the 17 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria, the South ruled for 13 years while the North had ruled for the remaining four. Many northerners decried marginalization and often cite this as the major reason why the region is much backwards as compared to the south. The somewhat shallow argument is that Obasanjo and Jonathan had agendas of destroying the North. However, the truth is that the North’s failure is largely due to lack of a clear and implementable development plan, poor resource management and corruption by many state governors, local government chairmen, political and traditional leaders as well as others in the position of authority.

This is the same problem that the Niger-Delta region is facing. The region has the highest federal allocation apart from the 13% derivation allocation. The monthly federal allocation of Akwa-Ibom State is more than half the allocations of all the six states in North-Eastern Nigeria. In addition, there is an annual allocation for the Niger Delta Federal Ministry, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as well as a Special Presidential Amnesty Programme. Apart from all these, a son of the core Niger-Delta ruled for more than 5 years. All of these did not significantly change the fate of the region. What guarantee do we have then that resource control would change its fortunes, especially with the same set of leaders still in place? Is it not then therefore a question of good leadership that pays attention to good resource management which has been badly lacking in the region as well as the other parts of Nigeria?

The majority of the calls for resource control are not apparently in any way done with a patriotic motive. It is more of a secessionist tactics which some are not bold enough to clamour openly and directly for. One problem with Nigeria is that every region is clamouring for the downfall of the other regions to its maximum advantage as if we have been divinely foretold that all the regions cannot develop all together unless at the expense of each other. Every region wants to have everything for itself. It is obviously certain that the call for resource control is not only a Niger-Delta affair, if other regions possessed some resource which is as valuable or more than oil, they will equally call for resource control so that they can have it all for themselves. If it was to be declared that cocoa is the most valuable resource in the world, the South West may call for resource control, if it is tomato or groundnut, the North West will call for resource control. That’s the kind of one Nigeria we are pretending to have.

The fact that God in His infinite wisdom decided to locate Nigeria’s oil resource in the Niger Delta or its most valuable coastal areas in the South West doesn’t mean other regions didn’t proportionally contribute to the artificial extraction and development of these resources. It equally doesn’t mean that God wants only people of such areas to benefit. What we have to do is to ensure we do adequate justice to the Niger-Delta environments that are producing the nation’s economic lifeline and the only way we can do this is through purposeful leadership at all levels. Nigeria’s wealth is more than enough for all of us, as long as it would be properly managed.

There are several reasons why the so-called resource control or true federalism is neither the solution to Nigeria’s problems nor to that of the Niger Delta and other regions.

First and foremost, it has been longed acknowledged globally that abundance of natural resources in general and oil in particular is not a guarantee to prosperity; only a consistently good and purposeful leadership is. Nigeria and most developing countries are experiencing what is called ‘resource curse’. The resource curse refers to a situation whereby a country has an export-driven natural resources sector that generates large revenues for government but leads paradoxically to economic stagnation and political instability. According to the African Development Report (2007), it has often been asserted that petroleum, in particular, brings trouble; waste, corruption, consumption, debt over- hang, deterioration, falling apart of public services, wars, and other forms of conflicts, among others. Thus, natural resource- abundant countries tend to grow slower than expected considering their resource wealth and, in many cases, actually grow slower than resource-scarce countries. The fundamental issue here is how governments administer resource wealth and how they use natural resource revenues. Today, only few resource-rich countries like the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are using revenues from their oil to construct mega-cities out of desert land, thereby also generating considerable economic activities and additional incomes.

Secondly, if the true federalism agenda is to be implemented the way some of its advocates would want, it literally means that the rest of the non-oil regions whose states even as at now cannot pay salaries would collapse economically. The Federal Government as well as the other regions may have to beg the oil-producing areas for resources to survive. If this is the case, why don’t such advocates just call for secession so that they can have all their resources and forget any obligation of remitting anything to Nigeria? If this happens, then everyone else would out of utmost necessity look for how to survive.

Thirdly, the operators of a system significantly determine the success of the system more than the nature of the system itself. The people that are likely to occupy leadership positions in the Niger Delta post resource control era are the same people who led the region from 1999 to date. They are the same people who squandered the allocated resources of the region without corresponding development. It is needless to cite the Ibori, Alamieghsieha and many other undiscovered scandals as typical examples. Unless we device a means of holding Nigerian leaders at all levels truly accountable, no amount of resource control will improve the fortune of the masses, not even in the Niger Delta.

Fourthly, the future of the world is that which oil does not feature significantly. It is also becoming obvious that developed countries are busy with finding ways to reduce the consumption of many natural resources which they depend mostly on developing countries to get. If someone is planning a future in which he wants to keep exploring and producing oil, we can only say that he is out of touch with the global reality.

The dilemma we are facing is that maintaining the status quo of ‘loose federalism’ isn’t a solution, neither would the so-called true federalism. What we need is true leadership. Every region is claiming marginalization especially when one of its own is not in power. It is advisable that the Buhari government should revisit the report of the 2014 National Conference and see how it can implement some of the recommendations with regards to not only the resource control advocates’ interests but the interests of the whole country at large.