Category: Opinion

The Obasanjo Formula Revisited, By Tatalo Alamu

Posted on by The Elites

(Elite Pluralism or Electoral Federalism)


imageLike all medical perplexities, the Nigerian patient has many physicians. Unfortunately, none is as yet a psychiatrist of collective hysteria. Hysteria defines the Nigerian condition. It drives the people to extremes of passion: from tender loving to mutual loathing, from reasonable cooperation with authorities to irrational confrontation with the state, and from kindness to many to cruelty to all. The human condition has never been richer in sheer diversity; or more intriguing in its seething and sizzling contradictions.

As military rules recedes into remote antiquity in Nigeria, the contradictions of domesticated democratic rule are opening up. One of these contradictions is the very fact that the “open” society has now allowed Nigerians to have an idea of the glaring imperfections of democracy as naturalized in Nigeria. This is the longest spell of civil rule in the history of Nigeria.

The First Republic lasted six years and the Second Republic four years. The Third Republic died invitro. With seventeen continuous years of civil rule under its belt, the Fourth Republic has even managed a historic regime change, with opposition elements defeating an incumbent government in the presidential election of 2015.

Yet rather than thank God for little mercies and use the opportunity of relative stability to pose questions that will deepen the democratic process, or engage in fruitful and creative strategizing that will boost social justice and political inclusiveness, Nigerians have been quarrelling and bickering over irrelevancies. It is all in the nature human societies, particularly when people believe they have been short-changed in the name of change.
So, once again it is the season of open cynicism when men and women on the boil complain and question everything under the sun. But this monologic narrative about suffering under change does not exhaust the story in its diverse possibilities. Indeed, it is curious that we complain endlessly and rightly too about the legislature, the judiciary and the executive without appreciating the underlying irony or the conditions of possibility.

These strident complaints seem to have come to a head with the administration of General Buhari for three interlocking reasons which may not be obvious to the president and his harsh interlocutors. First, given the circumstances of his current ascendancy, people complain because they believe that this ought to be a listening government.

Second, they complain because they believe that they have a government strong and resolute enough and with the capacity and resilience to absorb criticism without toppling into self-absorbed intolerance. Finally, people complain because it is seen as part of change or a longing for change. The whole Buhari project itself, it can be argued, is anchored on a relentless electoral critique of the PDP project of perpetual power without responsibility.

It was a political siege lasting for a whopping sixteen years and three epic presidential slugfests beginning from 2003. There is no evidence that Buhari was part of, or ever bought into, the military conspiracythat foisted General Obasanjo on the nation. The only time the two military heavyweights ever collaborated was during the short-lived Association for Good Governance- or something to that effect-formed after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election. Predictably, the whole thing ended in a fiasco as a result of multiple political ambushes.

Having been a serial victim of electoral malfeasance himself, it will be very strange if President Buhari were to be seen opposing or rejecting necessary electoral reforms and the structural adjustments which will put the electoral destiny of the nation beyond the manipulative reach of a few people or an oligarchic cabal.

Yet even more curious is the fact that in all the noise about restructuring, fiscal federalism, political reform, modernization etc.., we have been slow tocome up with the notion of electoral federalism in opposition to elite pluralism or the plutocratic politics so beloved of our retired generals and the dominant faction of the political elite.

Electoral federalism presents a major challenge to multi-ethnic and culturally polarized nations, but it is also a nation-enhancing formula for overcoming primordial divisions. By giving sinews and strengths to the smallest units, it ensures that no part is made to feel electorally unimportant or surplus to hegemonic requirements.

But even more importantly, the voting template is structured in such a way that no single unit or combination of two hegemonic blocs can determine the electoral fate of the nation. In elite pluralism, once the political barons have made up their minds, two elite formations can combine to impose their rule if not vision on the rest of the society.

The perils of elite pluralism and plutocratic politics can be seen in General Obasanjo’s recent assertion that he (Obasanjo) and three other people gathered together to impose General Buhari on the nation. Coyness and self-effacement have never been part of the former president’s virtues, particularly when it comes to political self-advertisement. Yet it is quite intriguing that on this occasion, perhaps jolted by his own dangerous indiscretion, Obasanjo issued a public retraction and ate his own word.

But the Owu-born warlord need not be remorseful or sorrowful about this indiscretion. This is the nature of politics and democracy in Nigeria, particularly after the advent of military rule. The selectorate select and then ask the electorate to elect. If the selectorate fail to select, there would be nothing for the electorate to elect.

This was how Obasanjo himself came to be in 1999 and in 2003 when he steamrolled the entire nation by unilaterally electing to act on behalf of the selectorate. Again in 2007, Obasanjo, in a rather crude show of unilateral power, appropriated the will of the selectorate to impose Yar’Adua and Jonathan on the nation having failed in his bid to extend his tenure. The electorate had no choice but to elect accordingly.

The only known exception to this iron law of electoralism in Nigeria was in 1993 when General Ibrahim Babangida, panicked into careless brinksmanship, failed to select and the electorate elected an unanointed and unselected MKO Abiola. All hell was let loose and the election was summarily annulled by the full selectorate. Having failed the nation in this military-ordained transfer of power to the extent that he imperilled continued military rule, Babangida was lucky that he was only forcefully shunted aside for General Abacha, the ultimate enforcer, to gather the reins of power and the scrambled wits of the military oligarchy.

But not being very intelligent or an astute reader of the wider political currents, Abacha mistook his historic brief as the final undertaker of military rule to mean continued military rule or at the very least his own transformation to a civilian despot. His old military cohorts such as Generals Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, whoin their political delusion still thought there was something to play for were swiftly impounded and thrown into the dungeon of the dead and dying. But in a historic clearing of the clogged deck facilitated by external interests, both Abacha and Abiola had to be eliminated to pave the way for General Obasanjo.

Having been the major beneficiary of this occult democracy and the deadly manipulation of elite plasticity in Nigerian politics, it is understandable if General Obasanjo continues to be enamoured of its schemes and scheming. Obasanjo himself and his disastrous impositions are prime examples of what is wrong with this type of command democracy and its manipulations of narrow elite consensus and institutional incoherence in the country.

There is always a ring of fait accompli to this kind of oligopolistic politics and the manipulation of elite fault lines by a few supermen in a multi-ethnic country cobbled together by colonial interlopers, since nature abhors a political vacuum. The danger with this kind of politics is not that it is inherently evil or amoral. It is more dangerous than that.

Since it is unable or unwilling to avail itself of the need for the constant restructuring and the architectural revamping of the polity which throws up new talents and energies needed to galvanize the nation it is constantly scraping the bottom of the barrel and throwing up expired non-starters such as we have seen with Obasanjo and his jaded impositions. Its mere existence therefore becomes an iron and binding justification for its continued existence as we have seen in Obasanjo’s unguarded outburst.

For example since the advent of the Fourth Republic and owing to the reality of structural marginalization and political amputation arising from the civil war and hegemonic politics, there is no evidence that a military general or political figure of commensurate stature from either the South South or the South East has ever taken partin the oligarchic deliberations which precede the foisting of a ruler on the whole country.

The current turmoil and turbulence and the cries of exclusion and marginalization from those parts of the country should serve as a warning that we cannot continue to exclude significant sectors of the nation from its power configuration. Something will give and if care is not taken the force of inevitability will lead to the inevitability of force.

The Americans who we like to ape for the wrong reasons are also conditional democrats. Their founding fathers also knew that the election of a nation’s president is too important to be left wholly in the hands of the electorate with its untamed and often unwise rabble. They therefore came up with the idea of an electorate college as the ultimate arbiter of who becomes the president of America.

Consequently, when they are voting for a president, Americansare also selecting the electors who will act as the ultimate umpire in conjunction with the state legislatures, the governors and the congress. But America is a land of constant restructuring and ceaseless self-surpassing. When this inventive 1787 contraption ran into stormy waters in 1800 in the historic Jefferson-Burr presidential duel, they quickly came up with a structural amendment which has since undergone several amendments as unforeseen circumstances develop.

In the light of the foregoing and given the sheer scope and magnitude of state corruption that has been revealed to the public by his fortuitous advent, General MohammaduBuhari will be the last member of the old oligarchy to ever rule Nigeria. The retired general should seriously ponder his strategic role and historic destiny as the final undertaker of the old Nigerian ruling class in all its political, economic and electoral turpitude and should not allow himself to be misled by hawks insisting that the current configuration will do.

This is why the president, rather than seeing those who are clamouring for the urgent restructuring of the political, economic and electoral organogram of the country as irritants and closet adversaries should see them as allies seeking to help him midwife a new Nigeria. As it is, the general appears torn between the false claims of those who insist they brought him to power and the wider and more legitimate claims of the Nigerian masses who swept him to power to save them from their tormentors.

Given the current mood of the country, if the retired general should choose to run in 2019 based on a revalidation or mere recombination of the existing formula rooted in the coalition of two hegemonic blocs, there is every possibility that the nation might dissolve into terminal anarchy and chaos. Here is hoping that President Buhari will not be the last ruler of Nigeria as we know it.

 

In Search of A Simple Roadmap, By Dele Momodu

Posted on by The Elites

“In the past what we have done has been to manage the situation.

I do not intend to manage ourselves out of the situation as has been done in the past.
I intend to fix it! I owe it to the Ghanaian people. I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix this energy challenge.”

– President John Dramani Mahama
State of the Nation Address, 2015

Fellow Nigerians, let me start on a positive note today that there is no problem we are facing today as a country and as individuals that cannot be fixed if and when we are ready, determined and tenacious. I draw huge inspiration and example from President John Dramani Mahama today because I have had the opportunity of following Ghana’s trajectory very closely and keenly since the regime of President Jerry John Rawlings (aka Junior Jesus). I doubt if there is any Nigerian of my generation who would not remember that, once upon a time, Ghana was down and almost out. Things were so bad that I would not even want to regurgitate the story here. What is good is that the story has changed for the better. Even if Ghana is not yet an Eldorado, the country is certainly on the confident and steady march towards prosperity.

We have a lot to learn from a few smaller African nations. I won’t bother travelling to Europe, America or Asia my examples. Right here in Africa, smaller countries with minimal resources are doing admirably well. I know the usual attitude of some of our people is that they dismiss those countries as being too small and lacking our kind of stupendous population. But they conveniently forget two salient facts; that one, those countries don’t have access to our kind of resources and two, our bigness should be an asset and not a liability.

I have no doubts about the greatness of Nigeria and I plan to preach it and admonish President Muhammadu Buhari and his team that they can fix our problems if and when they are ready. As complex and complicated as we may seem, Nigerians are not too difficult to govern. The trouble is our leaders usually refuse to do things differently yet they expect dissimilar results. Only if they can turn things around a little and work instead of sermonising, they would see better results. Nigerian leaders often expect Nigerians to trust them with all their hearts, and even their lives, but forgetting that politics and religion are not one and the same. The first requires critical analysis while the latter thrives on blind faith and no proof of evidence. Our leaders are insensitive to any form of criticism but ignoring the aphorism: “to whom much is given, much is expected!” My unlettered mum taught me that the best way to silence your critics is to continue to excel. This, precisely, is what President Mahama is doing in Ghana.

Trust me, Mahama has been endlessly maligned and castigated at the flimsiest opportunity but he has continued to respond by unleashing a tornado of developmental projects all over Ghana to the mortification and bewilderment of his most vociferous and acerbic critics. First he was accused of doing nothing and they almost succeeded in convincing us. Mahama’s infrastructural development of Ghana was the best kept secret. The projects he embarked upon were quietly successfully executed without fanfare yet they were spread everywhere you turned. Alone they seemed isolated and nothing to write home about but by the time he lifted the veil on his remarkable collection of projects, he left us totally stunned. Now the woeful tune being sung by the Opposition has changed from “he is doing nothing” to “the contracts are inflated”. No one can even quarrel with the world class quality of the job so they can only whimper about the cost.

I call Mahama a magician because I wonder when he found time to conceptualise the projects, how he designed them so beautifully and where he got the funding to actualise this audacious dream of his. It is obvious that he must have had a simple but comprehensive roadmap and followed it meticulously and religiously and his faith moved mountains for him. His confidence level is uncommon going by his speech quoted at the beginning of this piece. That is the attitude we need to imbibe desperately and urgently. The roadmap would be like our business plan. Nigeria can make do with a master-plan going forward because it seems noting of the sort is readily available for now. I recall Vision 2020 was supposedly one of such master plans but nobody even mentions that any more. I can only venture that it is better late than never to formulate a veritable roadmap for our beloved country. I have no doubt Nigeria is blessed with some of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people in the world and if invited and allowed to function they would perform wonders.

The biggest challenge Ghana faced in the last three years has been the virtual collapse of energy. Power outages crept into the country like a thief in the night and soon took over the lives of the people. It was so bad that the moniker, Dumsor Dumsor, soon became a household term depicting the rationing of electricity from zone to zone. What I admired the most was that government did not panic. The ruling government ignored all the insults and rolled up its sleeves. They demonstrated clearly that they meant serious business. They reduced any frivolous activities they were involved in and concentrated on exterminating the scourge of power failure that crippled many organisations and businesses. They attacked the demon from different fronts, before our very eyes. They invested in different types of power generation – wind, hydro, solar, barges, turbines using diesel and gas, etc. Today, Ghana has won the battle, almost totally. We can too. And I have noticed improvements in Lagos in the last few months. I’m very confident that Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola is up to the herculean task but he cannot do it alone. Such a venture requires the collaboration of several ministries, agencies and private organisations together with the will and zeal to move mountains.

The first thing government should have done that it refused to do is shed the toga of “bigmanism”, according to critics of Buhari. The attraction of a Buhari government, as many of the youths abusing us today remind me repeatedly, was they expected it to be less ostentatious but fast-paced in conceptualisation and actualisation. They think Buhari is too casual and lackadaisical and when we try to offer explanations and plead for understanding and patience, they get even angrier. The insults I receive on behalf of President Buhari is no longer funny and I hope he is aware of the foul mood of the people out here contrary to whatever he is being told by insiders. It is getting bad and must be appropriately managed lest it gets out of hand.

The young ones are saying they expected Buhari to treat the problems of Nigeria like an emergency that it is and not like a typical presidency under a normal climate. They expected him to do away with the profligacy of the past, sell off most of the Presidential jets and reduce Presidential convoys and multitude of security aides that portrays us like an Empire ruled by an Emperor rather than a Federation governed by a democrat. Those who advocated for change felt that this would mean that the President would reduce foreign trips to the barest minimum, cut costs of governance at all levels by setting example from the top, get active on our bad roads by making surprise appearances at critical sites and locations, and so on. I don’t think they are asking for the impossible. Some of these expectations can be handled by the office of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who as a former University lecturer would readily know how to manage restive youths. Every government tries to pull some cosmetic stunts at the beginning. It is like when a plane wants to take off; it requires a lot of power and everyone around feels the vibration. Fashola invested in planting flowers and improving the general environment of Lagos. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode mesmerised Lagosians with his light up razzmatazz and it is working for him. Such projects visibly ensure that citizens see and believe government is working. President Buhari must have assumed everyone would see his pure and genuine heart and judge him only on his incorruptibility but it is not always as simple as that.

The biggest assets of Nigeria are not in oil and gas but in our human resources, particularly our amazingly talented youths. They must not be allowed to waste away. I’m glad our President eventually met with the Facebook founder, Mr Mark Zuckerberg, in Abuja yesterday. No one can ever repay him for that visit to Nigeria for its free public relations windfall. It doesn’t matter if he came looking for how to expand his own business. Nigeria needs more of such inspirational visitors. I hope this would not end as mere photo opportunities like others before it. I’m sure Mr Zuckerberg didn’t just wander into Nigeria like Henry the Navigator. He has met and employed several Nigerians at the highest echelons of his company. Today is not the day to salute and pay tribute to these giants of social engineering and information dissemination. He knows there are many more geniuses buried within the so-called wilderness of Africa. He is smart to see what many of us can’t see in our own people. I commend his spectacular vision.

One of the ways to create employment opportunities for the people is by investing substantially in science and technology, especially ICT. For example, close to home, 70 enhanced community information centres have been completed across Ghana. Nigeria can partner with some of our blue chip companies to create such opportunities in every Senatorial or Federal constituency. The Federal Government can designate each of the geo-political zones as centres of excellence and mould them into our own Silicon Valley for technological advancement; Oil and Gas zones can be set up in our oil producing regions as is the case in Houston, Texas. We can create institutions like The Academy of Sciences; Agricultural Research Institutes, Centres for vocations and artisans; Schools of Business and Entrepreneurship and Colleges of Politics and Leadership to mould and produce our scientists, farmers, entrepreneur and leaders of the imminent tomorrow. It makes it possible to target specific talents and they will create the buzz and generate loads of activities. Only the best brains would be admitted and nurtured in these elite institutions. Not everyone can enter Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, etc. but they do not have to be children of thee privilegentsia. Any youth who has the requisite, intelligence, acumen and determination will be able to gain admission to such centres of excellence. We can start by upgrading two universities per geo-political zone since we can’t revamp all our universities at once.

We must invest in our healthcare. This would reduce the temptation of going for treatment abroad. Let us build excellent medical facilities, at least one per zone, and employ the best medical practitioners from all over the world. Let us make agriculture our top priority. Government can identify spirited young farmers and support them in setting up and also identify those interested in processing, preservation and distribution. Agriculture alone can engage a vast majority of our people. By now we should be exporting our produce, foodstuff, and foods, much more than we do at the moment. We should not pay lip service to diversification. We must understand that such can never happen in a jiffy. It is the product of painstaking research, hard work and dedication. Failure to understand this means we are not even ready to begin.

Proper attention must shift to rebuilding our infrastructure, especially roads and airports. Our airports are just too disgraceful, especially the ones in Lagos and Abuja. President Buhari needs to act fast because nothing gives Nigeria the worst image than these retrogressive airports which invariably represent the gateway to our dear country.

No government can do it all but some of the suggestions I have enumerated can ignite not only a job revolution but also massive industrialisation and an agrarian regeneration. There is no time to waste.

We must start from somewhere, sometime. No better time than here and now!

 

Source: Pendulum By Dele Momodu, Email: dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili : Pride of Womanhood, Emeka Oparah

Posted on by The Elites

imageLooking at this picture, words fail me to express what I feel about Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili. From when we met about 25 years ago, when she was the GM of a Finance House on Allied Bank Building, Marina, Lagos, Nigeria, I knew she was a blessing to her family, to her friends, to Nigeria, to the world, to womanhood-and a blessing to me. An intensely brilliant woman, she exuded so much knowledge, wisdom and passion and all these attributes have remained unflagging over the years-even as she rose to the top perch of life.
Wife of Pastor Chiedu, mother of four grown up children, former Minister, former head of Due Diligence and erstwhile World Bank MD for Africa, she’s an accomplished woman by every and any standard. Not many know she was on the global board of Bharti-Airtel, and that, my friend, certainly was solely based on merit. I’m aware of numerous other global organizations she’s served and some she’s still serving at advisory level-on account of her knowledge, broad network of contacts, experience, sagacity, leadership qualities and passion.
Oby does not need attention because she has a surfeit of public speaking opportunities locally and internationally to keep her in the news, and earn her goodwill and good income. She’s involved in the Bring Back Our Girls campaign altruistically as a concerned mother, a concerned Nigerian, who feels any of those girls could have been her daughter or sister.
I know many, especially the morally bankrupt and ethnic bigots of a particular extraction, still doubt the veracity of Chibok Girls. They see it, shamelessly, as a scam while they scandalously applaud those who scammed Nigeria and Nigerians in the name of leadership. Well, for such people, I’ve got bad news: Oby and other great minds have decided to make time, in between their persona engagements, to continue to keep the fire burning until those girls are brought back safely. It’s a principled effort and not a popularity campaign, because the lives of innocent young people are at great risk.
So, those who denigrate the BBOG campaign and malign Oby for “seeking attention and looking for political appointment” are not only immoral and ignorant but suffer from mental slavery and a malignant strain of crass nincompoopism. Oby doesn’t need the job!
She’s doing what every woman in Nigeria should be doing and every woman should actually be proud of her. I’m not a woman, in case you forget, but I’m proud of her and also proud of her personality, proud of her accomplishments and proud to call her my friend and my sister. Her name still rings a bell and opens doors at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard and such other rarefied circuits across the world. A recommendation from her will get you anywhere, except, perhaps, heaven-which certainly is a personal choice and will remain so ad infinitum.
You know why the BBOG is alive and attracting global attention? It’s because of Oby’s involvement. It’s not because of those who have gone to Nigerian Ports or waiting to be appointed to one government position or another. It is because notable personalities, who have interacted with her at the highest levels of global engagements, respect her view, respect her personality, and, therefore, respect her involvement in the cause.
Oby has earned her stripes in life. I hope parents are equipping their children, their daughters, to grow into brilliant, indomitable, reputable and respected leaders like her-and not just fine women, moms and wives. My daughter sure has a role model here!!!
BTW, I like the way the Mobile Policemen formed a decent cordon behind her. Notice they appear to have been carefully selected for the task-considering their physical build, their neat uniform and their comportment.

The Lessons Of Mark Zukerberg’s Visit, By Bamidele Ademola-Olateju

Posted on by The Elites

For those of us who live in the West; Most wealthy people here do not flaunt wealth. Mark came to Lagos and he is comfortable doing ordinary things because earned money is different from stolen money, money from slave labor and oppression.
Are you surprised at the blandness of his wardrobe? Don’t be. Mark attended Philips Exeter in New Hampshire; one of the best college preps in America. They teach these things early in prep schools; character, learning and selflessness. In these schools, blandness is normal; formal dress is an Oxford shirt over plain khakis and penny loafers. Informally, you wear polos and boat shoes. The emphasis is not on what you wear or who your father is but on rigorous academic curricula, athletics and etiquette. America separates their thinkers and creatives early and nurture them. More on this someday.
Real money is not loud. When money is earned, people work not because they need money but because they derive joy in doing what they love and contributing to the body of knowledge and to humanity. They know relaxation is a fluke if the contrast of challenging work is absent. They don’t waste their lives in hollow pursuits of pleasure, material acquisition and conspicuous consumption.
How many rich people in Nigeria have earned their money by contributing to humanity? I am not surprised at all. Mark is comfortable in his own skin and has nothing to fear when jogging on Lekki Ikoyi bridge or navigating puddle ridden curbs in Yaba without the ridiculous immensity of sirens and armed escorts. If you check out their charitable giving you will be in awe. It is in their character; they don’t oppress. They build. They invest in people not things. They make dreams come true not shatter them. Real money have a strong sense of privilege and the responsibilities that comes with it. Take some useful lessons and use money, be humane and put yourself to good use, don’t allow money to use you.

Zuckerberg’s Visit To Nigeria: It Is Quite A Revelation! By Ayo Turton

Posted on by The Elites
Zukerberg
Zukerberg

Pretty cool how Mark Zuckerberg quietly slipped into Nigeria, takes his business directly to the stakeholders without involving the crazy and wasteful government protocol of Nigeria.
Some “Smart Alec” government officials would have written up a budget of N100 Million for hosting him, they would provided 20 truckloads of “Igodogodo” Policemen to terrorize innocent Nigerians just going about their lawful businesses. Some political lowlife would have tried to gain some mileage from that by claiming he brought Zuckerberg to Nigeria, a billboard would have showed up in Owerri few hours later showing Okorocha and Zuckerberg in Lagos.

imageThe guy would have been distracted and only about half of what he sets out to do would have been accomplished due to some “jibiti” state protocol.
Isn’t it just cool that all the “oniyeye ale Amudas” were ignored.
Picture below shows Mark walking down the streets of Yaba innocently unperturbed and undisturbed.
It is quite a revelation.

image

Two Brazilian Miracles For Nigeria, Tatalo Alamu

Posted on by The Elites

The 2016 Rio Olympics has now come and gone. But the stupendous hangover lingers on for the host nation and arguably the most successful participant. When Santa Claus beautifies the Brazilian samba everybody wants the beat to go on forever. The Rio Olympics has been adjudged as a spectacular success, one of the most inspiring and splendidly organized ever. A week after the events, there remains the sweet scent of human triumph against impossible odds.

For Brazil, the host nation, it is the equivalent of a modern miracle; and there is a magical hint of the comeback country in all its gravity-defying essence. Given the seemingly laggard preparations, there were many who swore that the games would never take off or that if they ever did it would be so miserable and dismal, that the foolhardy Brazilians would be forced to hide their head in shame. Up till the opening ceremony, there were whispers that Brazil might throw in the towel. It was as if the endemic tropical languor was about to overwhelm this mammoth nation. But Brazil threw its hat in the ring instead.

The reason for the singularly unoptimistic and bleak view of Brazil’s prospects is obvious. In recent times, the country has been so traumatized by a series of interlocking political and economic crises that it appeared to the outside world that something was about to give. The president who was facing impeachment over allegations of corruption was eventually impeached. In the event, the feisty and indomitable Dilma Rousseff was forced to watch from the sidelines an opening ceremony which was supposed to be a personal coronation; a site of great historic triumph.

But far more serious was the fact that the economic miracle wrought by the immediate past president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which had seen about forty million Brazilians lifted from the trough of abject poverty to the portals of prosperity had stalled. The much beloved Lula himself was in disgrace and political ruination having been found guilty of corrupt practices. The fetid Brazilian slums otherwise known as favelas normally bristling with feral violence and social implosion were rousing once again as implacable returnees lurk with intent.

So serious was the situation that on the eve of the opening ceremony workmen were still working round the clock even as harried artisans could be seen feverishly trying to put finishing touches to structures that seemed destined to remain monuments to architectural folly. And then there was a looming plague known as the Zika virus. But the Brazilians pulled off a dramatic coup. It was a feat of national redemption which will remain evergreen in the annals of the nation-state.

After the opening ceremony which completely silenced cynics, this immense former Portuguese colony and slummy backwaters of underdevelopment left no one in doubt that it intended to make the Rio Olympics an incontrovertible evidence of its arrival at the front seat of modernity and rationality. In the words of Ade Ojeikere, the fine and ever perceptive columnist of The Nation who was there: “With the hosting of the World Cup and the Olympics, the Samba land can safely be called an industrialized nation”.

The last World Cup? It has been said that the hour of gold can also coincide with the hour of lead. If the last World Cup was a national triumph for Brazil, it was also a site of a great national calamity. For most denizens of this soccer crazy nation, Brazil failed woefully where it mattered most and that was in the department of the alternative national religion: football. For this deeply religious and superstitious people, the event is often referred to as “the bad thing” and it has entered national folklore as a day of dark portents.

They are referring to the clinical decimation and disembowelment of the Brazilian national soccer team by a pack of German hard boys in a historic 7-1 drubbing at the semi-final stage of the competition. The entire nation went into a grief-stricken coma. The Maracana stadium, the Mecca of soccer, had seen floods of Brazilian tears before, particularly in the historic fiasco against Uruguay in the 1950 final, but never before on this industrial scale. Men wept and women wailed even as old people sobbed uncontrollably. It was as if the nation has been hit by a major earthquake.

For this writer, the enduring symbol of this Brazilian soccer debacle is frozen in the image of a beautiful Brazilian girl who suddenly toppled and lurched forward on her seat as if shot from behind when the Germans crashed in their fifth goal. It was the most tragically sublime expression wounded national pride that one has ever seen and will remain with yours sincerely this side of the abyss of transition.

But it was the Brazilian masters who had stabbed themselves in the back. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat the past. For decades, analysts have been warning that the fluid and free-flowing Brazilian soccer template with its carefree naivety and lack of meticulous focus is very vulnerable to the relentless Panzer-like soccer of the Germans and the sublime cynicism of the Italians and Spaniards. In 1982, not even the magic of Eder, Socrates, Zico, Junior and Falcao could save a brilliant and iconic Brazilian team from the relentless goal-poaching of Paulo Rossi.

A week ago, everything, including the God of soccer, came together seamlessly this time for the Brazilians in the Olympics soccer final against the inevitable Germans. It was a Brazilian team redolent of future greatness. In an epic feat of national redemption, the Brazilians have managed to overcome the unrestrained flamboyance and lack of coordination. The soccer still flowed as if the masters were dancing to the samba. The brilliant individual flourish remained and so did the deft magical passing.

But the Brazilians have learnt how to “kill” space going forward and to quickly fall back when dispossessed. In the event, the game stalemated into a deadly midfield duel with neither side wanting to take unwarranted chances which could disrupt the rigid militarized formation. In the ensuing penalty shoot-out, it was Neymar da Silva Santos junior, the eccentric Brazilian genius, who made the difference. Politically, economically and in the soccer department that mattered most to the nation, the Brazilians have come back from the dead.

This inspiring Brazilian double miracle commends itself to a nation like Nigeria as it struggles to overcome its internal difficulties. It is brimming with tropes of redemptive resources. Like the Congo Democratic Republic, this mammoth former colony also shares some major similarities with Nigeria. They are both domains of immense natural resources and variegated economic possibilities.

But Brazil could have been in a worse shape than Nigeria. Although Portugal was technically the very first modern nation-state dating back to the twelfth century, the ancient Portuguese were bearers of a rudimentary modernity shot through with pre-modern irrationality and superstitious fetishes. In terms of civilization and enlightenment they were only marginally better than the ancient Africans they enslaved. But they had superior firepower and a genius for global seafaring.

Yet since the Portuguese had no conception or concept of the nation-state, all their prized overseas possessions, including Brazil itself, were treated as a mere extension or ancillary to the metropolitan homeland. At a point all the colonies were incorporated into the metropole in the first tri-continental kingdom the world has seen. At another point when the Iberian heat became threatening the entire Portuguese royalty relocated to Brazil and this was the case until a series of local revolts put an end to the royal road show.

This was why all the Portuguese colonies in Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau, descended into huge infernos of war and chaos as the struggle for liberation and decolonization got underway. You cannot give what you don’t have. Portugal itself underwent a revolution to see off its ancient ruling caste only in the last quarter of the last century. But all this was mere antiquated stirring in a superannuated feudal tea cup. It was a case of the blind leading the blind.

Yet unlike their indigenous African counterparts, the Brazilian white-settler ruling class have taken the task of modernizing their colonial behemoth far more seriously. This has proved the difference between Brazil and Nigeria. In constant and continuous exertions lasting almost six hundred years, the Brazilians have seen off their colonial conquerors, their imported royalty, their meddlesome military and lately their hegemonic white master-class currently fighting a rearguard battle for a return to the retrogressive status quo. Nigeria has not even thrown up an organic and cohesive nationalist ruling elite.

So while we are ruing the paucity of medals from Rio, let us also remember that this is a reflection of the endemic Nigerian disease of confusing the symptom with the real ailment. Medals are for heroic and well-organized nations. Until a truly modernizing elite arrive that will drive accelerated development and deepen the democratic process in Nigeria, medals will be few and far between. This is the lesson of the Brazilian miracles.

 

“Bingohari”: What Is In A Name? By Jaafar Jaafar

Posted on by The Elites

In the days of yore, I recall our Muslim neighbour had a fiery dog named John. The neighbour, whose name I can’t recall, would either tongue-click or call the pet by its name, John, to sic it on a prey or a neighbourhood scamp.
I suppose he never knew John (the Baptist) is the name of Prophet Yahya bn Zakariyya, one of the 25 ranking prophets of Allah.
A Hausa Muslim man will name his dog John, Bush, Clara but the same person will take offence if others chose to name their dogs Buhari, Sanusi, or Tijjani. If it is against the culture of Hausa man to give his dog Arabic name, other people see nothing wrong in that.
A few days ago, an innocent Nigerian citizen, Joachim Chinakwe, was subjected to harassment, arrest and incarceration after naming his dog “Buhari”, supposedly after country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari.
According to a report, an alien (a citizen of Niger Republic) dragged the poor Nigerian to the police for desecrating the name of the president, or in another account, the name of the complaint’s father. To a mob of fanatical supporters of the president, it is sacrilege for a pet to be so personified with their political deity’s label.
The police, notorious for eye service to ruling governments, shamelessly arrested, locked up, manufactured charges and arraigned citizen Chinakwe in court. The case, as if a case of genocide, was later transferred to the office of Assistant Inspector General in charge of the zone. The overzealous police did not stop at that, they murdered the poor dog in cold blood. This is the highest cruelty and infringement of rights I have heard this year.
But what is in a name ‘Buhari’ that this hapless citizen is suffering for? Looking at the etymology/origin of the word “Buhari” (originally written as “Bukhari” or “al-Bukhari”), one finds out that it is the name of the inhabitants of the town of “Bukhara” (the present-day Uzbekistan) under the old Persian empire.
Northern Muslims adopt the name in reverence to Muhammad bn Ismail, a famous collector of the sayings and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who was from Bukhara town.
In Arabic literature, a warthog, a sloth or even a vulture that originated from the town of Bukhara can bear the “Bukhari” moniker. It’s like saying German Shepherd or Alsatian dog, bearing the name of Alsace, a French-German border city. Pray, what is Chinakwe’s fault in naming his dog after a town in far away Asia?
Forget Mr. Chinakwe’s account that he named the dog Buhari because the president is his hero. Assuming he named the dog Buhari out of disdain or hatred for the president, where in our laws such action is criminalised? If in our culture we look down upon dog, other cultures see dog with respect. We should respect the fact that while the cow is an important part of Hinduism, cow is important part of our delicacies. While the Hausas don’t eat dog, its meat is delicacy in Calabar and Jos.
I always go with Sir Edward Tylor’s definition that culture is that “complex whole” covering all spheres of human life, including religion. If you do not have this sense of respect for culture, we will never live in peace. What is happening in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, etc is clear reflection of intolerance. In the Day of Judgment, Allah will not hold you responsible for allowing somebody to name his dog “Buhari”. According to the teaching of Islam, how well you conducted your ibadah – worship – is your pass to heaven.
Owing to the intolerance of our people and absence of the spirit of culture relativism in our psyche, we hardly look beyond our parishes. Even among Islamic sects (or even movements), there is this intolerance over tolerable behaviours or actions of others. I recall sometime in January 2004, there was a clash over slaughtering and eating of horse meat during Sallah celebrations in Sokoto. While some Muslims see horse meat as halal, others see otherwise – and they all have points, according to Islamic teachings, to bolster their arguments. For goodness’ sake, why will there be a bloody clash over eating of even the horse dung?
Reading the president’s spokesman, Garba Shehu’s ludicrous statement on Chinakwe’s arrest yesterday further irked me. According to him, the president is simply laughing at the ordeal of a citizen of his country who was unjustifiably arrested on trumped up charges. “The President must be having a good laugh over this whole thing,” Mr. Shehu said in a terse statement.
I often wondered, isn’t Buhari the person we told the world that he had gone over his dictatorial past and turned over a new leaf? During campaign, it was convenient for them to gleefully heap all manner of blames related to rights abuses on the government in power, but the same agents are now absolving their government of series of human rights abuses taking place under its watch. A leader takes responsibility for the actions of the agents of state, which he can hire and fire at will. As the saying goes, the buck stops at the president’s desk.
From the arrest of investigative journalist Ibanga Isine by the SSS last year, to the incarceration of a blogger Abubakar Sidiq by EFCC earlier in the month, the detention of peace campaigners Ambassador Umar Bolori and Aisha Wakil by the Nigerian Army last week, down to the recent travails of citizen Chinakwe in the hands of Nigeria Police, the president has truly proved his critics right on issues of human rights violation.

Another Homecoming To Nairobi Kenya, By Dele Momodu

Posted on by The Elites

imageFellow Africans, to say I love Africa is an understatement. It baffles me how most Africans hardly know Africa outside their individual domain. The owners of Africa hardly appreciate the beauty of their own continent. The knowledge of Africa is usually from other people’s narrative and perspectives. The best library collections about Africa belong elsewhere in far-flung places. Africans were kidnapped, stolen and forced into slavery centuries ago. Today, we are forced into voluntary slavery due to our lack of visionary leaders willing to turn the misfortunes of Africa to prosperity. The slave mentality has refused to leave us.

I read so much about colonialism and neo-colonialism in the novels and essays of the famous Kenya author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who is certainly one of my favourite African writers. I was endlessly fascinated by the stories of the Mau Mau struggle for Independence. I bought and devoured Weep Not, Child; The River Between; A Grain of Wheat; Petals of Blood; Devil on the Cross; Decolonising the Mind; Writers in Politics; Detained; The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and Homecoming. I read and re-read Homecoming. I wonder what took over our brains in Africa that we stopped reading the African Writers Series, which was published and popularised by Heinemann Books, in those good old days. At least, it helped to introduce Africa to Africans. I knew so much about Kenya long before I ever visited one of the most popular tourist destinations in Africa by reading Ngugi, Meja Mwangi, Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga, Jomo Kenyatta’s (his monumental book Facing Mount Kenya is superlative) and others.
I got introduced to Ghana through reading African authors, Ayi Kwei Armah, Kofi Awoonor, Kwame Nkrumah, Ama Ata Aidoo, Kwesi Brew, Adu Boahen (historian), Kwesi A Dickson (former President of the Methodist Church of Ghana and President of the All Africa Council of Churches) and others; Cameroon through Mongo Beti, Ferdinand Oyono, Mbella Sonne Dipoko and others; Senegal through Mariama Ba, Sembene Ousmane, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Birago Diop, Kamara Laye, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Aminata Sow Fall, David Diop and many others; Egypt through Nawal El Saadawi, Naguib Mahfouz and Tawfiq al-Hakim; others knew Nigeria through Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chukwuemeka Ike, Elechi Amadi, Buchi Emecheta, Amos Tutuola, J. P. Clark, Flora Nwapa, Ola Rotimi, Kole Omotoso, Christopher Okigbo, Mabel Segun, Zaynab Alkali, Gabriel Okara, T. M. Aluko, Molara Ogundipe, Niyi Osundare, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Festus Iyayi, Femi Osofisan, Ben Okri, John Munonye, D.O. Fagunwa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Biyi Bandele and a long list of distinguished writers. Wow, I feel so nostalgic today.

We read all these great authors and most of the older generation were on our school syllabus and available in local bookstores. Many of us spent substantial sums of our annual bursary allowance on acquiring and accumulating books. I was a voracious reader of anything readable including tedious ones, I could hardly understand. It enriched my understanding of Africa and the world at large. Africa paraded many scholars in politics and power at the beginning before a generation of mostly “uneducated” leaders took over and ravaged what the West already described as a “savage continent” especially in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It is the background that informs what I look out for whenever I touch down in many African countries.

I have landed in Nairobi a few times, first as transit passenger and subsequently as proper visitor, in nearly twenty years. Somehow, each arrival had its uniqueness to it. On one occasion, I was coming from Mumbai on the defunct Bellview Airlines and we stopped briefly in Nairobi. We were allowed to alight to visit the duty free area only. I saw an airport that was not so impressive despite the hype surrounding tourism but it was still functional. On another occasion I was flying to Seychelles for a wedding. I flew in such a circuitous manner that I was dizzy with the circumlocution. I had flown from Accra to Lagos but missed my connecting flight to Nairobi. I was then advised to return to Accra to catch an evening flight which arrived mercifully the following morning. The woes continued when we were forced to fly through Lagos again for aviation fuel before flying to Nairobi where I had already missed my connecting flight to Seychelles. It was such an Israelites’ journey.

Exactly two years ago, I returned to Kenya, a country that had just been mercilessly whacked and traumatised by some terrorists on rampage and a terrible inferno that had ravaged the Jomo Kenyatta Airport a year earlier. It was not the best of times to visit but I had promised my friend, Jeff Koinange, formerly of CNN, I would attend his book launch and nothing was going to disturb or discourage me. The airport I met was a shadow of itself. We crawled through some holes and drove that night to my temporary abode at the Kempinski, Nairobi. The drive turned out to be one of my longest journeys ever and my heart was almost flying out of my throat because of the palpitating fear I suffered driving through the streets of Nairobi at such an ungodly hour. I couldn’t tell Kolade Elufidiya, the talented fashion designer, who had graciously picked me up from the airport, the ugly thoughts that danced kpalongo in my belly. Thank God, there was no calamitous incident on that occasion and I returned safely home to Nigeria.

As I flew out of Nairobi, I offered a prayer for the good people of that beautiful country and promised all I could modestly arrange to help promote Kenya to the world via the platforms it has pleased God to bless us with.

Another opportunity recently came for me to visit Kenya again when I received a letter of invitation from Mr Arrey Obenson, the Secretary General at Junior Chamber International (JCI) headquarters in the United States of America as follows:

“Please accept warm greetings from JCI World Headquarters in Saint Louis, MO!
On behalf of nearly 200,000 young global citizens, it is with great excitement and enthusiasm that we invite you to speak at the African Youth Development Summit in Nairobi, Kenya from August 24 – 26, 2016. The event is organized by JCI (Junior Chamber International, Inc.) in collaboration with Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD VI).

Taking place the days prior to TICAD VI at the Southern Sun Mayfair Nairobi Hotel, the African Youth Development Summit intends to connect young leaders from across the continent of Africa. United in common purpose they will articulate young people’s commitment to the development of their region and the important role they can play in mobilizing Africans to take ownership of their continent and its future. The event will provide the commitment of African youth to the Tokyo Conference of Africa’s Development (TICAD VI).

Youth representatives from the 54 nations of Africa will be selected to attend the Summit. They will use the experience to work toward organizing grassroots actions in their local communities, fostering participation of young people in policy making and empowering the next generation of African change-makers to lead in the development of their region.

JCI is an international non-profit organization that provides its members — 18 to 40- year-old active citizens – with development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change. Through projects in more than 5000 communities across nearly 120 countries, members seek targeted solutions to local problems, creating a global impact.

In summary, we invite you to serve as a Keynote Speaker at the African Youth Development Summit. Further details will be provided upon your acceptance of availability.

We look forward to your positive response.”

Of course, I wasted no time in accepting the invitation as someone who believes so much in the abilities of African youths to excel if given the right tutelage, mentorship and opportunities. We exchanged series of emails thereafter until we agreed on modalities for my visit to Kenya.

I flew out of Accra last Tuesday, August 23 and arrived Nairobi just before 6.00am local time on August 24, 2016. If I expected to crawl through the hole of an airport again like I did two years ago, a pleasant surprise awaited me. The burnt terminal had been rebuilt and airport formalities reduced to the barest minimum. I was able to get assistance in every part of the airport from friendly officers. My “visa on arrival” formalities took less than ten minutes to process and conclude, at a cost of $50. My baggage came out promptly on the conveyor belts that looked like what I always see always in the UK or America. I passed smoothly through Customs and straight into the chilly weather of Nairobi. I didn’t spend more than 20 minutes in total at the airport. Driving from the airport to Kempinski Hotel was even more pleasant. The roads had been generously rehabilitated since my last trip. I couldn’t stop singing the praise of President Uhuru Kenyatta. To most visitors, what concerns us is not so much the local politics of a country but the palpable development on ground.

Definitely, President Kenyatta has started re-directing Kenya from its old ways and striving to establish a very modern State. I saw several skyscrapers dotting the landscape of Nairobi. What I saw first-hand was a nation on forward march and I hope that ugly politics would not destroy Kenya again.

I was happy to deliver my speech yesterday and contribute and answer questions in well organised interactive sessions alongside two great journalists Eric Chinje and Henry Bonsu, who moderated our segment titled “Mobilizing youths through Media. I truly enjoyed myself and gained some fresh insights from different countries. I was delighted as always to meet many Nigerians doing our country proud. I have serious conviction that the challenges being faced by our country won’t last forever. The examples of Ghana, and now Kenya, persuaded me that developing a nation won’t take centuries to achieve. Before our very eyes, nations are transforming from rascality to responsibility.

As I was concluding this, African leaders started flying or landing in Nairobi including our own President Muhammadu Buhari and Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama who landed earlier and went straight into talks with the Japanese leadership.

I must thank the Japanese government for the decision to host the Tokyo Conference on African Development in Nairobi. I really admire how the Japanese stressed the fact that what Africa needs today is not aid and beggarly donations but partnership. Yes, that is the honest truth. Our continent is richly endowed although we have somehow failed to use what this for positive good for the continent and its people. We just need to harness the talents and resources that God has blessed us with and we will become phenomenal in world affairs. We have let ourselves down and have become the laughing stock of the world because of our failure to realise and fulfil our potential. We have chosen a slave mentality over a leadership mentality because of the mediocrity that we have allowed ourselves to enthrone as our leaders. The Japanese know we have promise. Unlike the West, they believe that, as partners, we can make the world a better place rather than make our continent a dumping ground for the dregs of the West.

Let us look within ourselves, search our souls and get down to serious business. May God bless us.

 

Source: PENDULUM BY DELE MOMODU dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Who Will Salvage Nigeria’s Image? By Emeka Oparah

Posted on by The Elites

Recently at the Annual Conference of the African Public Relations Associations (APRA) held at the magnificent Tinapa Resort, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, the reputation of Nigeria came variously under the spotlight, and the overwhelming opinion – sad it was – was that the image of the country could do with serious attention. One would have thought that after the brilliant papers presented and the attendant robust discussions, a sort of memo would have gone to those managing the reputation of Nigeria, pointing out the flaws and recommending some quick fixes and other longer-term solutions. I am not privy to such a memo – after all, who am I to know – but then, I haven’t seen any changes, except a few for the worse. And now, as I prepare to attend yet another talk shop (I hope not), the Third Stakeholders’ Conference of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) aptly themed “Communication, Reputation & Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria”, I am persuaded to offer some free tips – pending the outcome – on how to salvage the reputation of our d especially before the international community and attract the badly needed FDI.
Let me start by asking whether you have flown any of the international airlines from Lagos to Europe and then to the US. I have done so many times and my experience will interest you. On a recent British Airways to the UK, first thing I observed was the aircraft wasn’t spanking new. The crew wasn’t exactly courteous. The passengers, mostly Nigerians, were largely unruly. One chap had to be firmly (read rudely) asked to switch off his mobile phone during take-off, as required by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and indeed every other civil (and even uncivil) aviation authority anywhere in the world. Another guy refused to put his seat in upright position for the same purpose of take-off! And there were several other instances of irresponsible behavior for the 6-hour duration of the flight!
Upon landing in Heathrow, there was a sudden transformation of characters leading to serious behavioral changes. It was apparent people’s comportment went north! People calmly waited for the aircraft to taxi to a stop before using their mobile phones or pulling out their luggage from the overhead lockers. If the aircraft was landing in Nigeria, you would think the pilot had signaled emergency disembarkation as people would have made to exit the plane even before it landed. I remember once screaming at a passenger who made a call to “Emeka, we are about to land”, as the aircraft made its final descent into Lagos! I freaked out! Apparently, some other passengers didn’t quite mind judging by their reaction to my reaction. Goodness me!
Back to my BA experience. I later boarded the London to Austin, Texas, flight and I was happy and unhappy at the same time, and I will explain presently why the double paroxysm of sadness and joy. Look, the aircraft was squeaky clean as in spanking new! A 787! I could still see some nylon covers to show how new the aircraft was. The crew was remarkably courteous and very gregarious. Even as a frequent flyer, I freaked out when an elderly dude in uniform came by, shook hands and introduced himself as the Captain. And I was like, “who the hell is flying the plane?” He read my face and helpfully volunteered that we were on autopilot and, of course, his co-pilot was in charge-just in case. Phew! Now, you can figure out why I was unhappy even in my happiness, but let me help: Why didn’t they extend the same courtesies and treatment on the Lagos to London route?
The trip back from Texas to London was almost the same experience. World class! Then, London to Lagos! Have you wondered why the gates to Lagos (or Nigeria) from virtually every international destination are always furthermost? I ask, even if I know why. We, Nigerians, are very noisy. We are very rowdy. We carry so much hand luggage. It is said the luggage that we bring on board is more than we check in. This is certainly an exaggeration but the point is very well made and also well taken. We talk on top of our voices with scant or no regard for the peace and happiness of others. Like I said earlier you would think a bomb or a snake was discovered on the plane upon arrival just looking at the way people seek to flee the aircraft!
I have told you this story just to illustrate that it is not in our stars but in us that we are underlings (apologies to William Shakespeare). The impressions we create as a people will aggregate into perception and, by extrapolation, reputation. As they say, dress the way you want to be addressed. We have consciously built a reputation of never-do-wells, and that’s the picture of us the world carries. If all the news coming out of Nigeria is positive and when people encounter Nigerians they come away with a negative opinion, then there is confusion. There is a gap, which needs to be managed strategically, deliberately and professionally. This is why countries have Information and Foreign Affairs Ministries-to manage their reputation at home and abroad. In the case of Nigeria, unfortunately, there’s not much good news coming through and our people are not behaving well. To make matters even worse, neither the Ministry of Information nor the Foreign Affairs counterpart seems to be aware of the situation much less doing anything about it. There is so much news about Chibok Girls, drug pushers caught during Hajj or executed in Indonesia; a $60m heist in Advance Fee Fraud; Boko Haram still hitting innocent villages and running away; recovery of looted public funds; Herdsmen attacking innocent host villages; audacious robbery and kidnapping incidents, etc. Meanwhile, the economy is wobbling with the Naira on a freefall and new investors are frightened and old ones are fleeing! The reputation of Nigeria is nothing to write home about right now. Period!
In spite of these challenges or better still because of these challenges the reputation of Nigeria requires close attention. The folks responsible for the task must wake up urgently from their slumber, because indeed they are fast asleep! Why it has taken so long to name ambassadors to the various missions abroad is still inexplicable, like most other appointments, kept on ice since the inception of this government. These appointments should be made without further ado. I am regrettably unsure the names I saw on the list are people who have the capacity, charisma, connection and flair to represent the country out there. I am not sure, and so they have to convince me and fellow Doubting Thomases. When these folks are being sent on their missions, they must be sent with a mandate to focus on rebuilding the reputation of Nigeria.
By the way, the Minister of Foreign Affairs seems to be overwhelmed or ineffective or both. May be I don’t look hard enough, but I have seen him occasionally smiling for the cameras in the company of the president with different colors of pens notoriously affixed to his breast pocket. An otherwise brilliant man, with a diplomatic accent, if you may, he isn’t letting us feel him like we felt his predecessors. Enough said. Then, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, seems to have finally recovered from the election hangover but then lapsed into quietude. From talking like he’s still an opposition spokesperson to total silence is not good at all. Again, it took forever to change the heads of the parastatals in the Ministry of Information (MOI), but even now not much has changed in changing the narrative of the country. As far as I am concerned, it seems we are still in election or immediate post-election mode, and that is very unfortunate.
In his book, “Reputation: Realizing Value from the corporate image”, Charles Fombrun posits that with good reputation, products and stock offerings entice more customers and investors-and command higher prices; jobs lure more applicants-and generate more loyalty and productivity from employees; clout with suppliers is greater-and they pay lower prices for purchases and have more stable revenues and risks of crises are fewer-and when crises do occur, survival is with less financial loss. You don’t have to think too hard to realize that all of these can be extrapolated and applied to countries, to Nigeria. And that is where the reputational challenge facing us, as a people, and particularly those who are charged with managing Nigeria’s reputation, exist.
If we are unable, just yet, to change the people responsible for Information and Foreign Affairs, at least we can begin by changing their understanding of their jobs. They must be challenged to do something quickly. The Federal government should convene a summit on the reputation of the country featuring experts in communication, marketing and international relations. But while they are at it, the government should start changing the story by doing the following.
Firstly, let the government move from arresting looters of public funds to prosecuting and jailing them because the major difference between Nigeria and developed countries like the UK and US is not the absence of criminals, but the existence of the 11th Commandment”: Thou shall not get caught! Punishing offenders or negative reinforcement, according to B. F. Skinner will, in addition to correcting the offender, serve as a deterrent to would-be offenders.
Secondly, the government should commence a nationwide re-orientation campaign to address some of the ills of the society. Charity begins at home. We cannot be a great people, if we are not a good people, and I believe the National Orientation Agency (NOA) is set up to manage this. People who still fall in line only when they are instructed by uniformed personnel are far from becoming responsible. When a state government can put out paid advertisements to celebrate the birthday of a convicted former Governor serving jail term abroad or a community gives a hero’s burial to a convicted drug baron executed by firing squad in a foreign country, then you know we are snookered! So, there is a lot of work to be done on the minds of Nigerians, and the time is yesterday! Thankfully, the Federal Government controls a significant number of the radio and TV stations and can rest assured of the support of the state government and privately owned stations including AIT! Beyond the broadcast media, NOA should host rallies and also use all entry and exit ports to educate people of the need to conduct themselves well and act like ambassadors of the country.
Thirdly, government officials must be held accountable and compelled to conform to the vision of the President as a responsible, disciplined, trustworthy and patriotic person of high integrity. When government officials behave in ways that are not only inconsistent with the perception of the president but contrapuntal to the tenets of the change mantra of the administration, then they damage not only the psyche of the people but the reputation of the country. Leaders must walk the talk or made to take a walk.
Fourthly, can we start propagating the good about Nigeria? What’s with the negativity our brothers and sisters in the diaspora are peddling with relish and fiendish glee? Why are our own people de-marketing our own country? Well, perhaps, patriotism has taken flight from us and we are now destroying the image of our own fatherland. Even some of us living at home appear to be more than happy, quite regrettably, to share bad news and cover up the good ones. The media should lead the charge here and make it a duty to devote significant good airtime and space to positive news about Nigeria. My undergraduate project back in 1990 was entitled the “The Image of Nigeria Police in the Media: A Content Analysis”, and one of the key findings actually do come handy and very instructive here. I discovered that by merely stopping the radio announcements of stolen vehicles in Imo State, the Imo State Police Command contributed to the perception of safety about the state even as other states with even better records were perceived as unsafe. Perception, again, is reality! Need I say more than emphasize that we need a re-orientation in our attitude to our country and “we” means those at home and abroad?
Fifthly, so long as elections remain inconclusive; looters of the economy are allowed to roam freely; men and women of doubtful integrity are seen in around the corridors of power; herdsmen attack and waste entire communities without affirmative actions but mere rhetoric from government and leaders; people build mansions and live extravagantly from inexplicable sources and nothing happens; the courts still offer no semblance of justice but a caricature instead and young men and women are still apprehended with drugs and involved in 419, Nigeria will still be seen in negative light.
Lastly, but by no means the final word on this: where are the professionals? Where are the PR practitioners of Nigeria? Why are they not visible? Why are they not talking? Why are they not writing? Why are journalists, not PR professionals, still being considered for clearly public relations or communications assignments? Why are journalists only driving the Federal Government’s communications agenda? Why is the government losing the narrative to the opposition and anti-change elements? Perhaps, the PR Stakeholders converging in Lagos tomorrow will chart a new and effective course albeit belatedly.
Oparah, Director, Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel Nigeria, writes from Lagos.
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Ambode and The Lagos Example

Posted on by The Elites

By Rotimi Ayanbeku

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode: a silent worker?
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode: a silent worker?

In the mid 1990s when the town that I was living in finally took the danger of climate change seriously, it passed an ordinance mandating recycling of cans, bottles and plastics. To achieve its goal the town embarked on massive public service announcement campaign encouraging citizens to recycle. It didn’t stop there. It met the citizens halfway by making sure that every home and rental property has recycling dumpsters next to the regular dumpsters. It was a massive success. While my friends in other parts of the state were still throwing away their bottles, cans and plastics, just about every home in my town was recycling.

A few years later, the town’s population increased and so did people’s fondness for having pet dogs. It wasn’t uncommon to enter one’s home with dog feces caked to one’s shoes because some people weren’t cleaning up after their pets. The municipality was faced with another dilemma, how to get the people to change their behavior without too much disruption to their way of life. And once again the municipality met its citizens half way by installing racks with trash bags on each block so that dog owners could use the bags in the racks to clean up after their four legged companions. Lo and behold dogs feces soon disappeared from the sidewalks. Don’t get me wrong, there are still people who would not clean up after their dogs no matter what you do for them. However, if those people are caught, they will be cited and pay fine.

In order to discourage crime, overcrowding in the streets, and other adverse environmental effects, the Lagos State government enacted the Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law in 2003, which prohibits street trading and hawking. However, each successive administration since 2003 had not implemented or enforced the law. The Ambode administration is finally trying to enforce the law, but now wahala don come. A young hawker was killed while he was fleeing from state enforcement officers. In return, hawkers protested violently, injuring innocent civilians and destroying 48 BRT buses.

Everybody is now having their say about the pros and cons of the ban, which is a great thing for Nigeria’s fledgling democracy. The governor of Lagos State believes that street hawking encourages criminality and cheats innocent civilians by pawning off fake merchandise as authentic. On the other hand, civil society organisations and human rights organisations are condemning the law as inhumane and that it will exacerbate unemployment problems. Furthermore, motorists and commuters accustomed to buying things on the go are anxious about the government’s plan. What then can be done to de-escalate the situation?

First of all, unlike other state governments that are stuck in the hellish stagnation of business as usual, the Lagos State government should be applauded for tackling this issue. I’m sure the government sees that for its citizens to progress they must embrace a new concept of life that somewhat formalises business transactions, make the roads safe for its citizens and protect consumers. In all the advanced economies of the world, business transactions are formalised to protect their citizens and to make business entities contribute to the society in which they operate. As such, the Lagos State government is on the right track.

Notwithstanding Lagos’ noble endeavour, it must provide means for the street merchants to carry on their trade. It is true that in a society like Nigeria, where most small businesses conduct their transactions informally, to disrupt the merchants trade is almost inhumane. How else are they going to make a living? Sure there are criminals elements on the streets as there are in every business, but most of the hawkers are trying to make genuine living, young and old. Most of these people have no other skills. This is the only way they know how to feed and clothe their families, and send their children to school. For the government to start implementing the law without helping them find alternative means of selling their products is a mistake of biblical proportion.

The Lagos State government must meet the traders halfway by constructing stalls and rent it to the traders for low price. The purpose of government is to look after all its citizens. That was what the political leaders of the aforementioned town understood. They also understood human nature, that humans don’t like change because it can be disruptive. So they met them half way. Helping the traders to transact their businesses with as little disruption as possible will be a testament to how much the Lagos State government cares about its citizens.

On the other hand, the civil society organisations are justifiably concerned about the effect of the disruptions on the traders’ livelihood. They reason that it will lead to unemployment and other societal problems. However, street trading is not compulsory. The traders can be trained to learn other skills or move their businesses to government provided stalls.

Lagos State government should, therefore, be applauded for trying to get out of the rot of business as usual. It is trying to elevate business conduct in the society, but it must also balance that with what will be best for the segment of the society that is hit the hardest by the current economic doldrums.

Ayanbeku, an attorney, sent in this article via rotimiayanbeku@hotmail.com.