(Published in the Nigerian Guardian, May 21 2007) 

By Adeola Aderounmu

ONE of the biggest challenges in Nigeria is the absence of “for the good of all” since the day that Nigerians took their future in their hands by bidding farewell to the colonial masters from Britain. On May 1, 2007, The Guardian chose to publish the article contributed by Pat Utomi who seems to be a good man standing among the bunches that have just jostled for the criminalised election in Nigeria. This man, who appears to be without blemish, wrote that he has henceforth dedicated his life to the struggle called Nigeria.

In my opinion, this is a very positive and healthy development. We have seen a few honest men in the past but the problem is that they never get to that vantage position where their good intentions can be tested nationally. This to me is the greatest challenge that Utomi faces. On the face value, he wrote honestly and intelligently. I am not in a position to assess this man called Utomi but he has been around the corner long enough to be taken for his words. We may never be able to try such men as we should. In Nigeria, if you are not a thug or ruffian, you may not be well adapted to survive on the political terrain. Our democracy is not for decent people.

In our part of the world, we are involved in the selection of public office holders and an arrangement called kangaroo elections where we may or may not need to vote. It doesn’t make a difference what we do on polling days. I am still very amazed that we have Nigerians who vote on selection days. Why do you vote when the winner of the election could be someone who is not even a candidate? You are 20,000 in your community and a total vote tally of 100,000 could emerge. So, why are you as a normal (or abnormal person maybe) still heading for the polls at the next “election”? Nobody has given you a guarantee that it will not be business as usual.

Do Nigerians know the meaning of boycott? You could even lose your life trying to cast a vote for some lunatic attempting to reach a certain political status! Why take such a risk? There are more than 50 reasons not to vote in Nigeria. The number is correlated with the number of ways that do-or-die politicians achieve their objectives. The 2007 elections in Nigeria is a new world record for cheating possibilities. All other African countries should never allow the Nigerian government to give them advice anymore on democracy or how to chose or run their government. The example of Nigeria can ruin Africa and the entire world.

The reason for all these catastrophes and retrogression in Nigeria is simply because there is absence of the common good. The politicians are selfish and an average business adventure is set out to milk the populace. The blame is cyclic and the cycle itself is idiotism. The reason for politics in Nigeria is not to improve the state but for some nonentities to earn a living and siphon riches for personal gains. The Nigerian state is not set up to run itself like all modern systems are. Over the years, Nigerians generally have resorted to any means possible to be rich and live comfortably. This started with the rapid collapse of the infrastructure, non-maintenance of anything public/government owned. In short time, all social amenities hit the rock and the basic necessities of life became elusive. Eventually, only a few people live comfortably relative to the 140 million inhabitants.

Lack of common good bred by a fearful combination of both greed and corruption has ruined Nigeria. It is reported as one of the poorest countries in the world while on the contrary and in reality, Nigeria is arguably one of the richest countries in the world. There is abundance of natural resources in the country. If you study the geography of Nigeria, you will end up being confused since you will not be able to understand why average Nigerians should not be able to live on more than USD 100 per day if they so choose.

This is attainable since the intelligent minds have calculated that the wealth from the Niger Delta of Nigeria alone can sustain the entire Africa. If this is true, then it is extremely ridiculous that the people in the Niger Delta of Nigeria are among the poorest in the world. They are poor socially and ruined environmentally. Ask the foreign oil companies about that and how they have been aided by succeeding governments in Nigeria to trample on the local indigenes. Indeed, what I call “mass poverty” prevails in Nigeria.

Ask yourself, where does all the income from the oil goes to? Why are there no refineries in Nigeria, the sixth largest producer of oil in the world? Why is Agriculture no longer the main foreign exchange earner in Nigeria? Where are all the cocoa farms in Western Nigeria? Where are the groundnut pyramids in the North? Where is the Cassava from the East? Where are the products of the Ajaokuta Steel factory? Where lies the coal industry? What happened to the Hydro-Electric Power Generation system? Where are the graduate employment schemes of old? Do not attempt a full list of these potentials and don’t even think about the human resources in terms of intelligence and availability! You will be more confused and disillusioned.

So what went wrong? Many things went wrong. The bottom line is the absence of the common good. The politicians are the worst culprits and the civil service was not left out as well. Nobody believed in the government any longer and people did what they liked. The results: prevalence of hunger, increase in road accidents, increase in general morbidity and mortality-due to diseases and a non-functional health system.

Absolute collapse of social order, disappearance of public infrastructure, bad roads, lack of water, non-functional drainages, pensioners maltreatment, delayed salaries, public treasury looting, rage of armed robberies, police brutality, sports facilities disappearance, injustice to the poor and less privileged, examination malpractice across all strata, lack of electricity, relegation of educational values, tribalism, nepotism, anger, lack of planning, unemployment and frustration. Name any vice, it may be present in Nigeria, possibly on a large scale and acceptable (anything goes). There are also 419 fraudsters within Nigeria and as retaliation to take back from the western world (so they say).

The government of Nigeria is the greatest representative of 419 globally. Don’t look too far back, just ask the organisers of the last “election” how they conducted the last exercise. Ask them how the results were pre-determined as in all previous selections in Nigeria. Ask them how they have learned the tricks that further revealed the absence of common good. In Nigeria, the absence of common good has helped evil to prevail. Where evil prevails, sorrows abound and suffering will never end.

This takes me back to Utomi. Is he sincere? How many sincere people do we need to take Nigeria forward progressively? Shall we have more honest men to stand up in the fight to save Nigeria? Nigeria is collapsing and what she needs is the voice and actions of the people with common good.

Adeola Aderounmu

 Mr. Ehindero is the boss of the Nigeria Police and in May 2007, he has literarily ordered his men to kill people who dare demonstrate or protest against the useless elections that took place in Nigeria recently. These are people, Nigerians like himself, who are also demanding for better conditions with respect to their occupational status. He didn’t use the word “kill” but he doesn’t have to use it either. If a police boss in Nigeria orders his men to use tear gas on people who are demonstrating or if he gives them the order to stop the protests by whichever means possible, then we know that the missing word is “kill-them”!  You can discuss the Nigeria Police from many perspectives: shameless bribe takers, ill-equipped force, gun trotting, trigger happy, mischievous, negligent, underpaid, Y2K non-compliant and so on and so forth. 

 There could be many factors why Nigerians allow evil to prevail in the society. The kill and go principle of the security forces is one of the main factors. It is possible for policemen or other armed forces in Nigeria to kill anyone at anytime and never be brought to justice. Instead, lies are cooked up and fables are told to cover up for the killers. Sometimes there are no investigations and the victims die for nothing or “for fun” as they use to say. This in my opinion is one of the reasons why people have resolved not to take confrontational positions when it comes to opposition to the states even when it is obvious that what the state is doing is evil. When discussing about mounting resistance to oppression and suppression, someone may ask you “are you ready to be in the front”?  Some may even remind you like this, “why don’t you come back to Nigeria and help with the opposition”? 

But the real issue is this, why is it possible for the police to act in violation to the law and never face the consequences? This is not for the police only but all military and Para-military institutions that have been used over the years by the government and persons in influential positions to oppress other helpless people. Sometimes, people lose their lives as a result of senseless killings by these agents. The recent pronouncement by the stupid police boss in Nigeria should be condemned totally. Obviously he is trying to please his masters in the government house who have killed thousands of people in the last 8 years. We have not seen anything worse since the civil war more than 35 years ago. 

Someone needs to tell the Nigerian police that they should stop killing people who are protesting peacefully on the streets. We know that they are not well paid. Many people are underpaid in Nigeria. The police cannot continue to pour their frustrations on innocent citizens for demanding a better society for the collective good of all. They should stop filling their masters’ cup with the blood of the blameless. The police should not get tired of the people; instead they should offer the necessary protection to demonstrators and ensure that the process is peaceful and orderly. It is not enough to change the uniform of the Nigerian Police from black to blue. They need more education in order to demonstrate clear understanding of the fundamentals of human rights, to appreciate such and to do things within the frame of the law especially as law enforcement agents. 

By Edwin Madunagu. 

From The Guardian, 17 May 2007. (www.ngrguardiannews.com)

WHEN General Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office in May 1999 as executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, many Nigerians described his regime as a transitional one. While some elaborated on this description others simply assumed that it was self-evident and required no elaboration. I was one of those who attempted an elaboration. By the term, transitional, as applied to that regime, I meant that its foundations being weak, the administration would be an unstable regime which would move more or less rapidly towards either popular democracy, neoliberal democracy, fascism (or neofascism, if you wish), or anarchy.

I provided two grounds for this projection: the way the regime was enthroned, and the nature of the constitution under which it was expected to operate. Checking through the articles I wrote in the early months of that regime, there was no suggestion that President Obasanjo would lose power. However, several social forces, including some which did not support his election, rallied around him in those early months – as if a coup was imminent. My projection was that the removal of President Obasanjo-constitutionally or otherwise – could lead to a civil war, an eventuality which neither the power blocs nor the “international community” would desire. My thesis was that the incumbent president would preside over the transition. What would happen thereafter, I could not say.

Back to the grounds for considering the regime a transitional one. When General Sani Abacha died suddenly in June 1998, Alhaji Moshood Abiola, who won the June 1993 presidential election, has been in detention for about four years, many Nigerians thought he would be released and installed as Head of State, perhaps an interim one. When this did not happen, these Nigerians started an advocacy in that direction. Frustration however set in when each high-profile international visit to the imprisoned man ended without his release. Rather, he was being pressured to renounce his claim to the presidency. Then the man died during a visit by America’s State Department officials.

It was after this that the name of General Obasanjo who had just been released from Abacha’s jail was thrown up. He was anointed President even before political parties were formed, and long before the general had declared for any of them. Unless the deaths of Abacha and Abiola were planned – as part of a grand political strategy – it was reasonable to conclude that the choice of Obasanjo as an interim arrangement was quickly agreed upon – to prevent a civil war or anarchy – by powerful internal political forces and the “international community”. Obasanjo came into office and power, without a “political base”.

Now, to my second ground. The 1999 general elections were conducted without a constitution. Some people may raise an objection and argue, for instance, that the 1979 elections were also conducted without a constitution. That would be incorrect. There was a constitution, awaiting promulgation. There also existed a constitution that of 1989, during the series of elections conducted between 1991 and 1993 under General Babangida’s transition. Another constitution was published in 1995. It was under that constitution that General Abacha planned to hold elections in August 1998. But he died two months earlier and the entire plan was abandoned.

But in 1999, there was nothing. A committee appointed by the Military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to review the 1979 Constitution was still working when the elections of February 1999 took place. And when the document came out it was found to contain so many errors – some lawyers said there were more than 300 of them. Many Nigerians, including myself, regarded the 1999 Constitution as a transitional one.

We may go back a little and recall that following Abacha’s death, most of those who called for the installation of Abiola as President were, in practical terms, calling for an interim government to be headed by Abiola. Everyone knew that so many things had happened in the five years since June 1993 that it was impossible for Abiola to simply reclaim his mandate. A coup d’etat had taken place; Abiola’s party and that of his defeated opponent had been dissolved; the National Assembly had been dissolved; and state governments – both executive and legislative branches – had been dissolved. Beyond all these, dissatisfaction with the geopolitical structure of the country had grown. When Abiola died a month after Abacha’s death, the case for an interim government was strengthened.

We now know that some personages, including General Obasanjo, were proposed to head such a government. But Abdulsalami Abubakar’s regime rejected the call for an interim government, and went ahead to construct a new transition programme. Many Nigerians, including myself, regarded Obasanjo’s regime produced by Abdulsalami’s programme, as an interim regime – whether those who designed it, and enthroned it, believed it to be so or not. It was a monumental error. The projection – of popular democracy, neoliberal democracy, fascism or anarchy – still held, but the notion of transitional regime was a strategic error.

That error is clearly shown by the situation today, towards the end of President Obasanjo’s eight-year tenure and on the eve of the inauguration of a new presidency. The 1999 Constitution has remained in force; Obasanjo has transcended the internal coalition of forces that brought him to power and has constructed a new political base (call it ‘power bloc’ if you like); the “international community” is with him; and, above all, he has reproduced his regime. As for my 1999 prediction: the country is today not moving towards popular democracy; it is not moving to liberal democracy – either in the economy or in politics or in governance; I can also not see any advance to generalised anarchy. That leaves us with fascism or neofascism.

All the ingredients for fascism or neofascism are here. Some, in fact, have been with us for some time. The ingredients include increasing inability to govern by the law; increasing political intolerance, harassment, and intimidation of even senior state functionaries; militarisation of civil institutions such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); behaviour of the police like political thugs; increasing visibility and employment of the secret police; employment of armed thugs; unexplained political crimes, including murders; and, increasing mass immiseration and desperation. And now is added the April 2007 rigged elections through which the ruling party is claiming popular acceptance.

Before this was the abortive “third-term” campaign. And beyond all these is the likely appearance of personages whose offices are not in the constitution, but who will play powerful roles in the politics, governance and “security” (or “discipline”) of the land. Not to be forgotten is the increasing integration of the country into the periphery of the “international community” economically and militarily, the latter being explained and justified by the “global war against terror”. All the ingredients of fascism are therefore here. What is needed for the appearance of unambiguous fascist rule is an event that provides a credible excuse of threat to “national security”.

The critical question is this: Why and how was Obasanjo’s regime able to move from a generally perceived and indeed, almost obvious status of a “transitionality” to that of “permanence”? This was done by reversing precisely those factors that made it, or made look like a transitional regime. These factors included as earlier listed, the contradictory, evasive, and hence, incoherent nature of the 1999 Constitution; and the absence of a political “base”. Obasanjo was not part of the formation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – or any party for that matter – at any stage. He was simply invited to stand on the party’s platform.

What Obasanjo’s regime did – systematically, but over eight years – was to construct a new power bloc through the maximum use of state power. The regime embarked on a progamme of destabilisation of the existing power blocs and the incorporation of some non-power bloc political forces. Obasanjo’s power bloc is the third power bloc in the country – the older two being what I had called the Northern and South-Western power blocs. Obasanjo’s power bloc, which is now in power, is more national than the older two, and is on the ascendancy. But the three blocs subscribe to the same economic principles and philosophically opposed to egalitarianism and popular democracy.

As for the 1999 Constitution: It was clear, right from the beginning, that President Obasanjo was not enthusiastic about a Constitution review. But many Nigerians believed that he would be compelled to carry out a review whether to like it or not. They were mistaken. The President became even less enthusiastic when the question of Constitution review became tied, in some vocal quarters, to the convening of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). His argument was that a sovereignty could not exist within a sovereignty. When, eventually, he “bought” the idea, he decided to do it his own way. There were several false starts, and each of them collapsed. The result is that the hurriedly coupled 1999 Constitution is still with us.

Barring unforeseen developments, the second regime of the Third Republic (or is it the Fourth) will be inaugurated on May 29, 2007. For the ruling classes and power blocs (together with the “international community”) it will be a mere continuation. For us, and the toiling but suffering masses of Nigeria, it will be a new beginning. We must face tomorrow, while reviewing the past.

Adeola Aderounmu

The issues affecting the Nigeria are numerous and varied. Recent occurrences in the country have stirred up debates here and there on some of these issues. Honestly speaking, the issues cannot be overflogged. It is a debacle that millions of Nigerians live with. They are entangled in a vicious web created by the wicked, mean and heartless leaders and politicians. It seems that Nigeria is trapped in a deadly vicious cycle. Again, there are many dimensions to this vicious cycle. The elimination of this cycle will be a difficult task and generally it looks like Nigerians will live with this dilemma for a long time to come. I could arguably state that some things will never change in Nigeria in as much as the circumstances to warrant those changes are missing. Take the case of stealing, looting, cheating and forgery as criminal examples.

For instance, how can you tell a student preparing for a common examination that he is not allowed to cheat? All the things that surround him indicate that cheating and forging are acceptable. He could see that all he needs to do is to find an appropriate accomplice in the person of the examiner or an accessory among the examination center workers. These could be the school principal or an influential teacher. If everyone did their parts, they will all get away, clean.  This is what INEC has done in the last scam called elections. All the players have done their parts and God help Nigeria if the judiciary follows the trend. Cheaters get caught sometimes because of the negligence of someone or the diligence of a faithful citizen. In a few days, we will know if the courts in 2007 Nigeria are faithful institutions or tools that should be neglected by the citizens.  

Stealing, forgery and cheating are siblings. We have seen over the years how common illiterates have occupied our senate/ house of assemblies and other public places using forged certificates, having attended imaginary schools especially abroad. Who is fooling who? The painful thing is that many of those alleged to have committed this crime are not really fully investigated because the tale may be endless. This implication is that many public holders carry false academic status. It would be nice to know what the result of a general knowledge exam will turn out among such people. Has someone thought about conducting a common entrance/ G2 exam for all public officers? I mean the type we did those days to get into secondary schools.  

Is it not amazing also that armed robbers are still finding their trade lucrative and attractive? How can you preach to them to stop and why should they stop? Everyday in Nigeria, millions are been stolen from the National treasury. Pen robbers who called themselves politicians steal money and share loots without a drop of sweat. This is a big inspiration for the men with guns. They are seriously inspired that it is very right to steal from wherever and whenever. Stealing is stealing regardless of how it is carried out. The pain though is that the armed robbers sometimes get merciless and many in recent years have taken the lives of their victims. They have become more brutal; sometimes they rape, maim and destroy property. Usually their victims have no definitions boundaries. All they need is money just like the thieves in government. Don’t even think about the Police tackling the menace of armed robbery. Like many public insitutions, they are ill-equipped and unmotivated. It is sad and painful but like many vices in our society, we live with these things daily and live the next day as another day of our God given lives. 

To fix or amend a vicious cycle, the people will have to resolve to a collective will. This is one virtue that does not exist in the Nigerian dictionary. People grew up of course in community settings, mutual environments but unfortunately it is “all man for himself” at the end of the day. This is a popular saying in Nigeria that has rendered the citizenry powerless. The society is full of envy, hatred and “bad belly”. The bad belly syndrome is a topic that requires treatment on its own. In modern societies, which are also found in neighbouring African states anyway, the aim of collective will is to move a nation forward by standing up against everything and anything that doesn’t seem right. Nigerians don’t stand up against wrong things because they hope to benefit from that “wrong thing” themselves when the opportunity comes directly or when they have a known person in a position to steal or influence things. This is pathetic and it is not a legacy that should passed from generation to generation, but that is just the way I have known it and at 35, I am beginning to lose hope that my country of birth will be great in my life time.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Adeola Aderounmu.

Madeleine is just 4 years old. She is innocent and could not have commited any crime, yet she has been feared abducted since May 3rd. The incident occured in Portugal.

All hopes are been kept alive that she will come back home to her lovely family. Surely, she is missing her parents and siblings as much as they have missed her.

This is not the best of times for the McCann Family and one can only hope that this nightmare is over as soon as possible.

I was wondering if certain legal barriers can be broken to allow for house to house search in the whole of Portugal. The world cannot afford to keep another lovely little girl underground in some lunatic home for 8 or 10 years.

If the world is free, Madeleine will be free. Let someone open their doors and let the real search begin!

God bless you Madeleine!