YAR’ADUA AND THE ILLUSION OF HOPE

BY EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO

Just before he crashed out of his third term project, the immediate past president General Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Obasanjo [rtd] reportedly delivered a speech “I SEE HOPE” at a public function where he sought unsuccessfully to demolish the groundswell of cynicism and hopelessness that pervade the polity, particularly among the generality of heavily impoverished and deprived Nigerians who have consistently witnessed the regime of corruption, impunity and nepotism on the part of the large army of the political office holders and their boot lickers who surround the corridors of power in Abuja and the thirty six States capital cities. The then president who said he saw hope in the horizon for Nigerians did not satisfactorily explained to Nigerians with empirically verifiable evidence where that hope will come to Nigerians given the propensity of most political office holders to satisfy their selfish pecuniary interests first before thinking about others. From the abundance of evidence now available especially from the series of well conducted public hearings of the National Assembly, Nigerians are now wiser and have realized that the hope promised Nigerians by the immediate past president was at best a ‘RUSE’ since the then president did not lay any solid foundation upon which Nigerians can repose their hope. The immediate past Government is credited with successfully ruining the State owned Nigerian Telecommunication Company of Nigeria NITEL which was privatized and sold to some clever shylock business persons who are only interested in assets stripping and do not care about adding value to the services rendered by this now moribund Nigerian Telecommunications Company not to talk of taking care of the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who had toiled for the company for decades and are yet to be paid their wages for years since the last administration sold off this national assets, first to some crooks [PENTASCOPE] who were brought in by the immediate past minister of Abuja, the self styled ‘MALLAM’ Nassir El’Ruffai who was the then Director General of the notoriously incompetent Bureau For Public Enterprises [BPE]. Just before vacating office under very controversial circumstances, Obasanjo sold NITEL to his group of cronies under the business name of TRANSCORP Incorporated, a company that was hurriedly put together under the umbrella of a serving Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange Ndi Okereke Onyiuike and the Directors quickly arranged what they called blind trustee’s shares of over two hundred million Naira for the then serving president and commander in chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces who later repudiated the deal when it was blown open by the media. When the current Umaru Musa Yaradua or should I appropriately title the Government Turai/Babagana administration came on board the Nigerian Telecommunications Company moved temporarily away from Transcorps and later moved back to them and then Transcorp agreed a deal with the Federal Government to divest some greater percentage of its’ shares from NITEL and to invite what they call a sound technical partner to buy up the majority shares so that the now moribund company can have a lifeline. Nigerians now know that their optimism and hope that was raised by this administration is a huge gamble and a misplaced hope or better still it is the grand illusion of hope. The other day at the charade called TELECOM CONSUMER PARLIAMENT organized by the heavily compromised Nigerian Communication Commission [NCC], a lot of Nigerians confessed that NITEL has died and that Government has successfully sang its’ NUNCT DIMITIS. Talk about the ILLUSION OF HOPE which is the best name of the current GO SLOW ADMINISTRATION of Umaru Musa Yar’adua, one is reminded of the fiasco that recently played out itself in the seat of power ASO ROCK when the current administration that masquerades itself as the Government that respects the RULE OF LAW shamelessly gave a huge contract to the German Company SIEMENS even when that company has been blacklisted around the globe because of its’ deep involvement in Bribery scandals during the military era in Nigeria to gain contracts. Majority of Nigerians are now asking this Government to explain what its’ stand is regarding the much chorused anti-corruption campaign. And I ask President Umaru Musa Yaradua, please sir what is your Government’s stand on the anti-graft fight? Or are you simply satisfied that Nuhu Ribadu the number one enemy of the Friends of your Federal Attorney General Michael Andookaa has been demolished and demobilized from waging unrelenting anti-graft war against some of your patrons who funded your campaigns? Why should an admistration that claims to be fighting corruption enlist the friendship of an international company renowned for corrupt practices and other unfair trade practices? Is SIEMENS the only company competent enough to do that kind of contracts or are you paying back some debts accumulated during your tumultuous presidential campaigns, the result of which is still being contested in the Nation’s apex Court? If the current Government goes ahead to do business with this gravely corrupt international firm then Nigerians should just regard it as another dangerous phase of the ILLUSION OF HOPE which has characterized this administration. But I ask why is it impossible for the ordinary Nigerians to demand transparency and accountability from their so-called political leaders? Why will Nigerians always wait for other category of Nigerians, mostly disenchanted members of the elites to do the crusading for them for Government to wake up from her slumber and provide transparent service to Nigerians which is a constitutional right? When will Nigerians say NO to the grand Illusion of Hope? When will Nigerians demand transparency from their political leaders? The time is now or never. What is this noise about the Health of the president? Why are Nigerians not been carried along when matters concerning the health of our number one citizen comes up or does the powers that be not know that sovereignty belongs to the people and that since the Federal and the respective administrations in Nigeria derive their legitimacy from the people then the people should know where their president is at every point in time. Any thing contrary to this democratic imperative means that the President and his kitchen cabinet members are not ready for the business of real governance and as the saying goes if you can not withstand the heat in the kitchen then get out quietly. The constitution is very clear on how the president is expected to be or put it in another way the constitution states that if the health of the president is such that he is permanently incapable of presiding over the affairs of Governance then he has to quietly quit from office. The Lagos based lawyer Femi Falana has just communicated the leadership of the National Assembly to investigate the health situation of our president with a view to ascertaining whether the president can meet the constitutional stipulation of a healthy and robust leader who can take decisions and navigate the ship of state and political governance away from the go-slow tendency that holds sway in Nigeria now. Nigerians expect the leadership of the National Assembly to dispassionately set up a team of medical examiners to look into this all important matter and the National Assembly leaders should not look at the challenge from the prism of the partisan interest. The health condition of the president of Nigeria is of paramount national interests to all Nigerians. One more thing, why has the National Assembly dramatically and obscenely jerked up their pay packages to up to one hundred percent upward review? This is odious, despicable and reprehensible and must be reversed without any waste of time. Nigerian people should mobilize themselves and demand that these shameless men and women that populate the National Assembly cancels this huge wage bills they have approved for themselves. If it takes recalling them by their constituents, so be it. Why should the work of the National Lawmakers be categorized as huge money making gamble? Where have we kept the idea of selfless service to humanity? Why can’t Nigeria establish a part time National Legislature so that those who would seek to serve as Legislators will see it more as service and not as avenue to make stupendous and ill-gotten wealth? Another grand illusion of hope is the proposed REMOVAL OF SUBSIDY from petroleum products as contemplated by this administration beginning from next year January. Nigerians must demand to end this unending illusion of hope if we ever hope to move forward as a corporate entity.

+Emmanuel Onwubiko is a Human Rights Activist and journalist in Abuja.

RIVERS OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

By Emmanuel Onwubiko.

The oil rich Rivers state has been in the news mostly in the last couple of years for the very wrong reason of occupying the strategic position as the hottest bed of cult violence, social upheavals unleashed by all kinds of miscreants and kidnappings of even innocent toddlers for ransom. At the last count, international non-governmental organizations and their local affiliates believe that in the last eight years, more than five thousand people have been extra judicially killed in Rivers State.

We are discussing here about violence on the part of rational human beings as distinct from the aggressive instincts found in the lower animal. An international scholar by name J. Bronowski wrote that, “Violence is here, in the world of the sane – I hear it in the headlong weeping of men who have failed. I see it in the terrible dreams of boys whose adolescence repeats history.”

Specifically, most philosophers believe that while aggression in irrational animals can be explained as mere animal instinct necessary for survival, violence in human beings is both animal instinct and something more sinister.

Von Weizsacker averred that “the amazing thing is that aggression against members of their own species is so widespread among the higher species of animals and that it increases in the human species resulting in the untold killings of human persons’’

Sigmund Freud one of the greatest psychologists of all times stated that there exists two diametrically opposed instincts of life and death. Freud said that the “death instinct” manifests itself in various forms of aggression which can be directed either inwards towards self destruction, such as suicide, or outward towards the destruction of others, and all kinds of anti-social behaviors”.

In Rivers State, Southern Nigeria, what may be considered as the death instincts among some social miscreants whose population has increased over the years, has reached alarming dimension. It is believed that violence in the scale that has been witnessed in Rivers State is traceable to what scientists calls “Social Corrosion”.

Daniel Goleman in his book “SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE “stated that “today, just as Science reveals how crucially important nourishing relationships are, human connections seem increasingly under siege. Social Corrosion has many faces.”

Tracing the causes of social corrosion in human society, Goleman gave some examples of what may be responsible for the spate of violence unleashed on members of the human race by their contemporaries. One of such examples of the emerging creeping disconnection among members of the human society is the scenario that occurred in a German city where a motorcyclist gets thrown onto the roadway in a collision. He lies on the pavement, unmoving. Pedestrians walk right by and drivers gaze at him while they wait for the light to change. But no one stops to help. Finally, after fifteen long minutes, a passenger in a car that stopped for the light rolls down a window and asks the motorcyclist if he’s been hurt, offering to call for help on a cell phone. When the incident is telecast by the station that has staged the accident, there is a sense of scandal because in Germany everyone who has drivers’ license has been trained in emergency first aid, precisely for moments like this. As a German emergency physician comments, “people just walk away when they see others in danger. They don’t seem to care.”

Philosophers in Africa have emphatically laid the blame for the increasing spate of organized violence to the erosion of the revered African Cultural values of respect for the sacredness of life and the communal sense of selflessness and fellow feeling.

The urgent need to halt the gradual slide to anarchy and restore the collective trust of the people on the government constitutionally authorized to bring about good governance and an orderly society gave rise to the creation of the justice Kayode Eso-led Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s -led administration in Rivers State.

Truth as seen by the writers of Encarta Dictionaries means “Something factual that is the thing that corresponds to facts or reality. To answer the interrogation what is the truth? Philosophers of all epochs have had to propound four main theories namely correspondence, pragmatic, coherence and deflationary. For Plato, one of the greatest thinkers of all times, he proposed a theory based on the intuitive recognition that true statements corresponds to the facts-that is agree with reality – while false statements do not.

Pragmatists like Charles S. Pierce, to answer the question what is the truth? Is to await the out come of what experts will agree upon when their investigations are complete. The truth of our idea must be tested through practice, he said.

Reconciliation was seen in the same Encarta Dictionaries as the “ending of conflict or renewing of a friendly relationship between disputing people or group”. It is the truth that Rivers State has witnessed series of violent killings of innocent people over the years so much so that even the members of the Nigerian Military who are not supposed to be involved in resolving civil conflicts were redeployed to restore security and calm in that State. The people of Rivers State truly need reconciliation based on social Justice and trust. This is the reason why most deep thinkers have endorsed the constitution by Governor Amaechi of the truth and reconciliation commission.

Writing on Negotiating Reconciliation in the book “NELSON MANDELA IN HIS OWN WORDS”, F.Van Zyl Slabbert noted that; “Reconciliation is one of those cosy, warm words; it exudes obvious virtue. Like truth, it is a ‘good value’. At the same time, moral dilemmas seldom arise when good and bad are juxtaposed; one does not struggle to choose between truth and reconciliation and think of situations where this could pose an acute moral dilemma’.

The writer asked, “Does truth lead to reconciliation? Replying, the author stated that the divorce courts seem to prove otherwise. Can Reconciliation occur without the truth? The author asked and replied that “white lies seem to help sometimes! Said he: “the ultimate triumph of reconciliation is the way the negotiation process resulted in finally creating a situation in South Africa where certain key values were (and still are) held in creative tension in relation to one another. Liberal democracy and economic growth, law and order and respect for Human Rights, Fiscal discipline and delivery of services, modernity and traditionalism”. In Nigeria, this writer is hopeful that the Justice Kayode Eso panel’s report will be implemented in such a way as to enthrone a regime of good governance and these other democratic ideals mentioned above by F Van Zyl Slabbert.

For Nelson Mandela, a truth and Reconciliation Commission ought to bring about the healing process for all the victims of violence. “The healing process is meant for the individual, the family and the community”, so says Mandela.

To put the records straight, as the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, and a Journalist, in the last sixteen years, this writer knows that this is the first time in the history of Nigeria that a truth and reconciliation commission has been set up to act as catalyst and as an effective mechanism to bring about effective restoration of Social harmony and peace in the crisis ravaged Rivers State.

Most analysts have praised the effort of the current Governor of Rivers State to transform his embattled state into Rivers of truth and reconciliation which will essentially ensure that the state regains its lost status as the ‘garden City’ of Nigeria. Garden in philosophical parlance connotes peace and tranquility. The Garden of Eden in the Bible was renowned for being a very peaceful state where even all species of what we now categorize as wild animals lived side by side with humanity.

The man who made the dream of trying to transform Rivers State into Rivers of truth and reconciliation gave his reason for doing that thus; “the idea of setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Rivers State has been on my mind for some time. During my tenure as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2007, I became increasingly worried by the use of firearms by our youths to settle all types of grievance either for themselves or on behalf of their sponsors.”

“I had cause to take up these issues with the then Governor. I then came up with the idea of enacting Secret Cults Law, which regrettably has been honored more in breach than observance.”

Rotimi Amaechi further stated that he indeed set up the truth and reconciliation panel after a broad based dialogue. He said; ‘after consultations, I came to the conclusion that the best way to achieve relative peace in the State was the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modeled after the South Africa experience where people would be free to appear and ventilate their grievances. It is my fervent hope that this process will enable all aggrieved to make known their grievances and hopefully help restore peace in the State.”

The Governor promised to implement all recommendations that will enable the people of Rivers State enjoy peace and progress. On his part, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State Dr Peter Odili and all others opposed to the setting up of the Commission expressed fears that Truth and Reconciliation may not after all be achieved by the Justice Koyode Eso – led Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Odili who ruled Rivers State from 1999 to 2007, an era when violence assumed frightening dimension, say that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is rather a circus show where all efforts were being made to ridicule him.

This writer does not want to dabble into the local politics of Rivers State, but as a Human Rights practitioner, I believe that all people of good will are wishing that the outcomes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Rivers State will transform the place to Rivers of truth and reconciliation where peace, social harmony and economic development will be actualized for the long suffering masses. Let’s give the Rivers State-Truth and Reconciliation Commission a chance to succeed.

Emmanuel Onwubiko; Is the
National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)

THE CAROL NDAGUBA EXAMPLE

Emmanuel onwubiko
One of Nigeria’s finest gifts to humanity is Mrs. Carol Ndaguba, the indefatigable lawyer who has been in effective charge of one of Nigeria’s most successful government institutions: National Agency for the prevention of Trafficking in Persons [NAPTIP] which came to life during the second term of the immediate past President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Incidentally, not too many people remembers that it was the immediate past administration that established what is arguably the most successful agency [NAPTIP] to fight the hydra- headed monster called human trafficking. Other distinguished gifts to humanity from Nigeria incidentally are women some of whom are Professor Dora Akunyili the woman who defied several death threats to battle the menace of Drug counterfeiting in Nigeria; Mrs.Titilayo Atiku Abubakar, the wife of the former Vice President whose pet project fought vigorously and advocated the establishment of the national anti-human trafficking agency; Mrs. Cecilia Ibru arguably Nigeria’s best known Banker of repute who has driven the once relatively unknown Bank to international height; and Mrs. Omogui the woman who as the chairman turned the Federal Revenue Board around within record time. Mrs. Omogui ensured that the revenue collected by this agency which hitherto was substantially pocketed by the officials now gets to the Government coffers. Of all these great amazons the one that has actually and radically made tremendous impacts internationally and locally is Mrs. Carol Ndaguba, the easy going workaholic who pioneered the establishment of the anti-human trafficking agency in 2004 and has brought the fight against human trafficking which has remained a major menace, to the front burner. Well this piece is not categorically ruling out the fact that some Nigerian men through their creative talents, honesty and dedication to their duties have achieved fame and fortune and have attained the rare position of special gifts from Nigeria to Humanity. Men like Professors Chinua Achebe, Bartholomew Nnaji, and Philip Emegwali reputed to have created the fastest computer. Others are Professor Wole Soyinka Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature and the late Dr. Bala Usman the radical historian who was an apostle of human rights who spoke the truth to those in power. Bala Usman’s last encounter was his brush with General Olusegun Obasanjo the immediate past president who ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Chairman Nuhu Ribadu to walk him [Bala Usman] out of a national seminar because the radical historian criticized certain aspects of his [Obasanjo’s regime].

Before her appointment as the Executive Secretary of the National Agency for the prohibition of Trafficking in Persons in 2004, Mrs. Carol Ndaguba the level headed and deeply religious wife of one of Nigeria’s best known Masters of Ceremony Chief Ndaguba, was a senior Director at the Federal Ministry of Justice where she excelled exceedingly in her calling as a lawyer of uncommon distinction. Coming from Onitsha a town reputed rightly to have produced some of Nigeria’s great minds like Nnamdi Azikiwe Nigeria’s first Non-Executive post-independence president and only indigenous Governor-General, Philip Emegwali a Computer wizard and of late Miss. Chimamanda Adichie a new sensation in international Literary industry reputed to have authored two best selling novels basically on the tragic Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 to 1970. It is therefore not surprising that Mrs. Carol Ndaguba has gone about and is currently going about her duties with an uncommon zeal, passion and great commitment that so many donor agencies and foreign Governments have identified with the noble work of the agency. Not too long ago the Italian Government announced that it has dedicated a good chunk of money to be used in aiding the good work of NAPTIP.Italy as is well known is the choice destination of Human traffickers who are engaged in the dare devil business of trafficking young Nigerian girls for forced prostitution. Recently, the agency under the eagle eye of Carol Ndaguba intercepted a cargo of Human beings mostly girls been trafficked by a senior Government official. On February 22 2008 Vanguard Newspapers reported that a top government official [names withheld] was apprehended by the detective team from the National Agency for the Prohibition in Trafficking in Persons for allegedly been involved in Human trafficking. The suspect according to the report anchored by one of Abuja’s new face of excellent journalism Chinyere Amalu is currently in NAPTIP custody and will soon be arraigned in court of law by the agency. The reporter told Nigerians that a competent source in NAPTIP informed her that several eminent Nigerians have mounted pressures on the officials of the anti-human trafficking agency to secure the release of this top government official caught in the act of human trafficking. Some military Generals, Senators and other prominent Nigerians in the society have inundated the agency with desperate phone calls soliciting the release from detention of this Government official arrested for this despicable crime of alleged trafficking. Miss Amalu told the readers of the widely circulated Vanguard newspaper that an official of NAPTIP confided in her that the officials of the agency will not succumb to the pressure and subtle threats from very powerful quarters bent on undermining the cause of justice because a top government official has been caught this time around committing the crime that if a poor Nigerian is arrested would have been paraded in the national television network and newspapers. According to the source who spoke with Miss Amalu of the Vanguard; “recently NAPTIP arrested a top government official allegedly involved in human trafficking. He is right now in the agency’s custody awaiting prosecution. But the funniest thing is that some Generals, Senators are mounting pressure to secure his release.” “look, there is no way we can win the war against human trafficking if only the small people involved in human trafficking are the only ones arrested and prosecuted. This is because we believe that some powerful forces sponsor these small scale human traffickers and we must get to the root of these dastardly crimes. Until we start from the top we can not win the battle. Both the bid and small fishes must be fished out and prosecuted for optimum achievement of our mandate. NAPTIP has told those Senators and Generals calling us to come forward and identify themselves with the arrested top government official and we will release him, but none of the callers have shown up. Trafficking in Human persons in low risk crime but profitable. It is only through well coordinated strategy by all that can tackle these crimes.”

In 2005 barely a year after the anti-human trafficking agency took off, Nigeria presented a country paper at the eleventh United Nations congress on Crime and criminal Justice in Bangkok, Thailand attended by twelve delegates from Nigeria among several thousands of others from around the Globe and Nigeria informed the world that it was making headway in the fight against human trafficking which ranks as one of the most despicable transnational crime. At the UN congress attended also by this columnist, Nigeria informed the world that the National Agency for the Prohibition in Trafficking in Persons which was established in 2004 has undertaken several activities aimed at tackling this emerging threat to world peace which is human trafficking by international crime rings. NAPTIP embarked on bilateral and multilateral negotiations with corresponding agencies of neighboring as well as destination countries for these trafficked persons because it realized that some aspect of trafficking in persons constitute transnational crime which cannot be prosecuted without the cooperation of other countries particularly the neighboring transit and source countries as well as the destination countries. In May 2004 the agency negotiated a memorandum of understanding on a joint border patrol, investigation and process of identifying victims of human trafficking with Benin Republic. Other countries that Nigeria entered into working partnership to fight the menace of human trafficking include Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Chad Republic and Togo. NAPTIP has an operational memorandum of understanding with Italy, United Kingdom. Spain, Saudi Arabia are collaborating actively with NAPTIP. The agency under the able leadership of the immensely charismatic Carol Ndaguba commissioned a research study to identify the emerging trend in human trafficking, the reasons for human trafficking and whether some areas of the country are more prone to human trafficking or vulnerable to the crime than the rest and if so why. The research has since been finalized. At inception the agency established the national investigation task force comprising police, Immigration and State Security Services [SSS] to respond swiftly to reported cases of human trafficking and liaise with all the security agencies concerned with the enforcement of human trafficking laws. The task force which operates from the NAPTIP headquarters in Abuja spreads its’ dragnets to all parts of the country and it has made modest achievements. After following development in NAPTIP since inception, this columnist can confidently say that the agency has indeed achieved a lot by way of sensitization of Nigerians about this menace although the agency need to galvanize and work out a national broad-based media approach to the fight and engage tested and trusted media consultants who are deeply patriotic and will not charge high professional fees to assist the agency with better result oriented media strategy. One area that the agency has done so much is that of commendable level of its rights-based approach to law enforcement which to a lot of development and Human Rights writers is a model that should be replicated on a national scale by all law enforcement agencies in Nigeria known for the use of torture as tool for law enforcement. Apart from the high conviction rate of alleged human traffickers prosecuted by the highly scholarly legal team of the agency, the agency treats its’ suspects with decorum in line with section 36 of the 1999 constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria. In the area of rehabilitation and counseling, NAPTIP under Carol Ndaguba has made a good name because the agency works closely with both local and international non-governmental organizations, Ministries of Women Affairs of all states of the federation and social workers in the rehabilitation and reintegration process of the victims. NAPTIP in 2005 told the United Nations at a congress attended by this columnist that it was in the process of writing a national policy on rehabilitation and counseling of victims of human trafficking. It is not known how far the agency has gone with this promise because the agency’s media and public affairs’ department is not sufficiently proactive to keep Nigerians abreast with happenings in the agency. Unlike what Mr. Jimoh, the head of the public and media affairs department of the National Agency for Food and Drug administration and Control [NAFDAC] or Abiodun Obimuyiwa of the Nigeria’s Consumer Protection Council has done to project their respective agencies positively, that of NAPTIP has not demonstrated the needed vigor and resourcefulness to project NAPTIP positively enough to Nigerians because this writer believes that NAPTIP has done and achieved more than what Nigerians know about it. A relatively new agency that has obtained a high conviction rate in Nigeria’s annoyingly slow justice system ought to be clearly celebrated. This columnist has decided to celebrate the achievements of this distinguished daughter of Nigeria who is a source of pride to Nigerians internationally and locally so that all other public officials would view their positions as vocations or callings to serve Nigerians selflessly. The Carol Ndaguba’ example needs to be replicated across the country so that the rest of the world will know that Nigeria is not all about bad people or yahoo boys who engage in the pastime of duping unsuspecting members of the international community. The Agency has just celebrated its fifth year anniversary of successfully battling the scourge of Human trafficking with a high profile launch of a programme tagged RED CARD to Human Trafficking with the Wife of the Nigerian President Turai Yar’adua as one of the leading pillars and supporters of the good and humanitarian cause. The private sector especially the Oil companies and Banks ought to show more commitments in supporting the fight against human trafficking. All Banks that still use pretty ladies and handsome looking men as marketers to prostitute and secure huge financial deposits from the many morally bankrupt clients especially politically office holders who usually have unfettered access to stupendous wealth in Nigeria should be told in black and white to desist from the nefarious practices or be named, shamed and the officials prosecuted to serve as deterrent to all others.

+EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND JOURNALIST IN ABUJA.

YAR’ADUA: A PRESIDENCY IN DISARRAY?

BY EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO

Concerned by the legendary flip flops of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, a friend called me from China the other day to find out how the millions of jobless Nigerian Graduates are coping with what he aptly called “a visionless and thoroughly incompetent” administration unwilling to provide the enabling environments for the terrible living conditions of millions of Nigerians to improve significantly. Reminded by this columnist that the Yar’adua’s Presidency has only lasted a little less than a year and that the administration has another chance of asking Nigerian voters for another mandate by 2011 when the first tenure would have lapsed, and my friend angrily told me that it would be a costly mistake for Nigerians or rather the Independent National Electoral Commission to return the current Federal administration through another thoroughly rehearsed rigging strategies of the ruling [RUINING] Peoples Democratic Party. He said a re-election of the current administration for a second tenure in 2011 will be an “unmitigated disaster”.

My good friend recalled that on assumption of office, this administration pledged that it will operate by the cardinal principle of RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW. But few weeks after, the Government through the Secretary to the Federal Government Babagana Kingibe announced the illegal and unconstitutional dissolution of all extant Governing Councils of Federal Government Agencies. He was later to recant his public statement and issued a second circular announcing the dissolution of only the Governing Councils of Agencies whose tenures are not recognized by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. By implication, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation forgot that most of these Agencies not mentioned in the Constitution were far older than the Constitution and operates under statutory provisions that are not contradictory to the Constitution because these bodies created by the previous Governments under decrees are automatically deemed as operating under the Acts of the National Assembly and are therefore lawful and legal entities. Take for instance, the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, created through an enabling law in 1995 during the General Sani Abacha-led military junta. The enabling law is called the National Human Rights Commission Act, 1995 published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette Number 28 on 6th October 1995 volume 82. Under this Act, the tenure of the Governing Council members is four years and the president does not have the power to dissolve the council but he can remove the members individually if there exists any breach of the provisions as spelt out in the enabling Act. But the Secretary to the Federal Government illegally announced the dissolution of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission that was reconstituted by President Olusegun Obasanjo only in 2005. Is this a presidency committed to respecting the RULE OF LAW?

My friend further reminded me that another of the several legendary flip flops of the current administration occurred in the first few months on assumption of office when the President on the promptings of the Federal attorney General and Minister of Justice Mike Andookaa wrote directing the erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC Malam Nuhu Ribadu to revert to the Federal Attorney General each time the Commission wants to prosecute any alleged fraudster including the former State Governors who were colleagues and major sponsors of the Umaru Musa Yaradua’s presidential campaigns. When bombarded by criticism from a large section of Senior Lawyers faulting the directive that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should seek the permission of the Federal Attorney General before prosecuting all the accused persons, the President in less than twenty four hours reversed himself. The Federal Attorney General could not swallow his pride and made sure that Nuhu Ribadu was removed by false pretence because Nigerians woke up to read on the pages of Newspapers that Nuhu Ribadu has been directed to proceed to Kuru for a year course by the Acting Inspector General of Police, an office not covered by the 1999 constitution because the Constitution only recognizes the office of the Inspector General of Police. Speculations became rife that sending the no-nonsense Nuhu Ribadu to Kuru was a way of easing him out to slow down the prosecution of some of the former Governors who bankrolled the current President’s presidential campaigns, but the Federal Government again told Nigerians that Nuhu Ribadu was only on training course necessary to make him a better administrator. Few months after, another appointment of an Acting Chairman for the EFCC in the person of the seventy something old Grand Mother Farida Waziri from Mike Andookaa’a ethnic stock was made by the now smiling and cheerful Federal Attorney General who throughout the period he waged unrelenting battle with the now removed Nuhu Ribadu never smiled publicly. The Government at the center fought tooth and nail to ensure that she was confirmed by the Senate which it achieved through the cooperation of the Senate President who busy elsewhere [COURT OF APPEAL] was trying to rescue his mandate which was annulled, though wrongfully, by the electoral Tribunal. After initial hiccups, the Senate confirmed Farida Waziri as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The circumstance of the sack of Nuhu Ribadu is another instance of a Presidency in disarray, according to my friend. Flip flops you may say, but the Presidency of Umaru Musa Yar’adua has consistently reneged in its’ solemn pledge to declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY IN THE ELECTRICITY POWER SECTOR since coming to office. Presidential Spokesperson Segun Adeniyi told his former Newspaper, This Day, that the President will declare power emergency but that he was been cautious since a declaration of power emergency is not another entertainment but a serious matter meant to tackle in a realistic manner the power challenge in the country both in the short and long terms. Pray! Who said that the declaration of power emergency was a child’s play? Segun Adeniyi in this particular interview anchored by Ike Abonyi in Abuja displayed a high sense of inconsistency between what he wrote as a Journalist for This Day on his assessment of the Obasanjo’s profligate spending on the power sector without commensurate result. Any way he is now wearing the Garb of a politician or rather a Political Appointee who has no choice but to do the bidding of his pay master. The other day it was reported in the Western media that President Yar’adua asked Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom of military assistance to tackle the upsurge in militancy and oil theft in the heavily crude oil endowed but heavily neglected Niger Delta region. But just when Nigerians and other critics across the Globe tackled the Federal Government for this faux pas and big blunder since Nigeria’s problem essentially demands home made solution, the Government again denied and stated that there was never a time it asked the British Government for Military assistance to tackle the Niger Delta Crises. What a flip flop? The handling of the Nigerian Union of Teachers’ [NUT] latest strike by the grossly incompetent Minister of Education, the Ebonyi State born Igwe Aja Nwachukwu who ironically comes from a family of distinguished teachers, shows again that the current administration thrives in illogical flip flops. Initially, the federal Government told Nigerians that it can only pay the Teachers Salary Scale [TSS] to Teachers under its’ employ, but few weeks into the strike the same Government shamelessly told Nigerians that the Federal Government does not have a single teacher in its’ pay roll. What a contradiction? Government must build trust in the people it is governing and always come clean when issues of this magnitude are deliberated. There is nothing wrong in Government telling the people that though it toyed with the idea of inviting military assistance from Britain but that because of the rejection by Nigerians it has decided otherwise. If Government believes in the people and transparently goes about with the business of Governance, then the people will own the democratic processes and always canvass support for the policies of Government targeted at making the living condition of Nigerians better. Nigerians needs order not disarray in our Presidency.

+Emmanuel Onwubiko is a Human Rights Activist and Journalist in Abuj