Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Bukola Saraki’s Predicament in Yoruba Worldview By Abimbola Lagunju



It is a common Yoruba belief that any predicament that befalls any individual has a source and cause. There is no predicament that afflicts a man without some source. This belief gave origin to divinations and healing in Yoruba culture. Divination priests (and now their pastor-counterparts and Muslim clerics) seek to understand the source of a problem facing an individual and then proffer what they consider the most appropriate solutions.

Yoruba belief has four major categories of causes of a predicament:  Akoba, Afise, Afomo and Afowofa. Of these four causes, two are externally induced, one is self-provoked and one can be said to be accidental.  Akoba can be roughly translated as being set up by others deliberately or inadvertently to take the blame for an offence not committed. Afise means a deliberate attempt by others to induce predicament in the life of an individual. Afomo implies getting into a predicament for being at the wrong place at the wrong time or walking into a predicament. Afowofa is self-induced predicament.

An important prerequisite for solution out of a predicament is that the afflicted individual gives a true narrative of his life and his ise owo (deeds professionally and socially). It is a process of relieving the conscience of its burdens and trusting the diviner or the healer to help find solution. This practice of demanding a true account of the individual’s past records in order to find a solution for his predicament cuts across all religions. The Catholics call it confession, while other diviners and healers call it other names.

Bukola Saraki has a problem with his narrative. Conceited, arrogant and cunning, he has lost himself in his maze of self-deceit and lies. He tells a warped narrative. He seeks to self-attribute his predicament to Akoba by telling the discerning populace that his “political distractors” are responsible. To checkmate Akoba, he rigged himself to the post of Senate President, believing that by sitting high above his “distractors” as he did in Kwara State for 8 years, his predicament would go away.

Disquieted by the persistence of his predicament, he turns his attention to Afise. He says it is because he is “fighting corruption” and the bigger corruption is fighting back by inflicting him with false declaration of assets and fraud. Saraki wants us to believe that bigger corruption wrote his declaration of assets on his behalf and committed fraud in his name. He opened a warfront against the bigger corruption and their Afise. Bukola adopted a three-pronged strategy for his war. He consulted his marabout in Ilorin to consult his ancestors to fight his war. Not sure of his ancestors’ capacity or willingness, he consulted the Chief Imam of Ilorin to go higher up and get the angels to fight his cause. While still awaiting the reply from heaven, Bukola engaged the services of earthlings - lawyers and his spokesperson to publicly accuse Afise of misdemeanors and plotting to bring him down.

Confused by his gradual demystification and rapid loss of face as well as his apparent failure to attribute the growing storm of his predicament to “Akoba” and “Afise”, Saraki instructed his lawyers to run to the High Court as well as the Appeal Court to convince them that he could not and should not be arrested and brought to Code of Conduct Tribunal to answer for what “Afomo” has put in his way. His confused SANs could not find appropriate laws to stop the storm and resorted to inventing their own puerile and despicable interpretations of the law.

Everyone but Bukola understands that the cause of his predicament is Afowofa through his shameless greed, disregard for the laws of the land, mad ambition and delusion of grandeur. Bukola is either too arrogant or delusional to share this in his narrative. A troubling question to ask is whether he really understands his own actions, history and life. Is Bukie cooked mentally?

Afflictions from Afowofa have no solution. Only charlatans in all religions claim to have solutions to predicaments from Afowofa. True priests of all deities call the affliction and its consequences Kadara (destiny) and in severe cases of Afowofa, like Bukola Saraki’s, the individual is confined to an asylum or solitary confinement so he does not harm his society.

In the case of Bukola, these two solutions combined are the best to save Nigeria from his toxicity.

Friday, July 03, 2015

“Change” is Governance by Results – An open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari By Abimbola Lagunju



Dear Mr. President,
Governments in Nigeria either at the central or regional level have mastered the habit of deceiving Nigerians through media onslaughts of announcements of an intention or the beginning of a normal governance process. Contrary to the expectations of the Nigerian public that the highly publicized intentions will transform into actions and results that will be duly reported by the press, the declarant soon goes to sleep and moves on to inventing other spurious intentions. In many cases, the public never hears of the outcome of these intentions and the press forgets to ask on our behalf.  The Nigerian media, either through naiveté or gullibility or inducements or for want of interesting reportable events inundate their papers with mundane governance processes and declarations of bogus intentions of political leaders and forget to report concrete results with measurable impacts on the lives of Nigerians.
In order to induce permanent memory failure in the press and the occasionally curious but suffering public, the government hires those that dub themselves attack dogs, who believe that deceit, manipulation of facts and aggressive behavior are tools of interfacing with the mainstream press and by extension the Nigerian people. Even your party while in opposition suffered from this memory loss. The party allowed itself to be befuddled by the maze of endless processes announced by the past government. It contented itself with contending with the so-called attack dogs.

The slogan “Change” by which you convinced Nigerians to vote you into the presidency implies a paradigm shift. A departure from the undesirables of the past and the beginning of a new era. “Change” is a solemn declaration of your intentions to usher in this new paradigm. Your party published its manifesto at the beginning of the election campaign which majority of those who voted for “change” did not read. They did not read not because they are illiterates, but because they have set their own parameters of “change” in their minds.  “Change” means measurable results and not a barrage of news on processes that in the past led to nowhere. “Change” means the recovery of our collective memory.
The purpose of my letter to you is to share Nigerians’ understanding of “change” and the yardsticks of their measurements.

Firstly, it has become the habit of Nigerian leaders to speak of electricity supply in terms of megawatts. This is like a head of a family speaking of food for his household in terms of calories. Megawatt discussions by past Nigerian leaders have simply switched off lights in households. Nigerians live in darkness. Generators, small and big which are supposed to serve as exceptional back-ups have now become the main source of electricity for Nigerians. Noise and smoke pollution, major health hazards are a way of life in Nigeria. Your Excellency, if there are any words that Nigerians abhor, megawatt is one of them. Avoid this word in your discourse. The measurement of electricity supply to Nigerians should be in terms of supply to households: How many households among total number of households in Nigeria have continuous 24/7 electricity supply? This simple measurement can also be adopted by the federating states and the local governments. “Change” is when a large proportion of Nigerian households have constant electricity supply. Your administration can set the percentage figures for the next four years.

Secondly, Nigeria does not seem to know the number of its children in school age attending schools. Unicef annually publishes such figures (no one seems to know the source) and the government that is supposed to provide the figures vehemently contests Unicef figures.  How many children in school-going age do we have annually? How many public and private schools do we have in Nigeria? How many children in school-going age are in school? “Change” is when a large proportion of Nigerian school children in school-going age are in school and studying under universally acceptable conditions. Your administration can set the percentage figures.

Thirdly, the Nigeria health care system is in a terrible state of decay and neglect. You probably read the experience of Mr. Nasir El Rufai during a night visit to one the public hospitals in Kaduna. What he experienced in Kaduna is the way the health system is all over the country. Performance of public health facilities is measured in body counts from avoidable deaths and unfounded referrals. It may shock you to hear that the first thing a Nigerian child gets to see as he is being born is the light from a cellphone or from torchlight or from a lantern if he is unfortunate to be born at night. There are no drugs in public health facilities and it is an understatement to say that the health workforce is very demotivated. “Change” is putting a permanent stop to avoidable deaths. Change is equal access for all Nigerians to quality health care delivered by highly motivated professionals. “Change” is accounting for any life lost.

Fourthly, the future Nigerian middle class is being threatened. Youths have no jobs. The public and private sectors have shut their doors to Nigerian youths. The weird logic of unemployability of Nigerian university graduates has become an excuse for many in the private sector to deny youths employment. For example, Nigeria, a developing country with many health issues is one of the very few countries in the world where young graduates from the medical school may remain unemployed for a long time or paid a pittance for arduous exploitation in the private sector. “Change” is measurable investments in youth employment and empowerment. “Change” is the reduction of youth unemployment (with figures) to the barest minimum. “Change” is gainful employment and not deceitful corporate social responsibility by the organized private sector. “Change” is arresting brain waste.

Fifthly, the Nigerian road network has over the years been used as an object of manipulation and deceit of the Nigerian public by the politicians. Roads are tarred on paper; old roads in decrepit conditions are multiply commissioned; maintenance of many happens only on papers. “Change” on the road network should be measured in kilometers. How many kilometers of tarred roads do we have in the country? How many new ones will be built? How many will be repaired? And within which time-frame?

Sixthly, you spoke severally during your campaign about your determination to rid this country of the evil of corruption. It will not be too farfetched to state that all aspects of the Nigerian life are ridden with corruption. Corruption has become the oxygen for survival in this country. It is an attitude, and championing a change in attitude demands determination and courage. Determination, you do not lack, but you may need to work on the courage as the bad guys are everywhere and are scheming to overwhelm your determination. But for the Nigerian populace, “Change” is how much of our stolen commonwealth is recovered.  “Change” is the number of corruption cases brought to logical end. Change is expunging “perpetual injunction” from the judicial vocabulary. “Change” is jail and shame for the corrupt, big or small. “Change” means no slap on the wrist for big thieves.  “Change” is being among the 20 least corrupt nations in the world on Transparency International scale.

Finally, Mr. President, your people have been taken hostage by fear.  Fear for their lives and their properties. Improvement in security has been reduced to media propaganda of processes without results or in terms of body counts or prisoners taken. “Change” is attitudinal change of the Nigerian security forces. “Change” is justice. “Change” is making Nigerians believe in the Nigerian project. “Change” is invoking patriotic and civic zeals in Nigerians. “Change” is making everybody count. “Change” is peace.

Your Excellency, I was happy to see a media picture of you reading a Nigerian newspaper aboard your plane to South Africa. I was happy to see another media picture of you with an I-pad. To me, these images show that you have your ear to the ground; you want to directly feel the pulse of the nation. Thus, I trust you will read this piece and understand what “Change” means to your people.

Mr. President, please receive my highest and esteemed regards.

Kindly yours,
Abimbola Lagunju

Abimbola Lagunju is a writer and author of several books.

Friday, June 26, 2015

The Nigerian Stereotype and the Nigerian Senate By Abimbola Lagunju



Of Nigeria’s many faces to the world, the one that evokes an immediate sense of alert and distrust across global borders is its perceived citizens’ disdain for legality. The presentation of Nigerian passport at any border even within the ECOWAS sub-region raises red alert. Host countries expect the worst from the Nigerian community. That is what we have been reduced to!

The world tends to live and see each other through simplified representation. Nigeria and Nigerians have been stereotyped. The stereotyping of the Nigerian as someone that readily breaks laws and norms inside and outside his own country is an albatross that millions of travelling and the Nigerian diaspora have to carry. The transgressions of a few miscreants have placed an extra burden on the others to prove that they are law-abiding citizens. Stereotyping is like permanent ink on a garment. The Nigerian fabric is stained with criminality in the eyes of the world.

Can anyone blame the world for this representation of the Nigerian? Nigeria is the world headquarters of internet-based crimes; it ranks high as a drug-courier and human trafficking country and does not get unmentioned in the list of nations with extreme levels of fraud. In the world of crime, those that represent Nigeria actively compete with those that represent themselves. Corruption, theft of the commonwealth, electoral fraud and mindless immorality have become tools of governance. It appears that despite its rabid religiosity, the country, as represented by its leaders has lost its moral compass. There are simply no limits to moral and legal transgressions. The crime cabal, probably less than a million individuals and representing less than one percent of our population has put the rest of us on the world’s red-alert list. They have corrupted and are decimating our existential values. They are the reason for the Nigerian stereotyping in the eyes of the world.

The government lamely waves a faded flag of anti-corruption. The rhetoric does not match the actions. The immediate past president in one of his discourses proudly told the world that stealing our commonwealth is not corruption. It is simply a case of a goat grazing where it is tethered. The goat has finally denuded the national pasture. All our money is gone into private pockets and our outrage reduced to mere beer-parlour discussions.

If we thought we could redeem our image and change the stereotype stamped on us by the world going by the results of our last elections, we are wrong. Events in the past few weeks in the Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives have shown that the moral fabric of our nation is being shredded by a few of supposed law-makers and by extension moral guides of our society. The process of destruction of our values started under the previous administration. It was during this regime that five law-makers in a state out-voted 16 law-makers. Democracy as a practice of numbers was reinvented. Violent gangster-like minority held the majority to hostage. And nothing happened!

The moral decadence among the political class reached its peak during the recent election of the senate president when deceit became the adopted tool by the senators for a simple process. How can the number three citizen of over 180 million people be elected through a process that is very similar to those described under Article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code? Obtainment by false pretence! This is no politics. It is moral indecency. A despicable act. In our traditional societies, it is called an abomination. This is akin to putting our National stamp on the stereotype that the world has ascribed to the Nigerian as he who has no qualms about breaking any moral or legal code inside and outside his country.

Mr. Bukola Saraki may have gone beyond the limits of morally acceptable behavior as a person of Yoruba extraction. While he may be seeing himself only within the confines of the Senate chambers, riding on his high horse among his co-senators and exulting in his treachery, millions of other nationalities around the world are feeling vindicated in their conviction that the Nigerian is an irredeemable fraud. How will the world look at this senate president when he travels out? What will other world senate presidents think of him if he gets to meet them? If the ultimate goal of Mr. Saraki is the presidency of the Federal Republic, then he has really bungled his chance forever. Nigeria has never elected and will never elect anyone with a moral burden to the presidency.

It is not clear what options are open to Mr. Saraki now, but he has the moral responsibility to undo this quagmire he has thrown Nigeria into. Maybe he should simply pass a law to scrap the expensive senate like Senegal did. By going that way, Mr. Saraki may still make the presidency someday.

Abimbola Lagunju

Monday, May 25, 2015

DIY – How to run Down a Country in Four Years using God and Self by Abimbola Lagunju



I am sure Mr. Jonathan will be thinking of engaging ghost writers to write his memoir. He has a lot to write about. The Nigerian system that always manages to throw up the least competent in its political sphere goodlucked him from an unknown zoology lecturer to the presidency of the Feudal (pardon me) Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has come a long way from insipid Otuoke to the dizzying heights of Aso Rock with no known remarkable achievements or vision or even an inspiring mien. Just a patient political pawn moved by powerful hands in a twisted political equation that evidently ended up in a sum total of zero.
Two things have marked the presidential personality of Mr. Jonathan from my point of view. The first is his incredulous perception of his position and power. Many people have always wondered why Mr. Jonathan smiled on all occasions during his tenure even during meetings to discuss the most tragic events that befell this country. Some have wrongfully ascribed this to a good nature, but I see it in a different light. I suspect that every day during his tenure, Mr. Jonathan felt overjoyed by his position and power. He simply could not believe his luck. Those ubiquitous smiles were external manifestation of an inner joy.  They had nothing to do with any event or any person. Caught in and haunted by his background, he was overpowered emotionally by the privileges of presidency. I can imagine the expression that popped up in his mind every morning: “Na me be this?!” And the army of sycophants and praise-singers did not help the matter. Understanding his obsession with self-admiration, they kept him happy by singing him praise songs in different languages while they frittered away the goodwill that brought him to power in 2011. They stole and squandered the nation’s commonwealth while Jonathan spoke and smiled to himself in the mirror. It is these same praise-singers that kept Mr. Jonathan happy that accusing fingers were pointed at for monumental corruption. And people naively expected him to fire them! Who would sing the praises of the prince of Otuoke if he fired them? He wisely kept them. His own happiness mattered more than the management of the country and its difficult people.
And when the praise-singers took flight for greener pastures after Mr. Jonathan lost the election, he felt lost and unwanted to the extent that he publicly complained. His loneliness, not the abysmal state of the economy and the plight of Nigerians became his favorite subject for public discourse in his last days as president. His wife, Patience shed light on the inner workings of the mind of the couple when she publicly declared that they were happy with their personal achievement despite the loss at the elections because they never knew they would ever reach the pinnacle of Nigerian political system. Their tenure was simply about the self rather than services to our country. The couple may be happy, but Nigerians with the exception of those who were on Jonathan’s payroll are not happy with him. And I doubt they will ever be happy with him and his tenure.
The second thing that marked his presidential personality is a common Nigerian trait, but taken to a ridiculous level. A Nigerian believes that he can implement any task and will not shy away from any. It is quite un-Nigerian to admit that it is impossible to implement a task even if the person has no requisite competence or skills for the task. Here in this country, masons claim and pretend to be civil engineers, nurses are surgeons, medical doctors are contractors, bankers do not shy away from road construction, and zoologists are politicians. It is an endless list of quacks invading all possible professions. And when the question of quality is raised, they are quick to pass the responsibility to God. “God will do it. God can handle it”. Nigeria is probably the only country in the world where God is assigned mundane tasks on a daily basis. And when the task fails because the necessary skills were not there in the first instance, the blame is quickly placed squarely on God’s shoulders. “That is the way God wants it!” God abuse is a national crime in Nigeria.  As a true Nigerian, Jonathan simply abdicated his responsibilities of good governance and passed them to God with the approval of his CAN president friend and a legion of Christian sycophants. “God will rule Nigeria…..leave everything to God”. “God will defeat corruption if at all there is! God will handle Boko Haram! God will bring the Chibok girls back home! God will handle the economy.” And Jonathan did ! He glued himself to the mirror of self-admiration while the ship of the country navigated tough waters without a captain. And when it was time to give account of his stewardship, he invented a plethora of imaginary achievements and went from one prayer session to the other to engage God to vote or rig the elections for him. What God abuse!
Was Jonathan naïve or clueless during his tenure as many would like to think and claim?  I do not think so. His mission in Aso Rock was not about governance of the Nigerian State, it was all about himself. And this, he achieved. His best memories of his tenure as president would not be a creative solution to some knotty national problem, but probably a meeting where all his sycophants were gathered and a silly song was coined for him to sing his praises. And he danced to this song too.
Now that he has run the country to its historical low, I will advise Jonathan not to contemplate writing any memoir. The mind of the Nigerian is his history book; the most creative ghost writers cannot in any way change what we have written in our minds. Ask IBB. But just in case he decides to write, I suggest a title that will catch world attention and boost the sale of the book: “DIY – How to run Down a Country in Four Years Using God and Self.”