Thursday, March 30, 2017

The End Started at the Beginning for Us - Our President said it, we just didn’t get it By Abimbola Lagunju



When President Muhammadu Buhari famously said on May 29, 2015 that he belonged to everybody and to nobody, the public went into a frenzy of interpretations of his philosophical words. Clearly, what he said was a code. It meant something that we did not understand and which, he did not bother to explain either. How could he, our Sai Baba, who belonged to us during the campaign and to whom we belonged during the voting process now come out and say publicly that he belonged to nobody after winning the elections? Something was quite wrong from the onset. We didn’t get it. Did these coded words apply to his family, his political associates, to the known sponsors of his victory, to the alliance of political parties that came together to ensure his victory or to the public? It was anybody’s guess. Has he acted or is he acting on those words is also anyone’s guess. As with many other important issues haunting our lives, some Nigerians made a sick joke of the President’s declaration and everyone moved on.

Mr. Buhari also said he was going to allow all the other arms of government do their jobs, while he would focus on his. He was neither going to interfere nor influence decision-making either at the Senate or the House of Representatives. He acted on these words. He let the election process of the Senate leadership pervert itself to produce the current leadership to the indignation of Nigerians. Nigerians expected some reaction, some political maneuver to undo this aberration, but this never came.  Mr Buhari let it ride. And what we have been seeing on the television are joint prayer sessions with the leadership of the Senate, smiles, hand-holding, hilarious laughter and visiting between the President and the Senate leadership here in Nigeria and in London.  Further, the President appears to be indifferent to the press exposures of the reprehensible actions of some members of his kitchen cabinet with links to the Senate leadership. It appears that some sinister pre-prepared script is being acted out by the combo of the Senate and the Executive. It is difficult to think that what we are seeing are spontaneous dramas. What we have been seeing in the past two years is antithetical to the persona of whom we thought we voted for.

Our President said, “I belong to everybody and to nobody!” This is not original. It belongs in Jean Jacques Rousseau’s treatise on Social Contract. Mr Buhari must have read it severally after he lost the previous elections. And he acted out some of the clauses of the Social Contract in order for him to win the 2015 elections. Hear Rousseau: “…as men cannot engender new forces, but only unite and direct existing ones, they have no other means of preserving themselves than the formation, by aggregation, of a sum of forces great enough to overcome the resistance. These they have to bring into play by means of a single motive power, and cause to act in concert. This sum of forces can arise only where several persons come together…….. each man, in giving himself to all, gives himself to nobody; and as there is no associate over whom he does not acquire the same right as he yields others over himself, he gains an equivalent for everything he loses, and an increase of force for the preservation of what he has.” Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong in forming alliances to overcome an obstacle or to reach an objective. What can be very wrong is if the objective is personal at the expense of a trusting nation rather than for common good or if the alliance is with people of questionable character.

Our President did not need to tell us that he belonged to everybody and to nobody. It was not necessary. We already have a binding social contract with him in our constitution. So he could not possibly be referring to the Nigerian public that voted him in. Who then was he talking to? To whom was he quoting Jean Jacques Rousseau in his public discourse? Mr. President needs to explain this to Nigerians.

That Mr. Buhari formed an alliance with other political parties to oust Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP is a fact in public domain. But we do not know what other alliances the President engaged in. That Mr. Buhari seems to have parted ways with other political parties has been widely reported. What about these other hidden alliances? Recent belligerence of the Senate leadership (despite the exposures of their moral baggage) towards the person of Mr. Buhari and his seeming helplessness tell a big story. It is terrifying that this belligerence is not based on any principles but on trivia that border on demand for respect from the President. Rousseau says “there is no associate over whom he does not acquire the same right as he yields others over himself….” In other words, the Senate leadership demands respect as per the conditions of an agreement between equals. What is the nature of this contract that seems to render our president a ghost of the supposed man of steel we voted for? This has nothing to do with our Constitution or with separation of powers; our Constitution does not allow for trivialities.

The Social contract between the President and the people of Nigeria far outweighs any other contract that the President might have engaged in, in the course of seeking the presidency. The people take precedence over alliances. Mr. Buhari has to boldly move out of unholy alliances that tie his hands while the people are still solidly behind him. What History will say of you as the President is much more than winning a second term.

The president should come out and tell us that “He belongs to everyone – to us, the people” and leave the VIP nobodies to lick their wounds.

I hope President Muhammadu Buhari reads this.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

South Africa – A Land of Thugs and Cutthroats By Abimbola Lagunju



It is a commonplace phenomenon that when people are confronted with certain images or they hear certain words or phrases, these external stimuli evoke pleasant or unpleasant thoughts, positive or negative physical reactions or psychological changes. These reactions are not necessarily based on personal experience, and may have been informed by other peoples’ experiences or simply from routine information gathering. It is akin to a mental scan of keywords in a narrative. Combined together, these keywords give a mental image of the subject under question.

When this exercise is applied to the mention of Republic of South Africa, the following words and phrases jump into mind: xenophobia, semi-literate thugs, violence, corrupt leadership, carjacking, rape, inferiority complex and ingrates.

South Africa has been in the news for a long time for xenophobic attacks on other Africans. The images of destruction visited on African immigrants have made the round in the world. These thugs kill, maim and rape. They accuse other Africans of taking jobs that they are too lazy to do, they accuse them for their economic woes and they invent stories to justify their carnage intentions. Then they judge and hound others like animals. Their leadership, both traditional and political gives tacit approval and make unconvincing excuses in the press. Hear what Jacob Zuma said of the attacks in 2017 “incidents of crime or feuds between people must not be incorrectly characterized as xenophobic violence”! And Goodwill Zwelithini king of South Africa's Zulu nation reportedly said in March 2015, “head lice should be squashed and foreigners should pack their belongings and leave the country”.

Their xenophobia starts from their embassies where they subject would-be travelers to humiliation. They play visa gods. And when finally the traveler obtains the visa, the traveler faces further humiliation on their national carrier, where semi-literate cabin crew talk down and humiliate their African passengers while they play the servant to the occasional white passenger on the plane. They are conditioned to be ever servile to their white masters. Forget their compromised independence. And on arrival in their international airport, the immigration and customs officers look for the most insignificant excuse to deny entry to the long-suffering black African passenger. They are outrightly hostile. We remember the story of a plane-load of Nigerians that was sent back for issues of yellow card. Nigeria under Foreign Minister Ashiru immediately retaliated and made the South African leadership eat humble pies. They have forgotten; they are back to their old game.

It is this same people whose leaders, cap in hand made a tour of different Black African states to ask for support during what they term “their struggle”. Their leaders came begging for money, for education places for their citizens, for military support and in some cases for military training grounds in some African countries. It is for these same people that many Africans shed their blood, suffered the invasion of their countries by the apartheid regime and were destabilized. The destabilization visited on Mozambique through the creation of Renamo by apartheid South Africa many years ago has still not gone away. Renamo still continues with the agenda of destabilization that it learnt from apartheid South Africa after twenty five years of the Peace Agreement. And it is these same Mozambicans who suffered so much for these South Africans that they now hound and kill like animals in their streets.

South Africans now point scornfully at the rest of Sub-Sahara as “Africans” and claim they are not Africans. They have said it and other Africans should respect that. They have a right to say who they are not. But they have not said who they are. But who really cares who or what they are? We know they aren’t Caucasians neither are they Asians. They are something that evokes xenophobia, semi-literate thugs, violence, corrupt leadership, carjacking, rape, inferiority complex and ingrates in the minds of other Africans. Their collective behavior represents an antithesis to the values of hospitality that Africans hold dear. They cannot be part of us. . What they do not know is that we own our lands in Africa they so much despise. And they have no lands. And there is nothing they can do about it. Black South Africans are just mere tenants on the African soil. Their masters own the lands and own them too.

Black South Africans in their collective delusions think their apartheid and race issues are over. They think their so-called struggle is over. They think their independence is forever. If they would focus a bit less on their hatred for other Africans and pay more attention to the emergence of a new world order where peoples’ rights are being threatened, they would understand that their so called independence of 1994 is just an interlude. What Independence without rights to land?! They still have a very long way to go. They still have a long struggle ahead. They will still look for help in the future from other African States. And who will listen to them? They have, in their naiveté and unbridled complex burnt all the bridges. South African can never again pull the wool of Pan-Africanism over the eyes of any Black African State or any African intellectual for that matter.

It is a crime for leaders of Black African States to fold their arms or make some diplomatic noise while Black South Africans maim and kill Black Africans. There are immediate measures that can be taken. Firstly, cut diplomatic ties with South Africa, secondly, expel South Africa from the African Union, thirdly reduce all trade links to the barest minimum (they can’t be killing other Africans and be making money in their countries), and lastly cut all sports ties with South Africa.

We really do not need South Africa for anything.

I hope Jacob Zuma reads this.

African Immigrant – Avec ou Sans Papiers By Abimbola Lagunju (Verses from Under the Sands)



I have just made the monthly pilgrimage
to the local Western Union office,
a little of my minimum wage,
wired untied aid to my distant village.

I, an engineer in a previous life,
a yesterday-depository of dreams,
now, an unwanted faceless number,
a perennial game of vote-hunting,
an election campaign topic: to be or not to be,
if to be, in what form lower than the present form?

My footprints once traceable in the light snow of doublespeak
fade on the rocks of real politik, when
election sun melts the icing of political correctness.

I am a wrong player, in the wrong team,
on a wrong pitch,
I stand to be flagged off the field by the right,
center or their far versions,
or kept offside by the left and liberal
in this game where I am
the only foul in the field.

But in truth, I am a victim of songs,
songs of griots, songs of praise, songs of barter
of my  beef for alien cauldrons,
in turn for green hides
to clothe decrepit ancient drums.

I stand on the stark border,
stranded on the line between bondage in freedom,
and the safety of desertion…
I pause for a moment,
then step into the darkness of freedom

Back at my place of work,
I look briefly at the foreman armed with a dangerous look;
A temporary replacement for
the good old whip safely locked away? in the closet of human rights.

Please massa…..!

I pick up my shovel and repeat history.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Our Senators must Wear Uniforms By Abimbola Lagunju



The members of Nigerian parliament have developed a penchant for wasting public funds on irrelevant things that do not add any quality to our lives. They waste our money, they waste our time and they play with our collective intelligence. We do not get any value for the money we spend on them. They have a short attention span on any matter. Different mundane things easily catch their attention while matters of national importance are quietly and deliberately kept off their radar.

They have now taken a fancy to uniforms. They like uniforms. They like Police, Army, Customs, immigration, Civil Defence uniforms. Uniforms! Our honourables and senators have turned uniforms to an issue of national importance. They want to see as many as possible in uniforms. They are not interested in the person, just the uniform he wears. The servile retinue of police aides in uniforms who waste our taxes guarding them from us, their employers has conditioned them to look down on service uniforms. They feel that they are superior to the wearer of any kind of uniform; after all, their police guards clean their shoes, carry their bags, escort their wives to the market and play the servants to their children. Appearing in anything but a uniform is considered an affront by these members of parliament. They send you out of their presence. They disgrace and humiliate you. Ask Hameed Ali. They were irked to see him in their parliament without his uniform. They wanted him to deck up like one of those police officers that carries their bags. He refused to oblige them. They walked him out. They hammered Hameed. They were not interested in hearing him on the performance of his charge or the reason why he dreamt up payment of  import duties on old and tired vehicles which his own men allowed into the country. They were not interested in Nigeria. They were interested in their ego. They invoked a redundant law to prove their point. Where on this God’s earth do parliamentarians waste taxpayers’ money on discussing in which clothes an employee of the State must appear before them? Hameed Ali did not come in his skin. He came in a decent and non-flamboyant outfit. But these senators wanted to see him in uniform by all means.

Their obsession with uniforms has limits however. They want others to wear uniforms, but not them. They dread the idea of changing their babarigas and agbadas for any kind of uniform. Just a couple of days ago, a tailor that sews uniforms for greedy politicians passed by their senate to ask them for confirmation of his appointment. He wanted them to confirm him as the official tailor for their future uniforms. They were horrified. They mugged Magu the Tailor. They did not hear him. They could not. They were deep in mental imagination of themselves in badly sewn short uniforms. They all know that Magu the Tailor already has their sizes. They also know that he has already purchased the cloth to sew their uniforms. They knew that if they confirmed his appointment, they would sooner or later be obliged to wear their short Made by Magu uniforms.  Individually, under their breaths, they muttered, “I reject it”…”this is not my portion”. Collectively they chased Magu, the EFCC chief tailor out of their presence like a demon. They exorcised him from their collective system.

And just down the road, in the House of Representatives (of themselves), the honourables are considering a bill to nominate their own tailor. They do not want to hear of Magu or any other tailor chosen by Mr. Buhari. They want one of their own to be their tailor. They want well-made agbadas and babarigas, not the kind of ill-fitting shirts and shorts built by Magu who learnt the trade from Ribadu. They believe they can pull it off. They know from history that Ibori built his own High Court in Asaba where Justice Marcel Awokulehin gave him favorable verdict for an unprecedented list of economic crimes. The honourables know that it is possible in Nigeria to eat your cake and have it. And they know that Nigerians will just take this intended coup against decency in their stride. After all we had Waziri and Adoke and nothing happened. We have had all sorts of nightmarish people in important places and nothing happened. We just wring our hands in the face of unimaginable crimes against us and our country.

But what is Mr Buhari going to do now about Magu the Tailor? Is he going to oblige the senators and find a more merciful and compliant tailor? Is he going to tell Magu to burn the block note of the sizes of the senators that he has diligently compiled? Will Mr. Buhari ask that the clothes that Magu bought to sew the uniforms be burnt? Mr Buhari should understand that none of these options is open to him. Magu does not know any other trade than to sew clothes for politicians with sticky fingers. See what happened to tailor Ribadu when he was sent out of his shop by Jonathan & Co. Ribadu lost his bearing. He is still reeling from the shock.  Ribadu, like Magu is a dedicated specialist tailor. Both cannot practice any other trade. Therefore, Mr. President Buhari, Mr. Magu cannot be sacked by those to whose wardrobes he wants to add more clothes. Magu has exposed more thieves of our commonwealth than the combined total number exposed since our independence. He has shamed them even if the courts are dragging their feet to send them to jail. Mr. Magu deserves a national honour and not a disgrace.

In the case of Hameed Ali, Mr. Buhari should let these senators understand that it is not the uniform that makes the brain. They should look elsewhere to massage their egos. Mr. Buhari needs to make it clear to the clients of Magu that if Hameed must wear a uniform to appear before them, they also will have to wear their own uniforms to appear before the people, Magu or not, and sooner than later.