Nigeria: Jonathan’s House As Metaphor

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

So former President Goodluck Jonathan house was plundered? While this is a personal misfortune to the former president, it serves as a fortuitous reminder to both the leaders and the citizens of the demands of nation building amid the despoliation of the national patrimony by those paid to watch over it.

*Dr. Goodluck Jonathan 

At the outset, we need to state in unequivocal terms that our humanity is by no means vitalised by the troubles of others or what the Germans would identify as Schadenfreude. At the same time, we owe no fidelity to the philosophy of not speaking ill of the dead which deprives us of the reflection that could yield useful lessons for our own lives. Thankfully, in this case, we do not speak ill of a dead Jonathan but a man who has not yet passed the bloom of life and still has so much ahead of him. You need not doubt this – think of Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Donald Trump who offered to serve their nations in their seventies and the point becomes clear.

Jonathan’s four-bedroom duplex in Abuja was stripped bare of all valuables. These included six television sets, three refrigerators, one gas cooker, furniture, electronics, toilet and electrical fittings and internal doors and frames. The suspected masterminds of this larceny are those charged with the responsibility of guarding the house.

Jonathan has publicly confirmed reports that the house was burgled. But this public confirmation might have been spurred by the need to dispel wild speculations about the caches of luxuries in the house that threw into stark relief his implacable acquisitive character. This public acknowledgement only came after he had reported the case to the inspector-general of police who did not waste time in arresting the policemen who are suspected to have committed the crime.

Nigeria: A Clear And Present Danger

By Anthony Cardinal Okogie

Does the life of the Nigerian have any value? If it does, can it be truly said that Nigerians appreciate the value of life? The questions are meant for all of us. We all have to take responsibility for protection of life and property in this country.

*Okogie

We live in clear and present danger. We are not safe when we are at home. Neither are we safe away from home. Life runs the risk of being cut short by armed robbers, kidnappers, dangerous drivers driving on dangerous roads, driving cars that are dangerous for transportation. And just when we thought we were gaining the upper hand in the battle with Boko Haram, violent herdsmen stare at our helpless faces while governors who ought to be at the vanguard of security, are accused of acting in ways that are prejudicial to security. Our politicians – our president, our governors, our legislators and judges, ministers and commissioners – are well protected. But we the citizens are not. What a nation!

Political leaders who cannot provide security are a total failure, their generation an unmitigated disaster. How then can any of them proudly introduce himself as President of Nigeria, or governor or senator or member of the National or State Assembly? How can they claim to be at the helm of affairs in a country so chaotic? To use a Yoruba expression, could it be that the average Nigerian politician is like the child who was miles away from home on the day shamefacedness was being shared?

Almost six decades after independence, almost 70 after the establishment of Nigeria’s premier University of Ibadan, we still have to rely on medical tourism. But how many poor Nigerians can afford to spend one day in a hospital overseas? How many can afford to be away from their work for three months? When shall we cease to make our country a laughing stock in the comity of nations? We cannot reasonably dictate to people where they are to seek medical attention. But we Nigerians have the capacity to run good hospitals. All we just need is a leadership that enables, not one that disables. 

President Buhari And His Rumoured Death

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

An impediment to the quest for the full return of history to schools is our fear of excavating the seamy past of our heroes. We want history to be returned to our schools so that we can learn about our past and its avatars and draw some useful lessons for an effective response to our contemporary challenges. But we are trapped in the tragic paradox of the fear of being confronted with the foibles and peccadilloes of the past heroes who shaped our history. This paradox is amply expressed in the warning not to speak ill of the dead.

We are even forbidden from speaking ill of the living. Fawn on the living, credit them with the virtues they are crassly bereft of and there would not be any problems. But attempt to draw attention to their less than stellar qualities and a kerfuffle is provoked. There is a grimmer possibility of this if the subjects are public office holders. They would deploy all their might to teach the daring offenders the lessons that they should not traduce a big Nigerian. With the complicity of the police, they would throw them into jail where they would be forgotten.

It is in this context that we can situate the developments around the rumoured death of President Muhammadu Buhari. To be sure, it is wrong to wish anybody dead. For neither do we have the power to take the life of someone we did not create nor know when that person would die. Again, we are reminded of Michel de Montaigne’s warning that we should not consider anyone happy until his death. In other words, no human being, no matter his or her station in life is immune from the storms and tempests of life. Thus, we must not be deterred from discussing the rumoured death of the president and appropriating some useful lessons from it.

After all, other leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe were said to have died while they were still alive. Even in Zimbabwe, there have been many rumours of death about Life President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe who is amused at the rumours has quipped that he has resurrected more often than Jesus Christ. And just recently, one Pastor Patrick Mugadza prophesied that the 92-year-old Mugabe would die on October 17, 2017. And unsurprisingly, Mugadza has been taken to court. But the joke is on Mugabe as Mugadza’s lawyer has said that the pastor was only relaying a message from God and the police had to prove that God is not its originator. 

The reactions of Nigerians to the rumoured death of the president are a mix of genuine shock and barefaced humbug. How dare malevolent persons claim that the president is dead? hollered some. If our president had reacted like this to the recurrent wastage of lives in the country, we would have disincentivised the propensity for willful killing by fellow citizens or through government neglect. We glimpse our president’s lack of respect for human life through his protection of those who allegedly stole the money meant for starving and sexually exploited internally displaced persons. Obviously, these lives are not as precious as the president’s. This is why despite the outrage at the sleaze of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Lawal Babachir, Buhari is begging the Senate to allow him to stay in office.

Buhari’s Medical Trip, A Blot On Nigeria’s Image

By Osahon Enabulele

I heard with shock and disappointment the statement issued on Sunday, June 5, 2016, by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Mr. President, informing the general public that President Muhammadu Buhari will proceed on a 10-day medical vacation to London from Monday, June 6, 2016, during which period he is billed to see an E.N.T. specialist for a persistent ear infection, based on a recommendation for further evaluation said to have been advanced by Mr. President’s Personal Physician and an E.N.T. specialist in Abuja.

Even though the nature of the persistent ear infection/specific diagnosis was not stated in the Special Adviser’s press release, I wish to commend Mr. President for the medical disclosure (a departure from the past) and sincerely sympathise with him, especially at this critical stage of our country’s history and development, and wish him quick recovery.

However, I am very constrained to state that this foreign medical trip flies in the face of the Federal Government’s earlier declaration of her resolve to halt the embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical tourism, which as at the end of the year 2013 had led to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion dollars, particularly from expenses incurred by political and public office holders (and their accompanying aides), whose foreign medical trips (most of which are unnecessary) were financed with tax payers’ resources.

 At various times, one had advised Mr. President to make a clear public pronouncement on his resolve to show leadership by example with respect to the utilisation of the medical expertise and facilities that abound in Nigeria by him and other members of the Federal Executive Council, particularly in concrete expression of Section 46 of the National Health Act which seeks to address the abuse of tax payers’ resources through frivolous foreign medical travels embarked upon by political and public office holders.

Undoubtedly, this latest move by Mr. President at a time the Federal Government is said to be on a change mission and rebirth of national consciousness and commitment through a backward integration agenda, Mr. President has lost a golden opportunity to assert his change mantra through a clear demonstration of leadership by example, by staying back to receive medical treatment in Nigeria and thereby inspiring confidence in Nigeria’s health sector which currently boasts of medical experts that favourably compare with medical experts anywhere in the world, if not even better.