Help! Our president has run mad again

By Babalola Yusuf Abiola

It all started like a rumour on the social media that President Goodluck Jonathan through the council of state which was purely an advisory body to the president has approved presidential pardon to some convicted Very Important Person (VIP) in the country. 

The VIP convicts were, former Chief of General Staff (CGS), Lt. Gen, Oladipo Diya, the late Major-Gen Abdulkareem Adisa, Major Bello Magaji, Mohammed Lina Bin, Major Segun Fadile and former Managing Director, Bank of the North, Shettima Bulama.

Immediately, the rumour spread like wild fire in the season of harmathan around the country especially on the social media that people started thinking about what could have pushed the president to have listened to the advice that will furthermore make him lose popularity among his people.

While some think it was a decision that was within the confines of the power of the president and that was backed by the constitution in section 175 of the 1999 Constitution which requires the president to seek advisory support from the council but their counsel does not binds him, others think that the president may be exercising his power but were concerned about the morality of the decision he has taken.

Also, a government that has promised to fight corruption is now seen romancing and cuddling corruption at the highest order or what should we called this decision, but before we probe further what exactly is state pardon?

According to Wikipedia, State pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the cancellation of the relevant penalty; it is usually granted by a head of state (such as a monarch or president) or by acts of a parliament or a religious authority.

It explains further, today, pardons are granted in many countries when individuals have demonstrated that they have fulfilled their debt to society, or are otherwise considered to be deserving. Pardons are sometimes offered to persons who are wrongfully convicted or claim they have been wrongfully convicted. 

But, Some believe accepting such a pardon implicitly constitutes an admission of guilt as a pardon does not set aside the conviction, so in some cases the offer is refused. However, a pardon is sometimes offered when innocence is undisputed to avoid the costs of a retrial.

Now that it has been explained that a pardon is given when the person to be pardoned has accepted that he or she really committed the offence he was convicted for and has shown remorse for what he has done, then the question is has former governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha showed remorse to the people of Nigeria or to the good people of Bayelsa who voted him in as the Governor of the state  and what he could do to repay the faith they have in him was to stole the state blind and economically rape them.

What about the former managing director of the Bank of the North Nig Plc, Alhaji Shettima Mohammed Bulama who was also pardoned after being convicted for fraud then should we then says hard work never pays in Nigeria, rather impunity and corrupt practices is the way.

What message is the president supposedly sending to the youth? That you can steal the country blind and get celebrated by the federal government.

Yea! It was in this country that chief Olabode George of the PDP was celebrated on the day he was released from prison for embezzling several billions of naira belonging to Nigerians and after his released he has since been part of the president kitchen cabinet who are strategising for him on how to win the next election in 2015.

Although, the pardon did not come as a surprise to many since the president has once called the convicted former governor is political benefactor, also when asked why the president surrounded himself with ex-convicts the president media adviser on public matters Dr Doyin Okupe has once defended his boss, saying he has the right to move around with anybody he wants and also have the power to choose who his friends are.

Consequently, a foremost Nigerian lawyer Chief Femi Falana, argued that Gen. Diya and others implicated in the 1995 coup against the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, were pardoned by his successor, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar in 1999 and the pardon was well gazette, so making the president goofed about the pardon.

Also, why the rush to pardon Alamieyeseigha when it is crystal clear that ten years after a convict has served his or her jail term, he or she can launch a come back to the political arena to contest election but left for the people to decide the persons’ faith.

So, since the president of the giant of Africa has decided to surround himself with conmen who have lost touch with the people, the sort of policies we are to expect from him are bankrupt policies that have no benefit to the people.

Henceforth, service for humanity has been defeated as service for one pocket will be the benchmark of any appointment taken by anyone in the country because patriotism has been relegated to the backdoor and impunity has been embraced and seen as a way of life by our leaders.

Patriotic Nigerians who decides to serve their father land with love strength and faith are either in their early grave or dying every day because their pension and gratuity allowance are being stolen everyday by government officials and those who are culpable are being given slap in the wrist punishment as the one that was given a deputy director in the federal pension office John Yusuf by justice Talba of the federal high court in Abuja.

 While, Yusuf was unlucky to be tried because he never belong to the untouchable group like Abdulrasheed Maina the chairman of the disbanded police pension fund who was able to abscond the country through the help of the powers that be in the country.

How he was able to escape will however be a discussion for another day.

From today, people should not be mad at a policemen who stood in the middle of the road to ask for bribe or employers who ask for kickback because the president with his recent decision has demonstrated that hard work never pays rather amassing wealth through the back door is the way of life in the country.

The Igbo race and inferiority complex, Who Will Save Them?

Recently, the Lagos state government through the ministry of environment ordered the closure of the Ladipo market in Mushin for allegation of environmental degradation against the inhabitant of the auto- spare part market.

The market as expressed by regular visitors to the market is describes as an eyesore because of the level of dirt and unhygienic environment people decides to stay to carry out their business activities.

However, since the closure of the market Igbo indigene around the state have been heard screaming blue murder saying the government closure was a deliberate act against the Igbo race in the state.

Some other set were also of the opinion that the closure of the market was a sinister technique of sending them out of Lagos because the government believes that is the only way they can do that, and whole lot of other illogical theories.

Truth be told, the Igbo’s constitute a very large number of business men and women in Lagos but that does not mean that the government is after them, because if I may ask for what? And why will the government be after their business rather they should know that no responsible government will open its eye and allow his citizen die an unnecessary or avoidable death.

What will the essence of making money when the large chunk of it will be spend on treating disease one contracted at his or her place of work, or should the government have waited for an outbreak of disease or virus before making any drastic decision to nip the atrocity in the bud or what.

Also, While the restructuring of Oshodi was going on, the Igbo were seen around the state shouting on their voice  saying the Lagos state government is  doing the demolition and restructuring because they are uncomfortable with the rate at which the Igbo race are making progress in the state.

But the question I kept asking them was whether they were the only one selling there were there not Hausa/ Fulani or Yoruba even we have the ijaws and the Idoma selling at Oshodi then and the restructuring affected everybody or were the other tribe left to continue their street trading or business and the response was in the negative.

Also, when the governor fashola paid an unscheduled visit to the market to assess the situation of the market, following pleas by the traders and the leadership of the Igbo Council in Lagos State led by Professor Anya O. Anya, who visited the state House, Ikeja.

At the market, the governor said, “It is a massive degradation of a section of Lagos and this is not acceptable. People should not carry on like this. But what is, perhaps, worthy of note is that those who are involved have seen the error of what they had done here and are ready to work with us to clean-up and I have said here that they must take the lead.”

Speaking particularly about the Canal in the market blocked by refuse from the traders, Fashola said: “The blockage of the canal poses a lot of danger and we are expecting heavy rains this year. I don’t want to come back here to pick any dead body. We built the canal and we must make it work by not trading on it or dump refuse in it.

“People told me that they picked engine parts, spare-parts and other things from the canal. It must stop.”

Also addressing the leadership of the Ladipo Auto Dealers’ Association led by its President General, Mr. Ikechukwu Animalu, Fashola made it clear to them that before government will reopen the market, the traders must clean-up the place and put measures in place to ensure that there was no trading on the roads in the market and no reversal to the old situation that led to its closure.

Reading meaning from what the Governor said, he was just trying to be proactive instead of being passive, waiting for the rains to come and wash everybody away before necessary things are done.

Also, I think if other governors in the country are being proactive as the Lagos State governor has been the loss of lives and the level of destruction of farm lands and property which was caused by flood in the country last year will not be as much as it was.

And with the fact that it has been predicted that the rains of the year will be much than that of last year should a responsible leader leave his followers to die before doing something expedient about their well being.

The Igbo race should move away from being inferior to see a force to reckon with and never see the policies of any government as a plan to relegate them to the back in the country.

So, instead of playing ethnic card with their life, the Igbo should face the reality and move on with their lives by allowing the governments do its job because the market belongs to every Nigerian and not to a particular set of tribe or people who always feel marginalize any time things are done to right the wrong in the country.

Nigerian youths: Are they truly the leaders of tomorrow?

Babalola yusuf Abiola

Parents listen to your children papapa, we are the leaders or tomorrow papapa, try to pay our school fees and give us sound education papapa.

 Do you ever have the privileged to sing the above song while growing up or while in crèche; if you did congratulations; but if not, you have certainly missed something while growing up.

However, am pretty sure that even though you missed this song while growing up you must one way or the other have the privilege to sing this song either as a nursery school teacher or perhaps sing it after one of your younger ones or children who are either in playgroup or kindergarten in a nursery schools both in the country.

Subsequently, in other to let us know the challenges that await us in the future our teacher will always want us to sing this song every morning before the start of the day’s work in class and will advise us to take our study seriously because we are the future leaders whose future of the country lies in its hand.

Also, they kept telling us that young shall grow and the old shall leave the stage for us but while the young have grown to the point of being the leaders in developed world as well as yesterday youths being the leaders of today the reverse was the case in Nigeria as yesterdays youths who is over 50 years is still being regarded as the leaders of tomorrow.

With what is happening in the country I was forced to asked my mum that with the old brigade still in control and not relinquishing power to the youth and with the youth still being referred to as future leader at aged 50 then it is either the future is not here or that my teacher who predicted me being the leader of tomorrow was not correct with his statement made a mistake.

Yea, the old are getting older, and the young are getting matured and ready to take over from the them but they failed to relinquish their position to the youth claiming they are old but not tired.

However, this ugly trend of the old not ready to leave the stage can be found in all facet of the country, both the public, political arena private and even the political arena not left out of this.

The old who are supposed to be enjoying their retirement with their grand children at home are seen either running after government contracts or after juicy appointment in government thus losing their live while serving their pockets and not the country..

What about the private sectors, people that are supposed to be retired in other for fresh graduates to be employed are seen holding on to their position for reasons best known to them.

Last year, I had a discussion with one of my brothers who happened to be a principal in one of the leading secondary schools in my area about this issue and he has this to say.

According to him, “My brother worked with a multinational company in Abuja and has been there for over ten years, he told me that most of his senior colleagues that should have retired 3 years ago are still in service” I asked him for the reasons why they are still there instead of giving unemployed graduate the chance and he said, “they decided to stay because they want to bring in their children into the system, they want their children to continue from where they stopped.

I asked why, and he answered, “Because should they leave the job without helping their children it will be pretty difficult for them to be relevant in that company or their won’t be anybody to cover their tracks when they have gone  thereby making it difficult for their children to get into the company after their departure

He continued, “Also, those who do not know what will become of them after retirement do stay back in office for at least three years to be fully prepared for life after retirement,” he concluded.

Also, like those in the private sectors, workers in the public service are seen exploiting the loop holes of created by the government inability to have an efficient database to resort to the reduction of their age at any available time through the use of affidavit sworn in various courts across the country at different time.

This make a director or permanent secretary in the civil service who is supposed to retire at a certain age spend six or seven illegally unmerited acquired years in the civil service.

Also, the political arena is not left as they are the most culpable in this act. While they cited inexperience or ingenuousness on the side of the youth as the reason for them to be on stage then comes the question of how they expected the youth to learn when they refuse to leave the stage for them.

This old brigade are seen in political functions or running around the corridor of power lobbying for one political position to the other or vying for political position when it is pretty sure that they have little time to spend on earth surface though am not God neither am I a soothsayer but with their age and health status one do not need a soothsayer to know that this people are closer to the departure lounge.

Some of these old men who still seek relevance in the political cycle can be found in the top political class in the country, they include: Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the PDP National Chairman; Chief Tony Anenih,Chairman, PDP Board of Trustee who also doubles as the Chairman of the Nigeria Port Authority; Dr Christopher Kolade chairman of the subsidy reinvestment programme (SURE-P); (Rtd) General Muhammodu Buhari former presidential candidate of the Congress For Progressive Change(CPC), to mention but a few.

Also, some of their folk who refused to retire from active politics died running after government contracts or being a political God father, they also include: Chief Olusola Saraki, former senate leader; Alhaji Lamidi Adeshina. Former governor of Oyo State; Adebayo Adefarati, Presidential Candidate of the Alliance for Democracy in the 2007 election; Odimegbu Ojukwu, Biafran warlord and others numerous to mention.

In a better society where youths are truly seen as the leaders of tomorrow, the above mentioned people are not supposed to die running after government contract or deciding on who to rule the nation or their various state, they are supposed to be referred to as senior citizens who must have retired out of public life in other to spend the remainder of their life with their family and sometimes give advice to young politician who come to them for one.

Arch. Bishop Desmond Tutu; Former President Nelson Mandela of South African; Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States are practical examples of leaders who voluntarily retired out of public life because they believed that the teeming South African youths must be given chance to continue from where they stopped thus given them opportunity to spend the remainder of their life with their family.

But in the case of Nigeria, the men of yesteryears who are nearer to the departure lounge believed that leadership starts at age 70 also with them seeing the youth as inexperienced to take over from them they thus prefer to sit tight on their seat with no recourse to leave. 

Nevertheless, since the old never wanted to leave the stage and they are getting older every day, should we tell our teachers to modify the nursery rhyme to oh lord! The young shall grow and one day become leaders of tomorrow, but since the Elders refuse to leave the stage for us, then the young shall grow and the old shall die!