Pendulum

Fellow Nigerians, I was one of those who celebrated Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary in the grandiloquent Ovation International style. Many had queried me on social media asking what was there to celebrate? My response was easy and straightforward. LIFE. One word that encapsulates the whole essence of our existence. I will never take LIFE for granted. This is more so when we consider the corona virus pandemic now ravaging the world. The latest person to fall victim to this insidious, but utterly dangerous and dreaded ailment is the omnipotent President of the United States, Donald Trump, who like the  Brazilian President, had pooh poohed the corona virus not knowing he would suddenly contract the disease and be laid low by it I pray that COVID-19 does not consume him. My Column today, is dedicated to Nigeria’s Diamond Independence Jubilee and another powerful President, Muhammadu Buhari.

I was born on May 16, 1960, just before Nigeria gained Independence. So, I’m months older than our dear beloved country. I have since found time to read many accounts of what transpired before and after we assumed we were free from colonial bondage. I could imagine the giddiness that accompanied that much sought-after illusory freedom, at the time. But sadly, though we were free from colonial rule, events have shown that our emancipation was instantly replaced and replicated by home grown colonial masters, those many literary artists have described as neo-colonialists. That’s a story for another day.

For now, I’m more interested in how we celebrated our 60th birthday two days ago. To be quite honest, I had expected to witness a more serious sign of soul searching and moment of sober reflections, in the light of a terribly horrible year for our country, the world and, indeed, civilisation. I expected our dear President and his speechwriters to craft a magnum opus of sorts. It is a rare privilege for any President to superintendent such a milestone and landmark event. Something that would reverberate and resonate for decades in the annals of Nigerian, nay African and world history. But the day came and went poof, just like that. It was like a charade, a real anti-climax. There were no monumental decisions and changes. No forceful, emphatic and inspirational declaration of policy or direction from a government that has been apparently rudderless and clueless for the most part of its five years in office. Instead what we got was just the same lacklustre and lethargic performance of the last five years that we have now been made accustomed to, by fire by force.

The speech by the President gave no solid tone or re-assurance. It was littered with platitudes and vague, watery promises, not the solemn, earnest proclamations of how to heal the nations wounds and progress the dreams of its teeming populace. I couldn’t believe that a government that has burnt five years already, would still frivolously promise heaven and earth in ten years, forgetting it has spent more than half of its two terms of four years each. Truth is, the least discerning of Nigerians will agree with me that there is no prospect that anything much would be achieved by this government, even if allocated a 20-year term. It is not because it cannot find the brightest Nigerians to work with, it is because of the Messianic attitude of the titular head of government. I’m shocked that this government still has the temerity to blame previous governments for its own glaring failures. Wake up smell the coffee, Sir! The reason you were voted into power was to fix the rot and the mess that the nation had been plunged into by the very same previous governments that you are blaming. We knew that they had brought us to our knees. You promised to bring us to our feet, not to merely lay the blame for your deficiencies and defalcation at not succeeding in this respect at the doorsteps of your predecessors.

President Muhammadu Buhari needs to be told the gospel truth so that he may be rescued from his delusions of grandeur. His greatest flaw is not new to our nation. And it is not likely to go away very soon. Inherited prejudices are often stubborn and intractable. President Buhari is obviously neither willing nor able to steer Nigeria in a different direction from that which he has been all too familiar with. I can write the history of how his government would end in advance. It does not require any gift of clairvoyance or precognition to see that, when tomorrow comes, history would record that the Buhari  administration was a most unambitious government that came to warm the seats of power and enjoy the trappings and appurtenances associated with it, but achieved little or nothing despite the humongous resources at its disposal.

Why do I say President Buhari’s political ailments are inherited and self-inflicted? He wants to be seen more as a champion of the North and the protector of the Fulani protectorates than as a world, even African statesman. It is so sad that this uncommon second chance is being blown and frittered away so recklessly. It is obvious from the President’s latest speech, on this epochal occasion of Nigerian nationhood, that he’s not too bothered about how anyone feels about his full-blown parochialism. How I wish the President has some Advisers who can stare at him eyeball to eyeball and tell him that Nigeria is torn at the seams and shattering and splintering at the speed of light. What shall it profit a leader who was handed a cohesive country but allowed things to fall apart under his watch?

When a President says on national television that some Nigerians traded away their rights, by not voting right, meaning not voting for him, so they must pay the price, I shudder. I simply cannot imagine or understand that any progressive leader would possess such an incredibly bigoted and sectarian mindset. Nigeria is being riven, divided and torn asunder by elements and communities clamouring for self-emancipation, restructuring, separate identities and even downright secession. Soothing, calming, conciliatory and rehabilitation words are required. That is not what the speech, which was full of belligerent, bellicose, pugnacious and discordant notes, portended. The President needs to learn the tenets of Democracy. It is impossible for everyone to vote for you, Sir. Nigeria is a multiparty, multicultural, multi-ethnic and multireligious State. And freedom of association and expression and other individual liberties are enshrined in our Constitution. So, it is unthinkable that any President would expect absolute loyalty from everyone. Even totalitarian regimes expect dissent. They only clamp down on them on occasions that such dissent becomes to them a destabilising force or to teach a salutary lesson.

The one thing that the President must do, as a matter of utmost necessity and urgency, is to regard and embrace every Nigerian as a bona fide valued and cherished citizen of the Federal Republic. No one should be victimised for not supporting the President during any particular election.

The reasons all the Nigerian Republics seemed to have failed spectacularly is embedded in an editorial written by the Time magazine in 1958 shortly before we got our Independence. It was forwarded to me last night by Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, the Managing Director of Arise News Channel. In fact, it summed up how Nigeria started failing before even starting. I’m glad I read the editorial while preparing this article. I will recommend it to every Nigerian who can read, and I reproduce it below:

“The Time Magazine 10th November 1958

INDEPENDENCE WITHOUT DIFFICULTIES IS A DREAM OF UTOPIA

For one month, delighted Londoners watched the 80 ceremonially dressed Nigerians —some with necklaces of animal teeth, others with feathered straw hats, at least one with a jewelled crown — parade into Lancaster House for their historic conference.

Everything possible had been done to make them feel at home.

For the Colonial Office’s big reception at the Tate Gallery, all nude statues were carefully screened so as not to offend Moslems. The Lord Mayor served up a banquet of stewed peanuts, and one paramount Chief — His Highness James Okosi II of the Onitsha — fulfilled a lifelong ambition: to ride the escalator at the Charing Cross underground station.[?]

In the end, the Nigerians got what they had come for: on Oct. 1, 1960, the largest (373,250 sq. mi.) of Britain’s remaining colonial territories would get its independence (TIME. Nov. 3). But behind the scenes the conference had revealed ominous signs of trouble to come.

From the start there was a clash between the personalities of the Premiers of the three regions — each obviously more important than the scholarly Federal Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

In Western eyes, Obafemi Awolowo of the Western Region seemed the most statesmanlike: as the conference began, the London Times carried a full-page ad proclaiming his declaration for freedom under the title “This I Believe,” prepared with the help of an American public relations man.

In contrast, U.S. – educated Premier Nnamdi (“Zik”) Azikiwe of the Eastern Region seemed to have learned more in the U.S. about Tammany tactics than Thomas Jefferson, and was somewhat under a cloud as a result of a British tribunal’s 1956 investigation into corruption in his administration.

The North’s Premier, the Sardauna of Sokoto, a haughty Moslem of noble birth, could barely conceal his contempt for his less aristocratic colleagues.

Insults & Accusations. Under the great chandeliers of the Lancaster House music room, where Chopin once played for Queen Victoria, the Premiers bickered, shot insults back and forth like poisoned darts.

When the conference took up the ticklish problem of how to protect the rights of minorities among Nigeria’s 250 tribes, Awolowo suggested creating three new states. The North’s Sardauna, not wishing to relinquish any of his own territory, vetoed the idea. Nor did he like the plan for a centralized police force under the federal government: he much preferred to use his own force, which, answerable only to him, can pop a man in jail with no questions asked.

At one point, the Sardauna accused Awolowo of sending his supporters to Israel to be trained as saboteurs in the North — a charge fabricated out of the fact that Western Nigeria has imported agricultural experts from Israel to advise its farmers. Awolowo counter charged that the Sardauna flogs his prisoners.

At receptions the delegates sipped their orange juice, icily aloof from one another. In elevators conversation would suddenly stop if a delegate from another region got on.

Compromises & Contests. But as the weeks passed, the Sardauna grudgingly consented to let the constitution carry a bill of rights, though he was so thoroughly opposed to giving the vote to women that the conference decided that this was, after all, not necessarily a “fundamental” right.

The delegates then agreed on a centralized police force, but one that would be administered by a council of representatives from each region. Finally, with their own independence from Britain assured (as well as that of the adjacent British Cameroons, should they choose to become a part of Nigeria), the delegates started for home.

Until Nigeria’s federal election takes place next year, the three Premiers will continue jockeying for power, and the fate of Nigeria could well hinge on who comes out on top. Last week, even as the National Planning Committee of Independence opened its contest for the design of a national flag (first prize: $300), many Nigerians had grave reservations about what lay ahead.

For all its jubilation, Nigeria’s West African Pilot felt obliged to warn: “Independence without difficulties is a dream of Utopia.”

This Time Magazine editorial could as well have been written today by the same writer for the same magazine. Its prophetic analysis is so scary, and yet there is no sign Nigerian leaders are ready to change a system that has held us by the jugular for so long. Indeed, they seem to prefer to continue fostering the feeding frenzy that ensues from the rent system engendered by this broken system.

What an average Nigerian smells and feels today is that the grounds for war is being prepared already, but a powerful General should understand the unpredictable nature of a civil war. We have been down that road before to great sorrow and loss. Others have experienced similar wars leading to balkanisation of their countries and none of those countries can claim to have the greatness of the union they broke away from.

Moreover, Love is easier to achieve than war. All the fantastic, phantasmagorical projections of development laid out in the high falutin speech of President Buhari will come to nought if no sacrifice is made on the part of the President to bury his innate love for just his own region and seek to unite Nigeria and Nigerians now before it is too late. A word is always enough for the wise!

A former minister called me a few days ago to say the focus of my columns on Muhammadu Buhari ignores my own 2018 disclosure that he is a captive of an irrecoverably degenerative mental decline that ensures that he doesn’t know what he says and does. “To criticize Buhari is to beat a carcass,” he said.

I see his point, but I disagree. It is the office, not necessarily the person, that is being criticized, although the person and the office converge. Anyway, the former minister said attention should be focused on the people who drive the policies of the regime, who write Buhari’s speeches, who baby sit him.

He pointed out, for instance, that CBN governor Godwin Emefiele now almost singlehandedly steers the economic policies of the country without recourse to the presidency—or the presidential economic advisory council— because there is frankly no presidency. It’s just outright anarchy.

But, to get back to the subject matter of today’s column, who writes Buhari’s speeches? Why are the speeches often embarrassingly error-ridden, callous, shallow, cavalier, ignorant, and unpresidential? Buhari’s October 1 Independence Day Speech is perhaps the crowning encapsulation of his speech writers’ utter inner emptiness and cluelessness. I’ll come back to this point shortly.

I know that Mamman Daura and Education Minister Adamu Adamu wrote some Buhari’s signature speeches in his firm term. I know this because when I wrote a June 7, 2015 column in my now rested grammar column titled “A Grammatical and Rhetorical Analysis of President Buhari’s Inaugural Speech” where I both praised and called attention to the speech’s grammatical errors, I got a swift, defensive, ill-informed response from a “Mainasara” who used the majestic self-referential plural “we” in his response to me, which was published in the Sunday Trust of July 12, 2015.

Daura betrayed himself when he made reference to Dublin College, Ireland as one of the guardians of the English language, which it isn’t, nor is there any. (He attended Dublin College!). I wrote a rejoinder to his rejoinder and shut him up. A senior person in Daily Trust later confided in me that “Mainasara” was Mamman Daura’s pen name and that Daura took my criticism personal because he was one of the writers of the inaugural speech.

Adamu Adamu, who had been Buhari’s speech writer before he was elected in 2015, also contributed to the 2015 inauguration speech, particularly the Shakespearean references in the speech. (Adamu Adamu is a Shakespearean enthusiast and wordsmith who probably wrote Buhari’s famous “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” line in the inaugural speech, which some people erroneously said was plagiarised).

But I no longer see the rhetorical echoes of Adamu Adamu—or even Mamman Daura—in the recent speeches Buhari reads. Whatever disagreements I may have with the duo, I can’t help but concede that they are excellent writers. This is particularly true of Adamu Adamu, who is far and away one of Nigeria’s finest writers in the English language.

I don’t know who writes Buhari’s speeches now. Nor is it possible to tell because the tones and tenor of the speeches change dramatically from occasion to occasion, underscoring the chaos and anything-goes climate in the presidency.

But whoever the speech writers are, they are illiterate doofuses who have zero appreciation of the power of what we call the rhetorical presidency in communication studies, which I have defined in a forthcoming book chapter as the symbolic and discursive powers of the presidency to frame, reframe, define, and redefine the contours of national conversations and identity formulations and reformulations.

As I pointed out on social media on October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day is supposed to be a solemn, august, introspective moment, and the speech of whoever claims to be president of the country should reflect the dignified seriousness of the moment. It should inspire hope for the future, enliven spirits, and renew faith in the country.

But what did we see? Buhari’s speech writers chose the moment to visit rhetorical violence on Nigerians, to rile people and foul their mood, to annihilate people’s loyalty in the country, to fertilize hopelessness and despair, and to inspire disabling anxieties about the immediate future.

For instance, during his speech Buhari signaled that he’d yet again hike the price of petrol (and plunge Nigerians into even deeper misery than they’re already in) by saying, “It makes no sense for oil to be cheaper in Nigeria than in Saudi Arabia.” Which sane person writes that in an Independence Day Speech?

Well, it also makes no sense for the minimum wage in Saudi Arabia to be 3,000 riyals (which is equivalent to N305,149.30) while the minimum wage in Nigeria is a miserly N30,000, which hasn’t even been fully implemented in all states. Nor does it make sense for Saudi Arabia to have generous social safety nets for its citizens while the vast majority of Nigerians are crushed by biting deprivation. Or that Saudis have access to affordable public transportation, while Nigerians don’t.

To compare the petrol prices of various countries with Nigeria and ignore the sky-high differences in minimum wages and standards of living is beyond cruel. In any case, if the government claims it has fully “deregulated” the petrol industry, what business does it have again talking about the prices of petrol? In a deregulated economy, the government has no business fixing prices. That’s the prerogative of the private sector.

You are either deregulating or you are not. There is no in-between. Deregulation means freedom from government regulations. Yet, the government fixes the price of petrol. That’s insane. In a deregulated petrol price regime, the first government agency that should be disbanded outright is the fraudulent Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

I live in the United States where petrol prices are truly deregulated. Different states have different price regimes. In fact, in the same city, different gas stations have different prices. And prices fluctuate from time to time. Prices have been extremely low these past few months because of the slum in global oil prices. Ironically, government-engineered price hikes in Nigeria coincide with a time when prices are low everywhere else in the world.

But, as I’ve pointed out before, cruelty is now Buhari’s official governing philosophy. Denying Nigerians the expectation of relatively cheaper petrol prices is like asking people to hold cream on their hands while their faces and bodies are dry. That’s cruelty. Most Nigerians would be at peace with high petrol prices if their country doesn’t produce oil.

A wealthy parent who starves his children and justifies his cruelty by pointing to the starvation of the children of his poor neighbours is an irresponsible parent who doesn’t deserve his children.

I think one error people keep making, including the former minister who spoke with me, is to forget that even before his dementia-fueled alienation from his government, Buhari had notoriety for sadism. In a response to a previous column, for instance, a Katsina man wrote that Buhari’s nickname as a youngster was “Danlitimugu,” meaning “Danliti the sadist.”

Another said most people in the Northwest have internalised the fact of Buhari’s sadism by coining the expression “Da sauranaiki; Buhari yagamai rake da iPhone.” Literally: “There’s still more to be done; Buhari saw a sugarcane hawker with an iPhone!” In other words, the appearance of even a glimmer of prosperity in people activates Buhari’s sadistic instincts. So his government reflects his person, and his speech writers probably know this.

I wish I could say, “Happy Independence Day” to Nigerians, but that would be heartless. There was nothing to be happy about in an Independence Day that was ruined by Buhari’s sadism.

By – Dan Agbese

In the last one week or so, some very eminent Nigerians, either individually or in groups, have issued statements on the unacceptable state of the nation. These are men who have paid their dues to the country as public officers and in their various professional capacities in the military, the civil service and the academia.
They are not men who can mistake a pussy cat for a wolf. Nor are they men who want to hug the limelight. They have hugged the limelight for most of their lives. They are patriotic and responsible men for whom it would be the height of irresponsibility to seal their lips when the nation is in dire straits. They speak out because they find it unacceptable that the president and his men and women choose to live in denial while our nation is burning and bleeding.

I am reproducing some of those statements here in case the president’s men failed to draw his attention to them.

The first statement came from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who spoke at a Consultative Dialogue of Nigeria’s Socio-Cultural Political Organisations on the State of the Nation in Abuja. His audience was made up of Northern Elders Forum, Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Pan Niger Delta Forum.
These are serious-minded groups who, worried about where we are and wonder where we are going as a nation, engaged the former president in the dialogue to offer their collective and informed views on how to stop the nation from heading into the pit of hell.
Here is what Chief Obasanjo said: “ I do appreciate that you all feel sad and embarrassed as most of us feel as Nigerians with the situation we find ourselves in. Today, Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state; economically our country is becoming a basket case and poverty capital of the world, and socially, we are firming up as an unwholesome and insecure country.
“ And these manifestations are the products of recent mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country. Old fault lines that were disappearing have opened up in greater fissures and with drums of hatred, disintegration and separation and accompanying choruses being heard loud and clear almost everywhere.”
The president kept mum.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Tukur Buratai, was in Osun State recently to commission some projects at Kuta and Asamu. Lt-General Alani Akinrinade, former chief of army/defence staff, spoke at the occasion. He sent a message to the president through the army chief.
This was part of what he said: “ Please grant me the indulgence to mention to him one or two matters that throw me into distress because of my association with him.
“ The first is this pervasive belief that he is an ethnic bigot, an irredeemable religious fundamentalist, that he firmly subscribes and promotes the possibility of his ethnic Fulani to take over the country, the reason he does not interfere in curbing brigandage of the Fulani herdsmen, that he has performed woefully in the fight against the terrorist Boko Haram and that he cannot rise to the occasion when it comes to reflecting the heterogenous composition of our country when it comes to appointments to sensitive positions in his government.
“ He can take better counsel in the appointments to the sensitive parts of his government. There are capable and loyal men and women from every village in the country.
“ He needs to stand on the table against the motley crowd of advisers surrounding him and take a firm stand on the re-organisation of our country physically, politically, economically and socially. It is long overdue and over flogged.”
The president kept mum.

The Nigerian Working Group on Peacebuilding and Governance called for dialogue to save the country. The group parades eminent men and women such as Cardinal John Onaiyekan, General Martin Luther Agwai, former chief of defence staff, Professor Attahiru Jega, former INEC Chairman, Ambassador Fatima Balla, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Aisha Mohammed Oyebode, Nguyan Shaku Feese, Dr Usman Bugaje and Chris Kwaja.
These were some of the points raised by the group about the state of the nation under Buhari’s watch:
“ Our country is rapidly approaching a tipping point. Enough is enough. The time for action is NOW!
“ In our federal system, Nigeria’s state and local governments are the closest to the people. However, increasing insecurity across the country raises questions about the ability of the country’s security architecture to manage the multiple security challenges at the state and local levels. Criminality in rural areas further complicates the situation by undermining food security, as many farmers have been unable to go to their farms for months for fear of losing their lives.
“ The government has been incapable of assuring Nigerians that it cares about our predicament. Numerous conspiracy theories about the causes of the violence continue to circulate, without any reassuring counter narratives coming from the government. .. many have lost faith in public officials and security agencies.
Several communities have resorted to taking up arms to protect their lives and property from marauding criminals, while security agencies look on overwhelmed.
“ There is a growing public consensus that the current leadership of our security agencies have failed woefully, and that our commander-in-chief has so far refused to act. This cannot continue. Mr President, you must show more concern and do what is necessary to improve the effectiveness of our security agencies, even if it means replacing the current leadership of our security agencies.”
The president kept mum.

Professor Wole Soyinka said: “ The ongoing governance posture of aggressive evasion spells only one end: collective suicide.”

Eighteen members of the British parliament chipped in with a letter to the secretary-general of the Commonwealth on the security situation in our country. They wrote: “ We write to highlight urgent concerns about escalating violence in Nigeria, where attacks led by Boko Haram, Fulani herders, and other Islamist militia continue in northern and central-belt states, with reports of increasing violence in the South-East.
“ The state’s failure to protect its citizens is a clear breach of its obligations under the Commonwealth Charter in respect of human rights.”
And the president does not bestir himself.

These people and groups made their views known in the time-honoured doctrine of collective responsibility, to wit, while one man heads a government, the success of every government is a collective responsibility imposed on all citizens. Their views may be ignored in the cynical, if self-righteous belief, that they are mere noise-makers who deserve to be treated with contempt.
That would be a big pity.

It is not just a shame, it is an outrageous shame, that 60 good years of independence still find our nation at this very sorry pass where the government cannot protect its citizens from a slew of criminal elements who hold sway in every part of the country. To pretend that we are not drifting towards a failed state or a deeply divided country takes living in denial to the next level. Time now to admit that we have problems. That is the first step towards finding solutions to them.
Democracy is a system of governance that derives its legitimacy from promoting constant dialogue between those who govern and those who are governed and among those who are governed. The idea that a government has the monopoly of wisdom is strange to democracy. Omniscience is not one of the attributes of political leadership.

To repeat the obvious: the fate of our country is in the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari. It is he who can take steps to stop our country from “ fast drifting to a failed state.” And it is he who can take determined steps to stop our country from “ rapidly approaching a tipping point.” He has to listen less to his aides and more to the sane, responsible and patriotic voices of eminent men and women. History is watching; so are we.

The Guardian, Nigeria.