DemoCrazy Day Celebration in Nigeria!

“Democracy is a difficult kind of government. It requires the highest qualities of self-discipline, restraint, a willingness to make commitments and sacrifices for the general interest, and it also requires knowledge.” John F. Kennedy,  Former American President.

The concept of democracy was born out of the desire to make sacrifices and show commitments to the entire country. In Nigeria today, the story is completely different. It is all about struggling to be in a position where one will participate in milking the country dry. The politicians in Nigeria can not sacrifices for anybody but their pockets and they have so many phrases used to encourage themselves and unjustly justify their actions, these includes; if you can’t beat them you join them, where you work is where you chop, eating the national cake etc. And now that the President is watching the members of his cabinet, friends and relatives are eating the cake in trillions, it is time to put-up a mega celebration – DemoCrazy Day!    

I used to think that celebration is for positive landmark achievements, but in Nigeria the story is different. People celebrate when in the actually sense they are suppose to be mourning! People are celebrated when in the actual sense they are suppose to be prosecuted! While some other people are free when in the actual sense they are suppose to be in the jail! Many Nigerians died because of insecurity in the country (Boko Haram and MEND insurgences), lack of accessibility to their hard-earned pension funds,  lack of good access roads, lack of access to good healthcare facilities, the list is endless. But still the president is sitting tight while innocent Nigerians kept suffering and dying.

Desperate situation needs desperate measures! So we all woke-up in the morning with high expectations to listen to the presidential address on DemoCrazy day. Thinking that Mr. President will announce some desperate steps to save his weak and decaying government. But what did we got? Another show to distract Nigerians from the main issues at hand. He started by recalling the martyrdom of Chief MKO Abiola, whose presume victory in the 1993 Presidential election and death , while in custody, proved to be the catalyst for the people’s pro-democracy uprising. And then ended the address by renaming UNILAG to become Moshood Abiola University, Lagos (MAULAG). Being the President and Commander in Chief of the armed forces he has all the rights to change or rename any Federal institution and I don’t have any problem with that. But the truth of the matter is that, bringing back the memories of June 12 election is a deliberate attempt to distract the attention of Nigerians from the real problems on ground and also from the substance or lies which the address contains. The question is, what are the steps taken by Mr. President to improve the educational sector apart from renaming UNILAG? The 27.5% teachers salary increment and the ASUU 2009 agreements are yet to be implemented by the government. Teacher’s take home pay can not take them to the gates of their various schools. The students are paying exorbitant fees without quality laboratories and other teaching materials.  And yet Mr. President is only interested in changing University nomenclature to score cheap political goals.     

Now lets look at the so-called subsistence in the address. First the economic indicators as presented by Mr. President “In 2011, our economy grew by 7.45%. As at mid-May 2012, our foreign exchange reserves had risen to $37.02 billion, the highest level in 21 months. We have stabilized and improved our fiscal regime. We brought the fiscal deficit down to 2. 85% of GDP from 2.9% in 2011. We reduced recurrent expenditures from 74% to 71% and reduced domestic borrowing from N852 billion in 2011 to N744 billion in 2012. We cut out over N100 billion of non-essential expenditure and increased our internally generated revenue from N200 billion to N467 billion”. Mr. President what would you say about the high rate of inflation caused by your government as a result of fuel subsidy removal policy? The masses don’t want to hear about figures and numbers which they will never see. What they are simply asking for is to be able to afford food, clothes, shelter, kerosene, fuel, electricity and other basic amenities. Mr. president, your citizens are suffering in hunger, they can’t afford cloths and you are here telling them about foreign reserve. Oh, are you not the one that came out last year to tell us that at a point in your life time you do not have even a shoe to wear but you struggle to get a PhD and became successful in life? Mr. President can you please tell us how many Nigerians did you put off the street without a shoe within the past one year?

Secondly, Mr. President also said and I quote “By mid 2010, the national power output was about 2, 800 MW. By the end of 2011, we reached a peak of more than 4, 000 MW. A National Gas Emergency Plan has also been launched to redress the problem of gas supply which are essentially due to poor planning.”  As far as Nigerian citizens are concern this is just another number! Within the said period, what we are witnessing is a drop in electricity output. Can someone please remind Mr. President that his government is also planning to increase the electricity tariff by June 2012. This is a fact because the minister of information Mr. Labaran Makun reaffirms that almost immediately after the presidential address, he said “there will be no going back on the new electricity tariff by June”.

Other things in the address are just mere plans and stories, which of course Nigerians are very familiar with even during the previous administrations. “Democracy means choosing your dictators, after they've told you what it is you want to hear” - Alan Coren (1938).

On the eve of the DemoCrazy Day, Mr. President and some of his cabinet members attended a Church service to pray for Nigerian DemoCrazy. During the prayers, the Preacher offered a prayerful curse against corrupt public office holders. Mr. President and his gangs in front of the cameras intentionally refused to say “amen” to the prayers, a simple four-letter word. The spokesperson for the President, Dr. Reuben Abati later respondent to the accusations by saying that the President have already exhausted the number of “amens”  he can say per Church or Mosque service. We are still waiting for Abati to show us that portion of the constitution that says the President have a fixed number of amens he can offer per service as he claimed.

During the presidential address Nigerians also saw another explanation to why it will be very difficult for Mr. President to say amen to corruption prayers! This is because, in the address he refused to address the recent corruption cases labeled against his administration. For example, the $1.1bn Malabu oil scam, N2.5 trillion of the fuel subsidy scam and N60billion that disappeared in the pension scam. Nigerians hope to have more courageous Preachers that will continue to pour down this type of prayers everywhere you go Mr. President.

Mr. President we wish you well in your effort to restructure this country, but you should also remember that you are writing history for yourself. How did you want to be remembered as a president?

"Democracy is like the experience of life itself - always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested for adversity." (jimmy carter Speech to Parliament of India June 2, 1978). 



God bless Nigeria!

FUT Minna, Alumni Decides 2012 – Against All Odds!

As a longtime political observer and commentator, over the years I have seen so many instances where the Executives of a union/party before a congress/convention will stage-plan or preplan what they want their members to know, what they want them to believe, what they want them to act-on and consequently what they want them to adopt as a resolution or even hand-pick and install someone as their new leader. In most cases with the help of some of their loyalists, they end up deceiving the entire members. A good example of this is the recent PDP Kangaroo arrangement that brought Alhaji Bamanga Tukur (longtime Chairman, African Business Round-Table) to be the consensus leader of the party. Little wonder though the former Executive Governor of Lagos state Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinimbu ones redefine the PDP acronym as People Deceiving People. Did he said deceiving? Yes, deceiving as in deception!

We all smelt fish when we came to the University Auditorium at the time of the Alumni meeting and discovered that the venue have been suddenly changed to the School of Agric Conference Hall without prior notice. When we asked for an explanation. It was said that the Alumni does not have permission at the time to use the venue even though they advertised it. But we all gave them the benefit of doubt and moved to the new venue with some little resistance. The meeting officially started around 5pm as against the slated time of 4pm, but that is normal in Africa.

Item number 4(b) on the agenda was the financial report between July 2009 – 14th April 2012 which was signed and read by the Interim Financial Secretary, Dr. J. O. Oyero and summarised here as follows. Income: up to 2008 Alumni Levy Deductions and Membership Dues was N4,421,784.52 and it was the same thing with the total income. Expenditures: Car purchase at the rate of N2,200,000.00, maintenance, repairs and fuelling cost N400,410.00, travelling for mobilization of chapters cost N603,560.00, travelling for the inauguration of Port Harcourt chapter cost N206,000.00, hosting of Alumni conference (2010 and 2012) cost N520,000.00, wedding gift to an Alumnus N5,000.00 and, printing and stationary N50,000.00. A total expenditure of N3,984,970.00 and a balance of N436,814.52. This report was adopted by the members of congress after a heated debate.

After so many delays it was finally time for the Election. The Acting/Protem President Dr. Abdulmojeed Tunji Ijaiya dusted the draft constitution and read from it a section that says “elections shall be by five delegates representing each chapter of the Alumni”. Forgetting that during their four years stay in office as Protem Excos they were only able to hurriedly inaugurated Port Harcourt chapter last month, but even Minna chapter have not been inaugurated. By implication, only Port Harcourt chapter are eligible to vote. It was immediately discovered that the Port Harcourt chapter were able to send only one person to represent them at the event! This was the beginning of chaos, negative and positive reactions from the angry crowd.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you can recall we have been calling on the Protem Excos to constitute an Electoral Committee that will look at the constitution and bring out guidelines for the election, but they intentionally refused. We also called on them times without number to release the Election Guidelines as it was contained in the draft constitution, they still refused. At a point I begin to wonder if the Freedom of Information bill have been actually passed into law by the Nigerian National Assembly, because the Protem Excos refused to release the vital information needed to carryout an election. Only for the Protem President to come out and tell us that because of the above constitutional clause the election can not hold. After that there were so many suggestions and recommendations on the way forward must of them preplanned. But the person that eventually saved the day was Mr. Isaac, one time President of Physics Students, he was popularly known as 2pac, in his usual Makavelli style moved a motion for the immediate dissolution of the Protem Excos and to constitute another Acting Excos that will stir the affairs of the Alumni for the next two years. That motion was seconded by my dear Comrade Dr. Abdulfatai Jimoh, the present ASUU Chairman. Which effectively marks the end of their tenure and they where asked to immediately vacate the high table and join other members in the crowd. Let us not forget that the mandate given to them in 2008 was to inaugurate many Alumni branches across the nation and also to help design a constitution for the Alumni. Therefore, history will remember them as the Protem Excos that spent about N4million over a period of 4years, but only bought a car and hurriedly inaugurated one local chapter (Port Harcourt) towards the end of their tenure.

Thank God the Vice Chancellor sent a representative the Director Advancement and Development Office (ADO) under which the Alumni office is, Prof. Udensi from Physics department. And also the first ever Professor produced by the Alumni, Prof. O. Morenikeji (URP), these are the only two people that remained on the high table. Then the Director took over the event and called for nominations which the members nominated three people for the post of the Acting President, they are: the unbendable Dr. Jiya Mohammed, the young vibrant Mr. Olurotimi Kemiki and, the other contestant is Abuja based, he was the one time adviser to former Niger state first lady, Senator Zainab Kure. After the votes were counted, Dr. Jiya Mohammed got 83 votes to emerged as the winner against all odds, Mr. Olurotimi Kemiki came second with 42 votes and the Abuja based candidate came last with 15 votes. Four other members were also elected to join Dr. Jiya Mohammed in the new acting cabinet.

After the election, the Director ADO reiterates the new mandate given to the New Acting Excos under the leadership of Dr. Jiya Mohammed which are; to amend and produce a standing constitution for the Alumni and to inaugurates branches across the country within two years. At the close of events, we all congratulated the new Acting Excos for their victories, we will also not stop reminding them about the mandate given to them. We pray God will guide them in the right direction to achieve success, amin.

Before I roundup this commentary, I want to say a little about the man called Mr. Olurotimi Kemiki. I did not know him before, in short I only got to know him as a result of this election. But within this short time of knowing him, I’m very impressed with his democratic spirit, his vibrancy and his calmness. He was the Former Protem Vice President of the Alumni and he contested for the Presidency and lost honourably to a better candidate Dr. Jiya Mohammed. Investigations shows that, during Kemiki’s tenure as Protem Vice President in the dissolved cabinet, between him and his President it was like the case of Obasanjo and Atiku. Against all odds he contested for the election and lost honourably. But he demonstrated the sprit of commitment and self-service . Bravo Kemiki!

Lastly, I want to end with the words of the Chief Servant of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu. After the occupy Nigeria fuel subsidy protest turns violent in Minna, he said in a National broadcast and I quote “We have learnt not to underrate the power of the masses and we also learnt not to underrate the power of number because they can make you and they can also break you!”.

Please share this piece to all your FUT Minna Alumni friends.

Thank you.

God bless FUT Minna,

God bless Nigeria.