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Lawmaker's fight as peep into 2011 elections
BY LUKE ONYEKAKEYAH
IF anybody is still guessing what the shape of the forthcoming 2011 elections is going to look like, the person should get insight from the opprobrium that the House of Representatives has turned into and prepare better for the elections. The use of brute force as a viable means of settling selfish scores is only part of the culture of political impunity that has made the country a laughing stock. There is no way a
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lawmaker who fights and tears attires in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly won't fight at a polling station to ensure that his election carries the day. How do you tame such politicians? How do you make them comply with the electoral laws? How do you convince them to accept election defeat when they can use blows to bulldoze their way to victory?
Whereas great nations are made by the vision of the political elite, the Nigerian state is an embarrassment to the world because of the existence of a visionless political class that can't provide the needed leadership for our corporate advancement. The selfish vision of the Nigerian politician as opposed to a corporate vision for the Nigerian state is at the root of the inordinate crave for personal primitive acquisition of wealth that induces fights when the one is denied the least opportunity to amass wealth. A leopard cannot change its stripes. The Nigerian politician won't change in 2011.
Therefore, let no one be deceived by the recurrent singsong of free and fair elections from politicians and their associates. Let no one be deceived that the 2011 general elections is going to be anything different from what elections in this country have come to be known for – fight to finish. There is nothing on ground to convince anyone that a free, fair and credible election is going to be conducted in 2011. This is therefore a wake up call on the new INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and his team to prepare for battle ahead of the elections. It's going to be a very tough election.
There is no indication that the crop of politicians we have today have changed or learnt any lesson and are prepared to conduct themselves in a way and manner that would allow sanity, law and order to prevail during the elections. The battle of wits and the brutish conduct being exhibited by the lawmakers at the National Assembly is only a clear indication that the managers of the elections should roll their sleeves and prepare for battle. After all, the doctrine of do-or-die that propels election brigandage in this country is still in force. It has not changed. There is yet no re-orientation in the country that might have changed the compulsive spirit that make politicians stake every arsenal in their possession, including fisticuffs, to achieve their desire. That is the truth of the matter.
As political office becomes juicier and a goldmine, and as winning election provides a life time opportunity to partake in the sharing of the country's booty, politicians would be prepared to stake whatever it takes to win. To stake anything means adopting unlawful measures to achieve tainted victory. Experience shows that since 1999 when the latest political dispensation began, each successive election has turned out to be worse than the previous one. For example, the 1999 elections that broke the military stranglehold on power and ushered in civil rule in the country was far better than the 2003 elections. While there was hue and cry that the 2003 elections was massively rigged in favour of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), the subsequent 2007 elections turned out to be complete charade. That election has been
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described as the worst the country has ever had.
Going by that trend, what miracle do we expect? Does anyone expect the 2011 elections to be anything better? Whereas ordinary Nigerians are craving for free and fair elections where their votes would count, the politicians are hell bent on truncating the elections in their own favour. The politicians believe in mago mago strategy and the use of brute force as the only means of achieving their evil selfish desires. They do this because they don't believe in the Nigerian state. They're there as mercenaries serving for personal profit. That is why the country is by day sinking deeper into despair with the ordinary people getting more desperate to survive by all means. Hence, the alarming wave of armed robbery and kidnapping, all over the country.
The recurrent culture of our supposedly (s)elected lawmakers to fight over their personal allowances, allocations, emoluments, cars and other mundane matters shows the personal mission of the lawmakers. Thus, all the talk about the country leap forging from being among the most squalid to the G20 countries by 2020 is mere rhetoric. Who will make laws that would set the stage for the dramatic transformation needed to lift the country? Is it the pugilist politicians that are not thinking about the country but about their own pocket? If the lawmakers are concerned about the country, why has there been no debate or fight over the modus operandi of achieving the much talked about 2020 vision? Nigerians would have been happy if the lawmakers had fought over any issue that borders on the deplorable state of affairs in the country. But do the lawmakers care if the country disintegrates and poverty and disease wipe the mass of the people out?
They don't care and that is why they're fighting over their quarterly allowances. They want their booty raised from N29 million to N45 when millions of Nigerians can't go to school, or afford one meal a day! Haba! In a year, each lawmaker in the House is expecting N180 million on allocation alone. How many lawmakers have done any tangible thing for their people with the millions they have carted these past 10 years?
Furthermore, the lawmakers are reportedly fighting over the decision of the House leadership to re-organise committees. That led to the removal of some committee chairmen who felt aggrieved and craved to remain there under any circumstances. Ordinarily, reorganising committees isn't something that should engender bad blood where there is law, order and decorum.
The alleged financial recklessness by the House Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, who reportedly spent N9 billion out of the 2008/9 capital vote of N12 billion on 8 bulletproof cars only added to the earlier alleged car purchase scam in the House. The lawmakers fought and disgraced themselves before visiting school children from City Royal Secondary School, Nyanya. That negative impression would leave indelible scar in their minds that would make them hate being lawmakers!
Since the lawmakers are aware that there is grave insecurity in the country, why are they not fighting over debates on how to make the country safe? If all Nigerians are exterminated by the rampaging armed robbers, kidnappers, ritualists and other criminal elements and only the lawmakers are left holed in their bulletproof cars, would that make them patriotic leaders? Why is there no debate and fight over the alarming insecurity situation in the country?
One thing is clear from the happenings in the House of Reps; there is gross indiscipline and unpatriotic disposition in the House. INEC and the police should get prepared for battle in the forthcoming elections. The on going recruitment by the police should be expedited to have more battle-ready policemen before the election. Finally, the EFCC and ICPC should wade into the mounting and weighty allegations of massive corruption in the House and investigate all the allegations and bring offending lawmakers to justice.
Source: The Guardian, 29th June 2010.
Nigeria, others set to rid Africa of toxic wastes
Gbenga Omokhunu
The Minister of Environment, John Odey, on Wednesday
said that Nigeria, six other African countries and their development partners would free the continent of an estimated 50, 000 metric tones of stockpiles of obsolete and highly toxic pesticides and ensure that policy and institutional framework were put in place so that the problem does not re-occur.
Speaking in Abuja at the Nigeria-Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP) sustainably workshop, organised by the Ministry of Environment and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Odey said Nigeria is among the seven African countries that have benefited from the first phase of the programme which was designed to last for three years.
Other countries include Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Tunisia, Tanzania and South Africa.
Exposure to obsolete pesticides, he said, may be through application of pesticides, working with pesticides, eating contaminated foods, drinking contaminated water, or beverages, inhaling pesticide vapours or dust and smoking while handling pesticides.
Odey explained that the effects of obsolete pesticides, according to findings, are cancer, memory loss, loss of concentration, anxiety, infertility, early pregnancy loss, spontaneous abortions, foetal deaths, low birth weight, reduction in fertility, low sperm counts, disruptions of functioning of vital organs, weakness of arms, legs, feet hands, death of plants, animals and human beings and environmental damage.
Odey, who was represented by Deputy Director (DD) of Pollution Control, Dr Asha Mohammed, said: "As a regional initiative, the Africa Stockpile Programme aims to remove all obsolete pesticides stocks from the Africa continent and help to effectively prevent their re-occurrence. As we may be aware, pesticides become obsolete when they cannot be used for intended purposes, when they have been banned, deteriorated physically or chemically, after they have lost their pesticidal properties and when they are no longer effective against pest.
"They must be processed for destruction or rendered harmless or be converted into other useful products. Obsolete pesticides can present greater risks than new products because of their conditions. It is worthy of note that the Nigeria-ASP project has completed the inventory of publicly held obsolete pesticides; has a database of obsolete stocks; drafted Pesticide Control Bill (PBC); prepared reports on pesticides management, communications strategy, and developed national capacity for inventory taking, data entry/validation and safeguarding of stocks. We recall that this workshop is to consider these reports and also prepare a sustainability road map.''
Source: The Nation, 26th June 2010.
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Mining Expert Regrets 'Slavery To Crude Oil'
From Isa Abdulsalam, Jos
Provost, Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geo-Sciences (NIMG) Jos, Prof. Idowu Odeyemi, has
regretted that the aroma or discovery of crude oil has put Nigeria into slavery for more than 50 years, "to the extent that everything about the mining industry was abandoned."
Odeyemi noted that the country found it very convenient to abandon mining for oil exploration and urged the government to lead the process of abandoning the solid mineral sector.
According to the Provost, who briefed on the commencement of academic activities of the Institute, journalists at the weekend, the Institute will resume academic business tomorrow at the Tudun Wada Campus, Jos, which serves as its administrative and academic centre.
He observed that although adequate attention was paid to the mining industry during the regime of the late General Sani Abacha, people's interest in mining had died down for the better part of four decades, adding that "it is just now that they are trying to resuscitate it."
"As a result of that abandonment, the quality of mining education also drops in Nigeria because if you don't have the requisite level of skilled manpower, you really cannot move the sector forward. The School of Mines in Jos, which is now at the West of Mines, a campus of this institution was established in 1962 in exactly the same year the School of Mines in Takwa, Ghana, was established.
"I tell you today that, while the School of Mines in Jos was first to be stagnated and subsequently died a natural death, the School of Mines in Takwa, Ghana has the same reason to become the University of Mines and Technology in Ghana.
"That tells you the degree of the level of abandonment of mining education in Nigeria. You can see that Ghana is one of the renowned mining countries in Africa. And it is not because Ghana has more minerals than Nigeria. Indeed, we have more than 35 million kinds of minerals scattered over 430 locations in this country; there is hardly any state that does not have solid minerals of one type, or the other. But we have abandoned this for more than 50 years and since this was abandoned, mining education was also abandoned", Odeyemi stated.
Source: The Guardian, 11th April 2010.
Nigeria Can Produce Cheaper Electricity from Coal – US Experts
Nigeria has the potentials to produce cheaper electricity from coal to solve its perennial power problem, a team of experts from the United States, Gardar Dahl, Jr. and Jim Dodd, from the Behre Dolbear, has said.
Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja, the Behre Dolbear experts who had a meeting with Zuma Steel West Africa Limited said apart from hydro sources, coal offered Nigeria the cheapest means of generating electricity.
Dodd said it was important for the nation to solve its power problem in order to move other sectors of the economy forward, adding that coal provides not only a cheaper means of generation, when compared to other sources, but also ensures a clean source of electricity.
He added that the abundance of coal deposits in the country makes the use of the mineral, in electricity generation very compelling. According to him, Nigeria can produce a good proportion of its electricity needs from coal which has been established to exist in large quantities in the country.
Dodd said, "Apart from hydro, coal is the cheapest means of producing electricity. The potential of producing electricity from coal in Nigeria is very high. This could help the country to solve its power crises and at the same time ensure the stability of other sectors."
Source: Punch, 19th March 2010.
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RICHARD KOMI:
Fulfilment Of The Ogoni Dream
IN the early 1980s, Ogoni people under the aegis of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) began a mass campaign to appeal to the conscience of the country, to address the root causes of agitation in the Niger Delta. Issues of ethnic domination, dispossession of natural resources, despoliation of their environment by oil companies like Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), human rights violation, poverty and underdevelopment were brought to the fore.
The Ogoni people mounted intense domestic and international campaign against Shell.
The late despot, General Sani Abachi, whose government desperately needed oil revenue to sustain his grip on power, perceived the Ogoni uprising as contagious, and that if not checked, it could be replicated in the entire oil and gas rich region.
Rather than adopt a political option, the junta decided to unleash terror on the people. Several Ogoni people were killed, among them, foremost environmental activist cum writer, Kenule Saro-Wiwa.
Due to the cruelty of the military junta, lots of Ogoni people flee the country to far away Europe, Asia, Canada, United States of America as refugees.
Some of these fleeing Ogoni people have, amid all odds, proven that if availed equal opportunity anywhere in the world, they would excel. One of them happens to be Richard Komi, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, who the President of MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, has rightly described as an Ogoni fulfilment of the American dream. In this interview with KELVIN EBIRI, Komi tells his story.
Sojourn to the United States
I immigrated to the United States in September of 1999. Before coming to the US, I was a banker in Nigeria and a law student at the University of Science and Technology in Port Harcourt. As the Sani Abacha military government cracked down on members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, I was forced out of the country to avoid being arrested and imprisoned as was the case for almost all Ogonis at that time, some of whom lost their lives in detention during the Abacha administration. I spent three years in a refugee camp in the Republic of Benin, before going to the US on a US government resettlement program in 1999. I arrived in the United States as a resettled refugee, meaning that my stay in the United States was indefinite. I was given work authorization and also the same privileges as a US citizen, which I still enjoy today.
Student days at Southern New Hampshire University
My days as a student at Southern New Hampshire University was like the days of any student that I knew at the school. It was always busy with a lot of academic work to be done and many deadlines. I also had a full time job and family. The remarkable thing is that while I did not major in political science, one of my professors told me one day to take classes in government and politics because I seemed to have the flare for politics.
Political history
My first reason for venturing into politics is to serve the people of the state and to bring change where and when necessary. The other reason is to give back to a community that has given me so much. I did not think about the white population of the state and I certainly did not think about color when I was deciding to run for office but I have to say that, the fact that I am an immigrant wanting to serve the state was one of the reasons many people voted for me; because immigrants are mostly concerned about jobs and sending money to their home countries, so it was a bit of a surprise to see me saying I wanted to serve the people when I am not in any way rich or very comfortable. The story of my political involvement dates back to my days as a student at Southern New Hampshire University. From my first year, I was already supporting the candidate for student union president. The reason for my support was because, upon gaining admission, the then student union president sent me a T-shirt from the school and welcomed me to the fold. This created a lasting impression on my mind. I also attended rallies of local politicians to listen to them speak and some times volunteered to help with signs at such rallies. That was how I started getting involved in politics until I am where I am today. The same is true of how I started volunteering for the Obama campaign from the beginning and was eventually elected as a pledged delegate to the democratic national convention for Obama. I have been living in the State of New Hampshire now for the past ten years, but that has nothing to do with my interest in politics.
Election into the New Hampshire Legislature
My election to the New Hampshire House of Representatives was a surprise to every body including me. In the process of volunteering for the Obama campaign, I made one of the wildest decisions of my life. I decided to run for the New Hampshire House of Representatives, which at the time I did not realize that everything about politics and public life is a monumental task. Once I was cleared by the New Hampshire Democratic Party to run, we had a primary, which I won easily as many people knew me through the Obama campaign and I have to say that until today many people still call me Richard Obama. After the primary election, it was time to campaign hard for the general election. I started raising money, which is one of the most difficult parts of a campaign. People gave me from $5 to $100.00 and all monies received must be reported to the State and the State will also need to know how you spent the money, on what and when and where. I walked the streets of my District knocking on every door and explaining to the people why I wanted to be their next state representative. People had questions for me; such as how long I have lived here, whether I am experienced enough to know what to do as a state legislator, what is my educational background and what is my political background. I answered so many questions that at one time, I became tired of answering questions. Some people will tell me point blank that they will not vote for me or that I should not bother them with politics. Still I pressed on with my campaign manager and staff. One week to the election day, I spent more that eight hours every day on the streets, meeting people and shaking hands and answering questions. It was a very challenging work, but I am glad I did it because on November 4, 2008, I was elected as a new state representative from District 12 in the Hillsborough County, winning more than 18 percent of the total votes.
Support and campaign for Obama
In 2007 as I was rounding off my studies at the university and I got a call from one of the campaign staff asking me to come and help them with phone banking, which is a major aspect of any campaign in this part of the world. The campaign had just opened an office close to where I live and it was easy for me to drive to the campaign office and help out. This was early in March 2007. I want you to know that I did not support Obama because he was a black man like me. My support for Obama was based on principles and facts. After listening to what his vision was for the country and what he wanted to do as president, I decided to support him. This was early in the campaign, when nobody including Obama himself knew that he was going to get a lot of support to eventually win the presidency. Since New Hampshire is one of the 'whitest' states in the US, it was difficult to get the few blacks to understand what Obama was talking about. Even after the campaign got heated, many prominent blacks still did not support Obama in New Hampshire. They all supported Mrs. Clinton; but I felt from the start that Obama will be the next president.
First encounter with Obama
My first encounter with the then Senator, now President Obama was a special event. Because I have been volunteering for the campaign faithfully, and was also graduating from the university; and as luck would have it the school had invited Obama to come and speak at the graduation ceremony. The campaign office did not know how to thank me and felt that it was best to mention my services to the Senator who upon hearing about how helpful I have been to the campaign decided to meet me. It was a special day as the campaign assigned me a special car and driver and treated me like royalty on the orders of Obama. In his remarks at the graduation, Obama extolled my achievements as an immigrant who upon arriving the United States has made the best of himself even in the face of difficulty and also found time to be a part of what was going on in the community.
Attending the Convention of a major political party in USA
It was a special experience and I was treated with a lot of respect, particularly because I was venturing into politics for the first time and making colossal strides that even many who are born in the United States cannot even think of venturing into.
Election Challenges
One of my biggest challenges during my campaign was raising money. People can come out and help you with phone calls and canvassing, but they will not give you money and any body running for office will tell you that you cannot do it with out money. I was able to achieve victory in my campaigns by walking the streets and knocking on doors and connecting with the people of my constituent. It was hard work but it was crowned with success.
Lessons for Nigeria's Democracy
Simple. Transparency and let every vote count. There should be an election and not a process, where the office goes to the person with the most money and connection with the powers that be. The American democracy is what it is today because power belongs to the people. It is the people who decide who will be the next president or governor as the case may be
How to strengthen democracy
By adhering strictly to the rule of law; by governing according to the constitution; by giving power to the people; by tolerating one another's views; by disagreeing only on principles; by playing politics with out bitterness; and above all, by seeing public office as an office of stewardship and not personal enrichment.
On Abdulmutallab
For this problem to be resolved, Nigeria will not only condemn all acts of terrorism, but will pledge to work with any government both the US and other Western countries in their fight against terrorism. Nigeria will also need to take concrete steps, not cosmetic to stamp out any suspected terrorist and make it abundantly clear that extremism will have no place in Nigeria.
Nigerians living in the US will certainly take a beating from the Abdulmutallab incident over time because if there is any mishap that a Nigerian is involved in, people will quickly rush to judgment before all the facts of such matter are known. As you may know, Nigeria does not have a good image abroad and the Adbdulmutallab case only did more damage to the image of Nigeria and Nigerians. While Nigerians are known abroad for things like swindling and fraud, terrorism was not in our character; but I want to say that for the most part in the US, people are judged more on their personal character. I think whatever role Nigerians abroad will play must be started from home, by the Nigerian government. And this will be, to work with other governments to combat terror, condemn all acts of terrorism and stamp out suspected terrorist from Nigeria. When these things are done, then Nigerians abroad will take a cue from their home government.
The first mistake made is that Nigerian officials failed to be proactive, to the report brought to security officials by Abdulmutallab senior. Upon receiving information from the boy's father, Nigerian officials should have immediately contacted the Yemeni government to say that Abdulmutallab should not be allowed to fly out of the country until the Nigerian government gives green light for him to travel. The second thing should have been to instruct the Yemeni government that Abdulmutallab could only fly to Nigeria to meet his family. As soon as there was news of the failed attempt to blow up the plane, the Nigerian government should have come out and condemned the act in the strongest terms and make it clear that Nigeria will not allow terrorists to have any place to reside in Nigeria.
Source: The Guardian, 11th April 2010.
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