Buhari's Return: Matters Arising by Reuben Abati

As someone who has been in that corridor recently, I do not share the view of those who insist that President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent 50-day medical vacation was mismanaged by his  handlers, up to this point. I said this much during a recent interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today with Seun Okinbaloye.

In the face of the people’s rising and insatiable expectations, it is often an uphill task to balance so many considerations in a country that is so divided on all fronts.  The duty of the President’s handlers is to prevent such unnecessary news that could destabilize the polity, or create a national security crisis.

The President occupies the most important office in a democracy such as ours because the people look up to that office and its occupier for strength, inspiration and confidence.  When a President suddenly takes ill, the implications for politics, power play and national security are far-reaching. I have already dealt with the manner in which this is so, in an earlier article online, titled  “From London to Abuja in 50 days: Buhari’s return”.

What is the general complaint? It is this: that the nature and the seriousness of whatever ails the President is deliberately shielded from the public. This has resulted in a lot of speculations, and anxiety. A Professor of Medicine, Femi Williams, became so concerned he began to diagnose the President’s ailment by just looking at commonplace photographs. His latest contribution is that looking at the President since he arrived, he seems to be suffering from anaemia.

The Stolen Pot of Soup by Reuben Abati

"I am depressed, my brother."

"You are always depressed. I am actually used to that. I can't remember when last you were not choleric, depressed, obsessed, uptight, down-spirited, what's that your word again, yes, anxious. You better watch it, buddie-bae-bff-bros, stop carrying the world on your back, man. There was Atlas before you. There was Sisyphus. But the world has never stopped moving on."

"I read this story"

"What story?"

"Pathetic story about how right now in Ilorin, Kwara state, it is risky to leave a pot of soup on fire because it is most likely to be stolen. Armed robbers are now targeting pots of soup."

"Armed robbers? Not burglars?"

"I say armed robbers are now so hungry, even a pot of soup cannot be spared. I can give you the web link to the story."

"Give me the gist. The theft of pots of soup is definitely a crime of serious magnitude and should be a matter of urgent national concern. Pots of soup being stolen in Nigeria?."

"Let me read some excerpts from the story to you. "Amidst the stinging hardship occasioned by the present economic recession in the country, the spate of insecurity is rising and taking a tinge of the ridiculous by the day. In Kwara State, cooking a pot of soup is now an invitation to robbers, as cases of eagle-eyed hungry men absconding with cooked food still on the fire is a daily occurrence. The incident is widespread in areas without perimeter fencing and among women who cook or have opted to cook with coal pots. At each of such areas such as Tanke, Basin, Sango, Offa Garage, and Kilanko, the incident occurred according to The Guardian investigations, over five times in just a week…" 

"An epidemic of vanishing soup pots?"  

"Nothing can be more dehumanizing. To think that Nigerians can be so hungry and poor, they will begin to carry guns and machetes to steal pots of soup."

"Not cars. Not jewelry. Stomach first."

"My first reaction was to ask whether they even have a Governor in that Kwara State. Whoever the Governor is, he cannot provide opportunities for people in the state to be able to cook a pot of soup?"

"I hear the Governor like other Governors cannot pay salaries. The Governors are helpless. "

"But the Governors and their wives are eating from multiple pots of soup"

"Yes. Yes. Actually, if you ask me, I would say that the real crime of serious magnitude that we are talking about and that we should worry about is how the Governors and government officials have stolen the people's pot of soup. The armed robbers who go from house to house to collect pots of soup on fire are actually copying the big men."

"You are now asking me to decode something."

"It is not every pot of soup for example, that gets stolen.  The location is important. The opportunity is important. The content is all-important. And if you read that story you were quoting carefully, the soup snatcher monitors the soup. He waits till all the condiments are in, and he or she steals at the right moment.  It is the story of Nigeria. Sign of the times."

"I don't want to go that far.  I won't reduce Nigeria to a pot of soup. But I agree with you that only particular kinds of soup pots get stolen. Good point. Smart point. "

"Particularly if the pot of soup contains goat meat. You know goat meat can smell when combined with Maggi and Tomato. Tomato, these days, is expensive."

"Tomato with goat meat, perfect combination..Hmmm. Mua. Shuhhhh. Ahhhhh uuuu. I must tell you one secret about tomato today."

"What?"

"It clears the prostate. It contains carotene, which is good for the prostate, as an anti-oxidant."

"What has that got to do with soup snatching?"

"When you eat better tomato, and your prostate is very clear, I hear that your downstairs will function very well, and you can crack fire much better, upstairs and downstairs.  Combined with goat meat, ha, something else. And you know goat has a strong smell."

"Are we now a country of goat-meat chasers on fire?"

"I hear that even among the robbers themselves, who takes what part of the goat meat is a  serious issue. That was how one woman eventually found her pot of soup. A big fight broke out. And as the goat thieves quarreled over the pot of soup, the owner arrived and started screaming,, neighbours joined and everybody started screaming and the truth came out. "

"I think this country should just ban tomato and goat meat."

"I have not finished the story. In this particular woman's case, it was discovered that even her husband was part of the plot to steal the pot of goat meat."

"How?"

"The man wanted to play a fast one. He wanted to take the pot of soup to his second wife. Rob Peter,  please Paul."

"What? He should be castrated."

"But can I say something? This thing didn't just start oh. I think poverty is correctly defined as a disease.  Last year, there was actually an incident in Calabar about a man who was butchered and set ablaze because he robbed a woman of a pot of soup."

"Last year?"

 "Yes"

"We should check and be sure"

"Last year, in fact, in August 2015."

"August?"

"Yes, August 2015, after everything changed. The fellow and his group attacked a woman's home and stole her pot of soup.  As they rushed out, the woman raised an alarm, but the man with the pot of soup did not want it to spill, so he couldn't run as fast as the others, and that was how he eventually got caught and he lost his life. He was butchered and set ablaze."

"And there is a Governor in Cross Rivers State?"

"There is but let's spare the Professor. If you had lived in Calabar or Cross River State, you will know that a pot of soup is a serious source of temptation in that place. I mean, in Calabar, they don't just put goat meat, they add everything else on top, from periwinkle to snails, fish, and tomato."

"I feel like my sense of being human is right now under grave assault."

"Come to think of it, the destiny of Nigeria is about the pot of soup and its politics."

"Pot of soup? Well, may be. You know, I heard a story recently, about one of these face-me-I-face-you houses in Lagos where a pot of soup just as we have been saying disappeared from the general kitchen. The woman left the kitchen to attend to her suckling baby. Five minutes max. By the time she returned, her soup pot had vanished. The landlord had to summon a babalawo, a father of secrets, adibia, to identify the culprit and the punishment was meant to be open confession or instant death." 

"Sign of the times"

"Yes oh. But to be fair, there is hunger, poverty and a terrible food crisis across Africa, not just Nigeria. In Malawi, for example, the newly elected President has told his people to stop complaining about hunger. If the people are hungry, they should start eating mice and grasshoppers. 

"May that never happen in Nigeria."

"Well, if the people can't eat goat meat and tomato, they will opt for sub-human options. Even kerosene is now too expensive, ordinary people are now buying gas. And charcoal."

"And God you are on the throne"

"Please, don't blaspheme. This is a holy season."

" I know what I am talking about."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"In Kano, I should tell you this. One man went to buy a bag of rice. He went along with his son.  He left that five-year old son behind, and promised to come back with the money. But he never showed up. He disappeared with the bag of rice.

"God. God. God Almighty. What happened?"

"When the shop owner waited and waited, he had to ask the boy for the way to his home.  Good enough, the boy is old enough. Eventually the father was traced to his home and he confessed that he was willing to give up the boy to have the bag of rice because he had no money to pay."

"What happened?"

"There are still good people in this country. The rice-seller donated the bag of rice and returned the boy to the father."

"God bless him. God bless him. God bless the rice seller. Great message. In this country, the strong must learn to help the weak. That is when we can have a country and a nation."

"Food For Thought, indeed. In the end, it is all about food, feeding the people, rescuing them from a life of danger and criminality or a resort to a menu of mice and grasshoppers, or carrying expensive AK-47 guns to steal pots of soup."

"People are dying"

"I know. Nigeria and the tragedy of broken pots."

"Stolen pots. Broken pots. Burnt pots. Oh, Nigeria. Chief Ojo Maduekwe. I hear, slumped at the airport on his arrival from the United States from his son's graduation, heading towards his wife's 70^th birthday.  Elechi Amadi, famous for the novels, The Concubines, The Great Ponds and his plays, Pepper Soup and The Women of Calabar has also dropped the pot. In Ojota, Lagos, a young hawker, pursued by LASTMA officials ran into the path of a moving trailer and was crushed, his intestines splattered all over the highway and there was pandemonium resulting in more deaths and destruction. "

"Man, you speak in parables and proverbs. Goat meat that caused trouble, deaths, broken pots and stolen pots."

"Those who have ears let them hear. Only God speaks to the people in parables and proverbs."

"I have faith. Nigeria will survive."

"Of course, I see people are beginning to padlock their pots of soup. I have seen pictures of padlocked pots of soup in this country. Even if you steal it, you'd make some effort to break it open. Smart housewives are saying they will never again leave the kitchen until the soup is done and ready to be served."

"Na wa oh, you mean we are now a country of sealed and broken pots."

Reuben Abati

The Game has changed... by Reuben Abati

“MY brother, I think all the people saying they have not seen any change should by now be convinced that truly, truly, the game has changed.”
“Football? Euro 2016? Brexit?”

“What is wrong with you?”
“Or may be you are talking about the death of Stephen Keshi and Shuaibu Amodu and the fact that Nigeria’s House of Football needs to be re-organised.”
“I really don’t know what the matter is with you today. I always try to engage you in a conversation because I consider you smart, but your responses don’t make sense to me.”

“Game change. Well. I studied a bit of game theory in school not as a student of political science but as a generally curious student.”
“Who is talking about game theory?”
“Game theory is about political marketing, the relation between structure and agents, how power is deployed, structuration, the framework of power, the politics of structural and collective agency.”
“When you are tired of boring yourself, you will keep quiet. I am just saying the game has changed in Nigeria. I guess that is simple enough so stop quoting text books.”

“Ha, I get you now. I recall that the former Chairman of the PDP, during the election was snick-named the game-changer. Everywhere he went everyone said game-changer!”
“If you are dumb, or pretending to be dumb, good for you. I am talking about today’s Nigeria, you are talking about the past. Can’t you see, don’t you hear, don’t you feel it, that indeed, contrary to what we used to think, something indeed has changed…”
“Tell me.”
“Me? You mean I, me, myself?”
“What is that?”
“If you mean I, me, myself, I have nothing to say. And please note that because the times have changed, I have developed all kinds of problems with my senses.”
“Then you should go to London for treatment.”
“God punish you for saying that. Do you want to put my family in trouble? I forbid you to talk carelessly anywhere I am. If you are looking for trouble, go and look for it on your own. My mid-year resolution is that I will not hear any evil, speak any evil and see no evil.”
“Is that your game that has changed?”
“Na you sabi?”

The National Brain in Recession by Reuben Abati

"Have you eaten today? If not, let me show you this new restaurant. Good food, the service girls specially attractive, the Madam herself is quite friendly."

"What are you proposing: the food, the service girls or the Madam? Sorry to disappoint you, I am fasting."

"When did you become a Muslim?"

"Is it only Muslims that fast? Fasting is good for everyone's spirit and system."

"Forget about that. Come and have a good bite. I am the one paying anyway, so what's your problem?"

"This man, are you living in Mars? You mean you don't know that this is Ramadan and that some people have made it risky for non-Muslims to go and eat? I don't want to risk my life. Even when you are not fasting or you are a Christian, the best thing to say during this season is to insist that you are also fasting."

Restructure Nigeria, to save it by Reuben Abati

No one should be surprised by the loud and widespread support that has attended the latest call by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that Nigeria needs to be restructured. In his words, "our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a major impediment to the economic and political development of our country. In short, it has not served Nigeria well, and at the risk of reproach it has not served my part of the country, the North, well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in the light of the governance and economic challenges facing us…Nigeria must remain a united country…I also believe that a united country, which I think most Nigerians desire, should never be taken for granted or taken as evidence that Nigerians are content with the current structure of the Federation. Making that mistake might set us on the path of losing the country we love…"

Tomato Scarcity as Metaphor by Reuben Abati

One of the major news items in circulation has been the scarcity of tomato. Incidentally, Nigeria is (was) the 14th largest producer of tomato in the world and the second largest producer in Africa, after Egypt, but our country hardly produces enough to meet the local demand of about 2.3 million tonnes, and lacks the capacity to ensure an effective storage or value chain processing of what is produced. Out of the 1.8 million tonnes that the country produces annually, 900, 000 tonnes are left to rot and waste. Meanwhile, tomato-processing companies in the country operate below capacity and many of them have had to shut down. 

      The CEO of Erisco Foods, Lagos, Eric Umeofia laments that tomato processing companies lack access to foreign exchange to enable them buy heat-resistant seedlings and other tools that would help ensure the country's sufficiency in local production of tomato paste. Similarly, Dangote Tomato Factory recently suspended operations due to the scarcity of tomatoes and the assault on its tomato farms by a tomato leaves destroying moth, known as "tuta absoluta" - a South American native, also known as the Tomato Ebola, because of its Ebola-like characteristics.

The Niger Delta Avengers by Reuben Abati

Niger Delta Avengers is the name of a new group of militants in the Niger Delta who claim to be different from the former agitators and militants who operated between 2006 and 2009, largely under the umbrella of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The title of this group may well serve as the thematic and definitive umbrella for the resurgence of low-level insurgency in the Niger Delta, for in the last month alone, more groups have joined the NDA to wage war against oil installations, the Buhari government, and the Nigerian state. These include the Isoko Liberation Movement and the Red Egbesu Water Lions. The groups are working in concert with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by detained Nnamdi Kanu.

Deregulation and the politics of public policy by Reuben Abati

This thing called democracy, particularly the Nigerian brand, never ceases to throw up new and intriguing lessons about the relationship between government and the people, and the larger, complex socio-political environment. I had gone to Lagos on an assignment in the last two days of the year 2011, when around midnight I received a phone call from someone close to the corridors of power, informing me that a meeting had just been concluded in Abuja where a decision had been taken to deregulate the downstream petroleum sector, and thus, in effect remove the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol).

       I told him I was aware of plans to that effect, since the President had been holding a series of meetings with various stakeholders and constituencies on the same subject, but as at the time I left for Lagos, no final decision had been taken. The fellow insisted he knew what he was talking about and that in the morning, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA) would make the announcement. Sometimes in the corridors of power, informal stakeholders could enjoy faster access and be even more powerful than persons with formal responsibilities. There are persons and groups whose livelihoods are so dependent on government and the people in power that even a whisper at the highest level resonates immediately as an echo in their ears. I learnt very early never to underestimate such persons.

President Buhari, Cameron and Corruption by Reuben Abati

"We have got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world", UK Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on tape telling the Queen ahead of the anti-corruption summit organized by the UK Government, this week, which was attended by Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari. This diplomatic gaffe rubbed many Nigerians on the wrong side, but most of the responses, coloured by overtly emotional love of country and a certain defensiveness is downright hypocritical.

       We all know that indeed Nigeria is "fantastically corrupt", and that is why the most profound reaction, the most honest also, is the statement by President Muhammadu Buhari who admitted that indeed Nigerians are "fantastically corrupt" and that Cameron is right, but the clincher was the rider added by President Buhari, when he said he would not ask for an apology but he would be glad if Great Britain can release all the stolen loot in its custody. I know President Buhari is often criticized for condemning his own people offshore, but no one can fault his sharp honesty, certainly not in the present instance. His reply to the Cameron statement is absolutely brilliant, diplomatic and loaded with a meaningful sarcasm that is yet to be properly defined.

Confronting The Curse Of Oil by Reuben Abati

The monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting was held the other day in Abuja, with the representatives of state governments again cap in hand, asking for their share of federal revenue - read: oil revenue, or better still, national cake, or our money.  A paragraph in the report by the online newspaper, Premium Times, caught my attention and here it is: "But at the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting, representatives of the 36 state governments went home SAD (emphasis mine), as they were handed parlous shares from a total N299.75 billion statutory allocation for the month, the lowest allocations in more than five years." For the month of March 2016, the states shared N55.34 billion, compared to N64.52 billion in February 2016. I have deliberately emphasized the wordsad, because the day may well come when after the sharing of national revenue, we may be told that some Commissioners of Finance left the meeting crying, or wailing.

The President as Chief Diplomat by Reuben Abati

I read an interesting article recently in which the author, objecting to President Muhammadu Buhari's frequent travels abroad pointed out that Presidential spokespersons since 1999, including this writer, have always justified such trips using essentially the same arguments. The fellow quoted copiously and derisively from my State House press statements and an article by me titled "The Gains of Jonathan's Diplomacy".

Those who object to Presidential travels abroad do so for a number of reasons: (a) the cost on the grounds of frequency and size of estacode-collecting delegation, with multiple officers performing the same function tagging along on every trip, (b) the need to make better use of diplomats in foreign missions and Foreign Ministry officials who can act in delegated capacity; (c) the failure to see the immediate and long-term gains of Presidential junket, thus creating the impression of a jamboree or mindless tourism, and (d) the conviction that the President needs to stay at home to address urgent domestic challenges, rather than live out of a suitcase, in the air. While these reasons may seem understandable, arising as they are from anxieties about reducing wastage and increasing governmental efficiency for the people's benefit, I still insist that Presidential trips are important, and that by travelling abroad, the President is performing a perfectly normal function.

A Country In Search of a Miracle by Reuben Abati

"You look tired"

"Ha, my brother. Thanks for being observant. I have been trekking."

"Trekking?"

"I went to buy fuel at that fuel station by the Estate gate. I had to abandon the car there. On my way back home, I could not find okada or any other form of transportation."

"No wonder you are sweating."

"All the tricyclists and the okada people claim they have no fuel."

"It is good for you big men to have a taste of what poor people go through. This fuel scarcity is an effective leveler. It is no respecter of persons."

"I can't wait for April 7 to come."

"What's special about April 7?"

"That's the day we are told this scarcity will end, and there will be no more scarcity of petroleum products."

It's time to put Nigeria first by Reuben Abati

Long queue in a Nigeria filling station

This commentary is inspired by Olusegun Adeniyi's "Of wailers, counterwailers and Buharideens" (ThisDay, March 31). In that piece, the ace journalist and public affairs commentator successfully defines the tri-polarities governing public responses to the Muhammadu Buhari administration.  The take-away is that the biggest challenge that Nigeria faces at the moment is political partisanship, which has divided the country into the camps of rights and wrongs and a fierce and bitter contestation over who is right or wrong.

       One year after the last Presidential election that led to the exit of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), after 16 years in office and power (sorry, the 60 years project failed) and the exit also, of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, there is now a bitter fight out there on the streets over whether or not Nigerians took the right decision by voting for change, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari. President Goodluck Jonathan's over 12.8 million supporters have proven to be loyal and indeed that they exist as a serious, organized political force.

Rev. King, The Law And King’s Supporters by Reuben Abati

Rev King

In the case of the State and Rev. Chukwuemeka Kingsley Ezeugo, the Supreme Court a few days ago, upheld the rulings of the lower courts and ruled that the bearded, self-styled "little god", "Jesus Christ of our time", and founder of the Lagos-based Christian Praying Assembly (CPA), deserves to be hanged, for enacting a form of horror movie which resulted in the death in 2006 of Ms Ann Uzoh.  The simple import of that ruling is that no man is a king before the law, and that the law is no respecter of persons including those who describe themselves as anointed men of God, and who on that account use religion to commit atrocities. 

       But the most bizarre development since that ruling last Friday has been the intervention of a group called the Ndigbo Cultural Society of Nigeria (NCSN).  The group says Nigeria has nothing to gain by shedding Rev. King's blood and that President Muhammadu Buhari should grant the convicted murderer state pardon because "he is still a spiritual leader to many Nigerians." The Ndigbo Society is indirectly saying that Rev King's life should be spared because he is Igbo, and a religious leader. This is nothing but arrant nonsense. It makes us wonder what happens to people's heads once they are in the grips of the disease of ethnicism. Has anyone told the Ndigbo Cultural Society that Rev. King's victim, Ann Uzoh, was also Igbo? Or is Emeka Ezeugo's Igbo life more important than that of Ann Uzoh? Or the lives of the others: Jessica Nwene, Kosiso Ezenwankwo, Chiejina Olisa, Chizoba Onuora, Vivian and Uche?

The Naira-Dollar blues By Reuben Abati

"My brother, e ku exchange rate oh."

"Excuse me?"

"I am greeting you. I am saying how are you and the exchange rate palaver. The dollar wahala".

"So, that is why you are saying e ku exchange rate. Is something wrong with you Yoruba people?        Must you turn everything into a form of greeting?"

"You are insulting me?"

"I am making a statement"

"Meaning?"

 "Any serious matter at all, you and your people must turn it into something else. E ku exchange rate? What kind of greeting is that? Yoruba will say e ku election, e ku democracy, e ku change, e ku ana, e ku gbogbo e, gbogbo e, e ku democracy.I am tired of answering you people and your cynical greetings."

The Made in Nigeria Campaign by Reuben Abati

Nigeria National Assembly

There has been renewed talk lately about the need for Nigerians to patronize locally made goods, (someone should have added… and services!). Championed by Senator Ben Murray Bruce, and supported by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar and a large crowd of online campaigners, so much ink, saliva, and emotions have been invested in this old, and perhaps boring story.

     Senator Bruce, who goes by the moniker "the Commonsense Senator" even introduced a hashtag #BuyNaijaToGrowtheNaira. He hasn't quite explained the connection, but with the exchange rate melting down and the Naira yo-yoing, everyone including our neighbourhood electrician, and his friend, the battery charger, have both become experts on the fortunes of the national currency.  Senator Saraki has promised that the Public Procurement Act will be amended by the 8^th National Assembly to make it mandatory for the government to patronize locally made goods. Minister Aisha Abubakar has proposed a "Patronise Naija Products Campaign."

Mbaka: Priest, Politician Or Renegade by Reuben Abati

Fr. Ejike Mbaka

Catholic priests in Nigeria have always captured the public imagination, some of them have served in government positions, some were prominent in the fight and struggle for democracy, some of them have proved their mettle as poets, teachers, musicians, social critics, and public affairs commentators, but Rev. Fr. Ejike Camillus Anthony Ebenezer Mbaka is a cut above the rest, not necessarily in terms of intellect or persona, but in terms of how he has been able to use the pulpit to acquire a rock star status.

It is therefore not surprising that everything about him is with a touch of the histrionic.  This is exactly what happened when he was transferred, last week, from a parish where he had served for 20 years: from Christ the King Parish, GRA Enugu, to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Umuchigbo, Njinike,  Enugu.  Characteristically, this radical priest and social activist turned what should be a routine administrative posting by his Bishop into a melodrama and an assault on the authority of the Church.  You would think he had been sentenced to a jail term, the way he whined and wept and appealed to sympathy.

Biafra, O’odua, and the 7th lesson, by Reuben Abati

Democracy does not necessarily translate into the disappearance of crises and dilemmas, (even trilemmas, quadrilemmas or more) in a country, either developed, developing or perhaps evolutionary. Built into the fabric of the right to choose is also the right to make mistakes and so, across Africa at this moment, in Nigeria, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Burundi, Guinea Conakry, Rwanda, the lessons are being driven home, as elections are being held or have been held or will be held, that even as democracy spreads within the continent, the tension between stabilization and consolidation, trade offs and efficiency, pessimism and optimism, ethnocentrism and nationalism, remains a major concern.      Whatever the challenges may be however, both local and international authorities have a duty to ensure that the people learn from their mistakes, build on those mistakes positively, and prevent a relapse to either militarism or militarized democracy disguised either as benevolent democracy or charismatic autocracy, or ethnic revanchism as an option for national movement.  The people’s right to make mistakes, oxymoronic as it may seem, is part of the democratic challenge. In Nigeria, our biggest mistake lies in the strange assumption that our problems will disappear simply through intra-elite displacement or the symbolism of grand gestures.  And so, we end up with a boringly repetitive national life cycle.

Six lessons we have learnt by Reuben Abati

THE democratic experience in Nigeria has definitely been a continuing learning curve, and the more lessons we learn at various active centres: people, platforms and processes, the richer our democracy, the stronger the society evolves to deliver a brighter future for the sovereign.

The greatest residue of our democracy in the last 16 years (1999–2015), I think, is the manner in which our community has been enriched by lessons that have practically changed our lives. The democratic deficit is less than the gain; for us, democracy is essentially liberative and should endure.

Clark, the father, Jonathan, the son

Chief Edwin Clark

I HAVE tried delaying the writing of this piece in the honest expectation that someone probably misquoted Chief E.K. Clark, when he reportedly publicly disowned former President Goodluck Jonathan.
I had hoped that our dear father, E.K. Clark, would issue a counter statement and say the usual things politicians say: “they quoted me out of context!”  “Jonathan is my son”. That has not happened; rather, some other Ijaw voices, including one Joseph Evah, have come to the defence of the old man, to join hands in rubbishing a man they once defended to the hilt and used as a bargaining chip for the Ijaw interest in the larger Nigerian geo-politics.
If President Jonathan had returned to power on May 29, 2015, these same persons would have remained in the corridors of power, displaying all forms of ethnic triumphalism. It is the reason in case they do not realize it, why the existent power blocs that consider themselves most fit to rule, continue to believe that those whose ancestors never ran empires can never be trusted with power, hence they can only be admitted as other people’s agents or as merchants of their own interests which may even be defined for them as is deemed convenient. Mercantilism may bring profit, but in power politics, it destroys integrity and compromises otherwise sacred values.