Way past the day of the jackal

The dogs of war

Whilst his books are a riveting read, I cannot say that Frederick Forsyth [1] is a likeable person by any stretch of the imagination.

However, that is beside the point, by happenstance during one of his researching escapades for material he was in Guinea-Bissau in 2009 [2] just when a violent coup d’etat was being played out.

For most of what has appeared in his many books, Mr. Forsyth is a fundamental security risk to many governments and institution that it was too difficult to consider his presence in Guinea-Bissau at that particular time to have been a mere coincidence.

Mr. Forsyth has been known to dabble in attempted forced regime change in Africa before, his repentance was suspect.

The veteran

For a man meticulous in detail to a fault in his plots and intrigues, it was interesting to learn that he was still quite “old-school” when it comes to technology that he neither uses a mobile phone nor computer.

Upon his “learning” of the events in Guinea-Bissau, he had to borrow a phone and dictate 1,000 words of copy, though it is not clear if this was to his wife or to the Daily Express, a newspaper in the UK that he writes for.

Except if he were speaking in Shibboleths and codes, it is possible that interested parties could have eavesdropped on his conversation and for their own ends.

One would thing a person of his stature would have moved with the times and probably had a computer and a mobile phone both with encryption and some sort of scrambling device.

The day of the jackal

In a Hardtalk interview [3] with the BBC, Mr. Forsyth accuses US spies of attacking his wife’s computer just around that time though he has no forensic evidence to provide of that claim apart from presumably informed sources he calls ‘friends in low places’.

It brings to mind the recently screened episodes of Sherlock [4] on the BBC which carried the deductive and investigative acumen and partnership Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson into contemporary times from the late Victorian times with finesse.

Many would agree that ideas need to evolve with the times to find new applications with newer tools rather than be fossilised in period settings good for nostalgia and historical analysis, it would appear that Mr. Forsyth from the reading of the articles has forgotten that the day of the jackal is over and he should be dealing with a new protocol of modern times.

Sources

[1] Frederick Forsyth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] BBC NEWS | Africa | Author stumbles on G-Bissau drama

[3] BBC News - Hardtalk - Frederick Forsyth: 'US spies attacked my wife's laptop'

[4] BBC - BBC One Programmes - Sherlock

Nigeria: Obasanjo's Hard Talk

Hard to talk

First draft plus - probably now fine.

One can say Stephen Sackur of the BBC Hard Talk programme found it hard to talk with President Olusegun Obasanjo, the erstwhile president of Nigeria on his programme which was aired this morning on BBC One [1].

In the preamble that accompanies the interview. Mr. Sackur was looking for the answers to two pertinent questions.

Does Africa have leaders capable of solving Africa's problems?

Does his (Obasanjo's) record inside Nigeria lend him any credibility as a regional statesman?

I am not sure throughout that interview we came close to any plausible answers but the exchanges were nonetheless engaging.

Favoured without telling

On the matter of the first question, the interview covered the appointment of President Obasanjo as the UN Special Envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); now this is the second international appointment of Obasanjo to matters of conflict in Africa. In the 1980s, he was a co-chair of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on South Africa that recommended sanctions as a way to persuade the then South African apartheid government to begin negotiations.

I reckon, Mr. Sackur had to ask the same question twice about the joint military operations between the DRC and Rwanda against the Hutu rebels – the question was whether Mr. Obasanjo favoured those activities.

We were first taken on rigmarole about the realities of a monumental humanitarian crisis before some meeting in November 2008 to confirm Mr. Obasanjo’s status and function as a facilitator and mediator.

The interviewer’s impatience a bit evident hammed on the original question and in a roundabout way, we found that Mr. Obasanjo supported those actions because he recognised that in November Mr. Kabila of the DRC and Mr. Kagame of Rwanda – the presidents of the respective countries were not talking and by January, they were involved in a joint military exercise.

Never direct

It is not clear if Mr. Obasanjo was trying to take credit for that reconciliation, but he was elusive when direct answers were required and noncommittal when opinions of a person with his status were required.

He was particular about not being referred to as an adviser of any of the parties involved and did not aver that Kabila could bring essential change to the DRC but suggested Kabila could lay the foundations of lasting peace being the first leader of that country to have any legitimacy by reason of democratic elections.

There was a tendency to the legalistic where ifs were followed with requirements of evidence to support allegations and issues being discussed.

Darfur is invisible

When pressed on the matter of the indictment and warrant for the arrest of the President Bashir of Sudan about Darfur, Obasanjo felt no evidence had been presented to make President Bashir culpable of the atrocities committed in Darfur.

In fact, in asking what crimes were committed by Bashir and how they could have been committed by Bashir, he questioned the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court and impugned its impartiality by suggesting that it was political in its actions.

It would appear Obasanjo is in some way oblivious of the happenings in Darfur, but then in my opinion, this represents the kind of leadership in Africa that ignores the people for the propping up of illegitimate rulers.

The test of reasonable doubt cannot really be applied in the indictments and warrants for arrest - that kind of test is done in the courts, it was disingenuous of Obasanjo to demand that test before arraignment in court.

On that score, in response to the first question one can say that Africa does not for now have leaders capable of solving Africa's problems – the leader of Africa’s largest country by people for 11 and a half years in total could not rise to that occasion, I am afraid to say.

Allegations are nonsense

Moving on to the second main question, which centred on his record in Nigeria lending him credibility as a regional leader, I was at pains to glean a good answer and quite unimpressed in the end.

President Obasanjo’s record has been under great scrutiny and most especially in the words of the current president; corruption went all the way to the top.

Obasanjo made the case that any accusations made against him should be fully substantiated with incontrovertible evidence or they were nonsense and as far as he was concerned quotes attributed to others against him would be repudiated because he believed the persons were not referring to him.

I am not corrupt

He concurred that people in his government were corrupt but there was no evidence that he was corrupt and he offered that at least four top people in his government were charged for corruption, however, when read in detail, only one case was concluded with the conviction of the Inspector General of Police, one died and the other cases – one wonders.

I would suppose Obasanjo considered it an achievement that people were charged at all or that he was investigated by the anti-corruption agencies that most of the cases might have been bogged down in bureaucracies or influence peddling did not matter, edgeways he got to hang out his estranged vice president as probably corrupt.

When Sackur raised the issue of his daughter whose allegedly corrupt activities were topical for most of last year, Obasanjo exculpated himself from her activities saying she was responsible for her actions and would not brook the idea that their father-daughter relationship meant that he could be impugned. African ethical standards, I presume.

I am not responsible for my daughter, he said.

That persecution complex

However, the complete low of the interview came when Obasanjo took offence as Sackur pressed on those questions about corrupt influences by association or indifference at which point he said, “Will you ask that of a European leader?”

Thankfully, that broadside badgering did not work on Sackur – personally, I think Africans and African leaders sometimes exhibit a persecution complex and where they seem to be cornered on matters of principle, they lash out with the accusation of racism.

For a man who has achieved so much, surely he could have resisted taking the interview down that line but any opportunity for a Mugabe-like jibe at the white man cannot be missed.

Nigeria’s potential

When Sackur suggested Nigeria was one of the richest countries in the world, he was corrected that Nigeria was potentially one of the richest countries in the world.

For the reason why a third of the population is in poverty, Obasanjo suggested our income per head in a country of over 150 million people would be considerably lower than that of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait which both produce a lot more oil but have a considerably lesser population.

In fact, that is a plausible argument, but many would contend that if only 20% of the oil income were properly invested in Nigeria, a lot more people might be lifted out of poverty.

Problems as lapses

Where it was suggested that Nigeria has not used its resources to the best of its ability, the man who has ruled Nigeria the longest ever said the opposite and for all the problems we have had in Nigeria, they could all be classed as lapses.

When asked to comment on the current president’s performance, he said it was too early to comment and then damning President Yar’Adua with grudging praise he said, “A good person is not enough to make you an effective, successful and great president”

I would suppose Obasanjo was talking about himself – Hard talk indeed, with all questions barely answered. This is probably the most pressing interview we would ever get from "Baba", as he is known in some quarters, our local press emasculated by obsequiousness would not have dared ask half the questions and instead thrown him soft ball platitudes to elicit preposterous gloating.

Sources

[1] BBC NEWS | Programmes | Hardtalk | Olusegun Obasanjo

The lion is the jewel - Wole Soyinka

The man over the boy

The contrast cannot have been any clearer as to see the HardTalk interview of the 1986 Literature Nobel Laureate; Professor Wole Soyinka by Stephen Sackur this morning putting the ordinary and lack-lustre Chief Ojo Maduekwe - the Foreign Minister of Nigeria in the shade.

It would contemptible to offer to compare these two personalities, but I was both pleased, impressed and proud to hear Wole Soyinka address the issue of his vocation and activism in relation to the politics of Africa.

It was also interesting that Wole Soyinka was not interviewed as a playwright on the sister programme HardTalk Extra, but on the substantive HardTalk programme with a live audience in Lagos that applauded at the end of the interview.

Nigeria is not a democracy

The Professor rubbished the context of Nigerian democracy highlighting the fact that the elections were seriously flawed and democratic institutions had been undermined by the executive in the tenure of the last President.

He was disgusted by the fact that political thuggery found expression and patronage from the ruling “democrats” but lauded the fact that despite repression and dictatorial tendencies the freedom of the press has been sacrosanct; maybe in another forum he can address the issue of quality.

Many would agree that it takes a special kind of temperament to get involved in Nigerian politics, even my foray into student union politics has taught me too much already – the Professor contented that he had a bigger forum with his work, writing and expression than to be subsumed into what is essentially a quagmire.

Complacency in Nigeria

He talked of his membership of a forum that is concerned about a creeping complacency and resignation to issues that have been abused in the country, especially that of the electoral process.

The fear is that many have placed their optimism for resolution in the future without really addressing the problems now. Another point he mentioned was that Nigeria is becoming a powder-keg ready to go off as people realise how resources are plundered to the detriment of others. The example he gave of shared poverty being a shared prosperity in Tanzania was quite an insight.

We should remember that the day before, the views of Wole Soyinka about the political situation were discounted by the Nigerian Foreign Minister, but it was Wole Soyinka that was invited by the US Congress to testify on the matters of the election.

A conflagration about to consume

In the end, the Professor is not advocating violence, his struggle is to bring the complete democratic process into all facets of life; but he also sees where resentment might eventually flare up into an unmanageable situation – our leaders need to take note of the fact that the people would only allow themselves to be taken for fools for so long after which, nobody knows what might really happen.

This interview was part of the BBC “Why Democracy?” season, it is a question that needs to be answered because like the Professor said, at independence, there was an aspiration and vision to bring radical change to Africa, all of which has floundered in the depictions that emanate from Sudan and Zimbabwe as the worst cases of egregious abuse of power in Africa.

Playing by the rules

Nigeria however finds itself in a situation where the rulers abuse the rules and processes with impunity and hubris, but we who seek justice and fair-play have to use the democratic rules of due process, the respect of the rule of law and an assuredly independent judiciary – impartial in its analysis, fearless in its judgements and courageous in debunking megalomaniac potentates.

From that point, Wole Soyinka represents a beacon of hope for Nigeria, he may never vie for President but he is a worthy president and representative of the hope and aspirations for a better governed and equitable Nigeria - He is the lion and the jewel [The Lion and the Jewel (1963) is one of Professor Wole Soyinka's best known plays] stating how precious democracy is to the real development of Nigeria.

It also means that those in power today might still be deprived of the mandate to rule if the electoral tribunal elects to invalidate the flawed elections of April 2007.

The interview (Real Media file, you can obtain RealAlternative [Link to executable] to play this back in Windows Media Player).

Ojo (Maduekwe) has lost his mojo

Updated with video link ...

The BBC has now updated the HardTalk site with the Ojo Maduekwe interview - listen (Real Media file, you can obtain RealAlternative [Link to executable] to play this back in Windows Media Player).

Parseltongue from Nigeria

Unfortunately, the BBC has not updated its HardTalk site to include its recent guest. Having been creating a large carbon footprint around Europe, well visiting sunny Madrid and now settling down in my hotel in Paris, I searched for world language channel and landed on BBC World.

Just in time to see Chief Ojo Maduekwe the current Foreign Minister of Nigeria being grilled by Stephen Sackur.

Never have I seen someone so given to platitudes and banality exhibiting such a complete lack of grasp of his portfolio or realizing the importance of the quality of his responses.

Nigeria not in front

On three critical African issues, I failed to see Nigeria offering guidance, leadership or vision, just diplomatic talk aimed at appearing present but offering nothing.

Darfur – He expressed regret at the loss of African life especially Nigerians, he was not forceful about the need for real action and when cornered he tried to say it not really an entirely African problem (some truth) and the lack of resources for the soldiers was still praised as success on the part of Africans.

I doubt if he had deigned to grace Darfur with his presence as it does not exude the opulence megalomaniacal Nigerian politicians like to be found in.

Twice if not thrice in the whole interview, this offered one opportunity to damned Wole Soyinka with praise without acknowledging the cause Wole Soyinka lamented about.

Nigeria not forceful

Zimbabwe – Nigeria has no view on approaching the Zimbabwean issue to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Whilst it would have been undiplomatic to ask Mugabe to step down, he should have been more forceful about the need for change in that country.

Where Nigeria should have been a mover if sanctions should be considered, he skirted that question by saying when it comes to that situation, Nigeria would make its views known.

You do not need another person of great political importance to dampen the aspirations of a people in Africa than to have such a person in the position of Nigeria’s Foreign Minister.

Then he offered the democratic exercise in Nigeria as a template for the resolution of the issues in Zimbabwe, I was left breathless and astonished.

Nigeria an example?

Nigeria – Once again, regret was expressed at the death of people during the elections and whilst agreeing in a circulatory way that the elections were flawed he laid into Wole Soyinka for not being a politician and talking about political processes.

It force the Stephen Sackur to express a bit of frustration at how such a respected Nigerian could be discounted in such a way on issues that affect every Nigeria.

Ojo would not have it as he praised the success of the transition and then offered it as a tribute to those who died during the elections and pledged that the President offered to make election reform a fitting legacy to those who lost their lives.

Nigeria’s political class

Indeed, I need to watch this interview again, but my first impressions left me seriously unimpressed and not amused. It appears politicians and ministers have a view of themselves being above the fray in Nigeria and would not brook non-politicians commenting about Nigerian situations especially when expressing exasperation at the Nigerian polity.

There are people who might think he acquitted himself well, but I would say we have had better brains and articulate people with a good grasp of their briefs represent Nigeria before not to talk of the fact that the attack on Wole Soyinka might just be the mindset of denigrating world-respected Nigerian technocrats and great minds whose views gain greater audiences than the clowns who cannot even do balloons.

PS: Parseltongue made popular by the Harry Potter books is the language of snakes.

Talk, grunt and say Hello!

More talk all talk

One programme I always pause to watch is the HardTalk series on BBCWorld where guests are interviewed having to address tough questions by seemingly fearless hosts. However, there are the lighter versions which are HardTalk Extra for famous people not involved in politics and ExtraTime for sports personalities.

In the last week, I had the opportunity to see one with Martina Navratilova and another with Leslie Phillips, people I do admire in some sort of way.

Blunt the grunt

In the case of Martina (unfavourably referred to as Navrati-leave her alone by some unfriendly characters), I finally understood what she meant when her complained in the 90s that Monica Seles was squealing like a stuffed pig, referring to her grunting.

That created something of a muffled laugh, but I thought it was a disgruntled comment, fair as it was.

However, when you also hear the American with a Russian background – Maria Sharapova grunt as she anticipates hitting the ball you begin to wonder, does it really require that much effort, barely do you see the men produce that much noise and they definitely hit harder.

So Martina explained that, the grunts muffled the sound of the tennis ball hitting the opponent’s racquet and sometimes the sound of it hitting the floor of the court or the net cord, this means one can only anticipate the ball by sight through flight rather than the added benefit of sound.

Sight, depth and perception

I remember I was never good at tennis, I just could not hit the ball, but it was not till later in life that I understood the reason. This was not much to do with my hearing, though that only really improved in my teens; it was because I had astigmatism in the left eye which meant I would not judge distance and speed.

It affects me so much that I never cross roads with fast moving vehicles except when traffic lights give me right-of-way or the driver acknowledges my intentions. Only a few days ago, people calmly crossed a dual-carriageway and when I followed, I became quite anxious as a car approached at speed, it was probably safe, but my brain could not use the information it was getting about the proximity of the vehicle.

It could be frustrating, but I am a patient man when it comes to crossing roads, my legs are not insured, and neither do I want to put them through the stress test of breakability.

As for the grunting in tennis, a decibel meter with warnings and points deductions might just help curtail those Neanderthal tendencies and make the game more fun, I also want to hear the ball being hit when watching on television.

Hellooo and bless

The interview with Leslie Philips was quite light hearted, known for playing seemingly gentlemanly roles with a lecherous affectation, he has been acting for about 70 years and does look really well at 82.

His trademark Hello! Or DingDong! Just have that sense of double entendre that was clean and so tongue-in-cheek about the Ealing Comedies, the Carry On series and Doctor.

Only Leslie Phillips can make Hello mean, what are you doing tonight, darling? A chat-up line, that can almost never be read as sexual harassment.

It would appear, his depiction of doctors might have lead to some people taking on that career on the premise that it would get them to meet sexy nurses besides doing the jobs of catering to people’s health – probably, the reason the NHS is what it has become.

However, for me, the line that stands out most was at the end of the film Saving Grace where having played the vicar and knowingly observed the growing of marijuana in first the churchyard and then with one of the parishioners, his reply to the question from the press – Bless! [Eyes rolled up looking up to heaven] – For me, that was a classic.

References

Navratilova wants ban on grunting

TIME.com: Stop That Grunt! -- Jul 13, 1992