Nigeria: #PayKeshi - A minister incapable of shouldering responsibility

Goaded by embarrassment

Nothing gets the Nigerian government of Goodluck Jonathan as agitated to be vituperative in overwhelming defence of their policies than a public embarrassment.

We must agree as they have severally demonstrated; they have no capacity for shame, but embarrassment shines a light into the nooks and crannies of the failings of the system that they close ranks sending out spokespersons to the media and Twitter/Facebook minions onto social media to stem the tide of criticism.

Yesterday, the calumny descended to a new low, quite shamefully contemptible that it left many seething with rage.

A man of distinction humiliated

Stephen Keshi, 51, as the manager of the Nigerian national football team since 2011 has won the Africa Cup of Nations in February 2013 and has successful added Nigeria to the contingent going to the Brazil FIFA World Cup in 2014. [Wikipedia] [Wikipedia]

Despite his successes as a homegrown coach, as at July 2013, he was owed five months’ salary and out of desperation in October he lamented that he was owed seven months’ salary. Some of this has now been paid. [BBC] [Vanguard Nigeria]

These were his words, in October, “The lowest point of my career is working and not being paid for seven to eight months. I have never had this kind of experience before.” [Vanguard Nigeria]

He earlier stressed the point with, “I am not being favoured. Whatever I am doing here, I am doing it with everything I have and I need to be respected and be paid.” [Vanguard Nigeria]

Stephen Keshi was then reacting to comments attributed to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF formerly the Nigeria Football Association NFA) that allowances and bonuses paid to coaching staff should be enough to sustain them. [Vanguard Nigeria]

A manner of calumny and atrocity

This appeared to embarrass the Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, who yesterday upbraided Stephen Keshi for going public with this seriously untenable situation, some quotes from the news story are replicated verbatim below, courtesy of the Vanguard Nigeria newspaper. [Vanguard Nigeria]

“If NFA is having problems paying Keshi’s salary, it means that the system has a problem and that system has to be addressed.”

“When you get a job you do it and you don’t go about embarrassing your employers because your salary is delayed.”

Surely Keshi was right to talk

Nobody is saying the NFA/NFF does not have problems, however, if a performing and successful member of staff to whom the organisation has responsibilities and contractual obligations is not paid for up to 8 months that it becomes a demoralising and destabilising burden that could affect their productivity, there is cause for concern.

It is evident that from Stephen Keshi’s words that he was affected, despite that, he has fulfilled his contractual obligations without quibble, but with dedication and unrivalled patriotism worthy of the highest commendation.

And as the Sport Minister noted, if the NFA/NFF was having problems, it could report up the chain for intervention and resolution, it beggars belief that the NFF/NFA allowed the situation to deteriorate to the point that the coach had no other choice but to vent his spleen – 7 to 8 months with pay is just unspeakable.

A matter of assuming responsibility

This atrocity happened under the watch of the Minister of Sports. He had the choice of expediting the payment of all arrears along with an apology to all the staff owed their emoluments or in this case, for the embarrassment indicated by the failings of the NFA/NFF; he decided to make a villain of Stephen Keshi, a victim of the failed system in his ministry.

That is just shameful and lacking in sensitivity, though it is redolent of a culture of impunity amongst employers in Nigeria who get away with not paying salary on time, if at all with them demanding as in the words of the minister – “you get a job you do it and you don’t go about embarrassing your employers.”

I would say, the employer can avoid the embarrassment and shame by just paying the salaries.

That bill is essential

In conversations I participated in on Twitter, the matter of a third party owing the NFA/NFF sponsorship moneys was brought up. However, this is completely beside the point, a desperately unconscionable way to pass off blame and share the responsibility for what is essentially bureaucracy incompetence, lethargy, the lack of sensitivity and the lack of respect for the hardworking personnel who have brought plaudits and glory to Nigerian sport. [KickOff.com]

If the Workman (Unpaid Wages Prohibition) Bill had been passed through the legislative process to become law, the matter would have been cut-and-dried on the issue of responsibility. [Information Nigeria]

Somebody in the Sports Ministry hierarchy would have borne ultimate responsibility for the contracts and the payment of salaries to staff.

The organisation in the law would have faced a surcharge of up to 30% of two months’ wages for delaying salaries more than 30 days to a maximum of 60 days.

Any salary delays beyond 60 days will attract a 30% compensatory surcharge with the possibility of the employer serving a month in prison.

For Nigerian employees need it

The Minister clearly identified an employer – employee relationship between the coach and the NFA/NFF, a designated person will carry the sanction if imposed by the courts where the contractual obligations of prompt and full salary payments are left wanting.

It goes without saying that Nigeria is desperately in need of this punitive measure and law that protects the rights of employees whilst giving them the means to seek redress through an expedited legal process that provides specific legal guidance as to what is due, fair and just.

The NFA/NFF under the threat of sanction would have done everything possible to meet their obligations and the minister would have had no justification whatsoever to excoriate Stephen Keshi for speaking out for his right to be paid on time, in full, with due respect, courtesy and dignity becoming of an exemplary and hardworking Nigerian of repute and accomplishment.

A real man shares blame and glory

The Sports Minister has the gall to step forward to share in the laurels and the glory of sporting successes of Nigerians who still excel in spite of and despite the incompetence and negligence of the rotten bureaucracy, he heads. Where that system fails, he should unashamedly shoulder the responsibility for the lapses and the atrocities without looking to pass off blame to others.

His statement about Stephen Keshi was at best regrettable much as it was the display of utterly reprehensible conduct.

The humility of accepting blame

Those who have found ways to agree with the minister must for once find the humility in and magnanimous heart to sensitively take full responsibility and sue for justice rather than shirk and dissemble with sophistry.

Beyond this, Stephen Keshi becomes a poster boy for the many millions of Nigerians who have suffered the indignities of slave labour extracted on the forlorn hope of salaries that will never materialise.

I hope the legislature now sees why the passage of the Workman (Unpaid Wages Prohibition) Bill is of the utmost urgency with the case of Stephen Keshi putting a human face to unacceptable business practices in Nigeria.

#StellaGate: Do The Needful song

A princess in princely disaster

Therefore, the Nigeria Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, appeared before the House of Representatives committee on Aviation, to answer for overpriced bullet-proof BMW limousines presumably bought in her name.

With the air disaster, the near miss and suspension of airline operator licences that made October 2013 arguably the worst month of her tenure, the crisis of confidence was compounded with the purchase of unnecessary vehicles by a cash-strapped independent agency under her ministry.

See the following:

Nigeria: Acts of God in our Aviation Industry or Rank Incompetence?

Nigeria: Every reason to believe our airspace is not safe

Do the needful

After numberless claims and counterclaims from many government agencies with none of the at least five stories lining up, she appeared and said whilst she approved the transaction, she annotated the approval with, “Approved. Do the needful.”

‘Do the needful’ might well become a meme, but ‘Do the needful’ could mean anything from doing due diligence to exculpating oneself from responsibility if the whole issue blows up as it has done overshadowing the President's jamboree, pardon me, pilgrimage and visit to Israel, last week.

Let’s sing, let’s dance

However, rather that attempt to add another story to #StellaGate or #OduahGate with the aim of creating a Nigerian version of Arabian Nights and a story for bedtime, I have decided, ‘Do the Needful’ should be a song and dance, maybe a musical.

I am not a lyricist, but I have the framework of what can be refined and set to music, then we need a choreographer to help with the dance steps to go with the music.

Here is the draft ‘Do the Needful’ theme song:

Do the Needful,
I signed for the vehicle,
Make the claim,
But never in my name.

Do the Needful,
Stop the ridicule,
The BMW,
Is for me, not for you.

Do the Needful,
Take me for a fool,
A bulletproof price,
Is like rolling the dice.

Do the Needful,
The princess is beautiful,
Her life is in danger,
From some stranger.

Editorial: How do we capture the desire we all have for Nigeria?

A desire we all have for Nigeria

Great is the wish and desire for better topics than what I am about to write about Nigeria. This is a great country with amazingly unrealised potential that appears to be continually rundown by those who we have elected to represent us at all levels.

The problem is however not just that of leadership, it includes the people too and sadly an inability to grasp the fundamental truths of a situation, an idea or a conversation if there is something emotive to offer upon which they can gorge their sentiments on.

Nigeria cannot be doomed, there is prospect and promise beyond compare and ability that needs to be nurtured to wrestle power from the malefactors in charge and command the heights whilst mentoring those coming up to occupy and take Nigeria to where it rightly belongs – a prosperous thriving country with people willing and able to pursue their goals in happiness with all opportunity and ability at their disposal to succeed.

Those who hold us back

Things need to be uprooted, overturned, jettisoned, condemned and completely excoriated. These things are exemplified and personified in people – men and women who present no glowing future for the entity Nigeria or the identity Nigerian. They clog the corridors of power and need to be bulldozed out of the way, swept into ignominy as light gets shone on their opinions, activities and alliances.

Today, it was the turn of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to be readied for the scrapheap of odium so vile that it cannot be countenanced by rats cavorting in a metropolitan sewer.

“May I suggest to the Executive Secretary of FCDA, who has the Abuja Master Plan and the Coordinator of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council to rename this place as Goodluck Jonathan District.” He started [1].

“This is because we have not named any district after any president in the past. The president I know is President Goodluck Jonathan and the president I know that is bringing good luck to me and to Nigerians is President Goodluck Jonathan.” He then said.

“Therefore, by the powers conferred on me, I change the name of this district to Goodluck Jonathan District.” He concluded.

Is there just cause?

Now, there is nothing wrong with naming places after past leaders of Nigeria, we have universities, airports, roads and buildings named after many of our heroes past, many long gone but with places in the history of Nigeria.

In most cases, these naming acts though unilaterally done by those in leadership do have popular appeal and support with many Nigerians knowing why.

It is quite strange to rename a district in the Federal Capital after a sitting President who has only been in office for two years and yet to prove himself as an effective master of his brief, talk less of being an all-embracing and inspiring leader of all Nigerians.

Maybe I am being harsh with my assessment so let us hear the citation the Minister gives to make the President worthy of such an honour.

Of the many deserving

"A district has never been named after a President ..." – that is a valid point but we have had many, 14 in all [2], starting with Nnamdi Azikiwe, the 1^st Governor General and the President of Nigeria; Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the 1^st Military Head of State or Murtala Mohammed, the 4^th leader of Nigeria assassinated in 1976. Sani Abacha for his despotic reign is not offered a podium of honour but he is one of the 4 who once ruled Nigeria and have since died.

Other leaders of distinction, I use distinction with a bit of levity are Yakubu Gowon who lead the country through a civil war, ruling for 9 years or Olusegun Obasanjo who ruled the country twice, first as a military ruler and then as a civilian president altogether for 11½ years.

Only last week with full military honours and all the state accoutrements, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was buried, he led the civil war for the secession of Biafra and had long been revered as the leader of the Igbo tribe, it would appear he was the next for the synonymous and eponymous but you cannot curry the favour of the dead. – Surely, there is much to be said for these people.

Really?

The Minister goes on to say, “The president I know is President Goodluck Jonathan …” This could mean the Minister is completely oblivious of Nigerian history or cynically one might be persuaded to suggest this was blatantly currying favour since he is minister at the pleasure of the President.

He concludes the citation by saying, “… and the president I know that is bringing good luck to me and to Nigerians is President Goodluck Jonathan.” Is that all? You ask.

The President is honoured in a shameless display of sickening sycophancy as a fawning minister is innocuously 'bribing' the President to maintain his post by flattering the President and appealing to his ego, building graven images of district renaming like we have returned to the Babylonian times of King Nebuchadnezzar.

The Court of Goodluck I

We sometimes forget we are in a democracy and we operate like an absolute monarchy because it can only be the reason why a Shaykh kanti Aiki Ibrahim Zuru has a calling card with the title Loyalist to His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR).

Obtained from a tweet by @Seedorf with thanks.

This whole charade of leadership in Nigeria is playing out like the Court of Goodluck I where patronage is rife and obsequiousness that can provoke extreme emesis is the norm, as for corruption, that is the currency of the gaining audience with the potentate whose name might soon be emblazoned on anything that can be named or renamed just before our prayer beads are replaced with the mini-busts of Goodluck Jonathan.

Impunity without a care

To crown it all, the Nigerian Senators who receive 350% of their annual basic salaries as car loans payable over 6 years at the annual interest rate of 4% were given cars [3] all same at additional cost of N1.3 billion to the public purse on the premise that they will be used for committee activities. It is illegal and criminal but impunity is the name of the game and accountability is as unAfrican as let’s say homosexuality.

We cannot be sentenced to this travesty of a democracy which is in fact fawning kleptocrats at the head of an unconscionable kakistocracy – Nigeria deserves a lot better than all this.

Sources

[1] FCT Minister renames Abuja’s Maitama District as Goodluck Jonathan District | Channels TV

[2] List of heads of state of Nigeria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Senators receive N1.3billion new cars | Premium Times Nigeria

Other references

Nigeria: Prince Ade Adesanya is expecting your call

Nigeria: The Court of Goodluck I - Special Advisers

Nigeria: Presidency seeks the nth opinion

Nigeria: #OccupyNigeria New York townhall disruption

On Sahara Reporters

Now, I am not the greatest fan of Sahara Reporters but I realise that in a country like Nigeria the need for a guerilla news agency beyond the reach of government or powerful influences is critical and important.

I have always contended that they need to be more professional with a better editorial policy, an independent funding arrangement and some control of the quality of commentary that accompanies their stories.

As I learnt to my chagrin and annoyance, some two years ago having praised Sahara Reporters on my blog, their editorial team ripped off my article wholesale and posted it verbatim without acknowledgement or attribution and gave the impression I was a guest blogger when I was not at all.

The interesting knowledge gained from that experience was when I eventually got to see the 33 or so comments posted with relation to my write-up only one appeared to comprehend fully what I was talking about, the rest of the comments were redolent of ignorance and a strange pall of illiteracy that put keyboards at the fingertips of cretins.

Some lessons

Recently, the front-man of Sahara Reporters attended a town-hall meeting in New York where the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs was the guest of honour. He successfully disrupted the meeting which was recorded and posted on YouTube and he made some very crucial points that representatives of Nigeria going abroad will pay heed to appreciate and note.

We are well informed of activities in Nigeria and the global cachet of Nigerians is able to project and protest anywhere in the world.

The idea that Nigerian dignitaries can utilise African time when going to events abroad where we do keep to time and are punctual will no more be condoned. In this case the Minister was shamefully 90 minutes late.

We are not in thrall of people in power, if you are in public service, the element of service to your countrymen has to be paramount, the idea that you will be revered as some potentate with an air of mystique is so last century.

Patriarchy is dead, if you are expectant of respect by reason of the office you hold, you will have to earn it by merit, with competence and the honest engagement that accords respect to the people you desire respect from.

Causing serious embarrassment

The Occupy Nigeria movement has a global outreach and it is evident that despite the fact that the President in his concessional speech revisiting the fuel subsidy issues by promising to cut unnecessary travel, this minister was almost aimlessly gallivanting around the United States with the penchant for arriving late at all events she was invited to.

Though there were Nigerians in Diaspora ready to fawn in supine sycophancy in the presence of Nigerian politicians the goal of Mr Sowore was to call out this minister and in the process address the burning issues going on in Nigeria whilst embarrassing the minister seriously for her classless and reprehensible behaviour, not to talk of the inability of the government to really cut back on the profligacy that had become part of the gripes of the Occupy Nigeria movement.

Mr Sowore made his point by disrupting the meeting and he probably could have been a bit less volatile and abusive in his delivery so as to make even more reasonable points. The meeting eventually commenced after that representation of Occupy Nigerian were escorted out of the venue by the New York Police Department but not before an 11 minute recording had been made which will have the minister having to do some explaining and clarification with regards to what that video clip purports to suggest.

Reviewing the video clip

Without doubt every news organ has an agenda and it behoves them to pursue it with fervour, but it also important that the organ maintains a principle of credibility and integrity for purposes of posterity.

I cannot say if Mr Sowore’s edition of that video had sinister intentions to embarrassing all Nigerian representatives to the point that their positions become untenable. That might be scalps for Sahara Reporters but it does their cause no good at all.

At issue with that video is the idea that the minister and representatives of the Nigerian Embassy in New York sat through the recitation of the Nigerian National Anthem and a cursory viewing of that video appears to suggest that they disrespected the National Anthem and the ensuing consequences will be grave. Many of the comments I have read had both excoriated and condemned those officials but I not convinced that they did sit through that fervent expression of patriotism.

Within the first 1:07 minutes of that recording, there is enough evidence to indicate that the editing of this film clip has either deliberately or inadvertently besmirched the loyalty of these officials.

I have taken timings in playing back that video at normal speed and detailed my observations to support my view.

00:00 The lead in to this video clip introduces the subject of this recording.

00:04 The national anthem was already being sung as the narrator began to set the stage for the event.

00:14 The man at the podium was talking to the audience from what one can see of his demeanour; he could not have been doing this whilst the national anthem was being sung, indicating the audio recording of the anthem was dubbed over the video.

00:30 The lady that approaches the podium after the man also appears to be talking to the audience.

00:35 The lady glances toward the high table as if to acknowledge the people sat there.

00:38 The lady in the black jacket walked over to confer with the lady speaking at the podium.

00:42 The camera pans to the back of the lady in red who appears to be holding a microphone and maybe asking questions – at no other time are we shown the audience singing the National Anthem after the glimpse at the beginning of the clip.

00:59 The clapping at the end of the audio playback of the national anthem appears to be in acknowledgement of the man getting up on the right as he makes for the podium. The minister and the other man are clapping too, it cannot have been for the end of the national anthem.

01:05 As the man approaches the podium we hear the voice of Mr Sowore who seems to have commandeered the microphone and you can see the attention of those sat at the high table directed towards him.

My submission

I will suggest that no matter how late meetings start for Nigerian gatherings there will most probably be a call to prayer and the singing of the national anthem.

In both cases, I will expect that the master of ceremonies will expressly as all in attendance to rise for prayer and then rise for the singing of the national anthem.

It is unlikely that the singing of the national anthem will be a spontaneous activity and hence if the people are asked to rise to sing the national anthem it is almost impossible to contemplate the situation where those at the high-table with expressly ignore that request and sit through the national anthem.

By circumstance, tradition or even rarity, one has to submit that the video was an edited version of the event which inadvertently portrays a side of the story that does not represent the whole truth and by so suggesting the official disrespected the national anthem – there is no indication from that clip that those officials did not rise for the national anthem and until one expressly shows that they did not respect the anthem it will be unjust to suggest impunity.

I will be ready to review any other recordings of this event either to corroborate or dispute my views but this video by commission or omission on the matter of respecting the national anthem is unfair, unjust and heaps opprobrium on the officials to foster an ulterior and dastardly motive which is at best unconscionable if not dishonest.

Nigeria: Ministers' perception of bad image

Perceptions of image

Nothing gets me so irked than to read half-truths and sometimes untruths upon which the principals have entered into a determined scheme of denial whilst pasting every external element in sight with blame.

The Nigerian Guardian reports that the Nigerian Ministers of Finance and Information blame the media and human trafficking for Nigeria’s bad image [1].

I quote liberally from that news story acknowledging the source to be the Guardian Newspapers.

Whilst the plight of human trafficking is a very serious issue that has hit our screens over time, I would be hard pressed to find any recent material on that matter as compared to the Niger Delta crisis and the way it imparts on the oil infrastructure and oil markets, the inability to conduct decent elections and the sometimes unfavourably slanted reference to Nigeria when it comes to scam letters.

The West has people in Nigeria too

Let us examine the premise put forward by these esteemed servants of the Federation of Nigerian, the Finance Minister, Dr. Mansur Muhtar revealed, “there was a lot of negative reports from the local media and these in turn shaped what the Western media and investors think about the country.”

Interesting insight suggesting the Western media do not have liaison offices and personnel in major cities of Africa’s largest “democracy” and one time its biggest oil producer. Investors would come from countries that probably have embassies plugged into Nigeria and its environment for business and Nigeria belongs to many trade and bilateral organisations that would have representatives in the country and there are international conglomerates operating in Nigeria already.

It is a bit far-fetched to suggest that it is the local media that serves as the main news feed for the International press thus the main source of the bad image of Nigeria.

Credit comes with noticeable impact

The same minister went on to say, “the public seemed not to be giving enough credit to government for what was being achieved.”

Whilst Nigerians might like to hire praise-singers they are not effusive in praise for situations that impact on them negatively. Unlike in the West where we desire and demand small government; where infrastructure, power, transport, health, education and water resources do not seem to be available to the common man, that country needs big government.

The minister must understand that to gain any credit, the activities of government must touch people’s lives – roads for their business activities, power that meets the needs for a developing nation, integrated transport with focus on railways, hospitals that have qualified personnel and unadulterated drugs accessible to the majority, schools that have materials and can stay open the whole year round and really potable water.

Unfortunately, the ministers live in the exclusive decadence of opulence called Abuja almost oblivious of the realities that meet everyday lives such that they expect praise from postulation rather than action that really changes lives for the better.

The enormity of the challenges

I suppose what really puts it all in perspective comes from this further statement; “... government's efforts are not being given enough recognition and coupled with the enormity of the challenges not being appreciated.”

Nigerians know the challenges they face every day, the need to survive, the need to keep a roof over their heads, the need to put food on their tables and the undying optimism that things would improve.

What they expect of their government is first of all competence, the statement the minister made cuts the other way which questions whether the government has ever appreciated the enormity of the challenge of steering the ship of state called Nigeria.

10 years is some time

Blaming previous governments for our problems today is becoming an unforgivable excuse, the same party has been in power for 10 years, a fifth of the time that Nigeria has been independent, 10 years is a long time to turn a country round if the leaders can exhibit a modicum of competence.

I am happy that the Minister of Information has also recognised the negative element of human trafficking and child abuse, however, it does not go far enough as a matter of the Nigerian image abroad if it does not also address the more controversial issue of child sexual abuse within Nigeria itself.

Deliver and trust will follow

If the “people no longer had trust in the government to deliver its promises,” it would appear no tangible promises have yet been delivered on because like I said earlier in my blog; impact would bring recognition, Nigerians would no more stand for the voluble, loquacious and vacuous politician with promises by the truckload – I am sorry, we are looking for results not the thought and ceremony about actions.

Let us see ceremonies at completed projects not stupid foundation-laying ceremonies for white elephants.

In all, I think the ministers are looking for sycophants to sing their praises in vacuity and publish lies and vague achievements to give the government credit for nothing and hoodwink Nigerians with statistics and platitudes without showing real results.

Methinks, the ministers are in deep denial.

Sources

[1] Guardian Newspapers: Muhtar, Akunyili blame Nigeria's bad image on media, human trafficking

Nigeria: Ali denies lobbying for post

Ali back in the news

It would appear the hot coals and spitting fires of dissent and disdain have been roasting the backside of Dr. Ahmadu Ali.

After media reports of his rejection of the ambassadorial posting to South Africa where sources have it that it was only South Africa of all the possible host countries that was willing to receive his credentials and the President’s decision to consider a more qualified career diplomat, the doctor might have been at a loss.

By coincidence, because of the problematic Federal Character profile required to appoint human vessels from each region in Nigeria rather than then best people in Nigeria; the erstwhile Minister of State in the Ministry of Health – Mr. Gabriel Aduku – hails from the same state as Dr. Ali, this being Kogi State, the President might have a bit of a challenge.

Ali denies lobbying for post

Obviously, one would expect that balancing the Federal Character of the Federal Executive Council can include a reshuffle and the selection of other qualified Kogi State technocrats who have a desire to serve rather than a demand to be rewarded and respected – that would hopefully provide the President with great opportunities.

Dr. Ahmadu Ali strenuously denies that he is lobbying for a ministerial appointment; that can only be very good news, I would also hope that no consideration whatsoever is being taken to advance his name for any federal appointment – he has done his time and he should give way to others.

Of service and possible disservice

For argument sake, we can agree that Dr. Ahmadu Ali has served his country as a Minister of Education in the 70s and consequently a Senator, I do not however believe that the chairmanship of a ruling party constitutes service to ones country.

I think that political position within a party structure confers too much authority and power to that personality who has no electoral mandate but exercises undue influence usually inimical to good governance and geared mainly to entrenching party influence and sometimes beclouding what should be transparent processes.

Undue influence of ruling party chairmen

The case of A.M.A. Akinloye as the Chairman of the ruling National Party of Nigeria between 1979 – 1983 and the influence he wielded on a national scale, the statements coming from the current Chairman of the ruling PDP – Chief Vincent Ogbulafor – indicate that we need a reform of the kind of public profile of these chairmen – they should merely be administrators of the party system, their continuous appearance on the national scene pronouncing policy and influencing government decisions must be curbed through constitutional restraint.

As private citizens they have every right to contribute to the debate about good governance but as party chairman, they should and must keep a low profile.

They were not elected to public office and they are not accountable to the electorate, so they should not be so visible as to be implicated in why there are serious conflicts of interest between self-interested party policy and good governance of Nigeria as desired by the electorate.

Meanwhile, if Dr. Ahmadu Ali is beginning to settle into inevitable retirement from “National Service”, I can only bid him Godspeed; however, if he is up to some mischief, he would be a man of questionable character – such an one is not needed in the Nigeria of today.

The death of Nigerian Culture begins

A man of no honour

All the clamour for the sacking of the Nigerian Aviation Minister must have been too loud for the president to ignore.

The minister himself who lacks any kind of integrity or appreciation of responsibility depicted in what others might regard as “the buck stops here”, had before the launching of an investigation into the Sunday aircrash already blamed it on pilot error.

For someone who has the academic qualifications that seems to make a mockery of anyone who deigns to call themselves a professor, it is amazing that he has no inkling of what his brief is about and how to handle his office with the panache expected of a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Obviously, I am raising the bar too high by that turn of phrase in the last paragraph because it would appear there has only been one minister ever in that country who has had the dignity to resign an appointment on a matter of principle talk less of dereliction of duty or possible criminal culpability.

Presiding over the damage of education

The problem really is that the hapless, incompetent, bumbling and sycophantic professor who as the Education Minister presided over great unrest in our education system that universities were closed for months on end due to arrant arrogance rather than conciliation and negotiation probably contributed in no small measure to ruining an already debilitated condition in our educational services.

How is it that a professor, a leader in a tertiary institution, accorded the honour of managing the educational system and raising the standards of the same; cannot seize the opportunity to make a difference for the positive?

You have to ask Professor Babalola Borishade, he must have an answer to that question.

Yet, the president kept faith in this failure and apology to progress, so rather than calling time on him, moved him to the Ministry of Aviation.

The grim-reapership of Borishade

A ministry that was in the throes of death, where the national carrier had been discredited internationally and a cabal of former ramshackle bus transport (molue – a transport contraption with a name that is the corruption of “maul it down” – depicting a lack of brakes, service or safety) entrepreneurs had moved up-market by adding wings to their molues such that they could masquerade as aircraft – aircraft rejected by madmen in the West with over 20 years service.

A molue courtesy of etomi - Just imagine this with wings

As it transpired the lack of accountability, reform, managerial responsibility and oversight under the grim-reapership of Professor Borishade created four mass coffins in 1 year and 6 days – it had become completely untenable to keep that harbinger of death in the Aviation Ministry – he just had to go – he has gone.

The death of our culture

Well, not really, he has now been moved to the Ministry of Culture – Here is to the death of culture in Nigeria – the bearer of the death mask just arrived.

I can say no more, whatever is between the president and this rotten man is definitely in need of serious scrutiny – it is more than meets the eye.

Reference

Nigerian aviation minister sacked - well, not really

Making an ass of a South African policeman

Qualified to Minister?

Sometimes, one wonders what qualifications are required other than political affiliation and cronyism to become ministers of the realm in many governments.

The Nigerian Blog World is bursting with opinions about the suitability and qualifications of the current Finance Minister who understudied as a Minister of State in that Ministry a seemingly more capable person who had PhD in regional economics and development and was a vice-president at the World Bank.

Though it is said that the current Finance Minister is respected internationally, for a country like Nigeria with a huge oil economy undergoing extensive reforms, a BSc in Geography and Post Graduate Diploma in Management in some countries might just be sufficient for a middle-level position in Local Government.

In any case, she is now the Finance Minister and we can only expect that she would perform with excellence despite our general misgivings.

New treatments for HIV/AIDS

In South Africa, certain ministerial appointments and the antics of the ministerial personnel borders on the laughable as they make pronouncements that would have circus clowns look unfunny.

The Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Mismang is apparently medically trained culminating in a Masters in Public Health. There is no doubt that the side effects and toxicities of HIV/AIDS drugs are issues of concern.

However, to then use that issue to advocate the treatment of AIDS with lemon, beetroot and garlic without empirical medical or pharmacological research to support that basis makes this qualified doctor look like a quack.

Group-think AIDS malady

To compound issues, these bizarre statements were made at an international conference on the HIV/AIDS.

For a country like South Africa that has such a high number of infected citizens, the health minister has for 7 years been the worst possible person to appoint to address a situation that borders on a national crisis.

This is not helped by the fact that certain obtuse ideologues in leadership are viewing HIV/AIDS as a purely social issue instead of seeing the serious medical and public health perspective to the problem.

The clamour for her resignation if not her sacking cannot be loud enough; this woman has failed to grasp the context and brief of her ministerial portfolio, to say the least.

The making of a crime story

It is not strange to see policemen in Amsterdam in cars, on scooters, on bicycles, on roller-blade skates, on horses or strolling on foot; they get around the town just as everyone does and they do command a modicum of authority.

Returning to South Africa, which supposedly has one of the highest crime rates in the world, anyone in charge of dealing with crime should be adequately providing resources to the men on the ground to tackle serious crime whilst maintaining a façade of authority and respect.

In the case of South Africa, this might mean armed personnel, reinforced cars equipped with radios, photographic equipment and a few other paraphernalia that would allow effective arrests and quick despatch of cases.

So, one would think it valid when the police suggest they cannot get to crime scenes because they do not have cars – cars in themselves provide some sort of protection to the occupants as they race to crime scenes.

An ass of a policeman

The minister in charge (Minister of Safety and Security), Charles Nqakula offers a “better” suggestion; they should ride bicycles or donkeys to those crime scenes or get out of the police force. It might sound rhetorical or metaphorical, but I think he is deathly serious.

Bicycles, I can understand, but then how do you get the suspect back to the police station for charging and questioning as part of your investigation and prosecution process.

Now, there no way any policeman who mounts an ass is going to command the authority to take charge or exude the seriousness that entertains a crime scene; even if he had a gun, he would be a jumped up version of the milky-bar kid.

If the policeman had to chase after offenders, an ass or donkey is hardly the kind of runner for that sort of thing, they are more beasts of burden; you could probably lay dead men on the donkey but not criminals.

Arrest this stupidity

The minister with a past career in journalism is probably good at writing fantasy stories but serious crime affects lives, people, property and economies at large.

He should be addressing the core issue of ensuring that the police force is equipped to meet the challenges of a 21^st Century South African society.

Headline grabbing sound bites that pour scorn and ridicule on the people of South Africa would not do, in fact, it would appear that a background in law enforcement or the military would be better suited for this job.

Political appointments

It would appear there are some ministerial appointments of convenience in very sensitive positions where the said ministers become untouchables even though they are performing no beneficial ministerial function for their people.

What leaves one astounded is that many end up pontificating in such a way that their heads do not check what their mouths are saying, however, it is the chief executive, the head of government we should hold responsible for making appointments where possibly better qualified citizens are available to do a better job for their people.

The Finance Minister in Nigeria is yet to prove herself, but the tow South African ministers reviewed here have proved that we probably can get donkeys to do better jobs than they are doing.

It is time for the president to move the war on corruption to the next stage; a war on ministerial incompetence.