BADLY NEEDED! PROOF OF GOOD HEALTH FOR ALL NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTANTS

During the week, many Nigerians were shocked by the bombshell and traumatizing allegation by the nation's official drug agency that the much-celebrated police super cop, DSP Abba Kyari, is in reality not the crime burster he was hailed to be but a common criminal and an illicit drug pusher riding rough shod over Nigerian laws and milking the cocaine trade for cash. The development has made me and many other Nigerians numb and raises many-many questions about how things have fallen apart with the security and crime fighting system in our country. 

While Nigerians were still trying to deal with the Abba Kyari calamity, a satanic video went virile on social media in which the Jagaban Borgu, the Asiwaju of Lagos, the bullion van political fixer and the nation's most publicized presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was said to have publicly urinated on his trousers during a visit to the palace of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona. I do not know if the story attached to the widely circulating video is true or made up by mischief makers or those who will go to any length to make sure that our dear Asiwaju does not become the Emperor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

If the story is true, no one should laugh at the former governor of Lagos or ridicule him. Anyone can be sick and anyone can die. Besides, Bola Tinubu is at the age when millions of men have prostate, bladder or urinary challenges. That is nothing to be ashamed of.   

The true health status of the Jagaban however can no longer be his personal secret if he truly wants to be an elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What applies to Tinubu applies to every other presidential candidate, young or old. Nigerians have a right to know.

With the bevy of problems confronting our nation today, Nigerians deserve a president who is not just mentally alert but physically fit. He almost has to be superman to deal with our many problems. It will be sacrilege, after our repeated experience, for our country to be led by any man or woman who constantly needs to travel to see a doctor every other month. The cost to our nation has been huge.

How many people remember how Nigerians were taken for a ride before the April 21, 2007 presidential elections? There was serious speculation across the country that the PDP candidate, Umaru Musa Yar' Adua, was in poor health and not fit for the presidency. The propaganda machine of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, the main sponsor of the Yar' Adua for president project, went on over-drive. We were assured that nothing was wrong with the soft-spoken former governor of Katsina State who went on to be elected and sworn in on May 29, 2007 to succeed Obasanjo.

Not long after, things fell apart. President Yar' Adua was twice flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment. That did not do the trick as thing got worse.  On November, 23, 2009, Yar' Adua had to be flown to a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he spent many months fighting Pericarditis.

This left Nigeria in a huge constitutional crisis, as the President did not transmit power to his Vice President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan before departing the country as required under section 145 of the 1999 Constitution. Goodluck Jonathan refused to perform the functions of the President insisting that he had not been given such powers. In effect, for several months, Nigeria had no leader and the country drifted dangerously while political jobbers and a Yar' Adua cabal enjoyed the confusion.

It took the famous "Doctrine of Necessity" by the National Assembly led by David Mark to formally make Goodluck Jonathan Acting President on January 9 201O. A very sick Yar' Adua was quickly smuggled back into the country at dead of night on February 24, 2010 by those who were unhappy with Jonathan holding the power of the presidency. Our terminally ill President was never seen in public again. Sadly, he died at Aso Rock two and half months later on 5^th May 2010 at the age of 58 and Jonathan became President.

We have had a similar situation with our current leader, President Muhammad Buhari, also from Katsina State, who was sworn in as President on May 29, 2015. He took his first medical vacation only eight months after coming to office. He spent six days in London between February 5 and 10 in 2016. He embarked on his next medical trip on June 6, 2016. He was away in England for close to two weeks as he sought treatment for an ear infection. On and on, the President has travelled for medical treatment that most people have lost count.

 

A conservative estimate shows that nearly one year of the President Buhari's seven-year tenure so far has been spent in London on medical trips. Several times, it has been speculated that our President has passed on. No one who truly loves Nigeria can say that this is ok. With the array of issues that daily seek the President's attention, it is not rocket science to see how the hopelessness that has afflicted Nigerians has been exacerbated by this situation.

 

INEC has set down a number of conditions for interested candidates which include age, educational qualification, tax clearance, etc. Nothing is said about the health status of our potential leader. Considering the price Nigerians have paid in recent years, that ought to change. We have a right to know what the medical condition is of anyone who seeks to lead us. Please, this is not an age issue. After all President Yar' Adua died in office at a considerably young age of 58.

The law may need to be amended to statutorily address this concern. Until then, the candidates themselves should convince us that they are mentally and physically fit for the job. The health status of every candidate is on the ballot.  

See you next week.

ALL OVER AMERICA!

Things are bad in Nigeria; very-very bad. But let's face it: our problem with darkness did not start with the Buhari regime. For many years, we have shouted 'NEPA!' in celebration of the odd one hour of light after many hours of darkness. Nigerians have had to wrestle with the pandemic of corruption for as long as I can remember. The difference is that in the past, we had hope that things would get better. These days, we have no hope. We trust nobody and believe in nobody.

Buahri may be the last Nigerian leader to gain the people's trust. Those who trusted in him are dazed. I don't think that any serious Nigerian would say that Nigeria has become better, more efficient or less corrupt as a result of Buhari's much promoted intolerance for inefficiency or his War Against Corruption. With instability, blood, death and tears everywhere?

Without doubt, we have had too many incompetent people in too many positions in our country for too long. We even fought a fratricidal war which left thousands of our children with horrific kwashiorkor and hundreds of thousands of our brothers dead. We have had military coups on top of military coups and military rule of all colorations. Now, civilians have taking over the coup plotting.

While the Chinese were working on 4G and 5G, Nigerians invented 419 and we have lived through it. Despite all of these, Nigerians always had a kind of swagger. We looked at anyone from anywhere boldly in the eyes and dared whoever that person is to take us on. If you pushed a Nigerian, he pushed you back. We had little doubt that we were a special breed made to face whatever challenges life threw at us. We went into the football field to battle everyone tackle for tackle. Our Eagles were not just Green, they were Super!

Have you noticed that these days your folks in Europe and America know more about what is happening in your village than you in Lagos or Abuja? It is from Europe or America that you get the midnight phone call informing you that a certain old relation of yours in the village has gone to rest with his ancestors.  With the cell phone revolution and the almighty WhatsApp, it now appears a lot easier and cheaper for folks in my village to call New York or Houston than to call me in Lagos. If the truth must be told, there is a reason why it makes more sense to first call the people 'overseas' than the strugglers in Lagos. That reason is spelt DOLLAR. Tell me, how many dollars or euros can you send home from Lagos? So, the calls go to where the money is. Who wants your dirty Naira that cannot buy anything? Just reminds me of the Toyota Camry brand Nigerians call "Big for Nothing"!

Just watch those who come out of the bank after a WESTERN UNION transaction. They are usually taller than they were when they walked in. The American dollar is exhilarating. It intoxicates like a combination of whiskey, brandy, rum and ogogoro. With some of those crisp green notes in your back pocket, you can almost invite the devil to a fight.  Maybe that is why after the recent horror of Afghanistan, Americans are itching to go and fight the devil elsewhere in Ukraine.

Recently, circumstances made me visit my Nigerian friends living in several cities in the United States. Everywhere, I found entire Nigerian families – children, father, mother, uncle, auntie, grandfather and grandmother. They have all run away from Nigeria.  In some places, it looks like the whole clan has migrated and if they can get visas for their dogs and goats and cats, they would ship them out too. 

Almost every Nigerian I met has lost that Nigerian swagger. It does not matter whether they have the green card or the American passport, they don't talk with the usual Nigerian bravado anymore. They talk like citizens of a failed state. They whisper. They are scared. Most of them left their villages in search of the golden fleece. Their intent was to go back home at the end of the day to where they are not mere statistics but proper citizens. Now, it is beginning to dawn on them that they are never going anywhere and may never be more than mere statistics for the rest of their lives.

Some of them from my part of the country who have built exquisite mansions at home have abandoned their mansions to cobwebs, rats, cockroaches and lizards. They know that some eagle-eyed kidnapper is permanently scanning their homes to see when the lights would be turned on. If for any reason they must return home, they must first make a sizeable budget for a small army of security men and keep several millions in a holding account as ransom for the day the kidnapper strikes. You know that the greatest success of all used to be to go home to celebrate your success. Not anymore.

All over WhatsApp, notifications of "unknown gunmen" raiding police stations and killing policemen on duty at roadblocks, with gory photos that tear at your soul, have become part of your daily consumption. Tell me, if the Police station in your hometown is not safe, where then is safe?

In every city I have travelled to in the US, almost every Nigerian I met wanted to talk to me. In fact, I was treated like someone from the war front. The words they use to describe Nigeria are shocking: 'nightmare', 'wasted', 'disgraceful', 'tragic', 'hopeless', etc. They seem to be taken aback that I plan to go back to Nigeria after a few weeks. Truly, some look at me as if something has gone wrong with me and I have signed a contract with suicide. "You mean you escaped that horror and you want to go back?!", I am asked over and over again.

The frightening thing is that most of my best friends of the 1980s and 1990s now live in America. Among them are some really brilliant folks that the Nigerian nation would need to remake itself. Unfortunately, nothing is happening at home that suggests to them that home wants them or that the land of their new struggle has not become their home.

There was the period just before the 'Ghana must go' episode when our brothers from the Republic of Ghana used to walk with their heads bowed because their leaders had turned their great nation into a place where no decent person could have a decent life. Many of them ran to Nigeria to do menial jobs. To all intents and purposes, the average Ghanaian man lost his manhood. That appears to be history.

Nigerians are today walking around with their heads bowed. Our leaders have turned our great nation into a place without hope. What is this that is happening to the Giant of Africa and its people known for our hitherto unstoppable self-belief? I have always been a great believer in the destiny of our nation. I am however bewildered by what I see. Has our iniquity caught up with us?

See you next week!

ONE MAN ONE VOTE – IS THAT THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS?

The entire democracy project hangs on an intriguing concept: all men are born equal. In other words, the great Aliko Dangote with his zillions of Naira, many trucks and thousands of employees has the same voting power as his cook. In a democracy, the opinion of a Bill Gates whose intellect created the incredible Microsoft software that drives almost all of human activities has the same weight as his janitor. Mark Zuckerberg, the mastermind of Facebook who today also owns the mega platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp has no voting power stronger that any of his thousands of employees across the globe.  A Barack Obama with his political sagacity and deep experience in world affairs casts one vote and that vote is in no way superior to that of a homeless man begging for coins in front of Washington DC's Union Station.

I was talking with a big player in the present Nigerian government. I had asked him why the government does not appear to listen to what the Nigerian intelligentsia says, especially as elections are coming close. He looked at me, sighed and said mockingly, "the government does not need the votes of the intelligentsia to get to power. Their vote is too expensive! Go to the motor park and the marketplace with some bags of rice and salt and some Naira notes and all the votes you are looking for are there with very little grammar" You see why the bullion van concept has taken hold?

Donald Trump, the defeated, twice impeached and loquacious former president of the United States who could not keep his hands off his twitter handle and who tells blatant lies about practically everything, was elected by Americans in a one man, one vote process, even if it is the electoral college variety. Should that not make you think? With his incredible megaphone, the Donald who today practically owns America's Republican Party, set out to destroy nearly all the institutions that has made America special for decades.

Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump's former friend, Boris Johnson who wears his hair in a scattered fashion like Mr. Trump is doing everything to scatter the rules and decency for which British Prime Ministers have been known for ages. Boris Johnson is also a product of the democratic process.

The world must watch out! What has happened to the Americans and probably the British should be a warning to humanity as to how dangerous, romantic terms such as 'self-determination', 'independence' and 'sovereignty' have become in the hands of demagogues with the skills to manipulate innocent people around the world looking for someone to blame for their frustrations, difficulties and shortcomings. In a system of one man one vote, all that is required is to introduce hate, religion, race or ethnicity and voila, it is really not that difficult to aggregate the votes of the uninformed and frustrated and unleash mayhem everywhere. One man one vote does not mean one good man one vote. It is does not mean one intelligent man one vote. Just ask yourself how a person as appalling as Donald Trump insulted everyone and manipulated his way to the most powerful office in the world. Come to think of it, was Adolf Hitler not a product of the democratic process?

Back home, we are faced with the same challenges. I have little doubt that if a one man one vote referendum is held in Nigeria's South-East today, it will not be difficult to get enough people to vote for an independent Republic of Biafra. The concept is romantic. I am a proud and unapologetic Igbo man. I am however not sure that my people have given sufficient thought to the cataclysmic consequences of Independence. For instance, where do you fit the millions of Igbo men trading in every nook and cranny of Nigeria? What do you do when your market of 180 million people suddenly shrinks to 40 million? What happens to the investments, properties and deep ties that the Igbos have developed across Nigeria? Where is the guarantee that the suspicions and persecution that we complain about in Nigeria will not be replicated in Biafra or even made worse with some Igbo groups lording it over others? There is no question that we love the concept of Biafra, a romantic land full of milk and honey that we will enjoy to the exclusion of others.

The problem with romance is that when you are in love, you see only the good things about the one you love. Almost always, you are blinded to the fault of your lover. Think of it: all the thousands of people in divorce courts were once in love. Why do you think there is so much divorce?

What applies to the Igbos applies to our brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta who want to blow up the country because they want 'self-determination', 'independence' and 'sovereignty'. The Yorubas who keep dreaming of an Oduduwa Republic may be in the same boat. Investigate and you will find that always there are puppeteers pulling the strings and hoping to deploy the values of one man one vote to achieve their pecuniary objectives.

I hope you do not come to the conclusion that I object to the concept of one man one vote. No! I am a democrat, but this human system has its flaws and we must be conscious of those flaws. Democracy can be hijacked and is being hijacked with dire consequences. The world must watch out! Recently, with the quantum progress that China is making, people are beginning to pay serious attention to the Chinese political model so derided not long ago. As a student of human progress, I have a duty to ask the question: is one man, one vote the solution to the many problems we have?

See you next week.