Sunday, December 31, 2006

UN Chief Kofi Annan steps down in a blaze of glory. Well deserved.

We join the decerning world in wishing this great son of Africa and outstanding international servant a happy and healthful retirement. I don't know that he'll get to rest or retreat from both public and private duty, though. But we must wish.

From early 2007 Annan will be on a feast of unabashed further recognition in the form/shape of awards, honours, garlands, monuments, grants and offers from a grateful and non-forgetting world. Rightly so.

Looking back will be easy and tortuous. Looking forwards will be dutiful and fruitful. Our dear Kofi, as a full-blood African, must and will manage both stretches competently. No question.

Well done, brother; welcome home.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

I don't know how you folks feel about 2006; but me, I am wishing and praying it away fast! The dying hours seem to be committed to so much havoc that it better go fast. It has to go fast. It must get out of the way of 2007. Our, by God's grace, better and promising 2007!

As it goes, which it must, may it not bundle us into its luggage. May it not create more pipeline fires or shipwrecks or famous deaths or weather blizzards or horrendous floods or gory penury or failing leaders. May it go alone...all alone. And leave us to welcome and savour our 2007.

I am in no mood to celebrate its ugliness. I can understand why most can hardly recall any good in its annals. Yes. But, alas, there was some good. Just think enough, look enough, check enough.
And, as the faithful must say, in all things give thanks. Yes.

Let's thank God for life. Yes. Let's give thanks for the year of our Lord 2006. Yes.

And the final thanks? To God for 2007, as it comes. Amen.

Monday, December 25, 2006

We mourn the passing of James Brown, 73, the godfather of soul. I recall his timeless hit "I feel alright...I'm black and proud"! That was an African Anthem those days.

His dexterity and panache, his raw talents and robust energies, his faults and frailties, his many travels and tenacity are the stuff of legends. He left us with awe and sorrow. He remains with us.

Goodnight brother, till we meet again!
May the peace that has so far, and so painfully, eluded our world be restored on this Christmas Day - this season of love and good tidings!

Let all Christians play their part. That way, we can induce and infect others to do same.

A very Merry Christmas to us all, and may the New Year be peaceful and prosperous!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

There is no doubt that the power-play between Nigeria's president and his vice has finally reached a head. President Obasanjo has announced the sacking of Vice President Abubakar on account of his decamping from the ruling People's Democratic Party, PDP. Abubakar recently joined the Action Congress, AC, where he picked the presidential ticket for the 2007 Elections. He had been on suspension from the PDP in the last three months, and was promptly expelled this week...in the ongoing drama.

Of course, there have been series of accusations and counter-accusations by both parties, in the past several months, over alleged corrupt practices, fraud and abuse of office with regard to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF. That bit is being investigated by the Senate. There are several litigations going on as we speak. A bunch of presidential entanglements! Now the bar has been further raised - just a few months to the end of their tenure!

There will be arguments for and against. Hot debates. Heated polity. But, trust Nigeria, we will resolve this in due course. The overriding question is "why this crisis...and..why now?". The two gladiators need to put our nation first, and ensure that 2007 is not derailed.

We beg them!
Iran should use the good offices of China and Russia...as well as...France to reengage the IAEA, the UN and the international community on its nuclear project/ambition. There is no need for the current face-off with the UN Security Council.

The US and UK must reckon with the power and influence of Iran, and do practical diplomacy in this matter. As Jim Baker, former US Secretary of State, rightly put it, the United States fully engaged the Soviet Union in talks during the cold war! So, what's the fuss?

Get down to talks, folks!
Merry Christmas and a very Happy & Prosperous New Year to you all. I also wish our moslem faithfuls a most Rewarding & Successful Hajj - The Holy Pilgrimage. As we savour these holidays and bask/meditate in the appropriate rituals, let's remember the less-privileged, the poor, all those caught up in wars, and the infirm. Let's pray and act for world peace.

Oh, please wish UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki-Moon well. He'll need it!

Blessed holidays to world leaders, too! You know what I mean.

Friday, December 08, 2006

The Iraq Study Group Report is a known missile...shattering all myths and placing emphasis on the crucial/critical elements of the way out in Iraq. The Baker/Hamilton team has helped us all to name the beast, and bell the cat, as it were. Good turn.

Reactions and potential actions should unfold over the coming weeks and months. Rightly, we should be particularly patient and patently contemplative in this period. We need a cooling of nerves, and we need to give Bob Gates time to settle into his remit as secretary of defence.

Listening to both President Bush and Prime Minister Blair (at their post-ISG press conference)yesterday was a sight to behold. It was a very sombre and sobering event. You could castigate or feel for them, depending on your hurt or previous glee-of-the-invasion, but you could not but see/watch history being written, and legacies being unravelled, before your very eyes. On global TV, in real time! The ingredients, nuances and salience were nerve-racking. Utterly surreal.

Let's grant Mr Bush his right to further briefings, notably from his inhouse gurus, including the military and the State Department - as he insists. Let's grant Mr Blair's offering to go "unlock" the "barred" door to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Let's wish them good going as they scramble to redeem whatever is left of their political capital, and deploying same (we hope, deftly and wisely!) to the gargantuan task in hand. Even as time speedest.

At this point, Russia, France and China should start working on both Syria and Iran to come on board - through the UN - and save Iraq from final implosion. For sane measure, someone must tell both Bush and Blair to be contrite and humble about this need, this reality.

We wait.
Impeachment. That is the dreaded word, the trodden term, in Nigeria's political lexicon. Say what you may, it is used, misused and abused....shall we say....at will, and quite willfully. Well, until yesterday. Yes...Thursday 7 December 2006.

What changed? Everything. Thanks to the courage and dutifulness of the Court of Appeal, and the confirmation by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, no one can impeach anyone anymore without full compliance with both the letter and spirit of the Constitution. There must at once be due process and rule of law, in tandem. As we say in Nigeria: no magomago, no wuruwuru! You may not cut corners in this matter.

Briefly, what happened was this: The ruling party used its members in Oyo State, south west Nigeria, to illegally and crudely remove the governor from office January 2006. The deed was done in a hotel, with less than the prescribed two-thirds, by some legislators beholden to the "political godfather" of the People's Democratic Party in the state, variously described as the "strongman of Ibadan politics", "demagogue of Amala Politics", "garrison commander of PDP" and "god of Molete". We speak, dear reader, of the dreaded and fearless Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu.

Adebayo Alao-Akala, erstwhile deputy governor and a sworn worshipper of Adedibu, promptly took over and got another adherent of the strongman installed as his deputy. Governor Rashidi Ladoja and the anti-impeachment legislators filed several cases in different courts, including a robust challenge of the act, moves to freeze the state government's accounts, etc. The complex processes and proceedings culminated in the detailed ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal, sitting in Ibadan, which firmly and unambiguously repudiated each and every strand of the dastardly deal. Governor Ladoja's impeachment was unanimously declared null and void.

You would have thought that rests the matter. No. Not with the ruling party of Nigeria! Both the Federal Attorney General and the naion's Inspector General of Police insisted that the status quo be preserved until the Supreme Court rules!! Curiously, this position was taken even before the appeal was filed at the apex court. The IGP, himself a senoir lawyer, openly contradicted and preempted the courts in this case, such that the registrar of the Supreme Court had to issue an unprecedented and devastating rebuttal. Strange ways!!!

Today's judgement finally rests both the Ladoja-Alao Akala saga and the question of how and/or how not to impeach office-holders, especially governors and, ultimately, the president.

Lesson: Be patient and prudent in the face of political adversity. Believe in justice and keep faith with the courts.

Lesson: Be dignified and undeterred as Ladoja has been. Do not resort to violence, no matter the provocation...as Ladoja has so admirably done.

Lesson: There are always lawyers and judges to rock the boat of justice, but there is always the final say of the final court, which will redeem and redress. Yes, no matter what.

Lesson: God, The Almighty rules. He gives and retrieves power or wealth as HE pleases. And HE is faithful....even now, and forever!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Congratulations to Dr Raymond Alegho Dokpesi and his Daar Communications, proud owners of RayPaower Radio and Africa Independent Television (AIT), on their glorious 10th year anniversary. As Nigeria's first private broadcast group, they have blazed the trail and endured incredible challenges. In this business, you gain as much praise as notoriety...no matter how you play! Dr Dokpesi, a PhD holder in marine engineering, was Africa's first truly indigenous and wholly private broadcast operator. He is a consummate innovator and steely risk-taker!

By providing an alternative voice to/for our people, the TV/radio stations have won the hearts and the prayers of Nigerians. Government officials and their apologists have both the right and reasons to be apprehensive, but can hardly deny the beauty of the plurality of media ownership and offerings that our democracy, every democracy, deserves. Nor can they not, in their private moments, thank AIT/RayPower for such patriotic and robust role in defending same.

It must be right to say the TV house came into its ultimate own with its unblemished coverage of the infamous (some still say, diabolical or dastardly!) tenure elongation or Third Term saga. AIT/RayPower gave Nigerians and the world at large extensive and verbatim coverage, plus the Senate's grand finale of its termination. It was Daar Communications' finest hour!

The costs have been horrendous, including numerous threats, arson attacks, arrests, sabotage, persecutions, prosecution, fire-bombing of the proprietor's country home, studio raids, etc. Oh, and there was a clandestine attempt to foreclose on the company, through its Lagos bankers, by prematurely calling in loans and advances. Dokpesi insisted they were wrong, but a "liquidator" was appointed anyway. Nigerians were scandalised, and there was a loud national fundraising campaign to show solidarity and save the stations. The company survived on its own. That was in the military days of Sani Abacha. This dispensation has sought its own schemes to do same!

As we head for the 2007 Elections, AIT/RayPower must build on the 10-year success and their "baptism of fire". Tough? Nigerians are with you. Keep sharing the African experience. No shutting you down or shutting you up.

Evidence? See the list of political casualties from the PDP Primaries. Most of the supporters of Third Term, including erstwhile juggernauts, have been dumped by the party grassroots! How are the mighty/greedy fallen!! With the Freedom of Information Act on its way, many more will bite the dust. The free press, especially private/independent media houses can look forward to a new dawn.

Bravo to AIT/RayPower! God bless and keep you, amen.

Friday, December 01, 2006

FOUL FARM, FARM FOUL
( Note To First-Ever Africa-South America Summit, ABUJA 2006)

I sat glued to my TV screen taking in the stirring words. I thumbed through the newspapers poring over the reports. Quite exciting, truly promising. And why not? This is South-South Cooperation rising a notch further, reaching out to the future, calling for change - real change. Why not!

Was I pleased Abuja was hosting? Ask again. About time Africa's giant rose up to its natural duty, not flip-flopping. Is there hope of anything concrete coming out of this? Yes, I'll say. Why, what be different from the perennial talkshops? Well, I do not speak for their excellencies but I intend to let them into some very OPEN secrets - just in case their very large protocols and tinted (some may suggest, tainted!) car-cum-office screens hinder them from seeing or hearing. It is one way of securing and sustaining my boundless optimism!

My opening salvo on the open secrets is done in verse. We are very soulful peoples, these two continents. We are about 1.5bn in population, and have the world's most fertile and ecologically and geologically diverse lands, bursting with marine and mineral resources. We can change our lot in a jiffy, and can help save the world in tow. Our forebears handed us proverbs, folklores, songs, dance and art, so our peoples sense the seriousness of the matter when you address them in verse. Elders are venerated, the Sage is virtually worshipped. Verses be code, be mode.

In so wrapping my message, this piece is a demonstration of the place and power of PopPoetry. Welcome to my music to the land:

FOUL FARM, FARM FOUL
Our land is breeding:
not food but famine
not winners but weaklings
not mothers but murders
not honour but horror
As for man, materials have
taken his place
As for hope, hype dealt
it a fatal blow
and hell has taken over
The lucky generations have
blocked tunnels, channels
and passages
The doomed generations are
pruning their chances
to bare bones
in the heat of waste
From these throes
the web of multiple traps
is choking our willing limbs
From this betrayal
a million scenes have grown
into the movie reels of angst
so our land conjures blockbuster
tales and magic cartoons
Neither the Sage nor the sapling
can fathom this thunderbolt
The eerie passion of diabolical
leaders meets a sonorous silence
of deprived masses, in a kokoma
peace of the grave-yard:
cloaking the poverty of leadership
the depravity of dishonour
and mesmerisation of short-termism
Oh, be not deceived!

No roads for tractors
autobahns for tanks
No cash for ploughers
foreign aid for choppers
No stores for harvests
vast dumps for bombs
Hard times for kids
swell life for thugs
As we turn our fields to graves
we search for help abroad
As we loot our land to death
we beg for stones abroad
When the giver sets snide terms
we turn whimsical in fits!
Pray shame

We foul our farm with glee
robing greed as glory
posting stench as status
Farm be great fantasy
in white and green, blue and red
black or yellow paper rituals
fouling senses, freaking sensibilities
Farms be seething staples
gasping for life in annual budgets
jinxed programmes, junk projects
As we go, when we go
others farm fruits of health
we farm foul health
we foul the air
and choke fair help away
For easy dough, we foul
For easy fame, we foul
For all our shame, we foul
the bond of change
and send the Sage to rage!
Pray pain

We have no centre
lest it holds
We shun them griots
none to heed
Poor moms, how cope ye now
Lost dads, where seek ye more
Our lands be slaughter fields
not farms or mines
Our forests be blighted fields
all gone to logs
Our waters quench thirst no more
just rivers of blood -
fouled by ruptured bowels
of pregnant beauties;
soaked in crying crimson
of craggy kids;
virussed with drawing matter
from riddled skulls!
It is a curse of mounting contempt
flowing from our mountains of hate
jumpy intolerance, and haunting distaste
It is a blessing seen and denied
It be hell undue, love untaken
It is how we look in base brashness
and react in feverish frenzy
The Sage be so in pain

Yes, it is the farm we foul
and the fouling we farm
It is how we mock
and now, we're mocked
Pray change


There is nothing more helpful than the wave of democratic embrace of sustainable development which appears to be sweeping through our two continents these days. More elections and some change of guards will cement our optimism. No one gets to solve their problem unless and until they get to accept its existence, its reality. That means telling it as is, seeing it as is. No padding.

The media has a fair reflection/representation of the stark reality on ground in the two regions. The internet and our diasporas, especially the dissenting segments, have opened up the debates just as multilateral agencies, the donor community and friends of the Third World constantly do. Most crusaders, civil society groups, student bodies, labour unions and intellectuals have told our leaders some home-truths, calling for more stakeholder-voices to rise in tandem. Speak TRUTH, bitter truth, to power! So they may ACT in earnest. Especially now that they've seized the initiative to change things, to turn things around, by this and all other summits. Again, no padding.

This verse, may I humbly suggest, does that. May our leaders now wash our shame away!