Sunday 28 February 2010

The Politics of Yar'Adua's Illness


BBC reports that Nigeria’s Information Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili says she is fed up with the “lies” told by some presidential aides about the health of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. She also says the president’s return last week has “actually exaggerated uncertainty, confusion, anxiety, fear and concern, not just by Nigerians but by the international community”.

Unlike what some journalists in Nigeria claim is a “bombshell” I actually don’t see her latest utterances as such. This is not the first time Professor Akunyili has poked her index finger at some “few” individuals whom she claims are holding Nigeria to ransom over the Presidents health. On February 5th she attempted to present a memo to the Executive Council of the Federation, EXCOF, with the hope of forcing a change in the official position on the President’s health which was that “he was still in a position to lead Nigeria”.

Since then the whole world witnessed the political wrangling and debacle which led to the emergence of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President.

From this latest pronouncement, and for some reason I suspect, Dora is not all spewing brimstone and fire. The Info boss uses some nice words to describe the President: “he is peace loving” and the rule of law he preaches” is from his heart”.

The culprits says the ex-drug buster were some “people around him that are gaining from the confusion; people around him that are doing to him today what 100 million political enemies cannot do to him”, she said, adding: “He has done a lot for this country and suddenly, a few people are rubbishing it. They stole him into this country in the night”.

On that note though, not many Nigerians’ view would differ from Dora’s. Some sympathetic to Akunyili say she’s vomiting all this grammar because of apparent “frustration at her inaccessibility to information on the President’s health status, she said: “You manage information if you have information. We did not have information that our President was travelling to Saudi Arabia until we read it in the news, and when he was in Saudi Arabia we hardly got information. “We never had a comprehensive channel of getting information that we are sure of and most of the information sometimes, they don’t add up and it gets very disturbing. When they don’t add up, you feel very awkward reporting such information".

Understandable perhaps given that her job really is to "sell the government to the people". If there really is no commodity to sell, well, what then does she do?

Hmmm...tough nut to crack!

But her detractors are suspicious. They say “no, no, no, this is all a pan“dora”s box”, and somewhere underneath lurks something that would emerge for Dora when all is said and done with the health drama.

We are as contributors and analysts, privy to Nigeria's colourful democracy. This is all to do with “the politics of Yar’Adua’s illness” as the Professor herself admits. The questions here though are: at whose expense are politicians playing politics with the President’s health; where should it all end?; who will decide when it should end?; who will pay the ultimate price of playing politics with the President’s health?

Thursday 25 February 2010

President, Acting President, Vice President or No President?


“Nigeria's deputy leader Goodluck Jonathan is still the country's acting president while Umaru Yar'Adua is sick, the information minister has said”. The BBC Online News headline is one of such headlines accessed via mobile phone to check the latest twist in Nigeria’s leadership saga.

Information minister Dora Akunyili was speaking following confusion over who was really in charge after President Yar'Adua unexpectedly returned home at 0200 local time on 23rd February. President Yar’Adua had been out of Nigeria for more than 90 days. He was away in Saudi Arabia receiving medical treatment after his health had taken a turn for the worse since his last hospitalisation in Germany some three years ago. Yar’Adua has a history of kidney problem but this time around it had reached the level of heart complication. It’s called pericarditis.

Yar’Adua left Nigeria on 23rd November without having fulfilled the expectation of a section of the country’s constitution, thus:

Section 145: “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President.”

Political wranglings, manoeuvrings, intrigues and counter-intrigues somehow led to the emergence of Vice President Jonathan Goodluck as Acting President. If some thought the resolution-backed decision by the National Assembly which was seen as illegal by some – including members of the legal profession – was going to douse the tension, they were wrong. But anyhow temporary stability was restored, but only just!

Less than three weeks since his becoming Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, his supporters and some who refer to themselves as defenders of Nigeria’s democracy were back in the "shugabanci" wilderness. Hours after his "middle of the night" return, a statement from the office of President Yar’Adua referred to Mr Jonathan as “Vice President”. A couple of hours later a statement from the Mr Jonathan referred to him as “Acting President”!

“That’s it”, concluded pundits. The showdown had begun. Nigeria is back to square one...in the torrential downpour of political schism. Who is what?

President, Acting President, Vice President or No President?

Progressively Nigeria is heading toward – excuse me, I never said "failed State" but only – an http address: confused.com!

The good thing is, armed with an internet-enabled mobile phone I can access all the twists, turns and twirls. Indeed I have found myself constantly checking the latest development of this extraordinary "inspector Poirot" style drama since it began more than 3 months ago. Thanks to the mobile world wide wide, I can twitter, blog, facebook, podcast, bbchausa.com around the clock!

Oh, lest I forget:
Don’t miss the BBC’s major season exploring the extraordinary power of the internet from 8th – 21st March 2010

For more information visit: http://bbcsuperpower.com/

Thursday 18 February 2010

Niger: A Bad Omen for West Africa


Reports say there might have been a coup attempt in Niger this afternoon. BBC reporters say machine gun and heavy weapons fire erupted in Niger's capital, Niamey today and smoke was seen rising from the presidential palace. Witnesses say the dramatic scenes might be an attempted coup. There was no indication of who was involved. Political tensions have risen in the uranium exporting nation in recent months over President Mamadou Tandja's extension of his rule. Reuters says an intelligence officer, who asked not to be named, also said the violence was a coup attempt that the presidential guard was trying to put down.

A member of Tandja's entourage in the palace said that "for now everything is alright." BBC reporters say the shooting started around 1200 GMT and could be heard from a distance of about two miles. There were indications that soldiers were blocking the road near the Prime Minister's office.

The shooting and alleged coup attempt may not come as a surprise to many given the political debacle Niger has been embroiled in. Tandja drew widespread criticism and international sanctions after dissolving parliament and orchestrating a constitutional reform that gave him added powers and extended his term beyond his second five-year mandate, which expired in December.

The military’s apparent near-adventure in Niger today is an indication that Africa is still grappling with the issues of democracy. Respect for the rule of law and a nation’s constitution, consensus and respect for public peace are indeed at the heart of any decent democracy.

But as Africa saunters along the rickety roads of what many within and outside the continent refer to as faulty political and democratic processes mixed with sheer disregard for the very elements that democracy is built on…the consequences shall remain grave.

We watch Niger closely.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Mobile Technology: the 21st Century Intrusion


Mobile phone is ruling my children's world! Hold on a moment, it is ruling my world too..oh, it's ruling the African rural communities and indeed the world as well!

When it all really began to be taken seriously some two decades ago, nobody thought the extent, the scope, of communication, accessibility, convenience, nuisance and many other verbs you can ascribe to mobile technology would reach the level it has reached today. Aided by the internet, the mobile phone is many people's soul-mate, work-mate or nightmare - depending on your usage and postulation.

For us journalists and editors we have to deal with the changing trend in the world of media and journalism. As the "citizen" slowly gets ahead of the "reporter", and user generated content (UGC)forms exciting basis for strong reports in local and international media, and other market forces continue to shape the journalistic landscape, the wisest amongst us is not they who turn their back and pretend "o, it's just a silly hype". Because it is not.

Local communities are talking to those in power and the superpowers! A text message or video clip for instance on an alleged extra-judicial killing can rock the world!

That’s perhaps why I am taking this whole mobile thing seriously (I hope not too much so though). Thus our launch of "Labarinku A Takinfu", an initiative aimed at empowering village communities in Nigeria by giving them mobile phones. The BBC Hausa initiative is symbolic of an embryonic partnership...I am hopeful lots of benefits will be reaped both on our part and on the part of the communities too. After all we share a common objective: the will to change life for the better!

Thursday 11 February 2010

Teardrops of a Clown


Like many other things in life, the sun sets for some. The sun though, sets for us humans, on many occasions when we least expect it to happen, because we feel we have not quite finished or concluded the business at hand...the business of the day.

We always tend to think we are in control especially because of the little power that may be at our disposal. But the reality is being in the driver’s seat, being in control of the route, the course, does not necessarily mean control of the journey. The driver may commence at their time, but even the time of commencement may not necessarily have been in their control. The driver may also not and is often never in control of when or how the journey will be. Least of all they are not at all in control of how the journey will end. The process of "being" cannot unfortunately or fortunately be manipulated by the control freak...the control junkie.

So when finally the sun sets, one stops. And if one is of those blessed with the remarkable gift of reflection, one then takes a step back, thinks, ponders and deciphers. We make deductions and inferences and draw sensible conclusions. These then serve as a lesson to one and us, thus:

So just when I thought I was in charge, I was in control, I was after all not! Who then am I?

I am just a Nobody, a nonentity. I cannot behave like God, because absolute power resides in Him alone! I then seek redress from my arrogance, from my nonchalance, from my ingratitude to He, who has given me a pinch of power but who has now claimed it back!

Like many other things in life, the sun sets for some today. I hear from a distance today, the teardrops of a clown.