Democracy Gate: My Takeaway by Babatunde Raji Fashola

I watched dumbfounded, probably like many other Nigerians, and perhaps as many foreigners on global television, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his colleagues locked outside the National Assembly. Many thoughts came flooding through my mind.

But the most important for me of those thoughts was simple yet profound. I asked myself when we will live by the RULES that we make.

As I pondered that question, my mind also went back to about 41 years ago, when my mother bought me my first rubber football. I had never played competitive football beyond kicking the ball around in our yard. I think it was my 10th birthday and I had done everything to get what I wanted – A football.

So off to the playground I went with my ball. To my surprise, all those I met there were bigger, older and more talented.

They took my ball and did not allow me to play. It hurt. I protested. At a time, they stopped the game, asked me to take my ball and never come back.

If I wanted to play, they said, I had to learn I had to earn my right to play, and owning the ball did not give me that right.

Those, were the RULES of engagement. It was skill, talent and hard work. Not who got to the field first or who owned the ball. Indeed, some people were selected in absentia, while we who got there first, had to wait, to see if we would get the unlikely chance to play. It never happened. At least not soon enough.

I made my decision. I would play by their RULES.

On the first day as I said, I did not get a game. To add salt to my personal injury of disappointment, the ball (made of rubber) hit a sharp object, promptly got deflated and destroyed.

I left without a game, with a deflated ego and a deflated and permanently damaged ball.

But my resolve was strong. I went back many times without getting a game. I made myself busy as a spectator. One day, the regular goalkeeper did not come. They needed one. I had no goalkeeping skills but offered to be in goal.

It was the only way to get in the game.

Surprisingly they agreed. I threw my feet, my body and anything I could move at the ball. I prevented many goals without knowing how. Somehow, they were making a discovery. They thought I was a great goalkeeper.

From that day, my story changed. My reputation in the neighbourhood went ahead of me. They called me all sorts of nicknames after famous goalkeepers and I even started getting picked while still at home and games were delayed for me to arrive.

After a length of time in goal, our star striker suddenly travelled, I asked if I could try to play outfield. Luckily another boy, Idris, was showing promise as a goalkeeper. My movement outfield gave him a chance. He seized it as I seized mine.

I scored in that game and my ordeal in the goal ended forever, while Idris relished his position in the goal. The place he favoured most.

We survived by following these unwritten RULES of street side football in Lagos and I am sure these RULES still prevail.

Nobody locked the field, removed the goal posts (often made of all types of materials) or stopped us from playing.

Many members of my generation who grew up in Lagos in the 1970s will remember these RULES. It was not first come first served. It was survival of the fittest. At least in terms of footballing skills, and also lobbying your friends who had the skills and had earned their stripes to pick you.

It was not a matter of my way or the highway. That was why I did not walk away with my ball, which incidentally was the only ball available on that first day.

Many years later, as a member of a veterans football club, the All Stars International Football Club in Surulere, that RULE remained applicable.

We had by then become men; husbands, fathers, and business leaders. We had a club Constitution but the RULES applicable on the field of play was not the Constitution. It was talent and ability, lobbying and friendship, not who got to the field first.

It worked injustice as far as some less endowed members were concerned. But those were the RULES.

The dissatisfied or excluded members bid their time. They gathered their numbers, lobbied the club executive and at a general meeting gathered enough majority to turn the tables against us.

They changed the RULES without bringing down the house.

The majority of members voted for first come, first to play. The club coach was mandated to get a register and people recorded their arrival numerically and by time.

Many of us “the Stars” as we considered ourselves, felt hard done by. We came late as was our old habit (and they die hard) only to see that the early birds had started the game. You could not register by proxy.

Why is all this relevant you might wonder?

It is about RULES. Every human endeavour is governed by RULES. Written and unwritten.

Those who thrive in life are those who make it their business to know these RULES and how to ‘use’ them to their advantage without physically damaging the process.

I have used the football metaphor, because football is life. Every game of football has many of life’s challenges and experiences embedded in it.

Passion, from fans and players, contest and competition from them, errors by players and officials, injustice by officials, joy, pain, disappointment, victory, defeat and many more are all human experiences that are embedded into each football game of 90 minutes, or more.

You will see tears and laughter as well on a football field. Tragically deaths have also occurred. Ask Bebeto how he felt when Kanu scored that wonder goal.

Romance and love have existed in and around football if you ask David Beckham and Gerard Pique.

Drugs and gambling are present from time to time, and so is violence, if you ask Zidane and Cantona.

There is a lot of drama too, if you ask referee Festus Bolaji Okubule.

Football has endured because all the stakeholders have chosen to live by the RULES, sometimes very unfairly.

We have seen faked fouls where officials are deceived to award undeserving penalties, erroneous red cards and sending offs, that alter the course of the game. But that is why football is LIFE.

We play on, in spite of these, because there is a next game, and what goes around comes around. If only we could manage our politics like football. How really pleasant this would be.

And this is the reason for my takeway on Democracygate, as I choose to call the assault on the National Assembly by the Executive.

Yes, the Executive, because the police is an agency under the direct control and supervision of the Executive and the buck on this matter must stop at the desk of the Chief Executive.

The genesis of that event is all too well-known.

Since 1999, the party in power has had the run of things. Governors and legislators had left other political parties in droves to join them.

From 1999, when that party had only 21 Governors, it grew in size by fair and foul means to almost 30 Governors at one time.

For 16 (Sixteen) years, it had a commanding majority in both chambers of parliament. Senators and House of Representatives members elected on other party platforms deserted their platforms to join the party in power.

It did not matter whether there was a faction or not within the party, they left.

The parties they left went to court but those cases often expired because the tenures of the parliamentarians often ended before the courts could decide.

The party in power enjoyed their spoils. In spite of the clear Constitutional provisions they turned a blind eye. These were the RULES as they wanted them.

The ‘losers’ did not did lock down parliament. They did not try to take the Mace. They sharpened their skills to play this game on the RULES defined by the party in power.

If you like, they were like a Manchester United of the Premier League in the 1990s. They could buy any player, they had more money, at least until a Roman Abramovich came to Chelsea and Etihad came to Manchester City.

Obviously the party in power did not see this day; when 5 (FIVE) of its governors would leave, and when a principal officer and indeed the head of one chamber of parliament it controls would also leave. Or did they ignore the signs?

It is my takeaway that they must live by the RULES they invented until the courts can determine the matter.

They cannot be allowed to invent new RULES; such as shutting down the parliament. It is nothing short of treason.

Parliament is the greatest expression of the will of the people in a democracy. If you aggregate the number of votes that elected each and every Member of Parliament, I would like to think that they will exceed the votes that elected the Executive.

If democracy is about the majority, the Executive is in the minority here. It cannot have its way.

As Charles Umeh put it recently in the Guardian Newspaper quoting Wael Ghonim “the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

I find it incomprehensible and indefensible that the Executive could have attempted to subvert parliamentary independence and the will of the people.

We have seen some parliamentary brinkmanship even in the more developed democracies. But their Executives have not resorted to the type of impunity that we were assailed with back home.

Can you imagine the Capitol Hill or the House of Commons being taken over by policemen?

The matter is compounded by an attempt to change the story and talk about people jumping the fence or climbing the gate.

That may well be wrong, but we must never forget that events in life are a series of “causes” and “effects.”

But jumping the fence or the gate does not subvert the will of the people. It is an illegal taking over of parliament that is an assault on Nigeria.

Parliament is the stadium where politics is played. The rule book is the Constitution, the laws and rules made under it, and the conventions that have evolved.

Any assault on it is an assault on the people. You cannot do that. It is unconstitutional. Let us play by the RULES. We will be better for it.

—Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, is the governor of Lagos State.

It Is Just A Matter Of Time

That Nigeria is going through one of its most trying times is a known fact. That Nigerians are losing their confidence and patience is also clear. That the government is seen as incapable of doing anything about the social decay, political morass and economic malaise is also obvious. At a time people are looking for leaders, there are only officials. At a time people are yearning for action, they have been asked to pray. At a time Nigerian territories are being taken over by terrorists and Nigerians are being killed daily, others are dancing and shouting “Power!” because they want to remain in power when there is no power. But as Baba Garba would say, “it is just a matter of time”.

The Sunday Trust newspaper of November 30, 2014, carried a frightening story on page 10 about the Federal government awarding contracts worth N538 billion in 3 months. It gave a breakdown by geopolitical zones to bring out the glaring injustice. The south-south where the president comes from got a whopping N324.4 billion worth of contracts in those three months considered. It was followed by the southwest, N74.6 billion; then north central, N19.9 billion; even the southeast that has been shouting PDP Power loudest got only N1.321 billion worth of contracts only in that period. The northeast got, wait for it, N367m contracts while the northwest, where the vice president and those he listed in Kano recently come from got nothing! It is a matter of time. Before assuming office, the president and all government officials swore to “do good to all manner of people, without fear or favour, affection or ill will”. But, it is very obvious that the impression has been created in the minds of discerning public that there is fear of certain people, and that is why they are not even visited when calamity befalls them; and there is favour for certain people and that is why they could get eighty percent of contracts awarded in three months without any shame. It goes without saying therefore that there is affection for some and ill will for others! It is just a matter of time.

The current violent conflicts across the country are the cumulative effects of all the injustice and neglect various sections of the country have suffered over the years. The great philosopher and social reformer who founded the Sokoto Caliphate, Shehu Usman Danfodio once wrote that: “A kingdom can endure with justice even if there is disbelief (in God); but a kingdom cannot endure with injustice even if there is belief”. Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin, where there is justice, peace will prevail and where there is peace definitely there is justice. For, it is just a matter of time.

The situation is so pathetic now that Nigeria recently sponsored a resolution at the United Nations seeking to authorise Chad to send troops to help overcome the security challenges facing the country. Nigeria is so diminished that her leadership are recently always on the move to, wait a minute, Ndjamena, Chad, searching for peace here; how are we sure that Chad has no hand, a Chad whose president is a friend of the world acclaimed godfather of the Boko Haram insurgents as revealed by Dr. Steven Davis, the Australian, in public. Can anyone imagine Presidents Obasanjo, Babangida or even late Yar’Adua going to Chad to seek for help? The truth will eventually come out. It is a just a matter of time.

Part of the unimaginative propaganda of the President’s information managers of recent, is to read out a list – Defence Minister, Chief of Defence Staff, NSA and Inspector General of Police, and say that they are all from the northern states and that they were not able to contain the insecurity. Yes, all these people come from the northern states, but they are all appointees of the president. So, no one elected them to represent any constituency but they were appointed by the president and if they are found to be incompetent or incapable of effectively discharging their duties, why are they kept in office? This thing is beyond propaganda. It is just a matter of time.

If all the appointees of President Jonathan in the security, defence, economic and other sectors of government have all turned out to be failures, it only goes to show that President is a bad judge of character who is incapable of getting the right calibre of people to come and help him in the discharge of his executive functions. No one cares to know where any Nigerian comes from as long as he or she can deliver on his or her mandate efficiently. Talents abound in every local government area across the country and the president ought to have chosen the best. It is just a matter of time.

President Jonathan must remember that he is not the first southerner to be elected President in Nigeria. President Obasanjo was there before him but he was fair and just to all the components of Nigeria in all his actions. President Jonathan must also know that he is not the first Christian or “minority” to occupy the seat of Head of State of Nigeria. Gen. Gowon was there for nine years, during which even his deputy was Christian but no one complained or even remembered such things because he was fair and just to all and did not elevate religion in public affairs. These great leaders were after issues of development and not ‘my brothers’. It is just a matter of time.

Even during the civil war Nigeria was not as divided as now. Even during the worst military dictatorship Nigeria did not experience such wanton destruction of lives and property as now. Even under the worst kleptomaniac regime Nigeria has never experienced such magnitude and scale of stealing and corruption as now. Throughout its history, Nigeria has never been as insecure and unsafe as now. But, it is just a matter of time.

Logically we should be an agriculturally strong country. The reality is otherwise. Logically we should be industrialised by now, given our natural resources, our human resources and our immense capacity for work; the reality is otherwise. Logically we should be enjoying a good standard of living in the sense of adequately feeding ourselves, clothing ourselves, housing ourselves, educating our children and living decently, the reality is otherwise. The reality of our lives defies logic and explanation. It is a tragic paradox created by situations we could have avoided but, for some complacent reasons, we refused to. It is just a matter of time and history is always on the side of the oppressed.

Falling Oil Price Could Breed Political Instability – Experts

Analysts have continued to predict hard times for countries like Nigeria whose foreign exchange income is largely dependent on oil export.

They fear that the steady decline in prices of crude oil poses great danger for them.

According to The New York Times, the price of crude oil continued to collapse on Monday, plunging to a five-year low as oil giants began to scale back on their drilling ambitions and pare the ranks of their workers.

On the same day that the American oil benchmark traded around $63 a barrel, down more than four per cent, ConocoPhillips announced it would cut investment spending in 2015 by 20 per cent, the biggest sign yet that major oil companies are contracting. The announcement came on the heels of BP’s notice that it would cut middle management and other jobs in the months ahead.

Both moves, according to experts, suggest that the 40 per cent drop in oil prices since July had spread pain beyond small exploration companies that were highly leveraged and most vulnerable to oil price swings.

“We are setting our 2015 capital budget at a level that we believe is prudent given the current environment,” said ConocoPhillips’ chairman and chief executive, Ryan Lance.

But even with the sharp cut in investments, the company projected that its oil and gas production would grow three per cent next year because of recent start-ups of major projects in Canada, Europe and Asia as well as increasingly productive wells being drilled in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shale fields of Texas and North Dakota.

That forecast, combined with the slow decline in drilling rigs deployed in fields worldwide, indicates that whatever hopes Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers have that lower prices will lead to quick production declines are unlikely to happen before late 2015. The cartel decided last month to keep its 12 members’ production quotas steady, in a move that accelerated the oil price drop.

Energy experts say that more production will most likely lead to even lower oil prices, unless the economies of Europe and Asia recover more quickly than expected or if there is a major new political disruption in the Middle East or North Africa.

Wall Street analysts continued to lower their predictions of where oil prices are headed in 2015, with some projecting that global oil prices could break below even $50 a barrel — the biggest collapse since prices briefly plunged by about two-thirds during the most recent recession.

“With OPEC on the sidelines, oil prices face the greatest threat since 2009 and appear to be on track for a volatile 2015,” Morgan Stanley said in a commodity report on Monday.

But the report added that “oversupply is likely exaggerated and the market may be complacent about upside risks.”

So far, the drop in oil prices has been a boon for consumers. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.67 on Monday, according to the AAA auto club, 27 cents lower than a month ago and 59 cents below a year ago. Energy experts say that every 10-cent drop in gasoline prices translates into a $120 in annual savings for the typical family that consumes 1,200 gallons a year.

And beyond the recent announcements of cutbacks, companies like ConocoPhillips are considering deferring investments in oil fields around the globe, especially in high-priced offshore and shale fields.

The Norwegian oil giant Statoil has announced job cuts, and suspended or canceled rig contracts. Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron cut jobs in their North Sea operations even before oil prices plunged.

Precision Drilling, Canada’s largest oil and gas drilling contractor and a global player, announced Monday that it was cutting its capital spending next year by 44 percent.

Raymond James on Monday issued a report highlighting budget reductions of oil field service companies. “Peak to trough, we think the total U.S. rig count will decrease by 587 total rigs (or nearly 30 percent) by mid-2016,” Raymond James projected.

“In a low-price environment, investments are harder to justify,” said Michael E. Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Webber added that what was happening had occurred repeatedly in the oil business over the last century.

“This is what commodity markets do,” Mr. Webber said. “They go to high price, and high price inspires new production and also inspires consumers to use less. After a couple of years of that, prices collapse. Then low prices inspire consumers to consume more and encourage suppliers to turn off production. Then you get a supply shortage and prices go back up.”

Globally, economists project that countries with high fuel import bills like Japan and China should benefit from lower energy costs.

China’s trade surplus soared in November to a new high because of steeply falling prices for oil and other imported commodities. India and Indonesia have already been able to shave subsidies on gasoline to reduce their burdensome fiscal deficits.

But for oil-producing countries like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and Iran, falling oil prices threaten their government programs, currencies and ability to pay debts.

Their political stability could also be at risk while the Persian Gulf countries appear to be in better shape financially to withstand plunging oil prices, but future reductions in their sovereign wealth fund global investments could hurt some financial markets.

The drop in oil prices may even hurt natural gas exporting countries since gas prices are often tied to oil prices in European and Asian markets. Along with a projected supply surge between 2015 and 2019, lower prices could jeopardize several large proposed liquefied natural gas export projects in the United States and Canada.

The Malaysian national oil company Petronas last week announced that it was delaying a final investment decision on a $36 billion liquefied natural gas project it was leading in British Columbia.

National Convention: PDP Challenges APC To Presidential Debate On National Issues

Ahead of today’s national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party yesterday said President Goodluck Jonathan is ready to engage whoever emerges candidate of the opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC) to a debate on issues in the country.

PDP, while taunting APC said that even if the opposition party fields two presidential candidates, Jonathan will defeat them.

While they cautioned the opposition against campaigns of propaganda and lies, the ruling party added that President Jonathan is a good product that will make the work of the party easy during the campaigns for 2015.

Speaking at a pre-national convention press briefing, chairman of the publicity committee for the national convention, Olisa Metuh, declared that today’s convention will elect President Jonathan as sole candidate of the party in consonance with the Electoral Act and the party’s constitution.

He also noted the positions of Dr Adamu Mu’azu as national chairman of the party; Prof Wale Oladipo as national secretary; and Adewale Adeyanju as national auditor of the party. They were operating in acting capacity.

He disclosed that 3073 delegates will vote at the convention billed to hold in Abuja.

National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party had in October endorsed President Jonathan as sole candidate of the party after all organs of the party individually endorsed him as their candidate.

Metuh said immediately after the emergence of its candidate they will welcome the opposition to issue based campaigns, based on manifesto and ideology, noting, “We don’t expect that the campaigns will be based on lies and name calling but on Ideas.”

He said, “We have a very good product to sell to Nigerians. President Goodluck Jonathan will win the 2015 presidential poll based on his popularity. We are today sending notice to the opposition party, the APC to expect a crushing defeat at the poll. In view of our confidence, preparedness and the popularity of our candidate, we declare and urge the APC to put forward its two frontline aspirants.

in one pot, namely: Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku as joint presidential candidates with their collective credentials and followership to face our president, Goodluck Jonathan.

“For us in the PDP, we are certain that with the grassroot support and love we enjoy from Nigerians across board, President Goodluck jonathan will secure an emphatic victory against any presidential candidate of the APC or all the candidates put together as one. “

He continued “Let us elevate the conduct of this election. We will base it on who is best for this country in terms of unity of this nation, who is best to stabilise our public policy, who is best to lead us to prosperity. On those three and other issues we will debate whoever is the candidate of APC”.

He added “We will debate APC candidate on issues of unity, stability and peace of the nation.‎”

‎On the ratification of President Goodluck Jonathan’s sole candidature he said “We know he is the sole candidate but still have to go through the election as provided by the electoral act and constitution of the party.”

He added that by the commencement of the convention, a notice has been served to the opposition APC to expect a crushing defeat at the polls.

He said “ With President Jonathan our nation will continue in the path of unity, stability and prosperity, which has been the driving force and inspiration of our government in delivering our mandate in the last three years. This trinity of unity, stability and prosperity has made him the most suitable President for our great nation in these present times.

“Never in the history of our nation have we witnessed the insurgency that is ravaging parts of our country. The insurgency is hitting at the heart of our national unity and cohesion. Instead of reacting in ways that could damage the trust and love of Nigerians for one another, the President has acted more on the side of caution by ensuring that actions to defeat terrorism are carefully thought-out and pursued.”

The party added that following Jonathan’s demonstrated commitment to credible, free and fair elections, the votes of the electorate now count as exemplified in the Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections.

“The president has been able to stabilize the polity by his pan Nigerian outlook and approach to governance. The stability of our nation has strengthened national unity. Today, he has been able to give every geo-political zone a sense of belonging in terms of infrastructure development, economic and human capital empowerment.

“Besides, the visible and concrete infrastructure development in our nation, President Jonathan has been able to demonstrate a deep sense of equanimity in providing leadership, in spite of the incendiary remarks by some opposition leaders.

“Amidst the recessions and economic downturn in most nations of the world, our economy has been stabilized, our unity preserved and our democracy enhanced.‎”

They added that under President Jonathan, there has been “remarkable progress and landmark developments in all sectors of the Nigerian public life, through his Transformation Agenda.”

He added that “the administration has revived the comatose railway transportation with some of the rail lines already in operation. Lagos-Kano is already in operation with new coaches providing improved services.

“Not only have the nation’s highways improved, ongoing works can be seen in almost all parts of the country. When the Jonathan administration came on board, only 5,000 out of the 35,000 kilometers of federal roads were motorable. Today, the Jonathan government has rehabilitated and reconstructed 20,000 additional kilometers. The remaining 10,000 kilometers will be completed in the next three years while other new road projects will be executed.”

The party added that there have been monumental achievements in the agriculture sector, particularly in the distribution of fertilizer, development in the production of rice, cassava and other Nigerian staples.

PVC Distribution Poorly Timed – INEC Observer Muazu Elazeh

An accredited observer of the Independent National Electoral Commission-INEC’s distribution of voter cards, Justice and Equity Organisation has said the timing for distribution of the cards in Katsina State has not made room for potential voters to obtain their cards.

Addressing newsmen, yesterday, the group said the timing of the exercise “which collided with parties primary elections “ was not good enough.