ARRESTING EDUCATION

The Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyeson Wike has said that the Ministry of Education at the Federal level will begin enforcing the penal provisions of the universal Basic Education (U.B.E) Act against parents who deny their children the right to basic education. The Minister lamented that a portion of Nigeria’s population is still illiterate, and that the current national adult literacy rate is estimated at 56.9 percent. The Minister’s threat to throw the law against parents and guardians who violate the requirement that all Nigerian children must attend schools until the end of secondary education will sound like a tired refrain. Most Nigerians would have preferred to hear that government has found a more effective strategy to ensure that more children go to school than the use of threats.

The introduction of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in the 1970s, and its re-introduction in the last few years were welcome as bold policy initiatives that will build a solid foundation for a strong, united and prosperous nation through the provision of quality and free education to its youth. The Universal Primary Education, vastly increased the number of Nigerian children who attended schools. It expanded the number of classrooms, and recruited and trained more teachers. Expenditure on public education was expanded, and UPE schools churned out millions of school leavers. The problem was that the products of the UPE schools were poorly educated, and they were unprepared for anything else in life other than aspiring to proceed to higher levels of education. Those however, were not available on the scales required, and most of the UPE products did not have entry requirements. This was despite the massive expansion of tertiary education and opportunities for teacher education. The overall result was that the UPE programme turned out millions of young Nigerians whose education was too poor for higher education, and too inadequate for employment in an economy increasingly available only to skilled personnel. The ranks of the unemployed and underemployed young people grew, and agriculture in particular suffered because it lost potential hands to urban areas where young people became involved in petty trade or craft, or petty theft.

After two decades of experimentation, many parents became reluctant to send their children to government schools. Many parents had resisted anyway, choosing instead to send millions of children to almajirci schools where they believed they at least had a chance to learn their ways into heaven in the hereafter. Others preferred to keep children at home to learn petty trades and skills, because at least the training gave them a better chance to live productive lives as adults than children who went to schools that gave them neither education nor skills.

Private education took the bulk of children of the wealthy, the powerful and the privileged. Public funded education declined further in quality. Although more children went to school, they received less and less quality education. Those of them who went further than secondary level education into Colleges of Education, Polytechnics, and Universities took their low quality education there. The system adjusted lower to accommodate them. Education policy pandered to the damaging assumption that every young Nigerian in school must get a university degree, irrespective of their abilities. Cheating and corruption became decisive factors in terms of what education a young Nigerian got. The quality of education crashed, and Nigerian graduates who a few decades ago ranked among the best in the world, became suspects in good international institutions. The poor quality of education from primary school to university reflected in all sectors of society which engaged its products. In the civil service, and other services, in the private sector and even in universities, the quality of performance of new entrants and overall efficiency was embarrassingly low. The nation has paid a terrible price for the crash in its education standards, and the few Nigerians who are privileged to attend expensive, private foreign institutions cannot make the difference.

The Universal Basic Education was a dusted-up version of the old UPE, but it was introduced in a context which was even worse than that of the old U.P.E. The UPE enjoyed initial, massive support, the result of an effective and intense campaign, and the lure of free education. The UBE came to life amidst the ruins of the UPE and all its negative aftermath. It is doubtful if any serious study was undertaken to identify why UPE started so well and delivered so little. But the reasons why U.B.E was not going to address all the failures and limitations of the UPE were all there. More children were out of school, and the State had no moral authority or political capacity to force parents to send their children to schools without teachers, seats or roofs. Corruption had eaten too deeply into the administration of Primary education provided by Local Governments, and only the children of the poor went to these government Primary schools. Children learn nothing in them, while bureaucrats and politicians made millions from them, and then used the diverted monies to send their own children to expensive private schools. Even teachers in government primary schools sent their own children to private schools, and many of them abandoned children of the poor in government schools to go and teach children of the rich in private schools which cannot afford to hire teacher in math and science subjects. The involvement of the Federal Government in overseeing the Universal Basic Education is an untidy arrangement that substantially left the situation pretty much as it is.

In the midst of this messy situation, the threat of the Minister to prosecute parents who do not send their children to school will not disturb a single parent, or help the cause of the millions of Nigerian children who desperately need to receive quality education as a matter of right. If the Federal and State governments are serious about child education, they should put enough resources into education, and eliminate corruption from it. Virtually all parents, including many who prefer to send their children to almajirci schools, will willingly send their children to modern schools if they are convinced that they will receive good and proper education that will prepare them for life as responsible adults.

The most profound and tangible legacy all governments can leave behind is to radically improve the quality of education for young Nigerians, who constitute more than 50% of the population. The children of poor Nigerians are not receiving good education from government funded primary and secondary schools. They will grow up as 50% of adult population which cannot contribute to the economy, Children of the rich and wealthy go to expensive private schools in Nigeria and oversees, yet they have to live with the same children of the poor who have no education, no skills, and no assured future. They will spend their lives behind walls and tinted glasses, in fear of 50% of the population which received no education. Parents know what is good for their children, and most would want their children to receive good education and become good and productive adults. They do not need threats. What they need is honest leadership, and visionary and good policies on education that will keep every Nigerian child from the age of 4until 18 in a good school.

KANO’S THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

As traditional rulers in northern Nigeria go, the Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero ranks among the most powerful and influential. He has been on the throne of his forebears for so long that majority of Kano people were not even born when he was made Emir. He had been, for most of his reign as Emir, the embodiment of dignity and respect generally associated with traditional rulers in the north. He had maintained a healthy distance from politics in the past, except for the occasion when he fell foul of the anger of the then Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari for travelling to Israel along with his friend, the Oni of Ife without approval and clearance from Federal Government. Another time, his clash with the Kano State Government under the late Abubakar Rimi and the PRP resulted in one of the worst riots Kano city had witnessed. The people had risen then, in support of the Emir. The Kano State Government lost that skirmish, licked its wounds, and lost the next elections.

The Emir of Kano is in the eye of another political storm. This time it is a tussle to assert the power and authority of the returned PDP Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over the Emir. The tussle is also about Governor, Kwankwaso’s desire to remove the legacy and structures of the Governor he took over from, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of the ANPP. Malam Shakarau himself had defeated Governor Kwankwaso in 2003. This latest chapter in this melodrama involves a very public attempt by Governor Kwankwaso to humiliate the Emir of Kano into paying him courtesies during the sallah celebrations, in spite of the reported illness of the Emir. For three days, the people of Kano watched as the Governor and the palace engaged each other in a game which had only one objective, which was to see who was more powerful. In the end, the Emir acquiesced and submitted to the power of the Governor, but not before winning substantial public sympathy as a tired old man who is being bullied by stronger political forces.

It obviously meant a lot to Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso that the Emir of Kano performed the Hawan Nassarawa which involved recognizing the superiority of the Governor, which had been a long tradition. It must also have meant much for the Emir to resist the pressures of the Governor, and every excuse, including ill health of the Emir who returned from Saudi Arabia only a few days before Sallah was used by his palace to avoid the annual ritual. In the end, no side hid the fact that the tussle was all about who had more power, but it was not so much between Kwankwaso and the Emir, but between Kwankwaso and his predecessor, Shekarau who had a very close relationship with the Emir.

The drama involving Emir of Kano and Governor Kwankwaso during Sallah is a continuation of a very destructive and wasteful campaign being waged by Governor Kwankwaso against the administration of Shekarau. It is a drama in which no one is innocent. Shekarau became Governor by defeating Kwankwaso, a sitting Governor who had demoted him from his elevated position as permanent secretary in the state civil service to a classroom teacher just to humiliate him. As soon as he became Governor, he too embarked on a very bitter series of investigations against Kwankwaso and his administration, much of which were clearly targeted at humiliating Kwankwaso and stripping him of his political assets, and even his personal freedom. Kano State became a no-go area for Kwankwaso for a very long time; and it is a political miracle that he even survived to contest, not to talk of winning the 2011 elections against Shekarau’s man in April this year. Most people will say it that it would have been an even bigger miracle if Kwankwaso did not repay Shekarau in his own coins.

The Emir’s offence is that he allowed himself to become too intimate with a politician and his baggage of liabilities. During his 8-year period as Governor, Shekarau had courted the favours of the Emir using every opportunity and avenue, and the two of them enjoyed an excellent relationship. The Emir topped it all up by giving the serving Governor the title of Sardaunan Kano, and went the extra step of stating publicly that the title is superior to most titles in Kano, including those of his children. A serving Governor who is the boss of the Emir accepted a title from the Emir, and compromised both the weight of his own office, as well as the clear lines that separated elected as distinct from traditional authority.

Even though Kwankwaso’s father is a District Head, and his brother a village head, both positions which hey hold only at the pleasure of the Emir, Kwankwaso sees the Emir of Kano as an irritating reminder of the era of Shekarau. The Emir became fair game for Kwankwaso, and became therefore just another target to hit the way he demolished buildings, revoked plots and contracts, and instituted his own probe panels; as well as removing everything else that Shekarau did or left behind. This is what explains the attempt to force the Emir to submit, publicly, to the authority of the Governor.

Kwankwaso’s offence is that he has proved stubbornly incapable to charting his own new course. He appears totally consumed by the desire for revenge, so much that he appears to think he has been elected only to undo what Shekarau did, or to get his pound of flesh. Kano State is stuck between the past and the future, and no one is sure when or how Kwankwaso will be satisfied to move on. In the meantime, salaries of civil servants are not being paid; the new administration is making new enemies who will wait until Kwankwaso finishes his term to strike; or will fight him even now. Kwankwaso is behaving like one incapable of learning from history; and as a Kano man, he is ignoring the dictum that someone in Kano always has more of whatever you have.

What is going on in Kano State is a very good example of how leaders should not behave. Shekarau’s life will be full of pain and misery; just the way he used his office to treat Kwankwaso. Kano State lost a lot through his campaigns against Kwankwaso, and his administration delivered much less than it promised in almost all areas. His spectacular failure to make a real difference in Kano during his eight years as governor may be the result of his failure to rise above limitations of personal character. Kwankwaso is falling into the same trap, and this vicious circle will consume many of his opportunities to make impact. The Emir of kano is paying the price for an impaired judgement which is uncharacteristic for a man of his experience and exposure. He has damaged the integrity and value of his throne, and it is by no means certain that the cat-and-mouse between him and Governor Kwankwaso will not continue to harm the position of the Emir.

Events in Kano have many lessons for the rest of Nigeria. They are some of the reasons why political office holders hold tenaciously to power, because once out of it, they are treated very badly by their successors; and the public tends to behave as if they deserve everything they get because they exercised power. What is happening in Kano should remind traditional rulers to steer clear of partisan politics and politicians. Right now, many of our most prominent Emirs including the Emir of Kano, are still reliving the trauma of the attacks they suffered at the hands of rampaging mobs during the riots which followed the Presidential elections. Above all, what is happening in Kano should serve to remind Nigerians to be more discerning in terms of the quality of leaders they elect in future. The people of Kano are among the most politically-sophisticated in the country. But time after time, they tend to elect people who only desire to settle scores. They did when they rejected Rime for Bakinzuwo. They punished Kwankwaso with a bitter Shekarau. They punished Shekarau for his disloyalty to Bahari by electing his nemesis, Kwankwaso. Nevertheless, they do not deserve what Shekarau did or failed to do in eight years as Governor; and they certainly do not deserve another four or eight years of vengeful administration under Kwankwaso. The tragedy is that between the two of them, these Governors have offended every type of leader or authority who would otherwise say, enough is enough. Governors are elected to work for people; not to settle personal scores.

THE 100 DAYS RITUAL

Tomorrow the 6th of September, 2011 will mark be the 100th day since newly-elected President, 26 State Governors and new or re-elected legislators at Federal and State levels were sworn-in for new 4-year terms. Nigerians will therefore go through another ritual involving public outpouring of sycophancy and empty adulation of elected leaders. Our newspapers and airwaves will be full of congratulations and praises for giant strides made by the President and Governors in the 100 days since they were sworn-in. Governments themselves will spend millions of public funds telling the same public how much impact they have made in just 100 days. An assortment of government contractors, lobbyists for new contracts, businessmen and corporate bodies with an eye on lucrative contracts, party executives, political office holders benefiting from crass patronage, Chairmen of Local Government Councils whose future depend entirely on the disposition of Governments, will all take out expensive adverts to congratulate our new leaders for their spectacular achievements in just one hundred days. Their Excellencies may also note those who do not splash out with praises and adulation as enemies and adversaries to watch out for.

This ritual has many tragic consequences. One in that almost all the funds used to lie to the elected office holders and the public belong to the public; either directly as government funds, or because they are funds being used by others to attract more government spending through heavily-inflated contracts. Another tragic dimension to this wasteful ritual is that some of the elected officials may actually believe that the outpouring of praises and conjured achievements are a true record of what they have accomplished in 100 days. Yet another dimension of the ritual is that the public which is targeted by this choreographed programme of ritual lying is both offended and distanced even further from those who a few weeks ago were begging and bribing and fighting and rigging their way into offices. Members of the public who are the best judges over the performance of Mr. President, Governors and Legislators will be told how much their lives have been touched for the better in 100 days; how major strides are being taken by leaders and administrations and how solid foundations are being laid for spectacular governance, all in the last one hundred days. Yet another angle to the ritual is that the media, supposedly the guardian of public interest, will make much money from a practice which serves only one purpose, and that is to waste public funds and entrench a culture of sycophancy around elected officials.

But by far the most tragic dimension to this tragedy is that it will pass as usual without a vigorous protest from Nigerians. This happens because we have become accustomed to being abused by leaders we elected to lead with honesty and with respect for us and the laws of the land. Many have become leaders by cheating and rigging their ways into office, with active connivance of a few citizens; or with massive indifference from majority of citizens. We have become resigned to the sad reality that public funds are entirely at the disposal of elected officials to use as they wish, and if they decide to spend millions on adverts praising themselves, then so be it. We will read and hear or see a bundle of lies and false claims, and we will tolerate or dismiss them as the manner things are done in Nigeria.

A few Nigerians may want to remind fellow citizens, however, that the last one hundred days have been the most trying three months in the life of our nation. A new leadership was sworn-in amid the smouldering fires lit by unprecedented violence which followed their election. The entire leadership is yet to come to grips with the full impact of that violence, and what its implications are for nation. In many States, particularly in the north, most of the Governors are still shell-shocked from the violence, and many have not ventured out of their State capitals largely our of fear. In most States, Governors have used up their first 100 days in office just to appoint members of their State Executive Councils and part of the army of political hangers-on. They are yet to settle down to the job of running governments that will be challenged to address dangerous levels of poverty and corruption. Second-term Governors have been shocked and dismayed by the price they had to pay for their re-elections. First-term Governors have spent stupendous amounts to get elected, and are shocked to find empty treasuries and intimidating liabilities. There are political enemies all around; and loyalists and fixers to settle and accommodate.

The President, who came to power on the back of a very trying controversy which exposed the nation to the dangers of playing politics with ethnicity, religion and pure, unbridled monetized politics, is yet to impress the nation with an agenda or any action that will justify his intense desire to be President. The nation is more insecure today than it was this time last year. His first 100 days in office have witnessed spectacular bombing campaign another acts of violence which have left the nation more exposed than it has ever been to dangerous, hidden forces which we hear now, have international dimensions. Old flashpoints like Jos and Kaduna are flaring up again, and Borno and neighbouring states are largely unsafe for ordinary citizens and security personnel. The nation is being ravaged by floods, and many families will mark the first 100 days in office of their leaders in refugee camps, flood shelters or mourning for loved ones.

Yet the nation will be told that we have much to celebrate for the life and work of leaders who have spent 100 days in office. Most of these leaders are facing tough legal challenges which makes it difficult for them to concentrate on governance. Some will survive these challenges, while others will not. Some are still unsure over what to do with the people’s mandate, while others are busy dismantling the works and legacies of their predecessors. Still, public funds will be used to sing their praises to the high heavens. Not one Governor will own up to the task ahead, and plead that public resources should not be wasted to lie to the public that he is the messiah. The first 100 days in office of the present leadership may actually simply remind Nigerians that they have no leaders with the capacity and competence to lead the nation out of its severely restricting limitations. If the first 100 days must be marked, they should be marked with humility by our leaders, and intense prayers that our leaders will begin to govern well, and not on the pages of newspapers.

NIGERIA’S STAND ON LIBYA: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

As soon as it became obvious that the combined assault of Libyans who took up arms against the intransigence and arrogance of their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, as well the intense bombing campaign of NATO forces appeared to be tipping the balance of the war against Gaddafi, the Nigerian government announced that it was recognizing the National Transitional Council (N.T.C) as the legitimate government in Libya. The Nigerian government therefore broke ranks with the African Union and key African countries whose opinions and views are vital on all matter relating to developments in Africa. The Nigerian Government must have thought that it was charting a course for the rest of Africa in the manner it rushed to take a position. It must also have assumed that Gaddafi would fall much earlier than now, but he is still fighting. Finally, Nigeria must have assumed that its early recognition will earn it some credit points with NATO countries and the US. Nigeria has been wrong on all three assumptions.

Nigeria’s pre-eminent position in Africa, carved out during decades of sacrifice, statesmanship and courage by former Nigerian leaders, and a steadfast and enlightened support from the Nigerian people has been substantially eroded in the last two decades. From the mid 1970s until the mid 1990s, every step Nigeria took at the African and global stage was well thought-out, and was informed by the core concerns for the integrity and interest of the African people. The African continent and the world cultivated or waited for Nigeria to take a stand on African issues before taking a stand. Nigerian troops and funds were deployed all over Africa to resolve and sustain security and peace, and many lives of Nigerian soldiers were sacrificed so that other Africans can find peace in their countries. The Western world courted Nigeria on all sensitive and strategic issues, and avoided serious disagreements with Nigeria. With other African nations such as Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, South Africa and Ethiopia, among others, Nigeria also consulted widely, and retained the trust and faith of African countries on all vital issues on security and development.

Nigeria lost that pre-eminent position, in spite of it large population, economic clout and strategic importance through sheer incompetence and a succession of leaders who were happier to be applauded by the western nations than by their own people. It also lost its position to other African nations which focussed on real development around their own people, and which recognized that globalization has made it necessary to compete with all nations, or perish. Nigeria’s image of a rich but corrupt and insecure nation, and of it leaders and people who had abandoned the hallowed values of handwork and sacrifice as foundations for real and sustained development, made it easier for Western nations and emerging Asian powers to pitch tents with other smaller, but better-organized African nations. Nigeria became just another African nation, challenged by smaller nations at every forum and occasion, and ignored by the world’s major powers. It was useful only for its oil, and the world worried over the potentials of a serious conflict in Nigeria for the rest of Africa and the world.

The rapidly declining influence of Nigeria in African and world affairs will explain its failure to rally African countries around a common position at the beginning of a civil war in Libya that showed, from the onset, that it will take many casualties in its course. One of its first casualties was African unity of propose and the capacity to limit the potential damage which NATO countries’ involvement in the Libyan civil war will entail. Africa stood watching; and the few nations which took a stand, such as South Africa, acted purely on the basis of informed self interest. Libyan people received no comfort or inspiration from fellow African people, while NATO countries exploited their desperate need for assistance and support to implement a long-standing agenda of removing Muammar Gaddafi. Africa lost an opportunity to reinforce its unity and resolve, and take a position consistent with the interest of Libyan people.

Nigeria’s almost unilateral and hasty recognition of the National Transitional Council (N.T.C) merely highlights the absence of strategic thinking and poor quality of our foreign policy. It is obvious that the rush to support the NTC was informed by the expectation that Gaddafi would fall. He has not, at least not yet, and the NTC is still substantially recognized by NATO countries. It is also by no means clear that the N.T.C will be able to form and lead a nation which will go through many challenges. Certainly, the N.T.C will have to be run by NATO countries, and unless Nigeria wants to be a lackey of these countries, its position needs some distance from their’s. If Nigerian’s hasty recognition of the N.T.C is also aimed at impressing NATO countries, then the administration has badly miscalculated the political space available in the conflict. NATO is in this struggle of the Libyan people for itself and its need for Libyan oil resources, and it will not yeild any ground for Nigeria, particularly now that it has no capacity to bring in the rest of Africa in tow. Even more important, Nigeria's lone position in Africa will not impress the Libyan people, who know only too well that it is too little too late.

Nigeria could have considered a number of options before taking a position which is out of step with the rest of Africa. One option would have been to pursue a vigorous campaign to rally Africa behind one position in relation to the Libyan crisis long before its current stage. Africa needed to take a position on the moral and political imperatives of the conflict, and may have helped in easing Gaddafi out, or negotiating his position with his people. Or it could itself have adopted an aggressive campaign against Gaddafi, and led the mobilization of international diplomatic and, if necessary, a military onslaught against Gaddafi. This way, it could have reduced the scale of involvement of NATO, and therefore the potential damage of long-term Western influence in the Maghreb.

As things stand, Nigeria is being criticised by fellow African nations for its decision on Libya. It could ignore these criticisms, as it appears to be doing, but it will do so only at some cost of the remnants of its credibility as an African leader. Nigeria’s decision to recognise the N.T.C. at a stage when all the factors at play are not yet clear will not yield much dividend. Whatever happens, Gaddafi’s hold as Libyan leader is over. His removal is a victory of the Libyan people and a strategic coup for NATO countries. Africa lost an opportunity much earlier to stand with the Libyan people against a dictator. The Libyan people will remember this in future. They are not likely to remember that Nigeria attempted to make up for lost ground by a diplomatic initiative that is too little, too late.

WHERE IS PRESIDENT JONATHAN?

    There are reports that security agencies have made some arrests in connection with the bombing of the United Nations office is Abuja last week. In the last few days, the Inspector-General of Police has made statements to the media on the on-going investigations, and has met with the Diplomatic Community to give them assurances on their safety. Then a spokesperson of the State Security Service briefed the media, and announced that it has evidence that the two arrested person have links with al-Qaeda, and that it is looking for a third suspect. The SSS spokesperson also confirmed that precise intelligence was obtained by her organization to the effect that some Boko Haram members were planning to attack unspecified targets in Abuja. Yet the attack took place, which says much about the capacity of our security agencies.

Beyond the televised appearance of President Jonathan at the scene of the attack, and the comments he made promising to apprehend the bombers, Nigerians have not seen their President take charge of the events following the bombing, or take other steps to assure them of their safety. The bombing of the U.N Building in Abuja, which followed the bombing of the Police Headquarters a few months ago have created genuine fear among citizens that they are not adequately protected. The fact that even the bombs that went off on October 1st last year, when Nigerians celebrated 50 years of independence has its prime suspect being tried in far away South Africa makes the perception of Nigerians regarding their safety and security even more worrisome.

Perhaps it is a matter of personal style for President Jonathan to allow heads of security agencies or their spokespersons to speak to the nation on major developments relating to national security. And as matters of national security go, they do not come bigger than the bombing of the UN building and the Police headquarters in Abuja. They become even more threatening when they are claimed by a group already well known, and which promises even more bombs on Nigerians and the international community. On occasions when the sense of security of a whole nation is threatened and assaulted on the type of scales we are witnessing, Nigerians expect to see their President speak to them directly. This is what leaders do. While they may leave matters of details to heads of security agencies, they put themselves forward to assume responsibility for coordinating major investigations and reassure the population that government is serious about their security. But President Jonathan has chosen to stay in the background, and this is not giving Nigerians the type of assurances they need.

Nigerians need a strong, confident and visible leadership, particularly at this time when their safety and security is being threatened from many quarters. They need a leadership which should assure them that the threats being posed by Boko Haram, and, as is being speculated, its partners in al-Qaeda will be contained. They need to hear from the President the broad outlines of his strategy to deal with this problem, and not just routine condemnations and threats to expose them. They need to hear of progress towards finding both short and long-term solutions.

Beyond the threats being posed by Boko Haram, Nigerians need to see their President take a lead in finding a solution to the festering problem in Plateau State. The last few days have reminded the nation that this problem is very much with it; and it will not go away by being ignored. Unless it is the case that the President and the Federal Government have given up this terrible security and political cancer that is in Plateau, either as beyond solution or as entirely the business of Plateau State Government to solve or live with, Nigerians need to see what action the President is taking to help. Kaduna State, the home State of the Vice President is also still substantially under threat of periodic skirmishes which have potentials to escalate. There is a major challenge requiring statesmanship and vision to deal with the long-term solution in this State which is living a garrisoned existence. What happens in Kaduna tends to affect what happens in the rest of Nigeria, and this is the reason why President Jonathan must show an active interest in working with the government and the people of the State to find a genuine solution to the current situation. The Federal and State Governments need to know that deploying soldiers and policemen across the length and breadth of the State alone cannot guarantee long term and genuine peace and security. A good example of the failure to find solution beyond deploying soldiers is being played out in Kafanchan, where curfew has been imposed again as a result of some fracas.

President Jonathan should also be actively visible in comforting and condoling hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who have suffered devastating losses, including many lives, in the recent floods ravaging the country. The people of Lagos and Oyo States, the citizens of Kano and Zamfara States and many other communities will draw much comfort from their President if he were to visit and comfort them over their losses. If there are areas where the Federal Government should help, Nigerians need to hear it from their President, not agency heads.

Politics is all about affecting the lives of citizens. Great leaders combine an acute sense of occasion with genuine compassion for the citizens who look up to them to lead them through trying times as well as good times. President Jonathan’s behind-the-scene and Abuja-based governance strategy is depriving him of an opportunity to connect with Nigerians. It is also depriving Nigerians of the right to receive the type of service from a President they elected only a few months ago to serve them. Self interest alone should dictate that President Jonathan makes himself visible and demonstrate that he is in control. Gaps which exist between leaders and citizens are often exploited by interests which harm both. Nigerians cannot suffer anymore harm, and if they have to, their leader must be seen to be personally with them.

A SALLAH LIKE NO OTHER

This year’s Eid-el-fitr, or Sallah, was celebrated by Muslims in Nigeria with severely tampered joy. All Muslims who saw the end of the fasting period of course gave thanks to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala for being part of His community which He enjoined to fast in the month of Ramadan. They also prayed that their acts of worship and sacrifices will be accepted by Him. They all look forward to another 11 months when they will live without the mandatory abstinence from food and pleasures of the flesh; and they pray that they will continue to raise the standards of their piety and devotion, as well as seek even more vigorously, knowledge, peace and the means to give to those who are more in need than they are.

Nothing will deprive a Muslim of the joys of completing the mandatory fasting during Ramadan; but the end of the month is also an occasion for serious reflection on the life of individual Muslims and the entire Muslim community. Those whose business it is to take stock of the place of Muslims in Nigeria and the world would be disturbed by the appearances of worrying tendencies and developments among the Muslim community. The holy month of Ramadan, during which the Quran was sent to all Muslims, is one in which Muslims are required to exhibit the highest standards of conduct and devotion which is required of all Muslims; and to show the highest levels of restraint and discipline at both individual and social levels. The month is supposed to reinforce the natural unity among all Muslims, and strengthen their bonds through acts of worship and submission to the will of Allah.

For Nigerian Muslims, the muted controversies over the sighting of the moon which signalled the beginning and the end of the month of Ramadan are symptoms of a very serious problem which must be tackled. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala has decreed that Muslims should start and conclude the in the month of Ramadan on sighting the moon; and in His wisdom, He made the process of a simple one, requiring two things. The first is that a reliable Muslim or Muslims must actually sight the moon. The second is that the Muslim community should have a credible leadership which will verify and inform them of the sighting, and advise them to commence or conclude the fast. Although there have always been pockets of disagreements and resistance around the sighting of the moon in Nigeria, the level of dissent and arguments, particularly in the north this year is a major cause for worry. In spite of strenuous efforts made to discourage the Ulama from expressing strong opinions on the manner the Ramadan fasting started, most Muslims were made aware through Tafsir and other avenues that the dissent this year represents a very serious breach which must be addressed. The manner in which major segments of the Muslim community also reacted to the end of the Ramadan compounded the problem, and this year, perhaps more than any other, more Muslims in the north prayed separately than was ever the case in recent memory. The uncomfortable truth is that there is a lot wrong at the highest levels of Nigeria’s Muslim leadership. The clergy and the traditional rulers are part of the problem. Yet these are the very leaders who have to find a solution to the disunity, and the increasing tendency to question the integrity and authority of leaders whose words a few years ago went unchallenged.

The emerging evidence of a weakening leadership for Nigerian Muslims could explain the emergence of fringe sects and groups such as Bako Haram. In the last week of the Ramadan, a group claiming to be acting on behalf of Nigerian and world Muslims bombed the United Nations Office in Abuja, killing more than 20 people. The group said it is fighting for Islam. The leadership of Nigerian Muslims has not advised Muslims on the perspectives to adopt towards that action, on the basis of the correct interpretation of the Quran and Sunna. Perhaps they are afraid; or perhaps they cannot agree on the correct interpretation of this act. Perhaps, as is the worst fears of Nigerian Muslims, there really is no credible leadership for Muslims in Nigeria. Could the sects have divided Muslims so deeply that millions of Muslims would rather follow sect leaders than those leaders who had commanded their respect for many decades on vital issues such as violence, or sighting of the moon? Could the ranks of the traditional rulers have been so severely breached by the erosion of personal integrity and the hallowed position of those who occupy them that even high ranking Emirs will go against the Sultan? Could fringe groups and sects have detected the serious weaknesses at the leadership level to decide to chart their own course? Or has partisan politics eaten so deeply into the ranks of the religious and traditional elite, such that it will be difficult for these leaders to find a solution to the problems of Nigerian Muslims?

There are many disturbing trends and developments in the manner Nigerian Muslims relate to each other, and with their leaders. These trends are responsible for the weaknesses and the reasons why many people lost their lives in Jos on the Monday Sallah day. They are responsible for the tension that arose over a fire at Kafanchan market on the night before Sallah. They are the reasons why millions of Muslims prayed under barrels of guns and boots of security personnel who were deployed in the rain to keep them safe while they prayed at Eid grounds in many towns and cities. They are the reasons why Muslims in the same town prayed on two different days; and why subsequent Eids may take the same pattern unless measures are taken to address their causes.

At the international level, the fortunes of Muslims in a world growing weary and worried over them are not getting better. Many Arab Muslims have thrown off dictators, but it is uncertain whether the Western powers who helped them in this endeavour will not gain firmer control over their lives. The war in Afghanistan, and killings in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Pakistan, all with strong religious undertones are still claiming many lives. Entire regimes are tenuously clinging to power, and the next few months will show whether the West will prop up some of them, while they let others sink. The fate of Islam and Muslims the world over is strategically linked with the many battles and skirmishes in which it is involved with its leaders, and the disposition of the West. What is certain is that the Western world wants to see a Muslim world which poses less threat to it, but is not willing to address irritants such as the fate of Palestinians, or its support for corrupt dictators.

Nigerian Muslims have many problems. Some of these are problems they have with a Nigerian State which many think has little respect for their basic rights and privileges. These problems can be solved, but they require, first, a committed and courageous leadership which transcends sect and political divides. If Nigerian Muslims cannot unite behind a strong and committed leadership, they will be vulnerable to stronger divisive tendencies. A divided Muslim Umma is a threat to itself; and a threat to Nigeria and the world. Those upon those shoulders the task of leading the Nigerian Muslim community rest should own up to the fact that there is a very serious problem, and although they are part of it, they must work to solve it.

NIGERIA HAS NO ANNA HAZARE

In far away India, a simple, 74 year old man got tired of the manner corruption is destroying his country, and the appearance that the legislature and leadership of his country would never do anything about it, and he decided to act. Being an old man, and not a politician, he could have cursed the leaders who have abandoned the vision of the founding fathers of India, and perhaps his curse would have affected the political fortunes of a few politicians. He could have rallied a few old people like him to picket parliament, but they many have been chased away or beaten up by the police. He could have called a press conference to denounce the leaders of his country, and remind them of the legacies of Ghandi, Nehru and the many other great Indians who built a solid foundation of service and sacrifice; but chances are the press would have scoffed at a 74 years old man with no political coustituency.

This elderly Indian, a former lowly soldier, not a General with a position in a big political party, not a former Minister or Speaker, not a former President with a grievance, decided to take on the might of the Indian establishment by announcing that he will embark on fasting until radical changes are made by the Indian Parliament on areas that are central to transparency in government business, accountability by leaders and the fight against corruption. In most parts of the world, this elderly man would have been dismissed as a crank or media curiosity for a few days, and promptly forgotten. Even in India, his campaign was not the first against spreading corruption or insensitive leaderships.

But Anna Hazare was a wise old man. He knows that hundreds of millions of Indians, like him are fed up with official corruption in India and the increasing failure of the government to push through key reforms which will empower ordinary citizens. He knew that if he operated within the value system and the modus operandi of past leaders like his hero Ghandi, and led a campaign of non-violence and self-sacrifice towards major goals for social good, he will light a fire that will be difficult to extinguish.

Old man Anna Hazare has been spectacularly correct. His many days of fasting galvanized a whole nation, and focussed the world’s attention around an old man in simple clothing with $l,500 in his bank account whose fight was immediately taken up by millions of Indians in groups, and in their individual capacities. The people’s anger and frustration were expressed in demonstrations, debate and demands that key changes in the constitution be made. The Indian Parliament last week bowed to the sheer weight of the people’s voices which took up an old man’s resolve not to die before doing something important for his fatherland. Then old man Anna Hazare broke his fast, but only temporarily. He says he has other demands for reforms around elections and education that must be made. For instance, he says the Indian electoral system should be reformed in such a way that voters should have powers, among others, to recall representatives who have failed to honour their commitments. Voters should also have powers to reject all the listed candidates if none of them deserve their votes. If majority of the voters reject all the candidates, the elections will be cancelled. This way, candidates will be careful how much money they spend before they go to ballot, in case the voters find them unfit to represent or lead them.

The dust raised by a lone old man in India, which has now created a major momentum for change is a sad reminder of the crushing poverty of leaders and other people with a conscience in Nigeria. An old man, without political platform or party affiliation, but only the purity of his conviction and the strength of his cause, has been able to affect Indian legislators across the partisan and Federal divide, the way no Nigerian politician will do today. A simple citizen who has faith in the power of principles and the right of the people to demand changes, has triggered major reforms because he was willing to go through personal pain and deprivation. No Nigerian politician will do that for Nigerians. A 74 year old man who is willing to go to jail and even to die so that young Indians will live in a better nation has exposed the shallow opportunism and lack of vision of Nigerian leaders, who use young Nigerians to campaign, and often get killed in the process. If old man Hazare were Nigerian, he will move in with the refugees at the Hajj Camp in Kaduna and suffer and starve with them until they have permanent roofs and secure and lives. If Hazare were a Nigerian, he will embark on hunger strike or other strategies to draw attention to the need to revisit the issue of electoral reforms in Nigeria, before the next elections destroy the nation completely. If Hazare were Nigerian, he would sacrifice his life to build bridges between the Nigerian State and the people who are engaged in violent campaigns under the name of Boko Haram, or those hiding behind their grievances to wreck havoc on our lives. No Nigeria politician, in or out of power, will do this.

Anna Hazare has demonstrated that every citizen can make a difference in his community and his nation, no matter his standing. He has proved that there is room in all our lives for personal courage and conviction. He has shown by his ability to tap into the popular sentiments among fellow citizens and give them hope that together they can make more impact than all politicians put together. Our politicians and leaders will do well to pay close attention to the fire lit by old man Anna Hazare, because it is showing our own citizens that their salvation may not lie solely on reliance upon the promises of our leaders.