Someone I know accused one of our state governors of staging a robbery. State funds meant to pay off workers in a sector disadvantaged by state government policy were taken from the ministry building by "armed robbers".
Someone else I know got angry about what he felt was a baseless accusation.
They began to argue.
I kept quiet and observed.
I find that when I express my views on Nigerian issues amongst my fellow citizens, I am always the statistically negligible minority viewpoint. Let me put it like this, if we were in the First Republic, the only way to unify the supporters of the NPC, AG, NCNC, UMBC, COR and NEPU would be to ask me to speak on the issues facing the First Republic -- instantaneously, they would all gang up to shout me down. And so we would march toward Civil War.
But I digress.
I won't say the governor's name, because this blog post is not about the governor. It is about we the people, we the citizens of the federal republic, as exemplified by these two arguing acquaintances.
The first guy stuck to his guns, insisting Governor XYZ was a crook who obviously staged the robbery so he could pocket the funds, and then issue new funds for the payoff.
You would think the second guy would restrict his argument to telling the first guy that he had no proof and was merely contributing to the ever-growing stack of rumours inundating Nigeria. This would actually be a conclusive, indisputable point.
But no, that is not what he did.
The second guy, instead, said to the first guy "Governor XYZ would not stoop so low" as to stage a robbery.
This baffled me. No, I should say I was flabbergasted. It was without a doubt the stupidest thing I had ever heard.
Let me explain. Governor XYZ won the 2011 gubernatorial elections after a lot of violence, vice and avarice. The "vice and avarice" were camouflaged, but the violence was not. The capital city of the state witnessed, in broad daylight, a running battle between thugs loyal to the Governor and thugs loyal to the Governor's former godfather. They set buildings and vehicles on fire, among other things.
And this is the man that the second guy says "would not stoop so low" as to carry out petty theft?
So let me get this straight.
Governor XYZ will gladly involve himself in mindless, thuggish violence, endangering the security of the citizens of his state, and promoting communal violence .... but is too good for petty theft?
That doesn't make a shred of sense. And he is not alone. It is bad enough that so many of my countrymen doggedly defend their favoured politicians, but what I don not understand is how they bring themselves to believe certain things about those politicians when we can all clearly see by their in broad daylight actions that they are nothing like what their supporters profess to believe them to be.
People will see a politician who has been corruptly looting his entire political career, and tell you they expect him to lead the fight against corruption. That doesn't make sense.
People see a politician who is part of the reason armed militia and communal violence are so pervasive, and tell you they expect him to improve public security. That makes no sense.
People see a politician who would be in prison if our police force, prosecution services and judiciary were efficient, and tell you he is the man to reform all those institutions. Why would you think that?
He wouldn't stoop so low? This from a man who saw the same thing I saw? The same thing everybody saw? My brother, he has already in your full view stooped lower.
Amalgamation Day in Lagos, 1914
08 July, 2011
Politics, Politicking and Politicians
[NOTE: This post should have gone up last weekend]
Weekly Trust just published an interview with new Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha. It is your usual, standard, run-of-the-mill political interview, with the usual question and the usual answers, except for one thing -- the first question:
Governor Okorocha's response was ... what you would expect him to say. But the things our politicians do in search of power bespeaks the ultimate question of what they really stand for. There is pragmatism, and then there is blowing anywhere the wind is blowing as opposed to building an institutional structure that keeps people safe. The wind tends to blow powerfully in the wrong direction, and part of the reason people create government is to protect them against the wind.
As a side note, Daily Times reports Reuben Abati will take over as President Jonathan's official spokesman.
If you don't know, Mr. Abati is on the editorial and management staff of the Guardian and is a long-time, influential columnist on the paper. Sometimes his columns make sense and sometimes they don't (a bit like my blog, some of you might say).
On a serious note the Nigerian media industry suffers because of its financial dependence. The federal- and state-owned media are controlled by the governments, which limits their editorial freedom. Alas, the privately-owned media are bankrolled by powerful plutocrats and politicians, which limits their editorial freedom too. The politicians and the plutocrats have similar interests, so while the private press have a longer leash than their government-owned counterparts, there is only so far they can go in criticizing the status quo -- and there are specific individuals they are not free to criticize.
One of the private newspapers has vociferously criticized everything CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has done. At first I couldn't figure out why they were so opposed even to relatively uncontroversial things ... until I discovered the newspaper was owned by the brother of one of the banking chiefs Sanusi threw out. The woman had stolen from her bank and essentially bankrupted it, but that didn't matter to her brother's paper, which is still on a mission of vengeance.
The political preferences of the paper owners also explains why some politicians are praised despite doing awful things, while other politicians have their dirty laundry washed in public. That, and "brown paper bag" journalism.
In any case, one of the most cynically amusing aspects of politics all over the world (and it does happen all over the world) is when a person gets a lucrative government job and starts defending the very things they criticized when they were outside government. As soon as he settles in, Mr. Abati will start intelligently explaining to us all why everything he used to claim was bad is in fact really quite good.
Weekly Trust just published an interview with new Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha. It is your usual, standard, run-of-the-mill political interview, with the usual question and the usual answers, except for one thing -- the first question:
In the past twelve years you have changed political parties like eight times. Does that mean we’ll see you ditching APGA anytime soon?
Governor Okorocha's response was ... what you would expect him to say. But the things our politicians do in search of power bespeaks the ultimate question of what they really stand for. There is pragmatism, and then there is blowing anywhere the wind is blowing as opposed to building an institutional structure that keeps people safe. The wind tends to blow powerfully in the wrong direction, and part of the reason people create government is to protect them against the wind.
As a side note, Daily Times reports Reuben Abati will take over as President Jonathan's official spokesman.
If you don't know, Mr. Abati is on the editorial and management staff of the Guardian and is a long-time, influential columnist on the paper. Sometimes his columns make sense and sometimes they don't (a bit like my blog, some of you might say).
On a serious note the Nigerian media industry suffers because of its financial dependence. The federal- and state-owned media are controlled by the governments, which limits their editorial freedom. Alas, the privately-owned media are bankrolled by powerful plutocrats and politicians, which limits their editorial freedom too. The politicians and the plutocrats have similar interests, so while the private press have a longer leash than their government-owned counterparts, there is only so far they can go in criticizing the status quo -- and there are specific individuals they are not free to criticize.
One of the private newspapers has vociferously criticized everything CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has done. At first I couldn't figure out why they were so opposed even to relatively uncontroversial things ... until I discovered the newspaper was owned by the brother of one of the banking chiefs Sanusi threw out. The woman had stolen from her bank and essentially bankrupted it, but that didn't matter to her brother's paper, which is still on a mission of vengeance.
The political preferences of the paper owners also explains why some politicians are praised despite doing awful things, while other politicians have their dirty laundry washed in public. That, and "brown paper bag" journalism.
In any case, one of the most cynically amusing aspects of politics all over the world (and it does happen all over the world) is when a person gets a lucrative government job and starts defending the very things they criticized when they were outside government. As soon as he settles in, Mr. Abati will start intelligently explaining to us all why everything he used to claim was bad is in fact really quite good.
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