Sincere condolences to the loved ones left behind
by my big friend, General Owoye Azazi, former
Kaduna Governor, Patrick Yakowa, the pilot,
Commamder Murtala Mohammed Daba, First
Officer Yemi Sowole, and others who departed
this sinful and ephemeral world in the ill-fated
even of upper Saturday December 15, 2012.
Enough happens daily to remind us
all of the
flimsiness of life, of the vanity of the whole thing,
but perhaps very few Nigerians learn. Most have
resorted to bribing ‘God’ by donating to their
various religious houses and leaders. Yet there
are too many opportunities, daily, begging to be
taken, by which we can make profound meaning
and cause positive change in society.
Azazi I knew well enough, since he was Deputy
Commandant at the War College. I was then a
banker, and I knew him to be a kind, simple but
terribly intelligent man. I recall telling him I
wouldn’t have minded ending up in the Army, for
I loved the discipline and Spartan-ness that comes
with that. He laughed and told me I was way too
old to start. He would later on become the
Director of Military Intelligence, Chief of Army
Staff, Chief of Defence Staff and of course the
National Security Adviser. I had no doubt in my
mind that he was eminently qualified for the
positions he took, even though I lost contact with
him since he became CAS. I had made an attempt
to see him on returning to Nigeria from London
in 2006, but it ended up a major fiasco. After
waiting in my car in front of his house for over
one hour, I drove home and tried not to be angry.
He had given me an appointment, but of course
exigencies of office probably precluded him from
seeing me.
Another snag in my relationship with Azazi, was
the murder in Warri, of his ‘cousin’ and my good
friend, Rex Ezonfade, who left banking around
the same time as I, and ran a hotel in Warri.
Sometime in 2009 I think, Rex was gunned down
in his car at the gate of his house, while he was
speaking to someone on phone and waiting for
the gate to be opened. I felt sad, and irrationally, I
thought that shouldn’t happen to the cousin of a
serving Chief and intelligence guru. I know I was
wrong.
Dr Patrick Yakowa I understand to be a
gentleman, from all accounts. The permutations
of his death makes fear crawl up one’s spine, he
being the first ‘Christian’ civilian governor of
Kaduna State. I hope Kaduna is able to leapfrog
over this incidence. Anyhow, I had predicted that
this country will go through periods of immense
stress since after the days of Umaru Yaradua. I
believe that some destructive tendencies came to
the surface in most of us since the illness saga of
Umaru, which has only metamorphosed into
many of the consequences we see today. Before
that saga, tribal and religious venom was hardly
expressed openly, but today, even so-called
intellectuals revel in them and feed same to those
who look up to them. Of course, Nigeria
blossomed into a full-fledged terrorist state, while
its leaders party away and tried to push all the
blame to one section of the country.
Unfortunately, my friend Azazi was slam bang in
the middle of the intelligence quagmire. One of
the thoughts going through my mind is that he
knew too much about Nigeria and the incidences
of the recent past, and like Femi Fani-Kayode, ex
Aviation minister has been trying to tell us,
perhaps there is more than meets the eye in all
these weekend plane crashes. There are too
many secrets in this country, and that is a major
problem!
I am also extremely concerned at the rate with
which our leaders attend all these ceremonies.
That is where the words ‘pepper-souping’ and
‘big-stouting’ come from, courtesy Patrick
Obahiagbon, the Igodomigodo himself. In the last
few weeks, all we have been seeing in the news is
parties upon parties. I watched the resplendent
2nd year anniversary of the Pilot Newspapers on
TV, less than two weeks ago, with much
backslapping by government ‘digniatries’ . Then
the Vice President had a wedding for his two
daughters, and closed down the whole of Kaduna
township. They handed out laptops (worth say
N150,000 each), and flat screen TVs to their guests
according to newspaper reports. That same week,
we were busy fretting with government for
wanting to build another banquet hall in Aso
Rock, plus a new Vice Presidential resident for
N16billion. The president’s brother died, and his
funeral was turned into another carnival! Akwa
Ibom governor, who also alleged built his own
banquet hall with N10billion and his residence
with N16billion, decided to ‘celebrate God’ (or
rather himself),by having a lavish church service
and reception. All these in the space of one week.
In my book, CRUSHED, I mentioned extensively,
what this rather unserious mode of partying is
doing to us as a people. I am very certain that
until we change that paradigm, until we redirect
our spendings, until we stop self-aggrandisation,
until we stop bribing ‘God’, there is no hope for
this country. I asked myself, why would ‘a whole
State Governor’, leave Kaduna and start heading
to Bayelsa to attend the funeral of the president’s
aide? Whatever happened to visiting the ‘aide’ no
matter how powerful, in his house in Abuja? Why
all this waste of good quality time, and public
funds?
There is a pervasive ‘owambe mentality’,
especially in this government. Yaradua was a
Spartan and quiet man, but we booed him away.
Now we are saddled with a government which
just sought and got an approval of N161billion of
extra oil subsidy, just ‘for the festive period’; a
government which has set up a ‘working
committee’ for the ‘celebration of Nigeria’s
centenary in 2014’ and the building of a ‘new city’
in Abuja for that celebration! Will Jonathan ever
stop partying?
This particular government is frittering away
whatever little goodwill it had, plus whatever it
could have saved on behalf of Nigeria. This is
evident in the choices it makes in its spendings.
At a time when the largest economy in the world
– the USA – is worried about what they call Fiscal
Cliff, whereby Barack Obama intends to cut
government expenditure and increase taxes at
the same time, former ‘activists’ like Reuben
Abati, and his brother-in-crime Doyin Okupe,
wants to convince Nigerians that all is well with
us borrowing from every corner of the world,
while we finance all these miliki ventures! It is a
mindset thing. The point is who will change the
mindset? Our duty on this other side of the road
is to keep pointing out the issues to them. What is
right, is right, ditto what is wrong, is wrong. We
can no longer be bamboozled.
Governance in Nigeria today, is all about
backslapping, clandestine meetings, cult
memberships, a ‘we-against-them’ mentality,
persecution mentality mixed with a huge sense of
entitlement. Most people in government see
themselves as ‘ordained by God’ to be in the
positions they occupy – of course to first of all
feather their own financial nests – and so anyone
who criticizes them, is from the devil. Crazy, fake
pastors especially, have invaded Abuja and are
creaming off from the fear of these government
workers who know clearly that they are doing
wrong. The pastors are the ones sent out by ‘God’
to collect the bribes. The marabouts visit the
Muslim ones at night to deliver visions… Will we
ever be sober as a people? Where are we heading
to? How did we get to this sorry pass? For except
this mindset changes, there is even more trouble
ahead – Tope Fasua
flimsiness of life, of the vanity of the whole thing,
but perhaps very few Nigerians learn. Most have
resorted to bribing ‘God’ by donating to their
various religious houses and leaders. Yet there
are too many opportunities, daily, begging to be
taken, by which we can make profound meaning
and cause positive change in society.
Azazi I knew well enough, since he was Deputy
Commandant at the War College. I was then a
banker, and I knew him to be a kind, simple but
terribly intelligent man. I recall telling him I
wouldn’t have minded ending up in the Army, for
I loved the discipline and Spartan-ness that comes
with that. He laughed and told me I was way too
old to start. He would later on become the
Director of Military Intelligence, Chief of Army
Staff, Chief of Defence Staff and of course the
National Security Adviser. I had no doubt in my
mind that he was eminently qualified for the
positions he took, even though I lost contact with
him since he became CAS. I had made an attempt
to see him on returning to Nigeria from London
in 2006, but it ended up a major fiasco. After
waiting in my car in front of his house for over
one hour, I drove home and tried not to be angry.
He had given me an appointment, but of course
exigencies of office probably precluded him from
seeing me.
Another snag in my relationship with Azazi, was
the murder in Warri, of his ‘cousin’ and my good
friend, Rex Ezonfade, who left banking around
the same time as I, and ran a hotel in Warri.
Sometime in 2009 I think, Rex was gunned down
in his car at the gate of his house, while he was
speaking to someone on phone and waiting for
the gate to be opened. I felt sad, and irrationally, I
thought that shouldn’t happen to the cousin of a
serving Chief and intelligence guru. I know I was
wrong.
Dr Patrick Yakowa I understand to be a
gentleman, from all accounts. The permutations
of his death makes fear crawl up one’s spine, he
being the first ‘Christian’ civilian governor of
Kaduna State. I hope Kaduna is able to leapfrog
over this incidence. Anyhow, I had predicted that
this country will go through periods of immense
stress since after the days of Umaru Yaradua. I
believe that some destructive tendencies came to
the surface in most of us since the illness saga of
Umaru, which has only metamorphosed into
many of the consequences we see today. Before
that saga, tribal and religious venom was hardly
expressed openly, but today, even so-called
intellectuals revel in them and feed same to those
who look up to them. Of course, Nigeria
blossomed into a full-fledged terrorist state, while
its leaders party away and tried to push all the
blame to one section of the country.
Unfortunately, my friend Azazi was slam bang in
the middle of the intelligence quagmire. One of
the thoughts going through my mind is that he
knew too much about Nigeria and the incidences
of the recent past, and like Femi Fani-Kayode, ex
Aviation minister has been trying to tell us,
perhaps there is more than meets the eye in all
these weekend plane crashes. There are too
many secrets in this country, and that is a major
problem!
I am also extremely concerned at the rate with
which our leaders attend all these ceremonies.
That is where the words ‘pepper-souping’ and
‘big-stouting’ come from, courtesy Patrick
Obahiagbon, the Igodomigodo himself. In the last
few weeks, all we have been seeing in the news is
parties upon parties. I watched the resplendent
2nd year anniversary of the Pilot Newspapers on
TV, less than two weeks ago, with much
backslapping by government ‘digniatries’ . Then
the Vice President had a wedding for his two
daughters, and closed down the whole of Kaduna
township. They handed out laptops (worth say
N150,000 each), and flat screen TVs to their guests
according to newspaper reports. That same week,
we were busy fretting with government for
wanting to build another banquet hall in Aso
Rock, plus a new Vice Presidential resident for
N16billion. The president’s brother died, and his
funeral was turned into another carnival! Akwa
Ibom governor, who also alleged built his own
banquet hall with N10billion and his residence
with N16billion, decided to ‘celebrate God’ (or
rather himself),by having a lavish church service
and reception. All these in the space of one week.
In my book, CRUSHED, I mentioned extensively,
what this rather unserious mode of partying is
doing to us as a people. I am very certain that
until we change that paradigm, until we redirect
our spendings, until we stop self-aggrandisation,
until we stop bribing ‘God’, there is no hope for
this country. I asked myself, why would ‘a whole
State Governor’, leave Kaduna and start heading
to Bayelsa to attend the funeral of the president’s
aide? Whatever happened to visiting the ‘aide’ no
matter how powerful, in his house in Abuja? Why
all this waste of good quality time, and public
funds?
There is a pervasive ‘owambe mentality’,
especially in this government. Yaradua was a
Spartan and quiet man, but we booed him away.
Now we are saddled with a government which
just sought and got an approval of N161billion of
extra oil subsidy, just ‘for the festive period’; a
government which has set up a ‘working
committee’ for the ‘celebration of Nigeria’s
centenary in 2014’ and the building of a ‘new city’
in Abuja for that celebration! Will Jonathan ever
stop partying?
This particular government is frittering away
whatever little goodwill it had, plus whatever it
could have saved on behalf of Nigeria. This is
evident in the choices it makes in its spendings.
At a time when the largest economy in the world
– the USA – is worried about what they call Fiscal
Cliff, whereby Barack Obama intends to cut
government expenditure and increase taxes at
the same time, former ‘activists’ like Reuben
Abati, and his brother-in-crime Doyin Okupe,
wants to convince Nigerians that all is well with
us borrowing from every corner of the world,
while we finance all these miliki ventures! It is a
mindset thing. The point is who will change the
mindset? Our duty on this other side of the road
is to keep pointing out the issues to them. What is
right, is right, ditto what is wrong, is wrong. We
can no longer be bamboozled.
Governance in Nigeria today, is all about
backslapping, clandestine meetings, cult
memberships, a ‘we-against-them’ mentality,
persecution mentality mixed with a huge sense of
entitlement. Most people in government see
themselves as ‘ordained by God’ to be in the
positions they occupy – of course to first of all
feather their own financial nests – and so anyone
who criticizes them, is from the devil. Crazy, fake
pastors especially, have invaded Abuja and are
creaming off from the fear of these government
workers who know clearly that they are doing
wrong. The pastors are the ones sent out by ‘God’
to collect the bribes. The marabouts visit the
Muslim ones at night to deliver visions… Will we
ever be sober as a people? Where are we heading
to? How did we get to this sorry pass? For except
this mindset changes, there is even more trouble
ahead – Tope Fasua
LOBATAN!!!! 