Who are the I’s and who are the Nay’s?

Presiding officer:  “Those in Support say I”

Member: “aaaayyyeeeee” in a noisy chorus

Presiding officer: “Those against say nay”

Members: “naaaayyyyhhhhh” in a noisy chorus

Presiding officer: “The I’s have it” The gavel sounds.

That is how business is conducted in the Nigerian Legislature. The question however is, who are the I’s and who are the Nays?

In some other democracies, where political business is transacted based on ideologies, the people know what every of their representative stands for and are equally in a position to know what their position on every issue being argued will be. So for example, before debate and voting on a particular bill, the people already know who will be voting for or against.

The lawmakers themselves do not hide their stand, party affiliations not withstanding. It is in truth, not their stand but the true reflection of the opinion of the people of the constituency they represent. Because the people are in the know, they are in a position to hold their representative responsible if he supports a Bill that is unpopular with them or if he fails to do their wishes on the floor of the House or senate.

The system itself provides for the legislators to vote individually. Your name is called and you state exactly in what direction you are voting and the records are kept, such that even after twenty years, the archives can be searched and it will be clear what your stand was on a particular issue.

Here in Nigeria, all the above can only be wishes. With none of our political parties having any clear cut ideology or manifesto and our representatives (who rigged their way to power in the first place) equally lacking in ideology, what we have is a “wheel barrow, carry go” legislator, where very vital decisions are reached by voice votes.

For this reason, we can not hold our representatives accountable. We hardly even know them and certainly do not have any knowledge of what they stand for. Their constituency offices are hardly functional and they visit once at Christmas, when they reaffirm their popularity-Nigeria style- by throwing money around and having the impoverished people sing their praise. Thereafter, they return to Abuja and continue to do their bidding.

It often presents an extremely funny but shameful scene watching the Nigeria legislature voting on any issue. After some members would have gotten up to speak on the matter some essentially repeating what others have already said and some just talking and talking without making any clear point, a vote is called in which the presiding officer decides who wins based on how loud those in support or those against are. In fact, in some cases, he rules to the contrary based on which side of the argument he personally shares. It doesn’t take long before the resulting uproar dies down and business continues.

It is not uncommon to see our legislators in the kindergarten like display during the “I’s or nays” vote raising both hands, some even standing and hopping excitedly around when shouting their vote. These are men and women of not less than thirty years, fathers, mothers, titled men, professionals, acting like Motor Park touts.

To think that the fate of over 150 million Nigerians is decided in such an unserious manner is to say the least nauseating. Worse still, it denies us the right of knowing who did or did not vote for a particular issue and are thus incapacitated at taking away people who clearly do not represent our interests out of the NASS chambers.

For example, the Freedom of Information Bill has suffered severe setbacks at the National Assembly. Clearly, the legislators have consistently “naaayyyyhhhed” it down. Yet out side of the chambers, each senator sounds as though it is the “others” who are against the bill.  Not one of them has come out openly to say, I am against the FOI-Bill for so so so reasons, yet the bill doesn’t pass. Who then are those against it?

If the people of my district knew for example that our senator does not support the FOI-Bill which we all yearn for, we would be in a better position to reprimand him appropriately. When this happens in all 109 districts, at the next session of the senate, the bill will enjoy favourable passage.

On the other hand, knowledge of our senators position equally gives him the chance to explain to us why he thinks the FOI-Bill shouldn’t pass and if he is able to convince us, we can sit back relaxed that after all our interest was being well protected. That I think is what representative democracy is all about.

I therefore wish to request on behalf of my fellow country men, that this blanket, motor park style vote by screams of I’s and nays stop forthwith. We are not only interested in knowing who the I’s and nays are, we also want to know why they took the “I” or “nay” stand.

Section 56 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria provides that questions posed in the Senate or House of Representatives shall be determined by a majority (a simple majority) of the members present and voting. It is my opinion that there are other civilized ways of determining a simple majority which shall even help to advance and deepen our democracy, other than by noisy voice votes.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

www.nzesylva.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

INTOXICATION

I was certain it was not the beer, I was keeping count. The waiter just replaced the fourth and from experience, I required twice that to knock me off. So effectively, I was not drunk or so I thought, but I felt myself floating softly like a piece of paper blown by a whirlwind, ascending unsteadily, the rest of the world as I knew it at a standstill, like I would when I was eight bottles up.

Perhaps it was her voice, not trained like a master singer’s, something between tenor and soprano, almost coarse yet melodious, at least to me. She was singing a popular song by a white singer, either Celine Dion or Mariah Carey, I wasn’t thinking straight- it didn’t matter. What mattered was the sound in modulated wave lengths from the loudspeaker causing a tingle-almost a tickle on my ear drums, my entire anatomy quivering, like her every word, from that love song was to me.

My eyes followed her every move as she twist danced like a strip star on stage, her entire body- head to ankle- gliding sensuously to the rhythm, like some kind of serpent from an African folktale. She was doing it with such ease, wetting the appetites of most or all of the men around. It had a message, something like; if you’ve got it, use it to effect. She really ‘got it’, the effect on me like the measure of all the sand on Bar beach and gosh, I was loving every second of it.

Her eyes were tiny, fitted into equally miniature sockets which reminded me of the fishes in my boss’s aquarium. Her hair coloured blond, flowing freely like a water fall down her sloppy back. What more could beauty be? I thought, with that nose pointed like a cattle’s horn, not at the heavens, but at me.  No wonder they called her Queen and as I sat there, the chilled glass with a million golden bubbles in simple harmonic motion in hand, I could think of just one thing…a wish, a desire, a prayer…to wrap her- her beauty, her voice, her body- around me like a cloak.

It was the same the week before, and the week before it and the one before and as far back as I could remember. I sat at the same table unaccompanied. My mission, not just to quaff, but to let my world melt like candle wax into hers. I never said a word to her, I never had a chance to, and I heard she didn’t take likely with men making passes at her. But I wished I could…I longed to, not to taste of her in the carnal sense like most of the other men are want to, but to appreciate her with adjectives, special and uncommon.

But then I also felt pity for her. Beneath the charm was pain, frustration and fear, I was certain, for what else could have driven such a damsel to such a job if not poverty. She wasn’t singing just because she loved to. It was what put food on her table, a job much more honourable than warming the beds of countless men, who came to unwind, away from their matrimonial beds at the hotel every weekend.

She was like one of the waiters I tipped had been generous enough to offer, an orphan who was paying her way through school. She was a student for much of the week, and by weekend, a stage singer. When I asked what she earned, the waiter had after running his fingers through his hair and scratching at nothing in particular volunteered a number which I knew was false even before he said it. False not because it was a lie, but because, he obviously didn’t know. But I could imagine that it wasn’t much.

“Right about now ladies and gentlemen, we wanna change the rhythm a lil bit as we want to go African” her voice rang out on the MIC jolting me from my thought. I think I heard the excited audience clap or cheer, I wasn’t sure. Then the beats changed and there she went again in her tenor adulterated soprano doing Yvonne Chaka Chaka’s Umqomboti and throwing my being, every cell that made up the fiber of my person into wild excitement.

I was at the point where I was contemplating rising to my feet and running up stage to her when the waiter arrived with another bottle. “This is the ninth sir” he said respectfully, bowing slightly like a seasoned Catholic Priest.

“The ninth?” I sounded like I had not heard him right.

“Yes sir” a smile accompanied the reply for effect.

I looked from the bottle to the stage where Queen was now singing something from Onyeka Onwuenu and then back to the bottle. At that point, as I fished for my wallet to pay off the waiter for the night, I couldn’t quite say what I was intoxicated of, the beer or Queen.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

www.nzesylva.wordpress.com

 

 

 

It’s been Three years: An anniversary Message to Saharareporters.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

I find it fit to write this brief in celebration of three remarkable and most eventful years of the existence of Saharareporters which has taken citizen journalism and internet blogging to a whole new height.

Every internet active Nigerian especially the news bluffs in every part of the world would attest to the popularity this site enjoys not just as “first with the news” but also as the fearless reporter of those issues our other journalist are either not aware of or are too afraid to report about.

On several occasions, SR has reported stories months before they break in the local Nigerian Media and the facts behind these stories makes for a situation where even the oppressors can not help but marvel.

And indeed the oppressors have not only marveled, they have like is normal of them made frantic, rabid and largely unsuccessful attempts to shut down SR or to track down its sources.

What perhaps the Government fails to understand is that shutting down the site does not kill the idea nor would it stop the stories from breaking because the present Saharareporters have given birth to so many other saharareporters and has evolved in the consciousness of Nigerians both home and abroad, the need to speak against bad leadership in high and low places and gradually a silent SR wind of revolution is blowing across the land.

In three years, SR has been able to show that the people in Government are not spirits but human beings whose action or inactions can be followed, investigated and reported on without fear or favour. It has demonstrated that perhaps we might not need to wait for the nit-wits in the National Assembly to pass the FOI-Bill before we begin to employ journalism as a potent weapon against oppression, injustice and bad/illegal leadership.

Many people have had course to question some of the SR reports, describing them-the operators- as being over speculative or extremist, but interestingly, none has been able to disprove any of the reports. Agreed SR might have made mistakes on some occasions (which is consistent with being human) or might have reported issues that required extraterrestrial powers to provide discernable proof to, but the fact remains that in all cases, it’s the readers call to agree or not or sue if really something false has been said about you.

I am proud to be associated with this success story, on which I have published countless number of incisive articles and I wish Sowore and the rest of the (our) team many more years of successful journalistic activism as we all continue to work towards that day when we all shall be proud to identify ourselves as Nigerians anywhere in the world, not because the documents we carry says so but because our country has traced her way out of the woods and was now on course to real greatness.

When we get there, we shall all remember that saharareporters played a huge part in getting us there.

Until then, keep reporting yourself.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

The season of manna is about to cease

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

For thousands of Nigerian graduates who are part of the batch A 2008 of the National Youth Service scheme including yours sincerely, the Season of Manna is about to cease. In a month or there about, they would pass out of the mandatory one year scheme and the world would begin to assume a whole new meaning.

Suffices to state that a great majority of these young men and women are simply not prepared for what is about to happen. Many are scared and full of anxiety because of this agonizing fear of the unknown that comes with passing out of service into unemployment.
As meager as the allowance they currently receive is , the prospects of living without it for one…two…three months or even a year or years, makes ‘tomorrow’ a difficult thing to think about.

More than the loss of the meager NYSC allowance is the loss of pocket money from parents and an increased demand from family and society. So it is not surprising that the most popular issue of discourse among the corp members is ‘jobs’.

A fraction-a really negligible fraction- would be lucky enough to be retained at their place of Service. An even more negligible fraction already have jobs waiting for them, but for the larger multitude, there is simply nothing yet to hold onto. And this is not because they have not been working hard enough, trust me, Nigerian graduates especially corp members are probably the best job hunter under the sun, but because the jobs are simply not there.

Vacancy announcement after announcement, resume submission after submission both in hard copy and on the internet, seminar after seminar, hours and hours of preparation including cramming of the popular G-MAT text, endless hours on job sites on the web, piles and piles of newspapers especially Tuesday and Thursday Guardian, interviews after interview including those one gatecrashes into, prayers, fasting and tithe payment…all that effort and yet a month to the end of service and no job yet.

It is easy for people who have jobs and are comfortable or who a combination of dubiousness and luck has placed in certain positions, to sit around and say things like “Graduates should not look for jobs but should rather create jobs”. Such persons simply do not appreciate the predicament the Nigerian graduate finds himself in.

Just incase a reminder is necessary, these graduating corp members where born into country where nothing works, went through an education system that ill prepared them for life, they had little or no guidance or mentorship not to mention the none existence of role models. Many of these youngsters studied courses they had no business studying and wait for this, they have the combined hard luck of having been born into a country that has no plans whatsoever for them, where they are on their own and the best of their effort might not be enough to lead them out of the poverty threshold except if of course they seek for short cuts.

Eager to pass out though they are given that some have had to endure the most de-humanizing conditions of living including constant threats to their security in foreign regions of the country for the past one year, but the same fate awaits all no matter where they might have served. Even those who have wonderful ideas and talents that can empower themselves and by implication help to power our oil dependent economy can not express them or put more appropriately, the system doesn’t consider their ideas worthwhile and so has not made any plans of supporting it.

Perhaps the most agonizing aspect of the whole issue is that you return home to find friends, neighbours and siblings who served several years before you still jobless and it becomes apparent to you that you’ve just retuned to add to the pool, and it will take a combination of doggedness, resilience and a great deal of luck to walk out of that pool and be that person you dream of being.

Some one once said “I will study and wait, and the opportunity will come”. This statement doesn’t seem true for us Nigeria and certainly for this set of graduating corp members who had “studied”, the “wait” might as well be forever.

It feels easy-sort of- to speak about it ‘cos I am involved, but I assure you, it doesn’t feel that way remembering just before bed or when you arise in the morning that in a short while, the manna will cease and yet you’ve not got a source of replacement for it. I wish like Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that “this cup will pass over me”, not just me, but all my fellow corp members, and that we shall find our dream jobs even when the state has in her many failures, shamefully failed to provide them for us.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

Thoughts on the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Ifedigbo Nze Sylva

As we count down to the year 2009 Armed Forces and remembrance day celebration, i wish to share some of my thoughts on the Armed Forces with my fellow country men, hoping that in some way, I would have contributed to the evolution of a stronger Nigeria Armed Foces.

I
At some point in my life, I wanted to be an army officer. Then, my teenage reasoning-given that from birth till then, I had known only military men to rule the country- was that, being in the military was my surest way of ruling the country. Along the line, I got to know better and graciously Gen. Abubakar handed back power to civilians.

The point here however is that So many other people joined the army in the first place just to be in power, and those group of people (a good number of which I believe are still in the army), will continue to be a threat to democracy except pragmatic steps (other than retiring the top ranking officers from time to time) are taken to professionalize the army and make it a strong pillar of democracy like we have in other developed countries of the world.

The new army chief Air Marshal Paul Dike had made strong statements in that regard especially in the wake of the celebrated beating up of a harmless lady in Lagos by naval ratings. The army must get use to obeying the civil laws of the country and all avenues through which they intimidate civilians such as the unchecked use of sirens and horse whips must be checked. A situation where the army refuses to obey a court order (as occurred recently) can not and should not be allowed to continue.

Professionalizing the military will require training and retraining. The officers must be made to undergo an intellectual and ideological re-birth such that those core values on which the military is built is re-inculcated in them. The army must be insulated from politics and one such way of doing this is to keep them busy.
II

On the other hand, for Nigeria to regain her place as the giant of Africa she must have a Foreign Policy that barks and bites and this is a function of the strength of her army. Julius Nyerere once invaded Idi Amins Uganda, America does it every now and then. While I am not suggesting a flagrant abuse of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations, we should be able to lead the rest of Africa and dictate how things should be done.

Our army should be such that can chase away coupists and re-install legitimate governments wherever there is a coup in Africa. we should be able to look other African leaders in the face and say NO to what they are doing not like in the case of Zimbabwe where we don’t even know what our Governments position is.

We must go beyond ‘Peace Keeping’; we should be able to define the tenets of the ‘peace’.
This can however only begin to happen when our own Government is legitimate and we have established within our borders a proper way of doing things like civilized people.

III
We must stop the “communization” of our army by placing them on Check points on the highways along side police men. This exposes them to corruption especially as seen in the now legendary collection of N20 toll fee from cars. Such a situation makes the army lose its respect and pride as Nigerians begin to see them as just another corrupt agency of Government.

The drafting of military men into our communities at the slightest provocation has led the unfortunate incidences like we had in Odi and Zaki Biam some years back. This is what I call the ‘commonization’ of our army.

IV
Currently there is a lopsided distribution of army units especially there training schools in the country with a majority of them being located in the North. This gives the impression that the army is for the North and in reality over the years, we have had more Generals of Northern extraction than from any other part of the country.

Permit me to state here that the eastern part seems to have been the most affected as there seems to be an unwritten rule since the civil war ended to keep Igbos out of top military positions. This might be a mere speculation, but it is all the same a serious issue. When the army is populated by people of a particular region, then such a army does not truly bear a national outlook and is prone to an internal crises which is a threat to the country.

Some of the more popular military institutions located in the North are: The Nigeria Defense Academy, Nigeria college of aviation Technology, Command and Staff College, The National war (Defense) College, Nigeria military school, among others.

V
More so, recruitment into the army must be looked into. Currently, you must have a ‘God father’ inside the army to be able to get into the army. This is a fact. It seems as though the top ranking officers have quotas allocated to them and if my earlier argument of there being a predominance of Northern officers in the army is any thing to go by, then the fact that more northern officers will be recruited is not farfetched.

Bottom line is that, recruitment into the Nigerian army must be open (not just by public announcements) to all and the process, fair to all. We should encourage our youths to serve the Country in the army and if we are able to get to the level i discussed in point II, then, there would be enough tours of duty for them instead of just sitting around in the barracks.

VI
Having noted all the above, I think the Nigerian army is a very big institution which has remained consistent over the years. Our achievements in the ECOMOG and various other UN Military assignments have been commended world over and I believe we can get it really right with some effort.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com
www.nzesylva.wordpress.com

Leadership is an attitude

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

Popular Nigerian stand up comedian Basket Mouth in one of his acts stated that while other countries of the world were bedeviled by one form of natural disaster or the other, Nigeria’s own nightmare was Bad Government.

It would amount to perhaps, the understatement of the century to repeat here that the reason why we are where we are as a country-one of the more popular countries that has not shown any capacity and which certainly will not be meeting any of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, is solely due to a consistent failure of leadership. Chinue Achebe thought so, I think so too and indeed, a whole majority of Nigerians think so too such that we have come to sort of accept it as our lot-our own natural disaster like Basket Mouth would say.

If we all seem to agree that bad leadership is our problem, what then is the solution?

People while criticizing the Government often say things like “if I get in there, I will do bla  bla bla” but history has shown that when they did get there, they performed even worse. Successive military governments often cited corruption and derailed leadership as reasons for over throwing the previous government, yet before long they them selves get thrown out for the same reason. The conclusion therefore points to the fact that we’ve been having the wrong notion of what leadership is all about and our approach to solving the problem has equally been wrong and futile because we have been treating leadership as a title or a position of authority.

Naturally, it is more difficult to learn new ideas as an adult. A popular Igbo adage has it that you don’t learn the use of the left hand in old age. So also, you don’t learn to lead a people aright when you get into power.  I often argue that leadership workshops or seminars organized for our leaders are a pure waste of money as it can not make them change. This is because we have leaders who are ill prepared and ill equipped to handle the responsibilities of the position they found them selves in and in most cases they get to those positions  either by rigging, federal character, quota or biased appointment. They are thus lacking in the moral pre-requisite for leading and like they say in law, once a process is wrong, the following actions that are a fall out of the initial process are equally wrong.

I wish therefore to opine here that leadership is an attitude not a position or title.

Leadership includes simple acts we carry out in our every day lives that portray who we are as an individual and the content of our character.  Such things as not walking on the lawn, not beating the traffic light, not thrashing the road from our car, not messing up a public toilet, not posting a wrong time while signing at work,  etcetra.

It includes our response to situations and our ability to make informed decisions at every point in time even when it is inconveniencing. Leadership is being able to motivate others and inspire them into attaining their full potentials as individuals especially by showing good example.  It encompasses selflessness, dedication and steadfastness.

It is only when we raise a generation of Nigerians who have the right attitude that we would be able to solve our leadership problems at the top for someone who has had it as an attitude to be at school before 8.00am will also not fail to turn up to work at 8.00am and when he/she becomes a Minster, no worker in the ministry will dare turn up late because the boss him self doesn’t.  That is leadership.

The fear I have however for my country is that those right attitudes are currently scarce in her youths who are soon to take over the public positions of leadership. In the contrary really, we have a generation that is so in tune with the failures of the past, have perfected it and are eager to take over so as to unleash the worst forms of leadership the world has ever witnessed.

I know some people would not want to agree with me and perhaps will call me a prophet of doom. They would want to argue that there are many young Nigerians out there who are breaking new grounds in all fields of life which gives the hope that all would be well for Nigeria in the future. I wish I could share that optimism. While I am also an incurable optimist, I am also a realist. No need saying a cup is half full, when you know it is half empty and fast going down.

The solution?: Change.

No one person can bring up a formula for solving Nigeria’s leadership woes. The solution simply lies in a genuine change in our attitudes as individuals. I am a big supporter of a reintroduction of civic education in primary and secondary schools and perhaps even the universities. If the family units can not teach us to act right, then I guess the schools will.

Also, I challenge our Men of God both Christians and Muslim to go beyond talking about witches, and wealth or about how one religion is superior to the others and start teaching their congregation how to become better people, inculcating in them the right attitudes that make for good leadership. The religious institutions should also be a strong voice against bad leadership and must begin to see it as their responsibility to save the society from final collapse.

The private sector must also step in. Though I don’t have statistics, but I am quite sure that the numbers of NGO’s on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria are perhaps ten folds more than those that deal with capacity building and reformation especially among youths. While AIDS is a big problem, I wish to state that bad leadership is even more deadly for it takes a good leader to make the better policy and supervise same to help those suffering from the disease. Civil society must begin to pay greater attention to leadership development and begin to work towards raising a new generation of leaders who have the right attitude to be leaders.

In the light of the above, I wish to commend the efforts of LEAP Africa, the Africa Leadership Forum, GOTNI, Ngozi Nwozo of the Nation Newspaper, The Future Nigeria team and the National Reformation Project of Rev Ogbueli of Dominion City. These few I know of and others who have been committed in raising us new leaders deserve to be commended. But their efforts are still at best insignificant considering the population of this country.

We need leaders, not rulers and leaders are those who have got the right attitude. The time to raise them is now.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com