Ibadan. Abuja. China. Libya. They make us cry virtually every day. Not only the number of lives lost now and again is the issue but also the fact that the tragedies are avoidable. Our wobbling and fumbling is another cause for tears. The Ibadan floods reportedly took a toll of over a hundred lives; but we all knew Ibadan is not alien to floods.  Instances of the Ogunpa River overflowing its banks are as old as Ibadan itself; “omi yale”, the local name for this scourge, is not a new phenomenon. Can you still remember the late Bola Ige’s very famous spat with prominent Ibadan “shons of the shoil” when the latter, on a visit to Ige who was then governor of old Oyo state, alleged a neglect of Ibadan? Ige, the Cicero himself, tongue-lashed the visitors in his famous “Who neglected Ibadan?” outpouring  of venom.  The UPN government however rejected the NPN-controlled Federal Government’s offer to help channel the Ogunpa; decades and many governments later, both military and civilian, the monster of floods is yet to be caged in Ibadan, reminding us that problems don’t  get solved here; instead, they are swept under the carpets.

The bombing of the UN Abuja office reportedly left 23 dead and scores more wounded. With it went up in flames whatever reputation this country has left as a modern State. Yes, terrorism is a global scourge but world leaders are not as clueless as we are in tackling it; they are also not as nonchalant and lackadaisical as we have been. Information since the event, detailing that the perpetrators were arrested in 2007 but released on “orders from above”, shows how terribly leadership has fallen here. In addition to corruption, nepotism\tribalism and partisan religious considerations have grounded this country. A CBN governor can unabashedly and blatantly champion the cause of one religion to the total detriment of other religions and be proud of what he is doing; worse is that no one is able to call him to order. A Brigadier-General in the Army is undergoing court martial for letting Boko Haram suspects escape from custody; and two soldiers reportedly were the master-minds of Mikel Obi father’s kidnap. These were soldiers deployed in Jos to maintain peace; any wonder, then, that Jos has known no peace? Pray, what peace can such elements maintain? Yet, soldiers are still there despite protests by the people. The killings continue but the government is clueless: If you remove the soldiers, who will replace them?

Nigeria’s ambassador to China has informed that over 400 of our citizens are in prison in that country on drug-related offences; he added that the embassy could receive five such notifications from the Chinese authorities a day. One convict, he said, had been executed lately while the embassy was battling to have another’s conviction commuted. Disclosing that most of the convicts came from a certain section of the country (your guess is as good as mine!), he lamented that “something is wrong with our value system”. He may be right. Jokes apart, not only the typical Igbo trader is excessively obsessed with “ego” as money answereth to all things in the Nigeria of today and how you make the money is not anyone’s cup of tea. All you need do is just make the money and become an instant celebrity. You can also decide to join any of the political parties and bulldoze your way into office to become governor or National Assembly member.

Being godfather used to be fashionable; not any more. We all can count those who have stolen this country blind since 1999; what has been done to them? Only a few received a slap on the wrist while the vast majority gallivant all over the place as VIPs and leaders who cannot be touched by the law. Where you have such brazen banditry, there is no way hapless citizens will not take risks to make money at all costs. Something is also wrong with a system that does not take care of its own citizens. Government has virtually collapsed here and the State totters on the edge of a failed State. Survivors of the UN Abuja office bomb blast have reportedly been flown to South Africa for medical treatment because that country has “modern standard hospitals and equipments”; meaning that we lack such facilities here. Yet, this is the same South Africa that we helped to liberate from the clutches of apartheid less than 15years’ago. And to think that we shall be competing with this same country for a seat as permanent member of the UN’s Security Council! What does it cost to have just one “modern standard hospital with equipments”? The same malaise that has not allowed us build one refinery since 1999 must also have been at work here.

Libyan rebels who are fast becoming the de facto and de jure government of their country have shown their true colours: They are no democrats! They could not have been because they have never experienced democracy; for 42years they have only known the dictatorship of Mouammer Ghaddaffi. Worse is that they are also racists who have embarked on an ethnic cleansing of Blacks in Libya under the ruse that they were sympathetic to Ghaddaffi. Here, Ghaddaffi is by far their superior; his passion for a united Africa made him to embrace peoples of all colours on the Continent. It is sad that these are the same people virtually everyone has fallen head over heels to recognise. More embarrassing is the fact we have not responded forcefully to the massacre of Blacks, many of them Nigerians, taking place in Libya. It is a shame that the best we could do was a timid press statement in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pleaded with the rebels to stop the massacre. The statement was not even signed by any of the Ministers. The President should have spoken – and forcefully too. Warnings and ultimatums should have been handed out to the errant Libyans. Do they still have an embassy here? If yes, their ambassador should have been summoned. Immediate steps should also have been taken to repatriate Nigerians from that country. The press conference addressed by the Foreign Affairs ministers should not have  focused on flogging the dead horse of why Nigeria “hastily” recognised the rebels but on the immediate danger faced by our citizens in that country.

What is the life of a Nigerian worth? The families of the NYSC members who got wasted in the crisis that attended the April elections got N5million per victim; is that the value? What has become  of  all the   promises of  additional  compensations?A Nigerian  life must  be treated as priceless;   let  us take a cue from other countries. Only then can we expect Nigerians not to think of what their country can do for them but what they can do for their country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not impress me at all. What are our stakes in Libya? Their defence that the recognition helped our citizens to escape attacks from the rebels flies in the face of reports that this was not the case. What the AU said or did not say is not what should matter most to us. Two former heads of state, Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdulsalami Abubakar, have come down hard on the UN and NATO operations in Libya; both are members of the Council of State as well as important actors on the international scene. In addition, Obasanjo is Board of Trustees chairman of the ruling PDP: Were they consulted on Libya before we took a position? It will be sad if they were not. We have seen how the U.S. uses its former presidents to advance its interests; there is no reason why we should not adopt a similar system here.

A grievous problem here is that the right hand often does not know what the left is doing, even in the same government. For an example, take the case of the sale of NECOM House to a company said to belong to the father of erstwhile speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole. According to reports, NECOM House and other NITEL assets were initially put up for sale as part of the privatization of NITEL and a Liquidator appointed. Somewhere along the line, the decision was purportedly taken to exempt NECOM House from the sale and the then president, Obasanjo, so directed. But the Liquidator insisted he got no such directive. Is it true or is it not? If true, why was the order not forwarded? Was it accidental or an act of commission? Further reports say the sale eventually was approved by a Minister under the same Obasanjo administration: Was he, too, not aware of the presidential directive? Effective coordination is important in any organisation, be it public or private. Without effective coordination in government, we cannot come up with effective policies or efficient machinery for execution. Without effective coordination among the security forces, we cannot successfully provide security or confront the Boko Haram scourge.

When government is excessively large, as is the case here, effective coordination is a nightmare. Jonathan recently elected to miss an opportunity to have a lean Cabinet; now, he has set up a committee to help streamline a legion of Federal Government MDAs. If he succeeds in doing that, he would be moving in the direction of more effective and efficient coordination, which will do his administration a world of good.

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