Dele Sobowale
4 January 2009
opinion
"Presido, what are you? Economist? Philosopher? Journalist? or Activist?"
Hit them from where you are; never look for a different position or opportunity -Former Senator Javits of New York in the United States.
DEAR reader you have asked a question hat has been asked of me several times.
Let me start this year by answering it simply, briefly, and above all, truthfully. Yes, I read economics and I even hold an MBA because early in life I wanted to join the rat race for wealth. But, even while studying economics, I came across a statement that has shaped my life by one of the world's greatest economics.
Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924, the father of classical economics had pronounced that: "The economist like anyone else must concern himself with the ultimate aims of man." That prescribed an activist role for a professional economist. But, my earlier excursion into management spanning several years with multi-nationals, breweries, pharmaceuticals and later rice growing, milling and marketing provide no joy.
I was making money just for myself and family and that was unrewarding.
Then I remembered one encounter with my father before he died when I was under eleven. He had set for me a difficult arithmetic test which boys over fourteen could not solve. I laboured with it for several hours and presented him with my answer.
He looked at it; then looked me straight in the face and told me: Ojuoto (that was my nickname derived from the part of Lagos Island where I grew up), you are wrong". I started to apologise. Then he laughed and then said to me: "Never again apologise for doing your best, and when you think you are right, stick with your position; don't be intimidated by anyone.
As it turned out you have solved a problem which fourteen and fifteen year olds could not solve through determination and hard work". He went further, he advised me to get as much education as I can in life. "But when you have acquired all the knowledge you can, share your knowledge with others. You will help our country." That also prescribed an activist role, which at eleven did not fully register - until later.
Then came the challenge of compiling the Vanguard Book of Quotations. I must have read over 6000 books and several thousands of magazines, manuscripts, all the copies of Reader's Digest, I could find. What didn't I read? Philosophy, history, more economics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, loads of literature, even the Bible and the Quran in English and God knows what else.
I did all that reading with one aim in mind - to share the knowledge as daddy had said. Daddy died a few months after that test, but like Marshall, he had given me an assignment which was just as legitimate as his asking me to go and iron his shirt and which could only be discharged if I got into the media. So, when the opportunity came, I jumped in, even though the total salary and entitlements at Vanguard were not up to 40 per cent of what I was earning in private companies.
I believe that to deliberately turn your back on wealth is always a philosophical decision. I have not lived as well as I once did. But, I am happier doing what I am doing now. Among the leading lights I met in my readings was the Jewish religious leader and philosopher, Reinhold Neibuhr, born in 1892, who had advocated that "Life is not measured by the amount drunk but by the quantity poured forth". That recommended a sharing role for a life worth living, and you don't have to wait until you are as rich as Bill Gates to share what you have.
Finally, I once met Senator Javits of New York at a seminar on Civil Rights in New York City. Concerned with the injustices to Black Americans, I nevertheless felt hampered by the fact that I was not an American citizen. How could I fight the American elite on its own soil? Senator Javits solved the problem for me with those immortal words.
I returned to Boston and waged war on the white power structure along with the young black Americans of that era. Today as the whole world celebrates Obama, I feel vindicated for every Molotov cocktail thrown in protest. Now I am in Nigeria waging war, in the media against the political elite which to me, with few exceptions, is a bunch of miscreants who we must eradicate.
One thing I am not is a journalist because I am not good enough to be one. In the end, I am just an Area Boy in the media fighting for the underdogs as best as I can. Have a pleasant 2009; don't let the harsh economy depress you too much; try and save your money; fasten your seat belts when you drive - that saved my life last year.
Reporting PHCN to Yar'adua
The tortoise said to the snail, hurry up, there is a chameleon hot on my tail
-Yogi Bera, US Humourist.
THIS promises to be a tough year. Even the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, had said that much and has asked Nigerians to tighten their belts. The only time he ever had to tighten his own was when Abacha put him away, presumably for life until some yam heads sprang him loose only to come and terrorise us again with his garrison commanders and do-or die politics. That notwithstanding, we cannot live our lives in sorrow. We might as well start the year on a light note.
PHCN or Problem Has Changed Name, messed me up a great deal this past week. In my office at Ikeja, there was power supply during working hours for less than one hour each day despite the fact that the office is located at Bola Ajibola Street, off Allen Avenue, a major business district. For the first time since I started writing columns about eighteen years ago, I find myself today struggling to make deadline and paying through the nose for diesel just to write this piece.
To say PHCN, a.k.a, NEPA is slow is the understatement of any millennium. To think of reporting the organization to Baba "Go Slow" must be regarded as a joke. Indeed, one of my best friends said so. But, what can I do?
The President during the Yuletide was still clinging to his "Seven-point Agenda" and the day dream of Vision 2020 despite the fact that a friend of mine in South Africa, now number 30 on the GDP scale confirmed to me that nobody experienced power failure in that country throughout 2008. Yet that is one of the countries we want to beat with PHCN in charge of power supply.
He went further to state that the government of South Africa achieved close to 90 per cent of its budget targets during the same period under review. Nigeria, the would be world beater achieved less than 40 per cent under Baba Go Slow who according to his spokespeople is not slow but deliberate. What they have not told us is the mistake South Africa has made by implementing its own programmes speedily.
And that country's 2009 budget is not in disarray as our own; meaning that the nation which we intend to wipe the floor with has hit the ground running in 2009 while we don't even know what our budget will look like. More to the point, the Senate headed by David Mark hastily passed a defective budget so that Mark can rush to Otukpo for pounded yam and okro soup on Christmas Day leaving vital national work shabbily done. Bunch of jokers we have in Abuja driving this slow bus, don't you think? More on David Mark later. Once again tighten your seat belts. We are in for a rough ride.
Bank robberies as dividends of amala politics in Ibadan
Every country [or state] gets the government it deserves -Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, (Vangurad Book of Quotations p.80).
THERE are two governments in Ibadan, just as there had always been before the death of the "Amala king." The formal one is the government in Agodi, which, under the PDP since 2003, had been subservient to the "government" at Molete, Ibadan. It was always the occupant of Agodi who went prostrating in front of the "governor" in Molete as we all know. The governor in Agodi has never had control over the Nigeria Police unit posted to the state. The Police Command in that state take orders from Aso Rock and Aso Rock has often instructed them to do whatever the "governor" at Molete wants.
In addition to pocketing the Nigeria Police in the state, the "governor" at Molete also had unlimited power to recruit "stalwarts" to intimidate individuals even on the praying ground in full view of the Nigeria Police and even prevent the state House of Assembly from meeting. The man had immunity stronger than that of the Agodi governor whose immunity is enshrined in our constitution. It was lunacy of course.
Like all sorts of madness, whether by an individual or a group, this one too went unchecked and grew unnoticed. Yet, this lunacy was endorsed by a president, former governors, sitting governors, senators, "honourables", party leadership, and even a few former editors and a former top official of the Daily Times of Nigeria because, when the Molete "governor" died, every single one of those officials was on hand to express regret that the madness was over.
That shows how much sense they had because the madness which the Molete "governor" fostered and for which he was applauded is now paying its dividends to everybody in Ibadan through armed robberies on a scale unprecedented in the city's history.
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