USA Africa Dialogue Series - NEPA‹UWAIFO'S OBSERVATIONS‹Re: Prof. Olukotun's Column

Thanks, Solomon, for restating the absolute 'anchor need' for Nigeria to get the power 'problematique' right. Curious - isn't it (?) - that this power-sector challenge was tormenting Nigeria (although to a lesser degree) in my university days in the '70s, and continues so to do today - nearly 40 years after my Bachelor's graduation!!

It's absolutely got to be overcome or else we are stuck in the status of a pre-industrial economy. Simple. By the by, I also, like you, sometimes fear that an evil, secret plot may be in the background ensuring 'NEPA' (privatized or not) never produces electricity always. Who - to indulge in some dangerous gossip - do you think may be the constituent members of this pernicious 'Power (with)Holding Company of Nigeria' mafia?

Thanks, Solomon and regards to all on this forum

Bolaji

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From: Solomon Uwaifo <so_uwaifo@yahoo.co.uk>
To: Bolaji Ogunseye <erinje@yahoo.com>
Cc:"ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com"<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>; Ayandiji Aina <dijiaina@icloud.com>; Ayobami Salami <ayobasalami@yahoo.com>; Caleb Ayoade Aborisade <caborisade@yahoo.com>; antonia simbine <tsombe98@yahoo.com>; "anujah@yahoo.com"<anujah@yahoo.com>; "aoyewo@aol.com"<aoyewo@aol.com>; Ephraim Aor <rainbowtumise@gmail.com>; Akanmu Adebayo <aadebayo@kennesaw.edu>; Akinjide OSUNTOKUN <josuntokun@yahoo.com>; bankole omotoso <ajibabi@outlook.com>; Ben Adeyanju <adeyanjuben@yahoo.com>; Bayo Okunade <bayookunade@gmail.com>; BISHOP CROWN <bishopisaaccrown@gmail.com>; Bisi Falola <bisifalola@gmail.com>; bode fasakin <bodefasakin@yahoo.co.uk>; "cynthiafunmi@gmail.com"<cynthiafunmi@gmail.com>; Dele Seteolu <folabiset@yahoo.com>; Dewale Yagboyaju <aswaj2003@yahoo.com>; DOYIN AGUORU <doyinaguoru77@gmail.com>; Dr. Badru Ronald Olufemi <femmydamak@gmail.com>; Employ Lawone <employlawone@aol.com>; eojo12000 <eojo12000@yahoo.com>; Festus Adedayo <fesadedayo@yahoo.com>; Francis Ojo <ojofrank@gmail.com>; Fred Goke <fredgoke3@gmail.com>; Glory Ukwenga <gloryukwenga@gmail.com>; Alex Gboyega <alexgboyega@yahoo.com>; muktar haruna Sambo <mukraxxy@yahoo.com>; IHRIA ENAKIMIO <ihriae@gmail.com>; Iyabobola Ajibola <iyabobolaa@gmail.com>; Noel Ihebuzor <noel.ihebuzor@gmail.com>; Nosa Owens-Ibie <nosowens@gmail.com>; Okey Ibeanu <oibeanu@yahoo.co.uk>; "jgsanda@gmail.com"<jgsanda@gmail.com>; alade rotimi-john <rotimijohnandcompany@gmail.com>; Jones Dada <oyi_omi@yahoo.com>; Kehinde Emoruwa <emoruwaok@yahoo.com>; olukotun bob-kunle <bobkunle@yahoo.com>; Prof Dipo Kolawole <profkolawole@yahoo.com>; Oladipo Osasona <ladiposasona@yahoo.co.uk>; olatoye_ojo <olatoye_ojo@yahoo.com>; Olayemi Foline Folorunsho <offlinenspri@gmail.com>; Pa Uoma <pauoma@gmail.com>; "lola2kid@yahoo.com"<lola2kid@yahoo.com>; Yomi Layinka <yourme5@yahoo.co.uk>; Ngozi <mediaworldintl@yahoo.com>; "nkechien@yahoo.com"<nkechien@yahoo.com>; Nuhu Yaqub <nuhuoyaqub@gmail.com>; olufemi onabajo <olufemionabajo@yahoo.com>; abiodun raufu <abiodunraufu@yahoo.com>; Abiodun Salawu <Abiodun.Salawu@nwu.ac.za>; Adebimpe <bimpeaor@gmail.com>; Wasiu Odufisan <wasiuodufisan@yahoo.com>; sat obiyan <satobiyan@yahoo.com>; SEGUN GBADEGESIN <gbadeg2002@yahoo.com>; segunawo <segunawo@yahoo.com>; "shirleygreta@yahoo.com"<shirleygreta@yahoo.com>; Sharon Omotoso <sharonomotoso@gmail.com>; Shehu Dikko <shehuspen@gmail.com>; Sojo <aasojo@umn.edu>; Sola Akinrinade <solakin@msn.com>; "solomon_akinboye@yahoo.com"<solomon_akinboye@yahoo.com>; Funmi Soetan <funm_soetan@yahoo.com>; Mamora <senatormamora@yahoo.com>; "madeyeye2002@yahoo.com"<madeyeye2002@yahoo.com>; Meda <medaton@yahoo.com>; Mayortk <mayortk@yahoo.com>; "stelbeyke@yahoo.com"<stelbeyke@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, 2 September 2016, 11:42
Subject: Re: Prof. Olukotun's Column

Dear Ayo,

Thank you for your viewpoint. You struggled though. You started by addressing what you described as post-power dissembling as if it was a political party, PDP, problem. Towards the end, you recognized that it is the problem of Nigerian politicians, even if you did not quite say so. Every political party in Nigeria has suffered post-power dissembling. I have thought for many years that that point was easily recognizable. After all, except for the old and tired Nigerian politicians and the JJCs to Nigerian politics, all Nigerian politicians have been bedfellows in one political party or the other for more than the fifty-six years the country has been independent. 

I suggest that the failure of Nigeria and this group politically, is due to the failure to recognize this fact. To the extent that we fail to appreciate that our politicians are in politics for what they can get for themselves, not for their ethnic connections, to that extent will Nigeria remain at the periphery of development. 

Forgive me if as Prof. Olukotun I offer my take. Mine is in the area of electric power. After more than 62 years of involvement in that sector, I have come to believe that there is a political conspiracy to deny Nigeria the lifeblood of meaningful development, electric power. Most Nigerians are bitten by achievement impulse. Give them electric power and they will fly to the zenith of development. Poverty will loose its fangs. And Nigerians will ask their rulers question where and when it matters, without waiting for bags of gari or of rice. Indeed, I believe that they will consider handouts insulting.

Sent from my iPad

On 2 Sep 2016, at 03:20, Bolaji Ogunseye <erinje@yahoo.com> wrote:

Ayo,

Good offering. Thanks for bringing into clear relief how the crisis-engendered failure of PDP to provide quality opposition may undermine the vibrancy of our weakly-evolving democratic governance process.

It's difficult not to feel disappointed at PDP's troubled post-central power incarnation, especially if one considers what it says about our polity's continued failure to build credible and sustainable INSTITUTIONS. It must worry us that during 16 years of controlling central power and most state governments (plus all the accompanying self-indulgences of power), the PDP failed to sustainably INSTITUTIONALIZE the organization/party that enabled and served it so well to control, deploy and enjoy all that power. 

What that suggests to me is that it's the ready access to power and money, along with the pomp and circumstance that holding power confers, that held PDP together, rather than a commitment to sound institution building for itself. While it's natural that a large organization like PDP will be subject to intra-group tension and fractionalization, the party's RAPID, post-power dissembling still must make one imagine that having failed to build its own organization into a sustainable political institution (machine) in 16 years, little wonder it could not build credible and functional INSTITUTIONS OF PUBLIC GOVERNANCE for Project Nigeria. But I don't suggest that's simply a PDP problem. It's a problem of the 'capacity gap' existing within ALL  Nigeria's political parties - to transform themselves from being power-seeking groups into sustainable, ideas-driven political institutions for  good governance. The seeds of APC's post-power dissembling are currently being sown before our very eyes - a fate that awaits them even if they spend 20 years controlling the centre and a majority of states - UNLESS of course, they learn the lessons of PDP's experience and DELIBERATELY  set out to avoid it.

Our parties - whether in or out of government - are not organized around nation-building and economic-development ideas and insights. And it's only that kind of commitment that can make a party build institutional props around its organization. The vast majority of Nigeria's party members are (and I say this with much sadness) the floatsam and jetsam of society, people who rarely ever spend a minute to reflect on HOW TO SERVE if they win power!! I joined (what remained of) the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2012, and set about encouraging them to believe they could still have a political future (after all, they were second only to PDP during 1999-2003); I advocated with the leaders that we should institutionalize the party and mobilize members around policy and project ideas for governance - agric, youth development, employment, fighting mass poverty, reversing the runaway cost of governance, radical re-engineering of our early-childhood educational system, etc. 99% of our members thought me a serious bore. Even monthly membership dues of 100 naira they won't pay. All they wanted from me was MONEY. 

Let me conclude by saying that being no longer a party man as such, anytime I reflect on my 3-year experience, it strikes me that every recollection I have of my time with AD is that ALL - I mean ALL  - the fights (sometimes physical!!) and arguments that I witnessed were about sharing money - who took how much, why didn't I get so much; who collected money and didn't report to others; who took 1m naira but only tendered 500k to the other officers, etc; Or fights over food, or bags of rice - when these were available to be shared among them. I have not a single recollection of any argument or positional differences on agric, education, employment creation, etc. Things like these were NEVER discussed. 

With parties constituted with this rather low quality of 'human texture' dominating Nigeria's political process, it doesn't matter how long they are in power. The day they lose power, the parties are bound to start dissembling. They were never held together by an ideology, or institutional structure for themselves (as parties) or for serving society - the supposed reason for their formation in the first place. That's my perspective, in addition to Ayo's lucid 'effective-opposition-for-democratic-development' entry-point on PDP's current crisis.

Bolaji

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From:"ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com"<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
To: Ayo Olukotun <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>; Ayandiji Aina <dijiaina@icloud.com>; Ayobami Salami <ayobasalami@yahoo.com>; Caleb Ayoade Aborisade <caborisade@yahoo.com>; antonia simbine <tsombe98@yahoo.com>; anujah@yahoo.com; aoyewo@aol.com; Ephraim Aor <rainbowtumise@gmail.com>; Akanmu Adebayo <aadebayo@kennesaw.edu>; Akinjide OSUNTOKUN <josuntokun@yahoo.com>; bankole omotoso <ajibabi@outlook.com>; Ben Adeyanju <adeyanjuben@yahoo.com>; Bayo Okunade <bayookunade@gmail.com>; BISHOP CROWN <bishopisaaccrown@gmail.com>; Bisi Falola <bisifalola@gmail.com>; bode fasakin <bodefasakin@yahoo.co.uk>; Bolaji Ogunseye <erinje@yahoo.com>; cynthiafunmi@gmail.com; Dele Seteolu <folabiset@yahoo.com>; Dewale Yagboyaju <aswaj2003@yahoo.com>; DOYIN AGUORU <doyinaguoru77@gmail.com>; Dr. Badru Ronald Olufemi <femmydamak@gmail.com>; Employ Lawone <employlawone@aol.com>; eojo12000 <eojo12000@yahoo.com>; Festus Adedayo <fesadedayo@yahoo.com>; Francis Ojo <ojofrank@gmail.com>; Fred Goke <fredgoke3@gmail.com>; Glory Ukwenga <gloryukwenga@gmail.com>; Alex Gboyega <alexgboyega@yahoo.com>; muktar haruna Sambo <mukraxxy@yahoo.com>; IHRIA ENAKIMIO <ihriae@gmail.com>; Iyabobola Ajibola <iyabobolaa@gmail.com>; Noel Ihebuzor <noel.ihebuzor@gmail.com>; Nosa Owens-Ibie <nosowens@gmail.com>; Okey Ibeanu <oibeanu@yahoo.co.uk>; jgsanda@gmail.com; alade rotimi-john <rotimijohnandcompany@gmail.com>; Jones Dada <oyi_omi@yahoo.com>; Kehinde Emoruwa <emoruwaok@yahoo.com>; olukotun bob-kunle <bobkunle@yahoo.com>; Prof Dipo Kolawole <profkolawole@yahoo.com>; Oladipo Osasona <ladiposasona@yahoo.co.uk>; olatoye_ojo <olatoye_ojo@yahoo.com>; Olayemi Foline Folorunsho <offlinenspri@gmail.com>; Pa Uoma <pauoma@gmail.com>; lola2kid@yahoo.com; Yomi Layinka <yourme5@yahoo.co.uk>; Ngozi <mediaworldintl@yahoo.com>; nkechien@yahoo.com; Nuhu Yaqub <nuhuoyaqub@gmail.com>; olufemi onabajo <olufemionabajo@yahoo.com>; abiodun raufu <abiodunraufu@yahoo.com>; Abiodun Salawu <Abiodun.Salawu@nwu.ac.za>; Adebimpe <bimpeaor@gmail.com>; Wasiu Odufisan <wasiuodufisan@yahoo.com>; sat obiyan <satobiyan@yahoo.com>; SEGUN GBADEGESIN <gbadeg2002@yahoo.com>; segunawo <segunawo@yahoo.com>; shirleygreta@yahoo.com; Sharon Omotoso <sharonomotoso@gmail.com>; Shehu Dikko <shehuspen@gmail.com>; Sojo <aasojo@umn.edu>; Sola Akinrinade <solakin@msn.com>; solomon_akinboye@yahoo.com; Solomon Uwaifo <so_uwaifo@yahoo.co.uk>; Funmi Soetan <funm_soetan@yahoo.com>; Mamora <senatormamora@yahoo.com>; madeyeye2002@yahoo.com; Meda <medaton@yahoo.com>; Mayortk <mayortk@yahoo.com>; stelbeyke@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2016, 20:24
Subject: Fw: Prof. Olukotun's Column

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

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From: Faith Adebiyi <faithadebiyi01@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2016 12:41:27 +0100

To: <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>

Subject: Prof. Olukotun's Column

PDP’S SELF DESTRUCTIVE QUARRELS AND GROWING IRRELEVANCE

AYO OLUKOTUN

Nigeria presents itself to the world in fascinating contrasts and as a study in unrealized expectations and beckoning greatness frustrated by adversity and self-inflicted wounds. Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg alluded on an optimistic note, to one dimension of the Nigerian paradox when he told a workshop in Lagos on Wednesday that despite the biting economic hardship “after being here, there is no way that this place (Nigeria), doesn’t end up shaping the way things get done around the world”.

It does not appear that Zuckerberg was merely speaking to please his growing clientele in Nigeria; rather he seemed earnest, echoing statements which several world leaders have made about Nigeria’s manifest destiny. If the country will eventually transit from the current wilderness of deferred greatness to the world stage however, it must get among other things its democratic governance right, by alternating power smoothly between its major parties in free and fair elections. It is in this context that we worry about the looming erasure from the political map of the country the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Of course, it is easy to say good riddance if the PDP expires as a result of external pressure and ongoing bickering considering its many blemishes. In fact, several politicians and sympathizers of the ruling All Progressive Congress are already gloating at the travails of the PDP if for no other reason than that it would mean that a major rival has gone into extinction. It is difficult nonetheless for a true democrat to rejoice at the probable emergence of a one party state however virtuous that one party is. As this writer suggested in “PDP: An opposition party absent from duty” (The Punch, 6^th May, 2016), democracy is the better and healthier for it when it is served by two major parties each with roughly equal chances of winning or losing General Elections. True, and as some politicians are already strategizing, another party may rise up from the ashes of the PDP but will such a party have the spread and the forte of the imploding PDP?

As known, the gravity of the current fractionalisation of the party is evident in the holding of rival primaries by the two major factions for the forthcoming Ondo State election, suggesting that the schisms are deep and hard to reconcile. Similarly, the crisis has thrown up a plethora of court cases and rival court rulings to the extent that it will be almost impossible to hold a National Convention without one side obtaining an injunction to abort it.

The unravelling of what was once proclaimed as Africa’s largest party, projected to govern the country for 50 or so years carries with it a hint of tragedy mutating into farce as one observes the combatants displaying fervour at tackling their opponents without a trace of embarrassment or awareness that both parties in the fray are sealing the doom of their party. This blissful or pretended ignorance reminds one of Professor Larry Diamond’s comment in his seminal book on Nigeria’s First Republic that when actors driving on a narrow lane show no awareness of the fragile terrain in which they are acting, they provoke a Samson option in which all contending parties face destruction. It is possible of course as some have speculated that one of the disputing parties is merely playing the spoiler with instigation from the ruling party, becoming defiant in order to bring about a mutually assured destruction of the PDP.

Before carrying the narrative further however, this writer craves the reader’s indulgence to enter a short take. Leading the commentariat at The Punch Newspaper is Prof. Niyi Akinnaso, famed Tuesday Columnist and until recently when he retired from the United States the occupant of two prestigious Chairs at Temple University, Philadelphia, one in Anthropology the other in Linguistics. Naturally, I pay close attention to Akinnaso’s responses to my column and was very pleased when last week he wrote an incisive rejoinder to my piece on global and national dimensions of leadership diminution (The Punch, August 26, 2016). Applauding the cross cultural and comparative scope of the essay, Akinnaso went on to say that in order to avoid the ruling APC basking in the glow of belonging to an elite group of nations with diminished leadership, it is important to point up mitigating factors which cushion the citizens of advanced democracies. These factors according to him include systems in which the rule of law take pre-eminence, world class infrastructure and effective institutions. A citizen of the world, Akinnaso is right on the money in appreciating that while leadership diminution is global, its consequences vary depending of the level of political and economic development of respective countries. Hence, however incompetent or unpopular President Francois Hollande of France gets, the state structures in France guarantee minimum benefits and standards of living to French citizens. Obviously, we are not so lucky in these parts because we are citizens or subjects of ephemeral state structures belonging to nations waiting to be built. But now we must quicken the pace of construction and redemption of past failures so that Nigerians don’t suffer too much.

To go back to the main discourse, it will be unfortunate if the PDP lapses and pushes itself off the national stage because of real and contrived problems. Tensions and conflicts are to be expected in all organisations large or small; the larger, the more likely they will incubate conflicts. Indeed, some conflicts can be creative if they lead to organisational renewal or bring about an important reformulation of strategies, goals and tactics. There is no hint however that the conflicts in the PDP, denaturing and festering, have anything to with noble visions or ideals that can restart the party. Hence, at a time when Nigerians are in need of an effective opposition to both act as a check on the ruling party and to sign post better days to come, the PDP, or some of its leaders regale themselves with tactical victories obtained at the cost of pushing their party more and more into ruins.

 Ordinarily, the statement credited to Deji Adeyanju, Director, New Media of the PDP on Thursday to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari should pay close attention to the economy or resign should have attracted some mileage. But if Buhari wants to be cynical, his spokespersons can ask Adeyanju whether he is speaking for the Ahmed Makarfi faction or the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party. In other words, nobody can take seriously a party so divided and which has made political differences of combatants a priority issue. It is possible that the PDP wary of the consequences of their collective abasement and their impact on our fragile democracy will allow common sense to prevail and build bridges across the current divides. If this happens quickly enough, the party may yet be rescued from its current suicidal journey from irrelevance to extinction.

In the unlikely event that the party overcomes its current troubles, it will wobble on as an inconsequential player in the scheme of things. However that goes, our democracy needs a vibrant opposition party to move the country to the next stage of democratic consolidation.