Saving Okorocha from himself

CHUKS OLUIGBO

The prevailing perception across Nigeria, even among those who have never been to Imo State, is that Rochas Okorocha, the state governor, “is performing”. And not a few Imo people accept this verdict, given the many years of utter misrule they had suffered in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) locusts. This piece does not intend to assess the performance of the Okorocha administration. Since the people themselves have rated their governor high on performance, we will suffer it to be so for now. As always, let history be the judge.

My concern, really, is that Okorocha, no doubt an orator, seems to be full of boasts. On the outside, he presents the picture of a decent politician and a great intellectual whose ‘words on the marble’ could inspire the younger generation and win him good followership. However, when he speaks, he reveals a character no different from the everyday loud-mouthed Nigerian politician.

As 2015 approaches, it is pertinent to remind Governor Okorocha, a man who rode to the Government House in 2011 on the back of people’s goodwill, that unnecessary braggadocio was former Governor Ikedi Ohakim’s cardinal sin against Imo people. If he had not laced his “misdeeds” with those empty boasts and abusive language, often referring to himself as “ikiri” (an animal known never to give up on whatever it grabs) and “agu ji egbe” (a gun-toting lion), perhaps Imo people would have forgiven him. But not Ohakim. It was as if abuse was his very lifeblood. And he was full of fake promises as well. He said he was transforming Imo into a one-city state, a modern model state and tourist destination of the world. He introduced Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency (IRROMA) and promised to grade 300 roads in 30 days. He said he was constructing the most ambitious road project ever in the history of Nigeria, a 150-km boulevard called Imo Interconnectivity Multilane Freeway, which would pass through 500 communities, 19 local government areas, 39 markets with 13 electronic tollgates and connecting Oguta Resort and the entire state. He said he would dredge the Nworie River, establish Agro Nova Farm Project, Imo Airline, Oak Refinery at Ohaji/Egbema, the Oguta Wonder Lake Resort and Conference Centre, among others – but none of these projects ever left the architectural drawing board. That was why when he crashed from the inflated heights of his vainglory, I described him as “oturukpokpo” the bird (the woodpecker), which boasted that on the day his mother would die he would bring down the iroko tree with his long beak. Unfortunately, the day came and he developed a big boil on his beak.

Essentially, Okorocha has not departed from Ohakim’s boastful ways. Like when he was quoted as referring to himself as the only Igbo leader standing, now that Ojukwu is dead. Like when he was said to have boasted, during the launch of Bola Tinubu’s book in Lagos, that everybody knew he was already a billionaire before he became governor.

It is this same braggadocio that fuels Okorocha’s messiahnic I-was-up-there-on-the-mountaintop-when-you-guys-came-and-begged-me-to-come-and-rescue-you attitude that he flaunts to Imo people at every turn. But we know it’s all fallacy; we know that Imo governorship is the highest office he has held in this country – even if he has contested, and lost, the presidential primaries a million times. So, my candid advice is that if Okorocha wants to rule Imo again, he must cast off his airs and become truly one with the people, not through these pretentious acts of hugging cripples and wiping saliva from the corner-lips of beggars. He really needs to come down from his imaginary high horse and work for his return to Douglas House. Imo people may have begged him in 2011, but this time around, he must beg for their votes.

Another thing is to remind the governor that no matter how highly rated he thinks he may be, party affiliation also matters. He should already know that his presidential ambition, for which he purportedly joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), will never be – at least not in 2015. APC has not hidden the fact that the only consideration it has for the South-east in 2015 is the position of vice president. And so, he has in turn told Imo people that he is not done yet, meaning he intends to seek a second term in 2015. I think that’s wise enough.

But then, on what platform? When, few weeks ago, I wrote “Why PDP may reclaim Imo in 2015”, I stated clearly that APC won’t fly in Igboland. This may not sound well in some ears, but I have a feeling that Igbo people generally see the party as an extension of ‘Tinubudom’ into Igboland. The events in Anambra in the past few weeks may have vindicated my stand. The signs are crystal clear. The inability of Chris Ngige, in spite of his touted popularity, to win beyond two local councils in the governorship poll (this is without prejudice to the outcome of INEC’s planned supplementary election) signals the rejection of APC in Igboland.

So, what’s Okorocha’s next move? Return to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)? He dares not, not after declaring the party dead. Stay put in APC? I doubt so. That may mean bringing his rather promising political career to a tragic, abrupt end. So what?

In that article, I also wrote that PDP seems to be the only formidable party in Imo State. In spite of the earthquakes that have hit the party in the state these past years, an analyst told me: “PDP is intact, very strong, very much on ground in Imo. The pre-2011 implosion caused by Ohakim’s imposition of candidates in the 2010 LG elections has been resolved. PDP is 100 percent united. Ward tours are currently ongoing. Reconciliation meetings are being held across board spearheaded by PDP Reconciliation and Mobilisation Committee.” Based on available facts, I said the party’s prospects in 2015 look bright, plus there are predictions that all politicians in the state who were frustrated out of the party may return – even Okorocha himself.

Well, the predictions are already coming true as Achike Udenwa, former governor of the state, who left for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and then APC, has made the first move. As reported, weekend, by the Owerri-based Imo Trumpeta, the public event to mark Udenwa’s formal declaration back to PDP – the party on whose platform he ruled Imo State for eight years and later became a federal minister – is expected in a matter of weeks. And, expectedly, all Udenwa supporters are moving with him. This move, plus the combined forces of the presidency (which is said to be behind Udenwa’s return) and other party stalwarts, including Hope Uzodimma, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Arthur Nzeribe, Emeka Ihedioha, Kema Chikwe, Ikedi Ohakim, and others, may finally nail APC’s coffin in Imo State and South-east.

So, to save his political career, the safest and surest move for Okorocha may be to rejoin PDP, which, no doubt, may want to piggyback his relative popularity to reclaim Douglas House. If he does, it will be a win-win. Anything to the contrary may spell doom.

The long road to All Igbo Music Awards

CHUKS OLUIGBO

By the time the All Igbo Music Awards (a.k.a. Ekwe Awards) eventually manages to pull through on December 7 of this year, it would have become clearer how difficult it is to organise an event that celebrates Igbo arts and culture. That difficulty would further accentuate the point being made in certain quarters that the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria, a people blessed with rich tradition and cultural heritage, do not appreciate what they have.

Barely a few years ago, based on its assessment of the state of the Igbo language, United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had projected that the language would go extinct by 2025. This was against the backdrop that the language is hardly spoken by its owners, the Igbo, who prefer to bring up their children using English language. That was a wake-up call, and to ensure that this projection does not come true, there have been efforts in many circles to preserve and promote Igbo language. These include ‘Otu Suwakwa Igbo’, founded by Pita Ejiofo, former vice chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; The Odenigbo Lecture Series, instituted by Anthony J. V. Obinna, Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, among others. Ekwe Awards, if it succeeds, would join that group as it hopes to become an effective means of encouraging the Igbo people to hold on to their cultural heritage, of which language is an important part.

But it has been a long, tortuous road – from the conception, in 2009, of the idea that has eventually morphed into Ekwe Awards. That was when Ugo Stevenson, the initiator of the awards, first thought of how to celebrate the best of Igbo music. That thought birthed what he tagged BOMA (Bongo Music Award) 2010.

“I discovered that Ndigbo don’t really appreciate what they have. I am sorry to say it, but we wait too long for others to remind us that look, this is good. A case study is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It took us 50 years to start talking about Achebe’s Things Fall Apart when many countries of the world had translated the book in their own languages. As I speak, I am not even sure whether the book has been translated into Igbo language. So, I told myself that we don’t have to wait for another 50 years before we can begin to talk about a brand that is now competing favourably with reggae, which we say is from Jamaica, pop, which we say is an American thing, and rock, which we say is from Europe,” Stevenson, who was honoured in 2008 as the Best Highlife Artiste in the Nigeria Music Awards (NMA), told me in an interview in Owerri, the Imo State capital, in 2010 at the peak of preparations for BOMA.

“We have Bongo music today, and it has gained wide acceptance all over the world, then we should go ahead and celebrate it. So, Bongo Music Award is instituted for the future. If we can say that Bob Marley is the king of reggae and Michael Jackson king of pop, then we should be able to give the world a king of Bongo music,” he added.

Speaking then, Stevenson also said BOMA was a platform which he considered as a necessary tool to encourage and celebrate Igbo musicians. “Bongo music has been on for the past 60 to 70 years, but nobody had thought of giving it a brand. People just play it, make some money, and that is the end. They are not noted, mentioned or credited in any Nigerian music event. There is no Bongo category in any national music event in this country,” he said.

Although Bongo was a traditional music of Owerri people, he said it had metamorphosed into a cultural music of Ndigbo and Africans, adding: “Culture is dynamic, and so Bongo music has moved up and is now a contemporary brand from Owerri people to Ndigbo, and from Ndigbo to Africa, and to the world in general.”

But BOMA’s path was fraught with financial bottlenecks, even though Stevenson at a point sounded very optimistic. “This is an institution we are trying to build, and in the next 10-15 years, it will keep going and this industry will be the better for it. I can assure you that after BOMA in a few weeks time, possibly the Best Artiste of the Year will become the ambassador of our corporate sponsor, and I tell you it is the biggest thing that has ever happened here,” he had told me then.

That, however, was never to be. The response remained poor, even from Bongo artistes themselves. Apart from Owerri-based media organisations like Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Heartland FM, Newspoint Newspaper, and a few others who came in as media partners, nothing really came the way of BOMA in terms of sponsorship, whether from wealthy Igbo individuals or corporate organisations.

Then came Ekwe Awards, which, Stevenson says, is to reward musicians who project Igbo language through their music. Ekwe, he tells me, is a signature instrument for all Igbo music, which is why it is chosen as the name for the award. Emphasising that the Igbo man does not document his culture, does not appreciate what he has, leading to loss of some Igbo music forms that are being dumped by the practitioners, he says: “We are here to celebrate these music forms and musicians.” He further says the mere mention of these artistes and their music for the award has given new life to the music, adding: “They are happy being celebrated.”

Indeed, many stakeholders and culture enthusiasts have said an event like Ekwe Awards – where musicians who have taken the pain to sing in Igbo language will be rewarded – is long overdue. They agree that such an event is essential in sustaining and promoting Igbo language, arts and culture. Ekwe Awards, both a novel and noble idea, they say, is therefore highly welcome and commendable.

“If the Ekwe Awards holds, South-east governors and culture-conscious Igbo people would have set a pace in the promotion of Igbo language, arts and culture in all Igbo communities. But if the event fails to hold, history will equally record all lovers of Igbo music and culture as those who failed to take advantage of an opportunity to save the Igbo language,” writes Emma Iheaka, an Owerri-based journalist.

But as with BOMA, so has it been with Ekwe Awards. The response has not been very good. The greatest challenge has also been sponsorship. But Stevenson has remained undaunted, and his perspicacity seems to be paying off gradually. Fortunately, he tells me, there have been a number of plaque endorsements for the awards by some personalities in Ebonyi State, including Elizabeth Oshianu, Bena Nwuzor, Anthony Ibeogu, Franca Chinyere Okpo, Sylvester Ogbaga, Igwe Nwagu (a senator), Omo Christopher Isu, and a few others. MTN Nigeria too, he adds, has identified with the award, hoping other corporate sponsors will key into the project.

Fortunately, the award committee has released the list of nominees for the awards, which holds in Owerri. Among the categories include: Best Abigbo Artiste, Best Bongo Artiste, Best Ekpili Artiste, Best Odumodu Artiste, Best Nkwanwite Artiste, Best Ogene Artiste, Best Eri Obo Artiste, Best Oyolima Artiste, Best Udubunch Artiste, Best Igbo Highlife Artiste, and Best Igbo Christian Music Artiste, Best Igbo Lyrics on Scroll, Best Igbo Music Producer, and Best Igbo Music Marketer.

Also to be awarded is the Igbo Artiste of the Year. Ejike Mbaka (Rev. Fr.), Morocco Maduka, Chima Eke and Chijioke Mbanefo are nominees in this category. Post-humus Award in Igbo Music will go to late Stephen Osita Osadebe and Emily Amaechi, while Lifetime Achievement Award in Igbo Music will also go to Nze Dan Orji (Peacock International Band) and Mike Ejeagha. One only hopes that the event pulls through this time around.

The Nigerian politician and the fear of tomorrow

CHUKS OLUIGBO

The other day I ran into an old friend and classmate in the university who is now a local government chairman in his home state of Cross River. Just like me, he was in Akure, the Ondo State capital, for the 2013 convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). Way back at the University of Nigeria, we belonged together in The Poets’ Quadrangle, an association of budding writers. While I was really surprised that in spite of his deep involvement in politics he still found time to write, I had another bigger concern that I wanted to talk to him about. So, on the sidelines of the closing ceremony/award night of the ANA convention, I cornered him. My question to him flew straight like an arrow: “Why is there so much looting and stealing of public funds going on among Nigeria’s political class?”

To buttress my point, I told him a joke I read many years ago in one of Daniel A. Offiong’s great books – I think it must have been Globalisation: Post-Neodependency and Poverty in Africa. The joke was about a Nigerian politician and his Chinese friend and counterpart. The Nigerian politician, on a visit to China, marvelled at the kind of luxury his friend lived in and inquired about how his friend made such stupendous wealth. “Well,” the Chinese said, “when funds are released for a project, I execute the project with 90 percent of the funds and keep the remaining 10 percent for myself.” (I guess that must have been in those days before corruption became a capital offence in China.) Many years later, the Chinese as well visited his Nigerian friend and beheld with awe his massive palatial mansion which was almost the size of a village in China, with all its appurtenances. When he asked about the source of wealth, his Nigerian friend informed him that in his own case, he executed projects with only 10 percent of the available funds and kept 90 percent for himself.

After listening to me, my friend had a good laugh and then said to me: “Unfortunately, my friend, that’s the sad truth. Sometimes people even keep the entire project funds to themselves, not even caring to commit 10 percent to the project.”

I didn’t want to go into why nothing is done to those who engage in these sordid acts, leading to so much impunity. So, I asked him what he thought was driving the craze for looting of public funds.

“I think it’s simply the fear of tomorrow,” he told me. “There is so much uncertainty in the country, so everybody wants to pile up so much wealth so that in case of any happenstance, at least their future and that of their children would be guaranteed.”

I admired his honesty, but I also pointed out to him that such thinking among the Nigerian political class was faulty. I made it clear to him that the fear of tomorrow was a universal phenomenon. The future, for the most part, is both unknown and unknowable, in spite of advances in science and technology – for which reason it is viewed, the world over, with both apprehension and trepidation. However, the fear of tomorrow elsewhere in the world has elicited a different kind of reaction. Countries of the world have gone ahead to put in place systems and structures that guarantee that tomorrow’s needs are met – at least within the limits of human capabilities. These countries have made life liveable for everybody – today’s people and tomorrow’s generations, the poor and the rich, leaders and the led, politicians and ordinary people. They have also instituted stringent, enforceable laws that make stealing of public funds less attractive.

In Nigeria, on the contrary, because such systems and structures are not in place, the fear of tomorrow and its uncertainties is driving leaders (and the people as well) into all forms of thievery. And because there are no stringent laws against such acts, the existing ones being observed more in the breach, there is really no incentive not to steal.

While he listened with rapt attention, I painted the following mental picture: Imagine you are an ordinary Nigerian, you have a mortgage that guarantees that you will eventually own the apartment you live in, meaning you can be a homeowner without necessarily having to save for a lifetime in order to buy land and build a house of your own; you have a health insurance that guarantees that you don’t need to bother about hospital bill each time you or any of yours are ill; you have other forms of insurance that mean you don’t have to worry about what happens to you in case of fire outbreak, auto crash, or other happenstance, including death; there is stable power supply so you don’t need a personal generating set that you will be sweating to fuel; there is regular water supply so you don’t have to worry about sinking your own borehole; you have available some form of consumer loan whose repayment is deductable at source with insignificant interest rate; you are sure that the monthly deductions from your pay by your organisation in the name of pension are promptly remitted to the appropriate pension fund administrator and that you will get your money handy in due course whenever retirement or old age knocks, guaranteeing you stress-free ageing process (financially speaking); the roads are good and the rail lines are working and the aircraft plying the nation’s airspace are not potential caskets and the transport system is okay such that a personal car becomes a luxury item rather than a basic necessity; and there are in place systems and structures that ensure that your children after you will also enjoy these same benefits, and much more in response to the changes of their time, what will you be stealing public funds for? What will you be piling up those stolen billions for? What will you even be saving for if not occasional holiday to the Caribbean to see beautiful sights on the beachfronts?

I went further to say that these things have been achieved elsewhere and are therefore achievable in Nigeria. Our leaders just need to eschew greed and selfishness and open their minds to the welfare of the entire citizenry. Trying to safeguard the future of only their children is a cosmetic measure that is bound not to endure for too long. Hassan Kukah, now Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto, said that much to Bamanga Tukur when he was the book reviewer at the launch of Tukur’s book in 2011. Indeed, it often boomerangs. As the saying goes, when the rich eat up the wealth of the nation, the poor will eat the rich.

By the time we went back into the hall to listen to the speech by Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State – who, by the way, has been good to ANA, hosting the association twice in four years – my friend told me how touched he was and pledged to make a difference in his own little way. I only hope he would stick to his promise, hoping too that other politicians would take a leaf from him when he does.

Jimmy Rustling: Beyond the limits of satire?

If you were to write a satire on the biggest issue in Nigeria, what would it be? And what would be the reaction of the people and government of Nigeria to such a publication?

In India, the biggest issue appears to be rape. India is said to be second in reported rapes in the world behind the United States, though critics say this is only because most rapes in India go unreported. So, it happened that early November, while the citizens of Assam, a small state northeast of India, slept, someone somewhere kept vigil ‘on their behalf’. Jimmy Rustling, 34, from Phoenix, Arizona, USA, put his fingers to the keyboard, and by the time Assam people woke up on November 2, the story had gone viral online.

Titled ‘The Assam Rape Festival In India Begins This Week’ and published on the National Report website, the article purported to announce to the world the commencement of this year’s annual Assam Rape Festival where “every non-married girl age 7-16 will have the chance to flee to safety or get raped”. It quoted the imaginary head of the annual festival, Madhuban Ahluwalia, as saying: “This is a long time tradition in Assam dating back thousands of years. We rape the evil demons out of the girls, otherwise they will cheat on us and we will be forced to kill them. So it is necessary for everyone.”

The story claimed the festival began in 43 BC when Baalkrishan Tamil Nadu, who is remembered every year at the event, raped everyone in his village of Doomdooma. Consequently, the trophy given to the man with the most rapes is called “The Baalkrishan”. It also quoted another fictional figure, 24-year-old Harikrishna Majumdar, as telling reporters: “I’m going to get the most rapes this year. I’ve been practicing all year. I rape my sister and her friends every day. I will be rape superstar number one! I will get the Baalkrishan prize this year for sure!”

As expected, the report outraged people in India, with Daarun Gupta, assistant commissioner of Assam Police CID’s cyber crime cell, reportedly saying the Indian government has taken up a ‘suo moto’ case holding National Report and the author of the story accountable. And Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, reportedly told a press conference: “This defiant act against the great people of India will not be tolerated. America has gone too far this time. This rape festival story is not funny whatsoever. The country of India is ending its diplomatic relations with the United States until we have received a sincere apology from President Barack Obama. The sacred country of India demands satisfaction!”

Meanwhile, a reprisal article from an Indian group titled “The Great American Mass Shooting Festival Begins Next Week”, also published in National Report, has also gone viral. The article, purportedly written from Glendale, Arizona, USA, said the annual Mass Shooting Festival provides the great American people an opportunity to exercise their God-given, and constitutionally protected, right to bear and use arms. It also claimed the organisers of the event, The Freedom Group, hoped for record participation this year, expecting more than 100,000 mass shootings during the week-long event.

“Now that many of the soldiers are back from Iraq and Afghanistan, we are expecting heightened participation. We have special Iraq and Afghanistan-themed shooting zones (we call them Enduring Freedom Zones) complete with women dressed in Burqa and children dressed in Kurta and Lungi,” Rice W. Means, the fictional chief organiser of the event, was quoted as saying.

For the records, the US has what have been referred to as “notoriously liberal gun control laws”. It has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world – an average of 88 per 100 people, according to a 2007 Small Arms Survey. America sees far more gun violence than countries in Europe, and Canada, India and Australia. When a person kills another in the US, though, he or she generally uses a gun: 60 percent of US homicides occur using a firearm, which is the 26th-highest rate in the world; whereas in other gun-permeated countries, such as Finland (45.3 guns per 100 people), only about 19 percent of homicides involve a firearm, according to reports.

Well, a first-time reader of the Rustling article would easily believe the rape festival story. Incidentally, there is nothing in the story that suggests it’s a satire. But Rustling would later tell CNN that the story was meant to raise awareness about the serious issue of rape in India while raising money for the women that live there. “Most women in India can’t get help or contact the police. If they get raped it shames their family, or the court finds that it was their fault because of the way they dressed, or they don’t believe in God hard enough, or there wasn’t enough witnesses, or they get stoned to death by reporting the rape. The list goes on and on. I can only imagine how many reported rapes there would actually be in India if they treated women like human beings, having the same rights as men, instead of objects that are married as slaves. Hopefully, my article is a wake-up call to them. Get tough on rape India, stop allowing men to do this, this is what most of the world thinks of you,” Rustling said.

But unlike Rustling, the author of the reprisal article stayed within the limits of propriety, making it clear that his was a satire. On the reason for the article, the author said: “I think American gun control laws should be tighter and taking cover behind the garb of the Second Amendment ain’t gonna cut it. I really do not understand why the average American needs any firearms, let alone automatics and snipers. Similarly, we Indians are ashamed of the crimes against women that happen in India, be it rapes or domestic violence or the general lack of freedom many women face in their daily lives. We want a change in mindset but that doesn’t happen in a day or week or even a year. It takes time.”

Obviously, the Rustling article, while it may have taken satire way too far, may have also achieved one positive thing: it has brought the issue of rape in India to public glare in a way never been done before. And National Report, which published the article, was magnanimous enough to include the link to Giveindia.org, a group that raises money and gives 90-95 percent of it directly to the cause of helping women in India, which provides them with proper education, shelter, food, help in getting out of abusive relationships, rape counselling, and much more. At the last count, the site has recorded over 2,000 visits.

So, whatever negative impact the article may have had on poor Assam, a state known for its beautiful wildlife sanctuaries, a place of hills and valleys and rivers and a great culture, there is also a positive side to it. For me, if Rustling could do a satire that would get to the root of Nigeria’s problem and get the people and government on their toes, thereby driving change for a better Nigeria, then let the ink flow.