And Four Other Things…
If I had my way, I would delete that aspect of the constitution which says defecting lawmakers can only retain their seats if their party is factionalised. It is a waste of ink. Nigerian lawmakers will always defect. What does it take to start a faction? Just gather a few of your associates, announce that you are now nPDP or rAPC, name a new chairman and head to the court. That is crisis. I think the law should say you will lose/retain your seat under any circumstance. That will save us the drama of seasonal orchestrated crisis as prelude to jumping ship. Defection is Nigeria’s contribution to democracy. In 2022, there will certainly be defections ahead of 2023 polls. Predictable.
There seems to be a new attention to the Apapa ports deadlock. Trailers have made life unbearable for other road users. It appears we have now reached the highest point ever, with queues extending to as far as Ikorodu Road all the way from Apapa. The colonial masters that built the ports created a massive trailer park. We sold it. They also created a rail link from the ports to Iddo terminal so that goods could be evacuated by cargo train. We watched it rot away. Any surprise that we are now paying the price for decades of mismanagement and poor planning? The federal government must declare an emergency. Repair must be priority. Life cannot go on like this. Disastrous.
When the former inspector-general of police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, died recently, I remembered something. In 1998, I went to Abuja (along with my THISDAY colleague Miss Chika Nwoko, now Mrs Amanze-Nwachuku) to interview him. The force PRO then, Mr. Young Arabame, requested for a questionnaire. Because of my anger over human rights abuses under Gen. Sani Abacha, I drafted very antagonistic questions. Chika and I were at the force headquarters for two days unable to interview Coomassie! Arabame, now deceased, later taught me a lesson in Journalism 101: you cannot hope to get an interview with such acidic questions sent in advance. Tactless.
South Sudan has a population of 12.2 million, out of which 7.1 million are classified by the World Food Programme (WFP) as being at risk of “severe food insecurity”. But the country’s politicians cannot be bothered — President Salva Kiir has just approved the purchase of $61 million worth of cars for the legislators, apparently as a “thank you” gesture to them two weeks after they extended his tenure by three years under a state of emergency. The country has been fighting a new civil war since it bitterly broke away from Sudan in 2011. In response to public criticism, a presidential spokesman asked if the MPs should be using motorbikes. Africa.