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PERCEPTOR: Six Questions on … the Presidential ‘vacation’.

February 4, 2009
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“By doubting we come to question, and by questioning, we perceive the truth.” - (Peter Abelard, 1079-1142)

The news that President Umaru Yar’Adua was to proceed on a two week vacation commencing on the 26th of January 2009 will have come as something of a surprise to those who – surveying the Naija landscape and noting the dire condition (either no progress at all or actual regression) of almost every area on the presidential seven point ‘agenda’ – had assumed that the vacation upon which the President appears to have embarked on the 30th of May 2007 had been interrupted by only about two weeks of actual work.   Still, it is not for us to know the workings of the mind of a ‘servant leader’, and in wishing the President ‘Happy Holiday’, Perceptor is looking forward to the ‘Wish You Were Here’ postcards that we expect servant leaders usually send from their holiday rest-spots.


Perceptor recognises that the main concern of those who live in the vicinity of Obudu Cattle Ranch, Dodan Barracks and Katsina, where President Yar’Adua plans to spend his ‘vacation’ are mostly concerned with the possible inconvenience, or the possible benefits that may be gained from his presence.  Will they have better power supply?  Or will all available power in the area be drained to service the presidential location in order to keep up the pretence for the ‘servant leader’ that his seven point ‘agenda’ is having an effect?  Will the roads be smoothed and improved?  Or will they be blocked all the time to stop unscreened elements from getting a glimpse of the servant leader?  Will there be abundant public water supply?  Or less?


But Perceptor always likes to rise above parochial mundane concerns, and in considering a few of the wider issues raised by this ‘vacation’ some questions naturally arise …

1.    Is there a point to the juvenile antics of the Presidency and the Presidential spokesperson on the alleged holiday?


It will be recalled that shortly before the announcement of the two week ‘holiday’, it had been reported by Sahara Reporters, Reuters and others, that President Yar’Adua was going on an extended leave in order to receive medical treatment.  When asked about these reports, Segun Adeniyi, the President’s Spokesperson, refused to confirm or deny them, saying ‘Papers can go ahead speculating on the health of Mr. President.  I won’t talk about it.’

    Perceptor wasn’t present at the press briefing, and so can’t testify as to whether Adeniyi actually stuck his tongue out and waggled his fingers, but honestly, Perceptor would advise – in the spirit of the Obama age – that they at Aso Rock should put away childish behaviour!  Of course, Adeniyi knew that Yar’Adua had already caught one fish – Leadership newspapers – over the question of his health, so perhaps he felt that his juvenile response would allow him to catch more fish, or at least, to get away with more whining about malicious publications at some later date.

2.    If the President is ‘on vacation’ and the Vice President is leading Nigeria’s delegation to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, who’s running the shop HERE?


Before we get to the knotty constitutional issue of whether the Vice President can lawfully act for the President, at least in the original announcement of the wretched vacation, the SGF did say that the VP would act for the President.  At which the VP promptly took himself off to Addis Ababa to put a spoke in the United States of Africa wheel but nonetheless join in appointing Muammar Ghadaffi of Libya as the AU Chair for the next year.  So while Jonathan is in Addis, and the President is … well, that’s another question actually … who’s running the shop back home?


    Perceptor is also rather surprised that the President declined to attend the Addis Ababa summit when he was originally billed to do so.  It makes Perceptor worry that the stories that Yar’Adua cannot undertake long air journeys (except perhaps in an air ambulance) might be true.  If only the servant leader were more transparent about these things!

3.    WHY is the President so reluctant to formally hand over to his VP by notifying the Senate of his vacation?

Although Perceptor just said that the issue was a knotty constitutional one, actually it isn’t.  It’s quite simple, except to those whose interpretation of what it means to uphold the rule of law differs from that of the bulk of humanity.  In his own statement on the issue, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, stated clearly and unequivocally as follows:
“His Excellency, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, will be proceeding on a two-week leave with effect from January, 26, 2009. While Mr. President is away on leave, all matters requiring his attention will be attended to by His Excellency, the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.”
Just as the nation was heaving a sigh of relief that AT LAST, for the first time in over a year and a half in office, and despite several overseas trips, the President was finally going to give his Vice President proper recognition by formally handing over to Goodluck Jonathan, the Presidential Spokesper’ got in on the act and obfuscatingly and equivocally dithered that the President would NOT hand over to the Vice President while he was on vacation, but that ‘it goes without saying that the Vice President will be in charge’.  It was at this bit of waffle that Perceptor’s eyebrows began to be raised.


    As it happens however, the issue of the Veep being ‘in charge’ not only does not go without saying: it apparently also goes without doing.  Since he became President, despite his extended hajj trip (Oh OK, the Saudis actually issued a statement that Yar’Adua came to their country to seek treatment, so I guess we can drop the ‘lesser hajj’ lie), vacations, sick leaves etc., the President has refused to formally hand over to his Vice President and send formal notification to the National Assembly as expected by section 145 of the Constitution.  WHY?  What is he afraid of?  Or he just rode to power on the VP’s doctoral back and now wants to behave like any other politician who imagines that he did it all by himself and doesn’t want to see the face of anybody who might remind him otherwise?  What is he afraid of?

4.    So where exactly is the President?  At Obudu, they are ‘still expecting’ him.  He doesn’t seem to have arrived at Dodan Barracks.  Has he perhaps gone to Katsina?


The practice of most newspapers in the country – reporting that ‘The President has told a meeting of the African Union’, or, ‘Yar’Adua calls for reform of the education sector’ etc. and only later in the story giving the game away with ‘In a speech delivered on his behalf by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’ (or whoever it might be) – tends to obscure the fact that the President is saying or doing very little, unless we are to count marrying off his daughters (it being the main obligation that a good Muslim man owes to his daughters: to marry them to another good  Muslim) to sundry sitting and already much-married state governors as a full time occupation.


he irritating hide-and-seek game that the ‘servant leader’ is playing with his subjects is exacerbated by frequent sightings of his spokesper’ at Aso Rock, aforesaid spokesper’ having declared that he would be close to the President throughout his two-week leave.  If he hasn’t actually gone on vacation but is really holed up in ‘The Villa’, kini big deal?  It’s called a ‘staycation’ chaps!

5.    What is the purpose of this holiday?


Perceptor is afraid that the usual mantra of Yar’Adua’s being entitled to take a vacation just won’t do.  It’s like the ‘he’s a human being’ excuse for telling lies about his health.  Fortunately, in the case of the presidential vacation, we have the reason (which he described as ‘normal’) from the presidential spokesper. 

According to Adeniyi:
‘When he comes back, he will be fully charged to deliver on his promises to Nigerians.’
But hang on … wasn’t it the favourable (to the servant leader at least) outcome of the presidential election petition at the Supreme Court last December that was supposed to have (at that time anyway) freed him to deliver on his promises? 
Perceptor is confused.

6.    Is a servant leader nose being cut off to spite some media and ordinary citizen faces?

Look, if our servant leader is in fact ill, is in fact in need of medical or even surgical treatment, is it really so important to score schoolboy points off those who predicted that he would be going away for surgery by refusing to go for such treatment?  Perceptor means: How dumb would that be?

On the one hand …


… we have Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, exercising his Constitutional powers to release some persons who had been convicted of various offences – including even one who had been sentenced to death.

On the other hand…

… we have Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State, displaying some unconstitutional tendencies to be a bully and a tyrant while at the same time trampling on the Constitutional right to freedom of expression by having Shuaibu Bakari arrested and locked up for ‘embarrassing’ him at a public function.  What did the poor young man do?  When the Governor was praising himself for projects allegedly completed by his administration, Bakari shouted out in Hausa: It is not true!  It is not true!’  He was immediately arrested by the Governor’s security people and thrown into jail.  That was on the 16th of December 2008.  Even when the wretched Bakari was arraigned before a Magistrate’s court, the nasty, vindictive governor was not done with him, as the prosecution opposed bail, thereby denying Bakari the opportunity of taking up his place to study for a diploma at the Centre for Continuing Education.

Perceptor would have thought that rather than having the chap locked up, the Governor would have made time to find out WHY Bakari was challenging his account of his wonderful deeds.  He might have found out that contrary to what he might have been told, the projects were in fact not executed, or were not executed properly.  What is sure is that he has now insulated himself from the genuine feelings of the people whose governor he is supposed to be.


According to reports in The Guardian, while some condemned Governor Suntai, others felt that Bakari ought not to have publicly challenged him.  It is because of attitudes like the latter that Perceptor is forced to the depressing conclusion that the freedom train will have an uphill journey to reach any station in Nigeria, let alone carry passengers to the promised land.

But with the ‘servant leader’ himself displaying intolerance over things that people might say about him, and bizarrely, through his spokesperson, Segun Adeniyi, attributing it to ‘malice’ (honestly, Perceptor wishes Naija leaders and followers would spend less time brooding over ‘enemies’ and just get on with the job), with this example from President Yar’Adua, it isn’t surprising that others engage in abuse of office without any shame!

Nor is it limited to elected officials.  Look at the wicked behaviour of the members of the Court Martial headed by Brig. General Ishaya Bauku, which got annoyed because counsel to soldiers accused of mutiny (i.e. demanding, rather than begging, for their just entitlements) stood his ground, instead of meekly accepting the court martial’s attempt to exclude evidence of its own bias that had been reported in the press.  After blocking every attempt to introduce the newspaper where he was reported as having threatened that the accused persons would be ‘severely dealt with’, the members walked out after adjourning the case for six months, during which the accused persons would remain in custody!

Nigeria’s rulers are jostling to associate themselves with the Barack Obama phenomenon.  But Obama is the product of the US electorate – US citizens.  Whereas our rulers want citizens who keep quiet when they do the wrong thing!

If it Looks like a Duck …


Nearly everything that needed to be said about Nigeria’s astonishing decision to hand half a million United States dollars of our money to the Government of Myanmar in cash has been said by The Guardian in its excellent editorial on the subject a few days ago.  When Naija sidestepped the established channels and avoided the established relief operation for the victims of the typhoon and opted instead to make a direct donation of cash that it will be impossible to monitor, to a stone-hearted junta whose only concern (and Perceptor does mean ONLY concern) is the well-being of its members and their families and friends, well, if it looks like a br…

So Perceptor will just be content with noting that the circumstances surrounding the donation (allegedly for the relief of typhoon victims) will make it difficult to ascribe any ‘breakthrough’ by the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative to Myanmar, our own Dr. Ibrahim Gambari, in his negotiations with the self-regarding junta in that country, such as the release of Nobel Laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi (or even just allowing her some visitors) to nothing more than Dr. Gambari’s superior negotiating skills …

Much Ado About … Fuel Price Reduction


Perceptor refuses to get excited about the reduction in the pump price of petrol from N70 per litre to N65 per litre.  Although the Federal Government now claims that the reduction has nothing to do with de-regulation, it seems to Perceptor that for a rather cheap price (no price at all in fact, given the collapse of oil prices on the international markets) the Yar’Adua administration has laid the ground for future increases in the pump price.  The price is either stabilised, or it is not.  It’s a shame that the labour unions are not thinking ahead on this one.  Or haven’t they heard the expression ‘réculer pour mieux sauter’?  To draw back (by about N5?) in order to make a longer jump …

More Oba-naija-ma-mania


Perceptor hates to be a party pooper … actually, that’s not true.  Perceptor is perfectly happy to be a party pooper in a good cause.  Perceptor is actually delighted for the people of the United States and their new President, Barack Obama.


But Perceptor can’t help looking at things from Perceptor’s own peculiar Naija perspective.  So once again, Perceptor is a BIT TIRED of all these brother Africans (and they are nearly all brothers, I’m afraid) wittering on about the first ‘African-American’ President, and scrambling for places at ‘the inauguration’.  Perhaps it’s because just as when it comes to which is superior between men and women, Perceptor has never really got the point about those who think that one is superior between black and white.  Human beings come in all sizes, shapes and abilities.  But do all those Naija legislators (and their counterparts from across the continent) hustling to stand next to Obama because he is an African understand that they practice worse discrimination against women?  Apart from the fact that they are products of a system that would have done its level best to exclude an Obama, Perceptor doesn’t see Barack Obama, a Kenyan-American (if one must affix a label to him) as representative of all black people, or all Africans.  He’s an American, and while Perceptor’s joy at his inauguration is at least 30% composed of relief that George W. Bush is at last off the stage, Perceptor doesn’t expect that he’s going to turn his presidency into one that benefits the rest of the world at the expense of America and its allies. Whereas, if we’re honest, that’s what we need.

Listening to President Barack Obama’s inaugural speech, as he listed the qualities that make the United States great, he talked about those qualities in the citizens of the country - from the willingness to sacrifice a few hours of work to allow others to keep their jobs, parents to commit to raising their children.  Perceptor can find all those qualities in our own country.  So what’s wrong?

In the Spirit of ‘Aunty’ Dora


Any readers who were able to struggle through to the end of Perceptor 9 will know that this is the part of the blog where we try to accentuate the positive.  Er …  Unfortunately, before Perceptor could deliver a rousing ‘Hear Hear!’ to the Honourable Minister for Information’s admonition on the occasion of the free eye surgery organised by the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation and the Garki Hospital in Abuja that Nigerians should stop condemning every action of the government, especially about health, came the news that Nigeria is the only country in Africa that is still battling polio, and that it was actually transmitting the disease to other countries.  Half of the 2,000 cases in the world last year were in Nigeria!  Perceptor was just regrouping from this blow when the news came that a Nigerian Governor had died while receiving treatment in an overseas hospital!

Perceptor promises to search harder before the next blog.  There MUST be something out there.  But it will probably be a good idea not to look for it in the Health sector.  So sorry Aunty Dora …

 

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