To Be Launched on April 30, 2016, @ Mother of the Redeemer catholic Church Hall, Effuru, Delta State
Book Review Title: Nigeria: … And Our President Said: “I Don’t Give A Damn!”
Author: Efeturi Ojakaminor
Publishers: Edizioni Lanteri, Pinerolo (Italy)
Pages: 520
Reviewer: Rev. Fr. Francis Ikhianosime
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea.
Author: Efeturi Ojakaminor
The most famous photograph in the history of the American civil rights movements was taken May 3, 1963, by Bill Hudson, a photographer for the Associated Press. Hudson was in Birmingham, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr.’s activists had taken on the city’s racist public safety commissioner Eugene Bull Connor. The photo was of a teenage boy being attacked by a police dog, while the white police held the black boy to lean helplessly on the German shepherd’s snarling jaws of voracious attack. Till today, that photo has not lost its power of shock. For years, Martin Luther King and his army of civil rights activists had been fighting the thicket of racist laws and policies that blanketed the American South – the rules that made it hard or impossible for blacks to get jobs, vote, get a proper education, or even to use the same water fountain as a white person. Martin Luther King and his men, where frequently imprisoned. In fact, it was in one of his prison terms, precisely on April 16, 1963 that Martin Luther King Jr; the Southern Christian Leadership activist, wrote those profound opening words on marble in what is classically called “letter from Birmingham Jail”. A year later, the US Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of the United States. The Civil Rights Act, it has often been said, was “written in Birmingham.”
One of the Books by Rev. Fr. Efeturi Ejakaminor
Our gathering here today is to review a testament of civil right advocacy and the echo of a robust prophetic ministry by a veteran author and Catholic Clergyman who has chosen not to be silent in the face of hysterical evil and social maladjustments. The German Lutheran Pastor and anti-Nazi dissident; Dietrich Boenhoffer notes that “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu even puts it clearer: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. And because our brother, the author does not want to be silent for a wrong cause or choose the side of the oppressor, he has decided to exercise his prophetic ministry in writing. Like Prophet Isaiah before him who declared: “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch” (Isa 62:1); the author would not be silent till Nigeria is great again. Hear the author in his own words: “I will not be silent until Nigeria’s vindication shines forth as brightness and her rebirth as a burning torch, and all nations shall see her vindication. I engage in this kind of activity because Nigeria can and must be better” (p. 17). You can hear the verve and vigour, the energy and heartiness in his conviction, a rare brand of courage. “Zeal for Nigeria” has indeed consumed this uncommon patriot, just like zeal for God’s house made him a priest. We are here as part of a struggle for a better Nigeria, the kind of struggle that Martin Luther King fought that brought about the Civil Right Act and a better America. Once Nigeria story is being told, it would be said of the author, as one of those that spoke up when others were either silent or defended evil. The author has chosen to speak up as he has always done, as evident from his other works.
One of the Books by Rev. Fr. Efeturi Ejakaminor
The work under review is titled, Nigeria…and our President said: “I don’t give a damn!” it is authored by a first order analyst of Nigeria’s political situation, Efeturi Ojakaminor. He is the author of, a trilogy on President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Nigeria’s Ghana Must Go Republic: Happenings (2004), Aso Rock and the Sound of Silence (2007), Aso Rock and the Arrogance of Power (2007), amongst other published works. What Robert Bob Woodward, the American investigative journalist is to the American political history is what Efeturi Ojakaminor is to our Nigerian history. Efeturi Ojakaminor is a commentator and an analyst with a vast spectrum of information on different political dispensations. This work is a review of the immediate past administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. It is a text of 520 pages and it is published by Edizioni Lanteri, Pinerolo, Italy in 2015
Well into the second decade of uninterrupted democratic rule, the author examines how our democracy has fared under the Jonathan administration. The political exegesis of the author is to examine, in my appropriation, if Nigeria under the political administration is on the path of democratization. Democratization is arguably understood to mean the transition to a more political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system. The ideal result of democratization is to ensure that the people have the right to vote and have a voice in their political system. Thus, this book serves like a political barometer for testing the political growth under the immediate past administration.
“Nigeria…and Our President said: I don’t give a damn” is also evaluated against the backdrop of the personal profile of President Jonathan, who would go down in the annals of our history as the first president with a doctorate degree. Personality comes to play in the exercise of power. Thus, the high-spirited enthusiasm and gusto that ferried him to the corridors of power, was like both fate and fortune were at play in making him the proverbial “Good luck” Nigeria direly needed to salvage our sinking ship. The title however is suggestive of a case of botched hope, broken promises and the devalued legitimacy. Professor Ademolekun Ladipo Ademolekun, who is cited on the front page of this book has noted rightly too, that “Jonathan has devalued the legitimacy that brought him to power” The title suggests, to use, French Philosopher and Novelist, Julien Benda’s words, “the treason of the intellectuals”.
Far from being a satire on President Jonathan’s administration, “Nigeria…and Our President said: I don’t give a damn”, is a metaphor for political nonchalance of the elite, the indifference of our leaders and the loathing hypocrisy of bootlickers and others at the threshold of power. Thus, the book is not on President Jonathan as a person, but on his office and the period it occupied, key players during this period and those issues that cannot be left to silence once we recall the memories of the Jonathan years. This squares the expansiveness of this book. It spoke on the political isometrics of these players with pervading facts and a chronology that cannot be denied. The temerity of the facts is so stark that they can be regarded as “Inconvenient Truth”, to use Al Gore’s coinage. The author himself alludes to this: “I have this hunch that this may well turn out to be one that some persons would not wish to hear” (p. 1). He takes on the duty and obligation before every conscientious writer, to castigate ill and exalt truth. Chinua Achebe says of the writer “if a society is ill the writer has a responsibility to point it out. If the society is healthier, the writer’s job is different”. Understood in this context, one would appreciate the work before us.
One can arguably say, this work is a memoir of the Jonathan administration. It accommodates details of key events that struck sensitive cords on the populace during the six years of administration in what can be likened to the Jahilayyah period in Pre-Islamic Arabia. This period which was regarded as the ignorance of divine guidance, was markedly defined by unbridled freedom and abuse of law or lawlessness. This book thus, kept a sharp record and annotation from the finest of paper commentaries of issues like Aluu 4, Awo-Achebe civil war controversy was visited with rich details and like a detribalized umpire, made his impression which could be said to harness the truth of the different accounts, amongst others.
Again, political actors who were at play during the Jonathan administration were examined and their roles in governments. Notable was erstwhile president, Olusegun Obasanjo. “whose third term bid became a thud term” (c. p.52). In the Jonathan years, he was a political arm-twister and kingmaker that needed to be contended with. In the wittiness of this author, in evaluating, President Olusegun Obasanjo, he cites elaborately his polemic trilogy, “My Watch: Now and then” and makes a rejoinder to some of the issues raised and helped to raise issues that were omitted like Halliburton, Odi and Zaki-Biam. Chinua Achebe rightly noted of the task of a writer; “if you are not satisfied with a person’s history, write your own”, hence, his rejoinder. He also took on actors like the spurious then INEC arbitrator, Professor Maurice Iwu and his role in the travesty of justice; the perfidy of Aondoakaa, former Minister of Justice; the intellectual treason of Reuben Abati; Stella Oduah and her cult of automobile worship or car vanity, and many more.
Like every rich literary hermeneutics, “Nigeria…and Our President said: I don’t give a damn!”, develops through some salient themes. Prominently and intricately discussed is the theme of the hydra-headed conundrum of ethnicity. Ethnicity is at the bane of moral and social alienation we suffer. The ethnic malaise is such that issues and situations are evaluated on the altar of ethnicity and this for the most has distorted truth and histories. Ethnicity is so pervading that it has even infested some churchmen who should be bastions of truth. The author pathetically notes: ” By temperament and bent we are more often than not ethnic jingoist. What we condemn in others from rooftops we condone with enthusiasm when these are committed by anyone from our village” (p. 9). Unless, ethnicity is tamed, corruption cannot be handcuffed.
The theme of political trust is also well developed in this work. As a matter of fact, the President under review rose to power on the political capital of the people’s trust on him. Like it is almost consistent with Nigeria, her history and those of her leaders are those of failed promises. This betrayal of trust has led to broken hope of the people. Quoting Kole Omotosho, the author puts it finely, “Since 1960, Nigeria has gone from hope to faint hope to forlorn hope to hope against hope to hopelessness! Hope has become a rope around the people. They grope in search of a trope with which to understand the dope that the politicians are feed them. Can there be hope after so many failures?” (p.34 ) If the theme of political trust was breeched by the bid for a second term of seven years, the re-election bid after it was purportedly claimed that there was a signed agreement for a single term, the January 1, 2015 subsidy-saga, etc.
This work takes on also the theme of political values. It examines the quality of our political values and what moves people to seek political position. The author questions the quality of those who come to political office just to amass fortunes. He takes on the issue of commonsense in politics, what Senator Ben Murray Bruce has turned to his political moniker. This work addresses too the theme of social responsibility and sensibility on the part of those who govern. This is where; the author squarely takes on head-long politicians who did not show sensibility to the plight of the common man, those whose sweats and blood they rode on to their political positions. The issue of the Chibok girls, which is still a nightmare and an enigma, was one of such cases of insensibility. It was an issue initially handled with kid-gloves; from denial to suspicion, to inertia, the issue of the abduction of these girls were treated as though a propaganda. Hear what BBC Will Ross as cited by the author notes: “There cannot be many countries where the leaders stay as silent following such a tragedy. So far, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said more about the Chibok attack than Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan” (p. 372). The theme of political insensibility developed through many other instances that this book aptly choreographed. The case of Abba Moro’s ‘irresponsible responsibility’ to use the euphemism of the author (p. 382), the purported ostentatious pension law in Akwa-Ibom state (p.375) are just two cases in sight amongst others.
Again, the theme of media demonization is well treated in this work. The author with a rare vim of courage takes on how the public media has sometimes been used to a negative advantage and used to achieve political battles. The author adroitly calls this “partisan conspiracy and media charlatanism” (p. 411). In another place, from his rich literary prowess, he fittingly calls it “mercenary journalism” (p. 414). This seems to be the commonest media temptation that many journalists are susceptible to and this seems to cut short the vitality and relevance of some of our finest brains. Just, when one thinks that, we have a fearless writer who is on the side of the masses, he sooner or later falls prey to the dangling carrot of money bags and political impostors. Sooner, one finds such a writer becoming very cosmetic in his works and his tone changes in defence of their paymasters. This is literary perfidy and the worst sin a writer can commit; it leads to the imprisonment of creativity and truth. In his, The Trouble with Nigeria, literary titan, Chinua Achebe notes, “It is sufficient to state that whenever merit is set aside by prejudice of whatever origin, individual citizens as well as the nations itself are victimised”. The organised media lynching of Governor Mimiko is a case in point. The author exhaustively discussed this theme from pages 389-444 of this book. So far, in my reading of the author he is yet to suffer compromise. It was Chinua Achebe that said that “One of the truest tests of integrity is the blunt refusal to be compromised”. Our brother, the author is yet to eat any carrot and it is not any way in sight that he would eat any.
In what is expected of a work of this magnitude. The last of the 10 chapters in which he developed this work is devoted to the 2015 elections. This theme of 2015 elections as it were is an icing on the cake. In a very vivid way, it defended the title. “Nigeria…and Our President said: I don’t give a damn”. In the events that culminated in the 2015 elections, perhaps there is no other time in our electioneering history that we have witnessed the desperation, anxiety, gross neglect of morals and ethics, and indecorous politicking. The author, borrowing the words of Gbade Ogunwale notes that “it turned out to be the most reckless and unrestrained show of irreverence in election campaigns anywhere in the world” (p. 471). During these days, there were a lot of desecrations. Sam Omatseye of the Nation’s Newspaper calls it the desecration of the spiritual temple (Church) and the temporal temple (courts). Like many other times, those at the helms of affairs really did not give a damn.
Be that as it may, politics is more about the common good, “a vision of society where the good of each member is bound to the good of the whole. It is considered the raison d’etre of all politics; It means the good of all and the good of each” (p. 487). This is the last theme developed in this work by this fine author in his concluding pages. Using the tradition of the Catholic Social Doctrine, the author developed on what politics is meant to do. He helped to rebase the place of politics in the economy of things. This is why, Nigeria…and Our President said: I don’t give a damn!”, is not just a book, it is an idea. It is a motion against political inertia and offhandedness of the ruling class to the ruled. It is a motion against a leadership class that has decidedly opted for an incestuous relationship with greed and hedonism (p. 497). It is a response to the government, that if they don’t give a damn, we do give a damn as a people and we can speak up. The exclusivity of this book and idea is that it is being fronted by a Churchman. It only explains that we all have a role to play in what happens as a nation.
The impulse for this work is a common motivation for all well meaning Nigerian. The author seeks to rekindle the spirit for a better Nigeria in all. He says: “We must carry our fate in our hands. Despite all odds, we must work hard to surmount all the challenges- most of them self-inflicted- facing us as a people so that we can look at Nigeria with a sense of satisfaction and say there is a country and there always will be a country called Nigeria. We must be committed to the dream called Nigeria. We must not allow that dream to die” (p. 509). He says, we must borrow a leaf from Warri and begin to Say, Nigeria no dey carry last. Here, I would disagree with author slightly. For the Warri man, which I am also a breed of, it is about not coming last. But for the Lagosian, it is about coming first. I would rather make a merger. Take the undying spirit of warri not to come last and the dominating spirit of Lagos, to come first. Nigeria, I say, “we must always represent well.”
This book is apparently written to satiate the public demand for informed reports on governance and particular governments. The author has verve of dovetailing histories from the present to the past as if they are tied with a common cord. He makes a swift link that the younger generation can understand events of the far past with happenings of today so as to understand the future. He talked of past civil administrations and military juntas. Unlike other or most books of Nigeria’s political history, this book is not from any political bias or perspective set to warp some truths or score a point, it is an unbiased chronology and annotated rendition of historical narratives with an avalanche of the richest commentaries on such said issues across National Dailies and books. In fact, this book is dazzlingly extravagant with fascinating information in Nigeria, one you would not readily get from common political books. I wonder how the author was able to pool together these rich materials. In fact, for every student of history, this book is a vademecum, and for anyone who is a lover of Nigeria’s history or desires to know Nigeria, this book is a memento. This book is a tapestry of Nigeria’s history. It is a political memorabilia, a dossier of prophetic outrage and a non-political account of Nigeria’s historical antecedent, especially the Jonathan years. This is a must-read and a must-buy. I hope that this book helps set the pace for an enriching debate which benefits democratic experience, stretches its resilience and reaffirms the often ignored truism that we are all accountable to history. This book is in defence of our patriotism and that we do give a damn in what happens in our Nation and therefore it is a patriot’s delight.
I once again, congratulate the author for this courageous work, while enjoining all to be part of this success by promoting this work. I thank you all for listening. Thank you one, thank you all.
Rev. Fr. Francis, IKHIANOSIME
Reviewer.
