By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo | NNP | August 21, 2012 -

By this statement, he was alluding to the fact that Nigerians bring so much excitement and exhilaration to our global and collective existence through their acts, ingenuity, inventions (good or bad) and of course, intellectual prowess. Nothing, indeed, could be truer as I recently observed at a well-attended Nigerian party in downtown Toronto one more of such inventions alluded to by my Malawian colleague; the spraying of U.S. dollars at parties known in Nigerian parlance as Owambe. This is a little wonder, especially, when Canada has its own currency that at times surpasses the U.S. dollar in value and most times equals it.

As the music rambunctiously rented the air at this party convened to celebrate the 50^th birthday of a Nigerian icon and philanthropist, I began to wonder why Nigerians (in Canada) were spraying in U.S. dollars, an act that could be well considered as an affront to the sovereignty of Canada by well-meaning and patriotic Canadians who rather prefer their own currency sprayed on their own soil. One after the other, Nigerians, decked in their Sunday’s best marching in assorted gaits to the dance floor came to lavish their wealth on this icon and his wife that were dancing rhythmically to several tantalizing Nigerian tunes of yester-years.

Some came with the famed Ghana-must-go bags overflowing with U.S. dollars to demonstrate their love, admiration and appreciation for the celebrant. As the macabre show of materialism flourished in its purest form unabated with teenage girls bending ceaselessly in uncoordinated chase of (sprayed) dollars at the feet of merry-makers, I came to the understanding that the reason for the spraying of U.S. dollars in Canada borders more on the cheapness of Nigerians than on the mistaken belief that spraying in U.S. dollars accords one prestige, a higher status and class.  

What do I mean by this; it all has to do with the denominations of the currencies of both countries. In the U.S., the smallest paper currency is one dollar and this means if one sprays twenty times with one dollar bill, that person has only spent $20, whereas, if that some person were to spray in Canadian dollars whose smallest paper currency is $5, it would mean he would spend 100 Canadian dollars which is equivalent to 100 U.S. dollars, plus/minus a few cents.

Evidently, Nigerians in Canada are wise, concealing their astute cheapness under the camouflage of spraying in the ‘esteemed’ U.S. dollars; from now on, celebrants in Canada must insist to be sprayed multiple times in Canadian dollars and that indeed will be the moment of truth as many would be unable to indulge in such frivolities with a minimum ‘spraying’ currency of $5.

Most Nigerians under such circumstances can only afford to spray twice, perhaps thrice and by the time they are about to pull out the fourth $5 bill to spray, their minds will wonder to the electric, car, mortgage and assorted bills that await them at home.

Our culture of Owambe belies a far greater cultural and sociological malady plaguing our society and could very well be the catalyst for the moral paucity that has eaten deep into our collective fabric. In this part of the world, most Nigerians live beyond their means unable to afford the homes they live in and the cars that are parked in the garages of those homes. To many, their material image is more valuable than sound financial planning for their families.

I remember a Nigerian gentleman who bought a brand new “S” class Mercedes Benz worth about $80,000, since many of his Nigerian contemporaries in the U.S. city where he lived were driving such highly priced cars. He felt the need to “belong”; to be seen as doing well in life and a Benz, he concluded, would fit the bill and tell his story of success and material conquest.

Unfortunately, death came calling shortly after he bought the vehicle and in the process of according him a befitting burial, it became public knowledge that he had not planned well for his family in such eventualities. With no life insurance and other financial planning expected of a man of “S” Class caliber, the Nigerian community had no choice but to bear the cost of his funeral and to attend to his family financially. At the end, when the financial expenses tipped the scale, the “S” Class had to be sold off. Of what use then?

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Dr. Alalibo is a political scientist, author and a political commentator on Nigerian affairs.

By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo | NNP | May 28, 2012

At a time when the country is experiencing one of its darkest moments with all manner of security challenges, deaths and destruction of innocent lives and properties, the like of Buhari, rather than parleying with the security forces and the president to find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram menace as a true national figure and statesman has instead chosen this moment to heighten tension and cast wanton aspersions on the duly elected president. By warning three years ahead that there would be bloodsheds and “dogs and baboons” will be soaked in blood if the 2015 presidential elections are rigged is apocalyptic as it is an ominous indication of a man freighted with undemocratic propensities and wont. This is simply treasonable.

Without holding brief for President Jonathan or his administration, it is often said those that live in glass houses should not throw stones. Buhari, being a tenant in a glass house against this wise stipulation has been throwing stones without regards to his own indelible fallibilities, gross misconduct and scurrilous duplicity while in office. From all indications, it is clear that the former dictator is a man obsessed with violence and scatological tendencies; a man with blood on his hands as evidenced in the murder (or shall we say execution) in 1985 of three southerners on a law enacted well after they had committed their drug offences. Sometimes, I wonder if Buhari is endowed with sane deposition as his words, deeds and actions betray a man amply conflicted, torn mercilessly asunder by competing demons.

It’s unequivocal that Buhari was behind the violence that rocked parts of the north following his third failed bid to govern Nigeria; an event that claimed numerous lives including those of Youth Corpers sent to further the course of democracy. Even his reactions and public utterances in the wake of the violence betrayed his culpability only offering a feeble and hypocritical appeal for calm just to deflect criticisms. It will be recalled that in the days leading to the 2011 presidential elections, Buhari encouraged his supporters in the north to “lynch” anyone that tinkered with the results of the presidential elections. Evidently, every word that emanates from his lips is reflective of violence, death and mayhem; reconciliation and civility are not in the lexicon of this dictator. As a former head of state and a respected voice in the north, he couldn’t use his influence to advise his supporters to seek legal redress in the event of rigging, he had to, as per his nature, incite violence and death. Hear him in his own words: “you should never leave polling centres until votes are counted and the winner declared and you should lynch anybody that tries to tinker with the votes.”

Perhaps, his obsession to rule Nigeria which was truncated by his own hand-picked generals in August of 1985 is edged in his firm belief that only the north has monopoly on power, thus, the ascension to power by Jonathan, an irrelevant Ijaw fisherman is an abnormality, an aberration and a sure infringement on the inalienable rights of members of the northern oligarchy that are born to rule Nigeria. The disgraced dictator is bent on achieving this by any means necessary including violence, cajoling, reckless and irresponsible pontifications and what have you. It will be further recalled that only a few years ago, he was caught on the microphone in Sokoto telling his supporters to only vote for those that would uphold their religion, in other words, implying that they should only vote for Muslims.  

In the same vein, it is also noteworthy that Buhari only campaigned in the north in the last presidential elections effectively annihilating half of the country and injecting ethnic and religious coloration into the electoral process, but yet he expected to govern the entirety of Nigeria if he had been elected. In light of the aforementioned, it is therefore not an erroneous summation that Buhari is the consummate tribalist in the checkered political history of this country and an unrepentant religious bigot. As Head of State, we remember all too well his administration’s anti-Christian policies. While he refused to grant building permits to churches across the country, Muslims were granted permits to build Mosques across the country willy-nilly. Until today, he remains the only leader, military or civilian, Christian or Muslim, southerner or northerner to appoint a vice of the same religion and from the same region in the person of the late Tunde Idiagbon from Kwara State.

To think that this is a man that wants to govern the entirety of Nigeria is laughable and makes an utter mockery of our democratic system. He claims that the 2011 presidential elections were rigged against the contrary proclamations of the local and international election monitoring teams. Agreeing for a moment for the sake of argument that the elections were rigged, does he expect to win the presidency with his sectarian approach even if the elections were free and fair? Who in his sane mind will vote for an avouched jihadist to be president of secular Nigeria?  It is equally laughable and outright farcical to hear Buhari accuse President Jonathan of appointing his Ijaw kinsmen to choice ministerial positions when the north has held political power for thirty-eight out of fifty years of independence and during this time, it was common knowledge that the south in spite of being the bread basket of the nation and its economic engine was amply marginalized. 

Nowhere was this any more evident than in his lopsided choice of cabinet members during his twenty months in Dodan Barracks. Out of sixteen cabinet positions that included the Chief of Staff (vice president), only six were southerners, well less than 50% of the cabinet for a region that equaled the north in population, if not more. While he held sway, most of the juicy and coveted cabinet positions were entrusted to his northern and/or Muslim protégés. For example, Domkat Bali was head of the defense ministry, the powerful Abuja ministry was in the hands of the late Mamman Vatsa, both the key internal and foreign affairs ministries were headed by northerners in the persons of Mohammed Magoro and Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. The communication and trade ministries were headed by then Lt. Col A. Abdullahi and Mahmud Tukur respectively while the powerful transportation and education ministries went to Abdullahi Ibrahim and Yarima Ibrahim respectively.

The problem with Buhari is the fact that he has an over-inflated sense of his own importance. In his ignorance and arrogance, he has dared the duly elected president of the federal republic of Nigeria twice to arrest him. What he has failed to realize is the fact if he is arrested, nothing will happen, absolutely nothing will happen. Far more influential and well-heeled personalities in Nigeria have been arrested, imprisoned and some even murdered and nothing happened, the heavens did not come down and Nigeria did not seize to exist.  Buhari was in the country when his senior in the army and a former military vice president from a wealthy family with political pedigree, Maj-Gen. Musa Shehu Yar’Adua, the elder brother of the late president was arrested, imprisoned and poisoned in an Ebonyi jail and nothing happened.  Buhari was also in the country when a former president with far more goodwill and popularity in the eyes of the international community in the person of Obasanjo was imprisoned and almost murdered by Abacha, nothing happened. In the last few years, many, including former influential governors and even a former Inspector-General of Police had been arrested and sentenced to imprisonment and nothing happened. If Buhari is arrested and imprisoned for his treasonable avouchment nothing will happen, absolutely nothing. By throwing the gauntlet to the president of the country, he is placing himself above all laws, above board and untouchable as a privileged member of the northern oligarchy, exactly the characteristics Nigerians want in a man that seeks the highest office.

The likes of Buhari must know that there will be no justice except there is political equity in the country and an acceptance of the glaring fact that the south and Christians have equal and bona fide right to the leadership of the country. When the north was at the helm for forty years out of fifty years of independence; neither Buhari nor the northern governors complained of injustice even when it was (and still is) evident that northern leaders (not Jonathan) were the very ones that impoverished the north. If Jonathan elects to run for re-election in 2015, he is so empowered by the constitution as a Nigerian and nothing will happen.

General Buhari must be warned not to incite violence with his irresponsible and unguarded pontifications. It is unsettling that at the age of 70, when most of his peers have since consigned their efforts to spending time with their grandchildren and assuming an envied statesmanship posture, Buhari, amply fanning the ember of discord still seeks to become president against all odds. Invariably, if violence consumes the country in 2015 as a result of his incitement, Nigerians and the international community, including the International Court of Justice,  should know exactly who to hold responsible.

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Dr. Alalibo is a political scientist, author and a frequent commentator on this site on Nigerian politics

By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo, NNP, March 15, 2012 –

The case of South Africa becomes intriguingly irksome given the fraternal relationship both countries have shared predicated on the enormous sacrifice of Nigeria and her citizens to unleash it from the perilous claws of apartheid. Then, Nigeria committed huge resources to finance the African National Congress (ANC) in its costly fight against apartheid. At the height of the rogue apartheid regime in Pretoria when the minority white racist government refused ANC operatives and their children to attend South African universities, it was Nigeria, not Ghana, Cameroon or Zimbabwe which offered to train those South Africans at the Universities of Ibadan and Ife, two of Nigeria’s elite universities at the expense of the Nigerian taxpayer. It was Nigeria that offered 300 ANC operatives Nigerian passports to enable them canvass the world to seek support when the white minority government refused or revoked their passports. Nigeria, even risked its membership at the Commonwealth in a face-off with Britain over South Africa and Nigerian leaders displaying rare bravery, went a step further to boycott the Commonwealth games in a certain year as a stern protest against Britain in its lukewarm disposition towards the suffering of the South African blacks.  

Since independence in 1994, however, South Africa has sought with jealous ferocity to unseat Nigeria as the perceived giant of Africa. For whatever reason, it has demonstrated severally to Abuja and indeed the rest of the continent that there is another power to be reckoned with, a new kid on the block. This was evident most recently when the Pretoria government blasted the Jonathan administration for siding with the USA, France and Britain in calling for the late Libyan despot to step down in the interest of peace. South Africa dismissed Nigeria as a Western stooge and called its actions un-African. In spite of this undeserving pontification against a sister nation, Nigeria appeared to have won this battle given the inevitable demise of the Libyan strongman and the eventual recognition of the National Transition Council (NTC) by the AU against the wishes of Pretoria.  Again, the clash of egos, rivalry and competition between the two African giants spiraled to the fore at the recent AU meeting of Heads of States in the Ethiopian capital. Nigeria had a golden opportunity to avenge the excesses of South Africa when it blocked a move by its president, Jacob Zuma, to have one of his wives or women chair an AU committee. Abuja won this battle with a majority of the African states siding with Nigeria.

Floored too many times on the African stage by its arch rival, Pretoria sought to embarrass Nigeria with this latest well calibrated diplomatic recklessness that had little to do with yellow fever cards and more with settling old scores. From all viable indications, the Abuja government has the right to be indignant given the investment in human and financial capital to free South Africa from the throes of racism. It has a right to expect a modicum of respect and not to be preyed upon in such disparaging manner. If indeed, the yellow fever cards were invalid, as claimed, there are stipulated international standards and accepted norms of addressing such lapses than to dabble in whole scale deportation of 125 nationals of a sister nation including a high-ranking senator. The deportation of the senator is at the core of this row and a driver for Nigeria’s knee-jerk reaction as it appeared that South Africa had touched the lion’s tail and must be punished. Such reaction, thus, can be viewed not from the prism of national interest or a genuine concern for its citizens, but from that of self-preservation reeking immensely of spurious intensions. How else do we explain the stark silence of the same Abuja government that was so enlivened by the South African deportations of its citizens at the recent deportations of 120 Nigerians from UK just a few days after the saga with South Africa? In spite of its rambunctious proclamation of a tit-for-tat diplomacy moving forward, nothing has been heard from Abuja and this clearly underscores the point that its reaction to South Africa was self-serving, egotistic, selective and grossly unconnected with the welfare of the common Nigerian.

Surely, the argument can be made that South Africa was emboldened by the Nigerian political elites to ignore diplomatic niceties in such an impetuous manner. Many of our leaders, in spite of the violent crimes in South Africa and its high HIV/AIDS infection rate still prefer it, over Nigeria, as an investment destination. Many of the Nigerian political elites own exorbitant properties in Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban and other choice South African cities. Of late, Nigerian elites have been sending their wards to South African universities that compete favorably with Western universities. This is in addition to the countless so-called medical vacations Nigerian politicians and elites take to South Africa spending enormous sums to boast that country’s healthcare sector and economy. The attraction to South Africa is vested in its robust economy, infrastructures and institutions that readily dwarf those in Nigeria. South Africa with a strong economy is a major hub for manufacturing; South Africans enjoy constant electricity and basic amenities that continue to be a rarity in Nigeria. World institutions such as FIFA have since reckoned this by rewarding South Africa with the 2010 World Cup while Nigeria, an independent nation for 51 years, continues to host inconsequential junior world tournaments that pale in comparison. Nigerian leaders, in all their rage and noise-making could not have taken this tit-for-tat diplomacy too far with the knowledge that it may very well threaten their own vast investments in South Africa and hinder their ability to travel to that country to advance their personal interests.

South Africa on the other hand is also mindful of its high dividend yielding investments in Nigeria and will not exacerbate this recklessness any further than necessary, thus, its hurried capitulation. It stands to suffer great economic loss if Nigeria were to scrutinize how it flaunts immigration expatriate quotas by bringing in half-baked South African graduates with inferior mental acumen to supervise highly qualified Nigerians. In a country where jobs are scarce, it behooves us as to why the Nigerian government would overlook such egregious violations of its immigration laws by nationals of another African country. South Africans come in on visitor’s visa and once in the country begin working for one of their major companies that engage in profitable business in Nigeria such as MTN and Shoprite, this is a well-known fact and the Abuja government has chosen to ignore such bold-faced affront on its sovereignty. Meanwhile, in South Africa, Nigerians are deported daily for immigration violations and at the slightest provocation. They are intimidated daily by the police authorities and even recently, the South African police mustered the effrontery to defiled diplomatic protocol by invading the Nigerian embassy and accosting the Nigerian security guards. It would never dish out such treatment to the American embassy without risking its wrath, so why the Nigerian embassy?

South Africa, a society amply drunk with corruption of its own, burdened with the yoke of HIV/AIDS infections of almost half of its adult population and awash in violent crimes such as rapes and murders cannot claim the high moral ground to engage in sanctimonious entreaties vis-à-vis Nigeria. Yes, some Nigerians are corrupt and they must be dealt with according to the dictates of the law of the land, but such cannot constitute the basis for the overt revulsion of Nigerians in South Africa. The truth is, South Africans, like other Africans, are threatened by the Nigerian enterprising spirit and ability to succeed no matter the circumstances they find themselves. They are threatened by their unparalleled intellectual sagacity and the obvious natural reaction is to wallow in defamation. Generally lacking in education, skills and training in large due to the lingering effects of apartheid, the Nigerian in their midst presents a real threat on a number of fronts. Thus, many black South Africans who have bared their fangs against Nigerians and have exhibited acute xenophobia as we saw in 2008 when many foreigners were murdered in cold blood do so as a measure of self-preservation. It is noteworthy that the unwholesome contempt for Nigerians in South Africa led to the early demise of one of its favorite sons, reggae icon, Lucky Dube. Gunned downed at the age of 43 on October 18, 2007 in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville, his killers, intending to hijack his Chrysler 300 car, mistook him for a Nigerian.

Apology or not, Nigeria must discard its big brother disposition and begin to reassess its relations with African countries with inimical inklings towards its citizens. The Abuja government must disabuse itself of its guile diplomatic posture and dig deep to excavate ways to be proactive, to serve as a stern reminder to those countries that take delight in maltreating Nigerians. If Nigeria wants to be respected on the global stage, if it wants to be reckoned with as a giant in the continent, if it truly wants African countries to pay it its dues, the time is now to get it right by making the boldest statement on the diplomatic front that Nigerians all around the globe must be treated with dignity and their human rights respected. This resolve must be backed with meaningful and far-reaching actions that would truly signal the beginning of a new diplomatic era for Nigerians.

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Dr. Alalibo is a professor of political science, an author and a frequent commentator on Nigerian politics.

Pastor David Oyedepo slapping a teenager girl at his church

By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo, NNP, Dec. 21. 2011 –  I was disturbed to see the video tape that has gone viral making the rounds on Youtube and the internet of a well-known Nigerian preacher in the person of Bishop David Oyedepo, the General Overseer of the Living Faith World Outreach Ministries, aka, Winners Chapel assaulting a seemingly subjugated and utterly helpless mere teenager girl at his altar. The scene appeared to be a crusade-like environment where young girls had been dutifully and meticulously arranged by forerunners to kneel before the flamboyant pastor and confess their involvement in witchcraft. The assault (See Youtube video to the middle right of this screen) which manifested in the form of an unexpected and simmering slap was predicated on the poor teenager’s blunt refusal to be tagged a ‘witch’, but instead declaring that “She is a witch for Jesus.” Irked by this bold deviation from the script that ruined matters for him and rebuking her that “Jesus has no witches”, the Bishop unloaded the weight of his forehand on her left cheek and strutted authoritatively down the row of young girls that had been cowed into submission by that slapping act to illicit further confessions.

I have heard of the blatant excesses of some Nigerian pastors but never did I expect this sort of revulsive, abhorrent and unreservedly undesirable conduct from a man of Bishop Oyedepo’s elevated height and exposure. In plain terms this hinges on the criminality of child abuse and should be consigned with sheer vigor and vehemence to the corridors of repugnance. There is no place in the Kingdom of God for such unkindness [to a child] that hardly uplifts the body of Christ. We must admit no matter what denominational badge we adorn that this is not what Christianity represents, a faith predicated on the premise of love, grace, mercy and compassion for the less fortunate. Were it otherwise, Bishop Oyedepo and the billions of other professing Christians around the world would be lurching eternally in object debauchery and turpitude unworthy of the saving kindness of God.  This is why it is imperative no less a moral mandate for every Christian to stand against such indignity directed at a defenseless child that ought to be loved no matter where and who perpetrates it.  

There was no basis for Bishop Oyedepo to showcase his might on a helpless teenage girl who had come to seek the intervention of the Lord in her life or coerced to do so without the benefit of full disclosure. Though she may have erred in her claims, if at all, the moment was perfect for the Bishop to demonstrate the love of Christ, to offer innate compassion and succor. As a child, the Bishop should have at the very least, assumed a father figure, taken her in as a father would his daughter and counseled her. With the glare of the cameras and a full congregation as witness, there couldn’t have been a better opportunity for the pastor and his men to demonstrate the power of Christ and His dominion over the devil by casting out the demons of witchcraft which they claimed she had. This is what is expected of men of God who should fly above such vulgarities even in the face of disparaging confabulations against our Lord Jesus Christ not to inflict pain and emotional trauma while basking in judgmental pontifications, a trend that now appears to be common with many Nigerian preachers. The Bible says in Luke 18: 16 - “But Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

The Bishop’s action demonstrates not only the tempestuous environment men of God have to dwell in, but most importantly their susceptibility to the trappings of carnality, of the flesh and their daily struggles to overcome. Bishops are not God, they can never be God, they sin, they flatter, they err, that is why it is imperative for Christians not to lose sight of the essence. In this instance, the Bishop was consumed by rage, with a disappointedly penchant need to stamp his eminence and reclaim the “tainted” image of Christ orchestrated by this teenage girl through violence. The salient issues evident in this case are instructive for all Christians not to repose their faith in man, not even in men of God but in God who transcends all earthly urgings. The Bible says in Psalm 56:11 “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.”

What Pastor Oyedepo in his rage may not have realized is that his adverse and inimical reaction to the girl’s statement may have indeed proven to be counterproductive and driven her to the abyss of dejection, disbelief, antagonizing her against the kingdom. The cardinal no less pertinent question we should be asking is – what would have been the reaction of Jesus had this teenager girl made the same statement to Him? There are abundant examples in the Bible where Jesus was confronted with seemingly blasphemous utterances and yet never resorted to violence. Even at his crucifixion where the prevailing anthem was hate and blasphemy, our Lord Jesus found it in his heart to say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34.

Why then are some Nigerian pastors, especially of the Pentecostal variety so sultry and in most instances tyrannical when dealing with members of their congregation? Most of them have welled up a cult following, with their utterances instantly becoming law with no tolerance for divergence. They hold their congregation with seething disdain and in some cases regarding them as non-entity only appreciating the proceeds of their pockets as those go to sustain their larger-than-life existence that are abundantly manifest in offensively glowing mansions in choice cities around the world and private jets. It is worth noting that the Pope, the leader of more than two billion Catholics and unmistakably the richest denomination in all of religion does not have a private jet appended to his exalted office, he flies around in a leased Alitalia plane. But leave it up to Nigerian pastors to defile the simplicity of their calling to ‘bring down the roof.’

What continues to baffle me is the fact that for some of these flamboyant pastors, it is no longer about Christ, even their personal lives are filled with assorted irregularities invariably conjuring a poor reflection of the gospel they preach. They may have started with good intentions, led by the spirit in time past, but somewhere in the voyage they lost their spiritual sprite and are now motivated by the flesh, masters in their unsurpassed sagacity to oppress and extract that which they desire from their congregation in the name of religion.

I watched a documentary a few weeks ago about a Nigerian Pentecostal pastor whose love for fast cars and villas could not be hidden. At a young age and just pastoring for about five years, he had amassed exotic cars in excesses of $10 million, he rides about in Lagos with a cadre of security guards in yellow Hummers (his favorite color) forgetting all along the promise of the Lord in Psalms 23:4, “Even thou I walk in the shadow of valley of death and I shall fear no evil.” For what reason would a man of God need armed security guards when the Bible says that “The Lord is my fortress…”eclipses my faculties.

The likes of Pastor Oyedepo should not be embroiled in a scandal laced with the filaments of impropriety to impugn his reputation. The man is smart, intelligent with an astute business sense that has served him well in the material sense. He is the richest pastor in Nigeria estimated to be worth well over $150 million with a vast business empire that transverses the expansive landscape of the African continent even to North America where Winners Chapel edifices are popping up in urban cities. The founder of Faith Academy, an elite secondary school, Covenant University, one of the best private universities in Nigeria and with a string of churches all across the globe, Oyedepo has no doubt done well for himself, establishing his family and those around him on a solid financial footing. He is the first Nigerian pastor to own a private jet, at latest count he has four, boasting of one of Africa’s largest congregations, the Faith Tabernacle where he is said to hosts three services each Sunday with comfortable seating for 50,000. He owns homes in London and the United States and a fledging publication outfit, Dominion Publishing House, where he churns out books that promulgate the gospel of prosperity. That is why it is confounding that a pastor of such unimaginable caliber would be part of this craze to label children as witches in a bid to accentuate his profile.

The attitude of today’s Pentecostalism and some pentecostal preachers invokes the urgent need for a deep reflection and soul-searching on the seriously outmoded patriarchal disposition of Nigerians who are often quick to ascribe despotic powers to leaders without instituting the necessary checks and balances that ensure equity in civil society. There is also need for a deeper understanding of the Bible and its message of salvation which appears to have been amply lost on some of today’s modern day prosperity-preaching Nigerian pastors and their congregation that does not see the merit of sousing aplenty in the fundamental teachings of the Bible but rather receive eagerly with both hands every wind of doctrine and interpretations that come their way. The sad truth is, most of them simply lack the biblical knowledge and understanding which is not attained in the halls of theology schools but by constantly communing with the Holy Spirit and seeking its guidance and wisdom. Regrettably, this is no longer possible for some Nigerian preachers as the spirit has since departed their shores leading them to improvise relying on their academic knowledge of the Bible.

No matter the spin, the sugar-coating and interpretations, Pastor Oyedepo’s behavior was simply inappropriate, a clear affront on Christianity and all that it stands for. In light of this revelation, the pastor should admit his lapse in judgment and make appropriate amends. And such will not diminish him in any way; rather, it will affirm his strong sense of leadership and purpose earning him applause in civilized circles. When the American preacher, Rev. Jimmy Swaggart frolicked with a prostitute in 1988 and was exposed, he came outright without mincing words and uttered in public the now famous sentence, “I Have Sinned.” I believe it would not be far-fetched to state that such public declaration of imperfection will never be associated with a Nigerian leader who does not believe in his fallibility. It depresses me to state that African leaders be it in politics or religion are vastly clueless of the concept of leadership and what it means to be a leader; the evidence is clear in the emphatic mess called Nigeria and in the abundant confusion attending Christendom of the Nigerian variety. Leadership means servitude, consultation, compassion, vision and principle, in plain terms, it means rolling it up and getting dirty. Nigerian religious and political leaders, however, have redefined the entire concept to appropriate themselves a tin-god status, untouchable and incorrigible. A man who cannot be corrected no matter the level of education or achievements is a man doomed.  Our elders say, “a fly without an adviser follows the corpse to the grave.”

And there are those Nigerian preachers that cannot decide if their calling is to serve God or to be in politics. I am one of the proponents of Christians getting involved in politics, it is good for our country that God-fearing men and women are in positions of leadership and authority to lead the country aright. But when a man (or woman) is called by God and anointed to be His servant on earth, that man must consecrate every ounce of energy in fulfilling this mandate. In my humble opinion, there is no higher calling than to serve the Almighty God on earth in the capacity of the priesthood. Yet some famous Nigerian preachers take this divine responsibility with levity, ever so cavalierly calling into question their claims of divine calling.

In tamed societies like Canada, United States, UK and others, Oyedepo’s impropriety would be a basis for arrest and prosecution for assault and abuse of a child leading to an urgent review of activities of churches and their proprietors. The sheer complicity of the Nigerian populace and congregation in condoning this perfidy or aiding and abetting it at the very least remains a source of grave concern and underscores the inherent attitudinal flaws and fault line of a society so fascinated with the concept of ‘bigman-ism”. At the instance of the assault, there were loud cheers and spontaneous shouts of Hallelujah when the congregation should have been remorseful at this undesirable treatment of a girl. The video revealed that even the men who stood behind the pastor did nothing to intervene since the victim was a non-entity and a persona non grata. There is certainly an aberration in the rapacious philosophy that children can be used and manipulated to achieve fame and notoriety; when this happens, it is often an indication of spiritual paucity and the dearth of substance.

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Dr. Alalibo is an American educated political scientist, professor and a frequent commentator on this site. He is author of three books, co-author of one and several scholarly publications.

By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo, NNP – Sept. 26, 2011

As I inspected the list closely, I was further horrified and no less infuriated to find that a certain never before heard of university in Somalia, Mogadishu University was named well before any universities in Nigeria. Thinking this must be either an expensive joke or a serious typo as it was virtually impossible for any university in Somalia to eclipse even a secondary school in a Nigerian village not to mention university, I rushed online in search of Mogadishu University and to my surprise found a flourishing university. My depression deepened when I further learned that universities in relatively poorer countries such as Kenya, Zimbabwe and once war-torn Mozambique all claimed bragging rights over Nigerian universities that produced the likes of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize laureate, Chinua Achebe, the most prolific writer in modern literature, Chika Obi of the two-thirds of nineteen fame and many more that have taken the world of science and arts by storm. With all due respect these were countries that once ate freely from the palm of our hands, countries submerged in a medley of social and political albatross that have invariably mastered the art of educational excellence to be so reckoned in the top percentile of the ranking at our expense.  

What is intriguing about the ranking of Mogadishu University over all Nigerian universities is the fact that in spite of wanton death, hunger, anarchy and chaos that have attended that country since the departure of its president Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, it managed to maintain a university worthy of the top thirty honours in Africa at the 29^th position, three positions above the first named Nigerian university – Ibadan. Here is a country that has not known peace in twenty one years with no functional ministry of education or minister but yet managed to best Nigerian universities. It might be useful for our minister of education and the administrators in the educational sector to rush to Mogadushi University and learn how they have managed to maintain excellence in such reckless society. I suggest that the trip should be kept silent to avoid further shame and opprobium, they should learn silently and return to Nigeria under the cover of darkness to re-enact the honourable feat of Mogadushi Univeristy.  

In all these, I could not help but begin to ponder the dwindling and dissipating fortunes of Nigerian universities and by extension post-secondary education in the country. Though I am not a product of any Nigerian university having studied in America and given the antecedent I have to be grateful for this fact, I began to think of the better days long gone when Nigerian universities were the cream of the crop in Africa and scholars from all walks of Africa and indeed the world flocked to Nigeria to partake jealously in the cesspool of the Nigerian academic rigor. With scholars who trained in the US, UK and elsewhere and eminent professors like Tam David-West, Tekena Tamuno, ex VC of University of Ibadan, FMA Ukoli (RIP), Professor of Zoology at the University of Ibadan and first VC of Delta State University at Abraka, Claude Ake (RIP), my mentor and professor of political science at the University of Port-Harcourt, Grace Alele-Williams the first female VC of any Nigerian university, of University of Benin, Prof. Tolu Odugbemi, recently retired VC of University of Lagos, currently VC of Ondo State University of Science and Tech, a well renowned medical doctor and capped academician, Jubril Aminu, Ibrahim Gambari and a host of others, Nigerian university education was the envy not only of Africa but the world. These scholars and educators put Nigerian education on the map with their endless affinity for excellence, research and scholarship.

Then, a degree from any Nigerian university could be easily recognized in the US, Canada and European countries. In fact, I remember well how the US and British universities were competing furiously for the Nigerian graduate to pursue graduate studies in their countries. They offered scholarships and grants to ensure that they recruited the best Nigerian universities had to offer. When I arrived in the US for my university education, I met some of those students who were heavily recruited by American universities. And interesting enough, most of them graduated with high honours in the hard sciences and one in particular was immediately recruited by NASA, the American space agency designing space rockets and what have you.

But these days, depressing enough, the antithesis is very well the case. Nigerian universities are stigmatized and blacklisted and foreign universities are shying away from admitting the Nigerian graduate. Any degree and transcript from a Nigerian university is immediately suspect and put through a series of verification processes. Even after such processes are successfully completed, the student is still questioned periodically about his academic experience in Nigeria to ensure that his degree is legitimate. Recently, a Nigerian immigrant forwarded his resume to me to assess and provide feedback on how he could improve his job opportunities. As I reviewed it, I noticed that in spite of earning a doctorate from a prominent Nigerian university, the gentleman deliberately omitted the name of the institution on his resume. When I inquired, he indicated that most employers would not consider his candidacy should they realize that he graduated from a Nigerian university as Nigerian degrees are now generally known around the world as “STDs” , that is, ‘Sexually Transmitted Degrees.’

What is even more disappointing is the unequivocal trend of the dearth of quality of the Nigerian graduate. As a professor having taught some graduates from Nigerian universities who managed to make it to this part of the world to further their studies, I am left to ponder the abject mediocrity that now pervades the Nigerian educational system at all levels. We have graduates that cannot put together a sentence without causing colossal damage to the Queen’s language and many more are devoid of critical thinking abilities, skills set and logical composition that were taken for granted in time past.

Nigerian students these days I hear are even going to Ghana and South Africa for university education when these countries (especially, Ghana) once depended on Nigerian intellectuals and scholars to develop their tertiary institutions. I recently visited the campus of a top Nigerian university and was aptly surprised at the level of infrastructural dilapidation, hardly anything functioned at that university and the computers in the labs were as old as the university and the shelves at the library abundantly naked with grossly outdated books. It was evident that the university had been overrun by unrepentant thugs, gangs, cult members and pimp daddies who were well complimented by student prostitutes. With such alarming conditions, are we surprised then that Mogadishu University had consigned the reputation of our universities to the dustbin?

The current tribe of Nigerian professors in Nigerian universities with no scruples nor a modicum of integrity has compounded this problem with their incessant demands for sexual favours from female students in exchange for passing grades. They have thrown to the wind the tenets of scholarship that once defined the Nigerian educational landscape and remain the vanguard of academic excellence in most parts of the world. In this regard, a female student can ‘sleep’ her way through her university education and earn a degree in ‘sexciology’, a discipline that is not recognized in any part of the world and this means she would wade her way through life’s challenges deficient and utterly incompetent. Some, I hear go as far as hiring someone to attend classes and take exams on their behalf and ultimately, the degree would go to the one that hardly stepped foot in the classroom.

In spite of the billions of naira spent on post secondary institutions in the country, we cannot compete with the likes of the Mogadishu University and there lies the paradox that aptly captures the decadence of the Nigerian educational institutions. The problem therefore remains the quality of the administrators in the country, I mean those that run the educational system are themselves novices with no clue of how to ensure a functional system that would produce graduates to meet the challenges of the 21^st century. This is our national challenge!

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Dr. Alalibo is an American educated  political scientist, professor and a frequent commentator on this site. He is author of three books and several scholarly publications.

“Top 100 Universities and Colleges in Africa Top 100 Universities and Colleges in Africa by the 4icu.org University Web Ranking:

1 University of Cape Town South Africa
2 Cairo University Egypt
3 University of Pretoria South Africa
4 Universiteit Stellenbosch South Africa
5 University of the Witwatersrand South Africa
6 University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
7 University of South Africa South Africa
8 The American University in Cairo Egypt
9 Mansoura University Egypt
10 University of the Western Cape South Africa
11 Makerere University Uganda
12 Rhodes University South Africa
13 University of Johannesburg South Africa
14 University of Nairobi Kenya
15 University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania
16 Cape Peninsula University of Technology South Africa
17 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University South Africa
18 University of Botswana Botswana
19 University of Ghana Ghana
20 Helwan University Egypt
21 Ain Shams University Egypt
22 Université Cadi Ayyad Morocco
23 University of Khartoum Sudan
24 Tshwane University of Technology South Africa
25 Al Akhawayn University Morocco
26 Addis Ababa University Ethiopia
27 Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Mozambique
28 Université Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal
29 Mogadishu University Somalia
30 University of Namibia Namibia
31 University of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe
32 University of Ibadan Nigeria
33 Polytechnic of Namibia Namibia
34 University of Ilorin Nigeria
35 Zagazig University Egypt
36 Assiut University Egypt
37 North-West University South Africa
38 Université Mentouri de Constantine Algeria
39 Presbyterian University College Ghana
40 University of Benin Nigeria
41 Universiteit van die Vrystaat South Africa
42 Kenyatta University Kenya
43 Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediène Algeria
44 Obafemi Awolowo University Nigeria
45 Université de la Reunion Reunion
46 Sudan University for Science and Technology Sudan
47 Strathmore University Kenya
48 The Hubert Kairuki Memorial University Tanzania
49 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Ghana
50 United States International University Kenya
51 Université Abdelmalek Essadi Morocco
52 Tanta University Egypt
53 The German University in Cairo Egypt
54 Université de Batna Algeria
55 Université d’Alger Algeria
56 South Valley University Egypt
57 Menoufia University Egypt
58 Al Azhar University Egypt
59 Université Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen Algeria
60 University of Mauritius Mauritius
61 Central University of Technology South Africa
62 Ahmadu Bello University Nigeria
63 Université Hassan II – Aïn Chock Morocco
64 Université Hassan II – Mohammedia Morocco
65 Université Mohammed V – Souissi Morocco
66 Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Kenya
67 Durban University of Technology South Africa
68 Université Ibn Tofail Morocco
69 University of Zambia Zambia
70 University of Jos Nigeria
71 Université Abdelhamid Ibn Badis Mostaganem Algeria
72 Université M’hamed Bouguerra de Boumerdes Algeria
73 Nile University Egypt
74 University of Education,Winneba Ghana
75 International University of Africa Sudan
76 University of Fort Hare South Africa
77 Université Mohammed V – Agdal Morocco
78 University of Limpopo South Africa
79 Uganda Christian University Uganda
80 Vaal University of Technology South Africa
81 Université Hassan Ier Morocco
82 Université Saad Dahlab Blida Algeria
83 Walter Sisulu University South Africa
84 Moi University Kenya
85 Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah Fés Morocco
86 MISR University for Sience and Technology Egypt
87 Université d’Antananarivo Madagascar
88 October 6 University Egypt
89 École Nationale Polytechnique Algeria
90 Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Mohamed Boudiaf d’Oran Algeria
91 Egerton University Kenya
92 Université Mouloud Maameri de Tizi Ouzou Algeria
93 Université Djillali Liabes Algeria
94 University of Cape Coast Ghana
95 Université d’Oran Algeria
96 University of Garyounis Libya
97 National University of Rwanda Rwanda
98 Université de Ouagadougou Burkina Faso
99 University of Zulu land South Africa
100 Kigali Institute of Science and Technology Rwanda”

Source: 4icu.org University Web Ranking:

In Nigerian churches these days, the primary focus of salvation which is the cornerstone of the Christian faith has been jettisoned for the more fashionable gospel of prosperity, the mantra is the four ‘Ms’ of “Money, Money and More Money” and this has become the motivation to orchestrate an intractable web of deceit to pull members into their fold. It is no surprise that this topic resides permanently on the lips of these pastors as it appears to be their ticket to prosperity. Most of them except for those (may God bless and prosper them) that are still true to their calling and remain pious and dutiful in the face of rampant avarice have stopped preaching the “fire and brimstone” gospel in order not to offend the ‘big donors’. They now preach about prosperity, they say “Our God is not a poor God”, therefore, one must amass all the wealth in the world and by all means. During my stay in Nigeria, none of the churches I attended warned of the consequences of sin and disobedience to God which is exactly the problem with Nigeria, rather, they all preached the “feel good” gospel of prosperity and blessings; and to think that these were once churches that preached the sound gospel of Christ belies the perilous times in which we live. They have all been sucked into this money-making mentality, the church is now seen as a mint, a cash cow for these pastors to lead extravagant lifestyles that are in stark contrast to those led by their congregants.

There is something fundamentally wrong with this picture and even the Bible states it clearly in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” But these pastors are not concerned with this injunction, they are not concerned about the righteousness of His kingdom, they draw hefty salaries, drive expensive cars such as the Bentley, Hummers and the finest the automobile industries around the world have to offer while members of their congregation can barely afford three square meals. This is unconscionable and an aberration of the word of God. The Bible assures in Deuteronomy 32:4,“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” Therefore, it remains inconceivable that the just God would be selective in his blessings and bless the pastor while his congregation lingers. But that is the exact situation in most of these churches where the car park is filled with worn-out motor bikes while the pastor drives a Hummer or Bentley; while a majority of the congregation lives in slums with no in-door plumbing with weird and unsightly creatures as neighbors, the pastor lives in opulence in the finest architectural edifice. What is even more worrisome is the fact that these pastors do not see it necessary to have the true calling (or anointing, if you will) of God to become stewards of His words. They do not feel the need to be trained and soused properly in His word through the formal educational mediums that those before had taken.  These days, the pastorate appears to be a means to en end, an answer to the high unemployment that is ravaging our country and that is why they often speak uninspired words because the anointing is glaringly lacking.

I witnessed some of these pastors prey on the vulnerabilities of their members most of whom were severely burdened by one spiritual ailment or material obstacle seeking relief through divine intervention. The victims were mostly young women seeking husbands or those with husbands seeking the fruit of the womb and young couples in search of  financial breakthroughs in a country so corrupt that some Christians have to constantly bribe their way through society and pray for forgiveness afterwards, and next minute repeat the same feat. Regrettably, some young Christian sisters appear to have forgotten the rudimentary tenets of the Bible as they easily succumb to such pastors even in sinful endeavors. When a pastor asks a young married sister with difficulties having children to see him alone (without her husband) in remote locations and at ungodly hours it is often a sign of impending impropriety. But this happens so often in some Nigerian churches and some members with warped mentality follow such pastors sheepishly even to their deaths as witnessed in the case of Rev. Chukwuemeka King who has been sentenced to death for setting some members on fire, killing a young lady in the process.

 With the swelling number of churches in Nigeria and Lagos in particular where every nook and corner appears to have a church tucked in, one has to wonder why Nigeria has remained one of the most sinful and corrupt countries on earth; it ought to be the country that serves as the prelude to heaven. We hold endless prayer meetings, prayer conferences, riotous crusades and night vigils yet Nigeria, our beloved country, continues its free fall into the abyss with seemingly no hope of restoration. Could it be that sin and the abundant pretentiousness that is permeating Nigeria’s Christendom is serving as a buffer between Nigerian Christians and God?  The Bible notes in Proverbs 14:34  – “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” It is impossible for God in His righteousness to coexist with sin and that underscores the essence of our spiritual malfeasance as a nation; until this cloak of ostentation-ism is dispelled and Nigerian Christians begin to reclaim their faith from the false prophets all efforts might just end up in futility.

To complicate matters, it is now commonplace for some Nigerian pastors to combine their pastoral duties with politics. What greater calling can a man (women) have than to be a servant of the most high and why taint such divine responsible with the solecism and vulgarism of politics of the Nigerian variety for that matter. The Bible notes that our God is a jealous God and does not fancy divided loyalties. In Exodus 34:13, he warns – “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” As we know, in Nigeria, politics has become an intoxicant, a god in its right and anyone that pursues it must bow to its dictates and tow its crooked path. To keep us away from such duplicity and betrayal, God offers additional warning in Matthew 6”24 – “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” While it is our collective responsibility to serve our country, it is a higher honor to serve God in the capacity of the priesthood, but some Nigerian pastors of today appear to have other lucrative ideas that could only be self-serving and seen as incongruent to the divine manifesto.

Some of them now perambulate as tin gods in their congregation – they appropriate themselves titles that even our Lord Jesus, the chief evangelist of all times could not appropriate to himself while he served His father on earth for thirty-three years. Nowadays, they take on the title of CEO (as though churches were corporations) and I understand one has called himself the ‘president’ of his church. They travel in bullet proof cars with the most able bodied men in the land as their security forgetting all along the promise of God in Proverbs 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

These days, the competition among the pastors is fierce and they trip over one another in self-glorification and aggrandizement. They no longer measure success by the number of souls they have led to Christ but by the number of fancy cars and mansions (in Lekki and London, most likely) they have; by how big their churches are and the size and cost of their private jets. All of these supported by tithe money and offerings from the faithful congregants most of whom are deprived of any form of financial transparency and accountability. I was told the other day that a Nigerian church had introduced the idea of the “thirteenth” month where members would pay tithe for a phantom month evidently to support the imprudent lifestyle of the pastor…such brilliance!

With all these worldly distractions, it will be difficult to know if the Nigerian church is still about Christ or canality has taken a stronghold. Is Christ still the “front and center” or has He been relegated to the back and replaced with money, fame and ego? Let every Nigerian Christian beware that not all that call the name of the Lord shall enter the kingdom.  Some of these pastors have abandoned their true calling for the thrills of the flesh and some never had the calling but have mastered the art of acting on the pulpit. The Bible states in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” It further notes in Matthew 22:14 that “many are called but few are chosen.” Indeed!

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Dr. Alalibo is a political scientist, a frequent commentator on this site and author of books and several scholarly publications.

By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo – NNP – July 4, 2011 –

And what then is the import of this that I, a bonafide and proud green passport carrying Nigerian of Ijaw extraction, a Christian from the great oil rich Niger Delta, the enviable south-south cannot become Minister of Abuja in spite of my fine American education and my expansive professional career that spans through international organizations and the corridors of the finest educational institutions in North America.  I am very curious in finding out where in the 1999 Constitution it is written that no southerner can be the Minister of Abuja. Is there a suggestion that only northerners of the Islamic faith are competent to run the Abuja Ministry which by the way is one of the most powerful ministries in the land along with defence, foreign affairs, petroleum and interior? If the answer is no, how then do we explain the utter lack of southerners at the zenith of the ministry’s hierarchy in the last thirty-one years since it was established?  This discriminatory trend is unconstitutional, unwholesome, unethical and makes complete mockery of the campaign for one Nigeria. There ought not to be sacred offices for specific ethnic groups in our polity, what qualifies the Mallam Nasir el Rufais of our land to be honoured with such a title while the same eludes well qualified Nigerians from the south like yours truly and thousands of others who are ready to best the performance of any of the previous ministers.  The constitution specifies that to be a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria, one has to be a Nigerian, with no criminal record, adult and of sound mind. I do not see where it says one has to be a Muslim from the core north.

Ministers of Abuja from 1979 – Present

It is evident that even southern presidents in the persons of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan were/are powerless and unable to thwart this ugly trend. In eight years in office, Obasanjo never appointed a southerner or a Christian to that position in spite of the fact that he was and still is a southerner and by his own confession “a born-again Christian” – his ministers were Mr. Ibrahim Bonu (1999-2001), Mr. Muhammed Abba Gana (2001-2003) and Mallam Nasir el Rufai (2003-2007), all jolly northerners. And Jonathan clearly lacks the guts or rather the effrontery to jettison this fallacious domination even though his current Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Elder Orubebe, from Delta pleaded to be appointed the Minister of Abuja. Rather than granting this able request and departing from the unjust and callous offerings of the past, Jonathan succumbed to pressure and appointed Mr. Muhammed Bala even when it is clear that Orubebe is better suited to run the nation’s capital.

This utterly nonsensical disposition belies the albatross that is Nigeria and the sheer hypocrisy of the concept of one Nigeria. The fact that Abuja is based in the north central part of the country does not in any way exclude patriotic Nigerians who have toiled and labored for their country to enjoy the perks of the top job at the Abuja Ministry. By now, it is common knowledge that the likes of Mr. Adamu Ciroma, Atiku, Babangida and Mr. Muhammadu Buhari masterminds of the “Born to Rule” theory have brought in no small measure untold pressure on Jonathan not to break with tradition in his appointment of the Minister of Abuja.  They are the same persons that have succeeded in appropriating the plum ministries to their kith and kin to the detriment of other equally worthy stakeholders in the Nigerian project. It is no wonder then that the South-West and South-South-East are livid with Jonathan on his ministerial appointments to key ministries that appear to have eluded those regions.

And what is worse is the alarming fact that since 1979, thirty-one years and counting, and through fourteen male ministers, not even a northern Muslim woman has been appointed to that position let alone a Christian woman from the south.  Not Shehu Shagari and certainly not Jonathan has seen it fit to appoint an able woman in this age where even avid conservative Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh have since elected women as heads of state and a male dominated country such as India has also elected a woman in the person of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister, but for Nigeria which is yet to realize the wisdom of women (such as Okonjo-Iweala) and their invaluable contributions to national development.

Jonathan should rise above the fray and mount the podium of justice and equity, opening all ministerial positions to any and all qualified Nigerians in the interest of democracy and national development. In this day and age and in the face of technological challenges and globalization that transcend international boundaries, we cannot afford to exclude anyone from any position due to geo-political and religious considerations. I am challenging Jonathan to prove to all Nigerians and indeed the international community that he is a fair and equitable president and should demonstrate this by appointing a southern Christian as the Minister of Abuja…and Mr. President, may I state in no uncertain terms, without reckless equivocation, that I am ready to serve.

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Dr. Alalibo is a political scientist, a frequent commentator on this site and author of books and several scholarly publications.

Prince Williams Kissing his Bride, Kate

April 29th, has rolled into the annals of British royal history as the day when the future King of England, Prince Williams, walked the aisles to marry his heartthrob for the past ten years, commoner Kate Middleton. The occasion was graceful as expected of any such royal undertaking, abundantly pregnant with pump and assorted pageantry and attended by almost two thousand guests from all walks of human endeavor with an additional one billion in TV viewership around the globe. But in the midst of the nuptial festivities of the century one has to wonder which criteria the Queen applied in selecting who was invited and who was left out in the sumptuous celebrations that heralded a new beginning for the late Princess Diana’s offspring.  With only about two thousand in attendance, it meant that the Queen who had the sole responsibility of determining who got invited had to make the conscious decision to exclude some very prominent citizens of the world.

Unfortunately, the exclusion list included President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, two former British PMs, the Pope and a host of others. What troubles the mind is the utterly questionable characters of some of the well-heeled personalities that were invited to grace the occasion such as the sex-craved king of tiny Swaziland currently with thirteen wives most of whom are teenagers. And  could you imagine that the likes of Robert Mugabe, the brutal dictator, murderer of thousands was invited and had to be represented by his ambassador to Britain? Even Gadaffi’s representative to Britain, the ambassador was invited but that invitation had to be quickly rescinded in light of the inauspicious developments in Libya. Even some of the Saudi royals, the custodians of the holiest places of Islam, were invited to witness the formalization of love, but they somehow politely excused themselves for fear of being accused of attending a Christian ceremony where the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ would be invoked on the young couple.

But perhaps, the most alarming of all was the reasons given by Buckingham Palace for not inviting the President-elect and sitting president of the largest Black Country in the world and the second largest Commonwealth country after ‘explosive’ India, Nigeria. Palace protocol officers were secretly worried that an invitation to Jonathan would have presented untold challenges to the planning process and they were particularly concerned about the dreaded “Nigerian factor” that would immediately come into play. An invitation to Jonathan, therefore, would have drastically increased at least by 20 percent the list of invitees as Jonathan would have travelled with the entire cadre of Bayelsa chiefs of all grades most of whom had never stepped foot outside the muddy creeks of their domain.

The chiefs in turn would have brought their wives, girlfriends, babies’ mothers, a tribe of personal assistants, pounded yam cooking chefs, teeth brushers, eye glass cleaners, shoe polishers, general errrand boys, brief case holders, make-up artists, their barbers, pastors, maids, second and third wives and would-be lovers (even political thugs and MEND militants would be sneaked in to help rig the upcoming British elections) all of whom would have found their way into the presidential jet en route to London. Given the peculiarities of the occasion that was laced with the best of Elizabethan traditions, palace protocol officers were deeply concerned that Jonathan’s cowboy hat or popularly known in the local parlance as the ‘resource control hat’ and his Niger Delta “atebo” outfit with the gold links on the chest would have been grossly out of place, sticking out like an offensive thumb. There was also a very serious security and health concern lodged by the mobile phone industry in Britain that the towering and sharp headgears of the ladies (including our First Lady, Madam Patience) that would have joined the president would have  jammed cell phone signals and the sharp pointed sword-like edges would have been capable of inflicting permanent damage to invited guests.

In addition to the cadre of assorted Bayelsa chiefs that would have been part of the entourage, politicians from Abuja and across the states would have joined the president on this unique trip on the same (one) invitation. British security officials estimated that all the ministers (senior and junior, including permanent secretaries) 24 out of the 36 governors would have joined the president and some would have used the opportunity to siphon public funds into Britain not to mention the inordinate amount of estacodes each one of these governors and senators would have claimed further impoverishing the Nigerian state. Somehow, there was also the concern that the occasion that was billed for 11 a.m. London time, would have started much later as the Nigerian entourage would have arrived Heathrow Airport quite late (as usual) and make their noisy entrance into the church singing as they settle into their pew “He has done for me…what my mama cannot do he has done for me…”

Jonathan’s fate in this regard was further sealed when the complaint was lodged by the caterers of the wedding ceremony that they would not be able to find ingredients for amala, kpof-kpof, accra roro, bitterleaf soup with stock-fish and egusi soup that would have been demanded by the Nigerian entourage. And as though that were not enough, there were heightened concerns that some of the senators on the trip would ‘corner’ Kate Middleton’s younger sisters during the reception not to mention the beautiful bride maids promising them trips to Obudu Cattle Ranch in Tinapa (Cross River) and heaven forbid from the British point of view for an African, a bloody Nigerian politician for that matter to be connected to the royal family through possible marriage. Above all these, there was a bigger concern – the invitation that would have been sent to President Jonathan (knowing the 419 innovation of our people) would have somehow found its way to eBay being sold to the highest bidder and that would have seriously compromised the security of the ceremony.

By Dr. Phil Tam-Al Alalibo – NNP – April 23, 2011 –

This was an election that was supervised by the most incompetent of them all;  INEC Chairman Maurice Iwu, an election that was bankrolled by a criminal namely James Ibori who has finally been caught by the long arm of the law for money laundering and faces the possibility of a long jail sentence in the UK. If their motives are pure and borne out of a genuine concern for parity and equity, the mind wonders why we did not witness similar protests against the fraudulent election results that ushered Yar’Adua into power in 2007.  And I might say that Buhari is aiding and abating the violence in the north – all through the carnage, the killing and maiming on his behalf, the man was not emphatic in his call to the youth to put an immediate end to the senseless violence that targeted Christians and their places of worship.

I submit that Buhari was tacitly in support of the violence and may have even sponsored it and this my friends, amply underscores his acute lack of democratic credentials and his level of political maturity and intolerance.  The problem with Buhari is that he believes the presidency belongs to his kind, the northern oligarchy that has dominated the political landscape of Nigeria since God was a child. In spite of the changing times and demographics, with a majority Christian population, Buhari and the likes of Adamu Ciroma and the so-called ‘consensus candidate group’ remain soused in their ancient and grossly antiquated proclivity still expecting the presidency to be handed to them as the rightful owners of Nigeria. This was held in even greater expectation for Gen. Buhari in this election since his kinsman, the late president Yar’Adua, was from Katsina, he had hoped to carry the northern torch to continue where his kinsman left off. In all these, Nigerians will like to know why Buhari continues to chase the presidency since 1999 when democracy was re-introduced? What does he really want in Aso Rock? The man is 68 years old, a time when most men are winding down and preparing for or are already in a life of retirement, but this man continue to spend every waking moment insisting that he must rule democratic Nigeria.

It is evident that this Daura, Katsina native cannot win a free and fair election in Nigeria even if his opponent is a Christian pentecostal goat from the south. He remains an Islamic fundamentalist, a jihadist of extreme inclinations, and we have not forgotten his utterances which were well pitted against the so-called infidels and his attempt to introduce Islam as the state religion when he held sway from 1983-85.  During this time, Buhari refused building permits for churches across the country while mosques were springing up willy-nilly. It was only a few years ago he urged Moslems in a speech in Sokoto to vote only those that can protect their faith and the import of this statement was hardly lost on the keen observer. What has faith got to do with politics and why should a man who intends to govern a country such as Nigeria with diverse political and religion interests be concerned with faith and make it a pre-requisite for office?

The hypocrisy of Buhari is all the more evident and in fact alarmingly perturbing when we take a closer look at his military career.  We should be reminded that this man who has been running for the presidency in the last 12 years has yet to submit himself to the law for prosecution for overthrowing a duly elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in December 1983 and for executing Nigerians on a retroactive drug law. Not even in chaotic and governless Somalia or in Taliban controlled parts of lawless Afghanistan do they execute offenders on retroactive laws, and this once again exposes the primordial mindset of this retired Major-General, a man who wants to govern a great country like Nigeria that produced Nobel prize winning Wole Soyinka, Achebe, the sage and countless scholars of immense reckoning. In his time at Dodan Barracks, and this is very interesting my friends, Buhari remained the only Head of State or president that selected a fellow Muslim as vice president. Could anyone imagine that in a country with majority Christian population, both the Head of State and the vice (Tunde Idiagbon) were Muslims from the north, it was as if the south did not exist and now he seeks to be president of northern and southern Nigeria attempting to reap where he had forgotten to sow. With such heavy-handed and utterly inconsiderate approach that remains edged in peoples’ memories more than twenty years after why should he expect to win an election in Nigeria when that entails winning a majority of the Christian states in the south?

On the bright side, Buhari should be commended for forming a party, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in 2010 and winning 12 states just a year later, but the facts remain bare – that he is not the man for the presidency. He belongs to the old and recycled past, a tribe of  leaders whose usefulness has since been consigned to the unforgotten annals of history; a much younger and highly educated (a PhD) Jonathan presents a breath of fresh air to Nigerians, a break from the arduous and excruciating past that includes Obasanjo, Buhari, IBB all of whom have abstinately refused to read the tea-leafs to gracefully evaporate with the retirement wind.

Buhari is not a sincere politician and there is ample evidence now that he is also classless in his ardent refusal to accept defeat in an election adjudged to be the fairest in the history of Nigeria and so recognized by the ’gurus’ of democracy, the US,UK, France, Germany and Canada all of whom have since congratulated the president-elect. In the last several years, there have been many governors in the north who have rigged their way into Government House and yet no protests (or law suits) from Buhari and his eager youth since these riggers were Muslims, it was all good and dandy. This hypocritical stance of the north must stop and we will continue to remind them that they have no greater claim to Nigeria than the hard-working and industrious southerners.  It appears that one Nigeria is only suitable and attainable to the north if and only when a northern Muslim is in power no matter how grossly incompetent. This position, I must say led to the demise of Moshood Abiola, the undisputed winner of the annulled 1993 elections marked one of the best electoral experiences in Nigeria. The north and the powers that be simply would not accept his leadership. While Abiola was a Muslim, he had the sheer misfortunate to emanate from the wrong part of the country –  Ogun State. Were he a Muslim from Sokoto or Kano, he would have been an ex president by now, not late.

In this election, Buhari’s concorted allegations and the reasons why he is heading to court are as curious as they are amusing. He is alleging that the Excel software used in the presidential elections was programmed to give PDP an edge. Ironically, this was the same software that was used in the National Assembly election the week before which he praised and the same software used in the 12 states where he won overwhelmingly. But the CPC flagbearer has remained selective in his court challenge and we wonder why he is not challenging the functionality of the software in the 12 states where his party claimed victory but has decided to do so in the south–east, south-south and south-west where his performance was disparaging, to say the least. It appears that the only free and fair election in Nigeria is the one won by Buhari, all others must have been rigged. We now hear that his own party in the south-east has disowned him for his baseless accusation of rigging.

Buhari is a controversial figure, a man who is conflicted and truly does not have the interest of the nation at heart. No true patriot of the Nigerian state would standby while miscreants and thugs burn parts of the nation and murder hundreds on their behalf. There appears to be no difference between Buhari’s abatement of violence and death and Laurent Gbagbo’s defiant stance in Ivory Coast that led to the deaths of thousands of his countrymen. Buhari wants to be president at all cost but has not taken the time to fertilize the ground to reap aplenty in the harvest. His choice of Pastor Tunde Bakare, a pentecostal pastor is anything but appeasing to Christians who know all too well that a leopard can never change its spots.  Pastor Bakare with his abundant problems in Christiandom is no miracle worker and there is nothing he can do to change the perception of Nigerians about his principal. It would not have even mattered if Jesus Christ were to be his running mate, the man has an indelible scar that has made him public enemy number one, so to speak, to Christians across the country. The other day, I read that Buhari was weeping in Abuja, claiming that this is the last time he would offer himself to the service of the nation. However, his weeping piles in comparison to the weeping of millions of Nigerians that became hapless victims of the brutality occasioned by his regime in the mid eighties.

Buhari is a bitter man and he must accept defeat and move on if he truly loves the nation and has its interest at heart as he has often claimed. Here lies true test of patriotism and I am afraid the former dictator has failed with distinction. President Jonathan is Nigeria’s president for the next 4 years and there is nothing anyone can do to change this fact; to do so will invoke unwarranted tendencies. The north must accept and submit to this humble and intelligent Christian president from the Niger Delta creeks in the same way the south has been submitting to the whims and caprices of northern dictators and presidents for almost four decades. That is the way the cookie crumbles and they must accept it or move across the border to Niger Republic. It’s that simple!

Against this backdrop, I must note that there are millions of Nigerian men who groom daily and appear like a million bucks to the sheer envy of their wives, girlfriends, colleagues, friends, classmates and what have you. I see them on the streets of New York City, at the universities, at national and international conferences and at several other places around the country. But yet, there are many more that must be convinced on the utter importance of grooming and neat appearance, especially, in professional setting, and there, indeed, lies the problem.

Only recently, I was part of a seven-member hiring committee for a large organization that interviewed six Nigerians out of a total of thirty-three candidates interviewed for various positions within the organization. Of the six, two were young ladies in their late twenties and four gentlemen in their early to late thirties, perhaps, one in his early forties. I mention this not to diminish these respectable individuals in anyway, but only as an example of the difference appearance makes in the decision-making process behind closed doors when all indexes appear equal and not easily discernable.

This is such a crucial point that every professional Nigerian gentleman in the Western world (and even in Nigeria) must take note of if he must continue to impress and make his mark in a fiercely competitive professional world. Nigerian men in the Diaspora who are engaged in various spheres of professional endeavors need to latch on to every advantage, and professional appearance plus sheer competence are two of the important variables in this regard. If the nature of one’s job does not allow for professional appearance, that’s fine, but to the extent that it does, its impact, overt or covert, must therefore not be overlooked in the grand scheme of things.

Lest I be grossly misconstrued and before the long knives are dangled over my neck, I must hasten to add that this is not about wearing a $2,000 Amani suit (God knows I don’t have one) or a $300 pair of Made in Italy shoes, (I don’t have one either), but really about the simple things one would learn in Grooming 101 early in life such as polishing one’s shoes, ironing one’s cloths properly, applying cologne and deodorant to areas that easily “go whack” due to the rigors of the day, ensuring a clean shirt collar without rings, especially, if the shirt is white, etc. These are the fundamentals of neat appearance which appear to be fast dissipating like the troubled ozone layer.

And back to the candidates; I confess now, that all of the six were highly qualified for their positions and competed well with other candidates from around the world. I personally liked them as their intellect was convincing; but there was a major problem with the four gentlemen – their appearance. Even though it should not factor in such a crucial decision as long as the substance is there – in this case, it was too blatant to ignore. The way the men appeared for their interviews, I’m afraid, left much to be desired by all members of the committee, hereby, underscoring the importance of physical appearance in such situations. And in spite of the fact that they articulated themselves rather well in their various areas of expertise, their appearance, invariably, tipped the scale in favor of other candidates who performed equally well and for good measure appeared quite professional.

One of the gentlemen appeared in a sorrowfully un-ironed suit and black pair of shoes that appeared to have turned white from months of going unpolished. How much is a bottle of black shoe polish at Wal-Mart? I checked, it was $3.95, $4.27 after tax. Noticing that he came all the way from California for the interview, he must have failed to request an iron from the hotel he lodged in. But the prevailing thinking among the committee members was – if he could not carter to his appearance on such an important day, what sort of appearance would he put up when representing the organization in crucial events and conferences? Another appeared with beards capable of making the marks in the Guinness Book of Records as the most unkempt. It was all over his face like the map of Nigeria with thirty-six states littering the landscape. If you must keep beards, at least let them be neat and well-groomed. He was a piece of work, a total write-off in this regard. And if that were an exception, yet one more odorized the entire boardroom to the point that one of the interviewers excused himself for some fresh air under the pretense of going to the washroom.

The intrigue here is that the other candidates we saw did not have this problem and they were from all parts of the world as these were international jobs. We saw candidates from Indonesia, Japan, Nicaragua, Brazil, South Africa, Croatia, Turkey and many other places; all, appeared in appreciable professional attire for their interview, but the Nigerians and that brings me to the last gentleman.

He was impressive, but not entirely; well-groomed with sharply edged hairline and neatly combed hair; he appeared in what many would agree was quite a professional appearance, but his color coordination was awful and painfully vexing. He wore a thinly striped black suit and pants (fine) but with green tie and green shoes with two running white stripes around the edges. And just out of curiosity, where on earth can one buy green shoes and ties – at what boutique on God’s green planet do they sell such oddities?

This gentleman may be patriotic clothing in our national colors, but you would agree that there is a time and place, perhaps, on October 1^st, for such declaration of nationalistic inclining, certainly not when one is applying for a high-paying job at a prestigious organization of immense repute. When it came time for recommendation of candidates, all four were seriously considered, but since these positions had much to do with interacting with outside NGOs, governmental bodies, high government officials of foreign countries, etc, appearance made the difference and the gentlemen lost out on a potentially career-defining lucrative opportunities.

Many times, I have come across Nigerian (African men as well) men that could do with a little grooming. And by way of a serious warning, for those still searching the field for that special lady, hear it well now that appearance plus substance are key factors to success, especially, if well-educated professional Nigerian women are the target. By all means, they should stay away from green shoes even if the lady is a die-hard environmentalist and a card-carrying member of the Green Peace Organization.  If they ever hope to win the hearts of one of these ladies Fela (of infinite memory) would call “I be Lady O”, they must, as a matter of urgency, spruce it up; for they love men with neat appearance, professional and presentable to their circle of friends and most importantly, to their families. Even those plucked from the village, these days, I hear, have very high standards.

Mixing it up with the Nigerian guys here in the hot summer months on the soccer field, we often take off our shirts to slug it out -  I notice that some do and some do not shave their armpits – and that’s fine based on personal preference. But for those that do not, it means paying special attention to that area as it often becomes a laboratory for chemical combustion emitting offensive odor. I am not sure if these men have special ones in their lives who could tell them ever so lovingly to spice it up. And speaking of spicing it up, I am reminded of a rather comical situation while I was in the university in the US of a Nigerian classmate who had the un-enviable task of telling his Nigerian friend that he (the Nigerian friend) was in desperate need of fresh breath after what was seen to be a case of chronic bad breath. Confused on how to broach this sensitive topic without bearing offense, he collaborated with a group of Nigerian students, to buy, on the occasion of the birthday of this friend with the alleged bad breath, several packs of chewing gum, mints, a whole crate of mouthwash, toothpaste and brush garnished with a gift certificate for Wal-Mart to replenish the stock once dry. I remember contributing $5 or so to this endeavor and it paid huge dividends as the gentleman turned it around to the merriment of all.

And not to forget the two young Nigerian ladies fresh out of law school who were among the pack of thirty-three; they were offered the jobs, not because of their appearance, but for the experience and knowledge the committee hoped they would bring to the organization. I noticed, like authentic Nigerian ladies, that they dressed for the occasion; nice well-done hair draping over nice dark colored suit pants with marching feminine briefcases and moderately high-heeled shoes, all well-complimented by a cheerful smile – what a winning combination. We certainly have much to learn from our lovely ladies.