By Dele Sobowale

“It is quite impossible for those who want to gain power to avoid getting rid of those who are most likely to form an opposition.” Critias, 404 B.C.

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 196)

NOTE: This is not going to be pleasant reading for the squeamish; but, it will be the truth and nothing but the truth.

Long before Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527, warned people in politics that “he who abandons what is done, for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his own preservation”, Critias, an Athenian statesman, had already foretold the use of murder as a political weapon. Since 1999, Nigeria had experienced political murders as we approached the Presidential and governors elections – in 2003 (Marshall Harry, Bola Ige), in 2007 (Funso Williams) and again in 2011( ten, in the “Arc of Evil” (Abia, Akwa Ibom and Imo alone). The bodies are about to start falling before the 2015 elections.

Men of God should step up their funeral sermons, undertakers should get ready for a bumper harvest, the print media will benefit surely, and the graveyards, Federal Republic of dust and ashes, will soon be home to people who were once considered indispensable – despite the chilling warning from late President Charles De Gaulle, 1890-1970, of France, who proclaimed that, “The graveyards are full of indispensable people”. (VBQ p 102).

The dress rehearsal for the mayhem, to be unleashed later, increasing the number of “my fellow widows” and fatherless kids, were in full view last week at the PDP Maitama Office – where several opposing groups from the South South, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, in particular, were supposed to assemble for what was billed as an Integration Meeting. Self-delusion had never been better defined by the purported attempt by the PDP leadership, sitting in Abuja, and wanting the “wolves” and the “lambs” to sit together in perfect harmony at Maitama and at home.

Some of the “lambs” from Rivers State walked into the ambush set for them by the “wolves” and got so brutalized as to ensure that they will attend the next meeting like someone invited to dine with the devil – armed with pitch forks ten feet long!!! The report is scanty about the outcome of the Akwa Ibom meeting. But, Governor Akpabio was quoted by various newspapers complaining about “miscreants” taking over the venue. Eminent citizens, from AKS, suddenly finding themselves classified with ruffians, might be wary about attending the next meeting.

To appreciate the gravity of the dangers ahead, the reader has to remember that these are supposed to be members of the same party shedding (or is it sharing?) their own blood. It is like players of the Super Eagles setting out to maim each other during practice in preparation for the match against Ghana. And, this is the ruling party? God help us!!!

In all these, the Nigeria Police officers, posted to the venue, played two roles. When they were not obtaining ring side seat tickets, to better see “eminent” Nigerians making minced meat of one another or getting flogged by thugs, they, reportedly, actually joined some tag teams in mugging their opponents. So, if you think the Nigeria Police will prevent political murders or solve them, you better forget it….

DO WE LOVE EGGS MORE THAN MUMMY AND DADDY? “World Egg Day was established at the International Egg Commission in Vienna, Austria, in 1996 and it is fixed for the second Friday in October”. This year’s fell on October 10, 2014. Two adverts appeared in newspapers to celebrate the day. That is N1 million worth of adverts.

Meanwhile, the United Nations established October 1 as Old Peoples Day and elsewhere it is celebrated as a special day. Here in Nigeria, we care very little for the old. The appeal, on this page, for support, for several weeks, has yielded mostly a loud yawn. Is it possible there aren’t twenty Nigerians willing to contribute N50,000 or 50 N20,000, each to start a movement to give a befitting end to our parents? I doubt it. Kindly send your contribution to:

Mrs Toun Giwa (Nee Macaulay, granddaughter of the great MAN).

GBT (Lagos) 001-216-3187.

God will bless you and help you to age gracefully. Amen.

THE CRUMBLING ECONOMY

Have you heard a Nigerian leader – President, Governor, Minister etc –talking about wanting “all hands on deck”? If you believe it, then, you will believe anything. The last thing our leaders want is unsolicited advice. For months, I have been drawing attention to the fact that with plummeting oil prices and export volumes also nose-diving, Federal and State governments will find it increasingly difficult to even pay staff salaries.

I have also called for an Emergency Economic Summit to discuss how the nation will cope next year and the years after – in the event the lull in crude oil bonanza proves to be more intractable than we imagine. Nobody in the corridors of power had taken notice. No Minister or Special Adviser to the President has taken it up. No Special Adviser to the Federal Minister for Finance has observed that I am, in fact, doing their dirty work for them by providing the President with an alibi for the calamity which might befall the nation.

Yet we need to put politics aside, even if for a few days, and address the economic catastrophe confronting us. The World Bank recently forecast 7% GDP growth for Nigeria in 2015. That is stupid. I was in Nigeria, on the eve of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, in 1985, when they predicted 7-10% annual growth for us if SAP was adopted. IBB’s government did and the average growth for six years was less than 1%.