Slinging mud without facts Page 1 of 2 Slinging mud without facts By Ben Lawrence False alarms have been Nigeria's daily fare for the past 16 years when small men started to wear big boots. In the Babangida and Abacha years, six months hardly passed without the nation being told of one subversive plot or another. Even though these elements with siege mentality would have made President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare, for example, the South-West a terrorist zone, has been careful to avoid careless talks. But not so some of the governors in the new democratic dispensation. One such governor is 'Chief' (Dr.) Orji Kalu of Abia State, the young man who shot into prominence in the Babangida's years of undisciplined rule, when every and anything was fit for Nigeria. And he got a national award for his contributions to Nigeria at a time many people did not know what exactly whether he was an industrialist or an inventor. Governor Kalu's recent complaint about the East-Central area of Nigeria being neglected by the Federal Government has been disproved by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. The ministry tabulated the financial value of its work in the zone which runs into billions of naira. This would appear to be a very fair share of the national budget. Who neglected those roads for 15 years when in some parts of the country dual carriageways of international standards criss-cross sandy and arid lands? One could assume that although the voice of criticism against the ministry was Kalu's, it was the idea emanated from interests in the Arewa Consultative Forum which appears to want to attack the Minister of Works and Housing, Chief Anthony Anenih, in the struggle to pull down President Olusegun Obasanjo. Several people from the northern states have held the portfolio of the Minister of Works and Housing. What did they do to contain the menace of erosion that has been ravaging many states in the eastern parts. From whom did Obasanjo administration inherit the derelict roads and the decayed system he is battling to make whole? Co-incidentally, soon after Kalu's angry charges, some nebulous and faceless elements under the name of "Democracy Watch" took an advertisement to discredit Chief Anenih and President Obasanjo. I must confess that I used to sing a different tune from Obasanjo's on the economy. Now that the discredited International Monetary Fund (IMF) is up in arms against our President for thinking about the masses of Nigeria, Obasanjo could now count that he has recovered a lost friend. IMF policies introduced in the 1980s destroyed education, industries, morals and basic infrastructure in Nigeria with the devaluation of the naira and the free-for-all importation of disused goods to Nigeria. Anywhere the IMF has visited, it has left poverty and disorganisation. If they are only good primary education and steady supply of energy Nigerians will get from Obasanjo this year, we will count these as wise steps. IMF could go to hell. These disgruntled conservatives in parts of the North are too lazy to see defects in their approach. http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/sarticles/slinging_mud_without_facts.htm 7/18/2008 Slinging mud without facts Page 2 of 2 First, they descended on Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma for trying to retrieve the military from debauchery. They still want to revel in a military led by "pepper soup" generals and admirals. And Danjuma has always believed in a trim, fit and effective fighting force and for this one stood behind him when Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, tried to challenge that principle in 1977. Some of us have seen wars in many theatres even outside Nigeria. Number hardly counts. The service chiefs appointed by this administration are from the Middle Belt states. That was Danjuma's sin. So, the Middle Belt is no more in the North? After they unsuccessfully tried to destroy Danjuma, they changed to Bola Ige whom they accused of everything evil under the sun for radically trying to alter the fortunes of NEPA for the better. The managing director whom they used to challenge Ige ought to submit himself to a public probe. Obasanjo should know that his reconciliation policy should not be at the expense of the public. Now these ciphers are gunning for Anenih because they can no longer brow beat people to get fat contracts that are never executed. They are perpetual middlemen and consumers. Let them show what Nigeria gained in the 20 unbroken years of their rule at the federal level. The South-South states will control its resources even if it means shedding blood. That area has sustained Nigeria with palm produce, rubber, timber and oil for a century. The "Arewa" zone as at 1963 had run into financial straits and was asking for a review of the revenue formula, disbanding its crusade for derivation policy. We should allow sleeping dogs to lie. Must it always be at their bidding? When next Governor Kalu goes to Sokoto, even without clearance from other Igbo governors, to brief his eminence on the South-East and confederation, he should also inform him that the Benin Empire had consular representation in Portugal, the Netherlands and Brazil in the 16th Century, that Oba Esigie schooled in Portugal and was baptised a Christian in the 1520s. Nigeria spent no kobo to prospect for oil in the South-South. Billions of dollars had been spent in looking for oil in Bauchi and the Chad Basin. "Bakodaya". Let them face their zone and transform it through their effort. The writer is a veteran journalist and wrote in from Lagos. http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/sarticles/slinging_mud_without_facts.htm 7/18/2008.