Author: The Nation

• By Adefemi Bucknor-Arigbede

Elections are over and governance has begun.  Governance is hard work, but democracy is even harder. It requires critical thinking with a clear vision and understanding of how people’s lives are framed. It is beyond an ideological political ritual of electing people to occupy political offices every four years. It is serious pragmatic work that requires making tough and seemingly impossible decisions critically needed to build sustainable institutions.

In retrospect, Nigeria today arrived late and many decades behind global development conversations. Today in the year 2023, Nigeria with all its abundant natural resources and diversity of human resource has not attained energy sufficiency when the global conversation has progressively shifted to clean/renewable energy in support of climate change. The evolving technology of clean renewable energy can provide opportunities for developing countries like Nigeria to diversify and meet its needs if properly focused.

It is incomprehensible and economically maddening that we encouraged and still exhibit indifferences to decades of systemic corruption through petroleum subsidies. With each democratic dispensation, we consistently prioritized short term political gains over long term national sustainability, reflecting a collective mediocre political will to address the obvious economic drain in the oil sector. We must understand that for Nigeria to exude greatness at our desired pace, the subsidy regime must end. It is a difficult decision but it is necessary.

The road ahead of us to build an effective society would not be easy and we must be prepared to make hard decisions and strategic sacrifices. When we work together towards a common goal, we create a sense of solidarity and purpose that can transcend our differences.

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Based on my own life experiences, I have learned that building anything worthwhile, meaningful and sustainable is never easy. It requires making disruptive choices and sacrifices that produce enduring outcomes. “Every dream has a process and a price tag. Those who embrace the process and pay the price, live the dream. Those who don’t, just dream” – Jeremy Riddle.

The foreign exchange regime is another enraging issue that have endured despite its glaring economic and fiscal burdens. Parallel exchange rates will only fuel inflation and create a system of corruption, but yet against facts and data, it brazenly endured.

The youth are obviously agitated and rightly so. Our educational institution is in shambles, with unprecedented unemployment levels and widespread poverty. For young people, this time in our democratic history calls for strategic thinking and indulgence in the critical work of evaluating the core issues at hand beyond sentiments and political slandering. Against all odds, our frustration must induce a growth temperament and strategic action that requires tremendous strength. While a democratic election is a calculative game of numbers and figures, governance is a display of values and character.

Adaptive leadership requires courage and the innate will to place the interest of the country above the narrow confines of individualistic or political concerns.

Democratic societies like the United States rely on technical and adaptive political processes to produce progressive outcomes upheld by the constitution. For democracy to work, we must be pragmatic in our resolve and collectively commit to putting in the hard work and sacrifices to patriotically build upstream.

Early this year I had the privilege to travel on a student-led policy trek to South-East Asia. With no natural resource, the story of Singapore in a development context is worth understudying. For starters, Singapore, Nigeria and many African states got their independence from British rule about the same time in the 1960s. Notably, we share similarities in terms of history, religion and cultural diversity. I had the privilege of interacting with their leaders and experience the efficiency of a nation that works. Nigeria can also become an efficient country. 

The trek was a combined policy trip to Singapore and Indonesia. Being the only African and Nigerian in the group of 55 students, unfortunately, I could not proceed to Indonesia because securing an Indonesian visa as a Nigerian is almost impossible. I led a similar trek to Nigeria during the elections with 60 students of the Kennedy school and other Harvard affiliates. I discovered that not only is it difficult for Nigerians to secure visas to other countries with multiple restrictions, it is also difficult for foreign nationals to expediently secure visas to Nigeria. This situation must improve and our foreign outlook must improve across board but we must first build domestically.

My experiences in the United States and southeast Asia has left me enthralled and concurrently conflicted by their socio-political legacies juxtaposed with Nigeria. Simultaneously, it has also rekindled my hope for the transformative possibilities and resilience of any society that is determined to thrive and serve the collective interest of present and future generations of its people.

It is important to indicate that I am not under any illusion that Singapore, the United States or any country on earth are perfect states. I interacted with some Singaporeans that complained about restrictions in their country and some Americans with unending reasons for expansion of rights with a chuckle in my throat. If human needs remain insatiable, then no nation state has attained ideal perfection. All countries are on a democratic spectrum, and all continue to make effort to ensure sustainable democratic dividends, good governance and sound economic policies. Even the garden of Eden carefully curated by God could not meet the insatiable needs of Adam and Eve. However, as a people with collective interests and goals, we can try our very best to enshrine trust in our system and ensure that no community feels left behind.

Our problems seem enormous but the solutions have always been within the ambits of courage, resilience and determination. In the streets of our cities, to villages and creeks, everyone seems to have an opinion on how to fix Nigeria but lack execution. Greatness requires courage to follow through on our dreams and aspirations against all odds. 

Nigeria critically demands our collective patriotism, to place national unity above self and partisan ideologies. Patriotism requires more than supporting a political candidate/party or waving a flag. It is about cherishing the values that our country was founded upon – unity and faith, peace and progress. Hoping that our president fails in order to underscore a political point is hoping our country fails and wasting years of potential growth. We cannot afford to continue to play the role of opposition against a democratically elected government that does not reflect our individual ballot choice. This is the time we must play our part and walk our talk.

The stakes are high and this administration has a lot of work in their hands. Against all odds, they must set an example in Africa and the world that democracy can indeed be creatively adapted to meet the needs and aspirations of the people. 

• Bucknor-Arigbede is a post-graduate student and Edward Mason Public Service Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He writes via adefemi_bucknorarigbede@hks.harvard.edu

• By Braeyi Ekiye

Late Justice Oputa Chukwudifu, a jurist of character and learning was known for his straight shots with words, and with the tenacity for passing good and enduring judgments. While delivering the 2nd Chief Dr. Alabo Graham-Douglas Memorial lecture at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology in Port Harcourt in late July 1990, the eminent jurist said that poverty offers the greatest assault on and violence to human dignity.

The Justice was right in his assessment of poverty and under-development as Siamese twins or twin-gods that breed slavery, class and negate balance, growth and development of a nation.

In his Christmas message to Nigerians on December 25, 2022, Matthew Kukah, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto said that the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari’s policies made Nigerians vulnerable, faulting his anti-corruption credentials.

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“It is sad”, he said, “that despite your lofty promises, you are leaving us far more vulnerable than when you came, that the corruption we thought would be fought has become a leviathan and sadly, a consequence of government marked by nepotism.”

“Clearly, in almost every department and with all indicators, our nation has become a tale of two cities”, he bemoaned.

Bishop Kukah regretted that the nation now witnessed wars between the rich and the poor, man and woman, across generations, along party lines, social classes, religion and ethnicity and so on.

Earlier in April 2022, Bishop Kukah had, in an Arise TV Morning Show, had declared that: “Buhari has done a terrible job as president of Nigeria”.

The facts attest to the acute observations of the revered Bishop on the performance bond of the eight-year rule of Buhari’s administration to the Nigerian nation. To most observers that administration was a colossal failure.

Regrettably, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, our new president, who has shown an appreciable level of audacity in dishing out directives, and understanding of the utility value of leadership in governance within a short space of his administration, is now saddled with the unbundling of the liabilities of the previous government.

First, was the fuel subsidy removal by his administration which has left Nigerian people poorer, helpless and totally desperate in making ends meet.

Said Tinubu on this: “It is one decision we must bear to save our country from going under and take our resources away from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements”. This ostensibly is to assuage the fears of greater majority of Nigerians that Tinubu has come to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Of course, senior lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, and human right activist, had in a publication titled: ‘Catalogue of Looting and Brigandage of Nigeria’, stated that subsidies are primarily of the rich, highlighting how the subsidy regime is being manipulated and how huge sums of money, he believes, can be recovered not just to subsidize fuel but also provide funds for development.

He revealed among other anti-people policies of government, the diversion of N40billion from Federation Account; additional revenue of $1.5 billion payment to Federation Account as part of 15-year fiscal incentives given to the oil companies operating under the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act which expired in June 2014; outstanding royalty payments of $63 billion, federal government’s denied revenue of $500million by a group of corrupt public officers, sale of public assets and enterprises, whose buyers turned round to engage in asset stripping, the non-recovery of deposits and the accrued interests of $7billion fixed in 14 banks, theft of crude oil, sale of some banks by CBN and the unaccountable trillions of naira spent to revitalize these banks, theft of gold and other minerals amongst others.

Meanwhile, some ex-ministers in Buhari’s administration have been summoned to EFCC on matters of transparency and accountability during their tenures in office.

Currently, the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele is undergoing investigations as part of an “ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the banking sector”.

The list of corruption cases perpetrated by some officials of the immediate past administration is endless. A Tinubu administration is expected to clinically x-ray and investigate these financial and economic crimes against the Nigerian state and her people and bring to book those culpable to serve as a deterrent to future wanton rape of the treasury.

From the foregoing and many other disturbing revelations, the Tinubu administration, no doubt, has an arduous task in reconstructing the Nigerian governance system in tandem with equity, accountability, performance bond and the rule of law.

Fortunately, President Tinubu, in his June 12 Democracy Day nationwide address said that the democracy MKO Abiola died for is one that promotes the ‘welfare of the people over the personal interests of the ruling class and one where the governed can find personal fulfilment and happiness.

That, he said, is the hope MKO Abiola ignited throughout Nigeria in 1993.

He declared: “We shall be faithful to the truth, faithful to equity and faithful to justice. We shall exercise our authority and mandate to govern with fairness, respect for the rule of law, and commitment to always uphold the dignity of all our people”.

We recall that President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi recently sacked his Labour Minister, Ken Kandodo over misuse of COVID-19 funds amounting to 6.3billion Malawian Kwacha (7.95million dollars). This is even after the minister had repaid the money to government coffers.

Incensed President Chakwera further said that over a dozen individuals suspected of committing the crimes exposed by the audit report have been arrested.

He declared: “If the finger of evidence points to you… you are going to prison”, he assured. Nigerians expect such stern measures in the Tinubu administration.

The task before President Tinubu therefore, is to show strength of leadership character by doing what is right and proper in the interest of the country, by facing head-on, these challenges that have held the nation bound since her independence in 1960.

Here, Justice Oputa’s words should ring a resounding bell: “Poverty and under-development breed slavery, class and negate the balanced growth and development of a nation”.

May I say that the challenge of tackling this hydra-headed monster that is corruption is the litmus test of the Tinubu administration. Nigerians yearn for good governance which revolves around visionary, enlightened and audacious leadership, selfless in its calling and with zero tolerance for cutting corners to spite the face of the great Nigerian state.

Can Tinubu deliver Nigeria from poverty and iniquity?

• Ekiye, a publisher, writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

• Gov. Mba means well with his ban on sit-at-home order but collective effort is the way out

That the very first Executive Order he issued after his inauguration as governor of Enugu State on May 29, was the ban placed on the sit-at- home strike ordered by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra ( IPOB) on Mondays throughout the South-East indicates, that Mr Peter Mbah, is determined to tame a monster that has become an albatross in the region, at least in his own state. IPOB had issued the weekly sit-at-home strike in 2021 as part of measures to achieve the release of its leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, who was arrested in Kenya and is currently in detention in Abuja where he is facing trial for alleged treason and treasonable felony.

The sit-at-home strike that has been substantially effective with widespread participation across the South-East came with huge economic losses incurred by private businesses as well as the disruption of public services over the last two years.

Governor Mbah gave well articulated reasons why decisive action had to be taken by his administration in bringing the debilitating strike that paralyse the economy of the state on the first day of every week, to an end. Thus, he urged all schools, markets, retail outlets, hospitals, malls and the public to go about their normal businesses as “adequate security measures had been taken to guarantee the safety of all citizens resident in the state”. Indeed, the governor gave a directive that businesses, schools and public offices that observed the sit-at-home strike should be closed down by security agencies.

The governor no doubt means well in his desire to quickly tackle the insecurity and violence that has currently incapacitated effective governance across the South- East. In his words,”For us to transit from a public service economy, to a private sector-driven one, we must free our markets from the shackles of restrictions to commerce”. However, is his approach necessarily the best? We don’t think so. The strategy for effecting his determination to enhance security in the state is flawed as demonstrated by the fact that most businesses and public facilities were closed last week Monday in Enugu State and the economy remained comatose, just as used to be the case in the past, despite the ban of the sit-at-home directive.

Read Also: IPOB’s Sit at-home order : UTME candidates stranded in Enugu, Anambra

After touring parts of the state to monitor the degree of compliance with his directive, Mr Mbah assessed the rate of adherence to the ban at between 60% and 70%. It is impossible to ascertain the accuracy of the governor’s statistics as it was widely reported in the media that many public offices, schools and private facilities that opened in Enugu hardly had anyone to patronise them. The law of fear of violent attacks by those who issued the sit-at-home directive was naturally more potent than the fear of not obeying the governor’s directive. This is understandable and reinforces what we believe to be deficiencies in Governor Mbah’ s approach to addressing the problem.

In the first place, were adequate security measures in place to protect the lives and property of those who chose to defy the sit-at-home order? We doubt it. True, Mr Mbah issued the directive to ban the sit-at-home strike after meeting with the heads of security agencies in the state. But could they have deployed the necessary security coverage across the state within such a short time to imbue the citizens with the courage to go about their businesses without incurring the wrath of the enforcers of the sit-at-home order?

Beyond this, the problem of security in the state, including the sit -at-home directive, is not limited to one state. It can only be effectively tackled through collective action by all the governors of the South-East. Again, the governors, acting jointly, must work towards re-engaging the various aggrieved groups in the region, particularly IPOB, with a view to getting them to see that their violent approach is causing more sorrow, tears and bloodshed in the South-East, to the detriment of the welfare of the people and the prosperity of the region.

After issuing the order banning the sit-at-home strike in the state, Governor Mbah called on President Bola Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu in order to create a better environment for healing in the South-East. In the final days of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, had similarly written a letter to the administration, seeking the release of Kanu to him and guaranteeing to make the IPOB leader available to attend the ongoing court proceedings against him.

Here again, collective and not solitary action by the governors is imperative. If the governors work in concert with traditional rulers, opinion molders and community leaders, they can approach the presidency with greater weight to effect the release of Kanu than when moves towards this end are isolated and haphazard.

Equally critical is the imperative of the South-East governors working together to strengthen the Ebubeagu security network established in April, 2021. Perhaps for reasons of inadequate funding and lack of inter-state collaboration in enhancing security in the South-East, the security agency has been largely comatose in protecting lives and property.

Sir:  I didn’t know whether to sympathise with or mock Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK) after watching a video in which he barely held back tears on the floor of the Senate.

I will not deny that I have for years had a kind of emotional attachment to OUK.

Like all humans, he has his shortcomings and most are mirrored via the shenanigans and greed that hallmark our politics.

OUK, no doubt, is one of the promoters and beneficiaries of the hollow politics that catapults his likes to positions of authority through the help of an undiscerning electorate.

Some years back, OUK invited top Igbo journalists in Lagos to his Victoria Island residence. Yours sincerely was among the invitees. There, he explained to them why he founded the Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA).

He had said: “I had an interaction with Tinubu one day and the focus was on how we could make the South play politics like the North.

“During the discussion, Tinubu said he was ready to form a political party to stand for the interest of the Southwest. He advised me to get like minds and also form a party that can stand for the Southeast.

“He went on to add that since politics is like a chess game, we in the South must have our Queens.

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“With your Queen in a major tribe, you will be courted by any zone that wants to be in power. You know that there is hardly any zone that can win our presidential election by standing alone. When you are being courted, you will be in a position to negotiate.

“Go and hold your zone through a political party that can have the masses behind it while I work towards holding my zone.  

“That is how PPA and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) came into being then.”  

In less than four years, OUK handed over the PPA to the PDP as a gluttonous bride would run into the open alms of an inconsiderate groom. He simply buried the PPA and went on a self-serving romance with the PDP and now the APC.

After being shown that his contributions to both parties are not worth an ounce, nationally, he started shedding crocodile tears and lamenting that Nigeria “isn’t fair”. It’s good that he now knows better.

OUK simply did not learn from Tinubu who started with Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC) and then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which teamed up with Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Onu’s All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to form APC.

It is Tinubu’s consistency and perseverance in opposition politics that eventually landed him in Aso Rock Villa through APC.

• Emma Anya, Lagos. 

We saw the power and misuse of prophecies in the last elections. Men of God inundated us with what they heard from the Supreme Being. Never mind that almost all the prophecies were off the mark. After all, didn’t the Bible say “where there are prophecies, they will fail”? This is not to mock any prophet for the failure of his prophecy, but to remind us of another word of God  that we should be discerning about prophecies and know which to take and not to take.

As humans, we love prophecies, especially when they border on our progress and success. When we receive such prophecies, we go all out to bring them to fruition. Politicians stake everything, including their life savings to run for office, when told that they will become president, governor or speaker. We saw it in the last general and National Assembly’s  presiding officers’ elections. But these prophecies did not come to pass in the lives of these candidates. Do we then say that God is a liar?

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No, God forbid. It is these so-called prophets, seers or visioners that should take it easy and stop misleading people. But then, if the prophecy you received today fails, that does not mean you cannot try your luck in a contest next time. On this note, I congratulate Senate President Godswill Akpabio, his deputy Jibrin Barau, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and deputy, Benjamin Kalu. Prophecy or no prophecy, you are the chosen ones!  You cannot afford to fail the nation at this critical time.

Sir : As the oldest form of government, traditional royal institutions have played a pivotal role across ages. Despite modern systems of government, traditional rulers are still a significant segment of society whose contribution to national socio-economic development will continue to be desirable.

On Friday, June 9, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with traditional rulers from across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, in Abuja, in continuation of his countrywide consultations with all key stakeholders, with a view to bringing all strata of the country into a better understanding of his administration’s roadmap for good governance and deepening democratic rule in the country.

At the very engaging consultative meeting, President Tinubu espoused the programmes of action of his young administration to the monarchs and sought their support for the actualisation of the programmes and the success of the new government. 

Specifically, he urged them to support the administration’s efforts to ensure peace and unity by promoting responsible behaviour and patriotism. Correspondingly, he assured the government’s support to the monarchs as they continued in their role as custodians of the cultural values and customs of the people in their domains.

To underscore his respect for and the high esteem he holds the traditional royal institutions, President Tinubu, during the conversation, was seen personally taking notes of suggestions and solutions proffered by the monarchs to some of the challenges faced by the country.

Undoubtedly, the texture of the Abuja parley has again brought to the fore acknowledgement of the pivotal role that traditional rulers can play in deepening democracy and good governance in Nigeria.

As the closest to their communities, towns, and cities, traditional rulers can better explain government programmes and policies to their subjects. This will, in turn, promote inclusivity and ownership. When people feel carried along in the governance process and decision-making through their monarchs, achieving lasting peace and unity will be easier.

In the pre-colonial days, traditional rulers were heads of government of their respective domains. Even though their role in the current dispensation is mere advisory, their support of the democratic system of government remains significant. This is because of the legacy of administrative process inherent in the traditional institutions, which can benefit the system. To bolster this assertion, at the outset of colonial rule in Nigeria, traditional rulers were used to govern the local administrative districts established by the colonial masters.

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The recognition of traditional institutions through constitutional reforms in the First Republic further attests to the continued relevance of the royal thrones in our modern democracy. In decades gone by, the parliamentary system of government created the House of Chiefs to give traditional rulers a sense of authority. The position of kings and chiefs to mobilise their subjects for good causes is a positive energy that can help deepen our democracy and promote good governance.

From the preceding, it is no gainsaying that traditional rulers are critical stakeholders in the Nigeria project. As fathers of the nation, they have a pivotal role in the present-day democratic system and beyond. Their role in achieving stable democracy in Nigeria is crucial for the country’s peace, progress, and development cannot be downplayed.

As agents of positive change, I believe that the government should preserve the conventional institutions by giving more recognition to the royal fathers as we deepen democratic governance and the system in Nigeria. 

• HRH Oba Suleiman Owolabi Oloko, Olu of Iwaya-Yaba, Yaba LCDA, Lagos State.