The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Much ado about acting INEC chair

    Much ado about acting INEC chair

    President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) chose to exercise his constitutional power to appoint as Acting Chairman of INEC, Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari, who has been a national commissioner of the electoral institution, serving along with former Chairman Attahiru Jega. In doing so, Buhari didn’t think that he was setting in motion a whirlwind of controversy.

    No sensible person would think that a simple appointment of an acting chair could be that controversial because not everyone appreciates the pervasiveness of political calculation in the mental orientation of politicians. What will a politician be without a sustained engagement with serious political calculation? Assume X is the appointee, what can we expect in political gain or loss? What else matters, seriously?

    Ought a politician to think in terms of the experience of an appointee? Or why should a politician concern him/herself with the integrity of a candidate for a position? Or with the qualification and singular merit of an appointee? What do all these matter when politics is the be-all and end-all for a politician and must therefore be the gauge for the measurement of executive actions?

    If therefore PMB was taken aback by the noise from PDP about their rejection of his appointee for the acting INEC chair, it is probably because he isn’t a politician in the sense in which it matters to typical politicians.

    It bears reminding ourselves about the genesis and revelation of the whole story. Professor Jega took his well-deserved bow. Of all groups and parties that his tenure impacted, it was only the PDP and their supporters that disapproved of Jega’s performance in 2015 after they had hailed his performance from 2011 to 2015. That marks them out as the most pathetic flip-floppers of the year.

    Recall that some of their intellectual vanguards had even tipped Jega for the presidency before he became their most hated villain. Does it bother then that their despised villain is acclaimed internationally and has just been announced as a recipient of the 2015 Charles T. Manatt Democracy Award?

    On his exit, Jega had handed over to one of the national commissioners, Mohammed Wali, in the same manner that a minister would hand over to a permanent secretary (PS). Does that confirm the PS as acting minister? Does that hold back the hand of the president from appointing a minister or a different acting minister?

    The ministerial analogy is not perfect, but you get the drill. Jega would be the first person to confirm that he didn’t appoint an acting chair of INEC because he knew that he had no authority to do so. The one who had the authority made the appointment and chose who he wanted for the position, pending the appointment of a substantive chair. How can anyone question his authority?

    There was indeed a precedent under a PDP president. When Acting President Goodluck Jonathan directed Maurice Iwu to proceed on pre-disengagement leave in 2010, there was a tussle over who was to serve as acting chair. Philip Umeadi stepped up in what many considered as self-appointment before the presidency directed Maurice Iwu to hand over to Solomon Soyebi, who was the longest serving national commissioner at the time. That was how Soyebi became the acting chair until Jega’s appointment as substantive chair.

    To be fair, no one, not even Mr. Metuh, has questioned the authority of the president to appoint an acting chair. But they question his authority to appoint a particular candidate, in this case, in the person of Mrs. Zakari. But why? Isn’t she qualified? No she is. Doesn’t she have good character? Well, she does. Doesn’t she have integrity? If she doesn’t she wouldn’t have been appointed to serve as national commissioner by a PDP President in the first place. But what exactly is problematic about this woman?

    To politicos like Mr. Metuh, who operate in the Machiavellian world of partisan political calculation, Mrs. Zakari cannot be trusted to be independent because they have traced her genealogy to Buhari. In fact, Mrs. Zakari is Buhari’s daughter, they alleged. Therefore, PDP has vowed to reject any election conducted under her watch. While 13 other political parties applaud the President’s choice, PDP gave it a thumps down.

    How do we approach the matter? Who is right? Who is being funny here?

    I had read about PDP’s position on this matter the first time it broke. Then a few days later I read that there was an internal conflict within the party with its deputy publicity secretary distancing the party from the position of his boss, Mr. Metuh. Then, of course, the party’s NWC decided to wield the big stick, threatening the deputy with suspension because he had had the courage to call out the publicity secretary on what appeared to be a false alarm.

    Mr. Metuh made a case for his position not just in print media but also on television. I think that it was on Channels TV that I saw his most vigorous defence of the party’s position. He claimed that Buhari’s appointee was really the President’s daughter; and that it is never done.

    For Metuh, the President’s action smacks of nepotism and worse. Besides appointing his “daughter” into such a sensitive position, the argument appears to go; the president’s party stands to gain from his action. Metuh’s main concern was that Mrs. Zakari will be an APC sympathiser because of his relationship to Buhari.

    When I heard Metuh suggest that nowhere in the world would a President give such a sensitive appointment to a blood relation, I was shocked. Surely, Metuh knows that in other climes people are not worried about blood relationship; they are worried about the integrity of the appointer and the appointee.

    President J. F. Kennedy appointed his younger brother, the son of his father and mother, Robert F. Kennedy, as the Attorney General of the United States and heaven didn’t fall. But what political office could be more sensitive? Yet no one cared about the false alarm that the opposition is eager to raise here. They cared about the qualification and integrity of the appointee.

    Mrs. Zakari was appointed National Commissioner in 2010. Since no one has accused the PDP president, who appointed her, of giving her the appointment on account of a relationship between them, I can only assume that he looked into her background, her qualification and character, and concluded that she was fit for the job.

    For five years, the woman did the job to the best of her ability and worked with other commissioners to give the country the freest and fairest election in the history of the country to date. If there is anything in her record of service in the last five years that is of concern to PDP, that is what the party ought to bring up and share with the public. This silly talk about family relationship only diminishes the intellect of the accuser more than that of the accused.

     More substantively, it also turned out, as the coalition of political parties in support of the appointment of Mrs. Zakari had taken great pains to reveal that the acting chair was the most senior in terms of time served at the commission. And the fact of her gender, which the President pointed to as a plus, cannot be brushed aside, which is why women groups have also expressed their full support. Does the PDP really want this battle?

  • Change and the unchangeable

    As my readers know by now, whenever Opalaba feels that he has had it, he makes sure that he vents until he satisfies himself. And when I miscalculate such that our paths cross at close range, I am almost always assured of his savage attack. It happened just two days ago.

    I thought I was going to pleasantly surprise my good friend by showing up at his door when he least expected. And like a wounded lion, he pounced on me. “What do you people think you’re doing?” He let his frustration take the better part of him. “I cannot believe that I have been fooled again at 70. Why did I even bother, after so many disappointments from politricksters that you shamelessly associate with?” They told us to expect change. And what did we get? Same old manafiki. A plague on all your houses.”

    Opalaba went on ranting and raging. I hadn’t even been offered a seat. It was only when I turned back to leave that he stopped and I can see heavy sweat raining down his face. My friend was truly enraged.

    He regained his cool and apologised. Then he went on in a more somber mood. “APC advertised itself as the party of change. A people in desperate need of change, including my poor old self, believed and jumped for change. No questions asked, because the status quo had become unbearable and therefore unacceptable. Looking back now, we should have asked probing questions.”

    “Such as what?” I asked. “At least as a non-party independent minded citizen, I should have asked if the party had thoroughly screened its candidates for electoral offices. How many of them bought into the philosophy of change? What do they understand by change? Is their view of change limited to change of personnel or office holders? Or does it include as it reasonably should, attitudinal change? If it doesn’t, why not? And wouldn’t the electorate then have been deceitfully sold a dummy? If it does, how come the party is now faced with challenges of ego, greed and gross indiscipline from the so-called leaders who ought to be the leading lights of attitudinal change?

    Opalaba went on without letting. On my part, I was aware that no response can be adequate for my friend. Seriously, however, I knew that he had a point, and I couldn’t this time dismiss his vituperations as the barking of a crazy dog as I used to.

    Change is the movement from one state to another. As such, every living thing undergoes changes. The only unchangeable is God, who is acknowledged as remaining the same through the ages. Change, for living things, however, may be from a desirable state to an undesirable one. We talk of moving from frying pan to fire as a fitting metaphor for such a change.

    In another form, change may be from an undesirable state to another undesirable state. Neither of such changes is worthy of human endeavour. To deliberately move from one undesirable state to another or from a desirable to an undesirable state is to behave irrationally. Therefore if an effort towards change is intentionally and voluntarily undertaken by individuals or groups, it is to be reasonably expected that the outcome must be a desirable state that is better than the preceding state.

    Many, like Opalaba, invested their hope, without pulling back anything; in the change idea which they expected will be actualised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government. Of course, it is too early to dismiss the party and its agenda. And it bears pointing out that Nigerians still express confidence in the President’s sincerity of purpose and strong determination to carry out his agenda. Where Opalaba and his likes are understandably concerned is with regard to the depth of the commitment of other stakeholders in the corridors of power. They are sorely worried about those that Opalaba referred to as the “unchangeable.” “How do you change the unchangeable?” He asked.

    “But who are the unchangeable?” I asked. “And how can anyone or thing be unchangeable? Even nature undergoes change. Mountains are denuded; rivers form tributaries, and when changes don’t follow the path of nature, humans step in to impose such changes to their satisfaction. Individuals who refuse to change when there is need for change will find out that they are passed by and soon become relics of history. So what is your point, Mr. Know-All?”

    “Your memory loss as you age is my point”, Opalaba fired back in visible anger. “President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) is older than you, but he went down memory lane the other day at the APC NEC meeting. He apparently is one that doesn’t forget his beginning; he remembers those who helped him through the various challenges; he recalled the origins and foundation of the party; he named names and he reminded all officers and rank and file of the promise the new party made to Nigerian people.

    “PMB made it clear that the pioneers or foundation members and leaders who sacrificed their time and mental and material resources for the party in the midst of campaigns of hatred, calumny and name-calling thought seriously about the change that they wanted to invest in and the legacy of progressive governance they wanted to bequeath to the next generation of Nigerians. They were serious about change of attitude and outcome and they put their energy into working it out. And he made it clear that this sacrifice by the pioneers and founding fathers and mothers of the party ought to be the guiding light to all, including the late comers.”

    “The question is”, Opalaba added in an emotion-laden voice, “did the late comers to, and second-tier founders of the party also understood what change connoted for the first-tier founders? And if they didn’t, why are we now surprised that some of them appear adverse to change and may indeed be unchangeable? Doesn’t it appear now that they had a different idea of what change means?”

    My friend argued that the challenges the party has with the National Assembly election of principal officers is just a symptom of a fundamental issue, which is that there is a disconnect between the understanding and mentality of some about what power means and the message that the party has caused to be delivered to the electorate. This fundamental issue reflects the extant challenges that have been integral to the Nigerian post-independence state, but which the post-military era has simply multiplied exponentially. It is unfortunate, but the truth is that the majority of those who go into party politics choose this path for reasons other than the virtue of public service.

    The political drama that was the NASS leadership elections has all the characteristics of a soap opera that is cast in the hellish kingdom of ego, greed, crass ambition, religious zealotry, ethnic jingoism, corruption and corruptibility, and an aristocratic mentality in a populist party. The actors in the sordid drama are no agents of change, at least not the change that the party sold to the electorate. They are for change in their material conditions and their spiritual poverty simply facilitated the diabolic plan that they fashioned and delivered with perfection.

    What option is there for the party in the face of this tragic development? It must stick to change and pursue it. It must call out the unchangeable for what they are and let Nigerians know them and be their judge. Otherwise the party cannot deliver change that Nigerians overwhelmingly desire. To capitulate and succumb to the position of the unchangeable is to commit party suicide because it assures it of an undesirable result in 48 months.

  • Security Council: Ndigbo diminution

    Those who warned during electioneering that PMB was never enamoured of the Igbo nation would be laughing now as the Buhari canvass unfurls. Sixteen appointments so far and not one single Igbo man is good enough. No matter. But in picking the rump of Nigeria’s military and intelligence team for his government last Monday, not one Igbo man was found worthy of any of the positions.

    Consider the checklist: Chief of Defence Staff; Chief of Army Staff; Chief of Air Staff; Chief of Naval Staff; Chief of Defence Intelligence; Director of State Security and National Security Adviser. Not one Igbo man made it. If you add to those, Inspector General of Police; head of Customs and head of Immigration, you have an entire National Security Council with the Igbo nation excluded.

    This is clearly not an error and it is difficult to believe no Igbo man merits any of these strategic national appointments. In a situation that the Northeast has three of these positions; Northwest two; Northcentral two; Southwest two; Southsouth two and Southeast zero, speaks volumes about the mindset of our President. Where is federal character? Calculated injustice and inequity of this nature can only diminish a country.

  • As PMB visits PBO: 10 points to ponder

    This visit: Is it sight-seeing or strategic? If our leaders are seeing what we are seeing from our obscure corner, then President Muhammadu Buhari’s (PMB’s) visit to his American counterpart, President Barack Obama (PBO) next week ought to be the most significant visit any Nigerian leader made to the US since independence in 1960. Hitherto, most Nigerian helmsmen have viewed it as some profound achievement to be granted audience in the White House. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua epitomised this in one moment of extreme awe as he sat before Obama when he noted that it was the greatest day of his life. Yar’Adua’s now famous faux pas only points to the undeniable power of the United States of America in world affairs since the end of World War II.

    Why must this visit be different and indeed historic if previous ones by nearly all Nigeria’s leaders had been mere exercise in vacuous ceremonies and photo opportunities? This column wagers that hardly any of our former heads of state had any remarkable strategic reason for visiting the White House.; they were no better than an average tourist to America gawking at that whited bastion of U.S power and essence.

    This house is falling still: This column expects PMB’s visit to be special for two reasons. One, Nigeria as the most important nation in Sub-Saharan Africa has come full circle after over five decades of so-called independence and utter folly. Today, the world’s 7th most populous nation has become a real and present danger to the civilised world. It has been roiled and brought to her knees both by her post independence leaders and currently by a silly band of local terrorists that have comprehensively exposed her ugly rump and hollowness.

    Two, crude oil which rent has sustained and contained the Nigerian madness since independence has become less valuable and a non-essential commodity in world’s energy market today; therefore this behemoth is broke – perhaps irretrievably so. These two factors: the petty insurgency and loss of cheap oil revenue will and should drive PMB’s visit to PBO. The journalist, Karl Maier, wrote over a decade ago about Nigeria that “This House Has Fallen”. Well it has not come down crashing but it remains a cracked and tottering edifice.

    Though not many of our so-called leaders seem to have seen the futility and un-sustainability of this precarious house, in which case they would be going on a sight-seeing (as usual) to the White House, the Americans should reveal the harsh reality to them as much as possible. If our delegation understands the deal, there is no doubt that they will be armed with some tough agenda and also be open to pragmatic and radical alternatives for the years ahead.

    Ten points to ponder

    One: complete overhaul of the armed forces Nigeria must at this point determine that she is ready to join the rest of the world in which case she must anchor appropriately and build the right alliances. A major defence pact will necessarily preface the requisite economic boost Nigeria needs sorely now. In clear terms, a US military base in the Gulf of Guinea needs be considered as part of a major package.

    While that is going on, we can then set about building a proper modern military infrastructure. Anyone who knows anything would agree that the entire architecture of our military cannot support a modern boys’ scout. We need a total overhaul and we neither have the funds nor the gumption to do it by ourselves. We either elect to revamp now with the aid of the Yankees or we forever live in the muck. Today Cameroon and Chad are fighting to rescue us; tomorrow they would fight to conquer our territories if we do not act now.

    Two: revamping our policing and intelligence systems: The same principle as in number one above applies here. Modern policing and intelligence gathering have long eluded us. We are actually cave people in this regard. Worse, we lack the capacity – both financial and intellectual – to begin to help our situation. In one word, we need help and we must bear this in mind while in the White House.

    Three: arms policy and superpower diplomacy The biggest black nation in the world cannot mould even enough small arms to defend herself from hoodlums without having to scurry all over the world even to smaller and far less endowed countries to acquire rifles. We all saw how easy it was for the West to frustrate the purchase of medium range arms to fight even our small-time terrorists. Imagine for a moment what happens if we have to confront another nation! How are we ever going to join the league of arms producing nations if we do not forge the right alliances now?

    Four: international border management and operations Nigeria must rank among the countries with the most porous borders in the world. Everyday dozens of long, laden trailers drive in and out through most of our land borders. Our border security is as compromised as a harlot on the highway. This has gone on for decades. No country functions like this. We need modern border technology and infrastructure. We need help.

    Five: border (nations) diplomacy Is it by chance that all the countries bordering Nigeria are from the Francophone zone? What are the implications for our security and socio-economic well-being? Though these countries: Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon (not overlooking Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe and even Gabon down the Atlantic) are minions comparatively, how has Nigeria brought them under her strategic sphere of influence for the larger objective of making the requisite economic and security capital? There is a vacuum there begging to be filled if only we can get our bearing right. We need quality alliances.

    Six: prisoners’ management How many Boko Haram prisoners are under the custody of the Nigerian state today? The other day, an obviously distraught Federal Government was apparently shopping for facility to keep about 47 prisoners. One would have thought that a special purpose penitentiary (SPP) would have been created somewhere in the Northeast in the last five years. We need help.

    Seven: judiciary and terrorism trials Just like the point above, how many Boko Haram terrorists have been tried successfully in the last five years? For a country that is almost prostrate, it seems nigh impossible to try any terrorists in this land. Nigeria simply lacks the capacity. In fact, until a few days ago, trying moneyed and influential Nigerians had almost become impossible.

    We need special courts, specialised security and of course, impregnable detention facilities. We saw the trial and jailing of former Egyptian president, Morsi and his murderous gang recently. He and about 500 of his men have been sentenced to die. That is the mark of a state that is alive and functional and got her world politics right.

    Eight: IDP management If any element in the skirmishes against Boko Haram exposed the weak underbelly of the Nigerian state, it is the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) crisis. A situation where a large chunk of the citizens are in ordinarily times, psychologically and economically displaced would give a pointer as to why the IDPs are doomed. Again, it is the capacity thing. Both funds and know-how are acutely lacking. We need help quick.

    Nine: the global economics of terrorism Why is Nigeria’s war against terror different from the wars going on in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen? Why is America and her allies spending huge defence funds in these countries; sending men and arms and ammunition to these places, yet have virtually shunned Nigeria? This is the question we must ask the people in White House and insist on honest answers.

    Ten: where there is no economy The reality for those who can see, is that there is little business left here now except petty merchandising. With enormous petro-dollars we had lacked the will and leadership to build a decent state girded by basic institutions, not to think of a modern state. Today, we have no bargaining chips anymore; we have no goods to bring to the market any longer. All we have is a horde of largely impoverished and half-baked population.

    What we need now is a smart leadership that appreciates our precarious condition and can create a platform for a massive Marshall Plan for Nigeria. None of such tokens as Power up Africa, AGOA or MDGs; only a Marshall Plan will do now.

  • Beyond Boko Haram

    Preamble

    This article was first published in this column in 2012. But despite its detailed analysis and the well researched impute of a prominent Nigerian of Christian faith in it, some religious charlatans who were seemingly sponsoring and benefitting from the Boko Haram carnage continued to insist on painting the truth black just to further enrich their evil benefit from that evil carnage. The exposure last year, of an illegal arms deal in South Africa by one of such foremost charlatans masquerading in the cloak of religion came to attest to the evil machination wrapped in the garb of religion by some Nigerian agents of Satan.

    With that landmark exposure and some subsequent revelations about the clandestine backers of the national calamity called Boko Haram, many readers of this column began to call for a repeat of the publication of this article. Thus, to oblige them the right of readership the article is brought back here today as found below:

     

    The Article

    “In the life of every nation, like that of every individual, there must be a time of tribulation. For truly religious people, such a tribulation is a test of faith and that of steadfastness. For an individual, passing or failing it depends very much on the strength of his or her faith and for a nation, the competence or otherwise of the leadership at the helm of affairs. Nigeria as a country is not an exception in this.

    For the past six years or thereabout, Nigerians have been forced to grapple with the intensity of an unprecedented insecurity culminating in bomb blasts continually but devastatingly killing and maiming human beings in their scores. This carnage which first began in 2006 with a major threat to the existence of Nigeria by some war mongering South-South youths has come to climax the decades of crises in the country engendered by economic, political, ethnic and religious motivations. And since the crises have constantly been engineered by government’s insensitive policies, it is instructive that the attitude of the same government towards those crises can hardly be suggestive of any serious readiness to proffer a permanent and sincere solution to them. The language that rents the air this time is ‘Boko Haram’. That language has virtually become a spectre putting both the government and the people on the run and giving them a fierce chase of their lives.

     

    Suffocation

    From whichever angle it may be perceived, Boko Haram is now a huge balloon of smoke oozing out of a protruding chimney and destructively polluting the air which everybody in Nigeria today is forced to inhale willingly or unwillingly. But unfortunately, rather than finding out the fireplace beneath the chimney that gives vent to the oozing smoke, the government just insists on dispelling the smoke even as the fire keeps burning. Granted that Boko Haram was inherited by the current regime just as the South-South militants’ menace was inherited by Yar’Adua regime that preceded this, nevertheless, the late President YarÁdua did not allow it to overwhelm Nigerians before finding a solution to it.

    The immediate past government’s idea of Boko Haram seemed to be quite different from what that evil body really was. In Goodluck Jonathan’s regime, Boko Haram became like a huge elephant surrounded by thousands of blind men. One could only describe the part he was able to touch on the body of the mammoth animal and not the whole of it. Without diagnosis, only a quack doctor would proceed to treat an ailment in a patient. But that was what Nigeria’s federal government under Jonathan did in respect of the Boko Haram’s carnage.

     

    Meaningful Research

    However, some serious-minded and sincere individuals who were convinced that the problem posed by Boko Haram was beyond mere surface scratching began to research deeply into the tap roots of that obnoxious body. One of such individuals was Jean Herskovits a female Professor of History at the State University of New York, USA who had been writing on Nigerian politics since the   1970s. The other was a well known and highly respected Nigerian Catholic Bishop, Mathew Hassah Kukah of Sokoto Diocese. But since both of these intellectuals held similar opinions on the issue, ‘The Message’ decided to bring the latter’s opinion because of Nigerians’ familiarity with his name and person.

    Bishop Kukah’s Disclosure

    Below is the verbatim text of Bishop Kukah’s public address on Boko Haram which was entitled ‘AN APPEAL TO NIGERIANS’. It was first published in   Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper of January 17, 2012. Please, read:

    “On the occasion of the Carol of Nine Lessons organized by NTA and Radio Nigeria on December 10th last year (2011), I was invited to deliver the message. I chose to speak on the theme, Do Not Be Afraid as a means of encouraging our people against the backdrop of fear and frustration that was mounting at the time. Since then, it would seem that things have gotten progressively worse in our country.

    In the course of my reflections, I sought to encourage my fellow citizens not to be frightened by the events of the time. I insisted that despite these tragic and sad events and the situation of our country, we needed to conquer fear. I argued that the message of Christmas was a message about the good news of the birth of the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, (God-with us) and the Saviour of the world. Against the backdrop of other developments in the country at that time, I concluded by calling on the federal government not to carry through its plans for the removal of fuel subsidy.

    Since then, things have gradually snowballed well beyond what one had either feared or hoped. On Christmas day, a bomb exploded at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, in Niger State, killing over thirty people and wounding a significant number of other innocent citizens who had come to worship their God as the first part of their Christmas celebrations. Barely two days later, we heard of the tragic and mindless killings within a community in Ebonyi State in which over sixty people lost their lives with properties worth millions of naira destroyed and hundreds of families displaced. In the midst of all this, on New Year’s Day, the President (Goodluck Jonathan) announced the withdrawal of fuel subsidy and threw an already angry and frustrated nation into convulsion.

     

    The Madalla Tragedy

    Right now, I feel that perhaps like the friends of Job (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar), who came to visit their sick friend and found the burden beyond comprehension, we find ourselves in the same situation. For, as we know, when they came and found Job in his condition, they spent seven days and seven nights, and uttered not a word (Job 2:13). Right now, no one can claim a full understanding of the state we are in. However, even if we cannot understand the issues of the moment, our faith compels us to understand that God’s hand is in all this. The challenge is for us to have the patience to let His will be done.

    The tragedy in Madalla was seen as a direct attack on Christians. When Boko Haram claimed responsibility, this line of argument seemed persuasive to those who believed that these merchants of death could be linked to the religion of Islam. Happily, prominent Muslims rose in unison to condemn this evil act and denounced both the perpetrators and their acts as being un-Islamic. All of this should cause us to pause and ponder about the nature of the force of evil that is in our midst and to appreciate the fact that contrary to popular thinking, we are not faced with a crisis or conflict between Christians and Muslims. Rather, like the friends of Job, we need to humbly appreciate the limits of our human understanding.

    In the last few years, with the deepening crises in parts of Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, and Plateau states, thanks to the international and national media, it has become fanciful to argue that we have crises between Christians and Muslims. Sadly, the kneejerk reaction of some very uninformed religious leaders has lent credence to this false belief. To complicate matters, some of these religious leaders have continued to rally their members to defend themselves in a religious war. This has fed the propaganda of the notorious Boko Haram and hides the fact that this evil has crossed religious barriers. Let us take a few examples which, though still under investigation across the country, should call for restraint on our part.

     

    An Instance

    Sometime last year, a Christian woman went to her own parish Church in Bauchi and tried to set it ablaze. Again, recently, a man alleged to be a Christian, dressed as a Muslim, went to burn down a Church in Bayelsa. In Plateau State, a man purported to be a Christian was arrested while trying to bomb a Church. Armed men gunned down a group of Christians meeting in a Church and now it turned out that those who have been arrested and are under interrogation are in fact not Muslims and that the story is more of an internal crisis. In Zamfara State, 19 Muslims were killed. After investigation it was discovered that those who killed them were not Christians. Other similar incidents have occurred across the country.

    Clearly, these are very troubled times for our country. But they are also very promising times. I say so because amidst this confusing debris of hate, anger and frustration, we have had some very interesting dimensions. Nigeria is changing because Nigerians are taking back their country from the grip of marauders. These stories, few as they may be, are the beginning of our song of freedom. Christians are now publicly crossing the artificial lines created by falsehood and bigotry. Let us take a few examples of events in the last week alone:

     

    Cooperation

    In Kano, amidst fears and threats of further attacks on Christians, a group of Muslims gathered round to protect Christians as they worshipped. In Minna and recently, in Lagos, the same thing repeated itself as Christians joined hands to protect Muslims as they prayed. In the last week, Christians and Muslims together in solidarity were protesting against bad governance and corruption beyond the falsehood of religion. Once freed from the grip of these dark forces, religion will be able to play its role as a force for harmony, truth and the common good.

    Clearly, drawing from our experiences as Christians, we must note that God has a message for us in all this. To elicit what I consider to be the message, I will make reference to three lessons and I know there are far more.

    First, these times call for prayer. At the height of our confusion during the Abacha years, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria composed two sets of prayers; one, Against Bribery and Corruption and second, for Nigeria in Distress. Millions of Catholics have continued to recite these prayers and we must remain relentless in the belief that God hears our prayers and that God’s ways are not our ways. We know that our Muslim brethren and millions of other non-Christians feel the same and are also praying in a similar way for our country.

     

    A Call for Solidarity

    Two, these times call for solidarity of all people of faith. We are a nation of very strong believers and despite what anyone else may say, millions of our Christians and Muslims do take their religion very seriously. However, you might ask, if that is true, why do we have so many killings in the name of God and of religion? My answer is that we have such killings because we live in an environment of a severely weak architecture of state which allows evil to triumph. It is this poverty that produces jealousy and hatred which leads to violence.

    We live in a state of ineffective law enforcement and tragic social conditions. Corruption has destroyed the fabric of our society. Its corrosive effect can be seen in the ruination of our lives and the decay in our society. The inability of the state to punish criminals as criminals has created the illusion that there is a conflict between Christians and Muslims. In fact, it would seem that many elements today are going to great extremes to pitch Christians against Muslims, and vice versa, so that our attention is taken away from the true source of our woes: corruption. As Nigerians, Christians and Muslims, we must stand together to ensure that our resources are well utilized for the common good. This is why, despite the hardships we must endure as a result of the strike, the Fuel Subsidy debate must be seen as the real dividend of democracy.

     

    Condemnation of evil Leadership

    Three, religious leaders across the faiths must indeed stand up together and face the challenge of the times by offering a leadership that focuses on our common humanity and common good rather than the insignificant issues that divide us. We therefore condemn in very strong terms the tendency by some religious leaders to play politics with the issues of our collective survival. Rather than rallying our people, some of our religious leaders have resorted to divisive utterances, wild allegations and insinuations against fellow adherents of other religions. In the last five or so days, text messages have been circulating across the country appealing to some of our worst demons. We are told that many senior clerics either believed or encouraged the circulation of these divisive and false text messages. We must condemn this for what it is; a grand design by enemies within our folds who are determined to destroy our country. Whatever they may call themselves, they are neither true Christians nor Muslims.

    For those Christians who have reacted in fear, they require conversion. If we wait for these evil men or women to decide when we shall stand for Christ, then we have surrendered our soul to the devil. If we fear to stand up for Christ now, let us remember that He has already said: Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my father in Heaven, Whoever denies me before others, I will deny him before my father in Heaven(Mt 10: 32). Again, Jesus warns that rather than fear at times of uncertainty, adversity or upheavals, we should be confident. He said: When these things begin to take place, stand erect; hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand (Luke. 21: 28). Furthermore, St Paul has assured us that; If we die with Him, we shall live with Him. If we endure with Him, we shall reign with him (2 Tim 2: 11-12). Surely, those who are asking us to go under our beds, to flee in the face of persecution must be reading a different Bible.

     

    Difficult Times

    These are difficult times but they are also times of promise. Our country has turned its back on all forms of dictatorships. Our hands are on the plough and we are resolutely committed to democracy. Like a Catholic marriage, we may not be happy but we cannot contemplate a divorce. God does not make mistakes.

    Although the freedom and growth promised by democracy are not here yet, we must remind ourselves that a better tomorrow is possible, a more united and peaceful Nigeria is possible. The challenges of the last few days have shown the resilience of our people and their commitment to democracy and a better life. We believe this is possible. The government must strive to earn the trust of our people. All sides must take lessons from the demonstrations and resolve to build a better and stronger nation. Let us hold on to the words of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI when he told the President, religious, traditional rulers and people of the Republic of Benin in the Presidential Palace on the 19th of November: Do not cut off your peoples from their future by mutilating their present….There are too many scandals and injustices, too much corruption and greed, too many errors and lies, too much violence. All peoples desire to understand the political and economic choices which are made in their name; they wish to participate in good governance. No economic regime is ideal and no economic choice is neutral. But these must always serve the common good”.

     

    • Address by Rev. Father Mathew Hassah Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese (first published in 2012).

  • PMB: If this not inertia?

    Is the presidency suffering inertia; that state of inability to take action? Has it been overwhelmed by the heavy weight of the office? Or even by the sheer depth of the rot it has uncovered in the polity? Is the country on auto-pilot now? Is President Muhammadu Buhari already weary even before he has started? These are the fears plaguing many Nigerians right now. Have we made a grievous mistake? Some have ventured to ask.

    Nigerians are right to be apprehensive. It is more than three months since Buhari won election as the president of this country riding on a momentum of change; and it is more than 30 days after he was sworn in. True, the nation is at the nadir of its existence, but the populace voted with near-unanimity on March 28, 2015, expecting instant change or at least, a well-defined roadmap for change. But more than 90 days on, the euphoria, the wave of positive energy that swept the president to power is fast receding into the sea from whence it came, it seems.

    Right now, nearly everything about the polity is flat and cold like overnight porridge. In 90 days after the election, many Nigerians have gone 360 degrees from high hopes of a new beginning to hopelessness and uncertainty. There are several good reasons for such regression. For a man who has been everything and has held literally all positions of authority in Nigeria (both military and civilian), it is difficult to understand for instance,  why the president cannot pick a Chief of Staff (CoS) in 90 days. He has also not been able to appoint other core backroom staff like Principal Secretary (PS) and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

    Not having these staff betokens that there is a vacuum and the state may well be on auto-pilot. Who has been taking notes of the activities of government so far? Would such notes, not taken by a statutorily recognised agent of government be valid under the law? The roles of these personal staff in helping even the president settle in quickly and dive effectively into his main tasks are trite. One quick example will suffice: the recent turf ‘war’ between the president’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) and his Aide-De-Camp (ADC) could be attributed to the fact that there is no CoS in the Villa who could have mediated and quietly resolved the matter before it became the public embarrassment that it turned out to be.

    Apparently the president saw a need to change the security architecture of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and perhaps, the entire presidential security order. This transition would have been effected quietly between the offices of the CoS, the SGF and heads of the various security arms. In the same vein, there is no doubt that both the security and military systems are in urgent need of cleansing.

    For instance the recent removal of the Mr. Ita Ekpenyong as director-general of the Department of State Security (DSS) could have been done immediately upon inauguration five weeks ago to pave the way for the total overhaul of the Service. It would have also served as a well-structured signal both to the DSS and Nigerians in general that the disgraceful conduct of the Service during the era of the former president did not go unnoticed and would never be condoned. Now, removing Ekpenyong under a situation of petty squabbles has beclouded and even diminished the cogency of the lessons to be learnt.

    This is just one example. We have seen the faux pas and double takes that have attended the appointments of new helmsmen at the DSS and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). These are matters the SGF’s office would have handled as a matter of routine and of course in consultation with his boss.

    In other words, PMB has absolutely no excuses not to have the offices of the PS, CoS and SGF filled by now. Who is working the engine room of governance? People who ought to be the president’s foundation staff would now have to be learning the ropes when they eventually come on board?

    No matter how long we wait to recruit these personnel, we are never ever going to source them from Mars. They will have to be humans and Nigerians. No human, how much less Nigerian is perfect but the president has the glorious power to hire today and fire the next day if necessary, without recourse to any other authority. This is all the more reason why we should have got down to work without much delay.

    The other day, we were told something about handover note deficiency and lack of cooperation by the out-gone government as reasons for the slow march. Later, the National Assembly imbroglio was touted. Nigerians are truly worried now. When the matter is raised these days in some circles, many would choose to be mum; many would look pleadingly wishing the topic was never raised or praying that it would be dropped immediately. Nigeria’s situation is too precarious to allow for a moment’s vacuum.

    Certain things cannot wait. Even if we cannot have ministers, matters like the fuel subsidy issue could have been situated; a forensic probe of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) ought to have been instituted almost immediately (and not this half-hearted panel of governors); the national intelligence corps ought to have been rebooted from May 29th to unleash preemptive measures on the Boko Haram insurgents. Boko Haram thrives still because of poor intelligence.

    Wild economic and market indices that had made a respectable genuflection upon the election of PMB have all straightened up defiantly once again. The naira exchange rate is one pointer. The president must set off the government without further delay lest disillusionment sets in completely among the populace. Nigeria cannot afford the luxury of such long time that the president demands. Consider the checklist of problems: electricity, fuel subsidy, fuel supply, leakages, budgeting system, inflation, compromised institutions, moribund LGAs, endangered economy, etc. These are urgent matters begging to be addressed.

    Finally, whatever grand vision the president may have, he still has to sell to his cabinet. For instance, the ongoing meetings with MDAs ought to have been with his new cabinet. In other word, he needs to be planning with his team from the outset.

  • Summary of facts

    At no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence more manifest than in Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth. Some people fasted actively last year but are no more today. Some put their feet at the door step of Ramadan this year but never entered it. Some fell by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the spiritual train with no idea of their destination in the month.

    Segments of Ramadan

    At the beginning of this sacred month, an analysis was done in this column classifying the 30 or 29 days of Ramadan into three segments. The first segment was said to contain the first ten days of the month during which the blessings of Allah came to the faithful Muslims freely and in abundance. Except for meeting that segment with faith and good intention, there was no working for it. That segment ended after 10 days paving way for the second segment that began on the 11th day of Ramadan.

    During the 10-day period of the second segment, most fasting Muslims intensified worship (Ibadah) by spending their days and nights seeking Allah’s forgiveness and by chanting Istighfar. But such forgiveness was neither automatic nor free. Usually, conditions were attached to it. One of such conditions was for every fasting Muslims to admit his/her misdeeds and repent of them. The second was to voluntarily and genuinely seek forgiveness. And the third condition was to resolve never to return to such misdeeds again. To seek Allah’s forgiveness during the month of Ramadan, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said that “if you want to speak with Allah, make your request on prostration. And if you want Allah to speak to you recite the Qur’an”. No one who abided by the above conditions and followed it scrupulously would ever be disappointed. Allah is both promising and fulfilling. He never reneges on His promise. In Qur’an 2:186 He promises thus: “…when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad) about me, tell them that I am very close to them. I answer the prayers of whoever seeks my favour if he prays to me (without any intermediary). So, let them expect my favourable response and trust in me so that they may be rightly guided”

    Midway Ramadan

    Those second ten days were not just to consolidate on the blessings of the first ten days, they were also to prepare the fasting Muslims for the last ten days when they are expected to be fully liberated from the evil machinations of any Satanic forces.

    Human life is not measured by the time or manner of his or her death. In Islam, death is neither the consequence of sin nor the repercussion of ignorance. There are instances when the sinless dies and the sinful lives. There are also instances when the learned dies while the ignorant lives. The schedule of life and death is not in the custody of any human being. Death is a debt which every living being owes and must pay.

    Not even Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was spared of death or given a foreknowledge of it. Allah ordered him to say in the Q. 10:49 thus: “Say I have not the power to benefit or to harm myself except what Allah pleases. Unto every nation is a fixed term. When their terms expire, they cannot delay it by an hour nor can they bring it forth before its time”.

    This is a verse of the Qur’an which the ignorant ones have severally quoted and interpreted according to their whim. In their imagination, they want the Prophet to claim infallibility to enable them call him a liar.

    Nostalgia

    Some people dream but never live to realise their dreams. Some look but never see. It is only in the imagination of man that age should be a factor of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time. Therefore, whoever is privileged to pass through this year’s Ramadan successfully should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after the sacred month. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

    In a few days time this year’s Ramadan will come to an end by the grace of Allah and we shall continue to look back with nostalgia to the good things we have done in the sacred month. For instance, we shall remember that in no other month of Hijrah calendar is the role of Muslim women more pronounced than in Ramadan. Like in other months, they display the roles of wives, mothers as well as that of their husbands’ confidants. But more than in other months, they exhibit their religious dedication in Ramadan.

    Even as they assist their husbands financially in maintaining the homes, they still take care of those husbands as well as the children and relatives domestically. At the time of the day when the husbands are knocked out by fatigue arising from fasting, the wives are still busy in the kitchen preparing Iftar for the household. At the time in the night when some husbands are engaged in Tahajjud, or are snoring in bed, the wives are already up in the kitchen preparing the Sahur for the family.

    Some of these women are pregnant. Some are suckling their children. Some of them are knowledgeable enough to do the Tilawah (recitation of the Qur’an) like their husbands. Some are even rich enough to finance the home fully or partially.

    And, in all these activities, they never feel tired. Where and when they feel tired, they never show it. If any month has ever depicted the virtues of women, it is Ramadan and the women activities in it. If for the reason of their activities in Ramadan alone, they deserve tenderness and dignified treatment in the hands of their husbands.

    We shall also remember the role of our children in the month and then endeavour to ensure the continuity of those rewarding activities.

    Allah’s greatest gift

    Children are Allah’s greatest gift to man. Their presence in a house is blessing. Their contribution is immense. Those are children for you. They can play the role of teachers just as they can do that of students. They learn fast, they teach fast. They are a major security for parents in any given environment.

    Children play both temporal and spiritual roles in a matrimonial life. And with such roles, they sometimes create hope for humanity and sometimes, they signal despair. They are the greatest asset in the possession of parents in time of peace. They are also the greatest weapon for those parents against the forces of Satan.

    Because of their innocence, they pave way for God’s forgiveness and quick acceptance of prayers. And, most importantly, children guarantee the continuity of man’s existence on earth. It is only with them that the fulfillment of today’s promise is possible tomorrow.

    In the Qur’an, children are mentioned many times and most often with reverence. They are treated in that glorious book as a major issue in the life of man. As orphans, they do not only have a role to play, they also compel some adults to play a role relating to them.

    As heirs to their parents, they have substantial shares in inheritance. Muslim children are like cubs. They follow very closely the footstep of their parents or guardians. They are often with their parents during the five daily prayers. They watch their parents as the latter give charity to the poor. They accompany them to public lectures and Islamic social gatherings.

    And, in Ramadan, children are part of the Muslims’ total spiritual package. They wake up with them at night. They fast with them in the day. They break the fast with them at sunset. They join their parents at Tafsir and night lectures. They participate in Laylatul Qadr and in giving Zakatul Fitr to the poor. Who can substitute the role of children in a matrimonial home?

    In all the above mentioned activities, children are supposed to be encouraged. At the tender age of seven, they should be guided to fast even if for half a day. And when they reach the age of 10 they should be strengthened in faith and in religious deeds. They should be provided with necessities of life both on the temporal and spiritual grounds. With these, they will grow up to become the fulfillment of their parents’ dreams.

    Most children grow up as good or bad Muslims by emulating their parents. A child is therefore what his parents make him. If advantage of Ramadan is not taken by parents to mould their children into good Muslims what other platform will be used? Your child is your sun. Make hay with it while it shines.

    Neighbours

    We shall also recall how we related to our neighbours, especially the non-Muslims among them in that month. In Islam, neighbours are as important as the next of kin. And, Islam attaches so much respect to them. According to Bukhari and Muslim, Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) was reported to have sworn by Allah three times saying: “he does not believe in Allah! He does not believe in Allah! He does not believe in Allah! And when he was asked who? He replied by saying: whoever creates fear in his neighbours atrociously”

    In another Hadith also reported by Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet was quoted as saying that “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day let him be nice to his neighbours and respect his guests”

    In the month of Ramadan a good Muslim is expected to wear a new toga of sobriety and repentance. He doubles his good deeds to his neighbours, extending generosity to them and cultivating a new atmosphere of friendliness and trust with them. He genuinely gives them as much impression of love and brotherhood as he does with his consanguine relatives.

    It does not matter whether those neighbours are Muslims or non-Muslims. Neither does it matter whether they are tribesmen or non-natives. The Prophet did not discriminate in his Hadith when he was admonishing on neighbours. And that is the inalienable position of Islam on neighbours. Whoever, had quarreled with his neighbours before Ramadan therefore, let him/her go and settle the quarrel.

    Besides abstaining from foods, drinks and sex, in the month of Ramadan, a good Muslim must mind his relationship with people around him, including neighbours. Fasting in the month of Ramadan cannot be taken in half measure. Whoever wants to receive full rewards for his religious activities in Ramadan should treat his neighbours well. And, when Ramadan is over, the good deeds must continue. Ramadan is not made a pillar of Islam by accident. Its purpose is to return man to the original state of purity in which he was created. That Allah entrusts the world to man is also not by accident. Allah consulted wide and far before entrusting this great responsibility to man having volunteered to bear it. This much is revealed in Qur’an 33:71 thus: “We offered the trust (of the world) to the heavens; the earth and the mountains they all turned it down and were afraid of it. Man undertook to bear it but he has proved to be insincere and deceitful”. For man to re-examine himself, repent his misdeeds and be redeemed, therefore, Allah brought Ramadan as a means of rescue.

    Needs and wants

    It is in the month of Ramadan that Muslims reconfirm NEEDS rather than WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives. Muslims, by their faith and orientation, are not, ordinarily, given to WANTS. They are more concerned about NEEDS than WANTS. The reason for this is not far-fetched. With NEEDS come contentment and satisfaction while WANTS are the cause of greed and avarice.

    Allah, the creator and Sustainer of the universe, had provided the needs of every living creature even before its creation. But then, He knew that of all those creatures man alone would go beyond NEEDS into the realm of WANTS. That was perhaps what informed the negative role which Satan assumed in the life of man shortly after the creation of Adam.

    By introducing WANTS to man, what Satan did was to create a permanent job for himself in the life of man. Without WANTS the world would not have been what it is today. Blood would not have been shed. Money would not have been deified. Hatred would not have been known to man. And, man’s inhumanity to man would have been totally averted.

    The effect of WANTS first became known when Qabil (Cain), the first son of Adam preferred his brother’s wife to his. In the argument which ensued, Qabil (Cain) killed his brother Habil (Abel) and combined the latter’s wife with his. Thus, greed and avarice became ingredients of man’s culture. And WANTS rather than NEEDS became the domineering factor in the life of man. These are some of the anomalies in man that Ramadan comes to correct every year. If you are a witness to it this year, utilise your experience maximally. You don’t know whether or not you will have that opportunity again. Ramadan Karim!

  • Navigating our bureaucratic quandary

    The civil service is indispensable to the successful outcome of government functions. As the institution charged with the design and implementation of government policies, its role cannot be overestimated and governments know that their success depends on an efficient and productive civil service. This is why democratic governments especially take seriously their relationship with their civil servants and defend them and promote their interests. And when they perform as they are expected to or beyond expectation, governments are not reluctant to sing the praise of their bureaucratic wing.

    Western Nigeria under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo was rightly boastful of having the best civil service in the country between 1954 and 1959. That was a time of mutual respect between government and civil service. Chief Simeon Adebo was full of praise for the team that Chief Awolowo put together, observing that the political leadership had a firm grip on its policy objectives, having done its homework, thus making it easy for the civil service to perform as efficiently as it did. Returning the favour, Chief Awolowo said that the Western Region was fortunate to have the best civil service in Africa with a clear focus on service delivery.

    The Western Region civil service model was possible because of the synergy that existed between the political leadership and the bureaucracy. Each of the pair had a good understanding of its role. Though design and implementation of policies are normally understood as the purview of the civil service, it was clear from the onset that Chief Awolowo and his team were on top of the design part and Chief Adebo and his team acknowledged this much. The Action Group adopted a welfarist policy thrust and the civil service was saddled with responsibility for implementation strategies.

    In its performance of its functions as best it can, the civil service of the old west made life livable for the citizens of the old west. From the implementation of the free education programme to the delivery of agricultural services, citizens not only enjoyed the benefits of their membership of the political community, they were also actively incorporated into participation in the affairs of their communities. It was this understanding of civil service as an effective partner of political leadership that the modern Southwest inherited from its immediate past.

    Beside the efficiency and commitment of the pioneer civil service cadre of the West, there was also the important element of judicious management of resources that characterised the administration of Chief Awolowo. The administration lived within its means and civil servants had no choice but to understand and live with the reality as enunciated by the Premier and his team. To this extent, the Western Region not only did not depend on the Federal Government, it also loaned funds to the central administration.

    It was a clear and unambiguous policy of that government that recurrent expenditure including its compensation budget must be kept to the minimum relative to its capital budget. This was understandable. At the time that Chief Awolowo took over, the infrastructural development of the region was at an abysmal state and he and his team were in such a hurry to carry out developmental programmes.

    Second, as a student of political economy, Chief Awolowo knew something about diminishing returns on investment. In this case, there was an optimal level of employees that the civil service could use and he made sure that it wasn’t exceeded. Of course, there were demands from political associates and perhaps, humanly speaking, he wasn’t able to dismiss all such requests for appointment. But the service was not bloated and it was not as unwieldy as we have it in many of our states and the centre today. It was the discipline of a leader that made it possible. The reward was that capital development took off in exponential terms under Chief Awolowo.

    Fast forward to the present, and the difference cannot be clearer. Surely, we have to also understand the difference in the demographics of the present vis-à-vis the past. One of the highlights of Chief Awolowo’s revolution was the development of education at all levels and the introduction of universal free primary education in 1955. This alone ensured that 12 years after, there was a four-fold increase in the number of available workers and naturally there had to be enormous pressure on the government as the single most important employer of labour.

    The trend has continued since then, especially with the return of party politics in 1979 and 1999. Both at the federal and state levels, it is common knowledge that we have a bloated and unwieldy civil service. Of course, these are relative terms. It is not the absolute number that makes an entity unwieldy; it is relative to the task and to its productivity. There was no question of diminishing returns in the 1950s and 60s. The task was enormous and the number was just optimal. It’s a different story now.

    One story is that the numbers in the books are not a true reflection of reality because of the existence of ghosts among the workforce in various ministries. Second, among genuine flesh and bone humans, a good number only appear for the sake of appearance with no visible work effort because there is none for them to do. For this group, the mornings are useful for good amala and gbegiri breakfast, while the afternoons are good for old-time gossips. In either case, the funds that could be used for developmental projects go into waste because those who take such funds immorally aren’t likely to use them to good end even for themselves.

    These all add up to the disproportionate recurrent budget vis-à-vis capital budget of the various states. Where a state’s compensation budget gulps a whopping 70 per cent of its total budget, leaving only 30 per cent for development purpose, there is something seriously amiss and civil servants should be the first to volunteer ideas for the reversal of such anomaly. Just as we find it unethical that the National Assembly has a budget allocation that is greater than that of many states of the federation, so it must be considered unfair that a State or Federal Civil Service should have a compensation budget that is two-thirds of its total budget.

    These observations can be misconstrued. I have not here advocated for the laying off of workers from the civil service, as I am fully aware of the dislocation this might cause. However, I know that this current situation cannot be sustained and therefore there must be a concerted effort on the part of the service itself to find a solution to the problem of productivity in the system.

    One solution is the rationalisation of the number of ministries and it appears that the Federal Government has taken the lead in this respect. Excess staff members can be reallocated to productive engagements within the system. There also has to be a new formula for measuring productivity and a pay system that rewards it accordingly. To say that the present system whereby the Federal Government has to bail out states in the matter of salary payments cannot be sustained is to state the obvious.

    There is no magic wand to reverse the unfortunate economic downturn in which we now find ourselves. For a start, however, the public sector must facilitate the development of the private sector and attract investors, foreign and domestic, through incentives, which include infrastructural development. Needless to add, this desirable approach requires huge capital investment with which our current bloated recurrent budget must have to compete. In the short run therefore, something must give, if we are to enjoy a lasting economic bliss in the long term.

  • LGAs: Can El-Rufai bite the bullet

    Therefore, I am happy to inform you that the government under my watch has formally abolished joint account in Kaduna State, there will be no more holding of local government funds under the pretence of joint account.

    “Added to this, I also wish to inform you that the government will do its best to be remitting 10  per cent of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the local government areas of our dear state. Like I said, we must deliver; we cannot let our people down.”

    This is Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, speaking to the Interim Management Committees of the 23 local government councils in the state. This column stands accused for being passionate (and blindly so if you like) over this issue and has been an ardent canvasser for this model. One was therefore buoyed beyond measure reading El-Rufai’s beautiful words. It is indeed the sweetest music one has heard in a long time.

    Should the governor abide by his words even by half, (that is, should he allow the LGAs even 50% of their fund) he would have achieved a huge paradigm shift and he would return after four years, as one of the greatest men who ever ruled a state in Nigeria.

    All Governor El-Rufai needs do is: one, he must find people of quality; two, make them draw up easily deliverable budgets to be agreed upon; three, institute some checks and make them accountable; and four, institute some form of competition among them (something like Annual Governor’s Award for the best LGA).

    The result would be an unleashing of massive integrated economic and social development in Kaduna State. With coordinated activities going simultaneously in all parts of the state, jobs will be created, youths will be engaged and crimes will reduce.

    El-Rufai will be surprised at the great quality of people we have in this country and he would indeed find that some of the LGA chairmen, if given the opportunity, can run the state far better than him. Nigeria is in such turmoil because LGAs have been allowed to atrophy these past 16 years. It is our fervent prayer that El-Rufai will by this move, spark up a revolution that will spread across the land.

  • Hashtagharsh truths for APC

    TO bite the bullet:There is no other way to do this than to administer a harsh, if not brutish therapy to the malaise afflicting the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The group is obviously suffering the scourge of an unexpected good fortune or shall we call it a sudden deluge of over-abundance. As noted on this page (“APC: The pains of success,” Friday, June 12, 2015), the ruling party obviously lacks a strategic core. For a party made up of a motley crowd of membership, it needs a core of multi-ethnic thinkers, brainstorming day and night, reviewing the past, dissecting the present and projecting into the future. Yes, 10, 20, 40 years into the future or as long as the party seeks to exist. A corps that can look the party leadership in the face and speak truth to it is lacking and that leaves APC, looking like a fractured market women association with so much noise and hysteria renting the air and beclouding clear thought.

    One recommends here, Mr. Audu Ogbeh’s recent interview (Sunday Punch June 28, 2015). There is hardly a more reticent, a wiser voice in Nigeria’s politics today. He attributed the rumpus in the APC to an absence of a Board of Trustees and lack of proper consultation. Yes a BoT with eminent and honourable members is okay but a think-tank is necessary in addition. Routine party palavers that would have been sorted out through basic intermediation has festered into a free for all ego feud and personalised acrimonies.

    Just as was the case before the PDP debacle and eventual crash; at the height of its calamity, a thousand members would proffer a thousand reasons why the party was inexorably headed for a great fall. Hardly anyone dared to tell President Goodluck Jonathan the harsh truth which was: that the cause of PDP’s problem was simply and squarely, Jonathan’s second term bid. Nobody in his circle dared tell him that his abject lack of honour would be the ruin of PDP. And those who told him (as this column did, and stridently too) were considered enemies of the state. But the grandest delusion of all is that till this moment, a PDP committee headed by Sen. Ike Ekwerenmadu is still hard at work seeking the reason PDP failed! Well the answer, again and again, is primarily, a lack of honour on the part of ex-president  Jonathan. And here is a poser: would PDP have failed if it fielded for instance, a Sule Lamido or Ibrahim Shema as presidential candidate?

    Same scenario may be playing out in the APC today; no group can look the party’s chief visioner in the face and make him realise that his seeming overbearing personality may be harming the party now.

    At the root of the trouble rocking the National Assembly (NASS) and threatening to bring the party to perdition is the perception that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeks to wield an absolute control over the polity. The unspoken angst is that he ‘delivered’ the president, he nominated the vice president and he sought to install the Senate president and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Whether right or wrong, this is the perception out there. The import of this and of course, the fear of members would be that if allowed, Asiwaju would exert an overly supreme control over the polity.

    With this in mind, it was easy for Senator Bukola Saraki, another turk of Nigeria’s power game simply rallied ‘aggrieved’ elements both within and without the party to resist this supposed Asiwaju dominance. This is simply at the heart of the brouhaha currently raging in the APC and any resolution not based on this premise would be an exercise in shadow boxing.

    Which way forward: who leads APC?It must be noted that for the first time, Asiwaju is encountering stiff challenge and resistance to his leadership since his ascendancy to the apogee of his political power. All through the AC and ACN years and up until April 28 this year, he had largely called the shots and had his way. Now, it’s a different ball game; it’s national politics now with all the intrigues and intricacies and especially so for a party that is still at best, an SUV. He must therefore, learn to share power, he must learn to wield power more graciously and most quietly. He must learn the art of quiet strengths. His power and influence now lie in their mutedness.

    Having helped immensely in killing the PDP dragon and ‘installing’ a  president of Nigeria’s desire, he has earned his place in history; he must be care full now not to unearn it. His best strategy now is to to backtrack, lead from the rear and allow the president to be in front. By virtue of the power and authority imbued his office, power locus has shifted; it is therefore trite to note that the de facto leader of any ruling party is the president and not the ‘party leader’. In fact, he is now president and party leader.

    The party must never be seen to be contradicting its president; not publicly, not even when he is wrong. That would diminish both the party and president. But this is what APC did when it would not toe President Buhari’s line of not interfering in the NASS election ab initio.

    The fallacy of party supremacy is exactly what it is.A ruling party can only be as supreme as its president allows it. Or can a party be openly supreme to a president. It is trite again to note that, there is party, there is the constitution, there are national institutions and there is national interest. We must situate this party supremacy in the context of all these centrifugal forces. Party power or supremacy, we must admonish, can only be effective in the context of quiet suasion, dialogue and negotiation. It hardly has any force to work by fiat, letters and ultimatums.

    Since the NASS debacle, a section of the party has lapsed into vilification and disparagement of APC members who would not submit to ‘party supremacy’. This is unfair and it’s recipe for breeding bad blood and catastrophe for the party.  Atiku Abubakar, for instance, is suddenly despicable evil and Bukola Saraki has grown horns overnight? Even our elder John Oyegun faces unkind blackmail. But when when these people were courted and enlisted in the battle to kill the PDP ‘monster’, they were ‘angels’; when they threw in enormous resources and delivered there various states and zones, it was cool. And now they insist on having a say in the sharing the ‘booty’, they are monsters?

    Buhari: how to groom a dictator There has also been a sustained badgering of President Buhari to wield his powers and ‘rein in’ the ‘errant’ NASS members. We must be careful what we ask for. We are asking the president to exercise direct control over NASS (in spite of his better judgment) by interfering in who becomes principal officers in the legislative tier of government. Is this not against the grain of democratic principles?

    Have we forgotten the mess former President Olusegun Obasanjo made of the PDP and the NASS during his days? Is this what we want in 2015? It is not political inadequacy or weakness for Buhari to have removed himself from the NASS imbroglio so far. On the contrary, it is a masterstroke that will earn him more respect from the NASS members and this is the kind of change Nigerians voted for.

    Many have criticised Saraki very harshly for working with PDP members and throwing up Ike Ekweremadu as deputy senate president. Galling as this may be to APC members, this may well be the greatest move APC has made even though by default. With north as president, southwest as vice president and middle belt (Yoruba) as Senate president; allowing the southeast deputy senate presidency in a multi-party arrangement could have turned out the most strategic move of the APC if they had played it well and appropriated the mistake.

    If only for the reasons that we need to unite the country, we need to spread the party further afield, we need to start preparing for the next election and we need to expand APC further into Igbo land. Besides, what manner of party would APC portray itself to be if at the end of the day there is no Igbo principal officer in the NASS? What would it look like if Yoruba had vice president and speaker while southeast and south-south has no position of note? Apart from the purposes of ceremony and protocol, deputy senate president is merely a symbolic gesture that is worth nothing in the scheme of things.

    Unknown to many, by the current arrangement in the NASS, APC is a stronger party, it has suddenly grown bigger in clout and more national in spread and outlook. Besides, another election will soon be here; APC must think long term. APC must convince Nigerians that the much-vaunted change is inclusive, expansive and not even about spoils and offices but about delivering value to the people. Just by the way: 30 days in office and it’s a harvest of bickering from the APC government!