The Nation Newspaper

Category: Steve Osuji

  • Good morning, Northern leaders

    What an epochal day it was last Monday when the first ever joint meeting of  the Northern elite was held under the auspices of the Northern Governors’ Forum; Northern Traditional Rulers Council; Arewa Consultative Forum and Northern Elders forum, among others. The Sultan of Sokoto, MuhammedSa’ad Abubakar III, must be commended not only for spearheading this landmark gathering, but for his frank, brutal words.

    This column had also written so much about the issues at stake in the North in the last five years. It will suffice to say ‘Good morning’ to this august gathering and reproduce below, an article written on July 31, 2015 under the title:#harsh-truths-to-northern-elite. Some points here may be helpful to the resolution drafting committee:

    About four years ago, (precisely July 29, 2011) I had written in this column that then fledgling Boko Haram was the shame of the Borno elite. Expectedly, I was vilified to no end. But little did we (yours truly, his readers and drillers alike) know that what was happening then was mere child’s play. Between 2011 and now, so much innocent blood has drenched the Nigerian soil to the point that atonement may be impossible. But the point remains now as then, that the extreme criminality that the terror of Boko Haram has become, is the shame of the elite of the North. This point must be made without equivocation.

    Three recent issues have warranted a reiteration of this view which is even more valid today. First is the ‘face-off’ between Governor Nasir el Rufai of Kaduna State and the beggars of Kaduna. The second is the new-wave sacrificial offering of nubile little girls in an endless festival of suicide bombings and thirdly, the recent $2.1 billion World Bank loan for the reconstruction of the Northeast of Nigeria.

    An elite in retreat The point today as I made it then is that from the period of the violent outbreak of the Boko Haram (BH) sect up to this moment, the elite of the North have failed woefully to put up a well-reasoned and concerted response to deal with the evil.  As the sect callously made an ocean of blood especially in the Northeast, the elite of the North, (religious, intellectual, political and business) even more callously favoured a tacit accommodation of the scourge for the first few years.

    Where was the funding for BH coming from? Where was BH drawing its intellectual and logistical resources? Who purchased the arms, ammunition, rocket launchers and the dozens of armoured carriers the BH deployed to overrun many Nigerian towns at a time? For a region that boasts of about half a dozen former heads of state; current and former governors; respected traditional rulers; hundreds of well-trained retired military officers and a good number of men of means in the land, not one committee has been set up to date to as much as give a thought to the BH tragedy.

    An initial acquiescence grew into fear and cowering. Hardly anyone was known to have stood up boldly to the gang in defiant condemnation. It was convenient for many leaders of the North to hide behind the North-South politics of the Goodluck Jonathan era. Some simply found comfort in their corners and said to themselves: “since he chose to ‘usurp’ power, let him stew in the juice of insurgency”. It did not matter that hundreds of their compatriots were daily wasted in the heedless blood fest.

     

    BH as brainchild of the northern elite The point must also be made clearly that BH is the creation of some leaders of the North. While it may be argued that it may be the unforeseen outcome of poor quality leadership and ineptitude in high offices, it is elite failure albeit. Of course the feudal system of the North continues to take its vicious toll, fuelled by an uncontrolled and exponential population growth. Further, while it was the trado-religious lords who held sway in the days of yore, today, the political class has taken over with even more deadly intuition. As we know, in feudalism, there are only kings and serfs; or the ruling class and the hoi-polloi; hardly any middle ground.

    In the mid-80s while one was on National Youth Service in Sokoto, it was a culture shock then to witness a horde of scruffy, unclad children invade the camp refuse dump each day foraging for food. That scene has lingered most graphically in one’s psyche more than 30 years after. We must admit that it is anunconscionable and indeed wicked elite that would look on as children roam the streets with begging bowls; feed straight from dunghills or even lead cattle from Maiduguri to Majidun!

    Between medieval and modern states The elite of the North must be told to make those hard choices between living in ancient times as it still subsists largely in the North now or building a modern country as we have in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, UAE and the rest of the Muslim world.

    This is where El Rufai’s feud with the beggars of Kaduna comes of note. He, in concert with his colleagues of the 19 states of the North must immediately abolish the pernicious almajiri culture (if indeed it can be regarded as culture). It must be the highest act of irresponsibility for a man and woman to sire children and set them loose into the world with begging bowls in hand. The wickedness of marrying off little young girls in the name of tradition MUST also stop. If you brought a child into the world, you must take some responsibility to rear him or her. This must be the essence of our humanity and the crux of a legislation being proposed here.

    El Rufai and his colleagues must enact – and if possible – a pan northern Nigeria law to abolish almajiri culture and under-age marriage tradition immediately. This singular legislation will greatly stem the social dysfunction in the North. We must begin to deliberately uphold and emphasisefamily values, child rearing and early education. Why has the local government system which ought to lift our rural population become near extinct in Nigeria?

    In the same manner, we must begin a phased abolition of nomadic life. It is ignorance that has pushed the Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders to seek to metamorphose into an alternate ‘army’ instead of a regional economic construct. Where in today’s world, dear reader, do people still lead cattle over thousands of kilometres just to make basic living? Not in many sensible places any more. The result is that they may have slaughtered more compatriots than cattle in the last five years mainly in a bid to fend off rustlers and defend against farmland owners as they take livestock through long trails.

    Again, El Rufai and his brother governors of the North must begin a concerted and expedited rethink of the milk, beef and hide economic value chains. Think for a moment that Nigeria imports almost 80 percent of milk consumed by her 170 population. Animal protein production in Nigeria is still an ad-hoc business while animal wool and processed leather are massively imported. This is multi-billion naira business.

    State governments can catalyse the livestock value chain and unleash the inherently huge economic potentials of milk, beef, leather and wool production. Countries like Argentina, Brazil and Australia would make good benchmarks. Let us develop ranches in the vast swathes of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna and even Niger. We could start with pilot schemes. Pastures are nurtured these days and many species of grass mature in weeks. Why arewe still trapped in pre-medieval nomadism?

    Again, a savage elite The North, let it be said plainly, has some of the richest people in the world. One could count at least two dozen individuals richer than their states: TY Danjuma, the Dangotes, the Dantatas, the Mai Deribes, the Babangidas, the Yar’Aduas, the Indimis, Sani Bello, Rilwan Lukman, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Atiku Abubakar, Ado Bayero and Abdulsamad Rabiu, to name a few. This is not discounting the numerous new-rich politicos; all the former governors for instance.

    The World Bank has granted a loan of $2.1 billion to revamp the Northeast. This class of northern elite in concert, probably has more net-worth than the World Bank, they can raise $21.1 billion for the same purpose. They must consciously resolve to help lift the North from its present morass of despair and sub-humanity. They can start a sustained change campaign on family values for instance. They can build early learning centres and primary schools in areas too remote for government to reach. There are a thousand and one ways they can give back to this earth that has proved very clement to them.

     When the nose cry, the eye cries too The people of the South of Nigeria may choose to be aloof and comfortable about the backwardness of the North, but that would be basking in blissful ignorance. The Federal Government has spent trillions of naira in the last five years battling BH. That is cool cash that would have been spread round the country on development projects. The World Bank loan mentioned above for the reconstruction of the Northeast will be paid back by you and I, for instance.

    But we need more than loans; we need elite change of attitude and resolve.

  • An expedition around ‘Biafra’

    Good morning agbero: I got some Biafra lessons or shall I term it Biafra treatment at a jammed bus terminal in Lagos last year. It was in the heat of the season between Christmas and early New Year. One was caught up in the usual bedlam that characterises the feisty period especially at bus parks. The family was going on home ahead, and to get them on a booked bus at the park was one helluva struggle.

    Fares had risen by between 100 and 120 percent (from about N5500 to between N8500 and 12000), depending on transport company. But service quality, if there were any, had dropped drastically as most transport firms were obviously overwhelmed by the throng of passengers.

    These companies with hundreds of bus fleet do not seem to understand that they need to employ well-trained managers and workers to run the business. Many still depend on or prefer drop outs and touts (agberos) to run what is a cash-churner. Poor scheduling, lax timing and lackadaisical attitude often mar what would have been the best quick turnover service business in Nigeria today.

    So in place of efficient and fluid movement of commuters and their luggage, what we have at most bus parks today is endless melee; bickering among frustrated passengers and listless workers. Having missed one’s scheduled departure by over two hours at the park; raw-nerved and testy, one got drawn into one of those ‘Biafra’ arguments that have become rampant everywhere one turned today.

    Biafra banters: “If we had our Biafra, there won’t be this kind of ‘mass return’ in the first place as most of us would be at home,” an able young man quipped near me. He could have been a passenger or a denizen of the park. He seemed dead serious and sure about his assertion and I, distraught and now unguarded, dove into the fray right after him.

    “You young people will not let us hear word about this your Biafra… were you there during the war; where is the boundary of Biafra; do you think you can survive in Biafra? Do you know the meaning of Biafra?”

    I had let out these salvos of questions before it occurred to me that I had goofed. There was a moment of silence as I became the object of attention of the motley crowd waiting to board. The mild morning harmattan wind filled the void.

    “Oga, if you say this kind of thing in Onitsha or Aba boys go carry you o!.” the quiet chill in the young man’s voice superseded the morning cold; the message was not lost on me and everyone around. I had already exited the arena mentally as a few other young men rushed in admonishing ‘Oga’ further as respectfully as they could manage. At the bottom of their argument is: we will eventually get Biafra peacefully or otherwise. Those who are bound to perish would perish anyway and the remnant would inherit Biafra. But more noteworthy, ‘traitors’ beware!

    Donald Trump is a ‘Biafran’! The Biafra fever is catching on almost all over Igboland albeit among the teeming underclass population. And the most moving, if ribald revelation one picked is that the air is thick with dangerous propaganda and mischief. An uncle who had heard me try to redirect some youths called me aside and asked declaratively: have you heard that Donald Trump has promised to recognise Biafra?

    I laughed unrestrainedly, loud and loose. “And you believed that?” I asked still laughing. “Well I don’t know for you people again,” he answered with resignation tinged with pain in his voice. I must have punctured his balloon.

    The intensity of the Biafra fervour and Nnamdi Kanu’s near deification today is a pointer to how much difference 20 months can make in the life of any people. Looking back over these months, it could be said that President Muhammadu Buhari has fed the Biafra monster so well he could almost be accused of being a member!

    For instance, if Mr. President had determined to reciprocate with only 3% federal largesse for the supposedly 3% votes from Igboland, he needed not have made a global proclamation of that point. No man announces the disownment of a son who still lives under his roof. It is this ill-humour that may have governed the president’s abominably skewed security team and overall personnel.

    It is a team that gives him no benefit of a balanced advice; and indeed, would kowtow to his idea to lay siege to a territory considered hostile to his government. Thus military ‘operations’ (e.g. Python Dance) were heedlessly unleashed where mere improved policing was needed.

    Fashola magic? Notwithstanding, in recent memory, the road to Biafra land may be said to have been the smoothest this last festival. From Lagos all the way through Shagamu, Ijebu-Ode, Ore, Benin (by-pass) Agbor, Asaba, Onitsha, down to Owerri bear marks of certain responsiveness. FRSC would probably report fewer accidents along this route this time.

    Those who knew these roads would remember when we would detour into thick forests only to resurface on the highway a couple of kilometres ahead. The hitherto horrific portions of these roads bear patches of fresh macadam, a testimony that indeed, someone is at work. And reconstruction work (which started in the last administration) is ongoing at Ondo-Ogun axes.

    All these, it must be said, bear the imprint of the indefatigable Babatunde Fashola who be-straddles three ministries including Works. Would he deliver the 2nd Niger Bridge before 2019 and that may well be the most strategic political statement this government would have made in ‘Biafra’.

    The annual movement of (conservatively) five million people eastwards is a phenomenon requiring a detailed study as a model of development. Though the region still remains rustic and uncharted and power supply its bane today. The place is largely in darkness being under the vice grip of an egregiously lax power firm.

    How a power ministry in Abuja can coordinate power supply in Umunze or Umuchoko must be one of the wonders of modern times. And how one distribution company would deign to light up about 10,000 communities across five states is one of the numbing incongruities of modern Nigeria. Until we elect to tweak our various systems and make them smart, we will continue to wallow in needless abjections.

     

    IDPs bombing: bumble, bumble

    It’s scary. When you think this GREAT WAR is about over and someone sensible would work out a closure, worse things happen. One is really troubled that this government may lack the capacity to properly defeat the REAL enemy elements in the Northeast of Nigeria.

    What manner of a national Air Force would drop bomb on a crowded place whether they be displaced people or a village square? Even if it were a Boko Haram settlement, the NAF jet could not have been under any serious rocket attack so why pulverise the target below? Even if it be a BH enclave, did the bomber isolate the women, children and perhaps the Chibok girls therein? There is surely more to this bombing…

    The same way there are hundreds of unanswered questions on the so-called terror ‘war’. Who are we still “seriously negotiating” the release of the Chibok girls with? Who has the N500m voted for the repairs of the Chibok girls’ school? Who are the financiers and masterminds of BH? Who is in charge of the IDPs camps and the rehabilitation of the Northeast? What do Borno Elders know about this crisis they are not telling the rest of us?

    One is afraid that this so-called ‘war’ will never end at this rate…

  • Fast-forwarding to 2019…

    How cruel time can be: the ultimate mirage that hounds weary travellers, the albatross of the slothful. To think that there is just one year separating today and the next election! Seems like yesterday when President Muhammadu Buhari was ushered into Aso Rock with so much fanfare and goodwill. It was as if Nigeria just won her independence anew.

    If he wasn’t a Messiah, he must have been a good clone – that was the feeling in the air May 29, 2015. But what a downer it turned out to be, what a crushing disappointment the PMB presidency has turned out to be so far for most Nigerians. Not only that he has not delivered much, it does not seem like he would be able to in the brief period left.

    Though about two and one half years are remaining, they are brief because the President has spent his best years in office. The first two years are usually the best times for work in a four-year tenure and any governor or president who misses the high and tide of this period would have little to report at the end of his tenure. By the end of this year, 2019 politics would have heated up the polity so much that it would take a superhuman not to be distracted in pre-election year.

    Crucial lessons from our recession: But this article is not an attempt at 2019 punditry; the title above may well be a bit misleading. It is about the lessons this government and indeed, Nigeria must learn from the adversity of our recession. And indeed, it would be a most cruel thing to happen should we miss these lessons. And perhaps more crucial (ironically) to PMB and his team is that learning these lessons quick would determine the outcomes of the 2019 general election.

    The first point we must realise and acknowledge (though a tough task) is that this administration brought the lingering recession on itself and the polity. A little bit more perspicaciousness would have mitigated if not averted our current dire economic situation.

    Yes the oil price plunged, but we knew that since 2014 and it was predicted much earlier. The new government was supposed to come with a response to that major paradigm shift? But even till now, no coherent response to such crucial matter.

    Second, this government picked a poor cabinet made up largely of people who cannot buck the trend. It may be argued that number one does not create an enabling environment for exco members to soar but a performer is one who could rise above even the worst adversity. Not one cabinet member has shown that trait so far.

    Three, the foreign exchange challenge became a debacle. Nobody fights against powerful interests headlong without getting hurt. It is commonsensical that you need the wiles (not to mention grace) of a David to take on a Goliath. Un-floating the currency ought to have been a gradual, tactical process. There are always conditions precedent; but the administration proved to be blank on all these. More on this later.

     

    N5000 stipend: A scam foretold

    This column would want to wager that two years down the line, this specious scheme would have come a cropper. The scandal will hit the ceiling and the world would hear how some ‘cabal’ or ‘syndicate’ legitimised a huge scam in the guise of empowering the poorest Nigerians. We speak of the so-called Social Investment Programme (SIP) recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari to pay N5000 to the most poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

    For a government that lacks the will and capacity to accurately enumerate its workforce even in this electronic age; that is plagued by hundreds of thousands of ‘ghost’ workers; how can it deign to identify the poorest Nigerians across our vast, unwired hinterland? What is their number; can this stipend really empower; can Nigeria afford it; for how long?

    Let us admit that PMB and his party probably mean well, but it is curious that they mis-diagnosed the ailment. They are trying to resolve through the backdoor, the complete collapse of local government administration in Nigeria.

    PMB had vowed during inauguration to get the LGAs to work, but he has been unable to apply his mind to it so far. If nary half of accruable monthly revenues are applied in the 774 LGAs, the economy of these units would thrive and there would be far less wretched people in our land.

    PMB must make the LGAs work. The poor need work, not dole.

  • Bogus budget in recession time

    When one hears government spokespersons announce so magisterially that “government has no money”, one tries not to choke. One often concludes that the speaker is either starkly ignorant about government revenue streams; he is being smart by half by projecting falsehood; or worse still, he is just parroting what he has been told, not knowing any better. It could well be that all these scenarios are true of such a person in which case the situation must be considered calamitous both for the spokesperson and the nation.

    To buttress the point that money has never been the problem of this administration or any other one at that, let’s take a look at how the Federal Government and some of its agencies have appropriated funds for the 2017 fiscal year. A cursory look at some items in some proposed and even appropriated budgets will make one think there is no one in charge of the country’s budgeting process.

    If appropriation documents had been poorly prepared in the past, the situation has not changed one bit today. Who really is responsible for our national budget? Whose duty is it to take all the estimates from all federal agencies and run through them with a fine-toothed comb? If we are serious about running our economy and developing this country, it starts with preparing quality financial plans first and secondly, rigorously implementing them.

    What really is the job of the Ministry of Budget and Planning with thousands of workers at its behest? We already know the quality, capacity and character of the Appropriation Committee of the National Assembly, going by the padding-gate of 2016. So apart from the fact that no one seems to apply some rigour to ensure that realistic figures are presented, there may well be a ‘syndicate’ both at the executive and legislative ends engaged in venal manipulation (padding)  of the budget figures for their benefit.

    While the budget padding scandal of last year is yet to blow over, what seems to manifest this year are bogus and outlandish figures littering the estimates from most Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). One needs not be an expert to detect that some of these figures are out of this world.

    Let us take a few examples. The figures from The Presidency and State House’s proposals are most distressing. First, a total sum of nearly N43 billion has been out-laid for the State House Abuja. This in itself proves nothing but the bogus detail is what is troubling.

    Maintenance of Presidential jets is allotted N2.4 billion. Straightaway, what is the President still doing with so many aircraft when two will suffice? If we are in a recession and we are told the treasury is dried, why are we spending money in this manner? Many airlines in Nigeria and Africa do not have six aircraft in their fleet. So why would President Muhammadu Buhari continue to allow such stupendous waste of public funds in maintaining aircraft in this lean period?

    Apart from spending so much on jets, the 2017 budget also has another N1 billion for the President’s domestic and foreign trips. There is N123 million for feeding of the first family in 2017 and another N100million for canteen and kitchen equipment in the State House.

    If you thought the State House and Presidency bandied bogus figures for exotic menus, consider these from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The apex bank has approval to spend N3 billion on lunch in 2017. Other curious heads are: N44 billion for administrative expenses; N298 billion for operational expenses; N3billion for development expenses; N9 billion for strategic initiative and N4 billion as contingencies.

    CBN has also set aside N40.4 billion for 60 intervention projects across higher institutions and even secondary schools in Nigeria. And how about this: CBN has earmarked N760 million for rebuilding Nyanya Motor Park; N3 billion for intervention in military barracks across six zones, among other curious ‘intervention’ projects.

    And we ask? Just because the CBN is headed by a governor does that mean he has become a state governor? Apart from what looks like a reckless ‘bandying’ of figures in the guise of budgeting, is the CBN not overreaching itself and encroaching on the duties of the federal cabinet? Is the CBN not supposed to remit earned revenues into the federation account?

    Two other agencies have recession-debunking estimates. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may also be guilty of bogus budgeting as well. FIRS is spending N590 million on refreshments and meals; N750million on fuelling generators, N400 million on electricity charges and N750 million on cleaning and fumigation; N3.5 billion on local travels, just to mention a few unsettling headings in a litany of incongruities. NCC has allotted itself a hefty N2 billion for travels; N9 billion for school support programme and N2.2 billion for subscribers database management.

    Though one is aware that often there is a gulf between estimates and accrual, or between approved figures and available cash for release, it is apparent that these estimates are far from realistic and these budgets are remarkably untidy. And this tardiness, nay, manipulativeness, if you like, runs across the MDAs.

    From the foregoing, there is no sign whatsoever that there is recession in the land. The second point to be made here is that there is no sign that our budget or even the economy is under anyone’s rigorous purview. For agencies that have annual budgets much bigger than many state governments; you would think someone responsible takes a critical look at their appropriations.

    We conclude that if these seeming abominable figures have been passed by NASS, then we are truly in troubled times and I fear for this administration.

     

    The fall of Sambisa Republic

    There was no end to the back-slapping and rejoicing a few days ago over the eventual ‘conquest’ of the Sambisa forest by Nigeria’s military. The way the hurrahs went Sambisa could have been another country. But it is only a forest reserve which was abandoned by wayward governments. Now it took our entire military over five years to reclaim it from hoodlums who could not resist annexing a vast unmanned territory.

    But what an anticlimax; it was like making love without orgasm. Sambisa was touted as the impregnable Boko Haram garrison headquarters. If all the rascals escaped by night, where are the APC tanks, the heaps of arms and ammunition and the Hilux pick-up vans?

    Most importantly, where are the rest of the Chibok girls? Where are the kingpins, the financiers and the ones holding the Chibok girls? Where are the Boko Haram leaders we purportedly negotiated with recently? Who are the negotiators? If the Chibok girls are not in the forest, it means they are kept in some houses somewhere in Yola, Bauchi or heavens know where? Or what are we to think now?

    Several times the military told us they had killed Shekau, now it is almost certain Shekau may well be an apparition we have spent millions of dollars chasing after. Let someone stop this Boko Haram heist please!

  • EXPRESSO People – 2016

    EXPRESSO People – 2016

    It is time again to cast a glance at the outgoing year and situate it in the annals of events. For this column, it is time to present to you the people who have impacted on this column most positively.

    EXPRESSO People are those rare and select men and women – preferably Nigerians living here – who have brought hope, gladness and much cheers to the lives of Nigerians. By their actions and utterances, they have inculcated in the rest of us, sustained belief and hope that our fatherland may yet find that compass to navigate out of troubled waters.

    Our people for 2016 are, (in the order mentioned) – Peter Obi, Akinwunmi Ambode/Atiku Bagudu, Genot Rohr, Shehu Dikko and Mark Zuckerberg.

    Peter  Obi: Shifting

    leadership paradigms

    If this former governor of Anambra State were in a better ordered society, he would stand behind pristine rostrums almost every other week, picking up awards, presenting lectures, being appointed to academic positions and generally chairing different forums that push the frontiers of knowledge in organisational and administrative leadership.

    For eight years of leading a troubled and dishevelled state, he displayed rare and outstanding qualities that are uncommon among governors in these parts.

    This column had always followed his trajectory over these years and would unabashedly raise his banner. But Nigeria, and indeed the world seem to have come to a sudden realisation of Mr. Obi’s especial prowess last October when he gave an independence lecture at Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos. The world cottoned to what this column had described as The Peter Paradigm. The media – traditional and new – was agog, astounded at Obi’s phenomenal exploits.

    Obi’s is a long story that is yet to achieve denouement; it is a refreshing oasis in a parched, unforgiving desert that will require a tome to properly articulate. Suffice to present here in bullet points, a few markers that made up the story.

    • Obi believes that the bane of Nigeria today is official wastefulness and licentious breach of public treasury.
    • During his tenure, he contained and indeed abolished the illegal Office of the First Lady, which remains a huge drainpipe in most states to date.
    • Apart from drastically cutting the pervasive wastes and expansive frivolities that have permeated Nigeria’s governments across board, he ensured accountability in public procurements, eschewed the self-aggrandisement associated with the so-called security votes and Government House overheads and curbed the excessive and wanton revelry of the executive office.
    • While almost all governors bequeathed huge debts and unpaid salaries and pensions to their successors, Obi did not only refuse to borrow a dime in eight years, he made mandatory savings every month he was in office.
    • As if he foresaw the 2014 crash in crude oil prices and attendant recession, by the time he left office that year, he had accumulated savings amounting to billions in naira and foreign currencies, fixed in various financial instruments both local and international. This was unprecedented as

    other governors were hankering after securing huge foreign loans.

    • His state Anambra was no less developed than any other state. Indeed, he outperformed his contemporaries in integrated provision of social amenities, in ensuring he built the best network of tarred roads; making Anambra’s candidates tops in most national entrance examinations in his time, among other feats.

    As has been noted above, the Peter Paradigm is a book in the making, which could redefine governance in Nigeria and the developing world.

    Ambode/Bagudu: 

    forging a phenomenal tie

    It is not certain whose idea it was, but that will not matter now. The outcome is even more phenomenal that the two men have become folk heroes not only in their states, but to Nigeria.

    We speak of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State and his Kebbi State counterpart, Atiku Bagudu. Both leaders have risen as one and created a beneficial synergy not known in Nigeria. Kebbi in Northwest of Nigeria is a major rice grower, while Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria in the Southwest, is perhaps the biggest market for rice in Africa. It is said to consume about N135 billion worth of rice per annum.

    It is thus a commercial marriage made in heaven. While Kebbi invested in inputs and farmers, Lagos invested in modern mills. And what difference just one year of two planting seasons can make. This novel wedlock has produced LAKE (Lagos/Kebbi) rice and it is poised to become the major brand in Lagos soon by its bold entrée this season. Here are some points to note concerning the grand initiative of these two honorees:

    • This is probably the first time Nigeria is witnessing this manner of interstate business alliance and across two tribes. To think that most of such regional collaborations have failed.
    • This is a practical and working example of the much touted diversification.
    • While we commend Governor Ambode for seeing an opportunity hundreds of kilometres away and reaching for it, we also applaud Governor Bagudu for his open-minded embrace of the programme. They both have lifted our spirit.

    These two men are on to something grand and noble and we urge them to work harder at it. We expect them to keep fine-tuning the value chains so that by the second and third year, LAKE Rice would have flooded the huge Nigerian market preparatory to taking on the world.

    Gernot Rohr:

    A roaring magic

    This self-effacing Franco-German football tactician has brought sunshine to our faces once again. Before he literally sneaked in to handle Nigeria’s senior national team a few months ago, the team was nearing disaster. Regardless of boasting of competent professional footballers playing across the world, Nigeria’s team, the Super Eagles, seemed perpetually stumped and struggled with even the worst teams in Africa.

    Today, Nigeria’s senior national team under him is a roaring success so far. Three matches in the World Cup qualifiers and he has already achieved what can be termed a roaring success, opening a near-unassailable lead even in a ‘group of death’.

    More remarkable, the Super Eagles play today with the sure-footedness of a true giant of Africa as well as displaying an exciting pattern of play long forgotten. And he is so unobtrusive and so good natured about his work and his initial successes. With Rohr, we can say bring it on once again!

    Shehu Dikko:

    Thumbs up to the LMC!

    Even though Nigeria’s football house may seem to be in perpetual twirl, the League Management Company (LMC) seems to be grinding out commendable results.

    Chairman Shehu Dikko and his team at the LMC have in the past few years been managing Nigeria’s local league and they have increasingly been making a good job of it. Recently, it presented its financial report – a rarity here -and it declared surplus, an even rarer rarity.

    Take a bow Dikko and the LMC crew, you make this column proud, keep working at it.

     

    Mark Zuckerberg: 

    The coming of the Mac!

    Zuckerberg, the god of Facebook fits in here because of his celebrated visit to Nigeria this year. At a time when the US and British governments were issuing safety warnings about Nigeria, Mark’s coming was tonic.

    More notable, he worked the street of Nigeria ‘un-garrisoned’, partook in Nigerian delicacies and donated seed money to some emerging digital hubs run by Nigerian youths.

    Expresso is wowed indeed by Zuckerberg and the entire EXPRESSO PEOPLE

     

  • Five Christmas hampers for PMB

    Never did Nigerians have a bleaker Christmas than this; except during the war perhaps. But that of course, would be understandable. But for the discerning, the people of this country are under fire – and this is not a mere literary expression. Raging underneath the psyche of the generality of the populace are painful psychological torments, emotional distress and mental dishevelment. The sheer weight of hopelessness – you just don’t know what tomorrow would bring – bogs down everyone regardless of tribe or tongue.

    This has impacted on Christmas, robbing it of its cheers and its sight and sounds. What a drab, dreary Christmas it has turned out to be. “Not even a grain of rice has anyone sent my way this year,” a senior journalist quipped when ribbed about Christmas hampers. But regardless, this column would package five baskets of bounteous hampers for President Muhammadu Buhari for his Yuletide enjoyment.

    Let it be noted that this is a mere recap, as most of these points have been raised here previously since PMB’s ascension last year.

    Of insular mien and economic aridity: We have learnt by now that PMB is naturally insular and devoid of much mirth and cheers; no man learns to use the left hand in old age so we live with that. But a smile here and a back-slap there could work like magic wand untying even the knottiest of national issues.

    But we ask: has this ever so inscrutable mien in anyway translated to the arid state of our economy? First, there is a mind-bending discordance in the polity but it is much more pronounced in the economy.

    We all know that the oil sector is crucial in several respects. For instance, the National Bureau of Statistics just announced that Nigeria spent about N960 billion importing petrol-fuel products in the first five months of this year. Though this figure is far lower than we did last year, the full import is that we may be spending about N2 trillion importing just petrol fuels in one year. Petrochemical products not inclusive.

    You would think that government would speedily respond to a hobbling problem like this. But up till now, there is no clear-cut policy on refineries. Only this week, Ibe Kachikwu (minister) said one thing and Maikanti Baru (NNPC) said the direct opposite concerning the refineries.

    Feckless FEC: The above point dove-tails into the second basket of hamper. This Federal Executive Council (FEC) must be the most unpurposed and ineffectual in recent history of presidential cabinets. No bright spark of light, no x-factor and one cannot find anything to cheer or commend.

    As noted here recently, 18 months was the time it took Mrs. Stella Oduah to almost conclude a massive overhaul of about 12 airports across the country. But 18 months of PMB’s administration, the aviation sector is on the verge of collapse and some of the huge projects Oduah initiated are uncompleted if not abandoned. We don’t even know who the Aviation minister is. This is just one example; it is the same in every ministry and sector. Poor and uninspiring as former President Goodluck Jonathan was, apart from Stella Oduah, he had the likes of Prof. Bath Nnaji, who was replaced by an equally up and doing Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui at FIRS and Dora Akunyili at the initial stage. All these people earned big wins for Jonathan in spite of himself. No such performer with PMB so far.

    Graft war as a non-starter: PMB’s determination to dredge the swamp of graft in our system is also stumped. One and a half years down the line, the method being applied has become humdrum if not stupid with not ‘bankable’ result.

    This column has shouted itself hoarse on this issue and there is no point sounding like a bad gramophone. Even the office of the Attorney-General is lacking in both intellectual and institutional capacities. One example though that bears repetition: the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation is the key to fighting official graft if equipped and empowered. If this has happened, we should have its first report now.

    The rise of a power cabal: Obviously, a cabal has emerged which has managed to sequester the president and drive the presidency. Nothing wrong in such power games, except when the cabal is unenlightened and myopic. A selfish, clannish and power-mongering cabal will only breed ill-will for the presidency and engender endless crises in the polity. Unfortunately, this is where we are now.

    INEC/election conundrum: This crucial task has already been mired by the presidency. The appointments, from the headman to the recent national commissioners, are on the face of it, unenlightened, to say the least. It is doubtful if this team has the perspicacity to reform our electoral process or even conduct credible elections. Sad.

    Something salutary though: Let us concede, though grudgingly, that there are some stirrings in the agric sector. It is still very insignificant but it is a start. There is still massive importation of food and not enough is being done to push back that scourge. We should ban importation of rice, poultry products, vegetable oil, fish, milk, in the next one year for a start and drive local production and substitutes more seriously.

     

     

    Military siege to Southeast

    Just as suspected, the dance of the ‘python’ in this festive period in Igboland has been a source of pain and sorrow. Early travellers for the Yuletide have reported most punishing military checkpoints, especially from the Onitsha head bridge. This has caused many people to stay overnight on the road. Even the Nigerian Customs Service has joined the bazaar.

    This is very provocative. Compared to Kaduna, Taraba, Zamfara, Adamawa, Nasarawa and even Benue, the states of the Southeast are very peaceful. Kaduna has been a killing-field with ethnic militia better armed than the army. One is not aware of any military operation going on in any of these places.

    Apart from ‘Operation Python Dance’, there is another ‘Operation Show of Force’ going on in Aba right now. The precedence and implications of this are far-reaching.

    But most telling is that in all of this, the military is contriving to usurp the powers and duties of the police. The police should be empowered to do its duties around the country. Period.

     

    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

  • Why this ‘great’ budget may fail

    Of Growth and recession: one small question first: who is it that christens our budgets? Must we go through that ritual of naming our budget every year? For instance, this outgoing year 2016, we named it “Budget of change.” But as we all have witnessed, not much changed for good. Instead we soon lapsed into the worst kind of recession ever witnessed in our history.

    And we wonder if it is the same fellow who christened the 2016 budget who has also announced so gleefully that this one would be “Budget of Recovery and growth?” Pray what are the bases of his optimism? If he failed so woefully in envisaging the current crushing economic condition that has roiled Nigerians in the last three quarters (and still rages without let), how can we now trust his judgment that the next one year will usher in recovery and growth?

    What this suggests is that ab initio, the requisite rigour has not gone into this budget yet again. Yes the figures look nice and the content reads well, but many basic assumptions are poorly thought out and terribly flawed. To assume that Nigeria and her economy will move from the current pits of recessional mire into recovery and growth in the next 12 months is preposterous.

    Further indications of a lack of rigour and hard-headed analysis of prevailing economic trends are inherent in the indices applied in the budget projections. First, when was the last time anyone bought dollars in the open market at N305, which this budget is predicated upon? The current budget was premised onN197/$, which was a near-fatal error. Funding the wide (indeed wild) margin between the artificial budget rate and the real thing was enough to torpedo the entire budget.

    We have made the same mistake again this time. Has anyone bought dollars in the open market for less than N400/$ in the last six months? In an economy that thrives almost 90 per cent on imports, the difference between N305 and N400 will damage any budget projections. Why don’t we keep it real, why not benchmark the budget at 405/$ and we brace ourselves and take the punch on the chin?

    Similarly, what is the basis for using crude oil production estimate of 2.2 m barrels per day? When was the last time Nigeria hit the two million barrel mark? With the uprising in the Niger Delta not abating soon and so many shut-ins already recorded, what magic are we going to apply to produce this quantity of crude oil in 2017? With our refineries still not amenable to repairs, massive importation of numerous petroleum products will continue in 2017. Power outage, which is at the lowest ebb now, is likely to persist since solution is tied to pacifying the militants of the Niger Delta.

    It is a tough new year ahead in which we think the government will continue to be bogged down by a shortage of foreign exchange. Importation of common staple food, such as rice, poultry products and vegetable oil, fish and sea food will keep pressure on lean forex.

    Then again, the management of the little resources available to the government is starkly inefficient. The treasury still leaks like a bad basket in spite of the much-vaunted fight against corruption. Civil servants, politicians and their collaborators have rewired the system and are back to their sordid business.

    If the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal, can be so accused of massive fraud by the Senate and at that level, what is going on down below can only be imagined. The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has failed to drastically re-jig the critical institutions to have them ‘fight’ corruption. Instead, Mr. Ibrahim Magu has been a one-man riot squad chasing corruption in all directions and achieving little. Where, for instance, is the crucial Auditor-General’s Office in this fight against corruption?

    There persists a leadership void; PMB appears weary if not worn out. There is no high mind with a bird’s eye view of the economy to lead it. Everyone seems to run in different directions and the Finance Minister, who came with no clouts, has been further hamstrung and circumscribed so much she may be no better than a cashier now. The cabinet is a largely uninspired bunch, weak and seemingly alienated from ‘number one’. It appears a narrow-minded cabal is currently running the affairs of the state.

    But as noted in the title above, this budget has the potential of being a great budget in ordinary times when all the elements are well mixed. For once, both recurrent and capital expenditures are almost 50-50. This must be the first time we have this parity in over a decade. It had always been in the region of 70-30 in favour of recurrent expenditure. This meant that we had been ‘eating’ our resources instead of building our economy.

    Finally, deciding a huge pay out to local contractors; paying up official debts owed power distribution companies and making it a state policy to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods are policies that will go a long way in boosting the economy if pursued to logical conclusions.

    It must be stated that much of the bottleneck lies with the president and the presidency. He must empower his cabinet to deliver and he must quickly axe the incapable hands. He must tweak his narrow mindset to be more accommodating and do everything necessary to reconcile the polity.

     

    Frazzled Fashola

    It was not the smartest move in the first place to make a combo of three large, crucial ministries including all the departments and agencies in their fold and put them all under one man. Yes, former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, is known to have a prodigious capacity for work, but making one portfolio of the ministries of Power, Works and Housing is perhaps the dumbest move of the PMB administration.

    As it stands, it is obvious that the former governor of example is frazzled and seemingly drained both emotionally and physically. It is not that he could not have given the three-in-one task a good shot, but the times are tough and the environment treacherous. Power situation in the country is a laugh now and Fashola the laughing stock. The roads are deteriorating faster than anyone can fix them even if you have all the funds… but there are no funds.

    Solution: the earlier this ungainly combo is unbundled, the better for everyone. At least one person close to me would stop teasing me daily and asking: my friend where on earth is your friend Power Mike, okunrin metala?

  • Boko Haram plc?

    Numerous titles assailed me, so to speak, as I was about to start this piece. In fact, the issue on my mind was something to do with the need for President Muhammadu Buhari to tweak his cabinet quickly (we may yet return to this someday soon) but this Boko Haram (BH) puzzle suddenly seemed to fall into place and one dove into it.

    The news of the fall of Lt. Col. Abu Ali supposedly in a BH fire fight recently, once again brought to the fore, a thought that had tortured one since this so-called terror insurgency took a fierce turn in 2009. In fact one had actually written tangentially about all these over this period.

    “So there are elders in Borno?” (The Nation Friday, July 29, 2011), is a peek into the roles of the elite and elders of Borno. Way back then, Boko Haram had made one of the early peace overtures. They had demanded that 12 states be ceded to them to govern under Sharia law. They asked that the Joint Task Force in the Northeast be withdrawn.

    Following on the heels of BH demands, a group known as Borno Elders and Leaders of Thought (BELT) emerged from its shadowy corners to support BH’s demand for the withdrawal of troops as a condition for peace. Not a few were distraught by the intervention of this group that had maintained an ominous silence in nearly two years of wanton blood-letting and human carnage in the Northeast.

    And many kicked not because of the outrageous statement of this group, but the weight of its membership. Here is a roll call: Babagana Kingibe, Mohammed Goni, Abba Kyari, Maina Ma’aji Lawan, Ahmed Alghazali and Ibrahim Bunu. In their self-deprecating chicanery, they compared BH to the Niger Delta militants.

    But speaking about BH at that time and lending credence to my thoughts, the then governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, noted that “the social insecurity that has engulfed Nigeria is planted and perpetrated by the elite against the majority of the population.” Late last year, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai, had cried out, accusing Borno elders of sabotaging the ongoing military operations in the Northeast of Nigeria in order to prolong the BH insurgency.

    Buratai said: “The Nigerian Army wishes to inform the public and send a very strong and serious final warning to some prominent individuals and political groups who hail from Borno State in particular and Northeast generally that there is information of plans by some highly placed individuals and political groups to undermine and scuttle the fight against terrorism and insurgency in this country.

    “It has come to our knowledge that they are employing every means to see that the operation does not succeed in order for them to continue to enjoy certain benefits.”

    Until the Buhari administration gives a thought to the possibility that BH may well be a huge scam being perpetrated by half smart people in a semi-failed country, he would spend his term, wasting our time and resources, yet this voodoo would outlive his office. Until you probably diagnose an ailment, you may well be treating a boil instead of cancer and vice-versa.

    The fact of BH which we all know (including PMB) is that it is the brainchild of a certain Governor Modu Sheriff and some of his aides and acolytes. After the death in police custody of the ring leader, Ibrahim Yussuf, the gang was fiercely militarised and all sorts of carpetbaggers joined the bazaar.

    In a situation where the government at the centre was weak and stupid; and had lost control of a large swathe of its territory in the Southeast, the place was left open to be plundered by anyone who could acquire sizeable quantity firearms.

    Since the situation was badly compromised, even government agencies and institutions joined in the pillage. It therefore became Boko Haram plc. That is how come the office of the National Security Adviser under the late Gen. Owoeye Azazi and Col.Sambo Dasuki became the honey pot of the federation. Out of desperation, the government of the day in fact wayward, merely played around with the cash.

    Thoroughly exasperated at that time, I had asked on this page (March 7, 2014) “Where on earth is Dasuki?” “Where is the NSA? becomes urgent and strident if we consider that in the attack in Mafa Local Government of Borno last Sunday, it was reported that the locals got information about the impending mayhem about two weeks earlier. It was indeed for this reason that just about 35 people were killed when the marauders came rampaging, otherwise it would have been the mother of all slaughter, we learnt. Most women and children were said to have vacated the community.

    We cry in disgust because despite about two weeks’ notice, the terrorists overran and torched the military camp in Mafa as our soldiers reportedly fled. How many innocent Nigerians (including military and security personnel) have been slaughtered in the Northeast in the last two weeks and hurriedly dumped in mass graves like mere dirt?” This was over two and a half years ago.

    This column wagers that the racket of Boko Haram has continued even till now. So many unanswered questions support this supposition: one, why are we still buying jets and even more jets if we are told that BH has been technically defeated? And why would the West not sell arms to Nigeria again; are they seeing massive corruption?

    More questions: who are the financiers of Boko Haram; how come not one person has been traced? Kabiru Sokoto was once arrested in a state government’s liaison office in Abuja, what was the connection? Why is there no expedited and public trial of some arrested kingpins like Sokoto?

    More questions on Chibok and Sambisa: who were the negotiators in the recent? Who did they negotiate with? Does this suggest that the core of BH is still active and resident somewhere in Nigeria? Are we to believe that the rest of the Chibok girls are still being kept in some camp somewhere in Nigeria?

    Finally, why has this so-called Sambisa forest proved impregnable and so difficult to wire up and combed through. Are we to believe that the Nigerian military, security and intelligence establishments are so worthless that a band of hoodlums would camp in a forest and terrorise the nation for seven years without let?

    Honestly we are sick of this Boko Haram racket. I suggest the President must do one of the following quickly: order that Sambisa forest be cleared or set ablaze; cede the forest to Cameroun; or disband the entire Nigeria military and get a battalion from Israel to clean up the Northeast in three weeks flat.

    I am sure that one of these options will work!

     

    Where is the Aviation Minister?

    Do we still have an Aviation Minister? How come I do not even know his name after one year in office? How come he does not seem to know that his sector is in turmoil and may well be on the verge of a major calamity if nothing is done quickly?

    It is plain (plane) madness in most of our airports recently as there are probably more rescheduled and cancelled flights daily than those accomplished. Arik Air, Nigeria’s major domestic carrier, is so enmeshed in crises that its offices are invaded by angry passengers daily. On some occasions, flights are physically disrupted.

    Where is the minister in the midst of all this? Talk of square pegs in round holes in this administration. In one year of her appointment in 2012, Mrs. Stella Oduah had gone far in a simultaneous massive re-construction work of over 12 airports across the country. In 18 months, Oduah had completed most of what will stand today as the most revolutionary turnaround of the aviation sector in Nigeria since independence.

    Three years after she was removed, a few projects she had yet completed remain uncompleted. Even air conditioners in departure lounges can no longer be maintained…

  • When python dances in Igbo land

    “So the Lord God said to the serpent:

    “Because you have done this,

    You are cursed more than all cattle,

    And more than every beast of the field;

    On your belly you shall go,

    You shall eat dust

    All the days of your life.

    And I will put enmity

    Between you and the woman,

    And between your seed and her seed;

    He shall bruise your head,

    And you shall bruise His heel.”

    -Genesis 3: 14-15 NKJV

    Pythons are among the biggest snakes in the world and Christians know that our Lord has an especial revulsion for snakes. In many instances in the Bible Jesus laments the vileness of sinners and likens them to generation of vipers; another species of snakes.

    As in the opening quote above, early in creation, the serpent had got itself caught up in the mix between God and man and a severe, eternal curse was promptly placed on the creepy creature. The legless reptile is man’s spiritual albatross; an agent of the enemy and a virile member of the kingdom of darkness. The snake is therefore not in any guise, a pet to man.

    What then would anyone make of a dancing python? Encountering a python is ominous enough, to find one dancing would be a most menacing sight.

    Why on earth then would the Nigerian Army (NA) declare “Operation Python Dance” on a section of the country? It was early in the week that we heard that the NA had imposed this macabre dance of the python on the entire Igbo land from November 27 to December 27, 2016.

    Though apparently directed at the Biafra agitators, it is said to be designed to achieve more. According to Army spokesman: “The prevalent security issues such as armed robbery, kidnapping, abduction, herdsmen-farmers clashes, communal clashes and violent secessionist attacks among others would be targeted…”

    It is also suggested that the exercise would be a multi-agency one, to encompass a civil-military component and finally engage in such humanitarian functions as medical outreach, school and road repairs, among others.

    Laudable objective it seems, but a snake is a snake and a python kills by suffocation. The last time the Army garrisoned the Southeast in this manner supposedly in pursuit of IPOB agitators, the result turned out bizarre as recently reported by Amnesty International (AI). An alarming 150 people were reportedly killed and perhaps buried in secret graves across Igbo land.

    It must be said that this so-called operation is in itself an affront and an assault on the good people of the Southeast coming only a few days after the AI report. NA has not offered the world a coherent response on that allegation.

    The last time the region was garrisoned it was such tale of sorrow and angst. If it took six hours to get to the head bridge at Onitsha, you spent another 12 hours from there to your village. It was so tortuous that travellers cursed and cursed…

    Igbo land is among the most peaceful part of Nigeria, especially during Christmas holidays; what they need is not a garrison of the Nigerian military in any guise. In fact, the NA is over-reaching itself in the Southeast and indeed going beyond its call of duty across the country. The NA is usurping the powers and duties of the Nigeria Police and Civil Defence.

    The Federal Government must review the current activities of the Army; it must call them back to the barracks and deploy them only in armed combat situations. If the Nigeria Police is properly briefed and well mobilised, it has capacity to maintain the peace and ensure internal security in all parts of the country.

    Finally, someone in the NA seems to be enjoying some gallows humour of the grim kind recently with all these so-called “operations”. Why would any army seem to gleefully declare a military “operation” within the borders of a country in a time of peace?  But suffice to say that we do not want to see pythons dancing in Igbo land please; it’s a taboo.

     

    New statement from Guild of Editors

    Come Tuesday, December 6, 2016, at Abuja Sheraton, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) will break new grounds with the public presentation of its book, “8 Evils of Human Trafficking”. It is the first in the NGE’s new, advocacy initiative.

    The book is a creative and exciting compendium on the ills of human trafficking and by it the Guild seeks to bring a fresh fillip to the campaign against this scourge of our society. The book is especially suitable for teenagers and young adults who are most vulnerable.

    Mr. Peter Obi is the chairman of the day; Governor Nyesom Wike is the chief presenter, while all the 22 governors of trafficking endemic states are expected to attend. NAPTIP D-G would be on hand to give a keynote address, while Mrs. Funke Egbemode, the hard-driving president of the NGE, is the chief host. It’s a new dawn for the NGE.

  • Christ, Nigeria is dying!

    As anyone out there? We are dying, our nation, Nigeria, is sinking … slowly and steadily we are heading for the abyss. There is nothing else we can do it seems, than to invoke divine intervention. Now that it seems very obvious that our nation is bound for a violent extinction, people of God must get on their knees that we may pray ourselves out of this calamity long foretold. For so long our God has been derided and abused; our God has been termed a foreign God – some even say we pray too much, that we are too religious and that there are too many churches. Time is now to prove that our God lives among the hosts of heaven. And He does mighty things still.

    Are there no praying men and women left in the land? We must pray for divine guidance for the people at the helm.  We have been told that famine looms; does that suggest that they are oblivious of the current raging fire of hunger and deprivation in the land? If there is so much lack and privation now, then famine will be hell when it eventually comes in January as predicted.

    The presidency tells Nigerians that unless farmers stopped ‘exporting’ grains across the borders, we all are on the verge of starving to death for real famine comes. Let us pray that their minds are turned to the fact that famine issues from a lack of rain and sustained drought and not caused by smuggling.

    Let us seek divine understanding upon our government to realise that farmers shipping trailer loads of grains across the borders can produce even more surplus with a little more help; that government could actually buy up the grains from the farmers if it had functional silos and if there were marketing boards. We must pray that the government stops crying wolf and understudies the various farming seasons. It’s probably about two planting seasons since this government took over. How has it managed the clearing, planting, weeding, harvesting, storage and marketing of agric products across the land? We must pray to our God to remove a famine of ideas which this government suffers from.

    Where are the Moses’ of Nigeria to pray intense prayers binding these galloping prices of nearly every commodity in the land? The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says inflation has hit 18 per cent. This of course is on paper. In the market and in our stomach, it must have reached 80 per cent. Commonest staple food, such as garri, rice, beans, yam and cooking oil are almost out of the reach of the poor. Prices of common over the counter drugs too are going out of the reach of the people. Sachet water, which was N5.00 last year, is now N20.00; up by 150 per cent.

    This is the hour of true believers; this time calls for a Hannah who can pray in a drunken fashion. We must pray ceaselessly that our government is awake to the right decisions that impact on the people. For instance, one year after a drastic petrol price increase, the promised palliatives to the people seem to have been forgotten. Instead, they speak of jacking up the price even more. Let us pray Nehemiah prayer for our President to remember to reduce his aircraft fleet from seven to one or a maximum of two. We know how scandalous the cost of maintaining the fleet in the last 18 months is. We must pray enough to make him realise that Air Ivoire, which flies into Nigeria to earn dollars, has only five aircraft in its fleet.

    Let us pray blood-drenched prayers to remind our President that a wise man does not fight on all fronts. At the moment, he engages Boko Haram, the Niger Delta militants, IPOB/MASSOB, the Senate and of course the corruption battles on all facets of the polity. No one can win a war fighting so many battles. Meanwhile, the country is sinking fast and the people are dying. He took about six months to appoint his cabinet, let us afford him spiritual unction to help him appoint board members now so that they can help drive the economy.

    We must invoke the fire of prayers upon errant members of the National Assembly, the judiciary, the executive cabinet and the state governments. If our God is on the throne still, we must bombard them with enough spiritual missiles to keep them sleepless until they do the right things.

    Let us visit them who still live large with fiery prayers; those buying exotic cars, popping champagne, junketing in private jets and appropriating hefty pensions, while workers die in penury; without salaries and pensions.

    Even Jesus prayed through the night; shall we continue to slumber when our leaders seem to invoke perdition upon us all? Fellow compatriots, the time has come to call up spiritual hailstorms; if we cannot go to the barricades, we can at least go on our knees. Imaging millions of knees bended at noon everyday… stirring the heavens!

    Editors against human trafficking

    At a time when everyone seems thoroughly worsted, who cares about the handicapped, the lost and hopeless? Well, maybe the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE). The NGE under the zestful leadership of Mrs. Funke Egbemode seeks to rekindle the campaign against the scourge of human trafficking.

    Though the fight against this evil may have grown cold, so to speak, the evil has continued to wax muscular, deeply devastating our society. What with our dour economic conditions which has taken the thunder out of the cause.

    But the NGE is poised to rekindle the fire of this fight. On December 6, a book, EIGHT EVILS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING, will be presented in Abuja as a launch pad for this renewed campaign. The book is co-authored by yours truly. Watch this space for more information on this gesture.