The Nation Newspaper

Category: Steve Osuji

  • Nigeria, a mind-bending country

    Mad men and specialists An Igbo saying notes that no matter how much you treat a sick mind, you can never cure it of murmuring. In other words, you can never tell with a psychiatric case because the fear of relapse remains an ever-present reality. After about two and a half decades of active study of the Nigerian condition, one has come to the conclusion that just when you think things have changed, or are about to change, they remain the same.

    One is beginning to fear whether this is not a mad house after all with ‘madmen’ and ‘specialists’, the one feeling superior and contemptuous of the other. And what are you dear reader, I dare ask, are you a madman or a specialist? One asks because the Nigerian situation is once again so surreal and subhuman that it can easily bend even a sane mind.

    A few weeks ago, just before the announcement of the cabinet, this column had made strident calls against the unhidden intention of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) to assume that most crucial seat of Petroleum Ministry in addition to holding the number one job. But reactions had been most vitriolic with mellower ones admonishing that PMB needed to take the oil seat to harness the nation’s primary source of revenue. Even an aide had concluded that only oil thieves were afraid of the presidential wisdom to take on the petroleum portfolio.

    The magnitude of the presidency Today, sooner than we expected, there is crisis already. Fuel shortage has lingered for nearly one month and nobody is speaking coherently about the situation. The Senate cannot summon the Oil Minister before it because he is also the President. Today, we see in simulcasts, pictures of our president in nifty, foreign lands basking in the limelight and relishing bon mot, while at home, the citizenry are living in utter frustration and despair.

    Acute and prolonged fuel scarcity across the land has brought so much hardship on Nigerians that many are already asking whether this was the CHANGE they voted for just last May. Now if there was an Oil Minister, he would have been the one answering our questions and carrying the can. Some will point to the Minister of State; but a junior minister is a mere errand person. He still will have to look up to his boss for initiative and direction. It’s double jeopardy if his boss is also the president, for he would probably be in a permanent frozen condition through his tenure.

    One more thought on the folly of president-as-minister and we look at a few other matters that numb our minds in this wearisome polity. PMB is on record to have said that all the reports and counsel he got on the irksome fuel subsidy matter did not meet his expectations. So what is his take? This evil has been with us for over 20 years, draining the very life blood of the country. He has been directly in charge for six months, he has incurred a fat bill of N413 billion (and he says there is no money!), and everyday he dithers on this matter, debts (real and fictitious, pile up on us). WHAT IS HIS TAKE ON THIS ABOMINABLE, SO-CALLED FUEL SUBSIDY! (Sorry I am yelling).

     

    And one dares ask, is there anything the president wants to get done in the oil ministry he cannot do sitting in Aso Rock? Is there any file he cannot access from the Ministry of Petroleum in 10 minutes sitting in the comfort of his Aso Rock office? He could even get the minister to live in the presidential quarters if that would help. It is simply about appreciating the magnitude of presidential powers. The president wearing the tag of minister would therefore, only diminish the effectiveness of and benefits derivable from a substantive, sound, visionary minister. Recall that former President Olusegun Obasanjo held the position of Oil Minister for eight years.

    We cannot recall any value he added to the oil sector apart from irrational increases in products’ prices. He never built any refinery or petrochemical complex; instead, he engendered mind-boggling corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Yet we do not have a proper account for that era. We can go on and on about the futility of PMB micro-managing the oil industry, but we must move on.

    Quest for prudent, creative governors

    The other day, governors in the land gathered in Abuja for their now too frequent Governors’ Forum meeting. Rising therefrom, they unabashedly told Nigerians that the states they manage are too poor to continue to pay even the minimum wage pegged at N18,000. By the way, this wage, which was agreed over four years ago, ought to be due for a review now.

    What now, you ask? If the 36 states have failed, what then is left of the country? Huge bailout loan was recently doled out to these governors by the Federal Government; now they ask for more. Very few of them can account for that loan and one wagers that fewer still applied it judiciously and for the purposes it was meant.

    This is our tragedy. Most of our governors have proven to be fiscally immature and lacking in prudence. Their budgets are still mere formalities; they can neither plan nor apply states’ funds with thrift. Many are building monstrous white elephants, such as airports and fountains. They largely misuse funds when they cannot divert them. This is perhaps our gravest misfortune.

    This crude oil price crisis is about one year on now. We would expect the Governors’ Forum to be proffering smart alternatives they have devised to earn revenues to run their various states. It must be said again that it is a fallacy to say that a state made up of millions of people is not viable. It must be the manager who is not viable because he is not creative. Our agric and forest resources are still largely untapped, to give one example. The whole country lived on these before we struck oil.

     Of handout, fake rice and exhumed chickens In the throes of dwindling revenues and inability to pay salaries, the Federal Government throws in an ill-digested welfare package that seeks to handout N5000 each to 25 million poorest Nigerians, monthly. Whoever conceived this economic hara-kiri should be put in solitary confinement. This is recipe for chaos and calamity.

    One, it is not sustainable; two, it will gulp about one-quarter of federal budget; three, it will imbue more social and economic crises on recipients; four, it would be fraught with fraud; five, most of it would go to the North, which already has more than its fair share of the national wealth, etc. It’s a no-brainer, to put it starkly and it is being pursued because someone had said it during electioneering. Another vacuous campaign promise being bandied now is school meals. Goodness gracious! What is the Federal Government doing in this age with primary schools, not to mention federally-funded meals?

    Over one trillion naira to be thrown into this populist fantasy should be applied to agric, which will expand the economy and create quality jobs. We must make agric the new crude.

    And one last word, did you read that Nigerians now exhume and resell contaminated poultry products impounded and buried by men of the Nigerian Customs Service? The truth is that smugglers are still having a field day, colluding with the Customs, damaging what is left of our economy and invoking health havoc upon the land.

    If these and more don’t affect the mind, then one is probably out of one’s mind in the first place.

  • Cardinal Arinze: 50 years on the throne of grace

    This weekend, His Grace, Cardinal Francis Arinze, will mark the 50th year of his ordination as a Roman Catholic Bishop and 30th year as a Cardinal.

    Born 83 years ago in Eziowelle, Idemili, Anambra State, he schooled at All Hallows Seminary, Onitsha; Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu; Urban University, Rome and Institute of Education, University of London. It will be a weekend of prayers and thanksgiving by the faithful for the life of this sacred instrument of our Lord.

  • Cardinal Arinze: 50 years on the throne of grace

    This weekend, His Grace, Cardinal Francis Arinze, will mark the 50th year of his ordination as a Roman Catholic Bishop and 30th year as a Cardinal.

    Born 83 years ago in Eziowelle, Idemili, Anambra State, he schooled at All Hallows Seminary, Onitsha; Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu; Urban University, Rome and Institute of Education, University of London. It will be a weekend of prayers and thanksgiving by the faithful for the life of this sacred instrument of our Lord.

  • Reimagining the PMB presidency

    It has become apparent in this epoch that imagination is as lean as the president himself and ‘body language’ is fast becoming an effusion of body odour to the people. And just as ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was branded ‘Mr. Clueless’, and appropriately so, President Muhammadu Buhari is fast earning the moniker of ‘Mr. Fuddy-Duddy’ and it looks like it’s gonna stick. What a pity.

    However, the coming of a belated cabinet may well re-imagine this presidency and rescue it. The executive council formed more than six months after inauguration is no doubt a good pick taken together; if only this cabinet had been set up earlier. Imagine what might have been if we had this team at work since July, about six weeks after inauguration.

    Perhaps the most telling reason to confirm that the PMB presidency is in dire need of deep strategic support (and it needs to realise its acute deficiency) is the statement emanating from last Monday’s workshop organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Represented by the new Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, PMB had blamed the delay in the take off of his government on the Goodluck Jonathan government.

    Hear PMB: “We expected comprehensive report on the state of the economy, the security situation, infrastructure development or deficit and social issues, among others in an atmosphere devoid of bitterness, confrontation and conflict.

    “What we got was the exact opposite of what we expected…The incoming government was completely left in the dark and only got handover notes four days before handover date.”

    One thought a handover note often comprised what the predecessor deemed important. It could come in tomes of a thousand volumes and it could also be only a few sheets. Whatever it may be, no new government with a clear vision would depend on his predecessor’s notes to initiate its actions. Again, we remember PMB told us he was taking his time to restructure; he also told us that he could work without ministers who are essentially noisome.

    One thought every new government must have clear ideas and the directions it wishes to go. What has a handover note got to do with the president appointing quality ministers in good time? Again, does it take so long for a new government to determine the true state of affairs of a country? All one needs do is to mandate the heads of the critical MDAs to generate the requisite reports in one week flat; and it is done.

    Blaming ex-President Jonathan after about nine months of beating him at the polls only lends credence to critics who think PMB has lost touch, or never had it. It is akin to a man who wins a trophy and complains that the loser would not teach him how to pop champagne or loft the silverware and jump for joy.

    Monday’s seeming faux pas may be considered the final denotation in a long narrative of inertia and lost opportunities of the PMB era. Coming on a groundswell of massive goodwill and popular desire for change, the change people are left with today may well be a few coins of disillusionment.

    For a country that literally offered the president a triumphant entry; for a people not only willing to do just anything but actually did everything to allow the president a grand entrée, the honeymoon is surely over now. The PMB government was running on what has been commonly called ‘body language’. In support and deference to the new government, Nigerians had over these few months endeavoured to do the right things even at their own detriment. Most people were acting on the expectation that the new government would latch on to such outpouring of goodwill and restructure certain fundamentals. But nothing of such has happened.

    One example is the petroleum sector, which was in a hail of crisis even as the president was inaugurated in May. Six months down the line, not a thought seems to have been spared on this matter of urgent national importance. What do we have today? The seeming reprieve granted by the stakeholders has been withdrawn, fuel is scarce once again across the country and PMB is about to pay a whopping N415 billion in so-called ‘subsidy’. And this is just the first tranche.

    How much does it cost to build a modern modular refinery? Assuming the president has no thoughts whatsoever on this absurd ‘subsidy’ conundrum before he ascended office, a panel of five, set up in June could have given him the answers he needed and he would have pronounced a clear direction on this ignoble ‘subsidy’ by the end of June. We would have long gone past the current crisis. Now we are back to the sorry days of ex-President Jonathan… with attendant sufferings for the people.

    Electricity supply is another sad example. The new owners of the distribution and generating companies who had begun to behave themselves upon the emergence of PMB, expecting a definitive new order, have simply reverted to their old ways, seeing neither spunk nor substance in PMB. Today, we are back to the old days of anything goes. Now in the middle of the dry season when power supply is needed most, what we have is sustained outages and sabotage. We are back to the Jonathan days… with attendant sufferings for the people.

    The latest we hear is that the presidency has ordered reassessment of the Gencos and Discos. We thought this was the natural action to have been taken in the first weeks of June. Every discerning person in the country could tell that though government divesting from power was salutary, the process was fraught with abuse and irregularities. Further, the new owners have continued to play pranks in the last two years, extorting the people and making little investment. If only PMB had ordered this ‘reassessment’ in July, we would be reaping results now. Today the people harvest woes and weariness.

    The war against graft has even turned out more vacuous, considering that it is the major plank of PMB emergence. Most of PMB’s energy seems to have been poured here, but not one person has been named, not to think of pulling anyone in for prosecution (apart from former NSA, Sambo Dasuki). Just a few days ago we were told that suspects were innocent until proven guilty. How profound! Six months after, we are still building up cases against those accused.

    How effective can that be with no Attorney-General and Minister of Justice? How can we fight graft with a smeared template? From one’s seat here in Lagos one can perceive the stench in graft agencies in faraway Abuja; there ought to have been a clearing out and cleansing in order to start on a clean slate. Can you clean with a dirty mop?

    Many Nigerians are truly apprehensive now about the PMB presidency and his ability to lead Nigeria out of the woods and back from the brink. The utter lack of urgency where speed is of essence is most frustrating. The ship of state is sinking, yet government struts as if it has 40 years to work. Now that a cabinet has been formed, it is hoped that purposeful activities will commence on all fronts.

    But who would lead change. PMB’s capacity is in doubt, yet he bugs himself down the more with the Petroleum Ministry as if he is going to go to the ministry and pore over files or go to the creeks and remark crude pump calibrations. Many are therefore apprehensive of the quality of vision available at the helm, thus individual brilliance would be key and perhaps engender competition.

    The party has not shown a brilliant core either. One thing that is certain, however, is that between the party, the president and the cabinet, there is need to re-imagine this epoch.

  • Obi, T.A. Orji and Igbo enweze syndrome

    The sterling examples set by former governors Peter Obi and Theodore Orji of Anambra and Abia states respectively would remain the pride of the Southeast for a long time to come. The Obi phenomenon is stuff for business school books about prudence in public office. T.A. Orji on the other hand, rescued Abia from the death-grips of a family cabal that had hijacked the state for its own.

    For instance, until TA took over effectively, Abia had become a wasted ghost land where worthy sons dared not return to. He changed all that. Obi transformed Anambra from a near-jungle to a model state. This duo that ought to be shining lights in Igbo land are being abused and disparaged daily by their successors and predecessors just to taint them and bring them down. Any wonder miscreants are taking over and not a single guiding voice in the land. N’ezia, Igbo enwe eze, what a shame.

  • Obi, T.A. Orji and Igbo enweze syndrome

    The sterling examples set by former governors Peter Obi and Theodore Orji of Anambra and Abia states respectively would remain the pride of the Southeast for a long time to come. The Obi phenomenon is stuff for business school books about prudence in public office. T.A. Orji on the other hand, rescued Abia from the death-grips of a family cabal that had hijacked the state for its own.

    For instance, until TA took over effectively, Abia had become a wasted ghost land where worthy sons dared not return to. He changed all that. Obi transformed Anambra from a near-jungle to a model state. This duo that ought to be shining lights in Igbo land are being abused and disparaged daily by their successors and predecessors just to taint them and bring them down. Any wonder miscreants are taking over and not a single guiding voice in the land. N’ezia, Igbo enwe eze, what a shame.

     

  • Reimagining the PMB presidency

    It has become apparent in this epoch that imagination is as lean as the president himself and ‘body language’ is fast becoming an effusion of body odour to the people. And just as ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was branded ‘Mr. Clueless’, and appropriately so, President Muhammadu Buhari is fast earning the moniker of ‘Mr. Fuddy-Duddy’ and it looks like it’s gonna stick. What a pity.

    However, the coming of a belated cabinet may well re-imagine this presidency and rescue it. The executive council formed more than six months after inauguration is no doubt a good pick taken together; if only this cabinet had been set up earlier. Imagine what might have been if we had this team at work since July, about six weeks after inauguration.

    Perhaps the most telling reason to confirm that the PMB presidency is in dire need of deep strategic support (and it needs to realise its acute deficiency) is the statement emanating from last Monday’s workshop organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Represented by the new Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, PMB had blamed the delay in the take off of his government on the Goodluck Jonathan government.

    Hear PMB: “We expected comprehensive report on the state of the economy, the security situation, infrastructure development or deficit and social issues, among others in an atmosphere devoid of bitterness, confrontation and conflict.

    “What we got was the exact opposite of what we expected…The incoming government was completely left in the dark and only got handover notes four days before handover date.”

    One thought a handover note often comprised what the predecessor deemed important. It could come in tomes of a thousand volumes and it could also be only a few sheets. Whatever it may be, no new government with a clear vision would depend on his predecessor’s notes to initiate its actions. Again, we remember PMB told us he was taking his time to restructure; he also told us that he could work without ministers who are essentially noisome.

    One thought every new government must have clear ideas and the directions it wishes to go. What has a handover note got to do with the president appointing quality ministers in good time? Again, does it take so long for a new government to determine the true state of affairs of a country? All one needs do is to mandate the heads of the critical MDAs to generate the requisite reports in one week flat; and it is done.

    Blaming ex-President Jonathan after about nine months of beating him at the polls only lends credence to critics who think PMB has lost touch, or never had it. It is akin to a man who wins a trophy and complains that the loser would not teach him how to pop champagne or loft the silverware and jump for joy.

    Monday’s seeming faux pas may be considered the final denotation in a long narrative of inertia and lost opportunities of the PMB era. Coming on a groundswell of massive goodwill and popular desire for change, the change people are left with today may well be a few coins of disillusionment.

    For a country that literally offered the president a triumphant entry; for a people not only willing to do just anything but actually did everything to allow the president a grand entrée, the honeymoon is surely over now. The PMB government was running on what has been commonly called ‘body language’. In support and deference to the new government, Nigerians had over these few months endeavoured to do the right things even at their own detriment. Most people were acting on the expectation that the new government would latch on to such outpouring of goodwill and restructure certain fundamentals. But nothing of such has happened.

    One example is the petroleum sector, which was in a hail of crisis even as the president was inaugurated in May. Six months down the line, not a thought seems to have been spared on this matter of urgent national importance. What do we have today? The seeming reprieve granted by the stakeholders has been withdrawn, fuel is scarce once again across the country and PMB is about to pay a whopping N415 billion in so-called ‘subsidy’. And this is just the first tranche.

    How much does it cost to build a modern modular refinery? Assuming the president has no thoughts whatsoever on this absurd ‘subsidy’ conundrum before he ascended office, a panel of five, set up in June could have given him the answers he needed and he would have pronounced a clear direction on this ignoble ‘subsidy’ by the end of June. We would have long gone past the current crisis. Now we are back to the sorry days of ex-President Jonathan… with attendant sufferings for the people.

    Electricity supply is another sad example. The new owners of the distribution and generating companies who had begun to behave themselves upon the emergence of PMB, expecting a definitive new order, have simply reverted to their old ways, seeing neither spunk nor substance in PMB. Today, we are back to the old days of anything goes. Now in the middle of the dry season when power supply is needed most, what we have is sustained outages and sabotage. We are back to the Jonathan days… with attendant sufferings for the people.

    The latest we hear is that the presidency has ordered reassessment of the Gencos and Discos. We thought this was the natural action to have been taken in the first weeks of June. Every discerning person in the country could tell that though government divesting from power was salutary, the process was fraught with abuse and irregularities. Further, the new owners have continued to play pranks in the last two years, extorting the people and making little investment. If only PMB had ordered this ‘reassessment’ in July, we would be reaping results now. Today the people harvest woes and weariness.

    The war against graft has even turned out more vacuous, considering that it is the major plank of PMB emergence. Most of PMB’s energy seems to have been poured here, but not one person has been named, not to think of pulling anyone in for prosecution (apart from former NSA, Sambo Dasuki). Just a few days ago we were told that suspects were innocent until proven guilty. How profound! Six months after, we are still building up cases against those accused.

    How effective can that be with no Attorney-General and Minister of Justice? How can we fight graft with a smeared template? From one’s seat here in Lagos one can perceive the stench in graft agencies in faraway Abuja; there ought to have been a clearing out and cleansing in order to start on a clean slate. Can you clean with a dirty mop?

    Many Nigerians are truly apprehensive now about the PMB presidency and his ability to lead Nigeria out of the woods and back from the brink. The utter lack of urgency where speed is of essence is most frustrating. The ship of state is sinking, yet government struts as if it has 40 years to work. Now that a cabinet has been formed, it is hoped that purposeful activities will commence on all fronts.

    But who would lead change. PMB’s capacity is in doubt, yet he bugs himself down the more with the Petroleum Ministry as if he is going to go to the ministry and pore over files or go to the creeks and remark crude pump calibrations. Many are therefore apprehensive of the quality of vision available at the helm, thus individual brilliance would be key and perhaps engender competition.

    The party has not shown a brilliant core either. One thing that is certain, however, is that between the party, the president and the cabinet, there is need to re-imagine this epoch.

  • Of ministers, assets, smoke and the kitchen

    Following upon last week’s article here about ministers and assets declaration, a reader who feels quite strongly about the matter has weighed in with this piece coming on the heels of the inauguration of the cabinet on Wednesday. His intervention is the main article published below, while the boxed piece (PMB’s cabinet: More pains for Ndigbo) is EXPRESSO’s.

    IT is a well-known fact that corruption is a major factor hindering the development of Nigeria, and unless a ruthless war is waged against it, we shall continue to wallow in the cesspool of poverty and underdevelopment.

    Although the term corruption encompasses many vices, for the purpose of this article which deals with the declaration of assets, we shall limit the term to stealing of public funds and fraudulent acquisition of material property by using one’s exalted public office. This article in the main is in support of PUBLIC declaration of assets by Buhari’s ministers as espoused by one of The Nation newspaper’s most forthright and incisive columnists – Steve Osuji in his column of Friday, November 6, under the title Ministers: Of baron politicians and assets declaration. Corruption in the form of looting of public treasury by public office holders is so endemic and adamantine that unless and until corruption and thieving public office holders are ruthlessly dealt with, there is certainly no hope of salvaging this country for the present generation of Nigerians, let alone for future ones. No matter how good development projects are on paper, unless there are transparently honest public officers to execute such laudable programmes, funds meant for such projects would ultimately be stolen.

    It is a globally received wisdom that corruption has almost grown to the status of a state policy in Nigeria, especially in the recent past. Therefore no method – no matter how seemingly unorthodox – should be spared in waging a relentless war against this cancerous monster – corruption – which will inexorably lead to the demise of this country if left unchecked in its destructive path of festering metastasis.

    Ministers and similar public office holders should declare their assets PUBLICLY. Yes, the constitution may not expressly say assets should be declared publicly. However, a constitutional requirement is often the irreducible minimum. What parents would advise their children to strive for minimum cut-off point of 200 in UTME for university admission? Of course, 200 is the irreducible minimum which we all know is almost certainly not good enough for admission into most universities. Similarly, our public office holders should not be content with just the irreducible minimum moral requirement, but should aim at several notches above the  minimum requirement. That is precisely is the wisdom in what President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have done. The ministers, if they are truly on the same page with the president and vice president in the fight against corruption, should also move several notches above the irreducible minimum in the scale of morality by declaring their assets PUBLICLY, if indeed they have nothing to hide. Any minister who can stand to account for every kobo in his or her current assets, or is not planning anticipatory acquisition of assets during his or her ministerial tenure, should have no problem whatsoever in declaring his or her assets PUBLICLY NOW.

    It is against the background of the current indescribable and unexampled level of corruption that the call for public officers to declare their assets PUBLICLY, ought to be seen as a welcome policy. Such declaration of assets should be published BEFORE the assumption and at the EXPIRATION of the tenure of public office holders.

    All potential appointees for public offices must be required to declare their assets publicly. Any potential appointees who are opposed to their assets being published publicly should be dropped even before their names are submitted to the security agencies for clearance. Public declaration of assets by political appointees is an effective deterrent against corrupt or corrupt-minded individuals seeking public offices. As has been noted, public declaration of assets should be before the commencement and at the end of the tenure of political appointees. The reason for declaring their assets publicly TWICE is to enable the citizens whom they earlier swore to serve selflessly and honestly to assess their stewardship by comparing their assets at the end of their tenure with what they were at the commencement.

    It should be emphasised that all public declaration of assets before the commencement and at the expiration of a public assignment should include assets owned by the wife or wives as well as the children of the public office appointees, provided such children are either still in their minority or existentially dependent on such political office appointees. These measures should not be considered too stringent because there is a level at which the life of a public officer can no longer be considered private. In any case, anyone who considers these measures too intrusive of his or her privacy could simply decline to serve; public office is neither a birthright nor military assignment. Is it not said that he who cannot stand the smoke must never venture into the kitchen?

    Since CHANGE is the ideological battle cry of the APC and ‘difference’ is inherently embedded in CHANGE, the newly sworn-in ministers should set this ‘difference’ in motion. How? By declaring their assets PUBLICLY for a change, thereby raising the standard of public morality beyond the irreducible minimum standard of declaring their assets privately before the Code of Conduct Bureau. Nigeria now needs leaders not of middling moral quotient, but leaders who are prepared to exceed minimum moral requirements.

    I strongly recommend that a clause be inserted in the constitution, making public declaration of assets a sine qua non for appointments into public offices such as president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, cabinet positions (ministers, SGF, chief of staff, etc), INEC chairman, state commissioners, headship of NNPC, Customs and such other positions that may be deemed sensitive and susceptible to looting of public treasury. Such a clause in the constitution should not only be devoid of encryption in legal obfuscation, but be simple, decipherable and idiot – proof without any ambiguity or equivocation.

    In conclusion, may I humbly but resolutely advise the ministers to choose the path of rectitude, follow the example of President Buhari by declaring their assets PUBLICLY, thereby heralding the birth of a new national ethos of public morality. God bless Nigeria.

     UGBEBOR, a consulting engineer, contributes this piece from Ibadan.

     

  • PMB’s cabinet: More pains for Southeast

    Finally, President Muhammadu Buhari has dispelled any iota of doubt about his ill feelings towards Ndigbo. Those who thought that his announcing about 50 national security and strategic appointments with nary one Igboman good enough to be listed was not premeditated would be wiser now. But in announcing his cabinet midweek, he has shown that there is indeed no love lost between him and the Igbo nation.

    Yes, all ministries are equal in status, but do not be fooled, some are more strategic and if you like, ‘juicier’ than others. Consider the top dozen: Justice, Defence, Finance, Interior, Works/ Power, Petroleum, Transportation, Education, Agriculture, Communication, Health and FCT. Not one of these did the President allow an Igboman; not by any chance! Imagine Ngige for Labour and renowned scholar and former VC, Prof. Anwuka, as under-minister for Education!

    The point must be made, however, that this is the first time in Nigeria’s history that appointments have been so vindictively and provocatively skewed against a section of the country. Even the military was sensitive enough to maintain a healthy balance all the time for the sake of national unity. This is a dangerous precedent for our yet fragile nationhood. But more remarkably, PMB by this mindset demeans his presidency and ultimately, his legacy more than he harms Ndigbo. It looks like a solid cabinet, regardless of this flaw.

  • Ministers: Of baron politicians and assets declaration

    Two leading front page reports of the Saturday Punch (October 31, 2015) are quite paradoxical and telling about the current epoch of Nigeria’s political development. The prime headline rendered in perhaps, the boldest of letters available screams: “NIGERIA BROKE, CAN’T PAY MINISTERS – Buhari”.

    But a less striking headline below the one quoted above reads: “Nigerians demand public asset declaration from Buhari’s ministers” while the ministers-designate are reported to have retorted that they would not make a public declaration of their assets. Even the bold cover photo on this page lends an epic corroboration to today’s thesis. It is the picture of a failed portion of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. It is an unsightly picture of vehicle wading through a deep, water-logged trough right in the middle of the road. It is a picture of abjection, stagnation and soulless dereliction seen only in extreme war conditions and failed states.

    Did you ever hear of the failure of a portion of highways anywhere else in this age? Let us take the liberty to point out a few more grisly stories highlighted on this front page: “South Africa to return seized $9 million currency to Nigeria on November 30,” it says. This is the story of Nigeria’s ‘raw’ cash, ignominiously caught-up in the middle of an official money-laundering heist last year under the guise of trying to purchase arms. And one more: “Customs retires three ACGs and 26 others.” Here about 40 senior officers of the Nigeria Customs Service were swept out of office just by a wave of the hand. If they were found guilty of abusing their high positions and gouging themselves with revenues accruable to the nation’s treasury, we were not told. Whether they had tainted the high offices bestowed on them, it did not matter. They were just shuffled out. No points made, no lessons learned, highly trained top officers just flushed out: perhaps to go and enjoy their ‘good fortune’.

    But we digress. Today is actually about our ministers-designate and the question of public assets declaration. Some of the screened men and women who would handle some of the most important jobs in the land soon were asked if they would declare their assets following in the footsteps of their boss, President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), but the majority of them had promptly objected to such prospect.

    According to the report, a good number of those called up on the phone noted pointedly that they were not constitutionally bound to make their declarations public. They did not have to follow in the footsteps of the president and his deputy, some of them said. Recall that President Buhari and his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, recently set the example of making their assets public.

    Some ministers-designate indicating they would not let the people they would serve know what they are worth, immediately reminds one of America’s 19th century ‘robber baron’ businessmen, who deviously amassed wealth and became very affluent and powerful; often beyond the control of the state. But while those were businessmen who deployed rough and untoward tactics to corner the commonwealth, most of our politicians of today can easily pass for baron politicians or robber public officials who hijack premium political positions and offices and convert same to personal estates.

    Since independence and particularly in the last 16 years, having acquired a huge chunk of the state, they go on to begin to subvert the state and all her institutions or tinker with them to suit their purposes.

    Buhari’s Sisyphean huddles Over the years, Nigeria’s political robber barons have grown unchallenged and set in their ways. They had become the very bane of the country; growing in means, growing in number and making Nigeria a banana republic where the rule of law had taken flight. Now for Buhari, tackling this ugly phenomenon would be akin to Sisyphus the storied King of Corinth condemned pushing this giant rock up a hill and each time, being trolled back to the base.

    For the first time since independence, Nigeria’s political robber barons are facing a modicum of scrutiny with the advent of the Buhari presidency and it seems now or never to break that killer mould. Does the president have the resilience, capacity and the ruthlessness to extirpate this monster?

    The matter of political robber baronage is exemplified by the current dilemma about making assets public. This is one huge test of his ability to crack the skull of this monster. Most of his new men cannot and indeed, would not dare to make full public disclosures of their net-worth. It would amount to the option of either the country going up in flames or the ‘culprits’ being set alight.

    One would wager that very few politically-exposed Nigerians today would be comfortable showing what they have to Nigerians. How would Nigerians react if they woke up one day to find on a minister’s assets sheets, a total worth of about N50 billion or more. Many are wealthier than their states or even a few states combined. That is why they cannot be brought to book. They can hire all the SANs in Nigeria to frustrate a cause.

    Now what would he do with these set of barons; some of whom he had nominated for the big jobs. When asked recently about the nature of some of his nominees, he had spoken candidly that: “This is a teamwork… there are people (nominees) I accepted from other people in our team that I trust without even knowing them… may be the one that had problem in the National Assembly, I doubt if I have ever met him in my life.”

    How far can he go if compromises such as he noted above have been made already. But the obverse is that how far could he have gone if he did not make such compromises in the first place. Let’s call the task ahead of the president the devil’s alternative. Meanwhile, Nigeria is broke according to the president, yet it is being run by some of the richest people in the world, who would not dare make public their assets.