The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Africa’s trauma epidemic

    ‘We need to put in place systems to provide lifesaving care for accident victims. They need to be moved to a fully equipped hospital — one with X-ray machines, CT scanners, a burn unit — within the space of 45 minutes. We need at least 10 of these proper hospitals’

    It was dusk and I was on my way home from Abeokuta, a vibrant city in southwest Nigeria. My driver had switched off the car’s air-conditioning so I could open the windows and feel the breeze. He was weaving between potholes in the road when suddenly, the scene ahead changed.

    A large truck had pulled out carelessly onto the road, knocking a car straight into the median.

    That stretch of road is notoriously dangerous, not just because of traffic accidents but also because of armed robbers. It’s for that reason that I suppressed my natural instinct to stop and help.

    I was filled with guilt as we passed the wrecked car, because I knew that if the young man at the wheel had been badly injured, there was only a small chance that he would get the emergency treatment he needed.

    I knew this because I am a trauma doctor and the founder of West Africa’s first indigenous air ambulance service. Nigeria, a country of more than 170 million people, has no organized trauma response system and no formal training for paramedics. Injured people are often taken to the hospital in a car or minibus or draped across the motorcycle of a good Samaritan, sometimes several hours after the accident has occurred.

    Even if the patient does reach a local hospital, it may not have the skilled staff or equipment needed. (There are only a few that do, and there are huge distances between them.) Most of those who are seriously injured probably bleed to death.

    So I couldn’t help it when, a few moments later, I said “Stop the car, please.”

    I grabbed one of our emergency response bags from my trunk and walked back. I tried to concentrate on the types of injuries the driver might have rather than how unsafe it was walking on that stretch of road, particularly in the evening. Was he bleeding? Was he conscious?

    The crash scene had quickly attracted some of the people who typically gather around accidents in Nigeria. Bystanders were pulling the driver out of the car. Before long they were joined by a barefoot “prophet” in a white robe. No Nigerian accident scene is complete without a prophet who commands everyone to stand by while he loudly predicts that the patient will stop bleeding. The patient is often drained of blood by the time the prophecy is complete.

    Sadly, these prophets are the best hope that many Nigerians have. Trauma has become a silent epidemic in Africa, an epidemic that will only spread as the economy grows. More and more Africans are buying cars and working in heavy and dangerous industries. At the same time, infrastructure is poor, safety laws lax, and cars badly maintained.

    Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s smallest number of motorized vehicles but the highest rate of road traffic fatalities, with Nigeria and South Africa leading the pack.

    The World Bank predicts that in the next two years, road accidents could be the biggest killer of African children between 5 and 15. By 2030, according to the Global Burden of Disease study, road accidents will be the fifth leading cause of death in the developing world, ahead of malaria, tuberculosis and H.I.V.

    If you add to these numbers the injuries caused by violent crime and communal conflict, then you have all the ingredients for a public health emergency.

    And yet, trauma receives only a tiny fraction of the attention and money given to these three infectious diseases. Every health care conference I attend focuses on vaccines, treatment and training to combat the infamous “triple epidemic.”

    Over the last decade, billions of dollars have poured into Africa with the laudable aim of defeating these killer diseases. But that most basic killer, injury, remains neglected.

    Part of the problem is that the solutions are so complex. It’s easy to quantify interventions like the number of AIDS-fighting anti-retrovirals or mosquito nets distributed. Pills can be counted, flown in on cargo planes and delivered to large numbers of people in a short time period. But a pill would do very little for someone on a rural road in Nigeria with a head injury and a collapsed lung.

    We need to put in place systems to provide lifesaving care for accident victims. They need to be moved to a fully equipped hospital — one with X-ray machines, CT scanners, a burn unit — within the space of 45 minutes. We need at least 10 of these proper hospitals. We need to improve our roads, and we need a high-quality ambulance system to drive on them. And we need paramedic schools — like the one my company is helping to open, the first of its kind in Nigeria.

    Some countries in other parts of the world have come up with proactive solutions. In Israel, a group called United Hatzalah helps volunteer emergency workers get quickly to accident sites, by “ambucycle” or on foot, if necessary. But Africa’s challenge will require an African response — and international support.

    On the road that night, I quickly assessed that the young man needed urgent medical attention. I gave him oxygen and inserted a makeshift airway. I noted that he probably had internal bleeding and did my best to stem whatever external bleeding I could detect.

    A passing taxi then transported him to the nearest hospital. He had a fighting chance. But too many injured Nigerians, forgotten on the side of the road, do not. It’s time the global public-health community paid attention to Africa’s urgent need for emergency medical care.

  • ODIMEGWU: The courage of his convictions

  • Like locusts at harvest time…

    There is no odor as dire as that which arises from tainted goodness. I will not deny any bit, the praise that is due to philanthropy, I simply demand sincerity of all whom by their works and lives pose to be a blessing to the country.

    This is the age of charity. And trust Nigerians, they are desperately exploiting generosity for all its worth. Thus everybody is a philanthropist; even youngsters as green as dug-up spinach have caught the bug – which explains the preponderance of self-acclaimed “youth leaders,” “advocacy gurus,” “motivational speakers” and “philanthropists” afflicting our world like plundering locusts at harvest time.

    A youngster on national youth service constructs tables and chairs for the school in which he’s serving and he pleads with selected mainstream media to mention it; then there is the advocacy guru who donates literature to a school library and pays the mainstream media to report it, after which she posts it on Facebook and other social networking sites for all to see.

    Both characters among other things elevate and give expression to mankind’s greatest vanity: lust for applause and unearned greatness. In Nigeria, this has become social currency particularly among the youth. Youth seeking instant wealth and acclaim daily exploit the hackneyed terrains of philanthropy and what they perpetrate as “advocacy,” passionately praying and hoping that their exertions attract the attention and “goodwill” of local and international sponsors with deep pockets.

    “There is a clear-cut difference between philanthropy and advocacy,” many are probably jabbering by now. Agreed; but both fields of human endeavour are essentially set to the attainment of similar goals; sustainable development and the improvement of humanity.

    Philanthropy and “advocacy” as currently practiced by Nigeria’s youth is devoid of humanity. It is in essence, a partial and transitory act, projected in constant superfluity until the motives of the philanthropist and advocate are achieved. And what really are the motives? A fat bank account, a posh vehicle, a spectacular mansion, higher status, acclaim and unalterable greatness to mention a few.

    Greatness should be earned. The seekers of unearned greatness and material benefits are merely social parasites, moochers, criminals, who are too limited in intellect and in character to pioneer the often tasking and spirited march to eminence. Essentially, they are a threat to humanity and the advancements we dream.

    There is nothing as deceptive and neurotic in concept as unearned greatness as it makes a wretch of the individual who seeks it. To substantiate it is in fact, impossible, thus the nation’s youth like her under-achieving ruling class, is caught in the web of such deceitfulness. Dwelling on ostentatious, indefinable sound-bites of altruism and collectivism they struggle to give plausible form to their nameless vanity. Ultimately they seek to anchor it to reality to support their self-deception and swindle their unsuspecting victims.

    Such deception never lasts. There is no short-cut to greatness. The best generosity and “advocacy” subsists in honest work. Be you a lawyer, doctor, accountant, journalist or accountant, your commitment to your calling represents the best form of advocacy.

    If you build a library, toilet or bathroom for your alma mater, why plead with the media to report it? Why package your so-called philanthropy or advocacy for the viewership and applause of all? It is only con-artists and social parasites that do that.

    Heartfelt, repetitive acts of diligence and altruism are sooner remembered and celebrated by the world. The world will accord you a listening ear and pay you the homage you deserve at fate and fortune’s appropriate hour.

    But a greater number of youth aren’t wired to accept such fact. They would rather seek the shortest cut to affluence. If by towing such path, they achieve their goals, they claim to be “smart,” but if they fail in their quest, they blame the government, their parents, the society and everyone else but themselves for the failures their lives become.

    It is our tragedy today that Nigeria still parades ‘promising’ youth with the heart of a lion and wit of a hyena. It’s our tragedy that we still talk the talk of champions and walk the walk of cowards.

    Now more than ever, the Nigerian youth seeks to harvest sugarcane where he planted thistle.

    The talk is of ‘seed.’ By every philanthropic act or showy advocacy, the lot of the unfortunate improves, it is claimed. Bet the “unfortunate,” ignorant recipients and audiences of such acts do not know that every such “charitable” act they approve, they applaud no humanity; rather they subject themselves as middling marks for their crafty philanthropists and “advocates” to rip off.

    By consenting to be deceived, the society establishes and confirms its shameful ignorance and it’s purely illusory foundations.

    This generation considers itself to be more intelligent than the one that came before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it; thus its inexorable quest to outclass both bastions of our past and future. It is not clear however, how well it would fare in this arduous quest but many a youth have argued that it’s about time the “wasted generation” moved over.

    They claim that a new breed of Nigerian youth is fast evolving. This breed, they claim, do not seek handouts from the country’s under-achieving ruling class; no, they simply want the government to facilitate an enabling environment in which the youth could engage in gainful industry and thrive.

    By enabling environment, they speak of stable electricity, safe and usable road networks, security, access to free and quality education, free and affordable healthcare, and a corruption-free society to mention a few. I agree that such wonderful environment is overdue in Nigeria, but for what manner of youth should the government create such enabling environment? Resourceful, mean, currency-activated “youth leaders,” “advocacy gurus,” “philanthropists,” “motivational speakers” et al? Should Nigeria become more habitable for such characters and pretenders to humanity to flourish?

    To rebel against the established order, to criticize the current ruling class and in the same breath, court it; to lament the existing reality and confound extravagant hopes of the future by pillaging off the same reality are the common dispositions of a greater number of Nigerian youths. Add self-acclaimed genius to the mix, and you have yourself a perfect portrait of our leaders of tomorrow.

    You need to learn to crawl before you walk. It’s the way the universe is ordered. It’s about time the youth got busy doing honest work. The best advocacy occupies a crucial niche in honest industry.

    There is a sweet tang to success earned following years of slugging it out in the trenches. Career philanthropy and advocacy only encourages you to become a fraud unto yourself and your immediate society. There is no smart or street-savvy path to the good life. If you see certain people living large and amassing fortunes by circumventing honest sweat and industry, they are simply conning themselves off the rewards they ought to enjoy in their twilight.

    You need to be extraordinary at something before you earn recognition for it. Fortune seeks out he who has paid for it in sweat and honest toil but the lust for vanities steer importunate fools to the path to tragic twilight.

  • Happy New Year

    Happy New Year

    The title of this article may sound strange to most readers since this is not January. In Nigeria, like in most other African countries, the idea of New Year is ignorantly believed to be peculiar to January which is the first month of Gregorian calendar. That is the effect of European colonialism in our continent. From whichever angle it is viewed, European colonialism has a Christian coloration that still paints African culture in the rainbow of colonial tradition.

    Islam has its own calendar. And, like other calendars of the world, there is a beginning and an end for every Hijrah year. Unlike other calendars which are manmade however, Islamic calendar, otherwise known as Hijrah calendar, is divinely ordained. This is confirmed in chapter 9, verse 36 of the Qur’an as follows:

    “Surely, the number of months ordained by Allah when He created the heavens and the earth is twelve. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves in them….”

    The twelve months are: Muharram; Safar; Rabiul Awwal; Rabiu-th-Thani; Jumadal Ula; Jumada-th-Thaniyah; Rajab; Shaban; Ramadan; Shawwal; Dhul Qadah; and Dhul Hijjah.

    The four months specifically designated as sacred are Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul Qa’dah and Dhul Hijjah. Some of these months have 30 days. Others have 29. No more, no less.

    Last Tuesday (November 5, 2013) was the first day of the Hijrah year 1435. It followed the last day of Dhul Hijjah which is the last month of Hijrah calendar.

    Hijrah calendar took its name from Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 C.E. The use of Hijrah calendar began when Umar Bn Khattab, the second Caliph, suggested that Islam should have its own distinctive calendar saying Hijrah, the Prophet’s emigration, was so much a significant landmark in Islam that it could not be overlooked. As a matter of fact, it is one of the three main factors responsible for the survival of the religion of Islam. The other two were the victory of the Muslims in the battle of Badr which was waged by Makkah pagans against the Muslims in Madinah shortly after the Prophet’s emigration. And the third is Allah’s great promise that became an everlasting fulfilment. That promise is contained in Chapter 15 verse 9 of the Qur’an thus:

    “It was ‘We’ (Allah) who revealed the Qur’an and We will preserve it…’ and who can doubt the Almighty Allah who created the entire universe and preserves it”. With Allah, all things are possible. But for these three fundamental factors, perhaps Islam or the Qur’an would have joined the legion of defunct religions.

    In Islam, the first day of (Muharram) the first month of Hijrah calendar is more significant than Mawlidun- Nabiyyi (the birth day of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)). The Prophet had existed for 40 years before ‘The Message’ came to him and nobody celebrated his birthday. Thus without ‘The great Message of Islam’ he would have had no cause to emigrate. If he had lived for 40 years without being known in history before he became a Prophet, why should his birth now take precedence over ‘The Great Message’ that made him the greatest man that ever lived?

    Basically Hijrah institutionalised three important aspects of life: social, economic and political.

    In the social aspect when the first revelation was made to the Prophet (SAW) a period of twelve (12) years was devoted by him to inculcate religion in the minds of individuals while no pattern of a collective life based on true religious concepts could be presented to the world. The status of the Muslim individuals in Makkah gave rise to the misconception that Islam, or believing in the prophet was one’s personal affair; it pertained only to the hereafter and had nothing to do with collective life.

    It was only after Hijrah that people began to see clearly that Islam was a way of life which pays attention to and reforms every facet of human existence, giving directions regarding almost every moment of one’s conscious time. Hijrah also enable the Arabs in particular to see what a Muslim house-hold should be in a Muslim society. Hence, it was only after this event that the world could see the aspect of social decency and decorum under Islam.

    A second reason for the importance of Hijrah is its economic aspect. The economic effects were due to the permanent earliest Muslim emigration to Madinah led by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The matchless hospitality of the people of Madinah towards the Muslims immigrants did not only provide a new peaceful home for the newcomers, but also showed the hosts’ passionate self-sacrifice. And with Hijrah, the immigrants vividly came in contact with advanced agricultural acumen and ingenuous artisanship never experienced before. These resulted in an unprecedented economic revolution for the place. Since the hosts shared virtually everything with the immigrants on the latter’s arrival, a lesson was learnt by the immigrants not to continue to be a burden on their brotherly hosts. Thus, every one of them adopted legitimate ways of earning righteously.

    Initially, the immigrants worked as labourers in the fields, gardens and construction works. Later they, being traders, started small trading activities which brought them into an economic competition with the Jews of Madinah. One aspect of the economic revolution was that the trader immigrants paid the right price to the growers for their produce since the Prophet had forbidden the practice of acquiring products on reduced prices in return for loans given to the artisans or to the cultivators.

    Thus, it was only after Hijrah that agriculture, industry and trade freely helped the Muslims to bring about an integrated, balanced and unfettered economy for the Ummah.

    The third reason which made Hijrah a very important event is the political freedom for the Muslims. Before Hijrah the Muslims had no say in any matter, internal or external. They were a minority against whom the hearts of the majority were full of enmity – the Muslims were an insignificant part of a set of dominating unbelievers in Makkah.

    Hijrah made the Muslims masters of their internal affairs, external relations and matters relating to war and peace. There was great understanding among the Muslims, for instance, in case a difference occurred between the Muslims and non-Muslims, the final decision was to be made by the Prophet. This showed an autonomous set up of a Muslim Ummah coming into existence. And this was a beginning of a city-state which, within the life-time of the Prophet or within a period of ten (10) years, expanded which encompassed the entire Arabian peninsula. It is thus evident that the event of Hijrah turned a few hundred persons into a highly successful society.

    If the Nigerian Muslim leaders were adequately informed, Islamically, at the time they were negotiating religious holidays for Nigerian Muslim Ummah, they would have asked for Hijrah rather than Mawlidun-Nabiyyi. Apart from coming into the world through birth like any other human being, there is nothing the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) contributed to Islam. And, the Prophet himself did not believe in the aristocracy of birth. That was why he never celebrated his own birthday the way some Muslims do on his behalf today. What is more, the Prophet’s birthday is never celebrated in Saudi Arabia where he was born. What is rather celebrated in that country is Hijrah day. Whereas Mawlidun-Nabiyyi is about the life of Prophet Muhammad alone, Hijrah day is about Islam, its survival and the entire Muslim Ummah.

    While celebrating Mawlidun-Nabiyyi, you can only praise the Prophet and nothing more. But when celebrating the Hijrah day, you are celebrating not only the Prophet’s migration but the success of Islam as the everlasting password of the Universe. That is why we exchange pleasantries by congratulating one another and by chanting the slogan HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    Compared to Hijrah calendar the Gregorian calendar is not only artificial but alien to Christianity. It was only adopted some centuries ago as a way of distinguishing the religion of Christ from whatever preceded or succeeded it. While writing about how Gregorian calendar came into existence, a British writer and newspaper columnist, Ben Snowden said in a descriptive article entitled ‘The Curious History of Gregorian Calendar thus:

    “September 2, 1752, was a great day in the history of sleep.

    That Wednesday evening, millions of British subjects in England and the colonies went peacefully to sleep and did not wake up until twelve days later. Behind this feat of narcoleptic prowess was not just some revolutionary hypnotic technique or miraculous pharmaceutical discovered in the West Indies. It was, rather, the British Calendar Act of 1751, which declared the day after Wednesday the second day of that month to be Thursday the fourteenth day of the same month.

    Prior to that cataleptic September evening, the official British calendar differed from that of continental Europe by eleven days—that is, September 2 in London was September 13 in Paris, Lisbon, and Berlin. The discrepancy had sprung from Britain’s continued use of the Julian calendar, which had been the official calendar of Europe since its invention by Julius Caesar (after whom it was named) in 45 B.C.

    Caesar’s calendar, which consisted of eleven months of 30 or 31 days and a 28-day February (extended to 29 days every fourth year), was actually quite accurate: it erred from the real solar calendar by only 11½ minutes a year. By the sixteenth century, it had put the Julian calendar behind the solar one by 10 days.

    In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further error: century years such as 1700 or 1800 would no longer be counted as leap years, unless they were (like 1600 or 2000) divisible by 400.

    If somewhat inelegant, this system is undeniably effective, and is still in official use in the United States. The Gregorian calendar year differs from the solar year by only 26 seconds—accurate enough for most mortals, since this only adds up to one day’s difference every 3,323 years.

    Despite the prudence of Pope Gregory’s correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. Germany and the Netherlands agreed to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1698; Russia only accepted it after the revolution of 1918 and Greece waited until 1923 to follow suit. And currently many Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now lags 13 days behind the Gregorian.

    Since their invention, calendars have been used to reckon time in advance, and to fix the occurrence of events like harvests or religious festivals. Ancient peoples tied their calendars to whatever recurring natural phenomena they could most easily observe. In areas with pronounced seasons, annual weather changes usually fixed the calendar; in warmer climates such as Southern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the moon was used to mark time.

    Unfortunately, the cycles of the sun and moon do not synchronise well. A lunar year (consisting of 12 lunar cycles, or lunation, each 29½ days long) is only 354 days, 8 hours long; a solar year lasts about 365¼ days. After three years, a strict lunar calendar would have diverged from the solar calendar by 33 days, or more than one lunation.

    The Muslim calendar is hence the only purely lunar calendar in widespread use today. Its months have no permanent connection to the seasons— Muslim religious celebrations, such as Ramadan, may thus occur at any date of the Gregorian calendar.

    The phases of the moon have nonetheless remained a popular way to divide the solar year, if only because a 365¼-day year doesn’t exactly lend itself to equal subdivision (the 71¼-day month has yet to find favor among monologists). To compensate for the difference in the solar and lunar year, calendar makers introduced the practice of intercalation—the addition of extra days or months to the calendar to make it more accurate. The semi lunar Hebrew calendar, consisting of twelve 29- and 30-day months, adds an intercalary month seven times every 19 years (which explains the sometimes confusing drift of Passover—and consequently Easter— through April and March).

    Despite its widespread use, the Gregorian calendar has a number of weaknesses. It cannot be divided into equal halves or quarters; the number of days per month is haphazard; and months or even years may begin on any day of the week. Holidays pegged to specific dates may also fall on any day of the week, and vanishingly few Americans can predict when Thanksgiving will occur next year.

    Since the time of Pope Gregory XIII, many other proposals for calendar reform have been made. In the 1840s, philosopher Auguste Comte suggested that the 365th day of each year be a holiday not assigned to a day of the week. The generic “Year Day” would allow January 1 to fall on a Sunday every year. Needless to say, this clever solution was not widely embraced.

    The French Revolution also made an attempt to introduce a new calendar. On October 5, 1793, the revolutionary convention decreed that the year (starting on September 22, 1792—the autumnal equinox, and the day after the proclamation of the new republic) would be divided into 12 months of 30 days, named after corresponding seasonal phenomena (e.g. seed, blossom, harvest).

    The remaining five days of the year, called sans-culottides, were feast days. In leap years, the extra day, Revolution Day, was to be added to the end of the year. The Revolutionary calendar had no week; each month was divided into three decades, with every tenth day to be a day of rest. This straightforward calendar, however, perished with the Republic”.

    Of all the existing calendars, only Hijrah has been generally acknowledged as unique in effect and in workability. In commemoration of the great occasion of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) emigration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE, both the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) have sent messages of felicitations to Nigerian Muslim Ummah just as ‘The Message’ column also says HAPPY NEW YEAR!

  • Nigeria’s awful product

    Every human aggregation, human system, human institution, or long-standing collective human experience, tends to produce its own human type – its own kind of human behaviour, moral norm, and quality of person. Within only a few years, Hitler’s Third Reich turned the German nation, one of Europe’s most creative and most artistic people, into a rabidly nationalistic monstrosity, prepared to inflict limitlessly barbarous suffering on other peoples. The United States, with its history and kind of society, has produced the world’s most open people, most freedom-loving, most respectful of human worth, and most achieving – the greatest country in the history of the human race. Nearer home, the history and culture of the Yoruba nation produced a people whose ideal person is the type summed up by the Yoruba in the concept of the “Omoluabi” – a person who respects the rights, the choices, and the feelings of others, is thoughtful in speech and action, is dutiful and dependable, is freedom-loving and self-respecting, dutifully upholds his family and its image, is willing to give of himself to his community, welcomes and accommodates the stranger, and strongly desires the very best for his community.

    In the final analysis, the type of human minds, the type of human values, that a society produces, is its most important product. Countries produce great economies, great technologies and great military establishments. But, in the final analysis, none of these is as important as the type of humans and human values that they produce.

    Nigeria has, admittedly, produced measurable value in various directions. Sure, Nigeria has been an embarrassing developmental failure when her enormous natural and human resources are considered, but that is not to say that she has been completely unproductive. The Nigeria of 2013 is way beyond the Nigeria of 1914 in infrastructures, in business growth, in education, and many other fields. However, the Nigerian product that must be ranked in importance above all these other products is the type of humans and human morality that Nigeria has produced. And, in that field, most Nigerians would concede, just as most informed people in the wide world know, that Nigeria is one of the most frighteningly poor and brutish countries in the world. Nigeria has proved eminently capable at generating decline and degradation in human behaviour. Gold is naturally rustproof, but in Nigeria, even gold can rust.

    The root of it all is that since independence, the dominant tendency in the highest levels of Nigeria’s leadership and governance has been total impunity in the manipulation and crooking of all things. For instance, rulers and leaders of Nigeria, especially those who control the federal government, and those associated or allied to them across Nigeria, never plan to win elections; they plot only to rig elections. In the circumstance, among officials serving in the electoral commission, as well as among judges serving in the Election Tribunals, utter debauchery is almost universally the norm. As the international observers in the 2007 Nigerian elections noted in their report, the Nigerian Police Force is often a strongly committed accomplice in the electoral crookedness. An American journalist observed one of Nigeria’s general elections in various parts of the country and has written a book describing his weird experiences. On polling day, at about midday in one town, he saw senior government and electoral officials, assisted by armed policemen, grabbing the ballot boxes from the polling stations and taking them away – as the crowd of voters swarmed around them and tried vainly to stop them. The journalist approached the officials and asked them where they were taking the boxes to, and the officials answered that they were taking the boxes to “safe keeping”. A minute or so later, someone in one of the officials’ vehicles pointed a gun out and discharged it, causing the journalist and his photographer and thousands in the crowd to dock or flee for safety. That is how brazen Nigeria’s leaders are in manipulating and corrupting the life of their country.

    This culture of brazen criminality among high public officials continues in Nigeria’s elections as this is being written. All Nigerians know that even the most popular of elected public officials running for re-election, even if they have served their constituents satisfactorily, but if they do not belong to the party in control of the federal government, must prepare total war to save their seats in the face of the predictable invasion by the federal rigging army. For some governors today facing re-election in the next year, the vibrations of this invasion have already begun. In all other facets of government, and at all levels of government, the same brazen impunity has become Nigeria’s culture of governance. A commentator remarked recently that in other parts of the world, public corruption means that the public official steals some of the public money under his control, but that in Nigeria it often means that the public official steals all of the money under his control. For the average ambitious Nigerian, virtually the only way to succeed in Nigeria these days is to find some sort of access into Nigeria’s public corruption industry.

    All this, allied with the intense poverty which Nigerian rulers and leaders have thus foisted on their country, has bequeathed to the fabric of Nigerian society a culture of generalized uncertainty and insecurity, a psychology of hopelessness and desperation, of compulsive corner cutting, and of cynicism and vicious disloyalty even among the closest of friends and relatives. The average Nigerian abroad knows that if he sends money home for some project of his (like building a house), his closest kinsmen will defraud him – and might even kill him if he comes home afterwards and proves “unreasonable”. Merely to survive, the average unprivileged Nigerian needs to cheat and cut corners, and he has become phenomenally adroit at doing all of that.

    Much of the rest of the world, including even fellow Africans, cannot understand the kind of humans that Nigerians have become. According to reports, in Ghana, most Ghanaians are edgy about doing anything with Nigerians. In Kenya, people commonly say with contempt, “Where there is a Nigerian there is a way!”A former United States high official, himself a Blackman, is credited with saying that the average Nigerian is predictably a rogue. In very many countries in the world, governments warn banks and businesses about doing business with Nigerians, and warn their citizens about travelling to Nigeria. Recently, television stations in some countries repeatedly aired a video with the title “How to rob a bank”. It is a sickening series of escapades by Nigerians, in sophisticated 419 mode, defrauding and robbing people in country after country. A commentator suggested in a TV programme that its real title should be “How Nigerians rob the world”. In a book recently published in America, the author wrote: “Nigeria has a terrible reputation. Tell someone that you are going to Nigeria and if they haven’t been there themselves, they offer sympathy. Tell anyone who has been to Nigeria and they laugh. Then they offer sympathy. No tourists go there. – – – Journalists treat it like a war zone. Diplomats regard it as a punishment posting.”

    We Nigerians live in a country, under a system that is robbing us of the essence and beauty of life – that is robbing us of our basic humanity, our human decency, and our image as members of the human race. It is an awful heritage.

  • Nigeria’s cultural tapestry and challenge of devt – 4

    Nigeria has produced many authors and easily dominates any list of winners of competitive scholarly fellowships and the like in Africa. Yet, obscurantism appears to have been adopted as an official policy. We seem to have canonised illiteracy. The ‘no-nothing’ syndrome has given meaning to the popular saying: “I no know book o.” Once you have money, it seems, that covers a multitude of your inadequacies.

    In politics, when driving on the highway and everywhere else, we resort to brinkmanship and muscle-flexing. Nigerian public culture is replete with one-upmanship and grandstanding. People of power, who should have known better, huff and puff over petty issues of ego and neglect the fundamental issues that concern the vast majority of their subjects. We do not need an accountant to tell us that huge sums of money have gone down the drain as the ongoing ridiculous power show in Rivers State – the shame of the Black race – enters another round. And the common people are the worse for it. In all of this, Nigerians have murdered public shame, opprobrium and outrage. Nothing shocks us any more.

    It is commonly acknowledged that the lack of strong institutions is a major hindrance to development in these parts. It is one thing for the institutions to be fledgling and in need of nurturing. But it is a different matter if Nigerians engage in a favourite pastime: institution-wrecking. It is done with relish as long as it serves a narrow interest, such as unleashing security and anti-corruption agencies against your political rivals, or suborning the electoral commission and the judiciary to facilitate vote-rigging. In one stroke, you effortlessly destroy EFCC, INEC and the judiciary.

    One would have thought that in a system that has been run for over 50 years, Nigerians would have mastered the art of planning. Sadly, where strategic plans and budgets exist at all, they are treated as monuments or documents to be shelved, or glazed and displayed. Hence, we always resort to last-minute measures, ad-hocism, fire brigade approach in an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability. This is why we perform poorly at major global sporting events because we always leave everything till too late or to chance. Yet, when we want to move at all, at the eleventh hour, we now scramble and stampede to beat the deadline. Much energy is wasted and such haste is often without progress and this amounts to effort without efficiency.

    After we have failed to plan and actually planned for failure, we begin to search for scapegoats, usually political opponents and other adversaries, real or imagined. Ultimately, we resort to fatalism in the garb of religiosity. We explain away our failures to the will of God or the designs of Satan, as the case may be.

    The way we handle our waste says much about our national character. Whereas the Japanese, for example, have simplified things through a disciplined use of sorting-at-source, we have mastered the shot-put and “not-in-my-backyard” method of litter proliferation and waste dumping. To physical waste, we have added noise pollution. Unlike the colonial period, where there was noise control in Lagos, Nigerian cities (and increasingly, too, the suburban and rural areas) are notorious for the cacophony of uncontrolled noise from honking vehicles, brawlers, hawkers, entertainers and preachers. Even university campuses are no longer immune.

    What runs through our public conduct is incivility, even in high places. Beyond the ‘uncivil society’ of motor park touts and the like, the hallowed chambers of legislative houses have often been turned into boxing rings without referees and rules of engagement, as exhibited in Rivers State a few weeks ago.

    But this was not always the case and should not continue to be. We need to develop a template for good governance, anchored on our cultural values to promote development.

    An Indigenous “Good Governance” Template? Towards an Enduring, Developmental Civic Public Culture

    The parlous state of our public culture belies the existence of developmental cultural traits in our indigenous societies. Without prejudice to what we have outlined from the experiences of more successful plural societies, our indigenous values contain elements that can enhance a new civic culture that promotes development.

    It is often assumed that Nigerian peoples have never had traditions of good governance even in their village settings. Such misconception could have been informed by the fact that they did not have formal, written constitutions, with elaborate sections and provisions as most nations have today. But, as is well known, there are nations today that do not have a formal constitution or have a threadbare one. The point is that Nigerian peoples practised in their different settings versions of good governance that suited their peculiar epochs. (cf. Ajayi and Ikara, 1985; Osuntokun and Olukoju, 1997)

    While the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria did not have a formal constitution, each village had a conception of “development” as its members understood it, and the vast majority of the people imbibed norms of participation, majoritarianism and consensus-building. The same can be said for other non-monarchical or republican groups, though we must admit that Lugardian indirect rule and the quest for a so-called fulcrum of authority pushed many communities to adopt some form of monarchical rule. This has since been exacerbated among the Igbo, where the kingship institution has spread beyond the western flank stretching from Onitsha to Oguta. But the point is that ideals of participation (“one person, one vote”), freedom of expression and consensus building can still be promoted as a cultural virtue in modern Nigeria, where it often seems that might is right and a minority can brazenly claim victory in elections.

    As for the Yoruba, they operated a constitutional monarchical system that effectively checked the autocracy of a single person, who sometimes was made to pay the ultimate price for breaching the unwritten constitution. For example, an unwanted Alaafin was presented with an empty calabash or a parrot’s egg as a sign that he had outlived his usefulness and must step aside by committing suicide. Not only was succession not by primogeniture, it also rotated among various branches of the ruling house. This entailed some form of selection, if not election in some cases. Of course, this was an oligarchy, from which women were mostly excluded, but it was not an absolute monarchy or the autocratic democracy that many so-called modern nations practise today. From the Yoruba worldview, we can deduce the virtues of checks on arbitrary power and the focus on government as a means to an end – “development.” Hence the goal of “itesiwaju” (literally, “progress”) or “olaju” (“civilisation”) can be attained through politics (“oselu”, which literally means “developing the community/polity”) as opposed to what Chief Obafemi Awolowo called “ojelu” (plunder/rapine – literally, “eating up the community/polity”), when referring to corrupt politicians.

  • Pilgrim or politician

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem was well publicised. His media managers did no miss any opportunity to record for posterity the historic and significant places which he visited to pray for Nigeria. Yes, the pilgrimage was an opportunity for him to pray and be seen praying for his beloved country. The essence of such an exercise is usually for the pilgrim to find peace with his Creator and mend his ways with his fellow man.

    Pilgrimages are open to all as long as they have the means. They are not a matter of class or status although you cannot rule that out in the way some pilgrims are treated. Presidents and other leaders because of the world we live in today are given preferential treatment. They are accorded privileges, which other pilgrims are usually not entitled to. They enjoy security protection and are granted audience by the leaders of such countries, in this wise Israel and Saudi Arabia.

    People go on pilgrimage for different reasons, but the major reason, especially for Muslims, is to fulfil the tenets of their religion. In the Muslim world, hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. So, many Muslims strive to visit Mecca at least once before they die as required by their faith if they have the means. Christians do not place much store on pilgrimage as their Muslim counterparts. If a Christian is fortunate to visit Jerusalem in his lifetime, he praises the Lord, but if he does not, he takes it in his stride.

    In this country, we wear our religion like a glove. We like to see people hailing us that we are worshipping God. We believe more in the outward show of faith than to honour the Lord quietly in the confines of our homes. Little wonder today that churches are many, but the doers of good are few. Why is this so? The answer is not farfetched : we are excited to be seen as doing good when our hearts are full of evil. Unwittingly, we are deceiving ourselves because God knows us more than we know ourselves; He knows the inner workings of our minds. So, when we are pretending before the world to be saints, He knows us for what we truly are.

    We cannot fool God, not even with a million trips to Jerusalem or Mecca. The president’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem was celebrated because of the political mileage his people expected to gain from it. They told us that he was the first sitting president to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Not only that, at every stop, he prayed for Nigeria and its people. The president’s pilgrimage would have made more meaning to me if he had made it quietly without the fuss of officialdom. It would have been better for him to have a solemn time with his Maker without distractions from his aides, who were overshadowing his every movement to make political capital from it.

    The president might have meant well in going on pilgrimage, but the religious exercise was badly managed by overzealous aides, who wanted to be seen as working hard to keep him in office at a time he should have been left alone to commune with his God. It was a period the president should have poured his heart out to the Lord; cry out to Him if need be over the problems of our country and most especially his own role in these crises. The political crisis within his party should have attracted his special attention because they are at the heart of the nation’s problems. If Nigeria disintegrates today, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stands to be blamed. The PDP is a house divided among itself and the president is fully involved in the crisis.

    I expect him to have prayed for a speedy resolution of the crisis while on pilgrimage. If he had done so, I believe that he would by now be working for an amicable resolution of the matter. That seems to be far from the mind of Mr President. Rather than have a contrite and forgiving heart, the decorated Jerusalem Pilgrim (JP) is still in the trenches, fighting. What then do we make of his much publicised pilgrimage? I am not judging him for I do not have such powers, but merely reviewing the exercise to see if the president learnt from it. The biggest lesson would have been to have a forgiven spirit. By now, being a born again by virtue of the pilgrimage, he should have forgiven all those who offended him.

    What will be the benefit of the exercise if he should still be fighting meaningless political battles? Will these battles put food on the tables of hungry and angry Nigerians? On his return from Jerusalem, I expected him to be more interested in the wellbeing of the people and commit himself more to improving their lives. But what do we have? A president, who is more interested in fighting governors and other members of his party that are against his perceived planned return to office in 2015. The group of seven (G 7) governors of the PDP that has vowed to stop him from returning to office is being driven from pillar to post. The governors seem to have been declared persona non grata even in their own country.

    Their lodges in Abuja, which

    are considered their gov

    ernment houses outside their state capitals, have been sealed off at will by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The lodges came under the siege of security operatives in order to stop the seven governors from meeting. Why the fear? Are we no longer in a free society? When did it become an offence to gather? If governors can be this treated, what happens to less privileged Nigerians? And all these are happening under the watch of a brand new JP. By now, we should have started seeing the effect of the president’s pilgrimage in his words and deeds. No matter his political differences with others, he should be more tolerant and accommodating.

    We have yet to see that new president – the returnee JP. Of what use is his pilgrimage if he is still involved in his old fights? Pursuing the G 7 all over the place as if the governors are criminals should not be the pastime of a returnee JP. The president should show us that he is now a changed person with his return from pilgrimage. If he cannot do that, it is sad and heart wrenching that scarce public funds were spent on the exercise.

    The governor’s wife

    Until she reportedly cried out some days ago, nobody knew the circumstances under which Mrs Clara Chime and her husband, Sullivan, the governor of Enugu State live. The wife, according to media reports, is alleging maltreatment by her husband. She claims to be held incommunicado and denied access to her four – year old son. She says she is tired of living in the Government House (a place where many women will like to die no matter how they are treated) and wants the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to rescue her from there. The truth is when the love between a man and a woman goes awry, we hear all sorts of stories. Is Chime the monster his wife is painting him? For now, we cannot reach a conclusion on the matter because everything is still hazy. The government has invited the media to give its own side of the story and until we hear it, we will keep our fingers crossed. But things dey happen for this country o!

  • Ending the corruption scourge

    The scourge of corruption did not start with ‘Oduahgate’, Jonathan presidency or indeed PDP, a ‘new breed’ political party that emerged after 15 years of military social engineering. It started with the NPC/NCNC coalition partners’ declaration of state of emergency in the Western Region, invalidation of the unfavourable British Privy Council judgment through a retroactive amendment of the constitution of the West and rigging of the 1965 regional election, all in an attempt to impose their ‘chop I chop’ vision to replace that of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number of people’ espoused by the ruling elite of the West. But for that fraud, we would not have had an Obasanjo, a great Nigerian who celebrates his ‘Nigerianess’ by insisting he is a Nigerian leader and not a Yoruba leader, being imposed from outside as president of Nigeria to fill Yoruba slot in the presidency; and but for that destruction of the structure of Nigeria, as distinguished as President Jonathan is, I am not sure whether he would have emerged to fill the Ijaw slot in the presidency.

    Other symptoms of that initial fraud such as the ‘cement armada’ of Gowon era, when bureaucrats colluded with soldiers to clog the Apapa port with a capacity for 1million metric tons with 20 million metric tons of cement, Umaru Dikko’s rice scandal of Shagari era and NPN gluttonous consumption that wiped out our foreign reserve in four years, confiscation of the nation’s common wealth by Babangida and Abacha and their ‘army of anything is possible’. All happened before PDP emerged in 1998

    If PDP is guilty of anything, it is that of creativity and openness. For instance they came up with an ingenious policy of ‘monetisation’ to enable privileged members of the party buy freshly built government properties in Abuja and other GRAs around the country. Similarly, some of their members and fronts forged papers to share part of N1.7trillion fuel subsidy. And in their intra-class gang wars, no weapon is forbidden. Presidents, vice president, governors, senate president, Speakers of the Lower House, and lawmakers have openly exchanged brick bats. In fact, today the war between new PDP and the original PDP is an open sore.

    And to the credit of the party, members have been very frank and open about this national corruption, our national scourge. President Jonathan once ordered the arrest of the son of his party chairman for alleged fraud , a move Dr. Doyin Okupe , his special adviser, described as a ‘ courageous action of a politician still eyeing an elective office’ which Nigerians should applaud. Only two weeks back, before his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he had set up a panel to probe the ‘Oduahgate’. And as if to further confirm our rating, as the eight most corrupt nation in the world, our own minister of agriculture Dr Akinwunmi Adesina recently confirmed during “Agbeloba’ AgroBusiness forum 2013 organised by Ekiti State government that Nigerian leaders stole N776 billion out of N873 billion released for fertilizer subsidy between 1980 and 2010 (PDP was in government for 11 of those 30 years).

    The Task Team Leader of the World Bank in Nigeria, Dr. Tunde Adekola followed this up by confirming that Nigeria cannot benefit from World Bank financial assistance because of ‘profound level of corruption embedded within most of the institutions applying for aid in the country. To further drive the point home, Walter Omowale Carrington, our American adopted son recently reminded us that “corruption is the most terrible monster that confronts Nigeria, and that “virtually all the problems associated with governance would be removed if we can summon the courage to tackle corruption and banish it from our activities.” And From a man who should know better, the President of Nigerian Bar Association, Okey Wali came a sombre admission that “corruption is the number one problem of the country, whether by embezzlement of public funds, appointments in public and private sector or by selective justice (prosecution and conviction)”. His fear, he said is “not just the impunity with which corruption is practiced or that it is attaining the status of our way of life in the country, but that a “corrupt legislature may endure; a corrupt executive may thrive; but a corrupt judiciary will die”.

    Like Wali who recommended “a strong political will and commitment on the part of the executive”, Sanusi Lamido, the CBN governor in a BBC programme last Saturday also insisted what is needed to fight corruption is the political will of the executive claiming that of the 164 fraud cases arising from his own war against banking sector frauds, only one indictment has been secured two years down the line.

    But I think both Wali and Sanusi are wrong. They are not fair to the president. It will be expecting too much from a president who was not the source of corruption to demonstrate a political will that his godfather, President Obasanjo could not exhibit in the midst of vicious PDP hawks. I think if we are serious about fighting corruption, the first step is to change the structure that sustains corruption. This is because the forces in our society that insist they own society and must determine the fate of the less privileged are as desperate in Nigeria as they are in other nations. It was perhaps this reason, Awo who spent the greater part of his life studying Nigerian problems and proffering solution, came to the conclusion after a failed life-long struggle to sell his own vision of how Nigerian should be run, likened successive Nigeria governments since independence to “a cow held by some and milked by powerful, and ‘cunniest’ few”.

    It has become clear to all the conflicting forces in our nation, including those who want sovereign national dialogue through the back door, that the only way forward is to revert back to our old structure jettisoned by ‘chop I chop’ politicians and legitimised by bungling military, with some modifications to replace the current one that oils corruption. With 30 million unemployed graduates and symptoms of deformed structure like fuel subsidy fraud, pension scheme scam and the recent ‘Oduahgate’, we don’t need an impersonal, all powerful federal Leviathan in Abuja that confiscates over 50% of our resources, unilaterally decides the education our children receive, the road we pass to our farms, the airline we fly, the support our local farmers need, the water we drink and the God we worship.

    We don’t need a parasitic wasteful federal structure with 36 ministers, 105 senators and 360 lower house members earning, depending on whose figure we accept, Itse Sagay’s between N204 million and N250 million per annum, or the CBN governor’s 25% of the nation’s budget, or even the lawmakers’ N190 billion, in a situation where a US senator earns $174,000 and a British parliamentarian, $64,000.

    We don’t need unwieldy 36 states where governors operate like emperors, with state owned or leased aircrafts, fleet of armoured cars, 720 commissioners and an estimated 700 lawmakers for all the 36 states houses of assemblies.

    Of course it amounts to gross irresponsibility to sustain 774 Local Government Areas, whose creations were based on no known objective criteria, collecting handouts from Abuja every month to undermine the activities of the state governments with whom they have shared responsibilities to the people.

    I am sure changing the political architecture, will allay the fears of the CBN governor about importation of dollars by politicians to fight the 2013 election as he had averred during his BBC ‘Hard Talk’ last Saturday. There is no doubt our award -winning CBN governor, who claimed with his knowledge of what goes on in government , he will not survive a year in Abuja as president, knows that the sources of the money politicians are using to import dollars in preparation for 2015 ‘do or die’ contest can be traced to governors security votes, or proceeds of contract deals by ministers such as the current ‘Oduahgate’ in which the minister of aviation was alleged to have approved an expenditure of $800,000 for a BMW armoured car whose market going price is $200,000.

  • The new power regime

    It was the birth of a new era in power supply in Nigeria. Perhaps, this is the best way to describe what happened in the country last Friday. On that day, a flurry of activities took place across the country as new power managers assumed control of what was left of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN. Namadi Sambo, the Vice-President, personally handed over 11 power distribution and five generation companies, created out of PHCN, to their private owners on behalf of the federal government. The handover ceremony was replicated in many other centres and zones across the country by several ministers and top government officials who were all bubbling with enthusiasm, hope and a sense of fulfilment.

    For me and many others, that day may not be a memorable day. The reason is not far-fetched. In the last few months, there seems to have been a striking steady power supply in some parts of the country, especially in Gemade Estate located within the precinct of Gowon Estate in Egbeda/Okunola axis of Lagos. It is not to say that residents of this estate and other adjoining places have been experiencing uninterrupted power supply all along. What makes the power supply steady and regular, as I claimed earlier, is the fact that the area in question could boast of between 12 to 16 hours supply of electricity on a good day.

    That is not to say that the erratic supply pattern has tremendously improved for that matter. In many instances, especially during the nights, power supply could become an on and off thing for more than six to eight times between the hours of 7p.m and 7a.m. The period or length of seizures varies from few minutes to longer periods. This way, you have to be constantly on your toes to put off your electric appliances every now and then or risk severe damages to them. Many a time when power is restored after each outage, what follows is high current that, more often than not, send your bulbs crashing if not together with your TV-set, microwave machine, sound system, fans and what have you.

    Anyway, between last Thursday and Friday, the area was thrown into total darkness. It was so worrisome because, being the eve of the eventual handover of PHCN to successor companies, there was this anxiety of what to expect after the handover. I made a call to a fellow resident in the estate who had always liaised with officials of PHCN on behalf of other residents to find out what the problem really was. I was shocked when he told me that PHCN officials had embarked on a strike action, preparatory to the takeover by new investors. I went further to ask him what their grievances were. He told me that though about 80 percent of them had allegedly been paid their severance entitlement, the remaining 20 percent had not, and that was why they went on strike. And they needed to do that on the very day new investors were taking over. That is strange. Could it be a bad omen or a prelude to what to expect in the days to come?

    I had resigned to fate while expecting the worst to happen. But I was surprised when, at about 5p.m that Friday, power supply was restored. Barely three hours later, we suffered yet another blackout that lasted up to an hour before power was again restored. Since then, the on and off thing have taken turn for the worse, thereby making everybody to wonder whether things can actually get any better.

    All the same, we are all eagerly awaiting a new era in power supply in the country. With the transfer now perfected, I believe the investors should move quickly and focus on the vexed issue of achieving a remarkable improvement in power supply. That is the least obligation they owe the average Nigerian who has waited all this long to witness this new era. In actual fact, Nigerians may not be prepared to listen to excuses, such as those the federal government had ceaselessly reeled out in the past. In the same vein, it will be just too early in the day for the government to suddenly go to sleep. It has a duty to ensure that its efforts translate to better power supply in the shortest possible time because Nigerians are in a hurry to see things happening the way they should be.

    For too long, Nigerians have suffered untold hardships from epileptic power supply. Not only have they been so discomforted in their daily lives, they have also continuously lost the vital ingredient so important for industrialisation and improvement in their welfare as citizens. This has, no doubt, led to the collapse of industries or lack of them with the consequent astronomic cost of living.

    Therefore, this handover represents a milestone in the country’s effort to break the jinx of poor electricity supply, which has plagued the nation all this while. This ordinarily should signify a transition from the era of national darkness to improved power supply. But if I may ask: Are the new power managers ready to meet the yearnings of Nigerians for improved power supply? This question becomes germane in view of reservations expressed in certain quarters that a few more years may be needed to achieve the required stability in power supply in the country. Again, the question is: how many years will it take us to arrive at the desired Eldorado?

    There is no gainsaying that Nigerians are obviously looking forward to a new beginning in the country’s quest for rapid industrialisation, which will help to curb the endemic unemployment problem now starring the country in the face. This is why the new operators should do everything possible to justify the implicit confidence reposed in them by the government in its determination and commitment to provide Nigerians with adequate power supply. Above all, what Nigerians expect from this privatization exercise is appreciable difference in electricity supply from now onward.

    The good news is that all labour issues with workers of the defunct PHCN have been resolved following the near completion of payment of severance, pensions and gratuities of all the 47,913 workers. It will surely help to remove inherent obstacles and ensure a smooth transition. And to achieve a hitch-free performance, the federal government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Nigerian Gas Company and some private sector concerns, has embarked on a robust gas master plan with the specific aim of meeting the gas requirement for power supply. It is true that uninterrupted gas supply to the power plants is crucial for their effective performance. This is because the rampant incidence of shortage of gas caused by disruptions in supply had been one of the major handicaps to the optimum performance of the power plants in the country. This ugly situation should not be allowed to rear its head under the new dispensation.

    On the likelihood of hiking electricity tariff, nobody should be surprised that this issue appears to be on the front-burners of the investors who have pointedly told the National Electricity Regulatory Commission to review the current tariff upward. I think it is premature to ask for increased tariff at this point in time. What Nigerians need is an assurance that this privatization will ultimately manifest into improved power supply across the country. Once this is achieved, consumers are not likely to kick against affordable tariff.

    The truth is that there is no moral justification for an increase in tariff. Many Nigerians believe they are currently being short-changed with the criminal bills they pay without adequate power supply.  They will accept no excuse, even as they are yet to be taken to confidence on the details of the improvement they should expect from now onward. However, the optimism is that power supply will record the same kind of improvement recorded in the telecommunication sector following the arrival of private investors on the scene many years ago. In this regard, it is hoped that the present transition from one octopus public power company to multiple private providers will, sooner than later, prove to be a worthwhile venture.

  • S-NC in 2014? Combat govt anarchy: Nigeriawhistleblowers.com; FERMA-a failure?

    Critics of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) emphasise that the federal government has misled us before. Indeed at every turn federal government, comprising small-minded petty people in uniform- military, babanriga, agbada -has serially abused its power and disenfranchised, disappointed and failed millions of Nigerians through subterfuge for sectional power and personal gain. These little people are as guilty of anarchy as gun-wielding terrorists. Once in power they mainly claim the power for themselves.

    Government anarchy is evidenced by unbridled mega-corruption and arrogance, viciousness and violence by officials. The disbandment of several agencies of state government for corruption, assault and battery is welcomed but we need prosecution of guilty officials, not discharge. Indeed their leaders should face prosecution for failing to supervise staff and unleashing staff to abuse the authority their uniforms. We need more staff for regular forensic financial and social auditing to prevent fraudulent financial and moral behaviour in government. Imagine a meeting hearing that a vehicle costs N70m, doubling the cost and taking a bank loan, unavailable to Nigerians, and paying three times the inflated cost over three years. Is that not corruption and money laundering? First Bank should face sanctions and a boycott threat from Nigerians. Investigation must dissect the minutes of aviation meetings and identify who took the crazy repayment decisions. Who were the final beneficiaries of the Aviationgate N255m? Was this just standard procedure and part of the ‘Secret Internally Generated Party Revenue Programme’- a large party cut from every contract done at state level as well- with funds to be funnelled to the party preparing for 2015 elections? We know it is the tip of the ‘Inflation of Contracts Iceberg’ by which governing parties get their money. We should have a Nigeriawhistleblowers.com website where Nigerian whistleblowers register all suspected cases for scrutiny, exposure and clearance.

    Since we have mass unemployment, why not increase staff auditing, supervising or monitoring corruption and incompetence in the public service, police, and parallel organisations like road and traffic control organisations? How many citizens have been killed by police –public encounters recently? In addition anarchical government is manifest by politically motivated demolitions of buildings, throwbacks to the civil war. Such activities are thinly disguised ‘Abuse of the Master Political Plan’.

    Is the end of any hope for good governance in sight or should we consider this sudden interest in NC by the presidency and the milito-democracy of the Senate President as an olive branch? Or is it a poisoned olive branch to affect all those who touch it or is it an olive branch coiled around a dagger to stab us with or to cut us as a two edged sword when it is withdrawn after we have grabbed it with both hands leaving us bloody and crippled yet again? Only time will reveal the true government agenda drawn up in secret by the little men hiding under the cloak of governance while millions of our children have no textbooks and potholes fill the roads.

    Whatever government’s agenda, the S-NC, a people’s forum beyond just politics, should go ahead immediately in early 2014. Already the first order of business has been suggested: Adopt and incorporate most of  past reports and summaries of political and social significance including the 118 clauses already proposed by the National Political Reform 2005 committee, the Belgore Committee and others highlighted by ex-Governor Bola Tinubu and other concerned Nigerians. Once in place that will not take a month let alone the whole of 2014.

    Who will be the delegates? The suggestion that existing LGAs should be the basis for the S-NC on the principle of one person /LGA sounds like a sound principle if you are ignorant of Nigeria’s politico-military history. These LGs are a main problem of true federalism needing solution and a deliberate mis-creation of the morally corrupt military and feudal federalism to always favour the North by giving them ‘sovereignty, senatorial and representational and therefore financial superiority’ as many revenue allocations and other fiscal advantages are based on LGAs. Such brazenly fraudulent illegalities in LGA creation were legalised in the 1999 constitution and the trademark of Nigeria’s military regimes waywardness. They remain un-reversed and irreversible even during the democracies of 1999-2013 because of the advantage in the NASS to the cheats. Which senator/representative will vote himself out of power? Suffice to say that Lagos has 20 federally recognised LGAs while Kano and Jigawa formerly one state Kano have 77 LGAs. The Census tribunal and Festus Odimegwu the executive whistleblower exposed the flaws in this corrupt distribution of LGAs. Is justice, emphasised by Professor Soyinka as the bedrock of decent society, served by cheating Lagos in 2013? It is such devious financial and political discrimination that created the animosity resulting in this festering feudal federalism in need of a S-National Conference.

    Meanwhile multibillions in salaries funding FERMA’s inactivity fail to translate into filling Nigeria’s potholes except at holidays like December or governor’s or president’s visits? So we can die January to November? Why should FERMA not be disbanded for failing Nigeria’s road challenges? Why did FERMA not predict, anticipate and avert the flood and subsequent three-hour traffic jam on Sunday afternoon at the lowest point of the bridge/road just before Otedola Estate on the Lagos Ibadan Road by maintaining functional drainage holes in the bridge walls? FERMA should defend itself against incompetence charges or is it so underfunded that it cannot fill potholes?