The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Nigeria of nightmares or dreams; Biometrically over-captured; NEITI; NIMASA Life Jackets

    The Al Shabaab outrageous attack on the Westgate Mall, Kenya, claiming as many as 60 lives, is a duplication of what is happening daily in Nigeria with Boko Haram and the cattle/Fulani herders-wilful destruction of lives and properties- terrorism.   In addition in Nigeria, there is political devilry, death and destruction all around deconstructing the country. The fatally flawed 1999 constitution, the disastrous over-centralisation of the Federal Government and the underdevelopment arising from Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness, CINS, have led us to a serious crossroads- de-amalgamation and de-Nigerianisation. At last even David Mark, long-sitting senate president, has mentioned the words ‘National Conference’ without spitting but without the key word ‘Sovereign’. Nigerians need to be treated with more respect than to be thrown a political ‘bone’ when they demand their rights. The current political restlessness is consequent to an outrageously flamboyant anti-people lifestyle of politicians and top civil servants. It has unpredictable consequences. Over 40 years of political leadership failure created a desperate generation of callous cheats, killers and politicians with mostly dangerous democratic credentials- ‘Winning by buying power’.

    We suffer in ‘The Nigeria of Our Nightmares’ with governments robbing the citizens officially. Though many Nigerians of my generation have worked lifelong to help create the ‘Nigeria of Our Dreams’, it escapes us. We are urged to pay more taxes for less service. While Italian engineers are righting wronged giant Costa Concordia ships, Nigerians have deadly bumpy rides on potholed roads neglected by Nigeria’s political class.

    Nigerians are slapped and punched repeatedly by the many hands and fists of government. Nigerians have been slapped stupid by poor power supply, roads and services and greedy governance. Are we now to register and tax generators, boreholes, wells and overhead tanks – by which Nigerians ‘manage’ and survive the massive corruption and incompetence of government? This is a TAX ON SURVIVAL, A TAX ON EXISTENCE!

    Nigerians are denied simple fingerprint investigation for want of a computerised Nigerian fingerprint bank. Yet Nigerians have been ‘biometric over-captured’. We have computerised biometric data banks from ID cards x 3, INEC Voter’s Cards X 2, passport registration, phone SIM card registration X each number, bank registration, PIN number, TIN number, FRSC Driver’s Licence X2, FRSC Vehicle Plate Number 2 and the New Police Vehicle Registration?

    We are over-registered. The cost to government and citizens’ time and money, totals many billions. Billions will roll into the FRSC and Police but who will account for this money extorted ‘legally illegally’. If this is not 419, what is?  Who will unite all biometric data banks?

    Does some Nigerian actually say at a government meeting ‘Let us screw Nigerians with yet another scam? Any suggestions? The same again? Wow, how brilliant. And remember we must not share our registration data bank with any other organisations. Swear!’

    Not surprisingly, the NGO Good Governance Initiative Nigerians, GGI, confirms that Nigerians are forced to spend N2,700,000,000,000 /annum on fuelling generators. Which oil marketer will want PHCN to improve? Only a true nationalist presidential leadership will overcome corporate oil power to give us electric power, especially solar power. Rome’s Emperor Tiberius the Tyrant was followed by the even worse Emperor Caligula the Cruel. What hope for Nigeria where the leadership is self-serving? The crassness of corruption knows no bounds in Nigeria.

    But there is hope. Nigerians should send letters of encouragement to the iconic ‘People’s Lawyers’ including Femi Falana for, among other things, fighting for the rights of children to decent education and Akure-based lawyer, Morakinyo Ogele who is suing FRSC over the new number plate. They are fighting for us at their own expense.  Do something yourself like fundraising for legal battles.

    There is more hope. Under a ‘Safety at Sea Programme’, NIMASA’s distribution of life jackets Nembe Bonny Waterfront is a wonderful demonstration of ‘normal’. 25,000 still needed. The life jacket is to water what the Insecticide Treated Net, ITN, is to malaria.

    There is even more hope. A Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI’s retrospective audit has recovered $2billion. The fear of NEITI is the beginning of wisdom. Beyond recovery, NEITI has forced industry players to play it straighter in 2013. The deterrent effect of an independent NEITI, EFCC or ICPC Desk in all top organisation will prevent much corporate and MDA corruption. Yes, it may also promote EFCC and ICPC corruption but we hope not. We need to institute awards like GCON for NEITI- type organisations.

    Stowaway boy, Daniel Oikhena was heading for America. Unlike Zik of Africa, whose ‘humble beginnings’ led him to stow away on a ship, Daniel chose a ‘ landing gear seat’ and is due for psychiatric tests. Does anyone offer psychiatric tests to those poor youth escaping Nigeria crossing the murderous Sahara and the deadly Mediterranean to camps like Lampedusa, Italy? Does anyone offer psychiatric tests to National Assembly, NASS members voting  ‘Life Salaries’ for NASS principle officers, tax exemptions, or voting themselves the highest Salaries and Perks- SAP- and corruption-ridden constitutional projects? With many unemployed psychologists we should demand psychological and psychiatric tests on government ‘uniforms’ who to go berserk daily draining Nigeria’s morale and young life-blood. How many must die to make a nation? How many farmers have been killed by Fulani in Plateau and Iseyin? And we still eat cow meat! Are we a spineless people? Ask the dead ‘Was Nigeria worth dying for?’ Politicians should stop boasting about nothing; look around the world and deliver Nigeria into the 21st Century, mentally, morally and materially!

     

  • The drought here? Not, yet!

    It seems highly unlikely that many Nigerians paid much attention to the issues raised by the Rotimi Amaechi-led Nigeria Governors Forum outside of the body’s call for the resignation of the Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last week. That would be understandable given that very little gets discussed these days outside of the prism of “Jonathan versus the G-7”, “PDP versus nPDP”, “GEJ and 2015: to run or not to run” etc.

    The call – coming from the governors whose opposition to the Jonathan-led federal government is well known comes with the temptation to dismiss the messengers with their message. Unfortunately, it seems that those who would rather dismiss the governors even without the benefit of looking at the merit of their position would appear just as culpable in foisting the reign of fiscal impunity on the polity.

    So, what is the problem this time?

    The text of the governors’ well-presented communiqué is rather explicit: The federal government stands accused of that fiscal iniquity called cheating. The governors not only believe that the federal government has something to hide; they insist that its accounting of the accruals into the federation account is fraudulent.

    As unsettling as that view may sound at this time; I don’t even think the view is anything new.

    Here is how the governors put it: “The non compliance with the revenue projections of the Federal Government of Nigeria 2013 Budget is a direct breach of the provisions of the Appropriation Act 2013. Members expressed concern in the management of the economy by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and called for a strict adherence to the Appropriation Act 2013, failing which she should resign”.

    Flowing from that, the governors would restate their demand for “the separation of the office of the Accountant General of the Federation from that of the Accountant General of the Federal Government for accountability and better management of the economy”.

    I don’t think anyone should miss the point at stake. The issue primarily is one of the shrunk exchequer; the other demands like the separation of the office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government from that of the federation, and the resignation of the minister are at best ancillary and tangential.

    Let’s examine the issues a bit more closely. Before now, the idea that the exchequer is actually shrinking was not only scoffed at; indeed that the economy was in any form of trouble was, at least to the best of my knowledge, considered preposterous. Today, in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the massive revenue leakages from oil theft and associated production shut-ins, only the federal government can afford to live in the illusion that the economy – or the budget which relies on oil revenue for between 75-85 percent – is anything but in deep trouble.

    Here are few proofs. First is the claim by the 36 states of the federation that they are yet to receive arrears of N466billion from the federation account in the last three months. Indeed, few days after Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State was reported as bemoaning the imminent precarious situation, Niger State commissioner for finance, Alhaji Mahmoud Kpako Bello, would in Leadership newspaper on Sunday give the breakdown of the amounts due to the 36 states from the federation account. According to the Niger State representative on the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), the states are owed arrears of three months totalling N121 billion. Another N140 billion that ought to have been paid in August is said to be still outstanding. And this month, another shortfall of over N90 billion is already reported.

    The second proof is the decree recently rolled out by the federal government that revenue would henceforth be based on actual collections instead of the budgeted value. This is perhaps because the country only realised N4.39 trillion as the gross federally collected revenue in the first seven months – a shortfall of N443.76 billion from actual projections for the period.

    The issue here is not that the price of our sweet crude is in decline; on the contrary, the ruling price continues to exceed the price posted as benchmark in the budget. The problem really is the thriving industry of stolen crude.

    Only last week, a United Kingdom-based think-tank, Chatham House released a rather conservative – but nonetheless scathing – report on the theft now said to have reached an industrial scale.

    The report paints a daily average loss of 100,000 barrels – that is, some five percent of its daily crude output –in the first quarter of the year. As if to confirm the uniquely opaque character of the Nigerian oil industry in which integrity of industry numbers are assumed without verification, the report would also note that the amount does not even include the goings-on in the export terminals.

    Howbeit, the overall picture painted in the report is one of an industry riddled with poor governance, violent opportunism, and one in which organised crime has festered.

    Are the governors crying wolf where there was none? It must be admitted that the governors opted to play politics when they put the finance minister on the spot as against President Goodluck Jonathan on whose desk the buck stops. Not that the book-keeper is less of the sinning party; but then, why leave out the principal under whose direction the book-cooking took place?

    As it is, there are clearly two aspects to the governors’ grouse, both of which in saner climes would warrant drastic measures.

    The first is the absurd accounting practices under which the federal government hides to illegally short-change the other beneficiaries from the federally distributable pool.

    How much of the crude is stolen? Does our famed chancellor of the exchequer actually know? Is it 100,000 bpd as claimed by the think-tank – or the 400,000 being bandied by the administration? How much of this figure is stolen? What fraction is shut-in? Does our overrated technocrat know? Does anyone in the administration know? And shouldn’t those who do not know yield the space for those who know? How about getting everybody to a joint sitting to examine the books if one party has nothing to hide? Isn’t that what transparency is all about?

    The second is the shame of losing 400,000 barrels per day in output. At a conservative price of $100, that comes to $40 million dollars lost daily through the activities of oil thieves. Is anyone still in charge? Don’t ask me what the combined forces of the Army, Navy and the Air Force are doing to combat the scourge. The last time I checked, I was told that the business has been outsourced to our erstwhile creek lords.

    And yet someone has dared to complain about the drizzle; well, it hasn’t started raining yet!

  • Just following up

    Just following up

    We journalists are notoriously remiss in following up on the news that we usually report with such breathless excitement. All too often, we get caught up in the foam of events. Like bees in search of pollen, we hop from one event to another, oblivious of what had gone before. We rarely follow through.

    It is therefore by way of personal atonement that I return to three major issues that have all but vanished from the news horizon.

    Whatever happened to the government of Bayelsa State’s audacious programme to extirpate the epidemic of rumour-mongering that has been sweeping the riverine terrain and threatening to plunge all its glittering achievements right back into the swamps?

    The last we heard of the project, a high-powered committee comprising representatives of the secret service, the police, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (ha!), civil society and other relevant groups–I almost wrote “stakeholders” — was at work to produce a tough remedy that Governor Seriake Dickson would move the State Assembly to enact into law.

    The outlines are still hazy, but some hot lines and web sites would be dedicated to the project. Anyone who is not sure whether what he has heard is the gospel truth or just malicious gossip – which is often nothing but stark rumour – has only to call the hot line or consult the web sites to get the authentic facts from certified officials operating round the clock.

    Those who fail to avail themselves of this unique service and end up wittingly or unwittingly peddling rumours, however benign, will have only themselves to blame when the law comes into effect.

    Are the verification centres up and running?

    I ask because I would like to check out some rumour that has been gusting in Bayelsa lately.

    It concerns a mighty personage who wears, among other hats, that of permanent secretary-at-large in the state’s civil service. I hear that senior officials who have been murmuring that she is not qualified for the distinction and that her appointment was in every sense arbitrary have decided, under the aegis of Bayelsa Civil Servants for Due Process and Transparency, to take the matter to the next level.

    According to sources, who have asked me not to identify them lest they be persecuted, members of the organisation passed a unanimous resolution at a recent meeting declaring that the way the personage aforementioned has been carrying on is “incompatible with the ethos of the public service, and is capable of bringing the Bayelsa State civil service into disrepute if it has not already done so.”

    The resolution, they tell me, is only the first step to securing through the courts a cease and desist order that would, without prejudice to any other positions she may occupy or assign herself, have the effect of restraining the personage from parading herself as a permanent secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service in any guise or disguise, and from enjoying the benefits pertaining thereunto.

    Surely, you too must have heard the rumour, ladies and gentlemen of the Bayelsa Task Force on Rumour-mongering. For the benefit of the people of Bayelsa and indeed the teeming readers of this newspaper in Nigeria and abroad, I respectfully request that you confirm or dispel it at your earliest convenience.

    I have my own views on the matter, but they cannot be a substitute for the definitive verdict that only The Task Force can issue.

    Second, whatever happened to the National Good Governance Tour that Information Minister (and now acting Minister of Defence) Labaran Maku has been staging to showcase to all those who are too obtuse to notice and appreciate the great transformation the Goodluck Jonathan Administration has wrought across the land.

    The last time I wrote on the subject, Maku had just concluded a controversial tour of Edo State. I was definitely in error in stating that he was hopping from one site to another in an executive jet, and I hereby offer my remorseful apologies.

    I have since learned that he rides nothing more opulent than those passenger buses purchased for the public under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), and that the only reason he has not availed himself and his touring party of rail travel is that a good many of the sites are not accessible by train.

    When will he take his good governance gospel to Yobe, or Borno?

    Boko Haram or no Boko Haram, there are in those states shining examples of the irreversible Transformation the Jonathan Administration has wrought. Are they not worth showcasing, if only to give the lie to those who claim that underdevelopment is the cause of the insurgency roiling those cities, and to confound the insurgents themselves?

    The insurgents, knowing that he has the armed might of the Federal Government at his call as acting Minister of Defence, will be on their best behaviour while the tour lasts. The Honourable Minster may even succeed in charming them with his winning ways and his elegant tailoring into signing a permanent truce.

    Your move, then, Honourable Minister.

    In Bukola Saraki’s time as governor, wonderful things were said and written about how he had quietly transformed Kwara State into Nigeria’s breadbasket with his far-sighted agricultural policy and technocratic acumen.

    The vehicle for the revolution was the Shonga Farms, operated by 15 white farmers, who had lost out in the land redistribution programme through which President Robert Mugabe sought to empower his dispossessed people. With generous provisions of land and vital infrastructure and cash, the farmers were four years later producing lakes of milk, mountains of butter, and pyramids of rice and maize and sorghum and guinea corn, among other items.

    But there was one big problem. These products were available only in up-scale supermarkets in Abuja, so that, if Kwara was at al a breadbasket, it was a breadbasket only to the opulent denizens of the federal capital. Over time, the products vanished even from the shelves and cold stores of the up-scale supermarkets.

    What happened to Saraki’s revolution?

    It was over before it began. But the media took Saraki’s word for it that an agricultural revolution characterised by superabundance had indeed occurred in Kwara. Today, according to persons familiar with the place, Shonga Farm looks like an abandoned junkyard littered with the debris of broken machinery and structures, a monument to mass deception.

    Unlike the media, Saraki’s handpicked successor, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed was not fooled. Months after taking office, he was already laying the groundwork for his own agricultural revolution, this time through a partnership with Cornell University in Ithaca, in the sub-arctic clime of up-state New York

    Surely, the attentive audience is entitled to ask: How many agricultural revolutions can you have within five years in the same location?

  • ASUU strike and its many ironies

    The on-going Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, already in its third month, has come with grand ironies.

    These ironies are grand enough to evoke that famous personal rebuke from the straight-as-pin Parson, among wide-and-merry co-pilgrims to St Thomas Becket shrine at Canterbury, England, in Geoffery Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: “If gold rusts, what would iron do?”

    The Tales of Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) was a biting sarcasm of the grand hypocrisy of Middle Age Catholic England. The goodly Parson, a humble priest with modest parishioners, found himself in the midst of the flower of the English Roman Catholic, laity and clergy: the Miller whose thumb was golden with stealing his customers’ grain; the Summoner, spiritual thug and bully who made corrupt living as local papal police; the Pardoner, another unfazed spiritual racketeer who claimed he had, in his pouch, papal pardon “hot, fresh and smoking from Rome”, available at the right fee; and of course the handsome Wife of Bath, whose chaste exterior was not unlike the Biblical white sepulchre: glittering outside but rotten within.

    In the midst of such mass degeneracy, the Parson, though a moral icon, always cautioned himself, against skidding into the wide and merry way: “If gold rusts, what would iron do!”

    That was in 14th century England.

    In 21st century Nigeria, the Parson-spirit would appear totally non-existent.

    Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, PhD, was an academic totally made in Nigeria – BSc (Port Harcourt), MSc (Port Harcourt), PhD (Port Harcourt). To boot, His Excellency even reportedly had a teaching stint in a tertiary institution, before succumbing to graver matters of state: Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President, Acting President, President to complete the ill-fated Umaru Yar’Adua’s term and now President on his own first term, ogling a second!

    Yet, His Excellency cannot defend the integrity of the system that made him. He would appear not to “give a damn” about the anguish of millions of Nigerian youth, out of school for three months and still counting; simply because they have an unfeeling, insensitive and irresponsible government, which does not seem to care about their future; about the throes of former colleagues in the Academia, condemned to scrounging water from stone because the Nigerian state simply doesn’t regard education as priority; about the collapse of the university system, acutely distressed and seriously creaking!

    Indeed, how the president has handled the ASUU strike, vis-a-vis the implosion in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), paints the iron-clad difference between the politician and the statesman: Jonathan the politician would rather worry about the next election by focusing on PDP troubles, than on the next generation by suffering distractions from the ASUU strike!

    If gold rusts, what would iron do!

    Of course, if the fish is rotten in the head, what there is left of the body? Prof. Ruquayyatu Rufa’i, sacked former Education minister – sacked not for the tardy handling of the ASUU crisis but because she is an ally of Jigawa Governor, Sule Lamido: no friend of the president ahead the 2015 electoral sweepstakes – promptly declared she would head back to her desk at Bayero University, Kano (BUK).

    That prompted Citizen Obo Effanga to ask on his facebook wall: will she then join the ASUU strike? The irony was apparently totally lost on the former minister! Minister yesterday; lecturer tomorrow! Not even enlightened self-interest could make the minister defend the essence of her profession, when she had the opportunity! See, how far gone are the Nigerian state and its high officials?

    If gold rusts, what would iron do!

    You can dismiss Nyesom Wike, Education minister of state and current supervising minister. He is no gold in that sector, just a Rivers political battler moonlighting in the crucial Education ministry. No wonder: the rambler has since gone on the rumble in the Rivers jungle! Education, ASUU and allied distractions are all but fading echoes! That is proof of Jonathan’s regard for education!

    But there is every reason to worry about Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy, who snorted her finance ministry had no cash to pay ASUU, even if the Federal Government had earlier signed an agreement to that effect. So, what does her ministry have cash for?

    How a brilliant woman with startling degrees from America’s Ivy League schools would volunteer such is well and truly amazing. If America had not invested in its own education, would she be so proud of her American training? And is it taboo for Nigeria to invest in its; so that its future graduates too would be a toast of the world, as America’s is today?

    But that is the point! Mrs Okonjo-Iweala would rather count the beans and declare “economic growth”, while local development indices roll back by the second. It is tribute to fuzzy thinking in high quarters that it isn’t glaring that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s economic policy is, in real terms, tailored towards underdevelopment. It must have the approving smack of Breton-Woods – and these blokes share their glory with nobody! Remember Kwame Nkrumah’s 1965 timely early warning: Neo-colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism?

    If gold rusts, what would iron do!

    It is amazing how hyper-educated Nigerians, at the acme of the Nigerian state, are education philistines; though they are living witnesses to other countries’ glorious investment in their own educational system; or even Nigeria’s past investment in this crucial sector.

    It is even more amazing that past beneficiaries of the golden age of Nigerian education, before the locust years of the military, have almost all drifted abroad for daily bread, giving their host countries a surfeit of their silky skills, while their own country bleeds – and future generation acutely thirsts.

    But the most amazing perhaps, are products of Nigerian universities who have bought into the philistinism of their misguided rulers. To them, there is absolutely no reason to fix the problem. Public universities are sheer poison; and lecturers there are nincompoops: nincompoops that drilled the now cocky former students into the present Socrateses, who now regard their former lecturers (read ASUU) as hare-brained!

    Their credo: amass enough cash, send your children or wards abroad, or to local private universities; and consign ASUU to rust with its umpteenth campaign for better funding of universities! Their Socratic formula: Flee! Typically Nigerian. But sorry, your problems will not run away from you!

    Besides, technology is not machines; but a way of life. So, if you are not in full control of your education, how do you forge a winning technology – your own niche to compete in the very unequal market the West fraudulently brandishes as “globalisation”?

    Those who abandon public universities to rust, because their children are not there, are as guilty as Jonathan’s gang of philistines. The mass thorns from public varsities will choke their own fanciful flowers from avant-garde schools here or abroad – except of course, the hope of a future Nigeria is the Diaspora!

    Nigeria has no choice but to fully fund university education. The time to start is now.

     

  • Westgate lessons for Nigeria

    Westgate lessons for Nigeria

    The world of terror as it seems, has no borders and Nigeria is an unwilling player. No thanks to the Boko Haram insurgency, Nigeria is now prominently placed among the league of countries troubled by agents of death.

    The new trend in consumer shopping that had seen the rise of big shopping malls as against ordinary supermarkets in the country has also put Nigeria, especially our big cities on course to become mega cities just like any other anywhere in the world.

    Now put the two, terror and shopping mall together and you get a picture of a dangerous world. A world of tears, sorrows and blood as exemplified by the weekend siege on Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya by Somalia based Al Shabaab militants, a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda that has left no fewer than 65 people dead.

    The siege by the gunmen which began Saturday afternoon entered its third day yesterday as Kenyan Special Forces intensified efforts to clear the mall of the remaining militants and free the shoppers who are being held hostage by Al Shabaab.

    The innocent shoppers, unaware of the danger lurking had gone to the mall for their usual purchases, while some, as expected, were there to window shop against possible future purchases. But when terror struck, they (rich and poor) were all bundled together by Al Shabaab and their fate firmly in the hands of the terrorists.

    The shoppers were drawn from all over the world, not just Kenya. And this is understandable. Kenya is a favorite destination for tourists around the world and the country derives a large chunk of its revenue from tourism.

    Next door Somalia is a haven for terrorists following several failed attempts to have a government in place after the fall of the last central government in Mogadishu led by President Siad Barre over two decades ago. Barre died years later in exile in Nigeria.

    Instability in Somalia has been having a negative effect on tourists flow into Kenya and the country rightly took active interest in restoring stability to its neighbour. This include sending troops in 2011 to bolster support for the UN backed government in Mogadishu to the chagrin of Al Shabaab which views such interest as interference in internal affairs of Somalia. And Al Shabaab’s own way of teaching Kenya a lesson was to take terror to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, and it chose to strike inside Westgate Shopping Mall, where it was sure to inflict maximum damage not only on Kenya but also the western world.

    The identities of the masterminds of the attack could be shocking as there were speculations that no fewer than five US citizens and a British woman whose husband was one of the attackers in the 2005 terror assault on London, Samantha Lewthwaite, better known as the White Widow were involved.

    As has become typical of all al Qaeda related terrorist attacks, religion and identities of the victims are secondary, what is of utmost importance is to cause death to as many people as possible just to prove a point that they are capable of causing chaos. All those talks about fighting the cause of Islam or wanting to create an Islamic state are just diversionary. All they are interested in is blood, and we have seen that in abundance here in Nigeria in the way Boko Haram has been carrying out its activities.

    The terror attack at Westgate Shopping Mall should be of major concern to Nigeria in particular. Not because Nigerians or a Nigeria has been found to be involved either way, (which is not impossible), but because there are so many similarities to be drawn from that experience with Nigeria. Like Kenya (in east Africa) , Nigeria is a regional power and part of the international community trying to rid west Africa of terrorists mostly linked to Al Qaeda. At home we have Boko Haram which is linked to Al Shabaab and by implication Al Qaeda. Most important is the new trend among Nigerians to patronize big shopping malls that are daily springing up across the federation especially in our big cities. The Westgate experience could encourage Boko Haram to want to try out such here. How prepared are our security agencies to foil or combat such attempts here?

    Drawing from the Kenyan experience which cannot be said to be a success yet, the lead agency spearheading the assault on Al Shabaab inside that mall was the Kenyan police. Can the Nigeria Police Force as it is today be entrusted with that task if it came to that here? This is not putting down the Nigeria Police but the fact today is that our policemen all ill-equipped, not well trained and improperly motivated to meet the challenges posed by terrorism as exemplified by Boko Haram to our country.

    The Federal Government needs to rethink the way it is funding and equipping the police. Allocating peanuts to the police as if the officers and men of the Force are just our Maiguard is nothing but recipe for disaster. Worse still, even the bulk of the money allocated don’t get to Force Headquarters as and when due.

    The other day the president was at the Police College in Ikeja after a local television station revealed the decay going on there, but after the noise from the presidency over the revelation, not much has been heard in the way of any improvement to the college.

    The police high command also needs to revisit its recruitment policy, training and promotion to give preference to competence high and above the principle of federal character. The Police must also resist the temptation to allow the Force to be an instrument in the hands of politicians. If the institution is well funded, insulated from politics and serves the best interest of Nigeria, it would certainly attract the best Nigerian brains available in that area, and also enjoy public support.

    As the shopping malls continue to multiply in Nigeria, it is about time a well planned and properly coordinated security measure is put in place to secure not just the facility but most importantly the lives of the shoppers. Nigeria cannot afford the Westgate experience. It would not be out of place to have a special protection unit of elite policemen created by the Nigeria Police Force for this purpose. Boko Haram has already put us in bad light around the world we should not give the terrorists an opportunity to make it worse.

    And as the Nigerian government continues to discharge its international obligations in the fight against terror it should be mindful of the backlash and prepare adequately. A stitch in time saves nine, as the saying goes.

  • Now, Mark has spoken

    Before the disclaimer by the Baraje faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP of speculated agreement with President Goodluck Jonathan, events had pointed at that grim direction despite claims from supporters of the president. Early indication came when the Tukur-led executive set up a caretaker committee for the Kano State chapter of the party. If there were some agreement, the Baraje faction would have been taken into confidence on the matter or it would have pended till the resumption of talks presumably in the first week of October.

    But Tukur went ahead even as both factions are still embroiled in power struggle over the soul of the party. Of course, the Kano state government did not waste time to denounce it citing the party constitution that has no room for such contraption. The other signal which also came in quick succession was the visit by the Baraje group to the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly to brief them on their grievances.

    During both visits, the group tabled all the issues they hitherto purportedly reached agreement with the president including the demand that he should not be allowed to go for another term. To underscore the deadlock this time around, they referred to the purported ambition of Jonathan to run in 2015 as a third term agenda.

    The purport of this terminology should not be lost on any discerning person. If anything, it underscores how hard the mind of the group has stiffened on that project and their irrevocable commitment to oppose it with their last blood. Their new disposition may have been fallout of speculations that the president pointedly told them he never told anybody he will not run for another term. This could have been extrapolated as clear indication that Jonathan has made up his mind to run. And it could be logically so deduced.

    The third term coinage has therefore left no one in doubt as to the sequence of events to follow.

    Their engagement with the Senate President, David Mark was orderly. Mark never left them with any shred of doubt that he stood for a united PDP. But their encounter with the speaker of the House of Representatives turned out rowdy. There was fracas as the anti- and pro-Baraje factions engaged each other in shouting bout and subsequent fisticuffs. The battle line was very clear and indicated very glaringly that harder times await the nation as the crises within the ruling party plays out in the days ahead.

    Before the visit, Mark had succinctly captured the mood of the nation when he said at the reconvening of the Senate that he has seen the imperative for a national conference. According to him, steps should be taken to convene a national conference of ethnic nationalities to confront the “perceived or alleged structural distortions which have bred discontent and alienation in some quarters”. Such a conference in the thinking of the senate president could find accommodation in extant provisions of the constitution that guarantee freedom of expression and association.

    Mark however put forward two caveats. The first is that it will be unconstitutional to clothe such a conference with constituent or sovereign powers. The other is that discussions on dismembering the country should be a no-go area. These aside, Mark believes every other question should be open for discussions as the resolutions of the ethnic nationalities called under the auspices of the federal government will carry tremendous weight.

    No doubt, the senate president’s backing for the convocation of a national conference of Nigeria’s estimated 390 ethnic nationalities is a very positive development for the country. It is also in line with the feelings of those who had before now, seen the conference as the only way out of the multifarious challenges facing the country. These challenges have been so much so that doubts have been expressed on the capacity of the country to withstand recurring systemic stress. Things are not helped by prediction from the United States of America, US that Nigeria might go the way of a failed state come 2015.

    Though this predication had been roundly denounced in official quarters, events as 2015 inches nearer, show increasing signals that we may be in for a self-fulfilling prophecy. In order to stave off the prospects of this looming danger, several well meaning Nigerians and interest groups have recommended the convocation of the conference. But the greatest opposition to that idea had come from the National Assembly basking on the powers which the1999 constitution appeared to have conferred on it.

    Now Mark has spoken, it would appear that a major stumbling block to the imperative of a national conference has given way. He believes that the National Assembly though constitutionally not bound by the resolutions of such a conference, will be hard put to ignore them in the current constitution amendment process. In effect, Mark would want the conference to go hand in hand with the ongoing constitution amendment process. He would want the Nigerian people to come up with resolutions on how they desire the nation’s affairs to be conducted. When such resolutions have been crystallized, the National Assembly will then incorporate them as part of the ground norms for running this country. That could be a way out provided the resolutions of the nationalities will not be subjected to another round of debate by the lawmakers. This may not be as simplistic as has been presented. All the same, the key thing is the admission that we need to sit down and discuss issues affecting the constituent units.

    The issue of structure and composition should pose no serious problem when it is understood that the overall goal is to save the country from going asunder. This objective weighs more than anything else. No sacrifice will be too much in its pursuit. In the same vein, fears on the possible fallouts of a sovereign or constituent variant can be taken care of, if all are genuinely committed to the overall unity and progress of the country. After all, the National Assembly derives its powers from the people and cannot possibly be above the ultimate sovereign power- the people.

    Signals emanating from sections of the country, increasingly speak of an increasing pull towards centrifugalism. And at the root of these are increasing feelings of alienation, marginalization and the inability of the central government to equitably cater for the component units. There are also several structural and systemic distortions that have stood on the way of the citizens realizing their potentials to the fullest. They are loaded with frightening prospects for system collapse and failure. It is more profitable to address than allow them weigh down the country.

    It is gladdening that President Jonathan and Mark are buying into this visionary and futuristic idea. What is required now is for the necessary machinery to be set in motion for the immediate convocation of the conference. It is possible. All obstacles that have been raised are human including aspects of the constitution. Being human issues, they can be redirected to serve humanity better.

    But, we need to hear the position of the factional PDP led by Baraje on the propriety of a national conference. We also need to hear from the Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Forum and others that have been vocal on power shift. This will help sift those genuinely for the peace, progress and stability of this country and others seeking power to perpetuate the glaring inequities of the decadent order that has led to this pass.

  • Who is the boss?

    Who is the boss?

    The governors were right, and the governors were not so right. They said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the dame of the economy, should resign. The reason? Nigeria’s business of Naira and kobo – well, who talks of kobo these days except on paper? – has spun out of control. Now, as the debate rang through the economic and political corridors, I saw a big elephant, a beautiful, bespectacled, often defiant elephant.

    Her name is Diezani Alison-Madueke, the minister of Petroleum who would not brook a minister of state because, as an elephant, she would choke any competition out of the room and out of oil. That was why I chuckled as the governors, especially Rivers State Governor, the right honourable Rotimi Amaechi, called for the head of the dame.

    When she was appointed minister of Finance, her boss Goodluck Jonathan felt, as the other elephant in the administration, Okonjo-Iweala should not be hemmed in by finance. So, he designated her, without legislative backing, the coordinating minister of the Economy. I learned that so besotted was the dame about the title that she hardly honoured any petition or request that did not invest her with that grandiloquent honour.

    So, whenever anyone had a trouble with the economy, we pointed straight at the person in charge, presumably. So when the governors like the hard-charging Amaechi threw the bait, the ego of the dame of the economy could not escape.

    But further investigation would show that the woman holds that position more as a cipher than in reality. That is where the first elephant in the room, the elegant one, was ignored. Alison-Madueke, who speaks to any audience with a bored, superior air of a peacock, has escaped the jibe, except for the accusation pelted at her by some politicians.

    Okonjo-Iweala coordinates the economy only in part. She coordinates such areas as Customs, NIMASA, immigration, FIIRs, agriculture, power, etc. To that extent, we can say that she is a coordinating minister of the economy. But she is an outsider with regards to the jugular of the economy. That is, oil. She does not control the oil revenue. That was the point the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, made when he said all eyes should point to the pot of the Nigerian economy, that is, the NNPC.

    Now, Okonjo-Iweala responded to the charge for her to resign with some hauteur, echoing her former boss Obasanjo’s words: I dey kampe. I don’t think the governors who called for her to resign expected her to cave in. They knew that the woman, a sure foot in Jonathan’s administration, would not stir at the gloomy predictions of her adversaries.

    So, what concerns this column is why does the coordinating minister of the Economy not own up to her limitations in the system. Why would she not admit that, powerful as she is, she has another woman even more assertive and defiant, and who enjoys better favours from the boss? Why would she not admit that, the elegant Allison-Madueke, whose office was accused of jetting around the world on a N2 billion bill, coordinates the economy more than the coordinator of the economy?

    The office is important, but the person can overwhelm the office or the office can swallow the person. In this instance, the office has half-swallowed Okonjo-Iweala. As for the elegant peacock of the oil ministry, the office is smaller than the woman who occupies it.

    The thing about the oil minister that riles those who oppose her derives from her royal pretensions. Was she not the one who stopped at Ore not many years ago and wept at the plebian sore, the purulent series of death traps, gullies, pot holes and craters that became routine thoroughfares of fatal destiny for the poor?

    Can we reconcile that lachrymose lady with the bespectacled, bored, superior, powerful supervisor of the fluid that holds the Nigerian vein? We can call her the model of the economy. Fashion critics have noted that upscale models in the top runways of the world execute their catwalks with often serious mien. They hardly light up. The upper crust hold in their joy, they do not fall for little excitements. They have seen too many joys, too many triumphs, so much so that they have to manufacture joys and triumphs in order to gratify their own pride. So, as sociologist Thorstein Veblen notes, they create their own artificial joys. That is why we have golf, polo, country clubs, etc.

    The low-brow model cannot but be excited so she smiles. She abides in the natural, and smiles and giggles sweeten the ambience of the poor. Alison-Madueke often loves the world of the ascetic face of the well-heeled. So, how can we imagine her fix an appointment to see Okonjo-Iweala in order to brief her as the superior officer? Can anyone imagine Okonjo-Iweala summon Alison-Madueke?

    It is quite clear that the economy is divided into two orbits. Okonjo-Iweala holds sway in one, while Madueke rules the roost in the other. But whose empire is bigger? Of course, Madueke’s. the NNPC reports to her, and she in turn reports to the president. We can see that there is no coordination in the economy.

    I wonder why the governors did not call for her to resign, although I would want both to quit, for neither of their stewardships helps us. But what is at stake at the moment is that the state governments have not had allocations in the past few months. A depleted state purse will mean many civil servants across the country, including the oil-rich ones, may have problems paying their salaries. Is another strike looming? Governor Amaechi complained last week about his inability to execute major contracts as he has had to rely on internally generated revenue since July.

    So, what is happening to the NNPC? If the Central Bank of Nigeria says it received $4 billion, why would NNPC report $700 million. That is why Governor Uduaghan shone his spotlight on that humungous pot.

  • PDP: Reaping the whirlwind

    PDP: Reaping the whirlwind

    Why would a party chairman attract so many enemies?

    Up until Friday last week, everything pointed to my having to write, again, on Livingston, an enchanting Scottish town which I arrived some two weeks ago and about which I had written as follows on 26 June, 2011: ‘located approximately 25 km west of Edinburgh and 50 km east of Glasgow, Livingston is the fourth post-war new town in Scotland. Adorned every inch of the way by enthralling greenery, it is built around a collection of small villages – Livingston Village, Bells quarry and Livingston Station. The population, as at 2008 was estimated to be around 63,160 and the name dates back to the 12th Century when a Flemish entrepreneur, De Leving, built a fortified tower and the settlement around it became known as Levingstoun, Layingston and, eventually Livingston. Livingston is, without a doubt, a visitor’s delight’.

    I, however, woke up that morning, convinced this was no time to afghanistise, as truly momentous events are happening back home, the most important being the literally irreversible – Nigerians must endeavour to make it permanently irreversible – dismemberment of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP); a party which, through trickery and unimaginable dare-devilry, has succeeded in holding Nigeria down since 1999 when a military mafia divined it into being to keep its members’ loots safe. What that means, in essence, is that PDP has been true to its proprietors, and what little extra it has done ever since, is to increase the rate of rent seeking in the country. Nigeria has therefore not progressed an inch in spite of its massive resources and the cheap propaganda about transformation. It must be conceded, however, that there has been some transformation in corruption. We now have pension scams, almost unknown before, just as all manner of stratagems are now in place to steal the huge oil resources, among them, fraudulent oil subsidy payments, some to children of PDP’s past chairmen, and totally incredible levels of oil theft, even when billions are being paid to some contractors to stave off same.

    What then underpins PDP’s unraveling which, if successful, will ultimately redound to the benefit of Nigeria? Because it is made up largely of politicians without conscience, and cohered solely by patronage, PDP has severally found itself at the brink, but yet clawed back from disaster. Based largely on its performance, this article will examine the urgency of a necessary PDP break up if Nigeria must survive to take its rightful place in the sun. Storming out of its impunity- driven mini convention at which members rights were serially abridged on Saturday, 31 August, 2013, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, alongside seven governors and some very senior party men, described the move as an attempt to ‘save the PDP from the antics of a few desperadoes who have no democratic temperament and are bent on hijacking the party for selfish ends’. Kawu Abubakar Baraje, chairman of the group, added that they are out to check the dictatorship which had resulted in political repression, restrictions on freedom of association and arbitrary suspension of members’. Deep down, however, it is well known that what is in contention is the question of a level playing field for the diverse groups and interests towards the 2015 presidential election which is , of course, seen majorly as an opportunity to continue to bleed the country. Whereas Jonathan and his gerontocrats want automatic selection for the president, his opponents want him completely out of contention having, they allege, severally promised to spend only one term in office

    If its members could dress their differences in such fancy language, not so Nigerians who had, for these many years, been at the receiving end of a totally clueless party whose policies have ensured that Nigeria is stuck within the lowest rungs of the Human Development Index like forever, with its latest ranking captured as follows: ‘Nigeria’s HDI value for 2012 is 0.471 –in the low human development category – positioning it at 153 out of 187 countries and territories’ with a life expectancy of 52. 3 years –Ekiti’s is 55 years plus – while Ghana ranks 135th with a life expectancy of 64.2. This parlous state of affairs includes a decrepit national infrastructure stock as well as an education system gone berserk. University teachers have been on strike since July, 2013.

    While the party, from inception, has had no redeeming features, driven as it is only by selfish motivations, its case worsened when President Obasanjo assumed all powers and brutally co-opted all its organs. He would hence forth appoint and dispense with party chairmen, chose and inflicted presidential candidates and did whatever it was he craved. When, therefore, Jonathan says Obasanjo caused the party’s problems, I interpret it to mean that the imperious Chairman Tukur sees himself in the Obasanjo mold. Unfortunately, the new chairman has no style; but rather reminds you of Peter Drucker’s authoritarian manager. Somebody needs to tell him that he is neither Obasanjo nor an elected president. It should be Nigerians’ wish, however, that he does not come down from his high horse. Why, for instance, would a party chairman, if he were busy, attract so many enemies and fights at the same time? Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is either fighting his home state governor, so he could install his son as governor come 2015, or fighting the governor Amaechi –led governors’ forum; he is either refusing to hold meetings of the party’s national executive or dissolving state Executive committees; Tukur is either calling founding leaders like Atiku Abubakar rascals or threatening to single-handedly declare legislative seats vacant. He needs a rude awakening but I am sincerely praying that, for the sake of Nigeria, President Jonathan would choose to retain him. In many articles before former president Obasanjo succeeded in persuading an otherwise reticent Jonathan to discount PDP’s zoning formula I, alongside many other Nigerians, pleaded with him to moderate his ambition to contest the 2011 election in the belief that four, or at most eight years down the line, he would have a very legitimate claim to the candidacy of his party and that Nigerians were most unlikely to forget his self abnegation. His insistence, and subsequent victory, at the presidential polls, has been partly responsible for the indescribable tension, even the escalating terrorism, in the country ever since. Only this past week, there were conflicting claims as to whether or not we lost some of our hard fighting men of the military to the irritants called Boko Haram. If only a Vice President Jonathan had remembered that there is always the day after! Finally , unrestrained impunity at all its levels, will account for a significant portion of the reasons the PDP went kaput, as it must, if Nigeria must escape the doom starring it in the face under a PDP stranglehold.

    I must, as usual, end this article with a word for the APC which stands to gain from PDP’s many troubles but which must, of necessity watch out for the crowd of politicians who may be opting to join it. The PDP, APC must remember, is a past master in planting moles and agents at very high levels in opposition parties. AD learnt too late and could only watch in utter bewilderment when its erstwhile chairman, Abdulkadir, and where is he today, became a presidential adviser to Obasanjo just as the ANPP did not know what hit it when its own chairman crawled, on all fours, to the PDP. The old PDP is desperate and the presidency will not shy away from deliberately suborning some desperate individuals to move into the APC, armed with a fat purse, to buy positions in which incalculable damage can be done to the party. Long before the schism, PDP was aggressively recruiting some self-opinionated members of the progressive political wing, bribing them with gubernatorial slots on either PDP or on any of its midget allies, like the Labour Party; promising them limitless funding and the tacit support of the country’s security agencies. Last word: Let APC put nothing beyond the Peoples Democratic Party and its serpentine allies.

  • PDP at a/the crossroads

    NATIONAL Mirror of September 19, welcomes us today with numerous wrongdoings: “He said the police command has (had) no hand in his release from the kidnappers….”

    “The dazed nominee said he does (did) not know….”

    “…the agreement the government freely entered (entered into) with them in 2009.”

    “Central to the current crisis are (is) the Federal Government’s reluctance in paying lecturers earned allowances that cover responsibilities and post graduate (postgraduate) supervision allowances.”

    “The head of a department oversees students’ problems ranging from registration, collection of results, and (to) other academic challenges.”

    Next is NATIONAL MIRROR Editorial of September 19 which struck three slip-ups: “The N100 billion the Federal Government has given to universities for infrastructural development is barely enough to scratch the problem at (on) the surface.”

    “…the fact that frequent strikes leading to delayed re-opening (reopening) of tertiary institutions are dangerous time-bombs for both the innocent and the guilty.” ASUU strikes and future of Nigeria’s education: there are no safe/harmless…time-bombs—so, yank off ‘dangerous’!

    “Tough times continues (why?) as ad investment drops again”

    “NDDC boss commissions (inaugurates) projects in Edo”

    “…even as he is demanding for compensation.” Community Mirror: delete ‘for’.

    “10 couples stand a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to any of these….” (DStv half-page advertisement) Multichoice Nigeria @ 20: all-expenses-paid trip

    Finally from NATIONAL MIRROR Back Page: “And with the disparate opposition looking to have gotten its acts (act) together….”

    “Unity in Igboland (Igbo land) and Disapora” (DAILY SUN Back Page Headline, September 18) Spell-check: Diaspora

    THE NATION of September 18 starting from its front page did not defend its freedom: “Stop Jonathan from back door (back-door) third term, says factional chair”

    “Recently, the duty has been (duty was) transferred to the Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs.” (THE NATION EDITORIAL, September 18)

    “Since most of the expected fund (funds) would be invested in equities and fixed income (fixed-income) instruments….”

    “PDP at crossroads in Anambra” THE NATION POLITICS Headline: at a/the crossroads

    “We are happy to report that Kaduna is fast turning into investors’ heaven (haven).”

    DAILY SUN Front Page Banner of September 16 goofed; “Amaechi, Jonathan, other govs settle” The President’s name should come first in headline casting involving him and governors no matter the circumstance or consideration. This is one of the basic principles of news management.

    THISDAY of September 16 wobbled right from its front page to advertorials: “…all the issues that had led to the break up (breakup/break-up) of the party.”

    “THISDAY learnt that though Senate President David Mark may have no issues for now insofar he remains neutral over the ensuing crisis in the PDP.” Truth & Reason: insofar as he….

    “Arik Airline” (THISDAY Caption, September 16, referring to an Arik aircraft on the runway!)

    “With U-Care Savings Account, you are able to plan ahead for your child’s school fees and save yourself the worries associated with a new school term. Open a U-Care Account today and you could access a loan facility to supplement your child’s school fees. Other benefits include (are) attractive interest rate, e-banking and a beautiful gift for your child.” (Full-page advertisement by UBA) The usage of ‘include’, instead of ‘are’, means that there are other unlisted benefits undisclosed to the prospective customer! And this: ‘e-banking’ is no longer a benefit or an incentive, but a given VAS!

    “A pacesetter per excellon (sic)!” I hope that the pronunciation of ‘par excellence’ did not mislead the copywriter.

    “And back to your private business, you never loose (lose) your charm, poise, elegance, grace, service to humanity and daint (dint) of hardwork (hard work).”

    “Select your preffered Goodybag below….” (Full-page advertisement by MTN) Everywhere you go: preferred!

    The next four infractions are from another full-page advertisement by Charles Dale Memorial International School: “May we share our (share with you our) vision for your child’s education.”

    “Our curriculum is geared towards unlocking the potentials in our students.” Bereton Montessori: ‘potential’ is non-count.

    “From inception, they are exposed to progressive learning built on a foundation of home spun (home-spun) values.”

    “In all we do, we seek to be a world class (world-class) citadel of learning with a reputation for excellence.” How not to groom future leaders!

    Let us move to the COMMENT and EDITORIAL of THISDAY of September 16: “Sometime in 2011 when I made up my mind to once again return to journalism after several years of absence from active practice….” Delete ‘once again’ which cannot co-function with ‘return’.

    “…I approached the former Editorial Page Editor, Miss Constance Ikokwu (another comma) to intimate her of (to) my intention to begin a weekly column on the Op-Ed pages (Page).”

    “…Brown said it was not surprising that there are (were) challenges of access to education….”

    “…because even in advance (advanced) countries where e-commerce started….”

    Lastly from THISDAY DIPLOMACY & DIASPORA Page: “…agricultural products and machineries….” ‘Machinery’ is non-count.

    “With Skye Bank’s online Foreign Exchange transfer platform, you can consummate all your FX transactions from your domiciliary account on either your Smart Phones, Ipads, Android and laptops from wherever you are. Its (It’s) simple, fast and secure.” ‘Either’ refers to two entities—not four items. The same rule applies to ‘neither’.

    Who will tell news managers in FRCN that ‘cattle’ is non-count? (Source: 7 a.m. Bulletin, September 14)

    THE NATION ON SUNDAY of September 15 offered readers this juvenile blunder: “Why Nollywood marriages breakdown (break down)….”

  • Education and democracy: training the future generation (3)

    Education and democracy: training the future generation (3)

    The federal government and its agencies are too far from  local communities where education is provided.

    We sent our two children to Ghana, not because we are rich but because we believe that Ghana has a more reliable education system that Nigeria. Our education system in Nigeria has become largely a factory for manufacturing credentials, rather than laboratories or classrooms for disseminating and acquiring knowledge and skills. My wife and I went to school in this country in the early 1970s, after the civil war. I still remember that emphasis then was on mastering what we were taught in school, not primarily on the credentials that schools gave at the end of our courses. We were sure good credentials would come after mastering the subjects. Even as students, we created our own informal clubs in the boarding house or in the neighbourhood to demonstrate how much each student knew about whatever subject we chose to discuss. That hardly happens today; parents and their children show more concern for the academic grades to take to the university, and thus corrupt even the process of determining outcomes of learning. Comment from a couple who retired into business after thirty years in the civil service.

    Last week’s piece concluded as follows: “Like everything else, organising provision of education to respond to the fear that allowing states and regions more freedom to determine how to refine their culture and advance their development is not likely to achieve anything more than the organisation of the Nigeria Police Force has done: inefficiency and ineffectiveness. It is indeed safer to believe that encouraging all parts of Nigeria to develop ways of providing quality education to citizens without excluding any group or class directly or indirectly has a higher chance of enhancing the country’s unity than holding parts of the country down from embarking on creative steps to solve the problem of education provision for citizens.”

    The major challenge regarding the country’s education is how to ensure quality and equity in education provision. Many people would argue that the federal government’s policies of free-tuition in federal universities and of free education for citizens for the first nine years of schooling under the system of Universal Basic Education appear to have solved that the problem of equity. The UBE’s offering of free education for nine years is not enough to make the country competitive. Most countries of the world including those that are hundreds of years ahead of Nigeria in terms of industrialisation and technology have free and compulsory education for citizens until they complete senior secondary or high school. Even some countries, such as Sweden, Finland, and Scotland, have policies of free-tuition for citizens in tertiary institutions.

    To make Nigeria more competitive, it is necessary to make education free and compulsory for citizens until they complete secondary education and to create tuition-free adult education centres for citizens to attend after work or on weekends. For example, tuition-free adult education programmes were available in Western Nigeria in the years before the civil war, even at a time that the region had a free primary education. The policy was created to support sectarian or local community schools in creating a second chance for citizens who could not benefit from free primary education on account of age restriction.

    The major problem crying for solution is how to transform education to the point that public school education can have quality. At present, public school education, the only education provided for citizens with severely limited resources but not necessarily without high intelligence quotient, is without any quality and thus without any effectiveness. This is why more than half of those who went through secondary school failed to pass the number of subjects required to move to the next level. While government leaders are not found wanting in terms of waxing eloquent about the power of knowledge and the need for the country to have a better education than it has had in the last twenty-five years, there appears a clear lack of focus on how to transform the education sector, particularly the primary/secondary schooling system that generally prepares citizens for academic and vocational skills capable of increasing competitiveness of citizens and the country.

    It is on record that Nigeria spends less than 4% of its annual budget on education, despite the call by UNESCO for up to 24%, if the country is to be in a position to produce men and women of academic and vocational skills needed to compete in a world that is driven by new frontiers in science, technology, and management of complex organisations. Several decades of doing the same thing (throwing money sporadically and grudgingly at the education sector) ought to have proven that what is needed is moving away from the madness of doing the same thing and expecting different results. The country’s desperate problem in the education sector is, in the parlance of popular culture, calling for a desperate solution, one that requires thinking out of the box.

    The relationship between the federal and state/local governments needs to change, if the country is to transform its education system. A situation in which the federal government holds and allocates funds to various aspects of education across the country through various agencies is calling for creative and bold thinking. Making education an essentially a local government matter is more likely to create the ingredients needed to create excellence in education provision: motivation, enthusiasm for new knowledge, depth of learning, conducive conditions of learning, effective teaching, and community involvement in provision of education and management of schools, etc.

    The federal government and its agencies are too far from the local communities where education is provided. Local governments should impose taxes to run primary and secondary schools. Doing so will reinforce a social contract between the local government and citizens with respect to provision of an effective public school system. The federal government should have a system of giving matching grants to local governments for specific projects, such as creating of digital learning architecture, modern laboratories, etc. State governments should be free to raise funds through lottery to provide additional matching grants to local government authorities for measurable and verifiable education projects. The Western Region used proceeds from its lottery to provide additional funds for education in the 1950s, in addition to collecting taxes from citizens.

    Using taxes collected from citizens to fund education that is managed by the local government authority creates a space for direct and indirect involvement of citizens. Because citizens are principal stakeholders after providing the funds used to run schools by paying their taxes, they will be emboldened to call school administrators to order, much more than our present system that runs education from funds that citizens cannot directly claim ownership over. Apart from creating a core curriculum to reflect a national ethos, local governments and states should have a central role to play in curriculum design. For example, apart from making the teaching of English (the country’s national language and window to the global market) compulsory for students in the first nine years of school, each state should decide on which language to use to teach students in the first six or nine years of education. The current situation, whereby about 30% of the population is illiterate; only half of those who completed twelve years of education qualify for further education; and lack of lifelong learning provision for citizens, only signposts a country that is unwilling to face its future with determination and courage to position majority of its citizens to make direly needed contributions to levers of development through knowledge.