The Nation Newspaper

Category: Segun Ayobolu

  • A tale of two transformations

    A tale of two transformations

    Transformation Agenda. That is the favourite buzz phrase of the Goodluck Jonathan administration. His ardent supporters want President Jonathan to continue in office for another four years so he can complete his revolutionary and historic mission of transforming our lives. PDP supporters apparently cannot understand why the majority of Nigerians are so reluctant to believe that Dr Jonathan is undertaking any meaningful transformation in their lives.

    Of course, the debonair and ever fluent Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina has incessantly dazzled us with dizzying statistics of how the country’s agriculture sector has been transformed to the extent that Nigeria now exports a broad range of agricultural products. His beleaguered and ungrateful country men and women respond that they remain as hungry as they were four years ago if not more so. You see, rosy statistics cannot fill the human belly.

    Or let us take the one and only former Aviation MinisterMs Stella Odua. She regaled us daily with stories of her feats in transforming the Aviation sector by painting Airport Terminals and being generally and vigorously busy doing things of microscopic significance. Her boss, the President, reluctantly let her go when she slipped on the Banana Peel of public opprobrium and disgust at her authorisation without appropriation of the procurement of two armour -plated  BMW cars allegedly for her personal use. The ever vocal Nigerian critics could never fathom that kind of transformation at all. Stella Oduah had to go.

    The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Abba Moro, was not that unlucky. He remains solidly in President Jonthan’s Federal Executive Council courtesy his fundamental transformation of the way the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruits new employees into its service. Thousands of unemployed youths were herded into stadia across the country to write so called examination tests after they had been fleeced of N1000 each by dubious private consultants who smiled all the way to the bank. Of course, the shoddy arrangement led to a stampede by applicants desperately looking for jobs. 20 precious souls perished. Several others were injured. But thank God for little mercies, Mr Abba Moro remains a Minister of the Federal Republic.

    And what about the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngoji Okonjo-Iweala. Her performance has been no less stellar. Her greatest achievement has been the miraculous re-basing of the Nigerian economy, which has transformed Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa. Of course, she cares little for the late Professor Dudley Seers or even the cerebral Professor Charles Soludo who contend that high growth rates at the same time as unemployment, aggregate poverty rates and inequality are  rising does not amount to much in any economy. As far as Dr Okonjo-Iweala may care, however, it is all well and good for the country to grow richer at the same as the vast majority of her people are getting poorer!

    However, this piece is not an attempt to analyse the performance of individual ?Ministers in President Jonathan’s administration. My mission today is to draw attention to two amazing transformations I have noticed. First, let us go back to the 2011 presidential campaigns. A candidate told us he had no shoes as a child. He said his case was a story of going from a very humble station in life to reach the apex of authority in his country. He knelt before pastors and General Overseers. Wow! What symbol of humility we all gushed. Millions of his compatriots went out of their way to vote emphatically for this candidate. He won decisively. He assured us he would not use his power like a Goliath, Nebuchadnenzer, Hero d or any of those tyrants in history.

    The people did not know they were in for a shock. One of his first major acts on winning re-election was to increase the price of fuel by as much as 100%. He and his Ministers claimed that the economy would collapse if the purported fuel subsidy was not removed. Angry Nigerians protested.  A man who disdains Nebuccadnezer and other tyrants in history ordered troops on the streets to suppress the demonstrations especially in Lagos. That precisely was the turning point of his administration. Extensive probes by the National Assembly showed that the whole fuel subsidy claims running into trillions of Naira was an elaborate fraud. None of the fuel subsidy thieves has been brought to book and the Petroleum Minister remains firmly in office as imperious as ever.

    From then it was one way downhill for a man who once had no shoes. It has been for the man from Otueke, a scandalous squandering of tremendous goodwill. He told his country men and women on national television that he would not declare his assets and that he’ gave no damn about that!’

    Now let us look at another scenario. The year was 1983. The notoriously corrupt National Party of Nigeria(NPN) had been over thrown by a number of young turks in the military. To give their coup the desired credibility, the planners of the coup entrustedd power to two top Generals. The duo fought corruption ruthlessly, sentenced corrupt politicians to long years in prison, gave three drug couriers retroactive death sentences and launched a fierce War Against Indiscipline (WAI).

    Apparently fearing that they could also become victims of the anti-corruption war, the young Turks moved to quickly replace their stern, no –nonsense officers and the era of the ever –smiling Generals set in. There was unbridled deregulation of virtually every sector of the economy and unparalleled indiscipline and corruption. Today the nation is paying the price for several years of profligacy and wantonness. Three times, the austere General had put himself forward to serve in competitive elections on the platform of different parties in this dispensation.

    This time around, he is running on the platform of the biggest and most formidable party ever available to him. At 72, he has been wizened and tempered by age and he looks more regal and composed than the too often agitated incumbent.  His popularity soars by the day. The attempt to label him a Muslim fanatic has completely fizzled out. His Running-Mate is a distinguishedbProfessor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a prominent pastor of one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world. How could one candidate squander so much goodwill across the country within four years while another, defeated in 2011 has garnered so much support even among his once most ardent opponents? I think the answer is simple, you must not take any individual, group or interest for granted in politics. The incumbent took so much for granted believing, perhaps, the power of the Nigerian state could guarantee him victory no matter how personally unpopular he was.he was. Again, his Niger-Delta kinsmen behaved as if the presidency was their private property and he never cautioned them as they often abused and insulted the entire nation including some of our most eminent citizens. He may pay very dearly for this kind of carelessness.

  • Curriculum vitae: Between Ambode and Agbaje

    Curriculum vitae: Between Ambode and Agbaje

    Given the avalanche of responses to last week’s piece I am reproducing it for your contemplation.

    But for the desperate, last minute shifting  of the polls earlier scheduled for this  month at the behest of Nigeria’s military high command, acting obviously on behalf of an embattled President Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP),  state governorship and House of Assembly elections would have been taking place today across the country including Lagos.  The electoral battle in Lagos would have been a two-way affair between Mr Akinwumi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr Olujimi Agbaje of the PDP. Both men are household names in Lagos. Their posters, billboards and other souvenirs dot the landscape of the Centre of Excellence. Their variegated messages dominate both the electronic and now ubiquitous social media. They have a new date of engagement scheduled for March 11th if the electoral magicians do not abort the elections once more.

    Jimi Agbaje is not new to the Lagos State governorship race. In 2007, he contested for the position on the platform of the Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA). Despite having run what was widely considered a brilliant and innovative campaign, he emerged a distant third in that election to the incumbent, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). The latter’s widely adjudged two-term brilliant tenure comes to an end this May.  Some analysts contend that Jimi Agbaje is contesting on a firmer, surer, more solid platform this time around. Even though, the PDP has never succeeded in supplanting the progressives from power in Lagos since 1999, it is still perceived as a more viable dais for competing effectively in Lagos than Agbaje’s defunct DPA.

    Yet, others argue that the PDP platform is indeed Jimi Agbaje’s albatross. Agbaje is often described as a good candidate running on a rotten platform. The PDP has monopolised power at the centre since 1999. In the period, it has controlled the bulk of the country’s resources. Yet, all the country has to show for it is illusory statistical growth without concrete content in terms of their material well-being. Indeed, under the PDP’s watch, Nigeria lies humiliatingly prostrate and subject to mass poverty, hunger, chronic insecurity, monumental corruption, unbearable unemployment, unbelievable impunity and utter ignominy in the comity of nations. Can Agbaje convince the people of Lagos to entrust their fate in the hands of a party with such a deplorable record of performance especially given the undeniably impressive strides the state has taken under the guidance of the progressives in the last 16 years? It is improbable.

    It is possible to argue that there is really no big deal about Agbaje jettisoning his professed commitment to structural change in Nigeria throughout his political career only to pitch his tent with a PDP so obviously committed to maintaining Nigeria in her current dysfunctional shape and structure. After all, political vagrancy and promiscuity have become part and parcel of our political culture and no party can self-righteously cast the first stone against the other. In any case, have the Afenifere old guard not assured us all that President Goodluck Jonathan will implement the recommendations of the moribund National Conference if he is re-elected for a second term in office? Of course, this is sheer baloney.

    The Jonathan National Conference was an illegal and illegitimate contraption, a sheer waste of time and resources and a wily tactic for an administration running out of options to buy time. If the Jonathan presidency could do nothing concrete with the National Conference report when it had near total dominance of the National Assembly, is it now that it is much more considerably weakened in both chambers that it will get the recommendations of the conference through the national legislature? Anyone who cannot see that Dr Jonathan enjoys the centralized and excessive powers of the Nigerian state and presidency as it currently exists to genuinely desire any meaningful structural change in the country deserves a doctoral degree in political naivety.

    But then, the thrust of this piece is to seek to find out in who’s hands – Agbaje or Ambode – it will be safer and wiser to entrust the almost one trillion dollar economy of Lagos State especially at this crucial period of the state’s evolution? A careful examination of the curriculum vitae of the two candidates as gleaned from their respective websites should give us a clue. Let us start with the PDP candidate, Mr Olujimi Kolawole Agbaje. He was born on March 2, 1957, to late Chief Julius Kosebinu, a banker and Mrs Margaret Olabisi Agbaje, a teacher. Agbaje obtained his secondary school education at St Gregory’s College, Lagos, and graduated as a pharmacist from the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Agbaje’s CV does not tell us what he did between his graduation from Ife and the setting up of his company, JAYKAY Pharmaceutical and chemical company in 1982. However, he was Managing Director of the drug manufacturing and distribution company between 1982 and 2005 when he decided to venture into politics. Again, we have no indication of the net worth of the company or the expansiveness or complexity of its operations under Agbaje’s guidance.

    Agbaje served as a Member, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (1999-2006); National Secretary, Nigerian Association of General Practice Pharmacists (1987-1990); National Chairman, Nigeria Association of General Practice Pharmacists (1987-1990) and Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Branch (1994-1997). Other non-executive public service appointments Agbaje has held include Member, Lagos State Task Force on Fake and Adulterated Drugs (1989-1993); Member, National Drug Formulary and Essential Drugs List (1986-1993); Member, Lagos Hospitals Management Board (1994-1999). In addition to being a Faculty Member of the African Centre of Leadership, Strategy and Development Centre, Agbaje is a Merit Award Winner of the Lagos State Chapter of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Fellow, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and Fellow, West African Post Graduate College of Pharmacists. Agbaje has participated in various international programmes including the Executive Management Programme at the Wits Business School, Johannesburg, Cape Town Business School, South Africa and the World Health Organization training course on good manufacturing practice in the pharmaceutical sector.

    Now, what about Mr Akinwunmi Ambode? Born on the 14th of June, 1963, at Epe General Hospital, Epe, Ambode had his primary school education at St Jude’s primary school, Ebute Meta. His father served as a teacher in Lagos State before retiring after 34 years in service. Ambode passed the National Common Entrance Examination in primary five and gained admission into the Federal Government College, Warri. Ambode recorded the second best result in West Africa in the Higher School Certificate Examinations in the Social Sciences in 1981. At the age of 21, Ambode graduated with honours in Accounting from the University of Lagos.  He scored a double when he both qualified as a Chartered Accountant and completed his M.Sc degree programme in Accounting from the University of Lagos specialising in Financial Management at the age of 24.

    Ambode started his public service career in November 1985 as Accountant Grade 1 at the then Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (now Lagos State Waste Management Authority). Over the next 10 years, Ambode acquired considerable experience serving as Council Treasurer in several Local Government Areas of Lagos State including Alimosho, Shomolu, Mushin, Epe, Badagry and Ajeromi-Ifelodun. In 1988, Ambode earned the award of the United States Fulbright Scholarship for the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program in Boston University, Massachusetts, on Public Leadership with emphasis on Finance and Accounting.  In 2000, Ambode was appointed as the youngest ever Auditor-General for Local Government in Lagos State. Thereafter, he was elevated as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance in January 2005 and in February, 2006 he was given the additional responsibility of Accountant General of Lagos State. At the time, he was the youngest Permanent Secretary in the service and only the second person to hold both positions of Permanent Secretary and Accountant General at the same time.

    Under Ambode’s leadership, the State Treasury Office (STO), raised the state’s budget performance at an average of 85% annually, ensured payment of civil service staff salaries before the end of each month, launched the e-platform for the payment of monthly staff salaries, ensured prompt payment of gratuity and pension arrears of the State Universal Basic Education Board and Local Government old pensioners. Apart from initiating and sustaining the annual retreat for Heads of Accountants in the Lagos State Public Service as well as Local and International training for staff, Ambode co-organised the first ever National Tax Retreat in association with the Joint Tax Board/Federal Inland Revenue Service in 2005.  He was the Chairman of the Technical Committee that produced the Lagos State Economic, Empowerment Development Strategy (LEEDS) document and helped achieve the feat of clearing and publishing arrears of statutory audits of Local Governments in Lagos State from 1995 to 2004 within 12 months. His financial ingenuity has been publicly acknowledged as a key factor that enabled Local Governments in Lagos State survive the illegal seizure of their statutory allocation for over one year by the Obasanjo administration.

    Ambode is an Alumnus of Wharton Business School and also attended courses at Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield, England, Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland, INSEAD, Singapore and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston, Massachussetts, USA. On voluntarily retiring from the Lagos State public service in August 2012, Ambode successfully transited to the private sector by establishing Brandsmiths Consulting Limited, a company that is presently consulting for Federal, State and Local Governments on the transition to the new International Public Service Accounting System and offering other financial advisory services.

    These then are the profiles of two illustrious and accomplished sons of Lagos State seeking the consent of Lagosians to pilot the affairs of the state after Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s distinguished tenure. Who has the requisite experience and expertise to build on current achievements and lift Lagos to a new pedestal of excellence in a world characterised by unpredictable financial and economic turmoil? I leave the answer to you, dear reader.

  • Curriculum vitae: Between Ambode and Agbaje

    Curriculum vitae: Between Ambode and Agbaje

    But for the desperate, last minute shifting of the polls earlier scheduled for this month at the behest of Nigeria’s military high command, acting obviously on behalf of an embattled President Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP),  state governorship and House of Assembly elections would have been taking place today across the country including Lagos.  The electoral battle in Lagos would have been a two-way affair between Mr Akinwumi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr Olujimi Agbaje of the PDP. Both men are household names in Lagos. Their posters, billboards and other souvenirs dot the landscape of the Centre of Excellence. Their variegated messages dominate both the electronic and now ubiquitous social media. They have a new date of engagement scheduled for March 11th if the electoral magicians do not abort the elections once more.

    Jimi Agbaje is not new to the Lagos State governorship race. In 2007, he contested for the position on the platform of the Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA). Despite having run what was widely considered a brilliant and innovative campaign, he emerged a distant third in that election to the incumbent, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). The latter’s widely adjudged two-term brilliant tenure comes to an end this May.  Some analysts contend that Jimi Agbaje is contesting on a firmer, surer, more solid platform this time around. Even though, the PDP has never succeeded in supplanting the progressives from power in Lagos since 1999, it is still perceived as a more viable dais for competing effectively in Lagos than Agbaje’s defunct DPA.

    Yet, others argue that the PDP platform is indeed Jimi Agbaje’s albatross. Agbaje is often described as a good candidate running on a rotten platform. The PDP has monopolised power at the centre since 1999. In the period, it has controlled the bulk of the country’s resources. Yet, all the country has to show for it is illusory statistical growth without concrete content in terms of their material well-being. Indeed, under the PDP’s watch, Nigeria lies humiliatingly prostrate and subject to mass poverty, hunger, chronic insecurity, monumental corruption, unbearable unemployment, unbelievable impunity and utter ignominy in the comity of nations. Can Agbaje convince the people of Lagos to entrust their fate in the hands of a party with such a deplorable record of performance especially given the undeniably impressive strides the state has taken under the guidance of the progressives in the last 16 years? It is improbable.

    It is possible to argue that there is really no big deal about Agbaje jettisoning his professed commitment to structural change in Nigeria throughout his political career only to pitch his tent with a PDP so obviously committed to maintaining Nigeria in her current dysfunctional shape and structure. After all, political vagrancy and promiscuity have become part and parcel of our political culture and no party can self-righteously cast the first stone against the other. In any case, have the Afenifere old guard not assured us all that President Goodluck Jonathan will implement the recommendations of the moribund National Conference if he is re-elected for a second term in office? Of course, this is sheer baloney.

    The Jonathan National Conference was an illegal and illegitimate contraption, a sheer waste of time and resources and a wily tactic for an administration running out of options to buy time. If the Jonathan presidency could do nothing concrete with the National Conference report when it had near total dominance of the National Assembly, is it now that it is much more considerably weakened in both chambers that it will get the recommendations of the conference through the national legislature? Anyone who cannot see that Dr Jonathan enjoys the centralized and excessive powers of the Nigerian state and presidency as it currently exists to genuinely desire any meaningful structural change in the country deserves a doctoral degree in political naivety.

    But then, the thrust of this piece is to seek to find out in who’s hands – Agbaje or Ambode – it will be safer and wiser to entrust the almost one trillion dollar economy of Lagos State especially at this crucial period of the state’s evolution? A careful examination of the curriculum vitae of the two candidates as gleaned from their respective websites should give us a clue. Let us start with the PDP candidate, Mr Olujimi Kolawole Agbaje. He was born on March 2, 1957, to late Chief Julius Kosebinu, a banker and Mrs Margaret Olabisi Agbaje, a teacher. Agbaje obtained his secondary school education at St Gregory’s College, Lagos, and graduated as a pharmacist from the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Agbaje’s CV does not tell us what he did between his graduation from Ife and the setting up of his company, JAYKAY Pharmaceutical and chemical company in 1982. However, he was Managing Director of the drug manufacturing and distribution company between 1982 and 2005 when he decided to venture into politics. Again, we have no indication of the net worth of the company or the expansiveness or complexity of its operations under Agbaje’s guidance.

    Agbaje served as a Member, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (1999-2006); National Secretary, Nigerian Association of General Practice Pharmacists (1987-1990); National Chairman, Nigeria Association of General Practice Pharmacists (1987-1990) and Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Branch (1994-1997). Other non-executive public service appointments Agbaje has held include Member, Lagos State Task Force on Fake and Adulterated Drugs (1989-1993); Member, National Drug Formulary and Essential Drugs List (1986-1993); Member, Lagos Hospitals Management Board (1994-1999). In addition to being a Faculty Member of the African Centre of Leadership, Strategy and Development Centre, Agbaje is a Merit Award Winner of the Lagos State Chapter of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Fellow, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and Fellow, West African Post Graduate College of Pharmacists. Agbaje has participated in various international programmes including the Executive Management Programme at the Wits Business School, Johannesburg, Cape Town Business School, South Africa and the World Health Organization training course on good manufacturing practice in the pharmaceutical sector.

    Now, what about Mr Akinwunmi Ambode? Born on the 14th of June, 1963, at Epe General Hospital, Epe, Ambode had his primary school education at St Jude’s primary school, Ebute Meta. His father served as a teacher in Lagos State before retiring after 34 years in service. Ambode passed the National Common Entrance Examination in primary five and gained admission into the Federal Government College, Warri. Ambode recorded the second best result in West Africa in the Higher School Certificate Examinations in the Social Sciences in 1981. At the age of 21, Ambode graduated with honours in Accounting from the University of Lagos.  He scored a double when he both qualified as a Chartered Accountant and completed his M.Sc degree programme in Accounting from the University of Lagos specialising in Financial Management at the age of 24.

    Ambode started his public service career in November 1985 as Accountant Grade 1 at the then Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (now Lagos State Waste Management Authority). Over the next 10 years, Ambode acquired considerable experience serving as Council Treasurer in several Local Government Areas of Lagos State including Alimosho, Shomolu, Mushin, Epe, Badagry and Ajeromi-Ifelodun. In 1988, Ambode earned the award of the United States Fulbright Scholarship for the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program in Boston University, Massachusetts, on Public Leadership with emphasis on Finance and Accounting.  In 2000, Ambode was appointed as the youngest ever Auditor-General for Local Government in Lagos State. Thereafter, he was elevated as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance in January 2005 and in February, 2006 he was given the additional responsibility of Accountant General of Lagos State. At the time, he was the youngest Permanent Secretary in the service and only the second person to hold both positions of Permanent Secretary and Accountant General at the same time.

    Under Ambode’s leadership, the State Treasury Office (STO), raised the state’s budget performance at an average of 85% annually, ensured payment of civil service staff salaries before the end of each month, launched the e-platform for the payment of monthly staff salaries, ensured prompt payment of gratuity and pension arrears of the State Universal Basic Education Board and Local Government old pensioners. Apart from initiating and sustaining the annual retreat for Heads of Accountants in the Lagos State Public Service as well as Local and International training for staff, Ambode co-organised the first ever National Tax Retreat in association with the Joint Tax Board/Federal Inland Revenue Service in 2005.  He was the Chairman of the Technical Committee that produced the Lagos State Economic, Empowerment Development Strategy (LEEDS) document and helped achieve the feat of clearing and publishing arrears of statutory audits of Local Governments in Lagos State from 1995 to 2004 within 12 months. His financial ingenuity has been publicly acknowledged as a key factor that enabled Local Governments in Lagos State survive the illegal seizure of their statutory allocation for over one year by the Obasanjo administration.

    Ambode is an Alumnus of Wharton Business School and also attended courses at Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield, England, Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland, INSEAD, Singapore and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston, Massachussetts, USA. On voluntarily retiring from the Lagos State public service in August 2012, Ambode successfully transited to the private sector by establishing Brandsmiths Consulting Limited, a company that is presently consulting for Federal, State and Local Governments on the transition to the new International Public Service Accounting System and offering other financial advisory services.

    These then are the profiles of two illustrious and accomplished sons of Lagos State seeking the consent of Lagosians to pilot the affairs of the state after Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s distinguished tenure. Who has the requisite experience and expertise to build on current achievements and lift Lagos to a new pedestal of excellence in a world characterised by unpredictable financial and economic turmoil? I leave the answer to you, dear reader.

  • Beyond President Goodluck Jonathan

    Beyond President Goodluck Jonathan

    Will elections hold on the new dates of March 28 and April 11 announced by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, at the behest of the country’s Service Chiefs? Professor Jega told the Senate on Wednesday that he could give no such guarantee. His words while briefing the upper legislative house on the postponement of the elections from the earlier announced dates of February 14 and 28 respectively were instructive. According to Jega “I have said consistently that there are things under the control of electoral commission and there are things that are not under the control of electoral commission. For things that are under our control, I can give definite and categorical assurances. On what is not under our control, it is futile, it is fruitless and useless to give a definite guarantee on them. I think the question should be directed appropriately. The question of security, I will leave it. I don’t think I am competent to answer it sufficiently”.

    In terms of the preparations for the exercise, Jega is confident that INEC is fully ready. Indeed, when he briefed the last National Council of State (NCS) meeting in Abuja before the forced postponement of the polls, Jega had insisted that the commission was in a better state of readiness to conduct the election than it was for the 2011 election despite the logistical problems in deploying the Permanent Voters cards (PVC). However, the postponement of the election for six weeks on the basis of the claim by the Service Chiefs that they could not provide security as they intended to launch a full- fledged onslaught against the insurgency meant that it all now depends on the military when the elections will hold.

    If the military high command claims that the security situation is still not conducive for elections on the new dates, what can Jega and INEC do? It is this frustration and helplessness that he betrayed during his appearance before the Senate. This is indeed one reason why some analysts have described the Security Chief’s action of aborting the election and forcing a six months postponement as a coup of sorts. The truth of the matter is that if February 14 and 28, fixed about a year ago for the elections were not sacrosanct, there is little cause for optimism that the May 29th hand over date will be sacrosanct.

    It is obvious that by forcing the postponement of the election by six weeks, the military high command was doing the bidding of the presidency. The General Muhammadu Buhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s movement for change had become practically unstoppable. There is little doubt that if the elections had held last Saturday as previously scheduled, Jonathan and the PDP would probably be out of power at the centre by now. The postponement is thus meant to slow down the APC momentum and enable President Jonathan’s campaign gather more momentum.

    In a way, the postponement of the election has its own positive side. For one, it shows that an incumbent President and party are jittery about their performance at the polls and thus ensured it does not hold. This is unprecedented in Nigeria’s political history. The implication is that elections are getting more credible and government increasingly unable to manipulate the results. Again, it shows that the Nigerian electorate have become significantly more sophisticated and difficult to lead by the nose. Thus, all the intensive media campaigns and rallies by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) likening Dr Jonathan to such world-historic figures like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi or Barak Obama did not deceive the vast majority of Nigerians.  The tendency by power hungry politicians to divide the people on the basis of religion, ethnic group or region in order to rule them is also beginning to lose its efficacy. In a meaningful sense we have every cause to say that an appreciable degree of political development is being achieved in Nigeria in spite of all the constraints.

    Ironically, it is the opposition APC that has expressed readiness for elections and vehemently condemned the postponement of the polls. This is a sign of confidence in its capacity to wrest power from the PDP at the centre. On its part, the PDP, which controls and has not hesitated to misuse all organs of state coercion against the opposition is scared stiff of elections. Yet, this postponement is only likely to further anger millions of Nigerians and make them more determined to vote for change at the centre whenever elections are held. Even after the postponement of the election, the PDP and groups in support of President Jonathan such as Afenifere and the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) have continued to vehemently denounce Professor Jega all in a bid to hound him out of office and enable the emergence of a more pliable INEC chairman who would do the bidding of the PDP.  Yet, it was this same Jega that conducted the 2011 elections, which President Jonathan won emphatically!

    If the elections are not held on the new dates as announced by Professor Jega, then the constitutional handover date of May 29th may no longer be feasible. In that case, we will have a constitutional crisis on our hands with President Jonathan being the prime beneficiary if tenure elongation is thereby achieved. But then, we must look beyond the person of Dr Jonathan to interrogate and understand the brewing constitutional crisis that is staring us in the face. Why is it that with the exception of General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1979 and General Abubakar Abdulsami in 1999, all other Nigerian leaders since independence, civilian and military, exhibited sit tight tendencies even though they always failed and the will of the people eventually triumphed on all occasions? Is there an iron law of Nigerian politics that compels leaders to want to continue in office by all means despite the constitutive and regulative rules of the game?

    I think the answer lies in the utilisation of state power as a means of material accumulation both by occupants of public office, particularly the President and governors, and their close friends and relatives. Those who are in power thus seek to continue in office beyond their constitutional terms or rig elections brazenly in order to continue to enjoy the honey of power. Incidentally even when the incumbent leader is willing to bow to the will of the electorate, he is held captive by a cabal which insists, for selfish reasons, that he is the country’s Messiah who must remain in office for the public good.

    In the case of Dr Jonathan, he is held hostage by an Ijaw cabal whose brash noisiness, stupendous accumulation of unearned wealth and utter lack of respect for other nationality groups, including the Itshekiri and Urhobo of the Niger Delta, have earned widespread opprobrium for Jonathan even in areas where he won an emphatic victory in 2011. If wisdom prevails, Dr Jonathan will allow the elections to hold on the new dates as scheduled and accept the will of the people whether he wins or loses. In the alternative, if he seeks to perpetuate himself in office, against the will of the people, that will also have its good side. It well help reactivate and re-energise a slumbering civil society to go back to the trenches to resist dictatorship and fight for democracy. For every action, there is always a reaction. Throughout history, fighters for democracy have always triumphed no matter how long it takes.

  • A President and his mediocre security chiefs

    A President and his mediocre security chiefs

    Unlike the parliamentary system of government, where the Prime Minister is only first among equals in a body of ministers picked from parliament, most of the key officials in government under the presidential system are appointed at the discretion of the President with the constitutional requirement of confirmation by the National Assembly. Under the presidential system, therefore, the quality of heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies will often reflect the intellectual capabilities, moral integrity, statesman-like wisdom and patriotic instincts of the President. A President with a high quotient of these qualities will naturally seek and appoint the ablest and most competent men and women to assist in achieving his vision for the nation.

    An intellectually challenged and patriotically famished Presidency which is deficient in vision and integrity is also naturally likely to attract men of the lowest intellectual, professional and moral calibre into government. For one, such a Presidency is most unlikely to appoint officials of superior capability especially when the outsize ego of the overall boss far exceeds his natural capacities. In such a situation, he is unlikely to be intelligent enough to realize that aides of the most sublime qualities in high office can only boost the quality of governance for which the President will naturally take credit. Furthermore, even those aides of high ability in the administration will most likely deliberately climb down to the Lilliputian mental environment in which they find themselves to keep their jobs. The implication will be a rudderless administration systematically descending from one level of absurdity to even more atrocious depths of theatrical tragi-comedy till it inevitably self-destructs.

    It is certainly only under a presidency like that of Dr Goodluck Jonathan that a country can be so unfortunate to appoint and keep in office such men of superlative mediocrity as the National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki and the current team of service chiefs. Under their collective leadership, a rag tag band of Boko Haram ragamuffins have consistently and continuously run rings round and routinely humbled an ordinarily invincible Nigerian military machine in the embattled North-east region of the country. Mutinies in the Nigerian military have been embarrassingly high in recent times. Stories have been rife of under-equipped and demotivated soldiers reluctant to engage insurgents they would normally rout in more auspicious circumstances.

    The way the military high command handled its recent collaboration with the Jonathan presidency to abort the polls previously scheduled for today and the 28th of this month only demonstrates the manifest ineptness of the service chiefs. Even if they wanted to help an embattled President fearful of a humiliating electoral loss, the NSA and service chiefs could have gone about it in a strategically smarter and less self-indicting way. First, the NSA publicly advocated postponement of the polls to enable a more widespread distribution of Permanent Voters Cards by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). When the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, was resolute on the preparedness of the commission to hold the elections on the scheduled dates, the NSA and service chiefs now informed INEC that they could not provide security for the exercise. They needed to concentrate their energies for the next six weeks, they claimed, to crush the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Did the military high command think through this move with characteristic clinical military precision? Their professional acuity was unfortunately blunted by wanton and irresponsible partisanship. What are the implications of the NSA’s letter to INEC? First, it amounted to an indictment of Dr Jonathan and the PDP which have been unable to provide the country with a police force capable of meeting its constitutional responsibilities over the last 16 years without the unconstitutional intervention of the military in the statutory responsibilities of the police. Second, it was a self-indictment of the military leadership, which has confessed to its inability to fulfil its constitutional obligations to the country.

    Third, if the military can crush in six weeks an insurgency that has festered for six years, it makes itself vulnerable to suspicions and insinuations that it had the capacity to do so all along but had deliberately failed to act till a moment like this for partisan reasons. If so, the military leadership can be held responsible for partisan dereliction of duty that has led to loss of thousands of lives as well as loss of Nigerian territory to insurgents. Fourth, in announcing to the whole world that it cannot provide security for elections in Nigeria for the next six weeks because it is concentrating all its energies and resources on fighting insurgency in the North-east, the military has sent a dangerous signal to unpredictable terrorists abroad that other parts of Nigeria may be vulnerable during the period. This is unpardonable military tactlessness.

    Fifth, the postponement of the elections is the greatest psychological victory the military high command has so unintelligently handed Boko Haram since the commencement of the insurgency. It shows that the terrorists are achieving their objective of disrupting normalcy not just in one region but the whole of Nigeria. They will greatly celebrate this victory. In countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, also faced by insurgency challenges, elections have been successfully held on schedule to deny terrorists any such satisfaction, which implies that they are winning.

    But then, are there any lessons the opposition can learn from the unfolding tragic episode? I think so. First, the Jonathan presidency has deliberately divided, bought over and severely weakened potent civil society groups in the last six years. The opposition should have been empowering and working with new civil society groups and coalitions to protect democracy at moments like this. Secondly, the opposition should have continued to step up the pressure for the deepening of electoral reforms particularly the measures suggested by the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reforms Committee to strengthen the institutional autonomy of INEC. Dr Jonathan has only capitalised in the slackening of the struggle for deeper electoral reforms to seek to manipulate existing weaknesses to his electoral advantage. Third, neither the opposition nor the media has any excuse for not monitoring INEC’s handling of Permanent Voters Cards more closely and blowing the whistle early enough for identified anomalies to be addressed.

    Can Dr Jonathan get away successfully with his current efforts to manipulate the elections in his favour? I do not think so. The weight of public opinion is too much against him. Indeed, his complicity in the postponement of the elections has only further exposed his administration’s vulnerable underbelly. The truth is that the all-powerful Nigerian President has demonstrated a visceral fear of people’s power by desperately trying to avoid elections by all means. A President who won and celebrated a pan-Nigerian victory in 2011 is obviously scared of a pan-Nigerian defeat in 2015. It is a grand irony. This unprecedented presidential fear of elections is itself a great victory for the Nigerian people. Dr Jonathan cannot postpone the ever increasing momentum for change forever.

    Furthermore, history is not on Dr Jonathan’s side. All Nigerian leaders before him who tried one form of tenure elongation or the other failed abysmally. He will not be an exception. In attempts at electoral manipulation and tenure elongation of this nature, there are always unanticipated consequences that the manipulators are not prepared for. For instance, are Dr Jonathan and his accomplices sure that all PDP members are with them on this project? How are they sure that some PDP members are not silently rooting for a Buhari presidency?

    Again, have those engaged in these manipulations pondered the implications of the brazen utilization of the military for partisan purposes? A cardinal lesson of Nigerian history is that it is when partisan politics intervenes in the Nigerian military through the nefarious activities of unscrupulous politicians that the military are opportune to intervene in politics. Let no Nigerian politician, least of all Dr Jonathan, think that the Nigerian military has any special love for them. The military professionals are trained experts in the art of camouflage. As Chief Adisa Akinloye perceptively noted in 1983, there are only two political parties in Nigeria – the politicians and the military. A word should be sufficient to the wise.

  • Buhari’s hour cometh?

    Buhari’s hour cometh?

    Since I wrote my piece, I have learnt that Dr. Clement Isong was not CBN governor at the time. But the substance of my write up remains unassailable.
    Enjoy.

    He is a veritable enigma. A most unlikely and unusual politician. He is a reticent, retiring persona. Politics is a very public vocation.  He is sparing with his words. The successful politician is often loquacious. Like the trained soldier, the skilled politician is often a master of intrigue and deception. He can be blunt and truthful to a fault. I write of none other than the man of the moment – General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    In approximately six weeks, the ascetic General leads his party in an epic electoral encounter with the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In his discipline, focus, tenacity and stubborn commitment to principle, Buhari reminds one of the immortal Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But unlike Awo, there are strong indications that Buhari is unlikely to end up as “the best president Nigeria never had”.

    In spite of his prodigious talent, Awo never succeeded in building a national pan-Nigerian platform to actualize his ambition of leading Nigeria. In the APC, Buhari has such a platform that has made his candidacy a viable proposition and his emergence as President a very real possibility. Buhari’s fate has in many ways been tied with that of Nigeria over the last several decades.

    He fought in the civil war to preserve Nigeria’s territorial integrity. He was once Military Governor of the North-Eastern State that now comprises Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe states. He led the clinical military operation that decisively crushed the Maitatsine extremist Islamic uprising in Kano between 18th and 29th December 1980. When rebels from Chad invaded part of the country during the second republic, the General’s troops not only repelled but pursued them right up to Ndjamena until he was recalled by a dithering President Shehu Shagari.

    By 1983, the politicians had effectively dug the grave for democracy by the sheer scale of their corruption, impunity and utter disregard for the rule of law. General Buhari emerged as the Head of a corrective military regime that dislodged the leprous political class and sought to restore the country to sanity.  Unable to cope with the alleged puritanical rigidity of Buhari and his deputy, General Tunde Idiagbon, the regime was overthrown by successors who led the country down the slopes of economic, political and moral debauchery from which she is yet to recover.

    Ever since the return to civilian rule in this political dispensation, the promise of democracy has largely continued to elude Nigerians substantially because of the lack of competent, visionary, disciplined and morally untainted leadership at the centre. The General has offered himself for service three times at the polls without success. Not only has all kind of mud been thrown at him, he has often been the victim of brazen electoral manipulation.

    At last it appears that the Daura-born General’s hour of fulfilment is at hand. He has emerged as his party’s presidential flag bearer in transparent, credible and competitive primaries. All his opponents at the primaries have rallied to his support. He is running on a platform more viable and formidable than he has ever done before. He seems tailor-made to counter the twin demons of insecurity and corruption that constitute the greatest bane of the country today.

    It is impossible for Buhari’s opponents to credibly question his personal integrity and unblemished record of incorruptibility. His light in that respect shines in the darkness. The darkness can neither comprehend nor extinguish it. Buhari has kept a disciplined distance from the PDP since 1999, a rare feat in a polity where everyone scrambles to identify with the resource-laden centre and to be in opposition is anathema. He has refrained from joining those northern politicians clamouring clannishly for power to return to the north. He has put himself forward for service simply on the basis of his personal merit.

    As is always the case, Buhari and the APC should expect their opponent to viciously attack his person and character. Anyone in their shoes would do the same. They cannot win in a campaign based on issues. They will thus dredge up the General’s alleged ‘past sins’ and seek his political crucifixion. Luckily, the renowned virologist and consistent social critic, Professor Tam David West of the University of Ibadan has responded copiously to these allegations, ruthlessly debunking them in his book, ‘The Sixteen ‘Sins’ of General Muhammadu Buhari’.

    Like the meticulous and clinical scientist that he is, Professor David West itemises the allegations against Buhari and effectively debunks each and every one of them. The APC must find a way of getting this book to as many Nigerians as possible before the election. Professor David West’s weapons are facts, figures, photographs and incisive logic. His capacity for documentation and record keeping is as impressive as that of the legendary late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Now, is Buhari a saint? No. Let that mortal without sin cast the first stone. Was the military government led by Buhari without fault or blemish? No one says so. But Buhari’s alleged ‘sins’ pale into insignificance beside the gross impunity and moral perversion being witnessed in the country today.

    Those mortally afraid of a Buhari presidency have over the years sought to tag him as an Islamic fundamentalist. Incidentally, Professor Tam David West, a Christian from the Niger Delta was Minister of Petroleum in the Buhari/Idiagbon administration. Other Christian Ministers in Buhari’s military government include General Domkat Bali (Defence), Dr Onaolapo Soleye (Finance), Dr Emmanuel Nsan (Health), Commodore Sam Omeruah (Information), Patrick Koshoni (Works) and Chike Offodile (Justice). Dr Clement Isong, a Christian was Central Bank Governor. These were certainly key offices.

    Christians appointed as Military Governors under Buhari were Allison Madueke (Anambra), Jeremiah Useni (Bendel), Michael Bamidele (Ondo), Oladipo Diya (Ogun), David Mark (Niger), John Atom Kpera (Beune), Dan Archibong (Cross Rivers), Ike Nwachukwu (Imo), Oladayo Popoola (Oyo), Bitrus Atukum (Plateau) and B.L. Letimah (Rivers). Of the 19 military governors at the time 11 were Christians, seven were Muslims and one, Gbolahan Mudasiru of Lagos State was a Grail Messenger.

    Professor David West tells the following interesting story on page 22 of his book, “In 1984 (Geneva), as a Christian Oil Minister, and consequently the leader of the Nigerian delegation, I made OPEC to halt its conference (meeting) for Christian members to go home and celebrate Christmas. A meeting was scheduled for 25 December 1984. Their Excellencies obliged, but not without some objections by some member countries. On my return from Geneva, I reported to the Head of State, General Buhari, what happened in Geneva.  He did not object at all. He even sent me handsome Christmas presents”. Would that be the attitude of a religious fanatic?

    Equally enlightening is the following account by Professor David West on page 26 “In early 1984, at a State Banquet at State House, Marina, Lagos, in honour of a visiting ‘Number Two’ in a North African intensely Islamic state, General Buhari was most generously offered $4 billion interest free financial aid. Buhari in his characteristic humility expressed very sincere appreciation and gratitude to our brother North African Head of State. But he most elegantly refused to accept the generous, huge financial assistance: ‘We (Nigeria) will pull ourselves up by our boot traps’. The $4 billion generosity was double what the country was negotiating with the IMF under Shagari with all the terrible conditionalities”. Ah! Just imagine if Nigeria had persisted on that path of discipline, self-reliance and sanity.

    It is unfortunate that the manipulation of religion for political purposes has reached unprecedented heights under the Jonathan presidency. But as Professor David West also rightly noted “The pleasant Nigerian reality is that no Muslim Head of State can make Nigeria an Islamic state; and no Christian Head of State can make Nigeria a Christian State” because “the essential or the constitutional secularity of the Nigerian state has not changed”. The good thing is that things have degenerated so badly under President Jonathan’s watch that religion is unlikely to serve as the opium of the electorate in next month’s election.

  • Curriculum vitae: Goodluck Jonathan vs Muhammadu Buhari

    Curriculum vitae: Goodluck Jonathan vs Muhammadu Buhari

    “I do not make empty promises in my campaign because whatever I promise to do, I had already carried out adequate study to make sure I can accomplish it in the next four years”. That was President Goodluck Jonathan speaking at Onitsha while on the campaign trail on February 27, 2011.  It was a campaign in which Dr Jonathan made over 90 documented promises across the country. He promised not less than two or three projects in virtually all states of the federation.

    Incredible as his promises sounded, many Nigerians sincerely believed in Jonathan’s capacity to deliver. After all, he is not only a trained scientist, he holds a PhD in Zoology. There was, thus, no cause to disbelieve his confident claim above that all his promises were predicated on careful and meticulous planning. The doctorate degree in any discipline is expected to confer on the holder the capacity for sustained and exhaustive research, rigorous and methodical thinking as well as meticulous planning.

    It was on this rock solid foundation of intellectualism that Dr Jonathan’s promises were supposedly predicated. Things have turned out most unexpectedly. His palace of promises seems to have been built on sinking sand. As he desperately seeks a second term in office, it is no easy route back to Aso Rock for the former shoeless school boy from Otuoke. Practically 80 percent of his 2011 promises remain unfulfilled. Nigerians are worse off today than they were when Jonathan won an emphatic pan-Nigerian victory four years ago. His PhD has hardly reflected in the quality of his governance. Some of his unfair critics claim that Dr Jonathan’s PhD may be just a Port Harcourt Diploma after all. Of course, I do not believe them.

    Despite his dismal performance in office, Jonathan’s fervent supporters continue to proudly flaunt his doctoral degree as a major factor in his favour. This, they claim makes him clearly superior to his major opponent and emergent nemesis, General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Jonathan campaign has sought to make a major issue of Buhari’s educational qualification. They claim that  a man who rose to become a General in the Nigerian military, a former military Head of State and who has contested for the country’s presidency on three previous occasions under the present constitutional dispensation does not possess the minimum constitutional, academic qualification to run for the office.

    Of course, Buhari has since convincingly dispelled all misleading and mischievous insinuations about his educational credentials. My teacher, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and civil military relations at the University of Ibadan, Professor Bayo Adekanye, demonstrated compellingly in this space last week that the case against Buhari’s educational qualification to run for the presidency rests on feeble, logical, empirical and constitutional foundations.

    But then, does President Jonathan’s doctoral degree necessarily make him a superior leadership material to Buhari? Let us take a closer comparative look at their curriculum vitae starting with Jonathan. Born in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, on 20th November, 1957, Jonathan obtained his First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) in 1969, the West African School Certificate (WASC) in 1975, and the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) in 1976. He also obtained a B.Sc in Zoology (Second Class Upper Division) in 1976, an M.Sc in Hydrobiology/Fisheries Biology in 1985 and a PhD. in Zoology in 1995. All his higher academic degrees were from the University of Port Harcourt.

    Now, let us look at Dr Jonathan’s employment history. He started work as a Preventive Officer in the Department of Customs and Excise between 1975 and 1977. He must have got this job on the basis of his WASC. Between 1982 and 1983, Dr Jonathan was a Science Inspector of Education at the Rivers State Ministry of Education. It was obviously his B.Sc in Zoology that qualified him for this job. Dr Jonathan was a lecturer in the Department of Biology, Rivers State College of Education, Port Harcourt, from 1984 to 1993. His M.Sc degree qualified him for the job. He served as an Assistant Director in the defunct Oil Minerals Areas Development Corporation (OMPADEC) between 1993 and 1998. Again, his M.Sc degree was the basis for this job even though someone with a first degree could also rise to the position with the acquisition of the requisite experience.

    Since his obtaining his doctorate in 1995, Dr Jonathan has not taught in any higher institution or research institute. There is no evidence of his having published any academic papers or engaged in any other form of academic research. He has no record of relevant experience as an academic. His PhD has thus added little or no value to his career progression.  The University of Port Harcourt has recently confirmed that President Jonathan indeed obtained his PhD from the institution. But given Dr Jonathan’s often embarrassing quality of intellection and articulation, the university may either have to re-appraise the quality of its certificates or throw Dr Jonathan’s dissertation open to external peer review. Between 1999 and now, he has risen from Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State to Governor of the state, Vice President and ultimately President of Nigeria largely on partisan and not necessarily meritocratic grounds.

    Now let us turn to General Buhari. Born on December 17, 1942, he obtained his primary education in Daura and Maiádua (1948-1952), attended Katsina Model School in 1953 and Katsina Provincial School (now Government College Katsina) from 1956 to 1961. He obtained his military training at the then Nigerian Military Training School, Kaduna (1963), Nigerian Military College, Kaduna (1964), Mechanical Transport Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, United Kingdom (1965), Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India (1973) and the United States War College (June 1979 to June 1980).

    Unlike Jonathan’s scanty experience as an academic, consider Buhari’s rich experience in his chosen military profession. Buhari began his career as a Platoon Commander, 2nd Infantry Battalion from 1963 to 1964. Thereafter, he served as Mechanical Transport Officer, Lagos Garrison (1964-1965), Transport Company Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade, (1965-1966), Battalion Adjutant/Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade (1965-1966), Brigade Major, 2nd Sector, 1st Infantry Division, (April to July, 1967), Brigade Major, 3rd Infantry Division (August 1967-October 1968), Acting Commander, 4th Sector, 1st Division, (November 1968-February 1970), Commander, 31st Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, (February 1970 –June 1971),  Assistant Adjutant General, 1st Infantry Division Headquarters, (July 1971-December 1972), Colonel , General Staff, 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, (January 1974-September 1974), Acting Director, Supply and Transport, Nigeria Army Corp Headquarters (September 1974 – July 1975).

    Other strictly professional military positions Buhari has occupied include Military Secretary, Army Headquarters (July 1978-June 1979), Member, Supreme Military Council, (July 1978-June 1979), General Officer Commanding, 4th Infantry Division, (August 1980-January 1981), General Officer Commanding 3rd Armoured Division (November 1981-December 1983). I do not include here Buhari’s political experience as Military Governor, Petroleum Minister or Military Head of State.

    Now, what awards have the two candidates garnered in the cause of their careers? President Jonathan was named Best Performing Deputy Governor Award in the Federation in 2002 by the Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria (IPAN), won Award of Exemplary Leadership Quality and Good Governance conferred by the National Association of Women in Education Development in July 2003 and the Honorary Award for Democracy and Good Governance conferred by the NUJ, Abuja Council. He is also a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).

    On his part, Buhari has won the following awards and professional military medals: Defence Service Medal (DSM), National Service Medal (NSM), General Service Medal (GSM), Loyal Service and Good Conduct Medal (LSGCM) Forces Service Star (FSS) and The Congo Medal (CM). He has also been awarded the GCFR.

    If, dear reader, you consider these two CVs, who has the requisite experience and qualities to tackle Nigeria’s current challenges?

  • Lagos: Experience or experimentation?

    Lagos: Experience or experimentation?

    Next to the presidential election on February 14, the Lagos State governorship election two weeks later, will be the most interesting, significant and critical in the country. The office of Lagos State governor is easily the most powerful and influential in Nigeria after the Presidency. Lagos is miniature Nigeria. There is no ethnic group in Nigeria that is not represented in Lagos. She has a population that is equivalent to or larger than at least 30 African countries. The megacity is Nigeria’s commercial and industrial nerve centre. While she has recorded steady and easily demonstrable progress over the last 16 years, Nigeria has experienced undisguised retrogression in virtually all critical sectors under the leadership of the PDP since 1999.

    It is against this background that this column has consistently made a case for continuity in Lagos but change at the centre at the forthcoming defining polls. The two leading governorship candidates, Mr Akinwumi Ambode of the APC and Mr Jimi Agaje of the PDP have since stepped up their campaigns. The APC on Wednesday held its first mega rally at the Airways ground in Ikeja. Agbaje answered Lagosians’ questions in a live video chat the same day commencing from 6pm the same day. On Thursday, the two candidates squared up with those of other parties in a debate at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, GRA, Ikeja.

    In picking Agbaje as its governorship candidate, the PDP seeks to mitigate its unsavoury public image that has so far denied it electoral success in Lagos State through the credibility and appreciable goodwill of the pharmacist and politician. Despite his understandable public endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election, Agbaje has delicately projected his own candidacy rather than his party platform. In this respect, he walks a difficult tight rope. But then, as Dr Dapo Thomas of the Lagos State University (LASU) has pungently argued, his chosen platform raises serious questions as regards Agbaje’s consistency and fidelity to political principles.

    As a member of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA) and Afenifere, Agbaje has always identified with parties committed to the re-structuring of Nigeria in the direction of true federalism. In joining the PDP, he has undertaken an amazing ideological and philosophical somersault. The PDP symbolises the opposite of all that Agbaje has espoused in his political career. If a man will sacrifice his cherished values to gain political office, will he not readily jettison ennobling principles to remain in office? It is not an invalid question.

    On the hustings, Ambode has rightly projected his public sector experience of service that saw him rising from the local government cadre through the state civil service to reach the zenith of his career as Permanent Secretary and Accountant General of Lags State over a 27-year period. To be fair to Agbaje, he has not claimed any public leadership experience. He has only contended with characteristic honesty that his private sector experience as an entrepreneur and industrialist is sufficient to acquit himself creditably as Lagos State governor.

    After all, Agbaje argues further, what public service experience did Awolowo, Dr Goodluck Jonathan or even Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have before the commencement of their public leadership careers? As Ambode aptly quipped at the Archbishop Vining church debate, President Jonathan’s below par record is an excellent example of why relevant public service experience is critical for effective and positive leadership in a complex polity like Lagos or Nigeria. It was a wrong example for Agbaje to cite.

    What about Tinubu? True, he had no public sector experience when he assumed office as Lagos State governor in 1999. But then, in the private sector, he had risen to become treasurer of Mobil, the international oil giant before opting for a political career. Tinubu thus had some experience of complex organisational dynamics. Even then, Tinubu had to spend a considerable learning period before he settled down to effective governance. Thus, the period between 1999 and 2001 were years of intense criticisms by the public of the perceived non-performance of the Tinubu administration. It was as he gradually understood and mastered the system that the tempo of governance increased under Tinubu.

    As Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has publicly said, a key factor in the outstanding success of his administration was his prior experience as Chief of Staff and member of the Lagos State Executive Council for about five years in the Tinubu administration. Unlike Tinubu, Fashola thus had an appreciable understanding of the system and could hit the ground running.

    Ambode stands on even firmer ground than Tinubu or Fashola. On a general level, he had operated in the service for 27 years. He understands the system thoroughly. On a more specific note, he has been a key participant in the conceptualisation and implementation of the development master plan under which Lagos has taken impressive strides. These invaluable experiences stand him in good stead to take Lagos to the next level.

    How then about Awolowo? His case must be placed in the appropriate historical and political context. First, Awolowo was an exceptionally gifted human being who remains intellectually, morally and spiritually unequalled by any politician in this dispensation. Secondly, Awolowo’s generation of politicians inherited a qualitative colonial civil service of the highest standard that made it easier for them to quickly adapt to the demands of public leadership. Thirdly, the parliamentary system under which Awolowo operated placed greater premium on collegiate rather than personalised leadership. In the presidential system, much more depends on the personal experience and effectiveness of the chief executive.

    Fourthly, even as talented as he was, Awolowo had to undergo a learning period when he emerged as Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government in the Western Region on 7th January, 1952. As Olufemi Ogunsanwo writes in his book, ‘Awo: Unfinished Greatness’, “For some time, the lieutenant-governor himself continued to preside informally at cabinet meetings to guide the proceedings…The governor eventually took a backseat as Awolowo stamped his political authority and administrative competence on the government”.

    Lagos State for the last 16 years has been implementing a development master plan under which it is widely agreed that the state has made tremendous progress. Yet, Agbaje promises a new master plan, which can only be experimental. Lagosians are thus being asked to jettison a working master plan for a speculative and untested one.

    One of the components of Agbaje’s new master plan is to build 150,000 new houses for Lagosians in his first four years in office.  These houses, he promises, will be private sector driven but made affordable for ordinary Lagosians and non-Lagosians using mortgages with reasonable interest rates. First, how will his proposed mortgage plan be different from or superior to the current one of the Fashola administration? Again, if his housing scheme is private sector driven, how will it at the same time be mass-oriented and affordable? The private sector is motivated by profit and not philanthropy.

    Again, Agbaje plans to open up Epe, Badagry, or Ikorodu rather than the on-going Lagos Atlantic project, which he claims will have a negative impact “on the congestion of the Victoria Island axis given the increased growth in traffic flow to the area”. First, does the Lagos Atlantic City project, perhaps the most sophisticated and ambitious project of its kind in Africa, in any way clash with or obstruct the numerous on-going projects such as the Lagos-Badagry Expressway to open other parts of the state? Second, can you magically develop other parts of the state without elevating the current economic and revenue generating capacity of the state as the Lagos Atlantic City project seeks to do?

    Agbaje is unhappy with the debt profile of Lagos State. He has the view that debt is inimical to development. As Ambode has argued, however, debt must always be considered in relation to GDP and the total economic capacity of the state. Debt is an inevitable feature of modern public finance. What matters is its effective use to generate further development as is the case in Lagos State. Agbaje is against debt. Yet, he wants to reduce taxes and at the same time enhance welfare services. This can be nothing but government by magic – a dangerous experiment Lagos can ill-afford.

  • Lagos: Continuity or change

    Lagos: Continuity or change

    Is it not the height of inconsistency for this
    column to vigorously articulate the case for
    change at the centre in the February 14 presidential election but argue for continuity in Lagos in the governorship election two weeks later? After all, just as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power continuously at the centre since 1999, the same political tendency now encapsulated in the emergent All Progressives Congress (APC), has been piloting the affairs of Lagos State since the commencement of this political dispensation. Should sauce for the goose not also be sauce for the gander in objective political commentary? These are indeed valid, even if hardly logical questions.

    The case for continuity or change cannot be made in a vacuum. Neither must change nor continuity be sought simply for its own case. The argument for either must be anchored on appropriate contextual and empirical realities. The case for change from one political party to another becomes unassailable when the continued tenancy of the incumbent party has, by its appalling performance, become a road block to the continued peace, progress and prosperity of society. In the same way, to effect change from a demonstrably performing party to one without a superior track record or agenda simply for the sake of change will most likely have serious negative implications for the developmental trajectory of the affected society.

    We have, in this space, consistently made the case for the imperative of change at the centre at the February 14 presidential polls. If Nigeria continues on its present course, she is headed for utter disaster if not irreversible ruination. From all developmental indices, Nigerians are worse off today than they were at the beginning of this dispensation in 1999. And this is despite the humongous amounts of revenues the country reaped from oil in the last 15 years before the onset of the current economic recession attendant on the steep fall in international crude oil prices.

    Yes, the performance of the Obasanjo administration between 1999 and 2007 was largely mediocre and uninspiring. Yet, the administration recorded modest achievements, which have been completely eroded, first by the physical incapacitation which hobbled Obasanjo’s immediate successor, President Umaru YarA’dua and the industrial scale mediocrity, venality and incompetence of the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan presidency that is rapidly unravelling before our very eyes.

     So bad have things become that even the wily Ota farmer is now one of the most vehement voices insisting on the urgent need for change at the centre in next month’s polls to save Nigeria. Agreed, Obasanjo has his own ulterior and selfish motives for his scathing public excoriation of the Jonathan administration. But his allegations against a man he raised, controversially, from the relative political obscurity of Bayelsa State as governor, to the acme of presidential authority in Abuja cannot be dismissed as lacking in credibility.

    True, Lagos is part of Nigeria and residents of the megacity are not immune from the socio-economic consequences of the PDP’s misrule at the centre since 1999. But the Lagos of today is not the veritable jungle and fiscally bankrupt entity she was in 1999. Back then, mountains of refuse formed repellent skyscrapers on major highways across the state. Public primary and secondary schools were in a state of utter dilapidation.

     A common sight in Lagos then was that of school children laboriously carrying desks and chairs to and from school daily. Classroom walls routinely collapsed wounding and killing innocent children. Men, women and children could be seen in 1999 carrying all sizes of buckets and basins in search of potable water throughout Lagos State. Metropolitan and rural roads across the state were crater and pot-hole ridden. Ah! Human memory can be so short.

    Today, Lagos is a different story. In a decade and a half she has taken remarkable strides towards becoming a model global megacity. Under the Tinubu and Fashola administrations between 1999 and now, Lagos has become a bastion of fiscal solvency, a laboratory of creative innovations that add value to governance and a model of radical transformation of infrastructure across diverse sectors. No, don’t get me wrong. Lagos has not yet reached the Promised Land. She is still very much a work in progress. But it is indisputable that the state has left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea.

    To lead Lagos to the next level, the APC has elected as its flag bearer from a pool of no less astute and distinguished aspirants a man, whose life and career have been closely intertwined with the destiny of Lagos. He has been a key brain behind the cutting edge financial innovations that have made the on-going transformation of Lagos possible.

    An alumnus of some of the best academic institutions in Nigeria and abroad, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode is a chartered accountant, a financial expert, proficient public sector administrator and now a successful operator in the private sector. Being a key player in both the Tinubu and Fashola administrations, there can hardly be anyone better placed to build on current successes, remedy identified weaknesses and elevate the quality of governance in Lagos State.

    Yet, the PDP has responded brilliantly to the emergence of Ambode as APC candidate. Eager to actualise its ambition of wresting power from the progressives in Lagos State, the PDP has elected as its governorship flag bearer, Mr Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist, successful entrepreneur and activist politician. Agbaje contested unsuccessfully for the governorship of Lagos State in 2007 on the platform of the defunct Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA) even though he made a good impression on the public. He has a charming personality, a winsome smile and a huge dose of credibility.

    Ambode is amply endowed with those qualities too. But he has something more. A record of 27 years of public service in Lagos State rising from the lowest rungs of the local government service to the apex of the service as Permanent Secretary and Accountant General of Lagos State. He can hit the ground running. Agbaje has little or no public sector experience. He would require a considerable period of learning and experimentation in office – a hardly affordable luxury. That could make a crucial difference in the election.

    Beyond this, Agbaje will have to convince Lagosians on why they should vote for a party, the PDP that has performed so catastrophically at the centre bringing the country to the very edge of the precipice. The sheer impunity, wastefulness and recklessness in the management of the Federation Account under the Jonathan presidency has negatively affected the states including Lagos, which now receive depleted statutory allocations monthly. Despite the huge revenues that continue to accrue to the nation’s treasury from the Tin Can Island and Apapa ports in Lagos, the PDP’s promise to rehabilitate the Apapa-Oshodi federal expressway remains a pipe dream.

    Agbaje’s advocacy for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term may erode badly from his hard earned political capital. It would mean his endorsement of Dr Jonathan’s glaring mediocrity and make him vulnerable to insinuations that he may not aim himself for a higher standard of performance if elected Lagos State governor. Yet, the good pharmacist’s dilemma is understandable. He cannot run on the platform of the PDP and not campaign for his party’s presidential candidate.  Taking all the variables into consideration, the only rational option is for change at the centre and continuity in Lagos.

  • Buhari’s hour cometh?

    Buhari’s hour cometh?

    He is a veritable enigma. A most unlikely and unusual politician. He is a reticent, retiring persona. Politics is a very public vocation.  He is sparing with his words. The successful politician is often loquacious. Like the trained soldier, the skilled politician is often a master of intrigue and deception. He can be blunt and truthful to a fault. I write of none other than the man of the moment – General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    In approximately six weeks, the ascetic General leads his party in an epic electoral encounter with the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In his discipline, focus, tenacity and stubborn commitment to principle, Buhari reminds one of the immortal Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But unlike Awo, there are strong indications that Buhari is unlikely to end up as “the best president Nigeria never had”.

    In spite of his prodigious talent, Awo never succeeded in building a national pan-Nigerian platform to actualize his ambition of leading Nigeria. In the APC, Buhari has such a platform that has made his candidacy a viable proposition and his emergence as President a very real possibility. Buhari’s fate has in many ways been tied with that of Nigeria over the last several decades.

    He fought in the civil war to preserve Nigeria’s territorial integrity. He was once Military Governor of the North-Eastern State that now comprises Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe states. He led the clinical military operation that decisively crushed the Maitatsine extremist Islamic uprising in Kano between 18th and 29th December 1980. When rebels from Chad invaded part of the country during the second republic, the General’s troops not only repelled but pursued them right up to Ndjamena until he was recalled by a dithering President Shehu Shagari.

    By 1983, the politicians had effectively dug the grave for democracy by the sheer scale of their corruption, impunity and utter disregard for the rule of law. General Buhari emerged as the Head of a corrective military regime that dislodged the leprous political class and sought to restore the country to sanity.  Unable to cope with the alleged puritanical rigidity of Buhari and his deputy, General Tunde Idiagbon, the regime was overthrown by successors who led the country down the slopes of economic, political and moral debauchery from which she is yet to recover.

    Ever since the return to civilian rule in this political dispensation, the promise of democracy has largely continued to elude Nigerians substantially because of the lack of competent, visionary, disciplined and morally untainted leadership at the centre. The General has offered himself for service three times at the polls without success. Not only has all kind of mud been thrown at him, he has often been the victim of brazen electoral manipulation.

    At last it appears that the Daura-born General’s hour of fulfilment is at hand. He has emerged as his party’s presidential flag bearer in transparent, credible and competitive primaries. All his opponents at the primaries have rallied to his support. He is running on a platform more viable and formidable than he has ever done before. He seems tailor-made to counter the twin demons of insecurity and corruption that constitute the greatest bane of the country today.

    It is impossible for Buhari’s opponents to credibly question his personal integrity and unblemished record of incorruptibility. His light in that respect shines in the darkness. The darkness can neither comprehend nor extinguish it. Buhari has kept a disciplined distance from the PDP since 1999, a rare feat in a polity where everyone scrambles to identify with the resource-laden centre and to be in opposition is anathema. He has refrained from joining those northern politicians clamouring clannishly for power to return to the north. He has put himself forward for service simply on the basis of his personal merit.

    As is always the case, Buhari and the APC should expect their opponent to viciously attack his person and character. Anyone in their shoes would do the same. They cannot win in a campaign based on issues. They will thus dredge up the General’s alleged ‘past sins’ and seek his political crucifixion. Luckily, the renowned virologist and consistent social critic, Professor Tam David West of the University of Ibadan has responded copiously to these allegations, ruthlessly debunking them in his book, ‘The Sixteen ‘Sins’ of General Muhammadu Buhari’.

    Like the meticulous and clinical scientist that he is, Professor David West itemises the allegations against Buhari and effectively debunks each and every one of them. The APC must find a way of getting this book to as many Nigerians as possible before the election. Professor David West’s weapons are facts, figures, photographs and incisive logic. His capacity for documentation and record keeping is as impressive as that of the legendary late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Now, is Buhari a saint? No. Let that mortal without sin cast the first stone. Was the military government led by Buhari without fault or blemish? No one says so. But Buhari’s alleged ‘sins’ pale into insignificance beside the gross impunity and moral perversion being witnessed in the country today.

    Those mortally afraid of a Buhari presidency have over the years sought to tag him as an Islamic fundamentalist. Incidentally, Professor Tam David West, a Christian from the Niger Delta was Minister of Petroleum in the Buhari/Idiagbon administration. Other Christian Ministers in Buhari’s military government include General Domkat Bali (Defence), Dr Onaolapo Soleye (Finance), Dr Emmanuel Nsan (Health), Commodore Sam Omeruah (Information), Patrick Koshoni (Works) and Chike Offodile (Justice). Dr Clement Isong, a Christian was Central Bank Governor. These were certainly key offices.

    Christians appointed as Military Governors under Buhari were Allison Madueke (Anambra), Jeremiah Useni (Bendel), Michael Bamidele (Ondo), Oladipo Diya (Ogun), David Mark (Niger), John Atom Kpera (Beune), Dan Archibong (Cross Rivers), Ike Nwachukwu (Imo), Oladayo Popoola (Oyo), Bitrus Atukum (Plateau) and B.L. Letimah (Rivers). Of the 19 military governors at the time 11 were Christians, seven were Muslims and one, Gbolahan Mudasiru of Lagos State was a Grail Messenger.

    Professor David West tells the following interesting story on page 22 of his book, “In 1984 (Geneva), as a Christian Oil Minister, and consequently the leader of the Nigerian delegation, I made OPEC to halt its conference (meeting) for Christian members to go home and celebrate Christmas. A meeting was scheduled for 25 December 1984. Their Excellencies obliged, but not without some objections by some member countries. On my return from Geneva, I reported to the Head of State, General Buhari, what happened in Geneva.  He did not object at all. He even sent me handsome Christmas presents”. Would that be the attitude of a religious fanatic?

    Equally enlightening is the following account by Professor David West on page 26 “In early 1984, at a State Banquet at State House, Marina, Lagos, in honour of a visiting ‘Number Two’ in a North African intensely Islamic state, General Buhari was most generously offered $4 billion interest free financial aid. Buhari in his characteristic humility expressed very sincere appreciation and gratitude to our brother North African Head of State. But he most elegantly refused to accept the generous, huge financial assistance: ‘We (Nigeria) will pull ourselves up by our boot traps’. The $4 billion generosity was double what the country was negotiating with the IMF under Shagari with all the terrible conditionalities”. Ah! Just imagine if Nigeria had persisted on that path of discipline, self-reliance and sanity.

    It is unfortunate that the manipulation of religion for political purposes has reached unprecedented heights under the Jonathan presidency. But as Professor David West also rightly noted “The pleasant Nigerian reality is that no Muslim Head of State can make Nigeria an Islamic state; and no Christian Head of State can make Nigeria a Christian State” because “the essential or the constitutional secularity of the Nigerian state has not changed”. The good thing is that things have degenerated so badly under President Jonathan’s watch that religion is unlikely to serve as the opium of the electorate in next month’s election.