The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • Must this government tax Nigerians beyond their limit

    Must this government tax Nigerians beyond their limit

    No nation ever grew move prosperous by taxing its citizens beyond their capacity to pay” – British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher in a Speech to the British Conservative Party Conference on 14 October, 1983.

    I haven’t the slightest doubt that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has shown very conclusively, even in his first year in office, that he is here to propel Nigeria towards renewal. By the time he took office on 29 May, 2023, Nigeria was lying prostrate,  surprisingly, under a President Muhammadu Buhari who, in the words of Professor Usman Yusuf, “came to power with so much hope, expectations and goodwill of citizens and the international community”.

    All those lofty hopes had atrophied, no thanks to his inability to rein in the likes of Godwin Emefiele, his Central Bank governor, who had all contributed to making his administration the worst ever in the history of the country.

    To restore immediate sanity to the crippling economy, even if not the rampaging insecurity which is sure to take a longer time, PBAT had immediately removed fuel subsidy just as he would soon stop the multi- exchange forex system which some CBN officials and their allies outside the banking system had used to pulverise the national currency and drown the national economy itself. Although both measures have had excruciating consequences, they are in no way comparable to what awaited Nigerians in the Golgotha to which President Buhari was fast railroading the country.

    Unfortunately, all that now looks like ancient history as a new demon appears to be taking hold of the country, particularly its pauperised hoi polloi, who are now daily having inflicted on them, all manner of taxes and levies as well as horrendous increases in existing rates of critical needs like gas, electricity, fuel which has, in turn, encouraged private cable television to increase their subscription rates just as telecommunication companies are mulling increases to their rates.

    It is now like government and non – government agencies, as well, are all in a race to outdo one another in what suffering to inflict on Nigerians, a good many of who now live on palliatives,  where those in charge of distributing them allow them to get it.

    Some three weeks ago, it was Power Minister, Bayo Adelabu, inflicting a mindless  300+  per centage increase on a category of electricity consumers and before you could say,Jack Robinson, the CBN governor came up with his much more paralysing cybesecurity levy on all Nigerians. In the meantime, rather than levying all Nigerians, the House of Representatives has observed that the cyber security levy, in the original 2018 Law, is limited to some named agencies. But these over pampered government officials just must punish poor Nigerians in the name of increasing government revenue rather than work hard enough to reduce, if not completely put a stop to the nauseating stealing of our crude.

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    More infuriating about this cyber levy is the fact that it is intended to be a security fund, something which Nigerians know from past experience, is more of a matter of ‘the more you look, the less you see’ especially when one remembers the 2.1Billion dollar- security fund which was ‘eaten up’ by the high and mighty of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, thus rendering it a double jeopardy for poor Nigerians who will pat through their nose.

    This corruption is one of the reasons, apart from the fact that it will further pauperise citizens by increasing the cost of doing business, there had been very strenous opposition to the levy. For instance, both Labour and SERAP has each given government an ultimatum to withdraw it, barring which there would be consequential actions.

    And that is not all.

    There is, for instance, the following reaction by somebody who perfectly understands all the ramifications of the levy especially how it will negatively impact the people – a senator of the Federal Republic who posited as follows: “If it turns out to be true, this Goverment might face a revolt. Or else our country has escalated its slide into ruins.

    Is this not insane?

    The NSA is answerable to no one except the President. Is there any other National Security Adviser in the world that has a responsibility for procurement or revenue collection? We must pray and hope that this policy will be quickly reversed.

    But I suspect that things are worse than Goverment is admitting. Some of their actions seem so insensitive that I believe it is out of desperation. Even their most touted achievement which was the strengthening of the naira, fell apart faster than expected. The dollar sold for 1,430 naira as at this morning”.

    Besides the above, poverty is not abating, as inflation is today around 33.2%, the highest since March 1996, while food inflation hovers at around 40 per cent.

    Nor has the government really got a handle on insecurity with daily reports of kidnapping and killings in every part of the country.

    President Tinubu should now direct that enough is enough in the manner government agencies inflict unnecessary suffering on a people merely surviving a punishing, astronomical  rise in the cost of living. Government needs be told that Nigerians are not donkeys.

    Or how can any rational, or thinking CBN governor, choose this horrible time, of all times, to start a levy which spares nobody, no matter how struggling to survive, especially at a time of crippling fuel scarcity as if the government under which he serves owes Nigerians no duty of care?

    Is it only those of them  in government, and being maintained by government, that must have comfort? Are other Nigerians not entitled to some, no matter how minuscle?

    God dey o.

  • Poverty and insecurity in Northern Nigeria: Prof Usman Yusuf’s views beginning to resonate with region’s leaders

    Poverty and insecurity in Northern Nigeria: Prof Usman Yusuf’s views beginning to resonate with region’s leaders

    “I am old enough to clearly remember thirteen Administrations from that of General Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975) to the current one of President Muhammadu Buhari (2015- to date). It is safe to say that none of these administrations came to power with so much hope, expectations and goodwill of citizens and the international community like President Buhari’s.

    Unfortunately, all this goodwill has been squandered by this government due to a messiah complex, intellectual laziness, bad governance, endemic corruption, incompetence, mediocrity, nepotism, arrogance of power, sense of entitlement, stubbornness, aversion to constructive criticisms, delegation of responsibility without supervision or holding anyone accountable, indifference, distance and disconnection from and insensitivity to the sufferings of our people” – Prof Usman Yusuf, a Professor of haematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation, and former  Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), January, 2022.

    As if just waking up from a  bad dream, Northern state governors, under the aegis of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, met in Kaduna State on Tuesday, 30 April, 2024 to deliberate on the security situation and other issues in the region.

    The meeting, truth be told, was not the first time a group of Northern leaders would be meeting but, given the seriousness and the wide canvass covered at the meeting, one feels convinced that, at a point in the past, Northern leaders probably decided to treat Professor Usman Yusuf’s heartfelt outcries with benign neglect, regarding his stinging clarion calls as unworthy of serious consideration.

    Not any more.

    The North has become a literal inferno and given the overwhelming parlous state of affairs in the region they can, no longer, afford to  neglect him.

    What makes the situation  worse is the fact that, like forever, especially during the immediate past  administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the North literally had a complete lock down of  all the country’s  consequential appointments.

    In some of his stirring ‘sermons’, Professor Yusuf listed some of such  positions, even in the current Tinubu administration where the North holds the following offices:the Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, Chief of Army staff, both Ministers of Defence, as well as the Minister of Police Affairs. 

    Yet, he went on, Northern leadership has  completely failed  the people, choosing instead,  to look elsewhere, and blame  others.

    He concluded by saying  that the time has come for the entire Northern leadership, whether in government or not, to look at themselves in the face and agree that they have failed the people, promising do better.

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    The military, he went on, cannot bring peace to the North. Rather, everybody must  get involved, and put a stop to the  lingering insecurity that has completely overwhelmed the region.

    Happily, his words are  beginning to resonate in  the right quarters as we saw in the Northern governors’ meeting referenced above. Unlike past meetings of any group of Northern elders, which were more of photo-ops, the Chairman of the forum, and current

    Governor of Gombe State, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya,  emphasised the need for the North to now frontally confront  insecurity which has made a complete mess of every part of  the region, if not  the whole country, but with the North as the epicentre.

    He stressed the need for the economic revival of the North, if they were ever going to banish poverty and underdevelopment.

    According to him, “We consider economic development as the long-term solution to our security challenges. 

    Continuing, he said:

    “We must explore innovative ways to invest in critical infrastructure capable of unlocking the huge industrial and economic potential of  Northern region”, and described as unacceptable, the huge number of out-of-school children in the region. 

    “It is, he said, 

    troubling,  that Northern Nigeria currently bears the odious burden of having the highest number of out-of-school children in   the entire world. This is an unacceptable reality that we must urgently address”.

    Alongside other issues, it is fascinating that the meeting also discussed the touchy question of unreflecting, unrestrained and totally unplanned, childbirth, issues that combine to make the North contribute, astronomically, to Nigeria’s many existential problems, be it the poverty index, insecurity or the budgeoning population that will make Nigeria

    the world’s third most populous country by  2050, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, overtaking the U. S.

    The Professor  has been such a consciencious objector to the North’s equanimity to these ills that he was once quoted as saying that:

    “The deafening silence in the North to our people’s suffering is not only morally wrong but  nourishes, validates and perpetuates the failings of this government. The region has now literally become an orphan…”

    It is gratifying that Northern leaders now believe that  “every child deserves access to quality education as well as the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to succeed in today’s rapidly changing global economic landscape”.

    More gratifying is their acceptance

     that, “as  leaders, they have a moral obligation to invest massively in education and skills development, healthcare, and social services in order to unlock the full potential of their youth and empower future generations.”

    Professor Yusuf deserves our thanks for the observable sea change in the North.

    It will augur well for Nigeria.

  • Before Minister David Umahi causes turmoil in Lagos

    Before Minister David Umahi causes turmoil in Lagos

    “The redesign of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway’s original route, which initially included Water Corporation Road but now incorporates the coastal path affecting establishments like Landmark Beach Resort, is necessary to avoid demolishing the extensive infrastructure developed by original planners” – Minister Dave Umahi, probably, cleverly rationalising for ethnic purposes.

    David Nweze Umahi, Senator of the Federal Republic and former Governor of Ebonyi State, is no placeholder in the Tinubu Federal Executive council. A professional Engineer, and politician, who left an impressive record as governor of Ebonyi state, he is, everything considered, a star performer. What with the incredible road infrastructure he is building across the country?

    The Lagos – Calabar coastal highway, for instance,  ranks as a signature project of the Tinubu administration, one which is hoped would be completed on schedule, unlike the East – West road which, though started as far back  as 2006, is still ongoing with no known  completion date as  some politicians in that part of the country have turned it to a sinkhole for fraudulent personal enrichment.

    With regards to the Lagos – Calabar coastal road, a truly profound civil engineering project, however, I hasten to warn that the minister would have to be extra careful not to allow matters of consanguinity mar his impressive performance to date.

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    To help him rethink and maintain his credibility, I present below the views of a concerned Nigerian who believes that unlike the late Professor Dora Akunyili, of blessed memory, who worked her heart out  battling her own Igbo compatriots who thought nothing of inundating the country with beautifully packaged, but fake drugs from Asia, Engr Umahi already appears to be falling  prey to ethnic chauvinism.

    He seems  determined, it is alleged, to protect his compatriots who habitually  disobey land laws all over the country, especially in Lagos and the Federal capital territory, Abuja.

    Please come with me as I present the piece, captioned as in the article’s title above. It reads as follows:

    “The Minister of Works can be forgiven if he does not understand the history of the Yorubas of South West Nigeria. The children of Oduduwa who all migrated from Ile- Ife in addition to spreading into the thick forests, also ventured into the riverine areas spreading from Lagos through the Ogun waterside into Ilaje Ese Odo in Ondo state, just like their cousins- the itshekiri, into Warri.

    These places have for centuries been, and remain, their ancestral homes. This is a known fact  to all those who respect Yoruba history and their norms and culture. 

    In the wake of the announcement of the  Lagos – Calabar coastal road, Nigerians except, of course political opposition,  jumped up for joy at another President Tinubu’s masterpiece which is primed to open up the coastal economy. Afterall, he had himself, over 20years ago, as Lagos state governor, acquired the right of way for the road –  a road which his  government would most probably have  constructed but for  President Obasanjo’s antagonism to anything Tinubu.

    That right of way was dutifully marked and announced via newspaper adverts and handed over to the minister by the authorities in Lagos. However, rather than work with that, the  minister and his ministry birthed the present, absolutely unnecessary confusion.

    For decades, Lagos State did not issue certificate of occupancy and building approval to anyone to build on the right of way. Issues were, instead, simple and straightforward. But now, some chronic abusers of land laws who did not obey the right of way must have cried to the minister who then started shifting, and shifting, to save those who have built on the right of way – a shift that has started to cause massive confusion.

    Suddenly, he announced that there is a January 2024 Supreme Court judgement that granted the Federal Government a 250m right of way as if life and people did not exist on the shorelines before January 2024.  Pronto, he further announced that he has appropriated 200m of the 250m on the shoreline. Indeed, the shoreline of today was about 1km into the sea a couple of years back.

    Pray, the total extent and lay – back of the coastal road he plans to build is only 100m. What  then does he need the additional 100m he wishes to forcefully acquire from the Lukmans, the Ajayi’s and the other indigenous peoples for?

    The indigenous communities are willing, and prepared to hand him the 100m he needs but, no, minister Umahi must take everything.

    If this is not injustice,  what is?

    He said he was realigning the road to the shoreline and that he would take 200m, depriving over 75,000 indigenous Yoruba land and home owners of their ancestral land and homes. If he is interested in protecting the property of those who did not obey existing laws,  should this be at the expense of the ever considerate and accommodating indigenous community who offered him 100m for his road and rail? Must he set sight on the lush coastland on which some money miss road elite would then come round to build marinas? Or is he saying that the indigenous peoples should now relocate right into the Atlantic ocean? Can he ever attempt to do this  in the Niger- Delta area?

    To make matters worse, the minister announced on Friday 19th April, at a Press conference, that he would not pay compensation for 250m of the shoreline, meaning that  the indigenous communities at Alpha Shoreline, Lafiaji( Oceanbay) shoreline, Okun Ajah, Iwereko and others, should go and hang? 

    Is leadership not about compassion and care for the poor?

    A leader must know that it’s not everything that is legal that is moral.

    I call on Minister Umahi to allow the poor of our shorelines to breathe. Their land is not available to be shared by the rich.  He should, therefore, take 100m for the road and rail line  as it is in the alignment and drawings, and not an inch more!

    The poor in those areas are also Nigerians. Indeed to make matters worse,  in  places like Landmark, and other  areas where the rich  live,  the minister is, inexplainably, taking only 50m.

    So why is 100m not enough for him where the poor live, if the objective is not to forcefully, and arrogantly, appropriate the lands and homes of the poor?

    I know that this decision will, and should, not stand

    because the President is a compassionate leader who has demonstrated this again and again. Minister Umahi should build his coastal road but he should not appropriate the land of the poor. We will never stop shouting about this, and soon enough, he may be receiving summons from the courts, if he does not change his mind on the  issue.

    When Ashiwaju Tinubu built the Eko Atlantic, the precursor to the present coastal road, not a single citizen lost a single centimeter of shoreline land. Rather, the Atlantic was tamed, and all that was stolen by the sea for over 100years were recovered.

    One can only hope that this is not a coy attempt to turn  coastal Yorubas against President Tinubu , especially in Lagos state. To deprive ordinary citizens of their ancentral land, in what looks like a twentieth century land grab can,  definitely, not be the President’s intent in conceiving this masterpiece of a road. The Minister, should  kindly release the lands of the people of the Lafiaji( Oceanbay) beach, the Alpha Beech, the Okun Ajah beach,  the Iwerekun coastal areas etc.

    He needs 100m for the road and that he will have!”

    I believe there are enough facts here for the minister to ponder afresh and make necessary adjustments as the Tinubu government is known to have done in instances where Nigerians have voiced objections. It is statesmanship, not weakness.

  • Energy Subsidy: Nigeria is exception within civilised world

    Energy Subsidy: Nigeria is exception within civilised world

    As president Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appealed to Nigerians not to talk ill of our country and, truth be told, nothing can be more unpatriotic, even nauseating, than a Nigerian disparaging Nigeria because, as Major – General Mohammadu Buhari once put it, we have no other country to call our own  adding, in fact, that “we shall all remain here and salvage it together”.

    For that reason, not one word in this piece will portray Nigeria  negatively.

     All I’ll be

     doing here is bring to the Federal government’s attention, the fact that her policy on energy subsidy is the very opposite of what obtains in developed countries which we are, forever, trying to copy, as well as suggest some ways out of our perennial problems which have actually transmogrified to a conumdrum.

    Therefore, since Nigeria is not in outer space, but on terra firma, it will be good if our government will tell us why her policy on power subsidy is not in tandem with what obtains in those countries which  dominate, and control, the Bretton woods institutions – the World Bank and the IMF – whose dictates they obey to the letter even when it means doing things

    which their home countries would dare not try.

    These  institutions that come to terrorise  governments in the Third world, Nigeria in particular, know only too well that they do not mean well for us.

    Whereas some Nigerians – they call them Band A – customers, have just had inflicted on them a power bill increment from N66 to N225 kilowatt per hour – an absolutely  unkind, very astronomical, over 300 per cent increase, all because IMF frowns at subsidies on anything, whatever, in the Third world, education inclusive, hereunder is what obtains in the developed countries – thanks to a trending WhatsApp post which will be treated mutatis mutandis.

    Good enough,  Power Minister, Bayo Adelabu, has now apologised to the suffering Nigerian masses about his gaffe on fridges and freezers which he probably thinks we should not even  operate at all. We must thank God for small mercies.

    Happy reading.

    “Energy subsidies jumped to $15.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 from $7.4 billion in 2016 in the United States of America. Subsidy was  highest in China at  USD 2.2 trillion in 2020. On June 8, 2023, the U. K government  reported that it has paid about 40 billion pounds in energy subsidy since it began assisting households and businesses to cope with the surge in power bills consequent upon the Russian invasion of Ukraine on July 8, 2023. Italy is not lagging far behind as it approved a $5.4 billion package to soften energy costs on March 28, 2023.

    According to the 2nd May, 2019 IMF report,  Canada paid US$43 billion in 2015 in post-tax energy subsidies;  representing 2.9 percent of her GDP –  an expenditure of US$1,191 per capita.

    Indeed, all the 7 most advanced economies of the world, that is, the G7 – subsidise electricity in their various countries”.

    If Nigeria removes energy subsidy, the few remaining factories will certainly collapse, and the rise in crime will be absolutely unimaginable. Whatever  money government may think it is saving from subsidy removal will, certainly, not be enough to handle the consequent increase in the level of insecurity, something Nigeria has been battling with now for well over a decade, without success.

    So even though the Power minister  brandished a N350B subsidy which he said was carried over from 2023, that will pale into insignifance compared to the complete mayhem that could engulf the entire country as a result. You can mentally add the human suffering, given the rising cost of living in the country.

    Countries all over the world, India,  Egypt etc, all  subsidise energy”. Indeed, in May 2023,

    the German Economy and Climate Protection Minister, Robert Habeck, announced

    plans to earmark about 4 billion euros ($4.40 billion) annually, to subsidise electricity prices for energy-intensive industries to support an industrial move away from fossil fuels, as well as, discourage firms from moving offshore.

    “How come then that the Nigerian case is  different when it is not the fault of the poor Nigerian masses that almost all government departments and agencies are owing the electricity companies huge bills? Why increase the poor man’s yoke?”

    Yes, granted that the recent increase is on Band A alone, with about 1.5 million customers affected, according to the minister, who can deny the ripple effect  on the poor, many of who are bound to lose their jobs as these customers are the hens yielding the golden eggs?

    “Between 2020 and 2021, the government of South Africa, here on the African continent, spent $10.4bn subsidising electricity, from fossil fuel, to hydropower etc”.

    “The countries subsidising power are not unwise, they do so to protect the local industries which produce the goods they export to us here in Nigeria, thus

    rendering our own industries idle, and further decreasing the value of the Naira; the very opposite of what a government should do to protect, and promote productivity for domestic consumption and export”.

    What the Nigerian Government should do.

    Rather than removing subsidy, government should first address the reasons it is having to subsidise  energy at at all.

    The most fundamental of the reasons is the massive disparity in the management of payment  for power consumption in Northern Nigeria and the South.

    Below are some of the problems which those familiar with, and are knowledgeable about the industry have identified and these are the things government must first endeavour to solve:

    1.Against all economic rationality, the North insisted on National Grids that prioritise distribution to the North on the basis of Population and National character, rather than on demand and ability to consume, and pay, for such power; which ability, as clear as day, is not available there.

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    2. The North, they conclude,  do not pay electricity bills resulting on the South, especially the SouthWest, having  to bear the burden of recouping costs by the electricity companies; allegedly why the companies are reluctant to install meters in the SouthWest.

    3. When a Willing Buyer Willing Seller solution, allowing independent power suppliers to grow and provide power through micro grids was proposed, it was alleged that the North got angry, claiming it was aimed at destroying the North.

    Even when the Distribution companies negotiated special power supplies with industries at a higher rate, but guaranteed supplies, the North still got these agreements  canceled.

    4. Investors, it was reported, know  that power supply in Nigeria is unworkable because if you Invest in generating so much power, which you could sell locally, but are forced to sell into the Grid that is unable to accommodate the products, who then pays for the unsellable power?

    After all, they argue,  you cannot store power after you have produced it. It is a sell or lose it business.

    All efforts to correct these anomalies during the Mohammadu Buhari administration were reportedly frustrated through the auspices of the Villa Mafia.

     Special advantages like this to the North, is one of the main reasons restructuring Nigeria has been impossible.

    But I believe that if any government could do it, it is the President Tinubu- led government.

    Why?

    This is because President Tinubu is astute, even- handed,

     rational, fair minded and will, certainly, not sign on to any inequality.

    I sincerely believe that unlike many who believe that whatever advantages the North has been enjoying hitherto should be summarily yanked off, at restructuring, Tinubu as a result of his wide  network, and friendships, which connect him intimately to every nook and cranny of the country, will  appreciate very clearly, why restructuring Nigeria must, willy nilly, be a win – win affair. More than any other politician, he can also be trusted across board.

     From his wide experience, he would know that to do otherwise, and go out intending to hurt the North, would only tantamount to making the mistakes of the  Treaty of Versailles whose inherent inequities were the building blocks of Hitler’s subsequent escapades, especially World War 11, which resulted in the death of some 75 million people, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.

    Many civilians also died as a result of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.

    Restructuring, while it may not be a cure – all for all of Nigeria’s problems, will put her on an even keel, and recalibrate it, once again, towards the competitive democracy of  immediate post independent Nigeria.

    It is the way to go; if not now, as soon as PBAT defeats the immediate security and economic problems.

    PS

    To show that I am not merely assuming my positions about PBAT, I shall, by the grace of God next Sunday, get published again, my article of 25 March, 2012 on him.

    It was captioned:The Contemporary Non – Pareil at 60.

    That is 11 years before he became a resident of the Presidential Villa.

  • Constituency project: Is Nigeria truly fantastically corrupt?

    Constituency project: Is Nigeria truly fantastically corrupt?

    “Raja and I were seated opposite a hefty Nigerian, Festus, their finance minister. The conversation is still fresh in my mind. He was going to retire soon, he said. He had done enough for his country and now had to look after his business, a shoe factory. As finance minister, he had imposed a tax on imported shoes so that Nigeria could make shoes. Raja and I were incredulous. Festus had a good appetite that showed in his rotund figure, elegantly camouflaged in colourful Nigerian robes with gold ornamentation and a splendid cap. I went to bed that night convinced that they were a different people playing to a different set of rules.”

    – Lee Kuan Yew in ‘From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000’

    -The quote above reminds me of our dear friend of blessed memory, the irreplaceable, inimitable wielder of the pen and incomparable journalist,

    Gbolabo Ogunsanwo.

    He it was, who gifted me a copy of Lee Kuan Yew’s book, from which I first came across those words that very clearly put Nigeria beyond the pale.

    Gbolabo, no doubt, rests at the bossom of his Lord and Master, our Lord Jesus Christ.

    For the purposes of this article, I will only need the minuscule portion:”I went to bed that night convinced that they were a different people playing to a different set of rules”, from that long quote from Lee Kuan Yew because it not only so uncannily describes us, Nigerians, it clinically fits into the subject matter of this article – our thoroughly  unacceptable corruption.

    It would have been nice if that was all the evidence.

    But juxtapose the above with British Prime minister David Cameron, telling the Queen that:”We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain to attend the anti – corruption summit”. And by that he meant Nigeria and Afghanistan, which he further described as possibly “the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

    These are, no doubt, terrible ascriptions to have attached to one’s country.

    But don’t we, as Nigerians justify, even merit them by our outrightly immoral ways?

    This article should prove that, one way or the other. And for that, we have the Professor Bolaji Owasanoye -led ICPC to thank for the massive job the anti- corruption agency did, tracking our federal legislators’ constituency projects which, unbelievable as it sounds, started under the administration of the, no nonsence, President Olusegun Obasanjo and exposing them, each year,  cornering billions for constituency projects which they knew, deep down in their minds would, most probably, never see the light of day.

    Incidentally the USA, from where we copied our presidential system of government also has something comparable to constituency projects which we have since bastardised in Nigeria, thus affirming Lee Kuan Yew’s words that our politicians play to a different set of rules from that which apply in civilised climes.

    It is called Pork barrel spending in the U. S, and it means “an appropriation of government spending for localised projects, secured primarily to direct spending to a representative’s district”.

    But not a few American legislators (Congressmen) would be in jail today, if they treat such funds the way our legislators do with theirs.

    I now crave the indulgence of ICPC to quote, at some length, some of its findings on the corrupt uses to which Nigerian legislators put funds that would have been much better deployed, were such not ambushed  for a so- called constituency project.

    When ICPC began  tracking the projects, the idea was to “facilitate good governance, transparency and accountability through proper implementation of government projects across the country, in line with its preventive and enforcement mandates”.

    The tracking would, however, reveal lots of mismanagement of funds and the non, or shoddy, execution of projects that would have had great impact on the lives, and well-being, of ordinary Nigerians if  executed to specifications.

    “Of  the 524 projects under the first phase, 195 were education projects, while 46 were from the health sector. The implication of diversion, non execution,or mismanagement of the funds meant for development purposes, is that communities were  short-changed and unable to access life’s changing social services, thereby deepening and increasing  poverty level, increased diseases, heightened ignorance, spiraled criminality,  and widened social unrest in the country”.

    The exercise, not unexpectedly, uncovered a gross lack of synergy between outgoing and incoming legislators, (since they are self – help projects) such that projects initiated by the former legislator are quickly abandoned by the latter.

    Another corrupt act uncovered was collusion between sponsors’ aides, and contractors to defraud the country, as well as contract over-invoicing.

    Other key findings of the second phase exercise was that despite the annual appropriation of N100 billion for constituency projects, some projects, running into billions of Naira, were duplicated in different MDAs.This, did not only fuel corruption, it distorted national planning, leading to poor, and inefficient, budget performance.

     In the article  ‘Constituency Project Stink: How lawmakers pad budgets, and make billions’, (Vanguard, March 17, 2024),  Henry Umoru, an Associate Editor writes, quoting ICPC:

    “Analysing the 2021 National Budget alone across key sectors of education, water resources, health, power, science and technology, environment, works and agriculture, we found duplication to the tune of over N20 billion.”

    The report pointed out, for instance,  that the “contract for the construction and renovation of blocks of classrooms at a University Staff School in Taraba state, executed by a company owned, and operated directly, by a lawmaker”was   executed in locations that have no need for such projects.

    In another development, ICPC reported another infraction in the supplies of water rigs by a particular company to be executed in Taraba. The commission reported that “just two days after the award of the contract, ‘the said company’, wrote to the executing agency, the Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority, informing it that it was involved in some sort of arrangement with its sister company in respect of the execution, and requested that the contract sum be paid into the bank account of the company, owned by the sponsoring legislator, which was promptly done.”

    The ICPC  was also able to track a contract for the supply of 686 water pumping machines in Kebbi state, awarded to a company owned by the children of a lawmaker.

    The report reads: “Various other projects were awarded and executed in Kebbi by three other companies owned and operated by the biological children of the sponsor.”

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    Similarly,  ICPC  tracked a project for the supply of 19 units of 500KVA transformers in Delta State, two of which “were stolen and sold by an aide of the sponsoring lawmaker, while one was found kept in a private house since 2018.   

    The commission also cited a project valued at N149m for the training and empowerment of women and youths in Abaji, awarded to a relative of the sponsoring legislator.

    It was also replicated in Katsina state where the sponsor single-handedly executed the contract after which the project, said to have been valued at N49m, was changed from its form and devalued by the lawmaker.

    In another case, the supply of tricycles in Rivers state was an empowerment project where the sponsor allegedly used one of her cronies as the contractor. ICPC alleged that “while the contract was never performed, the contract sum of N30m was fully paid out”.

    An example was cited of the diversion of funds for an agricultural empowerment project in Osun State to a training programme on cattle rearing and the supply of cattle.

    The Bill of Quantities,  according to the report, indicated procurement and distribution of 250 cattles to beneficiaries.But in truth, “while the intended beneficiaries were trained, no cattle was given to them.Instead the lawmaker established a private ranch, using the cattles procured with government fund.”

    In Bayelsa state, an  investigation led it to another youth empowerment scam carried out by the sponsoring lawmaker.

    It alleged that some of the beneficiaries found on the list were randomly contacted, but none of them acknowledged ever receiving any grant”.

    Reacting to one of my two articles on the Abdul Ningi – National Assembly broohaha, a reader, a retired director with the Federal Government wrote as follows,  reflecting what I consider the view of majority of Nigerians on constituency projects:

    “In practice, funds for the so called constituency projects are merely warehoused by the legislators in friendly MDAs for the MDAs to go through the motions of observing the provisions of the Procurement Act in awarding contracts to persons they must have  nominated in the first place. In other words, the contracts are awarded to their fronts.Therefore, in most cases, no implementation is intended and no process to confirm implementation is ever put in place.

    The MDAs consider their part done once they have  observed the tenets of  the Procurement Act in awarding such contracts and only wait to also smile to the bank since they did not oblige for free.    

    Now if  a parsimonious President Mohammed Buhari, with all his faults, could, at least, frown at, and voice his dislike for this nauseating corruption, can President Bola Tinubu, with a renewed hope, afford to merely look on, unconcerned, while these nefarious practices are embedded in a budget to which he has his signature? Is there anyway Nigeria can avoid being described as  fantastically corrupt if these people continue in this fashion?

    Should Nigerians merely watch and lament?

    I believe, fellow citizens, that the least the President should do is, specifically, ask the anti- corruption agencies to do their job, no matter whose ox is gored or no matter how high the offenders.

    They must be made to have their day in court.

  • How the North made peace kiss Nigeria goodbye

    How the North made peace kiss Nigeria goodbye

    Northern Nigeria is not developing its human capital. It also does not have the time to do so anymore. Therefore, it is now ill-equipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow. It needs at least 20 years to become significant in any way. But, rather than wake up to this benumbing fact, there is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance. Meanwhile the people of the region lack the skills for tomorrow, as majority of its youth lack everything that could make them part of a 21st century world. I think we are not doing ourselves much good by the way we are living, and by refusing to educate our children. We rather produce and send them to the streets to beg for what they will eat, neglecting their character and learning.” – the highly regarded elder statesman, Ahmed Joda in: ‘Attitudes North Must Change to Develop’ -There’s no way reverred Ahmed Joda could have attributed the spate of insecurity in the North to unemployment, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently did, because he knew what  proportion of Northern youths is actually employable.

    What is happening in the North today was foretold. Rather than act, successive governments, state and federal( North – dominated) preferred to treat crimes with levity with no criminal ever  made to have his day in court as long as he was a Northerner. Now the chick’s have come home to roost.

    This piece, substantially an old article, details the beginnings of banditry and other crimes which went unpunished in the North. It is aimed at correcting those lapses in the hope that sanity can still be restored, lest the North self – destructs.

    But more importantly, it should inform Northern leaders, now pointing an accusing finger at PBAT, that the remaining four point directly at them. It is a story of how ‘absence of government’ and preferential treatment of Northerner offenders by federal security agencies, especially the police, enabled killing and kidnappings on industrial scale, to boom and blossom.

    In addition to their menace, some  Northern politicians were alleged to have, in 2015, brought into the  country some foreign Fulanis who exponentially increased insecurity in Nigeria.  The article, captioned as above, and published 20 December, 2020,  reads as follows, with slight additions, here and there:

    “There were a few people who foresaw what we are going through today in Nigeria with regards to insecurity, especially in Northern Nigeria where, in the last three weeks, 300 persons, mostly school children, were kidnapped.

    One such person was Chief Obafemi Awolowo who severally warned that by denying western education to a large proportion of their people, the North was sowing the wind, and was certain to reap the whirlwind. But prescient as he always was, not even Awo could have foreseen the present level of horrendous  insecurity. Below is Professor Adebayo Williams on Awo’s capacity for such clairvoyance. He wrote  in ‘The Titan and The Titanic: Awolowo in and through History’: “This is a man we thought we bade a final goodbye 17 years ago. If it is so, it must be the longest goodbye in history. For at every tragic turn, at every miscue, be it at the level of the structural deformities of this unfortunate nation, its suffocating and stifling unitarism, its economic malaise, its educational  collapse, its spiritual bankruptcy, its corrupt and  thieving political class(budgeting N193M as cost of a single borehole in 2024), and its gradual descent into the anomie of ungovernability, we are confronted by the figure of the man with the  horn-rimmed glasses. And until we come to terms with many of his ideas, either by transcending them through superior political engineering or working through them through a more rigorous intellectual engagement, the piercing eyes behind the lens will continue to haunt us, reminding us of our inadequacies as intellectuals, as philosophers, as politicians and as a nation”.

    But Awo was not alone in drawing the attention of Northern leaders to the ugly grass that was growing under their feet. Another person who was  uniquely positioned to do so, being a Northerner, was Dr Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, the Director, Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training, Sango Shanu, Zaria who, together with his team, did such stupendous research work on the subject of insecurity in the North that were successive Northern governments alive to their responsibilities, insecurity there would most probably have become history by now.

    Let me quote, at some length, from a thoroughly illuminating  interview Dr Mohammed granted in 2019 on what has since become ‘the Nigerian nightmare’, accounting for a total of  no less than 17,469 Nigerians, according to the Civil Society Joint Action Group, kidnapped between 2019 , and now.

     Four years ago,  you warned that unless urgent steps were taken to stop the crisis in Zamfara, the whole country could be consumed. With what is happening now, it seems you were prophetic. We are 20 years into democracy and Nigerians are wondering why insecurity has become such a big issue.

    Four years ago when we first did our studies, it was farmer/herders conflict. What I am going to talk to you about is what is happening today in the North-West, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara, which is the epicentre of insecurity in the North. This conflict has been on for more than four years. It started as farmers/herders conflict but it degenerated into something else. Some years ago, there were armed robberies in the North-West. In the Zamfara area, some Fulani boys were alleged to be the major culprits.

    In the areas we studied, there were so many ungoverned spaces: No electricity, telecommunication and local governments existed only in name. You could hardly see anybody when you go there. Over a long period of time, traditional leaders and Islamic teachers were the ones dealing with the crisis. There was no presence of the state. (Yet, every month, Northern states harvested billions of Naira from the Federation account in the name of Land Mass). The roads were extremely bad and the people left to their fate. So when the armed robberies persisted, people took it upon themselves to bring about law and order, they formed vigilante groups.The vigilante groups were quite often not trained. So they went beyond their limits whenever they went on operations. In the Dansadau area of Zamfara, they identified some boys, who also happened to be of Fulani stock. They attacked some of them and killed them. They were very brutal. They wanted to stamp out armed robbery in the area. They were the police, the prosecutor and judge. They did not stop in the towns and semi-urban centres. They pursued the Fulani deep into the forest and, in the process, killed so many innocent people. This was the immediate cause of the conflict.

     Ethnic coloration

    Those who organised the killings happened to be Hausa and those who were killed were the Fulani.  When the attacks on the Fulani became generalised, some of them withdrew, went and re-organised and came back to those localities where they were attacked, identified those who organised the attacks and sought revenge. Those whose kids were of fighting age were forced to donate their kids or provide money.

    In all the areas we visited, there were no banks. People kept money at home. These bandits will break into a man’s house and insist that he gives them all his money. In some cases, they will rape his wife and daughters in his presence. It was a terrible situation. 

     What was government’s reaction to the worsening security situation?

    M. The government in Zamfara was not serious about the challenge, ab initio. From fighting rural banditry by the vigilantes to the retaliation by the Fulani, the challenge morphed into generalised rural banditry. At this stage, the farmers and pastoralists became victims of a superior force. The pastoralists lost their herds because some other forces had come in and subjugated both the pastoralists and farmers.

    A third force then emerged which dispossessed the pastoralists of their cows, dispossessed the farmers of their savings which they kept at home, and drove them away from their lands.

    In the areas we studied, virtually all the cattle had been rustled by bandits. From rustling the cattle, they moved to kidnapping. When the crisis degenerated between the bandits and the vigilante groups, it escalated. In one town in Zamfara, the vigilante group there was meeting to discuss how they could deal with the rural banditry. The bandits heard about the meeting, they attacked the town on a market day and killed about 200 people. When we got to the town shortly after, it was like a ghost town. There were no human beings in sight. When these youths lost their cattle, they had nothing to do anymore. But, surprisingly, they started seeing some of their rustled cows with some of the rich people around the area and that is what triggered the kidnappings. They could not get to some of the rich people because they had their own security guards armed with AK 47 rifles or police protection. So what the criminals did was to also acquire AK 47 rifles as a balance of terror. I have not spoken about land.

    All that time, there was a Zamfara state governor who was, more or less, operating from Abuja. And as at that time, no Emir remembered to send alarm bells to Abuja claiming  that they could no longer control their youths.

     The crisis in Zamfara is multi-dimensional.

    Some years back, the Zamfara government, under Sani Yerima, decided to drive the Fulani out of their ancestral land to pave the way for big farmers. These were people who had lived there for over five hundred years. Overnight, they were pushed out and their land given out to the rich,  with many of the Fulanis having to relocate to other parts of Nigeria or other parts of Zamfara which, in turn, heightened conflict with farmers.

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    The Fulani were dispossessed, first of land, and later of their cattle. Violence was used in both instances. Many of the boys operating around the Abuja-Kaduna highway are from Zamfara.

     Q. What was government reaction to your study which was made public four years ago?

    M.We made it known four years ago that this thing will get out of control. We recommended that concerted efforts should be made to stop the crisis.

    You cannot solve the problems in Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto without dealing with the situation in Zamfara. (Only last week, the school pupils kidnapped in Kaduna state were ‘warehoused’ in Zamfara and the state governor, Dauda Lawal, has not stopped shouting about his helplessness with no Northern leader offering a helping hand. They would rather blame Tinubu.)

     Q.How can the situation in Zamfara be tackled?

    M. The Zamfara situation has gotten out of control. The security architecture we have in the country cannot deal with the crisis. It is going to be with us for some time to come. Take for instance the police. Let us say we have 370,000 policemen. How can they effectively cover the 774 local government areas and tackle the different security challenges in the country? We are certainly under-policed. The police cannot deal with the situation. They can only do their best but they cannot deal with the situation.

    Everywhere you go in the country, there is one form of crisis or the other; so the police are overstretched. Same goes for the army. They have also been overstretched. We need to expand the armed forces and the police”.

    The above tells the story of how the North socialised insecurity in Nigeria and turned the  country into a no man’s land where killers roam, anyhow, raping, kidnapping and killing at will.

    As a result Nigeria is now ccomparable only to the likes of Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and Libya where there is no discernible head of state.

    Being in your house, or on your rice farm, in school or on the Abuja – Kaduna, anywhere in Birnin-Gwari,  or on the Lagos – Ibadan expressway, no longer guarantees your safety, even your life.

    As things stand in our country today, it is everybody for himself and God for us all.

    It is hoped that everybody or agency  concerned with security in Nigeria – the Feds in particular – will have some take aways from the article and go on to do the needful, such as  creating state police and substantially increasing the number of our armed forces personnel, far beyond what we presently have.

  • Still on the Abdul Ningi budget padding allegation

    Still on the Abdul Ningi budget padding allegation

    A document titled “Final Summary Analysis of the Harmonized 2024 Budget (Passed)”, produced by Microxpressions Consult and submitted to the legislature gave an overview of the figures focusing on allocations to Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).

    In its analysis, Economic Confidential found that N2,486,098,619,722 budgeted for capital projects in more than 15 ministries was aggregated into regional projects, while N4,185,711,477,842 was alloted to projects without geographic identifiers, thus complicating monitoring.

    Also 71.98% of the total ‘Development Capital Allocation(N6,671,810,092,564) was assigned to initiatives that are either elusive in terms of traceability or encumbered by accountability constraints.” -guardian.ng

    Writing on this budget issue last week I held, with every sense of responsibility, that Senator Abdul Ningi’s primary intent was to elevate the Northern angst against PBAT to a higher pedestal.

    I stand by that conclusion.

    However, further elucidation  on the subject, especially by those who should know, has thrown more light.

    One of those who should know is BudgIT, a non- governmental organisation which, for over a decade, has done tremendous work here in Nigeria monitoring budgets – federal and state.

    BudgIT has reacted, at some length, to the simmering Senate – Ningi imbroglio on the 2024 budget. This article will delve into the details of that critical intervention.

    Concerning Ningi’s alleged N3.7T gap, a top BudgiT official said:”To say that we are running two parallel budgets, I don’t think that is true. The BudgIT team fact-checked claims by Ningi that over N3 trillion is not tied to any project in the budget. Of course, there are statutory elements in the budget that do not have breakdown but that is not unusual.

    INEC, for instance, is collecting a huge chunk of funds but there is no public details about what the funds are used for. TETFUND too”.

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    “If you put such allocations in this budget together, they will amount to between N3.5 and N3.7 trillion. So, if Ningi wants to interrogate that there are components of the budget where there are no breakdowns, he will be very right”.

    The question that arises here is why these appropriations were treated like the budget of the National Assembly which is mostly shrouded in secrecy?  Why extend that  practice to public agencies which should have nothing to hide except if browbeaten to do so.

    But even as grievous as that is, it is not the only problem with the budget since, according to BudgIT, the non availability of vital details impedes accountability just as it constraints development.

    Besides its  developmental constraints, the budget also contains some parts in which transparency cannot be taken as given.

    The details,  as shown below by BudgIT clearly indicate that in order to appropriate huge  funds to themselves, as constituency projects, the senators mentally obliterated state governments, presenting as if they, rather than the subnational governments, have the primary financial responsibility to the states.

    The manner in which they allocated money for things like okada, sewing machines, hair dressing and barbing equipment etc, you would be right if you conclude that state governments no longer exist, or if they do,  no longer have fiduciary responsibility to their own citizenry.

    Any attentive observer would not but question this totally  unnecessary duplication of expenditure centres, at a time everybody is worried stiff about the high cost of governance. Or what exactly has building toilets in the village got to do with law making?

    Alternatively, if the senators are convinced that the projects to which they allocate humongous amounts of money in the states are necessary, why wont they move government to increase the percentage of revenue going to states from the Federation account? They could then  go and lobby their state governors for whatever projects they want for their respective constituencies.

    They should realise that they deceive nobody when they claim that they know nothing about the execution of constituency projects. Or as the Yoruba would say, ‘ta ni o mo ka fi eran senu ka wa ti’, meaning who does not know how to search, in vain, for the piece of meat you already put in the mouth?

    Readers will better understand what  am saying after reading  the relevant portion of BudgIT’s intervention which shows how the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food security was serially butchered to make way for such mundane things as barbing kits and sewing machines  –  things Local Governments should be the appropriate level of government to handle.

    According to the top official of BurgIT:”More facts have emerged on the  controversy. It is alleged that the senate President padded the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security with 280 projects, allocations that not only surpass the ministry’s capacity, but also raise concerns about potential economic stagnation”.

    “Projects worth over N90 billion were allocated, exclusively, within his Northwest Senatorial District  of Akwa Ibom state with  only 10 local government areas” _   (BusinessDay, 15 March, 2024).

    A breakdown of the budget shows the following:

     *N7. 291 billion was allocated for the construction and equipping of Information Communication and Technology Centres;

    *N395 million for the construction and equipping of community schools;

    *N957 million for the supply of sewing machines, hairdressing/barbing equipment, and deep freezers;

    *N50 million for the construction of district head palace ( as if the Akwa Ibom state government  no exists);

    *N4 billion for construction of police stations ( as if the Nigeria Police has no budget to which this could have be added and made applicable to every part of the country;

    *N12.721 billion for the construction of roads within communities and supply transformers;(equally things other agencies of government have primary responsibility for);

    *N28.111 billion for the construction of roads within communities: (is the state governments in abeyance?);

    *N3.111 billion for the provision of farm implements, motorcycles, tricycles, welding machines to artisans, and buses (in a sane country why should  these be  the purview of a Rep or senator?);

    *N 4.538 billion for the empowerment materials and training to women and youths, and provision of grants; (states, with commissioners for Women Affairs, would certainly handle these much better, without any senator breathing down the neck of those executing these);

    *N474 million for the provision of security cars(why not voted directly to security);

    *N1.286 billion for the provision of educational materials to selected schools(why is this, and some other items not made available to all senatorial districts by allocating every such vote in constituences to the relevant agencies of government;

    *N1.220 billion for the provision of medical supplies and equipment to health centres(same question as above); Others include:

    *N2.996 billion for starter packs for youths and women

    *Also included is N7. 551billion for the drilling and provision of solar powered boreholes and street lights;

    *N1.095B for Workspace and farm stalls;

    *N475 million for development of Agricultural value chains;

    *N4.090 billion for construction and equipping of Primary Healthcare Centres;

    * N4.701bn is allocated for construction of Town Halls/ equipping and construction of community centres;

    *N1.565bn for provision, and installation of transformers; *N1.2 billion for construction of intensive care unit;

    *N1.5 billion for erosion control;

    *N691 million for the distribution of grains to cushion the impact of hunger.(Why take grains distribution away from the ministry of Agric and Food security and have it treated as a constituency project if transparency is intended?

    BudgIT commented that the budget of the ministry of Agriculture focused mainly on its core mandate but all that changed after it was reviewed, and yanked off, by members of the National Assembly who then went on to insert all manner of items, no matter how far removed from Agriculture.

    Some questions, however, arise:

    By attracting all these projects to his state, was  Senator Akpabio thinking he was still the Akwa Ibom state governor or considered himself in competition with the  state governor?

    If he must attract these projects to himself, why from the  budget of the ministry of Agric and Food security at a time when every attention should be on Agriculture?

    Looking at these number of projects would any project go to any other state if  Senator Akpabio were president of the Federal Republic?

    I have only little doubt, that with all these projects going to his senatorial district/state, jostling for the next senate president will be war.

    I am not that naive not to know that the above must have been the template for all senators even though Senator Ali Ndume boasts that some senators are more important than others. Big or small they all corner  sums that will never be described as a pittance.

    Problem is: all over the country, but especially in the North, when unemployed and unemployable youths  become aware of how their politicians share money _ what is called ‘Abu money’ _ wont they become attracted to being easily recruited by kidnappers, terrorists, cultists and the like with all the possibility of  fueling insecurity?

    I shall be glad  to see one single legislator conclusively prove to Nigerians  that he/she benefits nothing from these huge amounts of money going to their constituency projects.

    Budget 2024, therefore,

     raises questions about the reasonableness, or no, of  constituency projects.

    Why should it not be cancelled, and more funds allocated to states from the federation account? More on this later.

    That all these are decoys for personal enrichment becomes crystal clear when one notes that a colossal sum of N82.5bn was allocated for the construction of 427 boreholes, translating to  N193m for each.  

    In my view, if these legislators love themselves, and are mindful of what reputation they are laying up for themselves,  they should just go and scrap that nauseating provision for bore holes. Not to do so would, in fact, mean that they think Nigerians are fools.

    Or would the boreholes produce GOLD rather than water?

    Let me then conclude with my views on constuency projects.

    As in the days of IBB, I think this matter deserves a rigorous public debate.

    Personally,  I believe it is nothing more than an avenue for attracting filthy lucre as well as an absolutely unnecessary distraction for legislators, most of whose attention, during budget consideration would be rivetted more on how much they are going to harvest to themselves in constituency projects, than on the nitty gritty of the budget.

    Or how come senator Ningi only came to the realisation that

    the North was shortchanged, long after the President has signed the Appropriation Law, as he also alleged?

    Worse is the fact that rather than be beneficial to states, not a few legislators, with an eye on the next gubernatorial

    election, use constituency projects to  distract, and disorient, their state governors thus destabilising the entire state, far ahead of that election.

    I don’t think it should have a place in our books.

    lf majority of Nigerians feel this way, then we must find a way, beyond the legislators, to have it outrightly cancelled. For instance, the President may be prevailed upon, by Nigerians, not to expend a penny on such projects for reasons of opaque transparency and accountability.

  • Ningi only trying to exploit north’s Multi – dimensional angst against PBAT

    Ningi only trying to exploit north’s Multi – dimensional angst against PBAT

    No school is safe until Government negotiates with bandits” – Sheik Gumi.

    With this coming from a leading Northern cleric, in a region with over 15M out of school children, and in a society riddled with grinding poverty, why would these killers not mushroom in their thousands?

    Distinguished Senator Abdul Ningi is not a foolish man. He only miscalculated. Badly too. His intention was to ride the Northern angst against the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government to effect  what he reckoned would be a seismic change in the country. And where else to start, if not the  National Assembly, crawling with a preponderance of Northern legislators whose  support he, and his co – conspirators had, a priori, believed they could take for granted.

    Afterall, not only have many Northern politicians tried to rubbish the  government just as its royalty has not lagged far behind in the same quest. Nor is the ‘Miyetti Allah- Free Bodejo Brigade’, now massing on Abuja without schemes of their own as Nigeria no longer looks like a country gifted Fulanis by Allah as the Fulani Nationality Movement  (FUNAM), never ceases to announce on rooftops, even without a wink from the Nigerian security forces.

    Recall too that a  President of Southern extraction once said that there were Boko Haram sympathisers right within his Executive council and you can begin to suspect what’s presently afoot. 

    Consider also, the fact that unlike during the ancien regime, Northerners are no longer the Chief executive officers of nearly all government agencies just as it will not be far fetched to believe that some must be rueing  their inability to, any longer, buy dollar from  the CBN at their own price.

    All these are now ancient history, and are more than enough to stir the mother of enemity towards the Tinubu government.

    So distinguished senator Ningi knew exactly where he was headed when he added the icing on the cake to his budget padding allegation, i e – his ridiculous claim that the 2024 Appropriation law was skewed against the North. It was all aimed at coalescing the Northern anti – Tinubu ensemble.

    Fortunately,  patriotism prevailed and saw his fellow senators, bar an errant one, abandon him, leaving him hard and dry, to face his comeuppance,  a 3 – month suspension.

    Meanwhile his state governor, Bala Mohammed, who sees him as a”beacon of  truth”, can root for him all he likes.

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    The pity in all these is that the North has nobody, but itself, to blame for the present state of affairs in that part of the country, especially the indescribable insecurity currently convulsing the entire region. It is the result of favouritism, double standard and impunity.

    On no occasion during President Muhammadu Buhari’s entire 8 years were bandits, aka  killers and kidnappers, ever brought to book. Even when they attacked in numbers and killed in hundreds, as happened in Benue and Plateau states, burning houses and banishing their victims from their ancestral lands, never to return, hardly was any of them  arrested.

    Things got so bad, Lt. General T. Y Danjuma, a respected elder statesman, wondered aloud, claiming that some security men were working in cahoots with these ethnic cleansers.

    In the meantime, insecurity in the North has ballooned exponentially. While over 200 of the 276 Chibok girls kidnapped in  2014 remain in bondage, Nigerians again woke up this past week, to hear that another  280 students  have again been  kidnapped in the Kuriga community of Chikum Government Area of Kaduna State.

    That is not all, either.

    In the past ten days alone, close to 400 people are believed to have been kidnapped,

    according to a report. The kidnappers are now asking for N1Billion, 11 Toyota Hilux pick-up vehicles and 150 motorcycles as ransom for their release, to which President Tinubu has said an emphatic no.

    Nobody in the North can claim they were not warned well ahead of these torrid happenings.

    They sowed the wind, now they are reaping the whirlwind.  For  too long, every attempt to nudge the North into educating its youth, and opening up its feudal society to the modernising effects  of western education was bad – mouthed and treated as excoriation by what they pejoratively  called 

    the Lagos-Ibadan press because the Press did not let off, especially during the Second Republic when the Nigerian problem, according to a Head of state of the era,  was not money, “but how to spend it”.

    Not a few warned the North that if it regarded education as expensive, ignorance was going to be far more expensive as we have all come to see. Unfortunately, it’s not only the North, but the entire country, which is now on the receiving end of that whimsical negligence with Nigeria presently spending billions fighting insecurity in the North, rather than pouring same into  education, healthcare, road infrastructure etc.

    That is aside the  deaths, the human dislocations and the general ruination of the country occasioned by insecurity.

    Although escalation in the activities of Boko Haram was attributed to the  gruesome murder of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf,  the causes  would better be traced to mass illiteracy,  pervasive poverty, rampant  corruption and the odious opulence  of Northern  politicians and their royalty who prefer to feed the people from their individual largesse – rankadede style – rather than see government positively impact their lives. 

    The  current state of affairs in the North was totally unexpected because, for a very long time, it cornered most of the country’s resources. The North has no reason, whatever, to be poor; not with its huge natural resources and the volume of the country’s resources going there.

    For instance, each successive North- dominated military government, in their whim and caprice, ensured that the North, solely on the basis of  land mass  – now mostly the habitation of kidnappers and terrorists as ungoverned spaces – was allocated a disproportionate number of Local Government Areas. Ordinarily the huge monthly allocations to these Local Government Areas,  which by far outstripped what goes to the South, should have been made to  impact positively on lives in the North but  corruption and an easy lifestyle completely vitiated all that.

    Rather than invest in the  education of their youth,  the state governors looked askance as the kids were herded into the Almajeri conundrum where they are made to carry begging bowls daily, in search of arms. 

    When, once in a while, the governors wake up to do something for their teeming youth population – mostly the children of the poor –  they buy thousands of  okadas and ship them – boys and bikes, enmasse, in trailer loads, to Lagos  where they  become more famous for the accidents they cause daily.

     Apart from federal allocations to its states, the North also, through a near monopoly of federal power, cornered a huge chunk of national resources which did not reflect in development in the region.

    If  a sizeable portion of these  stupendous amounts of money had been devoted to life impacting interventions, neither the North, nor Nigeria itself, would be sinking into fighting insecurity a quarter of what they presently do.

    It is a pity, as I recently wrote on these pages, that the North is always in search of quick fixes, especially in regard to matters that will profit it alone,  as against aiming for the well- being of the country. That was why an eminent Northern monarch, claiming to be sending the First Lady to the President, said they could no longer  restrain their angry youth. Those ones quickly got the message and were soon on the streets in some towns in the North.

    I conclude, therefore, that it was as an agent provocateur that Senator Abul Ningi spoke, not to his colleagues within the red chamber, but on the streets, so that those to whom he was primarily sending a message could mass up against the Tinubu government and make the country ungovernable.

    While my Senator, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, CON (Ekiti Central Senatorial district) might be right in thinking that Senate President Godswil Akpabio was their target, I believe that Ningi and Co, indeed, aimed much higher.

    But whichever, his howler was neither the way of peace nor the mark of statesmanship.

    Enough of these coy invitations to anarchy from quarters least expected.

  • Pa (Odioma) G.O. Okoobo, FCA, at 90

    I have these past few weeks been reading through some of the articles that appeared on these pages since ’76 when I began the column and I cannot be happier, or more proud, seeing how very relevant many of them are to contemporary Nigeria. Indeed, in some cases, they are more relevant today, than they were when first published several years ago.

    Such articles are so many they confirm my thoughts when I  wrote here a few weeks ago that every attempt to resolve the Nigerian conundrum has mostly turned up worse.

    Before I decided to  celebrate PA (Odioma) Peter Okoobo today, this time on his incredible 95th birthday, by once again publishing his timeless letter which was first published here on 9 October, 2020( then his second appearance on the page), I had settled on a topic I titled ‘Contemporary Nigeria: Two Men Who Saw Tomorrow’ by which I was referring to the Edo state governor Godwin Obaseki, who first brought the Buhari/Emefiele N30 Trillion paper money, and its consequences, to the public space, and the much more surprising one by Engr Buba Galadima, who  ‘prophesied’, in answer to a question during an interview, that his very good friend, President Muhammadu Buhari, will ” leave Nigeria in pieces by 2023″.

    He could not have been more prescient given all that Nigerians are now getting to know.

    That will have to be another day.

    It is nothing but an amazing show of infinite love of one’s country that would make anybody, at 91years of age, not only to ruminate over all the demons tearing at the very heart of his country of birth, but would compel him to sit down, and very painstakingly, commit into writing, the seminal views you are about to read.

    That is the ‘Agape love’ that drove

    ODIOMA G.O OKOOBO, FCA, one of Nigeria’s  first set of  British – trained  professional accountants into volunteering his well thought out views on Nigeria.

    To the glory of God, Papa will be 95 come 16 March, 2024. He has lived a very active, indeed, checkered  life,  both in his career as a trained accountant  and as an incomparable and greatly appreciated  community leader, not only in his Idumebo-Irrua Town, Esan Central L.G.A of Edo State, but Pan Nigeria.

    In October 2020, at 91 and on these pages, he gave Nigerians the benefit of his thoughts on issues which he considers are extremely germane to Nigeria’s well being, growth and development.

    His letter to Nigeria, published below  should, therefore, be of great help to those minded on moving Nigeria forward.

    Again, happy reading.

    At 91 years, I still have much love for my country, Nigeria, to prompt me to write this message. In my opinion, the greatest malady that has  plagued Nigeria is selfishness, greed, avarice, power, hatred, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, envy and the grand master, corruption, all rolled into one.

    It all began in 1960 when on gaining Independence from Britain, we took power but  left behind responsibilty.

    As long as we, our family, community and tribe are comfortable, what happens to the other people, family or clan does not matter or concern us.

    If one were to write on this from all its perspectives, I believe that, like the Bible says concerning Jesus’ deeds on earth: “the books that will be written will fill every space of the earth”.

     I am, therefore, treating it from three angles, namely:

    National, State and Local Government Assemblies.

    I have always held that politics should be an avenue to serve, and not for making money or acquiring wealth. That view is sltrengthened the more whenever I read about legislators in saner climes where they serve for decades meaning that they delivered on their election promises,  serving selflessly as true servants of the people.

    Unfortunately, that cannot be said of Nigerian legislators.

    I.The National Assembly.

    It was Professor Itse Sagay who blew the whistle many years ago when he told Nigerians that the salaries and allowances of members of the National Assembly are  about the highest anywhere in the world, with senators and Rep members earning about N14M and N12M respectively, per month.

    Give yourself a headache trying to compare that to the N30,000 monthly minimum wage.

    David Mark, as senate President, and Aminu Tambuwal, as Speaker, House of Representatives, who bequeathed this inheritance to them are Christian and Muslim respectively, as are the other members of the National Assembly but, for all I know, none of the criticisms by well-meaning Nigerians, these many years, has moved the needle, as they have all fallen on deaf ears.

    ii. The State Assembly:

    Not much is known about the salaries and allowances of state legislators but they are nowhere as minuscule as the minimum wage which is handed down to Nigerian workers. They also equally pay themselves humongous severance allowances after serving for even only  four years.

    iii. The Local Government.

    Again, hardly is anything known of the salaries and allowances of Local glovernment Chairmen and councilors in what is at best a shady arrangement between the state government and that arm of government.

    Therefore, no reasonable development takes place in Local Government Areas. Indeed, in some parts of the country, local government staff, Chairmen and councilors inclusive, are believed to go to their offices only when the monthly federal allocation comes in from Abuja. This is then distributed along themselves and their godfathers after which they vamoose, till the next month.

    2. National Challenges vis- a – vis Reconstructing Nigeria.

    Well-meaning Nigerians believe that one way of resolving most of  the country’s challenges – be it  insecurity,  the economy or  corruption, is through restructuring. But some sections of the country have been very opposed to restructuring because of the unfair advantages they enjoy.

    Some are also advocating more states and Local Government Areas even when many of the existing ones are not viable.

    At inception, the country  operated four regions which were  all economically viable with groundnut, cocoa, palm oil and palm kernel, as main revenue earners. However, problems came when the military took over and introduced a central command of everything, thereby messing up fiscal federalism.

    With everything now vested in the Federal Government, every state government rushes  to Abuja for monthly handouts.

    In view of the foregoing, I wish to submit as follows:

    i. A Federal Government with   few, specific responsibilities  like security and foreign affairs.

    ii. Six (6) Regional Governments along the lines of present Geo-Political Zones with the responsibilities of the old 4 regions.

    iii. 109 Municipal Local Governments (headed by a Mayor) along senatorial districts. (We had Lagos City Council in those days)

    iv. Federal, Regional and Municipal Local Government Police (it is a negation of the principle of federalism to concentrate policing under the federal authorities only).

    v. With the exception of Municipal Local Government councilors, federal and regional legislators should serve part-time and receive only sitting allowances.

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    This system will have the added advantage of attracting only persons who sincerely want to serve – e.g. professionals who have had successful practices and now wish to serve humanity.

    vi. Security votes should be outlawed at all levels.

    vii.Payment of  pension or severance allowance to legislators should be outlawed.

    viii. Not more than three (3) political parties should be registered.

    3. GALATIANS Chap. 6 vs. 7 says:”Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. A person reaps exactly what he plants”, which  some people call the “Law of Karma”.

    Therefore my message to my fellow country men is that we have had enough of self- deceit because the law of Karma is certain,k and immutable.

    For ages man has tried to fool God. We relegated His commands to love our neighour as ourselves. Why do we think God allowed the Covid -19 virus to come  and humble  mankind?

    Pope Francis said as much in his recent prayer for the world:

    “You humbled the proud and powerful. The economy is crashing, businesses are closing. We are moving in circles, looking for some cure to the disease when, in fact, all we need do is humble ourselves and ask for divine guidance.

    May be this virus is your way of purifying us … so as to bring us back to Yourself”.

    May God bless and save my country, Nigeria.

    Amen.

    Happy birthday, Sir.

    May your life continue to be a shining example to others.

    Many happy returns.

  • Oronsaye report implementation: Late but not too late

    Oronsaye report implementation: Late but not too late

    I don’t envy Nigeria’s next president. Whoever steps into Aso Rock on the 29th of May 2023 will be inheriting an omni-dimensional catastrophe. He will be inheriting a boiling cauldron of insecurity and unease. Destiny has ordained only two paths for him. He will either be a super-man or an undertaker.

    He will need super-human powers and extra doses of luck to save Nigeria. Or he will become the unfortunate undertaker tasked with presiding over Nigeria’s funeral.

    The new president will be inheriting a country on the brink of economic collapse, social implosion, and sectarian strife. His predecessor’s rule has been a vortex of misgovernance” – Onyemaechi Ogbunwezeh –

    Senior Research Fellow and Director for Genocide Prevention at the Christian Solidarity International, Switzerland, Premium Times, August 17, 2022.

    There were many low hanging fruits President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could have tapped into, to great aplomb, at his inauguration on 29 May, 2023 because it was crystal clear to  Nigerians that, as succinctly captured above by

    Onyemaechi Ogbunwezeh,

    President Muhammadu Buhari, working in cahoots with his CBN governor Godwin Emefiele for  the benefit of his Villa cabal, and a few others, had by then, turned Nigeria to an empty shell, economically, good only for whatever fate her creditors deemed appropriate.

    You needn’t be an economist to know that in view of the fact that apart from the humongous debts the President had rail – roaded Nigeria into, future earnings from oil had also been pledged to creditors just as a huge proportion of the country’s crude was being stolen rotten. As you read this the senate of the Federal Republic is investigating Buhari’s then illegal N22.7 Trillion Ways and Means debt, most of which are  believed to have been misapplied.

    Such was the parlous state of the country’s finances on 29 May, 2023, that I  had thought that President Tinubu’s ‘numero uno’ concern would be how to substantially reduce Nigeria’s astronomical cost of governance.

    That belief was the rationale behind the article re-produced below. First published 2 July, ’23, that is within a few weeks of his inauguration, it is captioned:’Reducing Nigeria’s Monstrous Cost of Governance Through The President’s Personal Example’.

    It read as follows:

    “To save Nigeria we must, among other things, go back to Education, Healthcare and Infrastructural development. Cut the high cost of governance, with the President, ministers, governors, legislators and all other political appointees taking a substantial pay cut to save money that could then be spent on the welfare of the citizenry”. That was how Chief Philip Asiodu captured it all in an interview titled: ‘Where Nigeria Went Wrong’.

    The challenge of finding a lasting solution to the astronomical cost of governance in Nigeria is one  problem Nigerian presidents have toyed with but shied away from.

    Indeed, the most outrageous aspect of it – the National Assembly’s totally outrageous emoluments – has been attributed to none other than one of them, namely, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Chief  Asiodu credited it to Obasanjo’s anticipated support by the legislators for his then incubating Third Term Project, aka Life Presidency.

    According to the same source, with President Goodluck Jonathan’s own second term ambition in view, attempting to have the humongous salaries and allowances reduced was a no go area.

    He, however, set up a Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government’s Parastals, Commissions and Agencies Committee, headed by Stephen Oronsaye, a former Head of Service, but whose recommendations he knew he would treat with benign neglect just like the recommendations of the 2014 National conference.

    As for President Muhammadu Buhari, according to Chief Asiodu, self interest, arising from his having packed nearly all the MDA’s with Northerners,  ensured that he paid little or no attention, whatever, to the  report until very late in his administration. His late approval to implement the recommendations, therefore, went to nothing.

    With the above kaleidoscopic survey of the challenge, therefore, President Tinubu’s   situation is analogous to that of  Chief Obafemi Awolowo when the following was written about him:”To accomplish these, Awo and his colleagues were determined to blast their way through whatever problems, and compel the force of any adverse circumstance to serve their will. This was because they had put in, long and hard preparations, to meet the challenges and they had evolved elaborate plans which they were ready to launch at a moment’s notice”.

    What is more, and here am quoting  Awo:”we had an abiding, flaming faith in the soundness and practicable-ness of our plans. We regarded ourselves as crusaders in a new cause, and as eminently qualified for the pioneering role which we had imposed on ourselves”.

    With considerable justification, therefore, I believe I can suggest that after his 30 years of productive involvement in Nigerian politics preparing, presumably, for what he personally described as ‘his life long ambition of becoming the Nigerian President’, PBAT should be able to own that assertive pronouncement by Awo, regarding his own preparedness for office.

    In consequence of that, he should now go ahead and deploy his well known qualities as a  strategist, combined with his long experience, and not inconsiderable network, towards reducing  Nigeria’s unsustainable cost of governance, especially the totally unjustiable emoluments of members of the National Assembly which, in my view, is actually the elephant in the room.

    This, of course, will not be an easy task as he will have to confront, head on,  powerful politicians whose  primary interest has always been Self- Love, as against concern for the toiling Nigerian masses. (Otherwise, why insist on N160M imported vehicles for each  member?)

    For these self – centred  politicians, Chief Obafemi Awolowo may very well have been talking to the marines when he wrote as follows in  Path To Nigerian Freedom:”The purpose of governance, its raison d’etre, is first and foremost the security of the lives and property of citizens. Next, in order of importance, is the enhancement of their freedom and liberty; and finally, is the welfare function of promoting equal opportunities and happiness for all”.

    To them, especially those now populating the National Assembly – most of who  probably think that ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’ is the title of a Nollywood video – everything Awo wrote, will mean nothing since their primary concern is the good life, but only for themselves.

    Reducing their pay, even by one Naira, will therefore be one of the President’s major challenges as the legislature is a co- equal arm of government.

    To succeed, therefore, he would have to lead by personal example: an example that would be so robust, the legislators would have no alternative to doing same.

    The President  must be prepared to show, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the Presidency became his life ambition only because he saw it as the position from where he can most positively impact the lives of Nigerians  irrespective of clan, tribe or religion. He must show that for him, this is the sole driving force propelling him all along.

    “True leadership”, wrote former Ekiti state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, one of his proud mentees, is influence”. That was in a lecture he titled ‘Of Values and The Building of A Successor Generation in Nigeria’. Continuing, he writes:”It is driven by core convictions, values and ideas. In a profound sense, leadership is living out one’s values and ideas. It is the sheer power of personal example that projects

    influence”.

    All these – values, conviction and leadership – are qualities President Tinubu possesses in quantum. He must now bring them to bear on this major task.

    He must  encourage them to, willy nilly, take substantial cuts from their emoluments which are in multiples of millions of Naira monthly, in a country infamously known as the poverty capital of the world.

    The same treatment – that is, cut in salaries and allowances – must be fully extended to the executive branch where the President would have led by his own example. The  President should also see that all the outlandish wastages that have characterised the executive branch over the years end forthwith.

    The governors and others will, of course, automatically, replicate all these in their respective states.

    That done, the next thing for the President should be the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Oronsaye Committee.

     Set up by President Goodluck Jonathan on August 18, 2011, the Oronsaye Committee had  the following mandate:

    “to study and review all previous reports and records on the restructuring of Federal Parastatals, and advise on whether they were still relevant; examine the enabling Acts of all the federal agencies, parastatals and commissions and classify them into various sectors; examine critically, the mandate of the existing federal agencies, parastatals and commissions and determine areas of overlap or duplication of functions and make appropriate recommendations to either restructure, merge or scrap some to eliminate such overlaps, duplications or redundancies; and advise on any other matter incidental to the foregoing, which might be relevant to the desire of the government to prune down the cost of governance.”

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    Apart from the fact that Nigeria now spends about 96 per cent of its total revenue on debt servicing, according to the World Bank, many Nigerians have long expressed strong concern over the  unsustainable cost of governance in the country.

    A country that serially borrows to implement its annual budget should, if led by a serious government, never run a government half as expensive as that of Nigeria.

    Worse is the fact that the country presently suffers a huge revenue shortfall, a fact not helped by the ever decreasing income from its hydrocarbon assets – no thanks to massive oil theft that has run like for ages. 

    The President should appreciate that cutting the cost of governance is long overdue and that it no longer qualifies as a stitch in time which, as they say,  saves nine.

    Over then to President Tinubu.

    Nine months may be rather long for him to toy with implementing the Oronsaye report but it is certainly not too late.

    Taken together with some of the other suggestions in this piece, we may all come to see, very soon, those now shouting crucify him, experience a Pauline conversion which will see them begin to embrace the Tinubu administration, exactly as we saw Lagosians do some two and a half decades ago.