The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • Now that Nigeria is officially in recession

    Now that Nigeria is officially in recession

    Incidentally, many of those who collaborated with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to bring the economy on its belly have also been out parroting solutions as if  Nigerians do not know where they are coming from

    This past week, the Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its Second Quarter Report, said the Nigerian economy contracted by 2.06 per cent to record its lowest growth rate in decades and that it shrank by 0.36 per cent in the first quarter of 2016 to its lowest point in 25 years. Unemployment, it further said, increased to a record high of 13.3.  The U.S is currently at about 4.9, down from between 9.6 -10 percent during President Obama’s first year in office in ‘09. But first, let me salute the Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, who, on Channel’s television, Friday, 2 September, 2016 did much more than all the information agencies of the President Buhari administration have ever done, to bring to the public space, the challenges confronting the government and how it has been trying to resolve them and bring succour to a traumatised citizenry. The ‘Mammy Water’ slayer, a name he got by reclaiming water-logged and totally impassable roads in Benin-City-,  also passionately demonstrated that he understands the very essence of governance when, in answers to the panelists’ questions, he showed how he has done his best in meeting the yearnings of the people. How, for instance, he has turned former governor Igbinedion’s ‘swimming  pool’ township roads to six lanes in some areas of the state capital, and how water now flows in the Ekpoma area of the state where it was once believed you could never have productive boreholes and people had to depend on rain water, stored over time.

    May your tribe increase, Comrade Governor.

    There had been no shortage of suggestions to the president by all manner of experts as to how to exit recession since the Bureau of Statistics made its report public. Incidentally, many of those who collaborated with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to bring the economy on its belly have also been out parroting solutions as if Nigerians do not know where they are coming from. As I read many of the suggestions which are mostly from economists and allied professions, I am reminded of another trained economist, a Mr Fasua, who, on two different appearances on the Gbenga Aruleba –may the good Lord comfort the family on the loss of their darling daughter, 13-year-old RereOluwa – moderated programme – FOCUS NIGERIA – made the point that resolving Nigeria’s current economic problems are far beyond Economics. And may I say, I completely agree with him. In so doing and while perfectly aware that we are neither in a military administration nor President Muhammadu Buhari a military dictator, a particular step would have to be taken which might be considered draconian. It is a low hanging matter which, once confronted, with the support of thoroughly affronted and bemused Nigerians, some of who now pawn their little children for foodstuff, would rid Nigeria of some horrible acts of corruption which are literally ravenously eating up the country itself. The result would be massive savings which will facilitate our ability to exit recession. I would conclude the article with that lo hanging fruit but in the meantime, here are some suggestions from J.J. Jegede as ways to exit recession:

    1. Accelerate the prosecution of alleged looters in order to release the stolen funds back into the economy. Funds already collected are, unfortunately, currently idle and so not having any multiplier effect on the economy.
    2. With NASS support, declare an economic emergency.
    3. Encourage very aggressive local food production through grants, loans etc
    4. Strengthen internal controls to block leakages.
    5. Place embargo on salary increases.
    6. Explore new sources of revenue generation.
    7. Implement the Oransaye Committee recommendations.
    8. Mandate local governments to collect levies and taxes in accordance with Approved Levies and Taxes Act. Bring informal sector into the tax net.
    9. Rigorously increase security to encourage investors.
    10. Reduce cost of governance.
    11. Improve power supply

     What I call the low hanging fruit is nothing other than the National Assembly with their huge illegal allowances. In case our legislators cannot, by themselves make the offer, I think the time has come for Nigerians to call on the National Assembly to prorogue itself for, at least the next one year. The Yoruba would say: Ore bo le gba mi, fi mi sile bi o se ba mi, meaning, if you can’t help me, leave me as you met me. This 8th assembly – the two chambers – has been totally unhelpful to Nigerians. Aside the multiple ways in which they financially undermine the country, their salaries and illegal allowances are far beyond what Nigeria should be called upon to pay in a recession. If they cannot by themselves offer to give up a minimum of 50 percent of their earnings according to Hon Jibrin, then it is time for either President Buhari or Nigerians, by themselves, to call their bluff. I give below, a sampler of Hon Jibrin’s disclosures. Conerning what the House calls ‘running cost’, Jibrin wrote: “Most of these members use it to acquire properties, cars and live a life of luxury they never had before coming to the House. Though there exist systems for retirement but a simple investigation by a primary school pupil will reveal the massive fraud therein. From computation of various sub heads of allowances of the House, the 10 Principal Officers received the following amounts:

    1. Speaker Yakubu Dogara has been in the House from 2007 to date. He has received about 1.5billion naira
    2. Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun has been in the house from 2011 to date. He has received about 800million naira
    3. House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila has been in the House from 2003 to date. He has received about 1.2billion naira
    4. Deputy House Leader Buba has been in the House from 2007 to date. He received about 1.2billion naira.
    5. Whip Alhassan Doguwa has been in the House from 2003 to date. He has received about 1.2 billion naira
    6. Deputy Whip Pally Iriase has been in the house from 2011 to date. He has received 700 million naira.
    7. Minority Leader Leo Ogor has been in the House from 2007 to date. He has received 1.2 billion naira
    8. Deputy Minority Leader Barde has been in the House from 2011 to date. He has received 700 million naira
    9. Minority Whip Chuma has been in the House from 2007 to date. He had received 800 million naira
    10. And finally, Deputy Minority Whip Binta has been in the House from 2011 to date. She has received 700 million naira”

     I ask Nigerians: Can we afford these luxuries even without a recession?

    President Buhari, Nigerians are waiting for your clarion call.

  • S.O.S: before the national assembly sets nigeria on fire

    As things stand today, they are serving themselves and working, unerringly, towards incinerating Nigeria

    Was His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, deliberately setting Nigerian Christians on a wild goose chase when he said, this past week in Ibadan, that there was no grand plan to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state or is it that members of the National Assembly are hard of hearing? Didn’t they hear the highly regarded Sultan foreswore any clandestine plan to Islamise Nigeria? These questions have become quite germane given what allegedly transpired at plenary in the House of Representatives this past week. According to a Dr  James Onuigbo,  a Nigerian based in Italy, and those who saw the session relayed by NTA 2  which,  deliberately blocked the event from its subsequent news bulletin, the bill to legalise the implementation of the criminal aspects of Islamic Sharia law in Nigeria at both the federal and state levels has passed the second reading.  Surprisingly,  it was reported, not a single Christian member of the budget-padding ravaged House raised a single objection as the embattled Speaker Dogara committed it to committee level where you can be sure not a soul would object.

    Writing further, Dr Onuigbo said that even as the bill has passed the second reading, Nigerians are kept in near-total darkness just as they did during their consideration of the controversial cattle grazing reserve bill. Are these people too young to learn from history, even our recent ones? Long before the 2nd Republic, Muslim leaders in Nigeria have always agitated for the full implementation of the Sharia in Nigeria.  That was before a state governor in the north unilaterally introduced it in Zamfara, followed by a rash of it, and as believed by many, ended up easily birthing the Boko Haram movement which became a menace after its leader, Yusuf, was brutally murdered by the Nigerian system. The animated debates that took place at the Constituent Assembly of 1978 about the place of Sharia in the 1979 Constitution are still fresh in our memories. Christian members naturally kicked against its full implementation arguing that non-Muslims would, unconstitutionally, fall victims of such a law.  At the end, a compromise was reached which permitted Sharia Personal Law, but not its criminal aspect.  The same thing happened at the 1988 Constituent Assembly which also came to nothing. General Ibrahim Babangida, the Nigerian military president at the time, was smart enough to stop all debates relating to Sharia and other sensitive issues when he saw how inflammable the debates were becoming. He thus retained the status quo. The 1999 Constitution drew much from both the 1979 and 1989 Constitutions and retained no more than the Sharia Personal law.  Now, what has changed or who is it that is eager to replicate the turbulence in Turkey here in Nigeria? Given the National Assembly’s disdain for the Buhari government, it is obvious, even to the blind, that he has nothing to do with this shenanigan. They may, in fact, be out to embarrass him but what is not beyond conjecture,  since the Assembly claim it is very broke, is that Mid-East money, tonnes of it, could very well be at play as the late Ghaddafi was believed to have once attempted.  But they had better watched it, or they could very easily write Nigeria out of existence.

    However, since it appears these legislators have nothing worthwhile to do with their time but are eager to amend the constitution – a huge sum is voted for that – I would like to recommend, for their adoption, and approval, the following proposal by a patriotic Nigerian group which is guaranteed to more than quadruple our current electricity generation capacity:

    NIGERIA MUST BE FREE! BY THE #RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA GROUP

    “Lagos State has the resources, manpower and the ability to generate and distribute electricity 24 /7 to Lagosians as well as neighboring states. The only obstacle militating against this is the 1999 Constitution which forbids states from distributing electricity to its people!

    “The entire Niger Delta and some states  in the East have more than abundant gas reserves to build gas-driven power plants in that region to give them  uninterrupted  power supply. The only obstacle militating against that possibility is the 1999 Constitution.  It is that constitution which declared the Niger Delta gas as belonging to the federal government thus forbidding the Niger Delta states from using this resource to generate and distribute electricity without first connecting it to the national grid.

    “Niger State is host to three dams with a combined capacity of 1,900MW, yet the state is in near total darkness. It has pleaded with the federal government to give it just 13% derivation from the electricity generated from the dams but that request was refused thus denying them a fair share of the electricity generated in their own backyard.

    “Zamfara State is blessed with abundant wind to generate electricity for some parts of the state but according to that same 1999 Constitution, the state has no power to exclusively distribute electricity it generates without first connecting it to the national grid.

    “Sokoto, Kano, Borno, Kogi, Enugu and some other states in Nigeria have natural comparative advantage to generate and distribute electricity and distribute to their people but the constitution has remained their albatross.

    “The reason Nigeria does not have enough electricity is not because the states are not capable but because the constitution is obstructing them from generating power in a competitive manner.

    “During the Goodluck Jonathan administration, both governors Fashola of Lagos State and Amaechi of Rivers wrestled with the federal government, demanding that their states be allowed to generate, and distribute electricity to their people. The federal government refused, citing the 1999 constitution.  Indeed, at a point, Lagos had excess electricity it generated for its public infrastructure and was begging the federal government to allow it distribute to private residences. The 1999 constitution was the albatross.

    “You will be alarmed at how much the FG has invested in power generation and distribution and what the result is.

    “The concept of a national grid is an outdated model. We must allow every state to generate and distribute its own electricity. We must even allow small and big cities and towns to generate and distribute electricity. Competition is what drives national development.

    “The 1999 Constitution is the number one enemy to Nigeria’s economic development. Nigerians must rise up to demand the unbundling of the federal government so as to give constituent states as much political and economic powers that they require to thrive.

    “In a federal system of government, every tier of government is autonomous and should have no obstacle for its development. Nigeria, as presently constituted, is retrogressive and its system skewed against development.

    “If militants blow up a gas pipeline in Bayelsa, electricity goes off in Abuja and Adamawa. What kind of system is that? Why can’t we have a system that allows every regional crisis remain a regional crisis without it affecting everybody in the country?

    “The Nigerian system of government under-develops the South and incapacitates the North. We must all rise up to demand for a restructured Nigeria.

    “The federal government MUST give up its exclusive right on electricity generation and distribution if we must have electricity in Nigeria. Anything short of that is a waste of time and resources.”

    Since President Buhari’s number one priority today is how to revive the Nigerian economy, he needs not convene a full-fledged national talk show, the type President Jonathan preferred but did nothing to execute its recommendations; not even those that were within his executive powers. Instead, rather than wait until Nigerians rise up in a humongous  demonstration, our less than busy National Assembly should amend the 1999 constitution along the lines proposed above,  table the resulting bills probably as members’ bills and forward them to the president for his accent. That way, they would be seen to have earned their fat salaries and allowances. As things stand today, they are serving themselves and working, unerringly, towards incinerating Nigeria. God will not permit them.

  • Concerning President Buhari’s order for oil exploration in the north

    Concerning President Buhari’s order for oil exploration in the north

    Whatever amount is to be spent now, prospecting for oil in the north, should, in my opinion, be considered a bargain.

    I Just like football does to Nigerians in general, President Buhari’s last week directive to the NNPC to commence oil exploration activities in the Benue Trough, in addition to his earlier order to the corporation to re-ignite its search for oil in both the Chad Basin and the Kolmani River area following the reported discovery of hydrocarbons by Shell in the area, has since concentrated the attention of critical segments of the Nigerian society. The directive has seen literally all the politico-cultural divides in the country as well as relevant professionals, weigh in, for or against. Not surprisingly, the 19 northern state governors have been sufficiently optimistic about oil production in the region that they have since hired a British firm through the auspices of their regional development company, the Northern Nigeria Development Company, to embark on oil exploration activities.

    Quite understandably too, interventions have been both politically and economically driven. To each of the Ijaw Youth Monitoring and development Group and the Urhobo Monitoring Development Group, the directive is ill-motivated, driven, as Kinsley Oberuruaria of the latter organisation said, by a strong desire ‘to annihilate the people of the region’ While Eric Omaleof the Ijaw Youth Council described it as a good initiative, he had no doubts whatever that the timing is wrong because of the prevailing situation in the oil industry worldwide, makes it ill advised. For that reason, according to him, the venture is economically unwise. While Muhammad Ibrahim, the National Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, claimed complete ignorance of the directive, the Afenifere, whose two chieftains differed in their reactions, was more forthcoming. For Chief Seinde Arogbofa, Secretary-General of the highly regarded Pan-Yoruba Socio-cultural organisation, it is a move in the right direction as it is in accord with restructuring which the group has canvassed, like forever. Said he: “There is nothing wrong if they find oil in the north. That is why we are calling for restructuring. If that is Buhari’s own restructuring agenda, it is okay.” But not for the  organisation’s usually combative spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin, who sees it as a waste. Why? Because, 58 years  ago this year, a colonial Secretary of state divined that as a result of the north’s “ fears and dislike for the more educated southerners, if they were not economically bound to the federation, they would be glad to be quit of it.”  This, he concluded: “may explain the desperate search for oil in the north at a time oil is becoming worthless.”

    Much more than the political commentary, I am, however, more enthused by the more nuanced interventions by the oil, financial and economic professionals who weighed in and spoke to the issues involved. For Dolapo Oni, Head of Energy Research, Ecobank Capital, the move must have been informed by the need to reduce the reliance on the Niger Delta with a view to reducing the country’s vulnerability to attacks in the region. Good as it is, the ideal model, he says, should have been a concession, emphasising that NNPC could gather data and allow companies to do their own search. But, he continued, it may not be the best of times if we are dedicating the NNPC’s scarce resources to going beyond the 2D and 3D.”

    Abdullahi Bukar of Uquo Gas Field Development described the renewed efforts towards exploring for oil in the Benue Trough and Chad Basin as a very good development, hoping that ”a well-thought-out policy will be put in place because anything that will increase Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves is very welcome.” To Johnson Chukwu, CEO, Cowry Asset Management Limited, “the effort to diversify the nation’s oil and gas production is a good move, depending on the level of resources being committed to it.”

    And as is usual on the ekitipanupo  web portal, the subject generated considerable interest, attracting as at the time of writing this, not less than 25 posts. One of them, by a university lecturer, was targeted at the objections from those who spoke for the Niger-Delta region.  According to Dr Eniola, the Ijaw Youth Council that could not call their rampaging youths to order lacks the moral right to talk about how to diversify an economy they are trying everything to cripple. If the monies realised from cocoa and groundnut had not gone towards building the infrastructure for oil exploration in the Niger Delta, where will Nigeria be today? Continuing, he   admonished the Ijaw  Youth  Council to busy itself with  unravelling why the  six years of Ijaw presidency,  with the  billions of dollars in appropriations through duplicated ministries and intervention agencies, have not impacted on the ordinary Ijaw man nor on the entire Niger –Delta area. What he believes should now concentrate the mind of the average  Ijaw  person is the decimation of their area by Niger Delta sons and daughters, even elders,  who collected huge amounts of money in the name of  Niger Delta development but simply refused to invest in their homeland.

    If that was political commentary, not so Goke Omidiran, a geologist who commented as follows: “This is one development agenda that may have economic benefits for the nation.  I have been somewhat involved in my time in oil and gas exploration in Nigeria, including the Chad Basin.  Let me say first, of all, that this directive is  within  the president’s  powers and may be applauded if those who will implement  it would use their best business judgment to determine what steps to take and how far to go to achieve the goal. The advantage of finding oil is enormous when we think of what it promises – especially, its political implications on one hand and its economic benefits on the other.”  He would like to suggest the inclusion of the following processes:

    1) NNPC should take the road of opening bids for oil prospecting licences (OPL) from interested and capable parties, both local and international,

    2) NNPC should provide the exploration companies with the enabling environment including tax holidays and hefty rebates in area of customs and exercise and other relevant expenses.

    3) Instead of basing exploration activities in the subject areas on the same mindset as the Akata-Agbada Formation sequencing prevalent in the Niger Delta basin, new models should be developed to determine the oil and gas trapping mechanism rather than rely on the Niger Delta model.

    4) Finally, NNPC and the federal government must know when to pull the plug on the effort, should it end up  showing no prospects.

    In concluding, I would like to say that I see the directive as a win-win situation. I believe that any attempt directed at increasing our oil resources is worth the while since we are not obliged to sell the end product only as crude which would involve so much money building a lengthy pipeline infrastructure from the north to the sea ports located in the south. It can therefore jump start our manufacture of the many byproducts as NNPC did when I was personally buying polypropylene from them with Ms Nzeribe as the manager in charge. Geo-politically, I strongly believe that discovering oil in commercial quantities in the north will create for the country, a ‘balance of terror’,  as a greater part of the   agitations/criminalities in the Niger-Delta area are fuelled  solely by the availability of oil in the region. It is the reason, for instance, why Nigeria no longer has as much as a third of the electricity generating capacity it had at the beginning of the present administration. Those worried about the huge funding exploration in the north would involve should   equally  think  of the huge resources that  would be required to resuscitate the oil  facilities bombed out of existence by those avenging political defeat in addition to the colossal   amount of money that will go into the Ogoni land clean up, for instance. It should also be of some moment that in the case of everybody going his/her different ways, which we can only pray God forbid, a landlocked  north, with no oil source of its own, can be trusted to fight with everything until all oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta becomes history. Whoever has seen what has become of Southern Sudan would never wish that for our dear country. Whatever amount is to be spent now, prospecting for oil in the north, should, in my opinion, be considered a bargain. However, seized, as we all are, of  NNPC’S  historic, endemic corruption and profligacy, the  president  must ensure that more than an eagle eye is trained on the expenses on this huge and  open-ended  national  assignment.

  • BUDGET PADDING: These our arrogant legislators

    BUDGET PADDING: These our arrogant legislators

    If the Speaker’s role in all this was reprehensible, that of the Whip, Ado Doguwa, was not only off putting, it was so tear inducing you begin to ask yourself how Nigeria came to this sorry pass.

    Last time around, it was the crudity of the 8th Senate we showcased on these pages. When that happened, little did we realise we were soon going to have the mother of all insults from the lower chamber. But listen to any of these our so-called representatives/senators speak, no talk down to us, and you would think they own us – so ‘Trumpian’, you would feel like puking. Such has been the disdain with which the leadership of the House has treated Nigerians these past two weeks. You would have thought it was shameful enough to be caught attempting to steal from the public coffers, but no, not with our current National Assembly members.

    I had first noticed their condescending put down when, in responding to questions arising from this selfsame shameful budget padding, long before Nigerians came to know its full extent, Abdulmumin Jibrin had said things that were so repulsive I couldn’t help writing about it when I quoted him here as saying: “It is true that there are projects allocated to my constituency just like other members did. Just because I’m the chairman of the appropriation committee, my constituents should not get projects? Are my constituents not Nigerians? Every member has one project or the other in his constituency, so I don’t think I did anything wrong by having some projects in my constituency.”

    You would hardly believe that these do-gooders’ projects for their beloved constituencies were such mundane things as tricycles, town halls, classrooms; solar street lights, rehabilitation and construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji, pedestrian bridges, and now we have been told of bore holes for the Speaker’s farm. Of the four against whom Jibrin alleged fraudulent dealings – Speaker Dogara, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, the first two had taken time off to poke their fingers on our faces.  As if it was not insulting enough that on the very grounds of the Presidential Villa, Dogara had come out from a meeting with the president posing, and grandstanding, telling Nigerians there is nothing like padding and sending journalists on errand to begin researching the word, he has since returned to lecture us all. ‘We cannot be tried,’ he declared magisterially. It was at the Civil Society Dialogue Session on one year of legislooting, sorry, legislative agenda organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Abuja, that he told Nigerians that “no member of the  National Assembly can be investigated or charged to court for performing his constitutional responsibility of law making including passing the budget.” According to him, only the legislature has powers to scrutinise the revenue and expenditure estimates submitted by the president. He then went on to tell us about how Section 80(4) of the 1999 constitution further reinforces that.

    Reading through Speaker Dogara’s submission and similar ones by his colleagues, you have a feeling these people are deficient in the Use of English. As Dr Tunji Abayomi once taught the Chairman of the House Committee on Publicity, where in Dogara’s above submission is the word ‘add’? By his own words, the legislature can only SCRUTINISE the president’s budget estimates.  According to Abayomi, preparing that budget estimate is an EXECUTIVE function, never that of the legislature. Indeed, he went further to explain that it is solely in the case of passing the budget that the constitution makes very specific provisions as to who does what. And it stands to reason that a body that has the constitutional duty of passing the budget can NEVER have that of MAKING (Preparing) it. By that token, they CANNOT add any new item of expenditure.  Also the Speaker couldn’t have known what he was saying when he declared as follows: “On constituency projects, it is the only means through which lawmakers can attract federal projects to their constituents. This is necessary because the process of selecting constituency projects lacks integrity as it is always lopsided against most federal constituencies.”

    Trying to further justify this bunkum, he added: “If you come from a constituency like mine for instance, right now, we don’t have a permanent secretary anywhere, we don’t have a director anywhere, so if you look at the 2016 Budget, if you were to go as proposed by the executive, there is no single federal funded borehole, even if it is N50, there is no N50 meant for any project in my three local governments. Why? Because I don’t have anybody where they are preparing, SHARING (emphasis mine) or making allocation.” Just look at those bellyaching about injustice. Even if all he said about his constituency were true, is it remotely possible that only his constituency is in that position in Nigeria? Who are those other Speakers who will conjure bore holes for their farmsteads? Why does he think the constitution prescribes a minimum of one minister from each state? And, anyway, is he or any of his colleagues allowed by the constitution to take over the functions of the executive? I sincerely hope that in no distant date, a ‘Mr Khizr Khan’ would pull off, from his inner pocket, a small version of the Nigerian constitution and gift it to these mostly absentee legislators so they can read, know and internalise the functions prescribed for them by that grundnorm. And by the way, can somebody please tell Mr. Speaker that the only tidy way to get a project sited in his constituency is to liaise with, and lobby the appropriate department in the executive. Also, if what they are quarreling with is the word padding, Nigerians will then change their offence to that of not only sexing up, but egregiously forging the president’s budget estimates which forged document they subsequently passed as the Appropriation Law.

    If the Speaker’s role in all this was reprehensible, that of the Whip, Ado Doguwa, was not only off putting, it was so tear inducing you begin to ask yourself how Nigeria came to this sorry pass. I had tuned on to Channel’s TV only to see this arrogant, small man, in some outlandish Babariga, literally telling Nigerians to go to hell. Having gone through their usual routine of saying there is nothing like padding the budget, he now began to regale Nigerians with how he had been a legislator for 24 years – a period which he thinks, no actually said, entitled him to just about anything in the House, though this time around, he got only a paltry N1.8Billion locked up for him and his constituency. So damn nauseating!

    I think all these things should actually accelerate the move towards restructuring in Nigeria even though I verily believe that President Buhari’s immediate, urgent duty now, and into the next one year, is to fix the Nigerian economy which is currently hobbled beyond description. As I said on these pages last Sunday, things are now so bad with oil rich Venezuela that far beyond the crippling hunger and crime, relatives can no longer claim the corpses of dead relations from the morgue. Their only sin, like ours, was the failure to diversify their economy when petro dollars were gushing in and former President Chavez even arrogantly offered to give Americans petrol free. We have had enough of these legislators that at restructuring, we just must adopt a single chamber legislature and hope to be able to manage/handle even that.

     

    ADIEU UNCLE LAI

    The minute I turned to the back page of The Nation of Thursday, August 11, 2011, I threw it off like it was a red hot iron.  Why? Ambassador Dapo Fafowora was by his tribute breaking, for me, the translation into glory of my darling egbon, the dapper, quintessential Bankole Olayiwola Bolodeoku, about whom I am certain, God willing, to soon pay a full-throttled tribute on these pages. Egbon was absolutely the non pareil, and for now, I am far too short of words to write about a man so unique. Ambassador Fafowora wrote about his unstinting love for his family, Sis Bimbola and the children. But what the highly regarded diplomat failed to add was that Uncle Lai simply loved all. With him, there was neither Jew nor Gentile. He loved and treated me like his own uterine brother. The good Lord will sure rest him in perpetuity. My condolences to the family he left behind.

    The good Lord will uphold you all. Amen.

  • On the matter of the timing, process and content of restructuring

    The immediate challenge before us as a country is our economic survival and that is what should concentrate our attention.

    Son of his father, the inimitable Professor Sam Aluko, Bolaji ,  a  Professor of Chemical Engineering and  former  Vice –Chancellor of the Federal University, Otueke, Bayelsa state, is a delight on the many e-for a where he intervenes with seminal contributions on subjects  ranging, metaphorically, from sand to steel, complete with a bewildering  array of  data to validate his viewpoint.

     One such subject is Restructuring, about which there are now almost daily conferences in Nigeria. It is about it that a phalange of the Southwest political elite has needlessly been excoriating the Vice President, claiming, wrongly, that he had disavowed of it.

    We benefited on Ekitipanupo this past week, from Bolaji’s intense fecundity. Unfortunately, his views are not the subject of this article sans including his short response to Goke Omidiran, who raised some issues with his position. Wrote Aluko in response: “Multi-tasking is already ongoing. For instance, anti-corruption, security and economic re-construction (the last in terms of diversification, local content encouragement and job empowerment) are going on simultaneously.

    It just appears that the “economic development” you write about is not as fast as you and I want made difficult, as it is, by the international situation that impacts heavily on our monocultural economy and the disenfranchised corrupt past-actors or ancien regime politicians (or their proxies) who have opened another flank of security concerns that impact even more heavily on the economy”.  I chose, instead, to concentrate on Tope Ojo’s rebuttal of Aluko’s position and my own reaction to the latter.  Restructuring, Ojo says, “is not an end in itself. It is bringing innovation to some fundamentals in a system. It is a change of structure and a reshaping of the entity for the survival of an organization or nation. It could be done when there are problems or when there is need to take an organization or nation to a higher level. APC and the President made it a key campaign promise. We will hold them to that. Buhari has a 4-year, first term and a second term is certainly not automatic.

    So, if he does not commence now, when?  ”The northern cabal and all rent seekers, nationwide, he says, are not interested in restructuring and as Professor  Ladipo Adamolekun said, Nigeria must restructure or die. The Country RISK Index for Nigeria is very high. There are insurgencies here and there just as there are agitations that are valid. The economy is in recession and Restructuring will take us out of the valley.

    The modality for True Federalism, or Confederation, could be worked out. It is a concept that is hugely misunderstood but that is what will bring the changes we seek. The current unitary system has not taken us far as issues bordering on the exclusive and concurrent lists need urgent action. Restructuring is unlike building a house; it is about rebuilding a nation on the basis of equity and justice.”

    I reacted as follows. Restructuring may be all you called it – unfortunately overstated what it is – in the process, conflating restructuring a country like Nigeria, with its size and complexities, with reorganising a company, however big. These are two different things and, almost, incomparable. Rather than dwell on that error, however, I will try to discuss issues concerning what I regard as the appropriate time for restructuring in a country you agreed is in recession. Unlike the 2014 Jonathan talk show, Restructuring is no tea party especially in a country as culturally variegated as Nigeria. Regional/ethnic diversities and perspectives in our country are such that I am surprised you could so casually invite a government plagued by a massive economic disequilibrium on top of other intimidating challenges to jump into the daunting task of restructuring now, important as it is. Indeed, given the level of animosities, the anger and the hunger pervading Nigeria today, it will require a modern day Solomon to preside over what will surely be a disoriented assembly of antagonistic entities.

    Let me now proceed to take one single example of the consequences of our current economic circumstances.  I have a friend, a big pharmaceuticals manufacturer whose company employs hundreds of Nigerians. According to him, several months ago, some Nigerian manufacturers got approved Form M’s to import raw materials.

    Of course, these were, as expected, fully cash backed with the exchange rate officially around N197/$1.  Many months later, just as they were expecting to start taking delivery of these items, the CBN which, incidentally, had not remitted the funds, comes back asking them to now pay well over 250 naira to the dollar. It got worse.  Only last week, my friend got me to sit on a meeting where he discussed with his bankers about a fresh order for bottle caps. It was such a thoroughly agonising session with figures ranging between a band of N300 – 315 to the dollar that I won’t be surprised if, very soon, industries in Nigeria begin to lay off workers since this is a general problem, not just to pharmaceuticals manufacturers. Or is there anybody out there wanting to see a deluge of retrenched factory workers so restructuring can begin now, now? Obviously, about the only way to stave off this looming de-industrialisation of the country will be for President Buhari to urgently instruct the Central Bank to come up with an intervention fund for the affected companies if they are not to close down.

    This intervention fund should enable them access forex at no more than what is on their approved Form M and it should not be treated as a loan since it was no fault of theirs. It must be appreciated that banks are now extremely reticent about granting new loans, knowing very well that manufacturers cannot easily pass any additional costs to their dwindling customers.I digress.

    What is described above may very well be the least of President Buhari’s economic, not to mention, security and other headaches.  Is that the government our people would like to see launch into restructuring right now?  I have written tomes about the advantages of restructuring on these very pages. But those were during  the relatively ’problem-free’ days of President Obasanjo when  Boko Haram was light  years away and he could even afford to toy with a Third Term Project as well as during President Jonathan’s  days when you knew that not to do anything was to  let  him drag the country down with himself.  God knows, I still believe very much in restructuring but this, certainly is not the right time when Obas are being seized from their palaces and, but for the strong determination and gargantuan efforts of a Governor Ambode, not only Ikorodu and its environs, but the high streets of Lagos, would have become staging grounds for Niger-Delta militants as we once saw OPC demonstrate in their campaign for President Jonathan.

      Security challenges apart, there is the huge financial resources required to have even an encore of the 2014 jamboree which we were told gulped N9 Billion. It has been suggested that government could work with the recommendations of previous national conferences, even Abacha’s, and I say, yes, why not? But this obviously is not the right time.For me, come 2018, the country should treat Restructuring like Brexit; have a National Conference for about six months starting during the Second Quarter of the penultimate year of President Buhari’s first term and get the recommendations approved at a national referendum ahead of the 2019 general elections during which the political parties should treat the document as part of their respective manifesto.

    This is slightly different from my earlier suggestion on the issue but it looks much neater since political parties do not become the sole driver of the process. Whichever party wins that election should be presumed to have the peoples’ mandate to restructure the country, beginning, 29 May, 2019.

    That way, we would have cured the timing problem as well as effectively involve the citizenry in the decision making process. The immediate challenge before us as a country today is our economic survival and that is what should concentrate our attention. Murders have so spiked in Venezuela, on top of hunger, and general insecurity, that we should do everything to avoid their fate. Their problems arose, we should remember, strictly from non-diversification of their economy.

  • Change is here: The National Assembly must never again be allowed to get away with stealing public funds

    Change is here: The National Assembly must never again be allowed to get away with stealing public funds

    According to Abayomi who has been fighting this oddity since 2002 and has a
    case in court about it,  there is nothing like constituency project since the National
    Assembly has NO power, whatever, to insert any project in a budget.

    Whoever hasn’t seen the CHANGE in town will not recognise a cyclone if he sees one. Isn’t it the saying that there is honour even amongst thieves? When was it Nigerians ever saw anything like this hurricane convulsing the House of Representatives?  Apparently, even with all the emphasis on CHANGE during the Buhari campaign, our legislators never believed that a new Sheriff had hit town. How would they, with Saraki riding roughshod, not only over the APC but significantly insulting the president in the process?  Nor had Dogara a whiff of it either, but he was smarter, and a lot more respectful. So he soft-pedaled and aligned with the party. But collectively, they believed that what Ndume called their internal mechanism – read chop and clean mouth – would still be the order of the day.

    So  off they went,  padding  and padding, believing they could make the Buhari budget in their own image and,  like in President  Jonathan’s  days, every machete was out, cutting slices of a budget that  they knew was going to be funded through massive external  borrowing. But who cares?  If you believe the Dogara side of this roforofo fight, you will have the following: “For reasons that were not noble and not in the Public Interest, Hon Abdulmumin had initially inflated the Budget by adding about N250b more to the total figure as submitted by Mr President. This, the NASS leadership out rightly rejected as a form of financial recklessness and inability to appreciate the dwindling resources available to government necessitating that we act prudently” I can hear Nigerians asking  these con artists  when exactly they started being, not only  so  people -friendly, but  caring and  responsible. If they were half as considerate in an economy where so many are hurting, they would long have stopped being amongst the highest paid legislators in the world as I would show below. Confident that  they would successfully pad  the Buhari  budget,  change or no change, since this has been a  long running practice in the National Assembly,  dating back to the  Obasanjo era  when  that President hauled some  of them  before the  courts,  Abdulmumin alleged that the House leadership “fraudulently shortchanged  the House by taking away N40 billion out of the N100 billion allocated for constituency projects and distributing same to  themselves even   without  the approval of the House”. It did not stop there as, according to Jibrin, “10 standing committees of the House inserted over 2000 projects worth N284 Billion”, into a budget President Buhari was agonising over its funding. Rationalising this public odium, however, hear how the Chairman, House Information Committee, Abdulrazak Namdas insulted Nigerians. According to him “given the workings of the budget process, the House cannot be accused of padding because there is nothing like that.’ In his puerile explanation, this same man, who Tunji Abayomi, a doctorate degree holder in Law. recently  took through a learning process on budget making on Channels TV, said  the following: “Section 4 empowers the National Assembly to make laws for the good governance of the federation while Section 59 confers on the Legislature final say on the budget. “Section 80 (4) on the other hand, which confers on the legislature absolute power of control over public funds, states: “No money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly”. And the cheek of it: “The word manner confers absolute legislative discretion. “When, therefore, the National Assembly appropriates funds in the budget, it can never under any circumstances or guise be deemed or regarded as tinkering or padding’. What impudence, what banality, both anchored on a stultifying ignorance!

    If this fellow was not such a poor student, he should not have forgotten the most elementary of what Dr Abayomi taught him: simply, that Budget making is an EXECUTIVE function and that it is the ONLY subject about which the Nigerian constitution specifically specifies the modus. According to Abayomi who has been fighting this oddity since 2002 and has a case in court about it,  there is nothing like constituency project since the National Assembly has NO power, whatever, to insert any project in a budget. Therefore, the only way legislators can help their constituencies is by lobbying the Executive branch to have projects inserted in the budget. To do otherwise, I hope they now know, is to sleep walk to jail.

    A stitch in time…

  • Scrap the Senate: Our economy can no longer take care of these senators

    Scrap the Senate: Our economy can no longer take care of these senators

    Not for the first, or even the second, I am constrained to write about the Nigerian Senate again. This is not just because the Senate has become so  hugely distracted – indeed, Femi Falana SAN, in a lecture  at the recent  investiture of Barrister Dele Ojogbede as the President of the Rotary Club of Ikoyi, brilliantly proved that they did not complete the constitutionally prescribed number of days of attendance at plenary to have qualified to be paid salaries. He therefore called on the Accountant-General of the Federation to set in motion the process of surcharging them. That is just as well but I write for a far greater moment.  Senators may have gone rampant celebrating themselves at the end of their last legislative year. Such peccadilloes can be permitted. What is beyond the pale, in an extremely troubled Nigeria,  is the  sheer  vacuity and the aimlessness of the 8th Senate. Senator Bukola Saraki managed to foul it up from scratch. It will interest me, personally, to read from  the most  supportive  of this senate  amongst  my readers  to please controvert me on this so we can  open a new chapter on the subject. What follows is a WhatsAPP message that is widely trending presently here in Nigeria. If the claims in it are wrong, I shall urge the appropriate organ of the senate to painstakingly educate Nigerians so that the lies, if that is what they are, can be summarily interred with their bones. Otherwise, I will urge Nigerians to put it on the ballot come 2019. ”Senator’s Pay World Wide:* Sri Lanka – $5,100.00* India – $11,200.00* Malaysia – $25,300.00* Thailand – $43,800.00* Spain – $43,900.00* Ghana – $46,500.00* Saudi Arabia – $64,000.00* Indonesia – $65,800.00* Kenya – $74,500.00* France – $85,900.00* Sweden – $99 300.00* South Africa – $104,000.00* Britain – $105,400.00* New Zealand – $112,500.00* Israel – $114,800.00* Germany – $119,500.00* Ireland – $120,400.00* Hong Kong – $130,700.00* Japan – $149,700.00* Canada – $154 000.00* Singapore – $154,000.00* Brazil – $157,600.00* United States – $174,000.00* Italy – $182,000.00*Nigeria – $2,183,685.00The details of the remuneration of anaverage Nigerian Senator is detailed below;* Basic Salary (B.S) – N2,484,245.50* Hardship Allowance (50% of B.S) –N1,242,122.70* Constituency Allowance (200% of B.S) – N4,968,509.00* Newspapers Allowance (50% of B.S) –N1,242,122.70* Wardrobe Allowance (25% of B.S) – N621,061.37 *Recess Allowance (10% of B.S) – N248,424.55* Accommodation (200% of B.S) – N4,968,509.00* Utilities (30% of B.S) – N828,081.83* Domestic Staff (70% of B.S) – N1,863,184.12* Entertainment (30% of B.S) – N828,081.83* Personal Assistants (25% of B.S) – N621,061.12* Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (75% of B.S) – N1,863,184.12* Leave Allowance (10% of B.S) – N248,424.55* Severance Gratuity (300% of B.S) –N7,452,736.50* Car Allowance (400% of B.S) – N9,936,982.00* TOTAL MONTHLY SALARY = N29,479,749.00 ($181,974.00)* TOTAL YEARLY SALARY = N29,479,749.00 x 12 = N353,756,988.00The average salary of Nigerian worker based on the national minimum wage is N18,000.00. So, the yearly salary is N18,000.00 x 12 = N216,000.00Remember, yearly Salary of Nigerian Senator = N353,756,988.00Proportion: N353,756,988.00/N216,000.00 = 1,638It will take an average Nigerian worker 1,638 years to earn the yearly salary of a Nigerian Senator.”

     

  • What inspired President Buhari’s security architecture?

    What inspired President Buhari’s security architecture?

    Is it true that these herdsmen are now to be guarded by members of the Nigerian Civil Defence? Can President Buhari truly approve that public funds be spent on this lucrative private business?

    I write this piece with considerable pain not only because, as happened to Professor Segun Gbadegesin, some admittedly serious readers could, albeit, set out to ask one totally illogical questions if they read you questioning positions you took before the last Presidential election – in Gbadegesin’s case, he had  argued,  quite rightly, that you could not reasonably postpone a democratic election just so you could debate restructuring – but because I remain convinced that  contestant Goodluck Jonathan was no viable option to APC’s Muhammadu Buhari  even as President  Buhari has since committed what I consider some major gaffes.

    Trust some people, therefore, to say: serve you right.

    Once convinced that Buhari was Nigeria’s only reasonable choice – no thanks to the country’s parlous circumstances occasioned by 16 unbroken years’ of PDP’s planless-ness and indescribable corruption – all I had to do to canvass contestant Buhari first, as APC’s ideal Presidential candidate, and subsequently Nigeria’s best, was to present to Nigerians, in fine detail, how low PDP had taken the country. I did not limit this to my opinion alone. Rather, I leaned on the views of some highly regarded elder statesmen like Ambassador Dapo Fafowora and that of some young Nigerians whose future the PDP was unashamedly mortgaging. I did this in a trilogy of articles which ran on these pages between 19 September – 30 October, 2014 and was captioned: Periscoping APC’s Ideal Presidential Candidate 1 – 3.

    In addition to presenting a foretaste of what the EFCC has subsequently shown the world of a viscerally corrupt PDP, I also took the opportunity to state the unique selling points of candidate Buhari which made him indisputably preferable to his main opponent in the election. It may be pertinent to mention that most of the challenges President Buhari is faced with today, sans some of his appointments, are all legacies of PDP’s 16 years’ stranglehold on the country. As I will show below in quotes from the referenced articles, Nigeria generated more megawatts of electricity in 1999 than it does today. And that was after the Obasanjo regime claimed it spent 16 billion dollars on power. That 27 states out of 36 cannot pay salaries today must be put squarely at the feet of both President Jonathan and Diezani, his Petroleum Minister, who, between them, ensured that billions of crude oil money was never paid into the federation account and the fact that Boko Haram became a sinkhole, as well as a ferocious terrorist organisation, must be hung on military officers who decided to steal funds meant for arming our soldiers against the well-armed bandits. It is therefore, not only funny but ludicrous, seeing people, who literally stole Nigeria blind, criticising President Buhari for our current circumstances.

    Writing in his column in The Nation of Thursday, September 25, 2014, the highly regarded Ambassador Dapo Fafowora clinically dissected one of the evil consequences of PDP’s screaming corruption.  On why Nigeria is no longer respected at the international fora, he wrote:  ‘It is because of the widespread corruption in Nigeria which has continued to undermine economic and social development. Virtually all the state institutions, including the executive, legislative and the judiciary, have broken down completely. The other day the Chief Justice of the Federation was reported as complaining that the judiciary was rotten, with many judges openly taking bribe to distort justice.” The bench too, he went on, is believed to be equally corrupt. Quoting a columnist with The Nation, I wrote: As  Gbogungboro  of The Nation  reminded us this past week, no thanks to the PDP, Nigeria is now one of the foremost contributors to poverty in the world and , according to  him, quoting from  a World Bank Report,  Nigeria ‘will by 2030,  be one of  the main contributors to global poverty’.  On the   Human Development Index  which  is a measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development, Nigeria has, since 1999 occupied the lowest of the three categories of  high, medium and low, placing between 147 -182 in company of lowly countries like Djibouti, Lesotho and Swaziland. Nigeria actually currently ranks 158.  Rather than deal decisively with corruption, PDP prefers to romance it, serially dropping corruption charges against its members”.

    In contrast to the PDP record,  however, it was all thumps up for candidate Buhari about who Fola  Aiyegbusi, a young Nigerian patriot wrote as follows: “Today in Nigeria, General  Buhari stands out as an epitome of incorruptibility, very  much unlike the rest. As Head of State  between  1983- ‘85 , his  government  gave a monthly account of  crude oil lifted, how much it was sold for, and what  government was going to do with the revenue generated . As a Military  Head of State, he  was not obliged to do it  but because of  his  innate  transparency  and  that of  his Chief of Staff, General Tunde  Idiagbon,  they  opted to lead by example. Today under a PDP administration, reports of unremitted oil revenues are legion. Rather than openness in the Nigerian extractive industry,  it is corruption galore  and  we now daily hear  of millions of barrels of  stolen crude oil in spite of sweet heart , multi-billion  pipeline  security contracts awarded  to  some of the president’s  Ijaw  compatriots.

    About the most fascinating testimony to candidate Buhari’s integrity would, however,  come from a distinguished, elder statesman, Chief Oladeji Fasuan, a retired Permanent Secretary, who  quoted on page 337 of his book:  ‘SCALING ACCIDENTS OF LIFE , a letter  he addressed to Governor Fashola of Lagos  on 1 June, 2011.  The letter read as follows: “Dear Governor, during the last elections, I voted for a non-existent Buhari/Fashola ticket. Some of my friends (notably Afe Babalola SAN) laughed at me. I pity them because until there is, a Buhari/Fashola ticket, or something containing the characters of these two men, Nigeria will continue to tumble and stumble till we get the right national leadership. Know what these two represent? BELIEF, COMMITMENT, RAW DETERMINATION plus CAPACITY, WILLINGNESS and TRANSPARENCY”’.

    Now to the crux of this article. If my views about President Muhammadu Buhari have been so well attested to by distinguished Nigerians, young and old, what led him to appointing a literally all North/Muslim heads of Nigeria’s security agencies? I am personally too scandalised by the appointments to include them here. I also fear they could go viral, which, for me would be counterproductive.  That said, why has President Buhari not conclusively dealt with the murderous Fulani herdsmen question particularly given that he is already on record as saying that these are foreigners, all the way from Libya, who had been shedding so much Nigerian blood without a single one of them arrested even when they attack in numbers? Is it true that these herdsmen are now to be guarded by members of the Nigerian Civil Defence? Can President Buhari truly approve that public funds be spent on this lucrative private business? Being Fulani himself, and in the business, how does he expect Nigerians to see this especially as none of the herdsmen had even been taken to court to answer to the grievous charge of murder? At the last count, states like Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, even Ekiti, have collectively lost over a thousand lives to these outright predators.  Even as tough as things are for Nigerians today, and even though a negligible few have called for a return to the era of unmitigated corruption, President Buhari is celebrated, at home and internationally, for his anti-corruption war. Nigerians are with him in this titanic battle against corruption.  But it was not for nothing that Igbos met, upper week, to tell all and sundry that they are an integral part of this country and would not stand aloof to be trampled by any other Nigerian ethnic group.  Fortunately, Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, has always spoken glowingly about this administration being a listening one. It will therefore be gratifying to see President Buhari rethink these burning issues.

     

  • A pot potpourri of events

    “Restructuring will certainly be beneficial to Nigeria as marginalisation, and some ethnic groups struggling to find expression will be a thing of the past. 

    My dictionary defines Potpourri as a collection of various things, an assortment, mixed bag, motley crowd,  or a medley of songs etc. I chose that word today, in order not to be guilty of over-using ‘Matters Miscellaneous’, that  graphic, short but all-embracing coinage, patented by the inimitable Olatunji Dare, as  solution to the challenge of  handling, in one piece a bewildering  array  of  weighty and compelling issues about which  he would like to inform, and  possibly, educate his reading publics. I actually already stand guilty, having twice used it in the past. While it will not permit that deep interrogation you like, you are able to touch on more than one of  the demons gnawing at the  very soul of Nigeria. The past one week has been particularly eventful.
    THE PRESIDENCY
    The President had kick-started it all  when he claimed, early in the week, that Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable. Hardly has he finished talking when Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, who took over from my good friend, Tony Sani, as Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, threw the Forum’s heavy weight straight behind him and I asked myself  why Ibrahim was so self-effacing he  didn’t elect to call a Press conference to announce this massive support given that  8 out of  every 10 federal appointments are, unerringly, going to the North. Only trouble, if the trend continues, however,  is  that the President would have, by his own hands, make the dreaded  negotiation doubly inevitable, and  in circumstances  none will be able to predict. A meeting of Igbo’s who is who, this past Thursday reminded  us all that,  Igbos, the third largest ethnic group in the country, is  a co-owner of  Nigeria and would not be browbeaten by any of Nigeria’s other ethnic groups.
    A very pregnant declaration, indeed!
    NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
    It was at the self-serving National Assembly that Nigerians were  treated to the greatest theatre during the week. While the Upper Chamber was furiously working to save its leadership from reaping the just consequences of their actions, we saw the Speaker angrily railroaded their quest for immunity for their almighty leaders to a committee despite a  massive and compelling opposition. Having successfully self-awarded themselves  the  highest allowances in any legislative house, worldwide, it could not have surprised Nigerians that they were busy working to create another first: immunity for legislators. Two things stood out in the senate: while Senator Femi Gbajabiamila had thought he could help shape the debates by educating his colleagues that immunity for legislators was unheard of anywhere in the world, one thoroughly scandalised member was heard  asking: are we a collection of crooks in this hallowed chamber that we have to be seeking immunity? If the distinguished, conscientious objector senator does not yet know it, Nigerians already have their answer to that million naira question and it is not  a particularly edifying one.
    The week also saw the rambunctious senator from Kogi at his best. Bedecked in some queer, God-forsaken beads adoring his neck, Melaye had another opportunity to  once again demonstrate his  undying love for the embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki,   who is  fast setting a world record of court appearances by any legislator in Nigeria.  Already facing charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, and seemingly unfazed,  going the rounds of  courts, from the lower right up to the Supreme Court which he might soon be asking  to reverse  itself  on some decisions it already took in his case,  was again charged, together with his Deputy, Ike Ekeremadu, before an Abuja high court for forgery. So incensed were they in the upper chamber that they thrice invited the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, to come and  tell from where he got the powers to charge their leaders to court for a forgery which, according to Melaye, the Senate has deceived itself into deciding is not a forgery. Although the Attorney-General twice demurred,  when he finally showed up, it was to put the senators through a learning curve.
    The same happened on the airwaves of Channels TV, where Dr Tunji Abayomi, brilliantly tutored the Chairman, Senate Publicity Committee about budgeting processes as laid out by the Nigerian constitution. The senators had spent the previous day, raining expletives on the Secretary to the Federal Government for saying  that the N60 Billion in the budget  for Constituency Projects  was non implementable.  They have also, as has  become the farce in the red chamber, summoned him to appear before them. Either by chance, or the result of a painstaking search for their resource persons, the crew of  Channel TV’s  early morning programme, SUNRISE DAILY,  had invited Dr Tunji Abayomi, a PH.D  degree holder in Law,   to weigh in on the matter of constituency projects.  Abayomi who, incidentally had,  as far back as 2002  written to the senate, and has a case pending  in court on the illegality of constituency projects which he described as the mother of  all corruption in the country, completely mesmerized the senate Publicity chairman who could only parrot inanities about how much senators loved their constituents.   It  was very  fascinating  to hear, the following morning, on the same programme, former Senator Ayo Arise  agree  that constituency projects should be scrapped. Incidentally he agreed that his own constituency project, an  ICT centre, has become a home for rodents and the likes further authenticating how useless and unsustainable their phantom projects are in their  constituencies. The  abiding g lesson here is  this: want something done for your constituency? Go ahead, ask the constituency for their preferred project and from there. go to lobby the executive whose duty it is to make budges. We can only hope we have seen the last of these lies by which our legislators, past and present, had  fleeced billions from the Nigerian treasury. Add this to how President Buhari dealt with budget padding and you will see how CHANGE has started to bring fiscal sanity to the country. As a result of this immoral practice, a former senator is presently saying all he knows about some N60 Billion he and some other legislators allegedly shared among themselves. I actually suspect that the threat to constituency projects, their cash cow, rather than the forgery case of their leaders , accounted for their  idle talk about impeaching the President.
    ON RESTRUCTURING
    Let me conclude this medley of events with a  piece by Port Harcourt –based Tope Ojo, on restructuring which is, however, heavily edited for space.
    “Restructuring will certainly be beneficial to Nigeria as marginalisation, and some ethnic groups struggling to find expression will be a thing of the past. I feel confident too that the North will be its greatest beneficiary  as it will open up its economy and unlock its immense potentials. Nigeria is presently at the crossroads. Do we sit back and watch things degenerate further?. Do we engage ourselves and take a strategic position for the future? Do we adopt a comprehensive change management approach? The main issues confronting us are the layers of government, size of states/regions,  a new administrative architecture, the viability of  present structures, equity and justice. Our constitution is an issue. Do we currently have a sound and acceptable constitution? Power devolution and resource control, consistent with  true federalism have to be properly interrogated. Too much power is concentrated at the centre. We must confront the issues of wealth creation and distribution. Sharing of federal appointments, in line with an ideal code for human resources development and application, should  be subjected to a clinical review. The federal character principle is currently being grossly abused right from the highest echelons of government. That will have to be addressed. The cost of running government is  far too high and unsustainable. The ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure should be about 70:30. We need a compact administrative structure. We need to be prudent as against today’s excessive  spending on staff and operations just as  the issue of  ghost workers must be consigned to history. Capital projects and infrastructural development must be fairly spread to all parts of the country. Educational, health, trade, industrial ,agricultural and other development policies must be up for a review that will also be fair to all.  Empirical as well as historical realities show, very  conclusively, that a Regional structure is more viable than our present  state structure. It is more manageable and cost effective.

  • APC and the Edo/Ondo governorship elections

     “Our attention has been drawn to the latest statement by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari is ‘demarketing Nigeria’. “We restate for the umpteenth time to Mr. Metuh and his ilk that their attempts to distract President Buhari from the job he has been elected to do will fail. “President Buhari will remain true to the virtues of honesty, integrity, sincerity, incorruptibility and plain-speaking, which endeared him to Nigerians and made them prefer his leadership to that of a lying and deceptive PDP administration. “The president will not, in the guise of ‘marketing’ the country, refrain from telling Nigerians and the world, the emerging truths about the abject state in which years of plundering by a PDP leadership has left the Nigerian treasury and economy.  “President Buhari will not in the name of ‘marketing’ or ‘attracting’ investors, follow in the footsteps of the ousted PDP administration and its discredited officials, who shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble.” -Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina

    At his first coming as military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari presided over a thoroughly precarious Nigeria. The economic situation would have been tough enough even if he wasn’t surrounded by a slew of over ambitious military officers – amongst them a consummate tactician and strategist, popularly known as the evil genius – all of who coalesced as fifth columnists and finally unhorsed him.  He has come back, in his latest re-incarnation as president, to meet a far more debilitating economic circumstance. When you add the Nigeria’s high level of insecurity and a National Assembly leadership far gone in infamy, and as dangerous as the fifth columnists of yore, you are forced to ask under what kind of stars the General was born. Far worse, however, is the fact that, completely unaware that his predecessor was presiding over what was essentially a shell of a country, with its entire finances in shambles (no thanks to the colony of predators Jonathan surrounded himself with) incoming President Buhari and the APC had, on the hustings, presented to Nigerians, a manifesto that would quite easily have freed them from the consequences of PDP’s suffocating 16 year strangle hold. To that dire circumstances must be added the massive drop in the price of crude oil, the one product the country depends on for its economic survival, from over 100 dollars per barrel to slightly over 30 dollars; a situation which led the president and the party to take a second look at the promises they made when they had no idea what PDP kleptomaniacs have done to the country.

    I have gone to all this length to let Nigerians know that PDP, not Buhari nor the APC, is the cause of Nigerians’ current pains. They, of the PDP, had literally stolen more than the owner and, had President Jonathan won his re-election bid, Nigeria would today have been far worse than Venezuela where citizens now queue for the commonest food item for survival. Without a doubt, PDP in Edo and Ondo states would, ahead of the governorship elections, like to roll up their sleeves recounting how they believe President Buhari and his party have deceived Nigerians but with no thought as to what led us to where we are.  However, before they do that, I would like them to remember the limitless ways in which they stole Nigeria blind; ways in which they shamelessly pocketed billions that were meant to kit our fighting forces against a truculent Boko Haram. Had they allowed that to happen, we would have lost far less number of soldiers and save thousands of our compatriots from becoming widows and orphans. Nor would we have the daunting task of having to take care of millions of internally displaced persons made up mostly of women and children.

    I am addressing this piece primarily to citizens of Edo and Ondo states where gubernatorial elections are due very soon. They must not make the mistake of taking the tree for the forest. Whether in the two states or in the country as a whole, PDP has no record of achievement on which it can campaign for victory at any election in Nigeria today.  They will, therefore, attempt to build their campaign around what the miserable party claims are the failings of the Buhari administration. They will attempt to poo-pooh the anti-corruption war and sing panegyrics  to their claim that it is selective; their leadership, dressed in uniforms on which  is emblazoned their tattered umbrella, will tell the people something like, as  I  read elsewhere: “Buhari promised to reduce the pump price of  petroleum products, but raised it by the highest margin ever, he promised to steady power supply but we have far less supply at a higher tariff, Buhari and his party promised not to devalue the naira but ended up imposing the worst foreign exchange rate on Nigerians etc”. It will be unlike them to remember that they stole 15 billion dollars meant for arms; they won’t remember that they had oil mafias  to which they awarded millions of barrels of crude  but for which not one dollar was paid into the federation account nor would they mention anything about how Boko Haram established enclaves in many local government areas where they flew their flags  because of  a futile attempt by the Jonathan administration to ensure that elections did not hold in the Northeast where they  knew  they did not have a ghost of a chance. PDP must also be reminded of how 16 billion dollars was spent on electricity and power generation with nothing to show for it. So corrosive and barren was the PDP record in all of its 16-year stranglehold on the country that the party cannot, in all conscience, hold up much as achievement. On the hustings in Edo and Ondo, the APC must make a sing song of all these lest PDP ‘gang rape’ the electorate again. The people must be made aware that PDP chieftains are sitting on billions of stolen money with which they will attempt to sway them. These smart Alecs must be rejected, and stopped in their tracks, whatever the inducement.

    It must, however, be borne in mind that the greatest effort towards achieving victory in the two gubernatorial elections rests with the APC leadership which must ensure that the process of electing the governorship candidate in both states is unimpeachable. The primary election must be open and manifestly transparent. APC must work with history in mind. The leadership must bear in mind, the various instances, in which the party had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory simply because of imposition of candidates. With a transparent and an unimpeachable process, whoever lost would know that he/she had not been fraudulently outsmarted and would, therefore, not back away from supporting whoever emerged. Happily, Edo State primary is over with the more popular candidate emerging. But the party leadership, under the sterling lead of  the  governor, must go further to smoothen whatever rough edges remain and, as already suggested by Comrade Matthew Omiohe,  a chieftain of the party in the state, Governor Adams Oshiomhole must consider no sacrifice too much in the effort to ensure  that the party goes into the election as a united and indivisible family. He has done so much for the state than to see a revisionist party wangle its way to victory to undo all he has achieved. Great care and a very high sense of responsibility must be brought to bear in Ondo State where very many contestants are involved. Given the contending forces, the party must ensure a level paying ground for all lest they play into the hands of the PDP which, incidentally, is the party in power in the state. The party must do everything possible to avert any post-primary crises. PDP, whether in states or nationally, has so self-destroyed by the way it ruled in the past 16 years that victory in both Edo and Ondo should, be a certainty.