The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • This budget: Heads must just roll

    This budget: Heads must just roll

    Why on earth are Jonathan’s appointees sitting pretty as head of critical agencies of state when he knew that their track record during the campaigns and presumed voting pattern during the election point unerringly to the fact that they neither believe in his candidacy nor his policies?

    In the first of my quartet of articles captioned: ‘Periscoping The Ideal Presidential Candidate For The APC’ through which I vigorously campaigned for the candidature of contestant Mohammadu Buhari as the party’s best foot forward, I asked interested Nigerians to weigh in with their own preferences. One of the earliest responders was a young man, Biodun, a graduate of Insurance Studies from the University of Lagos. He had nothing but the best words for contestant Buhari. However, he wrote me again this past week, almost a changed man, especially when news broke about how untidy President Buhari’s first budget had turned. He wrote:

    “President Muhammadu Buhari’s inability so far to look the greedy Nigerian politicians in the eye and failure to remove their itchy hands from the Nigerian treasury will most likely be his albatross; one to make his presidency as uneventful  as those of other presidents before him. Nearly all of us that laboured to have him elected had infectious enthusiasm about his coming to power, believing that the excessive perks politicians vote themselves annually would end through appropriate and prompt constitutional amendment at the instance of the executive. Nine months after, President Buhari has still chosen to look the other way. The huge crowds that turned up at his iconic political rallies all over the country have turned out the losers as the salaries and perks of these legislators remain as outrageous as ever with  constituency allowances without constituency offices, unending  purchases of exotic cars in the name of committee work, unearned severance packages for, among others, ex-governors who already got paid gratuities as well as life pensions with cars every two years, a house in any choice part of Nigeria etc.  For how long will President Buhari look askance? That is not to mention immunity and billions of security vote for governors when insecurity is one of our greatest problems in Nigeria. Local government autonomy too appears not to be any issue President Buhari wants to bother himself about, perhaps because he still won’t look the governors and their godfathers in the face. (The columnist, like the late Uncle Bola Ige, believes that Local Government issues should be a complete state matter with no interference, whatever, from the federal) The other day, Buhari complained that he has his reservations about Nigerian courts’ willingness to join him to make Nigeria a difficult place for corruption to thrive and promptly got a response from the Punch newspaper, counselling him to arrest and prosecute corrupt judges, siting examples from other countries. The truth is that he takes too long to act on anything. He is a well loved president, perhaps more than any other president Nigeria has had, but President Buhari is failing to live up to how the huge crowds of Nigerians that attended his political rallies want him to act. Maybe as a reminder to the president, Nigerians want him to do the following: remove the clause for 36 ministers from the constitution, grant local government autonomy, remove immunity and severance pay for politicians (and considerably reduce the pay for ex presidents and vice). The president should get involved in the processes of constitutional amendment and get all these done quickly for the good of. Nigeria.  All these outrageous politicians’ perks should end. Civil servants must take a minimum 30 per cent pay cut and politicians 80 per cent, while all sorts of pensions for politicians are abolished. Public office is a privilege, not a right. Nobody should fleece Nigeria in the name of being elected to public office. Concerning this shambolic 2016 budget, the least said the better.”

    And so ended the young man’s jeremiad.

    Unlike the colony of naysayers who are still bellyaching over President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s ouster, and therefore criticising the incumbent, the furore over President Buhari’s completely manipulated 2016 budget is a massive testimony to the efficacy as well as the effectiveness of his change mantra. This certainly is not the first time budgets in Nigeria are mercilessly padded and under any of the past PDP presidents of those 16 years of locust, the regime of the habitual letter writer inclusive, this same budget, warts and all, would have been passed with aplomb. Padding Nigerian budgets has always been the product of an evil collusion between members of the National Assembly committees and our evil, sorry civil servants, especially the permanent secretaries and the Budget Office but by far worse are the Director-Generals of MDAs. These loots are then creatively creamed off during the legislators’ meaningless, so-called oversight functions. As you read this, only a miniscule number of our National Assembly members would be worth less than a billion naira in net worth.  Yet they make the most noise, faking integrity. Two things must have happened in the instant case. The overriding ambition of the current leadership of the National Assembly which led them to mess up their party leadership, had resulted in a nebulous National Assembly where both the Senate President and his House counterpart as well as their PDP Deputy Senate President – an anomaly of the first order – as distinct from the arm of government they represent – behave like they are above their political party, the APC.  In the circumstance, only a fool will wager that they would, on any or on all issues, buy into Buhari’s agenda. Were this not a self-inflicted problem, one should have been moved to pity the APC which having sown the wind in many instances, would sure come to reap the whirl wind, the Kogi State self-immolation being a good example.

    Since the party is that confused in the National Assembly, a wounded PDP whose debauchery over the past 16 years, but especially in the last six years of   President Jonathan is being daily exhumed, though complicit in the usual yearly budget padding, must have been waiting to show to Nigerians that Buhari though might be a good corruption fighter, he is certainly not adept at administering the country. The idea is to make him look like a giant with clay feet.  You can hardly ever best their choice of the budget to attempt to desecrate a man so highly admired at home and internationally: a man US Secretary of State, John Kerry, would do anything to praise to high heavens at an in international forum as the world recently saw less than a month ago at the World Economic Forum. Unfortunately, however, there is a sense in which the president brought this on himself. Why on earth are Jonathan’s appointees sitting pretty as head of critical agencies of state when he knew that their track record during the campaigns and presumed voting pattern during the election point unerringly to the fact that they neither  believe in his candidacy nor his policies? No, as bona fide Nigerians, nobody is suggesting that they should be made to lose their jobs, but for Christ’s sake why were many of these people not moved to less sensitive posts?  No Nigerian, abreast of what happened under President Jonathan, can fake any ignorance of how the duo of the Finance Minister and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation ensured that not less than 75 per cent of the heads of the regulatory agencies came from their part/s of the country.  Since these persons then ran their posts as they deemed, what would they not do to open up Buhari as worse than Jonathan?

    As things stand, it is good the president has ordered an inquiry into the budget disaster but it has got to be a proper one. He must assign Nigerians of integrity to do this yeoman’s national service and whoever is found culpable must be tried for economic sabotage. The in-house old budget mafia must have leveraged on the newness to the system of both the finance minister, who they have been using their huge international connections to denigrate, as well as the budget minister, both of who Nigerians, fortunately, know to have performed very well at their past desks.

    In conclusion, if the Secretary to the Government of the Federation – not Head of Service – wants President Buhari to succeed, he must persuade the President to empanel a committee of civil service veterans on which all the geo- political zones are represented but peopled only by the likes of civil servants of impeccable integrity like Dr Goke Adegoroye and Dr Tunji Olaopa. These are the ones I know and trust, imbued as they are, with the Pa Simeon Adebo administrative DNA. There must be such men all over the country. Look for them to help this government.

     

  • Enough of this rule of law bugbear

    Enough of this rule of law bugbear

      I am at a loss as to what philosophical underpinning would make any critic of  Buhari’s anti-corruption war equate the Nigerian concept of rule of law to what it is in civilised jurisdictions and turn it into a bugbear against the anti-corruption war. 

    *Sans President Buhari’s timely  bailout of states, this young man  – he is forever  seen  playing poodle to  the oldest  men  in town – must be asked to explain how restructuring – necessary as it is for Nigeria – would have instantaneously paid states’ outstanding wages and salaries as well as pensions and bank loans, all of which ran into trillions of naira largely because Jonathan, their paymaster, and his Petroleum Minister,  decided not to pay billions of dollars of oil money into the federation account as  constitutionally prescribed,  thereby denying each state billions.  In what must pass for a classic joke, so reminiscent of these nay sayers, he had written: “This is exactly what the Federal Government is doing to the states all in a desperate bid to keep the Abuja “command and control centre” when it has become all too obvious that the panacea is to restructure the country and create new corridors of prosperity that would give a new lease of life to the federating units”.  Now, how  in the short run does their panacea  ‘create these new corridors of prosperity’, mere sounding bites,  that would have helped in defraying  the humongous outstanding salaries  and pensions  stacked against state governments which  had  resulted directly  from  their paymaster’s  ‘sleeping on duty’,  abandoning  critical issues of state to the  mesmerising  Amazons holding  him hostage?  If restructuring were  such an instant  fix, a financial silver bullet,  why did  the man for whom they  -old as well as young – slaved  at the confab fail  to lift a finger in  using his enormous executive powers  to  sign  into  life, those portions he could very easily have, and make the rest a campaign issue  for  his  PDP,  like Buhari and the APC  made anti corruption?  Why did it become Afenifere’s business to salvage this silver bullet? This is how these empty heads specialise in  empty sloganeering and effete grandstanding  neither  of which  has the slightest possibility of advancing the cause of the hoi polloi, the flotsam and jetsam of  our society.  They must be told  that effecting  a  meaningful change in an economy in which  their  guardians are shamelessly  implicated in sharing hundreds of millions of  funds intended  for  equipping  our fighting forces  cannot be a tea party by any means.  –  Being the column’s response to an insolent reaction to : RE: PASTOR BAKARE’S ROADMAP.  

    Weeks before the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, attempted  to put them out of commission, many otherwise respected opinion moulders had  become unreflecting “confederates and sympathisers” – to quote  Olatunji Dare – of the  beneficiaries of Dasukigate. No thanks to these acolytes, to quote him further, Nigerians are beginning to “observe a curious reversal in the epochal case that started out as The Federal Republic of Nigeria V Obtainers Unlimited and Others but is now shaping up as Obtainers Unlimited and Others V The Federal Republic of Nigeria”.  I am at a loss as to what philosophical underpinning would make any critic of  Buhari’s anti-corruption war equate the Nigerian concept of rule of law to what it is in civilised jurisdictions and turn it into a bugbear against the anti-corruption war. Any serious observer of what passes muster as justice in Nigeria cannot claim ignorance of the following negativities: (a) ours  is one  where  a  high profile  accused  is unduly protected  by the granting  of perpetual injunctions as Justice Ibrahim Buba  did in EFCC V Peter  Odili case. A four year appeal against that ruling has not  seen  the light of day (b) where it is common knowledge that many  judges, as  young  lawyers, passed through the chambers of  many of  today’s elite SANs to whom they are forever beholden (c) where it is rumoured that  some  senior lawyers and some retired judges  serve as  couriers  for gratification to judges in high profile cases (d It is also obvious that these  politically exposed , accused  persons,  are so rich they can, overnight, turn poor judges to instant millionaires in any currency.

    Given  these  obvious  differences between the practice of  rule of law in Nigeria  and what obtains in places like the U.S and U.K, with the Ibori case as a glaring example of how cases are frustrated in Nigeria,  it will be dishonest of anybody, knowing how very easily  the cause of justice can be vitiated  here,  to continue to  give precedence to  rule of law and order  over  and above  dealing appropriately with those who stole  the nation blind.  Granting of bails  is about  the easiest of  cases that can be manipulated in favour of a high profile accused and it is on this very subject  that  the  presidency  has had the  most unremitting strictures and  put down from those who write like they haven’t the slightest  respect for that office.  I  think it would be  the height of naivety to suggest that a man whose campaign had a dominant dose of war on corruption  would  now, in office,  allow himself  be derailed by the  undeserved  antagonism  of  these sundry confederates. This must be why a normally taciturn President Buhari could not help crying to Nigerians that his anti corruption war will only succeed if the Nigerian judiciary would buy into it and help save the country.

    Should anybody consider  some of these  observations  on our judiciary outlandish,  harsh or unfounded, I would like to call their attention to  these  two  samples  of  our judicial decadence:  Not too long ago in Anambra state, an election tribunal  headed by Justice  Usman Bwala –  we also  know him in Ekiti – was  disbanded by  the President of the Court of Appeal over  allegations that its members were involved in extensive corruption. Also, the Vanguard newspaper of 15 May, 2007 reported as follows: “THE Lagos State Government, through the state’s Judicial Service Commission has terminated the appointment of three Judges and 22 magistrates in Lagos on account of corrupt practices, while SEVERAL other judges and magistrates have been relieved of their duties in similar manner”. Such reports are legion just as many lawyers had been caught up in serial acts of malfeasance and some Senior Advocates had, in fact, been disrobed on account of corruption.

    Is this the Nigerian Law and Order under which they want President Buhari to subsume his  timely, even divine,  war against the greatest cankerworm eating up this country, failing which,  they will spare nothing in turning it into an incubus  against a just war?

    Nigerians say NO.

    Fair enough, the Nigerian constitution, as the country’s grund norm, deserves to be respected, even if it lies against itself with its “We the People”, opening stanza. But was any Nigerian poor involved in its making? Wasn’t its  draft –  put together by many Nigerians – summarily turned over  to a ‘one man committee’  in  the  Abacha government  to deal  with  as he pleased?  Isn’t it, at best, an elitist document pandering to the interests of the elite and haven’t Nigerians, since 1999, seen enough of the venality of our National Assembly members charged with making our laws?

    Concerning those granted bail but not allowed to enjoy it because they have myriads of cases hanging on their necks, where is EFCC’s former chairman today?  Wasn’t he listlessly granted bail by a court to go overseas for medical treatment?  Have we seen him ever since to face trial?  I think the best advice to all the accused is for them to have their day in court and rapidly prove their innocence.  As for those PDP loudmouths shouting ‘selective’, they should go and reposition the rump of their largest rally in Africa, win the next presidential election,  and ‘selectively’ try  officials of this  government  if  they  too  steal.  Of course, Nigerians  know that PMB is not JEG who looked on  whilst minions under him went  gaga, sharing our patrimony and allowing a rag tag Boko Haram to mutate to what the US has described as one of the most ferocious terrorist groups  ever.  It is  reassuring, indeed,  that Buhari’s anti-corruption war, warts and all, has been given a thumbs up by  both Mr Justice Mohammed Uwais,  a former Chief Justice of Nigeria,  and an international diplomat, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, neither of who can be accused of not knowing what  he is saying.

     

  • An end to gluttony in the National Assembly?

    An end to gluttony in the National Assembly?

    Since inception, they have operated like a cult and in the sixteen years of the PDP, not even the loudest opposition member had the guts to openly disclose what he or she earns. 

    A glutton is one who eats voraciously and obsessively, and that precisely is what our National Assembly members have been doing since 1999, consuming everything in sight even while not putting in commensurate service to the nation that feeds their greed. But at last, it looks like a Daniel has come to judgment. If our luck as Nigerians hold pretty this time around, may be, just maybe, our legislators’ impunity-driven excesses and illegalities may soon come to an abrupt end – thanks to Olusegun Obasanjo and the unflattering slump in oil prices. Obasanjo, a two-term former Nigerian President whose legendary no-nonsense stance vis a vis the usually gluttonous National Assembly was ignominiously rubbished by his hand-picked duo of supine and clueless successors. No hard-headed observer of Nigerian affairs could have forgotten, in a hurry, how  President Obasanjo put the National Assembly on a leach and on the path of rectitude even as Speaker Ghali Naaba was literally fire-eating, threatening him with impeachment. Obasanjo brooded no nonsense but the National Assembly went gaga the minute the same Obasanjo handpicked two weak successors and inflicted them on the nation. As it would happen, both of them were more concerned with holding on to the reins of office, at whatever cost to the nation, and for this reason they had to romance the National Assembly. Their overriding selfishness was all the National Assembly needed to literally run amok, tearing into the national treasury as they pleased, and using, to quote Obasanjo in his recent letter to the legislative arm, “different disingenuous ways and devices to overturn the recommendations of the Revenue Mobilization, allocation and Fiscal Commission whose responsibility it is to fix emoluments for the three arms of government.” The result is that, today, what our legislators take home monthly, or quarterly, bears no correlation to the commission’s recommendations or to common sense in a cash-strapped economy like ours. They not only earn so disproportionately to everybody else, they ingeniously ensure that only a very small fraction of that humongous haul is taxable. What have we not written about their opaque ways? What else remains to be said of their collective insensitivity; their beyond shame predilections? I have personally written myself sore on this carefree arm of government. Thrice, I have called on Nigerians: students, market women and the country’s hoi polloi, to demonstrate their total disavowal of this insensitivity by storming what I called the ‘Bastille’, in reference to a similar incident in French history. In the article: Are Nigerians Condemned To This Profligate National Assembly? – The Nation, 17 January, 2016 – I wrote inter alia: “why are these politicians so conscienceless they would always agree on loots, irrespective of differences in their party affiliation or is the National Assembly a cultic coven where they swear to things besides the well being of Nigerians?

    They are known to sometimes tear at one another exchanging blows; but such scuffles never happen when it comes to money matters. In that instance, they are always ‘ad idem’, belonging momentarily, only to one party: the MONEY PARTY of Nigeria.

    That solidarity in financial matters is why Senator Dino Melaye and the House spokesman, Abdul-Razak Namdas, have been pooh-poohing Obasanjo’s timely warning. Whatever their reaction, Nigerians know only too well that each National Assembly session has traditionally been progressively more corrupt than the last, and that this present one is simply the worst in their greedy acquisitiveness. That is why many Nigerians regard the crisis in the oil sector as divine so that our gluttons can moderate their greed or get chased out by unemployed, hungry and angry Nigerians. Leo Ogor, for instance, is so enamoured with constitution amendment that he would like the executive to initiate another, easily forgetting that they are yet to successfully clear the allegation of massive corruption in the last one which came to nothing. If they can be so dismissive of the advice of  a two-term president of this  country what chance stands any other Nigerian trying to call them to work with an executive branch that is  trying its dam best to instill sanity into the country’s finances?

    Back then to Obasanjo’s letter which a serious National Assembly should have received with appreciation as Senate President Saraki’s reaction initially indicated. The former president began on a very sombre note: “I have reflected and expressed, outspokenly at times, my views on the practice in the National Assembly which detracts from distinguishness and honourability because it is shrouded in opaqueness and absolute lack of transparency and could not be regarded as normal, good and decent practice in a democracy that is supposed to be exemplary. I am, of course, referring to the issue of budgets and finances of the National Assembly”. To a more discerning people, words like these, coming from an Obasanjo should, ordinarily, have been taken with all seriousness.  But that will not be our National Assembly members who have since been pouring scorn on the one single Nigerian who can tell them the absolute truth given that if President Buhari did, he would be misunderstood. Going further, the man you cannot gag went straight to the kernel of his message: “The purpose of election into the Legislative Assembly, particularly at the national level, is to give service to the nation and not for the personal service and interest of members at the expense of the nation which seemed to have been the mentality, psychology, mindset and practice within the National Assembly since the beginning of this present democratic dispensation”. Then he asked: “Where is patriotism? Where is commitment? Where is service?”

    Thank you General. Nigerians are one with you in asking these questions. We can only hope we are not in a dialogue with the deaf. But he was not done as he went on to give them a lecture on the very essence of good governance: ”The beginning of good governance which is the responsibility of all arms and all the tiers of government is openness and transparency. It does not matter what else we try to do, as long as one arm of government shrouds its financial administration and management in opaqueness and practices rife with corruption, only very little, if anything at all, can be achieved in putting Nigeria on the path of sustainable and enduring democratic system, development and progress. Governance without transparency will be a mockery of democracy”.

    That has been the cause of Nigerians’ greatest angst against the National Assembly. Since inception, they have operated like a cult and in the sixteen years of the PDP, not even the loudest opposition member had the guts to openly disclose what he or she earns. Indeed, not a few Nigerians actually believe that they are sworn to an oath. To dispute this, they must, today, let Nigerians know what they earn, to the very last penny. Otherwise we would brand them cultists and cheats.

    Enough is enough. In no other country of the world does this happen.

     

  • Re: Pastor Tunde Bakare’s roadmap to a successful change

    Re: Pastor Tunde Bakare’s roadmap to a successful change

    Finally, the bullet that finally knocked off the pastor’s request/demand  was the recommendation that additional states be created when any suggestion, worthy of any consideration at all, should have canvassed confederation, and a return to the old regions, or something similar, which would then act as the federating units

    “INEC was not truthful on this point. INEC knew that a supplementary election was unnecessary in the circumstances. The electoral body was, and is still, in possession of records which show that in the affected 91 polling units, there were only 38,000 permanent voters cards (PVCs) issued. Of that figure, only 25,000 collected the cards. And at the November 21, 2015 election, only 19,000 persons were accredited in the affected units. The margin of win by Audu/Faleke ticket would, undoubtedly, have accommodated any of these figures with Audu/Faleke still leading by majority of votes. It can, therefore, be rightly concluded that the phony supplementary election was falsely devised to hoodwink the people of Kogi State and play the script of some powerful political interests at the expense of the will of the people of Kogi” – Olarinde Yesufu, a legal analyst, writing on the topic: Kogi – Inaugurating Bello as governor will be unconstitutional in The Nation of 21st Jan, 2015.

    It goes without saying that the above epigram does not speak to today’s topic but it  galls to high heavens reading the very pedestrian argument of  Dr Oluwayomi David Atte, a University of Ibadan- trained development scholar you’d expect  to be much  more liberated, trying to justify INEC’s premeditated, but thoroughly  illogical declaration of the  Kogi governorship election as  inconclusive, on the laughable  excuse that  Faleke is not known in Kogi. Even if this outlandish claim were true, and not merely playing to the ‘come and chop’ tradition of most Kogi State politicians always talking from both sides of their mouths, where was he when Faleke emerged the deputy gubernatorial candidate to Prince Audu? Does he know better than the late Audu who, with considerable justification, can be described as the godfather of Kogi politics far ahead of  the likes of  Idris or the simple hearted Wada? Was Atte away on Mars or where can we locate his objection to that selection if he wants to be taken serious? Of course, he must have been too patronising of Prince Audu to have the liver to complain. It’s a shame that the likes of  Atte, Clarence Obafemi and  Dino Melaye, have, with their volte face, further  demonstrated how effete the average Kogi politician, many of who were implicated in Obasanjo’s shoot down of  a decent Chief Sunday Awoniyi  who, it was, who first described PDP as an aggregation of very venal people, is. It is  obvious to the unbiased  that INEC was arms twisted  to do what it did as the same thing happened in the last Bayelsa election without any such unreasonable decision. One can only hope that APC will not, by its own hands, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is germane to mention that in the case between Wada, Faleke and INEC, the trial judge specifically said that its decision had nothing to do with INEC’s failure to declare the election result or on the substitution of candidates.

    With all due respect to their eminences, Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese and Pastor Bakare of The Latter Rain Assembly, it can  be safely concluded that the way they venerate, and  purvey, elements of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s recondite policies and actions in office, can only be a consequence of our Lord’s teachings about the Christian love.  “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well asked him: which is the first commandment of all?” To which Jesus answered: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with thy entire mind and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this: thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself”. “There is none other commandment greater than these” – Mark 12: 28-31. While Bishop Kukah has severally  exonerated the former president on all he did in office, Pastor Bakare, like most  members of his core  group in the Jonathan National Conference of 2014, has continued to present the recommendations of that talkshop as a silver bullet to all of Nigeria’s problems  regardless of  its dramatic, but shadowy origins, its skewed membership and the fact that neither the president nor his political party, the PDP, considered it important enough to be made a campaign issue.

    The pastor has again come out calling on his friend, President Mohammadu Buhari, to adopt the conference decisions as the way forward for Nigeria, conveniently forgetting that despite the president’s party giving the confab a wide berth, Nigerians in their millions, still voted him as their president while sending Goodluck Jonathan out of office.  If only for this, I expect Pastor Bakare to understand that Nigerians know exactly what they want.

    The pastor hoisted his latest call on the following grounds:

    (1)    That promise of true federalism is contained in Article 14 of the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration, which was unanimously adopted and signed by the delegates to the 2014 National Conference;

    (2) That although the report may have been produced under a PDP government but it is not a PDP document. It is a Nigerian people’s document;

    (3) That it will be comparable to Buhari’s adoption of some of Jonathan’s policies, e.g the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS and the Treasury Single Account, TSA, and,

     (4) That the need for diversification also brings to the fore the question of viability of states in relation to the need for economies of scale.

    Let me now take them serially:

    As implied in Chief Obafemi Awolowo reference  to Thesis and antithesis at the UPN 1983 congress in Abeokuta, Ogun State, a critical  analysis of Pastor Bakare’s grounds renders his plea dead on arrival. Concerning no.1, the pastor cannot in all honesty claim that the recommendations of a politically- manipulated national conference can, in any way, be superior to the  tomes patriotic Nigerians have, in the past, came up with after  some sober interrogation of our multifarious problems as a country. That of Obasanjo was a gem until inordinate ambition killed it.

    It is in his no.2 argument that Pastor Bakare very, uncharacteristically, missed it. How really pan-Nigerian was the Jonathan conference? In the certainty that he knows all about that conference, let me remind him and inform Nigerians of the following: the Jonathan Conference was borne out of crass political opportunism. It was not only initiated, but kick started and controlled, throughout, by Afenifere, aided by those they selected from other parts of the country. They actually corruptly interfered with some state nominations. In the specific case of Ekiti, Chief Deji Fasuan, nominated by the governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, as the state’s leader, was substituted by them and their traditional ally, my friend, Dr Kunle Olajide, brought in. I am not sure Senator Durojaiye, very experienced as he is, did not suffer the same fate. I knew, as a matter of fact, that Dr Fayemi, visited President Jonathan to protest this callous infraction but to no avail. It was under this crass manipulation that Ogun State came to have the highest number of delegates, countrywide, at 19. They donated a member of their group to kick start the entire process and were, in fact, not far from its very leadership. They then proceeded to include all manner of organisations whose delegates’ selection they influenced. So, Pastor Bakare, how truly pan-Nigerian was the Jonathan conference?

    Concerning no.3, I expect that if nobody knows it at all, Pastor Bakare should know that these and other adopted policies were neither the ideas nor the outcome of cheap political opportunism but programmes which emerged after long and thorough interrogations by appropriately qualified professional appointees of government who not only have the expertise but are most likely to have seen them in practice in the civilised world. They were not constructed as some deu ex machina aimed at freeing some people from any political Siberia.

    Finally, the bullet that finally knocked off the pastor’s request/demand  was the recommendation that additional states be created when any suggestion, worthy of any consideration at all, should have canvassed confederation, and a return to the old regions, or something similar, which would then act as the federating units. Without a shred of doubt, restructuring Nigeria is an urgent desideratum, but certainly not on the model arrived at the Jonathan National Conference.

  • Are Nigerians condemned to this profligate national assembly?

    Why are politicians so conscienceless they would always agree on loots, irrespective of differences in party affiliation or is the National Assembly a cultic coven where they swear to things besides the wellbeing of the populace?

    Wale Adeoye wrote, mutatis mutandis: “The 100m collected by Chief Falae is most distasteful. It’ is a naked case of corruption and a display of crass opportunism. His party is SDP, not PDP. So what we are seeing is a sly script whereby the then ruling party had many quislings parading themselves as independent parties. The implication is that all their candidates were a ruse in a deceitful plot to fool Nigerians. He succeeded in fooling millions of people who voted for SDP thinking they prefer it to PDP or the APC especially in Ogun State, where Chief Segun Osoba held sway.  It is not funny that an Afenifere chieftain could be involved in this sort of thing.  Ladoja and his Accord Party could not have surprised many.  The cash meant for development and transformation of roads, healthcare and social services were squandered in the most conscienceless manner. It then means that all the support for GEJ by the SDP was driven by greed and avarice. Chief Falae should ask himself if he thinks Awo could ever have partnered Anenih in this dirty deal. Were this to be Tinubu, some Afenifere subalterns would have promptly turned emergency authors, not only hectoring us, but churning out books, literally at the speed of light, to be launched by whatever remains of the PDP rump.
    Also, one should ask the crooked banks what role they played in the entire Dasukigate.  Was the 100m paid into banks? Did the banks raise issues as requested by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit? Was it raw cash indicating clear cases of money laundering? On a lighter side, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi should be recalled immediately. All said, there is the urgent need to cut the spiral wave of election finances and the crazy expenditure by politicians in order to get elected. There should be a cap on these huge election expenses which have turned our own version of elections to a venture driven by investments and immediate profit. Politicians who bribe or outspend the stipulated caps should be heavily sanctioned. If we  are able to get around this, we would see responsible individuals, not  cheats and misfits, emerge as leaders  in every phase of our politics which  presently looks like the caricature of a wasted generation”-  Adeoye, a multi-award winning journalist

    What exactly will drive Nigerians literally mad and get them sick and tired enough to risk all, and everything, to storm this very inconsiderate National Assembly? When will  an average Nigerian policeman,  who  puts his life on the line to ensure  that  angry Nigerians cannot  storm this anti-people National  Assembly, realise that the men and women he stands ramrod, defending with his life, together with their bureaucrats and staff of the National Assembly Service Commission as well as those of the Institute of Legislative studies,  number less than 10,000 but has,  in the last five years,  cornered  a  humongous, yearly  budget  of N150 billion? Nor is it likely that the massive drop in oil prices which has completely rubbished the national currency, would be considered by them as   tangible enough to restrain or moderate their greed? When exactly would these set of Nigerians, many of who had been state governors, ministers  or  held other high public offices  which Nigerians know are mostly avenues to  steal  from the public coffer, and  through  which many of them  became emergency  billionaires,  realise that there is a God to whom they will account? Why are politicians so conscienceless they would always agree on loots, irrespective of differences in party affiliation or is the National Assembly a cultic coven where they swear to things besides the wellbeing of the populace?  What drives their insatiable greed?

    Now, these are, no doubt, grave charges which should not be lightly made. I therefore proceed to properly situate these charges  to  let  Nigerians  know  how gravely ill-served they are by  a group  of people  to whom their, and the national interest , should ordinarily  have been  paramount .  To do this, I shall rely, heavily, on the great investigative work done by  a team of  reporters  from the stable of  this newspaper,  whose very  dispiriting findings were contained in the article: N4.7 BILLION VEHICLES –NASS JOLLY RIDE HITS ROAD BUMP which appeared in its edition  of  January 10, 2016.

    The report begins: ’the yearly allocation to the national assembly, which it shrouds in utter secrecy, surpasses the annual budget of 21 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Katsina, Benue and Jigawa – all three with a population of more than four million people’. It went further to say that whilst Nigerians are busy discussing their mindless plan to buy cars running into about N4.7 Billion which they claim are for committee work, as if they were granted car loans for jolly rides, the vehicles’ huge insurance premium which runs into hundreds of millions of naira and cannot be concluded without their interests being taken into consideration, escapes critical attention. In their unduly secretive financial arrangement, not a single Nigerian outside their cult, can claim to know how much they earn individually. While, with the mere touch of the button on your computer, you can know that the U.S Senator/Congressman earns $174,000 and his U.K. counterpart earns 74,000 thousand pounds, both with a stated allowance for aides which they dare not divert as our own National Assembly just did the N10.6 billion recently approved for all the legislative aides of the 7th National Assembly. All you can say with a measure of certainty concerning these our overlords is that they pocket a minimum  quarterly allowance of not less than between N45 -60 million. That in a country with a huge unemployment percentage and where the few lucky to be employed do not know when you would be paid, if at all.

    The report did not fail to touch on the ‘committee cars’ bought at outrageous prices of about N9 million each during the 7th Assembly.  According to their findings, each senator went away with at least one Prado jeep sold off by the National Assembly Management at a paltry N2 million each. Ask them where this money is, and you are told that the National Assembly is not a revenue generating arm of government. Competing with the reckless manner cars are bought and disposed off is the gravely outlandish manner in which they choose to build whatever type of mansion which catches their fancy. Though as far back as during the Obasanjo era most benefits, including housing, have been monetised, this National Assembly  deemed it necessary to devote  a whooping N502 million for the construction of  a new official residence for the Senate President. That will, however, account for only site clearing, earthworks, unstated outstanding liabilities – Nigerians know that type – as another N200,694,435 is proposed to cover ‘consultancy and outstanding liabilities’ – reminds one of that Benue politician’s consultancy  bonanza  in Dasukigate. This is besides the fact that the FCT is to embark on the construction of an official residence for the Speaker of the House of Representatives at a cost of N1,035,652,652 to which amount  I know  Senate President’s residence would soon be jacked up to since it is all driven by ego and the very reason we saw that near murderous fight for leadership positions in the National Assembly earlier in the session.

    All these, and the freedom to spend money like it was going out of fashion, the reporters discovered, underpins the National  Assembly’s  single minded opposition to  its   inclusion  in the Treasury Single Account(TSA). The way they argue, you would think they were the ones elected president. They are not in any way superior to the other arms of government which are already captured in that system. For the president to agree to that outlandish demand, would mean diminishing the presidency and it will be difficult for Nigerians to know who exactly is in charge.

    It is my hope that  sooner than later, Nigerians would come to the realisation that the National Assembly, as presently constituted, and relying  on  Section 7 (10) and 2 of the National Assembly Service Commission Act 2000, as it does,  to act like a bull in a china shop,  is certainly not in their best interest. Everything should be done, therefore, through civil society organisations leading every other strata of the Nigerian polity, to obliterate this overpowering impunity by cancelling out the Senate, which actually adds nothing to our well being. Nigeria does not need anything more than a responsible, people-friendly House of Representatives.

  • Chief Makanjuola Esan, SAN JP: The multi-award winning Senior Advocate of Nigeria at 80

    Chief Makanjuola Esan, SAN JP: The multi-award winning Senior Advocate of Nigeria at 80

    He would later read Law at The Great Ife i.e the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, where he graduated in June ’71 winning the Justice Olu Ayoola Prize for best all-round performance in the Faculty of Law. 

    I consider it a great privilege that I have been able,  through  this column, to celebrate a number of Nigeria’s highly iconic elders and achievers; gentlemen -the next should, hopefully, be a female – who have , even while still on this side of the divide, left their steps on the sands of time and  who,  for their positive  contributions to humanity,  will doubtless, have their names etched on the  right side  of  history. Among them, but not in any order of importance, are  Chiefs  Deji Fasuan, Dele Falegan, my primary school teacher, the late  Chief Festus Olorunsola  Fajana, Professors Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe, Banji Akintoye  and Jide Osuntokun as well as  administrators like Dr Deji Adegbite,  Chief  Olorunfunmi Bashorun and the mentor, per excellence, Prince Julius  Adelusi-Adeluyi.  As I once wrote in connection with these exemplars, I did not set out to sing panegyrics to them, rather I decided to put in the public space, the little bit space would permit about how they have, in their respective ways, impacted society in the hope that many others will be encouraged, even invigorated, to do their own bit while still able. Take a long hard look at these individuals, you would not only fail to see a super rich  – that is, in monetary terms -(but) you will certainly not find  among them, even if they had nine lives,  any capable of lining up to partake of those stupendous ONSA funds. It is not, and would never, be in their character.

    They are gentlemen, in the real sense of the word, and therefore, deserve to be celebrated.

    In the company of these very contented achievers is the highly self-effacing and multi-award -winning father of lawyers – three of his children and two daughters-in-law are learned – the redoubtable Chief Makanjuola Esan, SAN, JP.

    Born, January 10, 1936 at Afao Ekiti, in the Ifelodun Local Government area of Ekiti State – the reader should recall that Are-Ekiti, my place of birth and Afao are twin towns – and attended St. David’s Anglican Primary School, Afao-Ekiti, Are- Afao United School and Christ Apostolic Central School, Ado-Ekiti from where he proceeded to Christ’s school, Ado-Ekiti, in January 1950.  It must be stated here, however, that the young Makanjuola left Are-Afao United School because, as a result of their brilliance, he and a classmate, Mr. Awodigede, were specially invited by the then doyen of  Ekiti Primary Schools’ headmasters, the inimitable Mr. A.A. Abiodun, whose well-known credo all over the division was ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’,  to come and complete their standards 5 & 6 at Ado-Ekiti. Being ever so brilliant, Chief Esan spent only a year as he passed the entrance examination to Christ’s School in Standard 5, confirming, as has long become the norm, that a minimum of at least six, out of ten such brilliant Ekiti pupils, would end up going to Christ’s School. In confirmation of this, using the Are-Afao United School as an example,  after Chief Esan, the next set had their best students – Gabriel Adeoba (later Prof  Remi Olaofe), Ezekiel Ogunlade, Adedara Adesuyi and Samuel Abiola all going to Christ’s School with the first – Gabriel – actually gaining admission from Standard  five. Two years later, Olu Olowojebutu was to prove so spectacularly brilliant that he was made to skip Class 1 at Christ’s School.

    For his tertiary education, Chief Esan attended the famous Fourah-Bay College, Freetown, Sierra-Leone, where he was actively involved in student union politics, was elected into the students’ union executive council during the ’64-’65 session and, though studying Economics, was appointed the Minister for Justice. He would later read Law at The Great Ife, i.e the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, where he graduated in June ’71 winning the Justice Olu Ayoola Prize for best all-round performance in the Faculty of Law. The columnist had, incidentally, won the corresponding Prize at the Faculty of Arts for the session. Chief Esan subsequently attended the Nigerian Law School and was called to Bar as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1978. He was elevated to the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in April, 1995, the first Christ School alumnus to be so honoured.

    Beginning his working career as a teacher, Oga has traversed several segments of the Nigerian polity: trained as a Local Government Secretary and was Treasurer to a local government council; trained in labour matters and later taught the subject to many Nigerian labour leaders. On completing his course at Fourah-Bay in ’65, he joined the University of Ibadan where he served variously as Executive Officer, Higher Executive Officer, Administrative Officer and as Assistant Registrar and Senior Assistant Registrar. Here again, at the bubbling, absolutely proactive University of Ibadan registry, under the leadership of the impeccable Mr. (as he was then known) S.J. Okudu, my path pleasantly crossed Chief Esan’s. He retired voluntarily in 1978 to join one of the most reputable  Law chambers in the country: the Law firm of Afe Babalola and co, where he was until 1992. In January 1993, he established his Law Firm of Makanjuola Esan and co with its head office in Ibadan and a branch office at Ado-Ekiti. When the University of Ibadan Law Faculty started its Masters degree programme during the 2001/2002 session, Chief Esan, together with the likes of Chief Richard Akinjide, a renowned legal luminary, was invited to teach Criminal Law and Procedure. This he did pro bono, even though remuneration, usually in the form of a per diem, was attached to the position. Between 94-96, and 1996-1997, he served as the Honourable Commissioner for Justice in Ondo and Ekiti states respectively.

    The ‘Baffday Boy’ has a long list of extra curricula activities to his credit. Among these: he was at various times, the Secretary, Ekiti Federation of Boys and Girls clubs, Secretary Ekiti. Boy Scouts Local Association, Assistant Scout Commissioner (Legal Duties) Oyo-State, 1979-1983, Scout Commissioner, Ondo and Ekiti States, 1994-1998 and Patron of the Boys Brigade. He represented Ekiti in Football and Athletics between 58-63 and was a member of both the Western Region Amateur Football Association and its Athletics counterpart

    Put simply, Chief Esan has had a deluge of honours: academic, professional, from the church, cultural, local and international, name it. Amongst these are the following:

    • Faculty Prize, aka the Mr Justice Olu Ayoola Prize for the best overall performance in the Faculty of Law, University of Ife, June, ’71.
    • Recipient of the lifetime Achievement award by the Ibadan Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association at 60.
    • Recipient of Christ’s School Great Alumni Award by the Ibadan Branch of the Christ’s School Alumni Association.
    • Recipient of the Maiden Merit Award of the Ifeoluwa Archdeaconry of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion with headquarters at Are-Ekiti, on 20th December, 2009.
    • Recipient of Merit Award by Saint David’s Anglican Church, Afao-Ekiti, in 2005.
    • Received merit awards from the Christ Apostolic Church, Ibadan and Afao-Ekiti, 2012 and 2013 respectively.

    A member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Chief Esan, was a member of the body of Benchers, the highest decision making organ of the legal Profession, between 1994 and 1997.

    In addition to serving as councilor between ’73 -76, the High Chief  Oisa of Afao-Ekiti,  Otun Bamofin of Ile-Oluji and the Bobasua of Iworoko also served as a member of the governing councils of both the Ondo State Polytechnic, 1984-1990, and the University of Ado-Ekiti, now Ekiti State University, from 1992-1993.

    Chief Esan, whose life is totally dedicated to the service of God and humanity, is married to Chief (Mrs.) Florence Bayode Esan J.P, his better half of over half a century, and the marriage is blessed with children, grand children and great grand children.

    Here’s wishing Chief Esan many more fruitful years in very robust health.

  • Nigeria in 2016: The moment of truth

    .  The president obviously believes Nigeria can spend its way out of a looming recession at a time we should be deliberately deflating the economy through massive cuts in cost of governance, reducing salaries and allowances across board and eliminating waste by drastically cutting back expenses on luxury items. 

    “The states face three tasks which present significant and debilitating obstacles to their economic revitalisation. First is that they all must regain fiscal sanity by ensuring that revenue matches expenditure. There must be massive cut in cost of governance and focus more on essential public services, particularly in public schools and primary health care delivery. Most states need to ramp up their internal revenue drive, achieve right balance between recurrent and capital budgets and seek to achieve value for money, avoid contract inflation and institute effective price monitoring and public procurement policies” – Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi

    Aan tan ra oni je i rure’ is a popular Ekiti saying which means you do not/can never, profit from self-deceit.  Unfortunately, that, precisely, is what has been happening here in Nigeria for ages but never as  deleterious  to our collective well-being  as when President Goodluck Jonathan’s men were ‘obtaining, siphoning and running’ the public purse dry, pilfering millions and billions  of naira, when poor Nigerian workers,  most of them on no more than a meagre  N18, 000 monthly  salary,  were being owed  for months  until  President  Muhammadu Buhari extended  a bailout  to  the states  and  approved  the restructuring of their humongous bank loans.  Worse  is that  the  Nigerian  Governors Forum is now toying with the idea  of  either reducing  that intangible salary or laying off workers with nary a word as to how they will  cut down on the stupendous cost of governance.

    To  further worsen matters,  the president,  in stimulating the  struggling economy  consequent  upon  collapsing oil prices , decided to go ballistic,  presenting a  N6.08 trillion ($30.8 billion) budget for  2016;  an increase of  20 percent  above that of 2015 and by a large measure, Nigeria’s biggest ever budget.  The deficit will, at N2.2 trillion, more than double that for 2015, representing 2.16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).  It projects a N1.84 trillion borrowing, half of it expected to come from outside.  The president obviously believes Nigeria can spend its way out of a looming recession at a time we should be deliberately deflating the economy through massive cuts in cost of governance, reducing salaries and allowances across board and eliminating waste by drastically cutting back expenses on luxury items.

    I am the farthest person from Economics but I have the word of the prodigious Professor Sam Aluko of blessed memory to the effect that there is nothing without an alternative. He said that some three decades ago as Ibrahim Babangida was dribbling the entire country with his SAP programme. This time around too, it  appears  President Buhari has failed to inject the right antidote to  an economy that is guaranteed to worsen  given  the  way  oil prices  continue to  crash. The ideal paradigm out of the looming economic crises should have been, in addition to those already mentioned, developing alternative sources of revenue e.g.  Solid Minerals, Agriculture and Innovation;  investing  maximally in infrastructure procurement and  emphasising  human capital  development especially  in the sciences and  other  selected areas. The budget should have encouraged social infrastructural development: building of schools and colleges, hospitals, providing increased access to pipe borne water and establishing farm settlements  where the  use of  the latest  equipments  will be the norm. These and more Chief Obafemi Awolowo did in the then Western Region to great effect, culminating in the highly justified slogan: First in Africa, given the region.. Unfortunately, as you read this, even Niger Delta, on which the country depended for its survival for years, remains almost completely  denuded  of  these  infrastructural and social facilities. What  we  have seen, instead  are, amongst others:  proposals to buy a fleet  of new exotic cars for the Presidency – BMW cars for principal officers costing about  N3,630,000,000, N189.1m  for tyres for various types of vehicles – bulletproof and plain Mercedes Benz cars, Toyota cars, trucks, Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles , Prado SUVs, Hilux pick-up vans, Peugeot 607 and 406 cars etc .

    You can only begin to imagine all these in a budget that has the highest ever deficit in our history; one that should be encouraging productivity rather than consumption. This, for me, is wrong headed given the country’s present economic circumstances. Those who were happy that  the National Assembly budget was being reduced by a whooping N5B would now know they were simply being had. You get the real import of this misstep when the dire straits in the states are factored into the discussion. As you read this, it has been reported that 11 states would not be able to pay workers’ salaries last December but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  As Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi painted it in his wide ranging interview from which came the epigram to this article, below is the reality in the states:” The problem of states is beyond cash depletion. The cash flow crisis in states is suggestive of a prolonged inability of state governments to address the structural imbalances in their annual budgets. Like the federal government, many states have no medium or long- term economic plans that can form the basis for annual budget. Consequently, this has led to inefficient spending both in recurrent and capital budgets. Most of the capital investments are in non-revenue assets that stimulate economic activities therefore tying down state funds without a substantial current cash returns. These include unviable airports, stadia, state capital beautification, palatial government houses, dualisation of roads to nowhere and governors’ lodges in Abuja”.

     He was not done:

    “Additional bridging loans, federal  bailout or the conversion of bank loans into long term bonds, do nothing to solve the state’s underlying structural imbalance between revenue and spending.  Rather, to address the fundamental budget problem, states must develop long-term, realistic plans to correct their chronic structural budget imbalance. Any short or long term borrowing, including bonds, to address the states’ deficit without dealing with structural fiscal imbalance would only further increase the already high debt burden of states”.

    With  our states in this economic conundrum, and the federation being an aggregate of the states, the following are the  minimum steps  I think President  Buhari  should  waste no time in bringing to the front burner of political engagement  if Nigeria  is not to remain, like forever, on this revolving barber’s chair; presaging a thoroughly uncertain future:

    1. An urgent re-arrangement of the country which will allow states undertake only those things they can conveniently afford. For instance, it is not only anachronistic that Federal authorities negotiate salaries with workers on behalf of states; it is the height of the illogic, that states, irrespective of their financial standing, pay same salary to their workers. Otherwise, some workers will remain unpaid for upwards of 12 calendar months and, like former Governor Suswan of Benue, governors would be right in saying that they cannot print money. And, by the way, a new revenue formula is a desideratum. With  synergy between the executive and the legislature, the proposed  re-arrangements should not be an impossible task. Senator Adetunmbi elegantly put what the states should do as follows: “States must of necessity right-size their public service; this could mean all or a combination of shedding jobs, outsourcing, cutting pay, trimming benefits and other creative ideas. There are models for managing labour unions during such drastic reforms to ensure collaborative rather than antagonistic labour relations. Singapore did it and interested states can draw from that experience. In most Nigerian states, public service to population ration is as low as 0.2 per cent to the highest of three per cent in Zamfara and Bayelsa respectively. Yet, the public service consumes 60-120 per cent of total revenue in some states”. This state of affairs is most unfair to majority of the citizenry who have no decent jobs of their own as it completely hinders infrastructural and social development.
    2. In case this is not feasible in the short run, salaries and allowances, across board, that is, from the lowest worker to the President, should be reduced progressively by between 10-40 per cent. Whoever cannot survive on that should simply resign his/her position.

    Nigeria has walked this accursed route for far too long with nothing tangible to show for it. Most Nigerians know that our present circumstances call for a daring do,  and that should we miss it  now, under about the only Nigerian many believe, with considerable justification, can be our Moses, we would most probably have lost it forever and it may soon be to your tents O Israel..

  • About some Nigerian demons (2015)

    About some Nigerian demons (2015)

    Why the Igbo would be more pained by President Jonathan’s electoral loss than the Ijaw nation completely beats my imagination.

    It will be worth our while, this last Sunday of the year of our Lord 2015, to recall some words that speak to the very depths of some of our country’s many demons. Before  that, however, let me, most profoundly, thank my very dedicated readers, beginning from those  with whom I started, gingerly, a decade ago in the COMET newspapers, and those who have since joined us on the voyage. Without mincing words, you have not only been wonderful, your being ever there has been a source of great encouragement to do this unfailingly, week in, week out. Certainly not as easy as it seems, and, not a few of you have, indeed, suggested that the offerings on these pages be committed into a book; something which, God willing, could see the light of day in 2016. If that happens, you will, of course, be a ringside guest at the public presentation. In its relatively short life, the column has never held back from talking truth to power, nor can I ever forget an entire Ekiti Council of Obas, under the then chairmanship of the Alaaye of Efon-Ekiti, calling an emergency meeting of the council a bare 48 hours after an article, critical of some of its members, appeared on these pages. Members  not only threatened fire  and brimstones, they were, in fact,  going to sue,  until a distinguished, learned member, indeed a former Chief Judge of the state, told them that would be an exercise in futility as  there was nothing to sue for in an article  in which  the author cleverly praised the entire council to high heavens. Of course, more critical articles were aimed at even the federal government. The interesting thing though, is that none of such articles was adversarial; rather they were intended to point some people in the path of rectitude. Although the column declared, unabashedly, long before he emerged APC’s presidential candidate that Nigeria needs Muhammadu Buhari more than the obverse, it will not think twice, if there is justified cause, to call the President’s attention to any faux pas. That will just be in the columnist’s character.

    Here then are some of those words on marble

    “A good politician needs not be an intellectual but he should be able to explain without seeking to seduce; he should humbly look for the truth of this world without claiming to be its professional owner; character and integrity should be more important to him than academic brilliance; he should alert people to the good qualities in themselves, including a sense of the values and interests which transcend the personal, without giving himself an air of superiority and imposing anything on his fellow humans; he should not yield to the dictate of public moods or of the mass media, while never hindering a constant scrutiny of his actions – Dr John Kayode Fayemi in:  Intellectuals in Politics-African perspectives (Accra, Ghana, July, 2015)

    “* Incontrovertibly, Bishop Kukah has lost it. It is tragic that some people can’t purge themselves of their innate weaknesses. That a man is acknowledged as a good public speaker is not a licence to profess divisive tendencies. Barely six months into a new administration and with the sordid revelations, I expected Kukah, a member of the National peace Committee, to propose a more reasonable approach to the subject of human rights. Some people waited out the terrible marginalization of the Jonathan administration. The Yoruba, for instance, was pushed to the wall but survived it. This time  around, when all hands are on deck to reposition a nation that was brought down on its knees by  Kukah’s friends, he is now supporting someone who has given more hate speeches against non Igbo ethnic groups than was recorded in the build up to the Rwandan genocide.

    One thing stands out here: the President’s resilience to allow democracy at its fullest. If this blackmail is about demands for appointments, it is another misguided adventure to destroy the Igbo political future. Very soon, the sponsors of the insurgence will be unmasked. Already, the Sultan and some Emirs have tried their best to ensure that there are no reprisal attacks after mosques were attacked and a Dangote vehicle destroyed somewhere in the East.  We expected Kukah to use that occasion to join in the plea for peaceful approach to individual or group agitations. Certainly, this Kukah has gone beyond Catholicism. He is now absolutely self serving. Since that Presidential debate, where he could not hide his disdain for Buhari, till now, it is obvious his motive is beyond Biblical traditions. His is now cassock ethnocentrism. The Catholic Church remains a vibrant institution for justice, peace and development. The Church has never compromised. More than any other religious institution, it has remained exemplary in terms of timely, appropriate and constructive engagements on issues of governance and peoples’ rights. This profile is  far too salutary than be permitted to  be stained  by anybody, even a Bishop –  Dr Sikiru Eniola on Bishop Matthew Kukah’s  support for  Kanu  on his  hate- spewing  agitation for a state of Biafra (December, 2015)

    As if the  writer, a university don, were a prophet, the sponsors are already unmasking themselves as  some Igbo leaders, in a classical demonstration of  the quip that we  never learn  from history  except as tragedy,  showed  up this past week,  Ojukwu-like  again,  leading  a landlocked Igbo against its own best interests. Under  a retired Justice Eze Ozobu-led  governing council,  with Dr Dozie Ikedife, Brig. Gen. Joe Achuzia, yes, the same Achuzia of the Biafran war fame, Eze Iheanyi  Nwokenna and others as members,  rather than counsel their restless youth,  announced the formation  of  what they called a  CUSTOMARY GOVERNMENT of Indigenous People of Biafra  which they,  very disingenuously, conflates with the establishment of Sharia,  a religious tenet, in the North a few years ago. In this their government, they claim to have ministries and liaison offices in all parts of an indeterminate Biafra land – the current  Biafra map spreads as far as Igala land  and  includes the entire  South south despite the disclaimer by the Rivers State government.  Yet they claim not infringing on any Nigerian laws. Now that some Igbo elders are sowing the wind, one hopes that before the entire Igbo race again begins to reap the whirlwind, others, especially their elected officials, will point them in the path of rectitude. Why the Igbo would be more pained by President Jonathan’s electoral loss than the Ijaw nation completely beats my imagination. It, however, speaks more to self-love than any sympathy for the former President  – who has since responsibly settled down into  respectful international engagements –  as if these people were living on planet Mars when Igbos and their extracts  were ministers of the most powerful ministries and headed more than 90 per cent of Nigeria’s regulatory agencies.

    “A country which cannot refine its own crude oil, produce electricity from gas which it flares or produce toothpick from wood, certainly does not deserve to have credit/debit cards that function outside its borders. It is that simple – A commentator on CBN’s Ban on the Use of Naira Credit and Debit Cards Abroad (December, 2015)

    “We live in a society that hardly employs scientific methods in the advancement of its national well being. When Obama came to power he promised that the US would cease to be at the mercy of oil producers before the end of his tenure. Today, the US is a net exporter of oil. This was achieved through a scientific programme, driven by appropriate government policies  which led to the production of more fuel efficient vehicles, the development of technologies that  enhanced prospecting for hydrocarbons at deeper levels under the ground, and processing of sand oil that has hitherto been regarded as commercially unviable. Here in Nigeria, those in authority think only of sharing money, rather than using our resources to mobilise the productive and creative energies of our people for development. No wonder we are now falling on our faces in our dependence on a resource whose exploration and processing we have made no conscious effort to master. Compare, for instance, the NNPC with PETROBRAS, its Brazilian counterpart, and get a picture of the utter cluelessness of our political leadership – Ayo Omowumi on why Nigeria remains consigned to underdevelopment. (December, 2015)

    Till we meet in 2016, God willing, here is wishing all a Happy New Year.

  • The North and Dasukigate

    The North and Dasukigate

    But talking of Nigerian courts is another kettle of fish entirely where it concerns the north which, incidentally, controls the judiciary a full hundred percent – the CJN, the President of the Court of Appeal, even the Attorney-General of the Federation are all from the north, one reason we are having a rash of calls for properly restructuring the country.

    I ask, as you begin to read this article, to pay more premium on its therapeutic purpose, rather than see the columnist as an unreconstructed ethnic jingoist, trying to further widen the gaps between our many ethnic groups. That said,  why is it so easy for  the average northerner, from  what we  have seen,  time and again, and the one now unfolding, menacingly,  before our very faces, to go after, and luxuriate,  in unearned opulence, mostly funds  from public sources to which they usually collectively like to  assume a legitimate claim? Or who would forget the late Kano State governor,  Barkin Zuwo, in a hurry?  As at now, and still counting, the following northern  ‘who is who’, have been implicated in the nauseatingly unravelling  Dasukigate – and there must be many more from where these ones come from: Col Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser, a  former Minister of State, Finance, Bashir Yuguda,  ex-Director  of Finance, ONSA, Shuabu Salihu, former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, for whom  the PDP laid a red carpet as President Jonathan welcomed him into that party, a former Executive Director of NNPC, Aminu Babakusa, and the governor’s son, Sagir Attahiru. Not satisfied, they even brought in their companies to partake of the bazaar which, left to Dasuki, should all have gone to northerners like himself. And, of course, you still can bet your last dime that we are yet going to have the names of a retinue of Alhajis and Alhajas whose daily job is no tougher than merely visiting the office of the National Security Adviser to be loaded with unearned money while millions of Nigerians from other parts of the country slave away in the hot African sun, not knowing where the next meal would come from. These things happen when a people have no shame; just as it speaks to an excessive cronyism. For instance, all the ONSA staff mentioned in this shameless scam are from the north as if it were a family business. These things can only happen in a culture that worships money and would do just about anything to amass it, no matter how earned. There are, of course, still a good number of decent northerners who abhor this type of public shame even as we appreciate the fact that those named are innocent until proven guilty before the law. But talking of Nigerian courts is another kettle of fish entirely where it concerns the north which, incidentally, controls the judiciary a full hundred percent – the CJN,  the President of the Court of Appeal, even the  Attorney-General of the Federation are all from the north, one reason we are having a rash of calls for properly restructuring  the country.  One critical Institution of state the status quo in the judiciary has negatively impacted, over the years, is our electoral system. So bad was the unfair use to which some northern elements put it that on 9 May, 2010, in an article captioned: THE HAMMER VERDICT, (a play on the judge’s name), I wrote as follows: ” . . .the meeting was subsequently informed that the then President of the Court of Appeal -a Katsina man, -who empanelled the Election Tribunals in cahoots with the presidency,  which another Katsina man heads – had  taken the opportunity to plant malleable, and thoroughly pliable northern judges in the electoral tribunals holding in the South-West, even appointing them chairmen, to ensure that the Southwest remains tied to the apron strings of the feudal north. Consequent upon this, the three, then on-going tribunals in Ogun, Osun and Ekiti, all had three northern members, among them, naturally, the Chairman.  Of the three tribunals, only the result of Osun is being awaited with the two already declared going in favour of the PDP. (As expected, Osun was later declared for the PDP only for both Ekiti and Osun results to be reversed at the Appeal Court). It is hoped that the ongoing ‘name and shame’, of otherwise respected northerners would teach appropriate lessons if they want Nigerians from other parts to accord the north its deserved respect.

    The time to start that change of heart should be now that we are laying the building blocks of the new Nigeria we are now eagerly constructing under the sterling lead of General Muhammadu Buhari, incidentally a northerner, a Nigerian Army General, former Head of State, as well as former chairman, Petroleum Trust Fund, who not only does not own a petrol station, but would most probably not recognise an oil block if he sees one. You appreciate this rather unbelievable Nigerian ‘exemplarism’ when you remember that some of his former colleagues, even juniors, now live in hilltop mansions, in stinking opulence, far away from the Nigerian hoi polloi.  Northern leaders, emirs, top political leaders, clerics, as well as their several socio-political organisations would be doing Nigeria a great favour if they would not attempt to pressure the president into allowing those complicit in this heist to have any soft landing whatever.  The possibility has already been floated and although we think Nigerians know President Buhari well enough, there  must be a limit to which he can stand up to such pressure, especially from the high and mighty, some of who he may personally have high regards for.  It must, however, be poignantly told the president that if he collapses, and buckles to any such entreaties and he would have written off his place in history, which God forbids.  Today, the world over, people remember  Turkey’s  Mustafa  Kemal Ataturk,  just  as the world is celebrating Lee Kuan YEW,  the man who took  Singapore  from the Third, to the First world; incidentally the title of his magnum opus. I personally believe that it is too late in the day for a spartan Muhammadu Buhari to have his integrity compromised. Which is why it was good to read from highly regarded northern leaders like Professor Ango Abdullahi, chairman, Northern Elders Forum, and Ibrahim Coomassie, his counterpart at the Arewa Consultative Forum, both expressing support for the president’s anti-corruption war and, emphatically disclaiming any intent to prevail on the president to soft pedal. Not a few Nigerians have poured cold water on these public disclaimers but, because of their own integrity, and the many ways these things can detract from the respect due the north, as I have dutifully tried to show in this piece, one can only hope that these leaders will not, themselves, fall into the tempting hands of the PDP people who would do anything to save their arses.  The north must realise that those named are certainly not the type of ambassadors they should want to see as the face of the outstanding legacies of the Uthman Dan Fodio’s, the Ahmadu Bello’s or even the Tafawa Balewa’s.  Although President Shehu Shagari was, in the NPN, surrounded by about the worst specimen of humanity, from all parts of the country, he served and left with his personal integrity intact. No self-respecting elder, who loves the north, should be seen interceding for these illegal bounty sharers.

    To further persuade any would-be peace-makers – these men do not even deserve a plea bargain – they should understand that anybody benefiting financially from funds which should have been spent, equipping our fighting forces, could never have wanted to see an end to the murderous Boko Haram scourge. The result then is that these people are, one way or the other, vicariously responsible for the thousands of murders by  Boko Haram, responsible for the fate of millions of our compatriots currently uprooted from their homes and living as internally displaced refugees in their own country. They should ponder the fate of thousands of widows and orphans who no longer have anybody to turn to as bread winner. We can only imagine what future awaits these compatriots of ours, victims of corrupt men in power, who would rather lay their ugly hands on monies that never belonged to them. They showed no mercy and should receive none. Nigeria needs money no doubt, but so do we need to teach our youth abiding moral lessons.

    Whoever is found guilty must go to jail. They must have their comeuppance.

  • Still on corruption and other matters

    The former president certainly sinned against God, and humanity when, knowing how he had allowed a complete misapplication of funds meant for properly kitting the soldiers, he still permitted the trial, and sentencing to death, of 54 soldiers who, without  requisite  arms, were sent to recapture Delwa, Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram. 

    Nigerians have been traumatised to no end, listening to the unbelievable revelations emanating from the $2.1billion Armsgate. No thanks to an outrageously weak President Goodluck Jonathan who, believing that his re-election superseded everything else, failed miserably to exhibit the expected level of responsibility over his six-year rule even though nobody has said he profited a penny. The former president certainly sinned against God, and humanity when, knowing how he had allowed a complete misapplication of funds meant for properly kitting the soldiers, he still permitted the trial, and sentencing to death, of 54 soldiers who, without  requisite  arms, were sent to recapture Delwa, Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram. Without a doubt, their commander, Lt.-Col. Opurum, would most probably have led them to a certain death; a death they finally escaped because the redoubtable Femi Falana SAN, agreed to represent them at the General Court Martial to which they were hounded even when the military high command knew that PDP bigwigs had shared the money meant for arms and ammunition. It is equally unforgivable that, for exposing this evil, then President Goodluck Jonathan masterminded the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and caused that unfortunate state untold political upheavals which, however, happily saw to the unmasking of the true progressive credentials of a once highly regarded Nuhu Ribadu.

    Many of those named in this murderous Armsgate have since been hauled before the courts but missing from the charges is their core crime: that of mass murder of Nigerian soldiers and others, young and old. The onus to prove otherwise must now be placed squarely in their hands. From the depth of their deprivations, Nigerians are beginning to talk on this and a cocktail of other issues, particularly  via the social media; the same medium which rankles our senators so much they would rather banish or criminalise it.

    Here are samples of what Nigerians are talking about.

     CORRUPTION

    “Like I did say, you don’t need rocket science to fight corruption. What we need is political will. There is a saying that a tree does not make a forest. But if you remove some trees from the forest, the forest will feel it. I have said it times without number that we don’t need to treat the issue of corruption with kid gloves. Nigerian elite are very funny. Nigerian elite love their freedom. When you accuse him of corruption, if he is actually corrupt, he will play one of two cards. He will play ethnic or religious card: ‘O! I’m being persecuted because I’m this. Oh! I’m being persecuted because of my religion. Oh! I’m being persecuted because I don’t belong to the ruling party.’ But there is one thing Nigerian elite fear, they don’t want to die. If you get two or three public officers punished by tying them to the stake before shooting, I can assure you that corruption will stop. We have had that experience in this country. When two or three people were shot for drug pushing, throughout the 18-month period of General Buhari, no single case of drug pushing was reported in Nigeria again. People who are stealing us blind are not up to one per cent of the population. We can afford to do away with them. We can afford to lose them. What you need is a state of honest people”-Niyi Akintola SAN.

    “It is only the very naive that holds the opinion of corruption hanging its hands by the sides when its existence is being threatened. To the corrupt, nothing matters, not human lives or anything whatever besides money and power. It is not important how many millions of Nigerians are lost to Boko Haram. Nor do the tens of hundreds that are lost due to bad roads. Agents of corruption do not care about the shameful high maternal mortality and childhood mortality rates in Nigeria. The decline in our Health Care Delivery System is of no concern to them. After all, at tax payers’ expense, they and their families have access to high quality health care anywhere in the world.

    “Our education is in shambles. It continues its downward slide year after year. Agents of corruption are not interested in the least. Their children and wards have high quality education, paid for with proceeds of corruption. The war on corruption is a war that must be won. No one should be above the law. Anyone who acquires wealth through dubious means or by abusing people’s trust must be made to pay back and be punished. It is irrelevant how powerful they think they are. Nigeria is greater than all of us. It is a shame that these rogue politicians and their collaborators are allowed to continue to exploit our docility” -Mama (Dr) Adebimpe Okunade -Retired university teacher.

    We have to thank God for little mercies. But for his love for Nigeria that made a regime change possible, despite all the road blocks, these revelations would not have seen the light of day and we would have been no wiser. While innocent civilians together with hundreds of our hapless soldiers in the North East were ‘sharing blood’ (apologies Madam P.) under imminent strangulation by Boko Haram, the PDP people were busy SHARING the bounty:  money meant to defend them.  Honestly, l struggle to take in some of these things -wondering how people appointed to serve could, together with their crooked allies, descend to this level of debauchery! Someone should by DEED POLL change PDP name to Peoples Sharing Party of Nigeria.

    Rawlings on my mind! – Dr Biodun Adu, Consultant, O& G.

     

    ON THE KOGI ELECTION CONUNDRUM

    “The conclusion which I have reached is not that I have, by any stretch of the construction of any of the provisions of the laws cited by counsel, affirm the correctness of the decision of the first defendant (INEC) to declare the election as inconclusive and, or affirm the validity of the supplementary election scheduled for 5 December, 2015” – Mr Justice Gabriel Kolawole.

    ON THE ANTI PEOPLE SOCIAL MEDIA BILL

    “Because ISIS is recruiting massively through the internet, Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, two of the aspirants in the forthcoming U.S Presidential election, want some parts of the internet shut down for security reasons. Our senators here in Nigeria, for outlandishly selfish reasons, are clamouring for the same thing just so they can prevent the disclosure of their wayward ways, among them their incredibly huge quarterly allowances. Even with oil prices now below $40.  However, despite the security-related reasons driving the suggestion in the U.S, it is still a non starter. Conversely, our senators, with a once-upon a one-time activist, Dino Melaye, as its chief  motivator,  even if as a bag man, are insisting on passing a law to criminalise the Social Media in Nigeria. We pray they go ahead (for) it will turn out to be their very nemesis.

    The link below provides an insight into the US proposal.

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/technology/shut-down-internet-donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?emc=edit_ct_20151210

    &nl=personaltech&nlid=55524476&referer=

    We are getting to year end, and, just so I don’t burden my readers with all these truly depressing post- Goodluck Jonathan revelations and thereby spoil their weekend, please come with me as I serve you this wisecrack from the distinguished Professor Michael Omolewa: scholar, diplomat and education historian who served, between September 2003 and October 2005, as the 32nd President of the General Conference of the  UNESCO, Paris.

    Mike -as friends call him – regaled me with it at a marriage engagement at which we were both guests at the weekend.

    A monkey, he said, observing people dancing and spraying money at a party offered to give one of the merry makers N50, 000. She refused everybody until it was the turn of a Nigerian university professor. There was a caveat though. The would-be beneficiary would have to answer two questions and ask the monkey one.

     

    Dialogue:

    Monkey: What is your name?

    Professor: XYZ (omitting to mention Professor)

    Monkey, all smiles, agrees to give him the N50, 000.

    Everybody claps, congratulating the Professor.

    Second Round of Questions

    Monkey: What do you do?

    Professor: I am a Nigerian university Professor

    Monkey starts to weep

    Third Round of Questions and the Professor’s turn

    Professor: Would you join us in the university?

    Monkey: Weeping bucketfuls now, monkey, holding tight to her money, fled back into the bush.

    I am still laughing.