The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • Presumptive nominee Kamala Harris: a truly historic development

    Presumptive nominee Kamala Harris: a truly historic development

    “We agree with President Biden. Choosing Kamala was one of the best decisions he’s made. She has the resume to prove it. But Kamala has more than a resume. She has the vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands. There is no doubt in our mind that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people. At a time when the stakes have never been higher, she gives us all reason to hope.” – The Obamas, Barrack and Michelle, endorsing Kamala Harris

    For the third straight week, this column will be dealing with the U.S Presidential election just as it hopes to continue to devote considerable time to the election due, Tuesday, 5 November 2024.

    This is not only because of the world-wide attention U.S elections normally elicit, but because of the aggravated, existential danger  former U.S President, Donald Trump, poses.

    While he alone, is enough danger not only to America but to the world at large, Heritage Foundation’s PROJECT 2025 has so  exacerbated Trumpism that it has rendered the man, after who it takes its name, worse than Hitler; the very name his Vice Presidential candidate, J.D Vance, called him before he ate crow.

    To know who Hitler was, you only have to remember who was responsible for the death of “some 75 million people, including about 20 million military personnel, and 40 million civilians, many of who died as a result of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings and disease”, during World War11, 1939 – 45.

    Trump is capable of far worse, seeing how he romanticises the few remaining tyrants around the  world.

    He does not believe himself second to any living human being and has, severally, shown that he cares nothing about   NATO.

    The fear of a Trump Second coming, with Project 2025 canvassing a total remodelling of America as its underpinning philosophy,  presently grips all Americans, except the captives of his MAGA colony, amongst who are those who trooped to the Capitol on January 6, 2020, intent on staging a Democratic coup.

    These are the factors energising the Harris campaign, eventuating in a democratic surge that saw her garner  84 Million dollars the very first day, as well as  enabled her to get more than enough delegates to qualify as the presumptive nominee.

    What then are the chances of Harris winning in November?

    Let us first explore the circumstances that saw her to the pinnacle; a catalogue of events that can only be described as dramatic.

    It is a bitter/sweet experience which saw the literal political end of President Joe Biden who, without a scintilla of doubt will, forever, rank amongst the most consequential presidents in U.S history and the rise, and rise,  of Kamala Harris, the former  California Attorney – General and later senator who, unforgetably distinguished herself with her withering questioning of Trump Supreme Court pick,

    Brett Kavanaugh, during his 4- day grilling by the senate Judiciary committee between September 4 – 7, 2018.

    Van Jones, lawyer and political analyst, who served as President Barack Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs in 2009, described the day President Biden stepped aside, endorsing Harris, as a “sad day in America, describing Biden as a patriot and an American hero who towers above most

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    Democratic luminaries. He described the day as a “huge moment, a human moment when the President chose country above everything else”. He was close to tears, saying all these on CNN.

    For starters, President Biden’s endorsement of Harris has  torn to shreds, the air of melancholy that had enveloped democrats in the U.S and lovers of democracy all over the world, creating such a huge Democratic bounce which has, in turn, sent shivers to Trump and his associates. It is so bad for the Republicans they  are now trying to conjure all manner of legal impediments to upend Harris’ increasing popularity, as well as harrass President Biden with threats of impeachment.

    Loonies all.

    Harris acceptance by all sections of the Democratic party and the American society has gone sky-high, thus enabling her to set many  records in the history of Presidential contest in America.

    For instance, in an unprecedented feat, she grossed 84M the very first day to be added to the existing near quarter-of-a-billion dollar war chest already amassed this election cycle, an amount so huge Trump has started lying about Elon Musk promising to give him 45Million dollars per month, which the latter has  denied on television, calling it fake news.

    LEADERSHIP also reports that the Kamala Harris-themed memecoin, KAMA, has seen a dramatic surge in value, reaching a market capitalization of $24 million, reflecting the enthusiasm and support from the digital currency community.

    She also secured enough

    delegates within the shortest time ever recorded in a Presidential contest in America.

    Harris path to victory seems assured. With a VP candidate that will adequately fit the bill, the team should hit the ground running, targeting Black Americans, a

    vast majority of who trust her and distrust Donald Trump – 71% compared to 5% – according to the largest-known survey of Black Americans since the Reconstruction era.

    Her campaign has also energised dispirited Asian voters while she has to work harder on the Hispanics which President Biden was already losing.

    With Trump severally accused

     of sexual misconduct over the years and blamed for strict abortion curbs –

    and with him proudly saying:”I kill Roe V Wade” , Harris should be able to weaponise Trump’s ‘women problem’, and use it as a cudgel to punish him maximally.

    The entire Harris team should eagerly settle into what has been Kamala’s consuming passion: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH and ABORTION, letting every woman in America know that

     Trump is an enemy, ever so keen to tell the womenfolk what to do with their God – given body. They should let the Maga crowd know that

    Reproductive freedom is a  sine qua non.

    Among likely voters, Trump is at 48 percent to Harris’ 47 percent in a head-to-head matchup — narrowing the race to a virtual tie after Trump led Biden by six points when the same poll was taken in June.

    Another poll puts it at 49 per cent to Trump and 46  to Harris, both still within the margin of error.

    In a month’s time it should be possible to do a more compelling comparison of where both are, but with the massive enthusiasm driving the Harris campaign there can be no doubting the fact that Trump is on a journey too far.

  • Biden: Things getting messier as more ranking democrats ask him to step aside

    Biden: Things getting messier as more ranking democrats ask him to step aside

    Last week we dealt at some length with the confusion that has descended on the Democratic party, especially the Biden campaign, since his calamitous debate performance against Donald Trump on 27 June, 2024. Things have since gone south for both entities.

    Indeed, were  Donald Trump‘s would -be assassin, two weeks ago, a member of the Democratic party or had the incident happened in Nigeria, a mini World War 111 would, by now, have started in either country; in Nigeria, because of our highly toxic and atavistic politics. Happily it did not happen here and Thomas Matthew Crooks turned out a registered Republican though said to have once donated 15 dollars to a Democratic cause.

    A classmate who took a history class with him was reported to have told the Enquirer that he definitely was politically conservative, and wondered why “he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.

    The assassination attempt has now literally become history, remaining at best, a job for the security agencies and congress both of which would definitely probe deeper into the terrible security lapse.

    That has, once again, brought to the frontburner, the ‘civil war’ raging, and seemingly, consuming the Democratic party which has gone into a tailspin since President Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

    That situation has  been  exacerbated, indeed, terribly worsened, by the increasing number of ranking members of the party now asking the President to opt out lest he destroys the party at the November election at which he could perform so badly the party may lose the House which it hopes to retake.

    The timing of the internal crisis within the party is so terribly dispiriting to members coinciding, as it does, with a triumphant  Donald Trump – the same foul – mouthed, democracy – loathing brat, who last Thursday was uproariously ‘crowned’ as the Republican Party candidate for the November election, as usual, serially lying through his teeth and, ipso facto, making the night the best for the Democrats in three weeks.

    Trump, who had always categorised the election as one between strength and weakness, was all gaiety, in spite of his near death experience, while President Biden now walks with a noticeable difficulty; a situation certain to now worsen by the fact of his having contacted Covid -19.

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    He has been telling fellow democrats that the simple cure for his travails is for them to  “get out there and show the sceptics that he has what it takes to run for, and win, a second term” – an absolute chimera in a situation where Trump is leading him hugely in all the key states.

    Things are certainly not going Biden’s way at all.

    Rather, an increasing number of ranking democrats are  asking him to ship out. For instance, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi who had initially advised him to reconsider his position, is now reported to have privately told him that polls already show he cannot win, but  could, instead destroy the party’s chances of winning the House in November if he insists on contesting. Pelosi was said to have sought the assistance of Biden’s longtime adviser, Mike Denilon, in driving this message home while there’s still time for the party.

    Although it is being denied, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is also believed to have told him in unmistakable terms that he has to end his campaign now. Congressman  Adam Schiff, who is contesting the Senate election in California, has added his voice to those asking Biden to drop out of the race.

    Said Schiff, “while the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch and in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election”. Continuing, Schiff said: “our nation is at a crossroads and a second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of  our democracy and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November”. Adam Schiff is a close ally of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

    There is, however, an attempt by the Democratic National committee and, perhaps the Biden campaign, to fast track his formal nomination before August 7 in order not to run into any potential legal issues related to Biden’s ability to get on the ballot in Ohio, through a virtual endorsement, but a growing faction of the party believes that the President is too politically damaged to defeat Trump and has,  therefore, advised the DNC to perish the thought. It has been suggested that this could make a complete mess of the Chicago Democratic party convention slated for 19 August, 2024 as it could eventuate in an intraparty clash between those insistent on fast tracking the formal nomination and those against. According to a leading member of the faction opposed to a virtual roll call vote, the President is already so terribly politically compromised that were the election to hold today, Biden would be crushed. This faction just do not want President Biden at the top of their ticket because of the damage they say that could cause, not only to the party, but for the future of America in the hands of a Donald Trump and his Republican party – a party now completely made in his image – in control of both the  House and the Senate in addition to the presidency.

    Americans, not just members of the Democratic party, are worried stiff about a Trump Second term. Indeed, Europe can barely breathe, Ukraine in particular, with Trump’s Vice Presidential candidate, the  anti-Ukraine, pro -Israel and anti-China J.D Vance, already causing anxiety in Europe.

    For a certanty what the world saw of Donald Trump in his first term will be a child play compared to the ogre he is certain to become at his second coming – no thanks to Heritage Foundation’s PROJECT 2025.

    Organised with the aim of “promoting a collection of conservative and right -wing policy proposals to reshape the United states federal government and consolidate executive power in Donald Trump’s hands. Although he denies any link to them, many of his former staff are key members of Heritage Foundation. They are promoting totalitarianism under the lead of  Trump who has always wanted to be like Putin, Xi and  dictators in general. Trump campaign advisers are known to be in regular contact with the Foundation.

    Among other things, the  Project recommends the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants. It proposes deploying the military for domestic law enforcement and canvasses capital punishment and the speedy finality of any of the sentences arising from their recommendations. The plan, as is already being showcased by the U. S Supreme court, proposes a partisan control of the Department 0f Justice, the Federal Bureau of  Investigation, the Department of Commerce, the Federal c0mmunications commission and the Federal Trade commission. It recommends a complete dismantling of the Department of Homeland security. Project 2025 proposes abolishing Education whose programs would either be terminated completely or transferred to other agencies. Funding for climate research would be cut as it has no interest, whatever, in climate change. It also seeks to cut funding for Medicare and Medicaid.

    Such are the draconian recommendations of Project 2025 you would not but wonder where in hell its promoters came from.

    Critics have described all these as a programme of personal revenge and vendetta already being preached

    by Donald Trump, just as it is intended to undo most of President Biden’s achievements in office.

    I deliberately went to all this length about Project 2025 to show what extreme danger President Biden will be exposing, not only the U.S and the entire world, but his own place in the annals of U. S history to, if through his obduracy, and failure to hand over to a younger generation of Democrats as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi once did in the legislative branch, and thereby handed over America to a man  about who  J.D Vance, his  selfsame Vice Presidential pick, once called a ‘social heroine and Hitler’, he would, by himself, have written off his legacy of long and meritorious service to America in the course of which he suffered truly unforgettable personal tragedies.

    Yet as you read this, Biden still says he has not seen the compelling data to make him quit.

    My prayer is that the good Lord will guide him in making the choice that will not only edify him but be beneficial to America and humanity.

  • U.S Democratic Party: between the devil and the deep blue sea

    U.S Democratic Party: between the devil and the deep blue sea

    At the very beginning,Trump’s  own words: “You knew I was a snake before you let me in.” And during the last 7+ years, Trump has proven, unequivocally,  that he is not just a snake, but the first world-class criminal buffoon that every lover of Truth, Decency, and American Democracy…

    hates. Shyt! Why wouldn’t a well-practiced crook that has succeeded at its first desecration of the office of the POTUS think of itself as having an enhanced opportunity to steal the U.S. Presidency again? The GQP base is enthralled as a result of Trump recently

    admitting an intent to inflict retribution against pro-America in addition to pardoning his insurrectionist comrades. Of course, Trump feels that his evil mission can be completed, even moreso, now that he has successfully compromised Secret Service agents, FBI, Military Intelligence, CIA, the GOP, the not-so sCOTUS, and any impressionable entity that has ever shared space with an active demagogue”-Billy Johnson –

    These are trying times for the U. S Democratic party, torn as it is between retaining President Joe Biden as its candidate for the 2024 Presidential election and jettisoning him for another candidate who, it believes, would give Donald Trump the electoral fight of his life.

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    This situation arose as a result of  President Biden’s disastrous performance at the televised debate between him and former President Donald Trump who is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

    Apart from seeing it live, late as it was at 2 am Nigerian time on Thursday, 27 June, 2024, I watched it again on U-tube this past week, and I could not help pity the incumbent American President who still insists he would not quit.

    As early as the 9th minute of the debate,  President Biden has  become very uncomfortable, with former President Trump pummelling him with lies and wise cracks and would, in fact, soon poke fun at him concerning how inaudible  he had become.

    It was certainly not President Biden’s finest hour.

    He was not only listless, he seemed completely out of sync;  flummoxed.

    At the debate, Biden a slow speaker at the best of times, seemed dumbfounded and literally speechless – no thanks to a cough – as the ever loud and loquacious Trump shaded him  relentlessly many a Biden supporter must have tuned off.

    Since then the Democratic party which was already behind in opinion polls, has gone into  disarray, speaking with a thousand voices.

    President Joe Biden, born November 20, 1942

    and the 46th president of the United States (2021– ), was the 47th Vice President  (2009–17) in the  administration of President Barack Obama.

    As the 5th youngest U.S senator ever, Biden previously represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate(1973–2009).

    In April 2023 he formally announced his bid for reelection as president in 2024 and emerged the presumptive nominee garnering a total of  3896 delegates where he needed only 1,968 to win the nomination.

    But as a CNN report put it: “exactly two weeks after his incoherent and dazed debate performance, his  campaign went into a free fall”. “Every public event  turned into an excruciating examination of  his health, especially his cognitive capacity, during which any slip up, or confusion, could trigger political disaster”.

    As a result, many of those who have always had his back in his political battles, are fast thinning out – the likes of Hollywood impresario, and Democratic party mega donor, George Cloony.  Even

    former Speaker Nancy Pelosi  on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’, voiced a clear signal that the recalcitrant president should rethink his options.

    For party and country, many have argued, President Biden must  step aside while there is still time because the consequences of a Trump victory, for the Democratic party, the United States and the entire world, would be too dire  as he represents a clear existential danger to all these entities.

    Why Americans, especially his MAGA captive, has not seen Trump in his true colour baffles.

    Apart from having said severally that his second coming will be an all out revenge on those who ever tried to put the wayward old man on the path of rectitude, there is the demagogic  Project 2025 which would render America an uncanny image of Putin’s Russia, if not worse.

    Of course, Trump has always venerated, if not envied, the likes of Putin, Xi Jing Ping, Kim Jong Un and the like.

    The greatest fear in America today, especially within the Democratic party, is that Trump can so defeat President Biden, indeed, effortlessly chalk up a landslide  that could “sweep conservatives to a monopoly on power in Congress, in the White House and at the Supreme Court” which the conservatives could then hold on to till the next century.

    “Right now, everything is frozen”, commented a worried observer, as donors hold back dollars as a consequence of fears over Biden’s cognitive acuity; wondering that even if he wins in November, will his health hold up for another 4 years.

    It is not being suggested here that there aren’t others rooting for  the President, no matter how decapitated, believing that he is the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.

    Truth be told though, of all those being speculated to replace Biden, people like Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, Carlifornia governor,

    Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary, Buttigieg and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, except now that the name of Michelle Obama is  being seriously suggested, only VP Kamala Harris polls better than Trump.

    Atop Biden’s group of supporters is his wife,  Jill Biden, who is rooting for him all the way. There are also a slew of Congressmen jauntily supporting his candidature.

    Among them Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Biden ally and campaign co-chair, who told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, point blank, that Biden would be the nominee at the convention. He went further: He is going to be our candidate in the fall. He is going to be the next president of the United States.”

    In like manner, Sen. John Fetterman, who represents the key swing state of Pennsylvania, told CNN “that it would be a disgrace to discard and push out an amazing president”.

    He promised to show up at Thursday’s Senate Democratic meeting, like WWE’s Logan Paul, ‘armed’ with brass knuckles to defend Biden.

    Biden’s trouble, however, remains exacerbated by the fact that many  democrats, and Americans too, listening to voters and reading polling data in their respective states are already concluding that Biden, not only can’t win, but — as Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet put it: “could hand Trump the landslide he  would use to implement his authoritarian agenda”.

    Concluding, all the above not withstanding, Americans are a very difficult people to predict.

    When you add to that the fact that Trump is a very dangerous individual, even without him promising revenge, Americans may actually come to prefer President Biden in November.

    Signals to that effect came from the following report from npr.org this past week:”

    After Biden’s debate performance, the presidential race is unchanged”.

    “The race for the presidency remains statistically tied despite President Biden’s dismal debate performance two weeks ago, a new national NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds”.

    “Biden actually gained a point since last month’s survey, which was taken before the debate. In this poll, he leads Trump 50% to 48% in a head-to-head matchup”.

    Therefore, the election is an absolutely dicey game and the Democratic party has to factor in those great POSITIVES – CHARACTER & MORALS – that Biden has over and above former President Trump in making its final decision on whether President Biden stays or not.

  • Oil block licensing and domestic investors: Nigeria has a lot of catching – up to do

    Oil block licensing and domestic investors: Nigeria has a lot of catching – up to do

    Femi Dada to whom I am yielding the column today is a consulting project development and energy geologist whose time in the  public service was, at a point, coterminus   with that of the rambunctious President Olusegun Obasanjo who literally swore not to listen to any adviser.

    Doubt that? Then listen to inimitable Chief Phillip Asiodu, an exemplar Nigerian public servant, in

     interview titled ‘Where Nigeria Went Wrong’: “After the 1999 presidential election, I became Economic Adviser under President Obasanjo who did not satisfy the requirements to be the  PDP candidate in 1999 because to become a candidate you must win your ward,  local government and state which he did not. After his election as President, he appointed me his Chief Economic Adviser together with three deputies of the rank of Ministers- of- State.

    I urged him to let us implement Vision 2010″. The country was literally at his feet.

    But he refused.

    If he had agreed, and started, by the time he was leaving  office in 2007, Nigerian economy would have attained a growth rate of no less than 10% per annum and the government would have  become so popular National Assembly members would not have had the temerity to vote enormous perquisites for themselves; emoluments far above the recommendations of the Revenue Mobilisation And Fiscal Commission ( RMAFC), all because of his second term ambition for which he needed their support”.

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    The same fate befell the recommendations of the Femi Dada – led ‘Team Bitumen Project’ which his government would not touch even after key officials of government had accompanied him (the President) to Venezuela for Bilateral Discussions on Bitumen, Petroleum and Palm oil research on the side-lines of an OPEC-Meeting.

    Dada’s relevance here today derives from the ugly scenario in our oil ecosystem which has not improved much in ages. Indeed, as you read this, NNPCL is being probed by a committee of the  National Assembly in respect of some curious oil subsidy claim.

    Dada has some advice which should, hopefully,  prove useful now that another round of bidding for oil blocs is  ongoing.

    It is for that purpose he authored the piece below on the above topic.

    Happy reading.

    A major bane of oil administration in this country is the belief in government circles that Nigeria can always run major policy issues the Nigerian way.

    No way.

    There is an international template which, if Nigeria wants to succesfully compete in the international market, it must, willy nilly, embrace and adhere to.

    Time there was when Nigerian oil bidding rounds were so opaque, oil blocks were awarded to people, if not in their bedrooms, then in their wife’s hair saloons from where the allotees now go shopping around the  globe, hawking their prized bonanza, in search of buyers.  They then collect their commision, ready to ‘chop life’ to their heart’s content.

    That became the story of the Nigerian oil business and it got reported all over the world, thoroughly messing up the country’s reputation.

    This is not to suggest that this opacity was unique to Nigeria.  For instance there was the Guinean Minister  who was reported to have taken a $10 million bribe from a Chinese company on an iron-ore bid. He was alleged to have  moved it, first to some Far-East banks, and finally to a US bank where he was promptly arrested for money laundering.

    As long as these corrupt practices continue, Nigerian or even African oil and mineral assets will not be competitive on the international market.

    It is hoped that by now the relevant Nigerian policy makers would have turned a new leaf and that in her ongoing oil bloc bidding rounds, especially as it concerns domestic investors, openness and transparency will be the guiding principles.

    With the benefit of hindsight, it is a  pity that Nigeria lost the opportunity, especially in those hey-days of oil development, to use her oil resources to meaningfully diversify its economy like her contemporaries in the Gulf states.

    Indeed, when recently Saudi Aramco was re – engineered, what followed was that it was ‘floated on the stock market’ where its shares were heavily subscribed. Nigeria has never done anything close to that; not even after the passage of the much hyped Petroluem Industry (PIA) Bill which was held up in the National Assembly for years. There is an informed opinion out there now that the PIA must be given a fresh look to have it   cleaned up to international standards, and have the NNPCL listed on the Nigerian stock market where Nigerians, in their millions, can invest  rather than let it be captive to some rapacious nigerian politicians.

    Had Nigeria taken advantage of her ‘sweet crude oil assets’ in the past, even if only to train for its manpower needs in oil technology,  Nigeria would today, most probably be a leader in the production of clean end products. And in a world now very conscious of the consequences of climate change, her products in gas, and condensates would by now have tremendous market advantage.

    Rather than that, her highly hyphed LNG market is  barely pulling its weight, especially as a result of incessant political interference. Only this past  the National Assembly was trying its damnest to apply  pressure on such a critical, and strategic economic sector, which is currently battling with its trains 7-8, whereas its contemporaries – those which started at about the same time – are already on trains 14-15.

    Also, let us imagine, for instance, a situation where Nigeria becomes a hub for Aviation fuel, even if only in the West African sub region, won’t that have made a huge difference in our present, extremely parlous economic circumstances?

    Unfortunately, policy flip flops in the Nigerian oil industry will never permit that.

    All am saying here is that Nigeria cannot continue to manage her oil resources as of old and expect any positive returns. People are now even asking questions as to what portion, if any, of the Nigerian crude now truly belongs to her. This question came up  recently after the authorities of Dangote Refinery alerted Nigerians to the bad politics of the IOC’s. Or how come such a huge local investment is being spurned, not only by the oil oligarchs but also by the federal government which, according to Dangote Refinery sources, continues to issue licences for the importation of products they now produce locally?

    The time has come for our oil policy makers to change as what happens in the oil industry has huge implications for both our security, and survival, as a nation going forward. Nor is time, any longer, on our side – not with the current climate change awareness permeating the entire world.

    I say all  these  conscious of the new extension of Nigeria’s continental shelf assets. To derive maximum benefit from this new asset, Nigeria must clean up and be totally committed to upholding  international standards, especially now that domestic investors are boldly venturing into  the Nigeria oil sector.

  • It is good that states have countersued on local government autonomy

    It is good that states have countersued on local government autonomy

    Funny enough,  some people, including some APC members, are clamouring for local government autonomy which will take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is. There is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. In the U.S where we copied democracy from, their counties don’t go to  Washington  to collect money directly.

    Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system it wants. That is what is called true federalism”. –Governor Charles Soludo at Platform Nigeria 24, a programme by a Lagos-based church, Covenant Nation, to mark the 2024 Democracy Day.

    I haven’t the slightest shame confessing that Democracy Day 24 was the first time I completely sat through any of Platform Nigeria’s events.  And was it worth it?

    Absolutely.Of the many weighty issues discussed at the event, this article  will touch only on  Local Government Autonomy over which a fresh debate recently ensued when very surprisingly, the Federal Government   headed to the Supreme Court, asking that the apex court give the totally anti – federalist conjecture its legal backing.

    Uncle Bola Ige, of blessed memory, would, as a lawyer and politician,  be most distraught, and disappointed, by the action of the otherwise cerebral Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on account of this professional misstep. 

    This is not a guess because I  know that I am standing on solid ground when I make that claim. In confirmation, please permit me to press the inimitable  Cicero into service, albeit posthumously.

    Welcome then to my article of  28 July, 2017 titled: Constitutional Amendment:An Absolutely Self-Serving National Assembly.

    It reads as follows: “Any action, whether legislative or executive in this country today that is not programmed to respond to the yearnings of the populace will amount to an excise in futility”. – Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo

    Should the National Assembly ever have its way with these convoluted constitutional amendments, Nigeria will be guaranteed to make no headway, whatever, this entire century.  Nor would the members be bothered whatever happens to the country. They showed this total disdain for the country’s well-being when they shut out devolution of powers to states which a rational National Assembly should have realised is the most assured way to stem the fissiparous tendencies mushrooming all over the country, and tearing at the very heart of the nation.  Equally, were they perspicacious enough, they should have known that it was disingenuous of them to situate  their approval of Local Government autonomy on the laughable excuse of fighting  state executive- induced corruption  because, were that to be true, then there would have been  no justification for having a national assembly which has turned oversight functions to an avenue for corruption, harassing and intimidating heads of federal agencies in order to have their way.

    Rather than appreciate that only a truly Peoples’ constitution can turn Nigeria back from its present perilous road to Golgotha, they are more interested in having immunity, becoming members of the Council of State and subordinating even the  president to themselves in constitutional matters. Are they so remiss they don’t know that federating units are only limited  to federal and state?  From where, therefore, did they manufacture autonomy for local governments? If INEC continually bungles     national elections, how reasonable is it to now have inflicted on it the additional burden of conducting Local Government elections? Or in which part of the civilised  world is this the norm?

    If the intention is to stop state governors from tampering with local government funds, who will, in turn,  protect Nigerians from these  legislators whose humongous allowances owe nothing to the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission? Nigerians have not forgotten how Speaker Dimeji Bankole and the House leadership, rather than the RMAFC,   self- awarded to themselves the outrageous allowances to which their senate counterparts not only acquiesced, but went on to borrow to pay even when it was not appropriated in that year’s  budget.

    It is apposite here to invite Uncle Bola Ige, unarguably one of Nigeria’s most knowledgeable politicians of any era,  to put these legislators through a learning curve.

    Writing in his column in the Tribune of 27 April, 1996 he asserted as follows, just as Charles Soludo would incisively postulate at Platform Nigeria 24 on Wednesday, 12 June, 2024 that:”In a federal set-up, the federal government must have nothing to do with the creation or running of local government. Nigeria is the only federation in the entire world where the federal government decides how, where, and when a local government council must run. In all civilized countries, and in all democratic countries, it is the state or provincial or regional government that legislates on local government”.

    He wrote further: “Unfortunately, the Murtala-Obasanjo federal military government began the nonsense that has remained with us ever since when it set  up the  Ibrahim Dasuki  commission whose recommendation is the worst disaster to happen to local government system in Nigeria because it was there that the idea of uniformity in size, scope and administration was introduced”.

    Of course, the ever perspicacious legal guru naturally suspected a hidden agenda, which he said, was to “strengthen the administrative stranglehold of the North over  the whole of Nigeria”.

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    Without a doubt, that same Northern agenda is in play in this Local Government autonomy affair. It is, in fact, as I will show below, now more urgent than ever  before, in this era of  grazing land seeking, murderous Fulani herdsmen.

    I shall now proceed to a write up, which I did not author, but shared on my Face book wall during the past week.

    Titled: Local Government Autonomy, Abrogation of  State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and Why the  Federal Government Must Reliquish Responsibility for Creation of Local Government Councils, the author wrote:

    “We are all aware of the efforts to make Local Governments autonomous. We are told it is to curb ‘corruption and ensure development at the grassroots” because state governors do not allow their funds to reach them thereby stagnating growth at that level. There is equally a strong move to abrogate State Independent Electoral Commissions [SIEC].

    Let us now analyse the hidden objectives of this sweet smelling idea, to see if  it is the way to go in a federation.

    Firstly the Federal Government creates Local Governments a preponderance of which has gone to the North. Secondly to be deemed an indigene of a state, one’s Local Government must formally confirm your status.  Thirdly the State Independent Electoral Commission is responsible for Local Government elections. To contest an election, your status as an indigene must be confirmed by your Local Government.

    Impact of  Local Government Autonomy:

    Immediately it becomes law, Federalism, as we know it, ceases to exist and Nigeria, in effect,  becomes a unitary state with 774 Local Governments and 36 State Governments. We will  then have 36

    governors and 774 Local Government Chairmen, all running to Abuja to collect  money, thus rendering state governors irrelevant in  states which they were elected to govern.

    Since the Federal Government   creates  Local Governments, let us assume it decides to create Local Governments in Lagos state.

    If Hausas in Obalende or Agege are inspired, by federal forces, to begin an agitation for whatever reason, or Agege is broken into two Local Governments, and the Federal INEC now conducts LG elections, Hausas  are guaranteed to get a distinct local government in Agege where they are an obvious minority.

    1.That will be a first step for Hausas in Agege, or Igbos in Festac, to become ‘Indigenes’ of Lagos state, and so can, effortlessly,  contest the state’s governorship election.

    Meanwhile, that will never happen in Kano or Enugu.

    2. Before we know it, a bye-law can be passed whereby the new Local Government becomes sharia compliant in an LG area where Muslims are in the minority.

    3. They can then legislate to have an Emir or Eze as the LG’s number one traditional authority; all in another man’s land.

    4. They will now be able to receive funds directly to fund their activities, qua activities, in other peoples’ states.

    5. The Local Governments could then become Abuja’s staging post for their next moves, whatever these are, in states belonging to other people.

    6. This cannot  happen in the north where they will be chased away, at best, or in the East where, as a stranger, you cannot now buy a plot of land. Some Igbos are even refusing a Pope – appointed Igbo bishop, for not coming from their own state.

    The most dangerous scenario, however, will be where the Federal Government desires to pursue an objective which the State government objects to, either for religious or cultural reasons, or on  principles of federalism, but which the Federal Government, relying on such Local Government chairmen in the state will get done, regardless, since he who pays the piper dictates the tune.

    Some citizens would thus have lost the ability to protect their traditional institutions,  especially land, even religious affinity in their own state.

    The consequences are better imagined, especially in Southern Nigeria, as dipping the Koran in the Atlantic ocean, as long prophesied by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sadauna of Sokoto, may no longer be a mirage, only delayed.

    Concluding, if the urge for autonomy for Local Governments  was the mindset of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, I cannot, in my wildest imagination, fathom its attraction for the Tinubu government unless we are being told that they know, in advance, the mindset of all future Nigerian presidents.

  • It is good that states have countersued on local government autonomy

    It is good that states have countersued on local government autonomy

    Funny enough,  some people, including some APC members, are clamouring for local government autonomy which will take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is. There is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. In the U.S where we copied democracy from, their counties don’t go to  Washington  to collect money directly.

    Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system it wants. That is what is called true federalism”. –Governor Charles Soludo at Platform Nigeria 24, a programme by a Lagos-based church, Covenant Nation,to mark the 2024 Democracy Day.

    I haven’t the slightest shame confessing that Democracy Day 24 was the first time I completely sat through any of Platform Nigeria’s events.

    And was it worth it?

    Absolutely.

    Of the many weighty issues discussed at the event, this article  will touch only on  Local Government Autonomy over which a fresh debate recently ensued when very surprisingly, the Federal Government   headed to the Supreme Court, asking that the apex court give the totally anti – federalist conjecture its legal backing.

    Uncle Bola Ige, of blessed memory, would, as a lawyer and politician,  be most distraught, and disappointed, by the action of the otherwise cerebral Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on account of this professional misstep. 

    This is not a guess because I  know that I am standing on solid ground when I make that claim. In confirmation, please permit me to press the inimitable  Cicero into service, albeit posthumously.

    Welcome then to my article of  28 July, 2017 titled:

    Constitutional Amendment:An Absolutely Self-Serving National Assembly.

    It reads as follows:

    “Any action, whether legislative or executive in this country today that is not programmed to respond to the yearnings of the populace will amount to an excise in futility”. – Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo

    Should the National Assembly ever have its way with these convoluted constitutional amendments, Nigeria will be guaranteed to make no headway, whatever, this entire century.  Nor would the members be bothered whatever happens to the country. They showed this total disdain for the country’s well-being when they shut out devolution of powers to states which a rational National Assembly should have realised is the most assured way to stem the fissiparous tendencies mushrooming all over the country, and tearing at the very heart of the nation.  Equally, were they perspicacious enough, they should have known that it was disingenuous of them to situate  their approval of Local Government autonomy on the laughable excuse of fighting  state executive- induced corruption  because, were that to be true, then there would have been  no justification for having a national assembly which has turned oversight functions to an avenue for corruption, harassing and intimidating heads of federal agencies in order to have their way.

    Rather than appreciate that only a truly Peoples’ constitution can turn Nigeria back from its present perilous road to Golgotha, they are more interested in having immunity, becoming members of the Council of State and subordinating even the  president to themselves in constitutional matters. Are they so remiss they don’t know that federating units are only limited  to federal and state?  From where, therefore, did they manufacture autonomy for local governments? If INEC continually bungles     national elections, how reasonable is it to now have inflicted on it the additional burden of conducting Local Government elections? Or in which part of the civilised  world is this the norm?

    If the intention is to stop state governors from tampering with local government funds, who will, in turn,  protect Nigerians from these  legislators whose humongous allowances owe nothing to the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission? Nigerians have not forgotten how Speaker Dimeji Bankole and the House leadership, rather than the RMAFC,   self- awarded to themselves the outrageous allowances to which their senate counterparts not only acquiesced, but went on to borrow to pay even when it was not appropriated in that year’s  budget.

    It is apposite here to invite Uncle Bola Ige, unarguably one of Nigeria’s most knowledgeable politicians of any era,  to put these legislators through a learning curve.

    Writing in his column in the Tribune of 27 April, 1996 he asserted as follows, just as Charles Soludo would incisively postulate at Platform Nigeria 24 on Wednesday, 12 June, 2024 that:”In a federal set-up, the federal government must have nothing to do with the creation or running of local government. Nigeria is the only federation in the entire world where the federal government decides how, where, and when a local government council must run. In all civilized countries, and in all democratic countries, it is the state or provincial or regional government that legislates on local government”.

    He wrote further: “Unfortunately, the Murtala-Obasanjo federal military government began the nonsense that has remained with us ever since when it set  up the  Ibrahim Dasuki  commission whose recommendation is the worst disaster to happen to local government system in Nigeria because it was there that the idea of uniformity in size, scope and administration was introduced”.

    Of course, the ever perspicacious legal guru naturally suspected a hidden agenda, which he said, was to “strengthen the administrative stranglehold of the North over  the whole of Nigeria”.

    Without a doubt, that same Northern agenda is in play in this Local Government autonomy affair. It is, in fact, as I will show below, now more urgent than ever  before, in this era of  grazing land seeking, murderous Fulani herdsmen.

    I shall now proceed to a write up, which I did not author, but shared on my Face book wall during the past week.

    Titled: Local Government Autonomy, Abrogation of  State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and Why the  Federal Government Must Reliquish Responsibility for Creation of Local Government Councils, the author wrote:

    “We are all aware of the efforts to make Local Governments autonomous. We are told it is to curb ‘corruption and ensure development at the grassroots” because state governors do not allow their funds to reach them thereby stagnating growth at that level. There is equally a strong move to abrogate State Independent Electoral Commissions [SIEC].

    Let us now analyse the hidden objectives of this sweet smelling idea, to see if  it is the way to go in a federation.

    Firstly the Federal Government creates Local Governments a preponderance of which has gone to the North. Secondly to be deemed an indigene of a state, one’s Local Government must formally confirm your status.  Thirdly the State Independent Electoral Commission is responsible for Local Government elections. To contest an election, your status as an indigene must be confirmed by your Local Government.

    Impact of  Local Government Autonomy:

    Immediately it becomes law, Federalism, as we know it, ceases to exist and Nigeria, in effect,  becomes a unitary state with 774 Local Governments and 36 State Governments. We will  then have 36

    governors and 774 Local Government Chairmen, all running to Abuja to collect  money, thus rendering state governors irrelevant in  states which they were elected to govern.

    Since the Federal Government   creates  Local Governments, let us assume it decides to create Local Governments in Lagos state.

    If Hausas in Obalende or Agege are inspired, by federal forces, to begin an agitation for whatever reason, or Agege is broken into two Local Governments, and the Federal INEC now conducts LG elections, Hausas  are guaranteed to get a distinct local government in Agege where they are an obvious minority.

    1.That will be a first step for Hausas in Agege, or Igbos in Festac, to become ‘Indigenes’ of Lagos state, and so can, effortlessly,  contest the state’s governorship election.

    Meanwhile, that will never happen in Kano or Enugu.

    2. Before we know it, a bye-law can be passed whereby the new Local Government becomes sharia compliant in an LG area where Muslims are in the minority.

    3. They can then legislate to have an Emir or Eze as the LG’s number one traditional authority; all in another man’s land.

    4. They will now be able to receive funds directly to fund their activities, qua activities, in other peoples’ states.

    5. The Local Governments could then become Abuja’s staging post for their next moves, whatever these are, in states belonging to other people.

    6. This cannot  happen in the north where they will be chased away, at best, or in the East where, as a stranger, you cannot now buy a plot of land. Some Igbos are even refusing a Pope – appointed Igbo bishop, for not coming from their own state.

    The most dangerous scenario, however, will be where the Federal Government desires to pursue an objective which the State government objects to, either for religious or cultural reasons, or on  principles of federalism, but which the Federal Government, relying on such Local Government chairmen in the state will get done, regardless, since he who pays the piper dictates the tune.

    Read Also: Attorney general and local government autonomy

    Some citizens would thus have lost the ability to protect their traditional institutions,  especially land, even religious affinity in their own state.

    The consequences are better imagined, especially in Southern Nigeria, as dipping the Koran in the Atlantic ocean, as long prophesied by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sadauna of Sokoto, may no longer be a mirage, only delayed.

    Concluding, if the urge for autonomy for Local Governments  was the mindset of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, I cannot, in my wildest imagination, fathom its attraction for the Tinubu government unless we are being told that they know, in advance, the mindset of all future Nigerian presidents.

  • Strike: Is Labour coyly being driven along an ethnic agenda

    Strike: Is Labour coyly being driven along an ethnic agenda

    N494,000 is more than sixteen times the current minimum wage of N30,000. If the Federal Government accepts that as the new minimum wage, and Nigeria’s production capacity does not also increase, times sixteen, it will lead to the mother of all inflation and Nigeria will be turned to the likes of Zimbabwe and Venezuela.  Joe Ajaero and his gang are not economists.

    Worse, they are supporters of Peter Obi and are, therefore, fighting a proxy war on his behalf. They have no economic agenda but a political objective” –

    Reno omokri, slightly edited for space.

    Fortunately for Nigeria at the 2023 Presidential election, Nigerians did not elect a timid President who,  in office, would have been all over searching for his ‘Yes Daddy’.

    Rather, we elected a Bola Ahmed Tinubu who, as  his worst enemy would agree, is as bold as  they come.

    This attribute he has  severally demonstrated to Nigerians by taking  action on very sensitive matters his predecessors couldn’t touch, even if  the removal of fuel subsidy have turned out more impulsive than properly interrogated. But without a scintilla of doubt, doing nothing in the circumstances in which he met the country was obviously not an option.

    Unfortunately, some politicians, pretending to be labour leaders, have since attempted to exploit the consequences of subsidy removal to make Nigeria ungovernable as a way of achieving their ethnic driven motives.

    So tenacious about this has Joe Ajaero been, declaring three National strikes within Tinubu’s first year in office, that it  is already being suggested in some quarters that, unknown to the generality of the labour leadership he is,  in reality, pursuing, not just a Peter Obi agenda but an ethnic one; instigated, no doubt, by some ill- motivated ethnic champions. And so arrogant  has the ethnic bigot become he even toyed with the idea of  creating a ‘hall of shame’ for judges, simply because his brother, Peter Obi, who placed third in the 2023 Presidential election, did not emerge President of Nigeria like this were a banana republic.

    For those who may doubt my claim, I invite them to come along with me to,  examine, not just the ferocity and crudity, but the sheer barbarity of the current strike; Ajaero’s third within a year.

    Let us for that reason press into service, the inimitable Olatunji Ololade of The Nation newspaper, as per his Thursday, 6 June 2024, piece captioned ‘Angry Joe and His Motley mob’, to put Ajaero and his gang’s gung-ho, I – don’t- care a hoot strike  into  proper perspective.

    Wrote Ololade:”The labour union’s reckless decision to cut off electricity supply, plunged the country into darkness, including crucial sectors like aviation and hospitals, thus endangering lives. It also affected both big and small business owners, especially society’s vulnerable divide, like the struggling grocer whose daily livelihood depends on selling perishable goods.

    More damning are the allegations that the labour union’s monitoring and compliance team swooped on electricity workers, goons like, beating and forcing them to shut down the national grid.

    Despite his denial, the spectacle of labour leaders wielding canes to beat, and chase staff of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) out of their offices, undermines the moral authority of the labour movement in Nigeria. Such thuggery betrays the principles of democratic advocacy, painting Ajaero and his allies as anarchists rather than champions of workers’ rights”. Gone, indeed, are the days of Adams Oshiomhole as Labour leader!

    But their crudity said much more.

    It showed in unmistakable terms, that if their cousins, the Obidients failed,  last time around, to suborn the military into insurrection to pave  way for one of their own into the now, perennially elusive presidency, Ajaero must so adroitly exploit the anger on the street in Nigeria, to ensure that the country erupts into such a huge crisis that the military, which had earlier rejected all their entreaties, would now feel obligated to intervene, albeit illegally, under the guise of trying to restore peace.

    Read Also: Labour Party chieftains meet in Kaduna, demand explanation on 2023 campaign funds

    Yorubas describe this as: kaka k’eku ma je sese, a fi se a wa danu – meaning that even if the rat would not eat the grains, it would waste it all.

    Let us now examine the sheer illogic of the basis ( the premise) for Labour’s thoroughly unreasonable  demand for a N494,000 minimum wage. Eager to play a fast one on the federal government, they changed the President’s directive to the committee to work out a MINIMUM wage to seeking a LIVING wage as if there is no difference between the two. They henceforth  proceeded to claim that their calculations are based on a worker with a wife, and 6 children.

    The following questions then arise:

    a)Are all workers married?

    b)Do all workers  each have 6 children?

    c). Do they all have the same academic, or professional, qualifications which will most probably determine their productivity. This is beside the fact that many workers, especially in the public service, spent most of the working hours watching Africa Magic. Even though Ajaero and his allies may very well have very high paper qualifications, I’ll still call them illiterates.

    Why?

    Because should any of the above questions turn out negative, then the entire basis for their demand fails and they are left with nothing. That is the essence of syllogism.

    Ajaero needs be told that no matter his wayo, or  his obtuse skulduggery, as long as he is being driven by vain, and selfish ethnic reasons, he will labour in vain because Nigerians have seen through him.

    Now back to why I started off with describing President Tinubu as a brave politician. It is to call on him to draw strength from his legendary bravery and not, in any way, impede the Attorney – General and minister of Justice, who already declared Ajaero’s third strike illegal, from ensuring that he, and his accomplices, have their day in court, if only for illegally shutting down the national grid.

    Apart from all its possible negative consequences, especially for national security, as a result of which workers on strike are legally precluded from tampering with essential services, these fellows- I almost called them outlaws – must not be allowed to get away with treason.

    Otherwise, shutting down the national grid during every strike will become  routine. This must never be allowed to happen in any country governed by laws.

  • Tinubu and his critics

    Tinubu and his critics

    Without the slightest quibbling, Nigerians are currently going through excruciating pain -what with the high cost of living, an increasingly un-tameable inflation and a level of insecurity that  was not  dented in any substantial way.

    All these notwithstanding, any objective evaluation of the Tinubu administration must take into account the parlous state of Nigeria, not just its economy, but the entire polity on May 29, 2023.

    Also true is the fact  that had some of  those  now leading the crucify, or lynch him orchestra any modicum of shame, they shouldn’t as much as open their mouths because Nigerians saw them hold public office in this selfsame country.

    With history as our guide, therefore, it looks to me ludicrous that the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his VP Atiku Abubakar, and former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi did not just walk away rather than badmouthing Tinubu’s efforts. But no, the way they went about it, you would have thought  they were analysing Tinubu’s government at the end of his first term.

    Nigerians saw these people – yes all three of them –  held very high positions; one of them, indeed, twice as president. And we have not forgotten how they performed.

    Read Also: FULL LIST: Govt agencies for disconnection over electricity debt

    We not only saw Obasanjo lay the very foundations of the darkness now enveloping Nigeria after wasting a humongous16B dollars aimed at improving electricity, but actually ended up worsening it with deleterious consequences on manufacturing in the country.

    For instance, literally all textile industries in the North became moribund for lack of electricity

    just like Nairametrics, Ikorodu, is now on its way out of Nigeria. 

    We also witnessed his government sold off Nigeria’s over 100B dollar investments, some dating back to his time as military Head of state, for a measly 1.5B dollars under a corruption – ridden  privatisation policy which was headed by  his Vice, Atiku Abubakar of the Special Purpose Vehicles fame.

    Ask Nigerians what Peter Obi will best be  remembered for as Anambra state governor,  and you’d be told that he spent state money acquiring investments for his family and occupied a conspicuous, ringside position in the notorious Pandora Papers.

    Nor can we forget that the  Senate ad-hoc committee of enquiry into the affairs of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)  recommended sanctions against Atiku Abubakar for abuse of office, aiding and abetting diversion of public funds and found Obasanjo wanting for using PTDF funds for purposes outside the  fund’s mandate.

    Interestingly, these are the Angels and Arch- Angels now  lecturing Nigerians on governance, especially on the management of a Nigerian economy they worsened in their time.

    Isn’t  it the mother of  all hypocrisy for an Atiku who superintended over the worst privatisation policy ever, selling public investments to his cronies, to now say, tongue in cheek that:“Nigeria remains a struggling economy and is more fragile today than it was a year ago adding that joblessness, poverty, and misery, all of which defined the Buhari administration have now exacerbated”? Now that our one – time Vice President is well read, he should go and research into how many Nigerians lost their jobs and livelihood as a result of his, and Obasanjo’s, crooked privatisation policy.

     Obi and Atiku should, in their own interest, be advised to go and devote quality time to actualising their much talked about political alliance the way Tinubu and others did to birth APC which shamed their government out of office.

    On his part, the highly regarded Baba Obasanjo should cooly continue his political tours from the South South, to Osun state, even to Kano state where his experience should now be in great  demand, as he appears not  to have outlived his days in office, the manner he breathes down on others.

    As history is our guide writing this piece, we may very well remind him that had he not been consumed with the Third Term  project – in reality a life presidency gambit – and  continued along the trajectory he was on, and in the process eggregiously rigging the 2007 presidential election which he gifted a good, but sick, Umaru  Musa Yar’ Adua, Nigeria would most probably never have been humbled by an insecurity which has turned her to a caricature by the time Tinubu became President on May 29, 2023. Yorubas say be careful when you point an accusing finger at your enemy because the remaining four are pointing directly at you.

    Like a joke, I have also seen Babachir Lawal. Yes the same sacked Secretary to the federal government,  on television wax lyrical, doing his damnnest, attempting to also rubbish Tinubu’s performance as if  anybody expected otherwise. The guy, who had expected Tinubu to name him his Vice presidential candidate, was offered an opportunity  on a television network to speak like a statesman, but for where?

    He has not been able to live down his disappointment and would most probably never do. Good thing is:  a thousand Babachir Lawal can never unravel Tinubu, whose lifelong hireling he was. He will only continue to grumble in his new, unaccustomed anonymity.

    Any objective analyst would readily see the difference between how the Buhari administration hugely, negatively impacted the Nigerian economy, with his CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, selling foreign exchange to  members of the Villa Mafia, at their preferred rates, and what now obtains under the current administration where the CBN governor and the Co-ordinating minister of the Economy are working, assiduously, trying to reset the thoroughly beleaguered economy President Buhari left behind.

    Unlike when these same critics were in office, at a time  Nigeria was awash with petro dollars, and they could spend public funds buying birthday gifts for girl friends, as well as personally ‘restructured’ Nigeria by acquiring wives from every region of the country, below is the Nigeria Tinubu inherited, as captured by Senator Abu Ibrahim in a recent article:”The Tinubu administration inherited a sluggish economic growth, record debt and shrinking oil output. He also had zero budget for fuel subsidy. These challenges have made life tough for Nigerians. Nigeria’s debt ballooned by nearly 60 per cent since 2015, hitting $103 billion in early 2023, according to figures released by the Debt Management Office. Considering the off-book loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country’s indebtedness appears higher, at $167 billion. This was why finance experts have asserted that as much as 90 per cent of total revenue would be needed to service debt”.

    With that as the exant situation and the fact that Nigeria’s crude – her  main source of revenue -is being stolen on an industrial scale,  what magic was Tinubu expected to have performed besides ending the ruinous fuel subsidy and  harmonise a forex market which Emefiele had turned to kalokalo? Continue to print paper money? No way. Tinubu is a Finance man who  could never have taken any of the routes being suggested by  busybodies.

    However, criticise the Tinubu government on insecurity and you would find me lining right behind you. The government has not, in any substantial manner, dented an insecurity which has rendered life in Nigeria short and brutish.  It has  very negatively impacted food security to a point every Nigerian feels it. To eat and feed family, some Nigerians now buy yam in pieces packed in nylon bags as they can no longer afford to buy a  tuber of yam which goes for between N3ooo – N5000 naira each.

    There’s n’t the slightest doubt that our men and women in uniform are doing a great job, putting their very lives on the line.

    This is why government must now urgently consider the following suggestions:

    * Increase the number of our men and women in uniform by at least 50 per cent of the current number.

    To fund this exponential increase in numbers,  government should simply disregard Labour’s unreasonable demand for a  N615,000 minimum wage(now reduced to N400,000) when, according to  BudgiT, about 15 states are currently unable to pay the N30,000 minimum wage.

    ●Ensure their rapid, and adequate, training; And

    ●Maximally equip all the security forces with state of the art technology to combat the current challenges.

    Also get the U.S to remove all restrictions on the use of the A – 29 Super Tucano Aircrafts to enable Nigeria effectively fight all manner of insurgency.

    It is difficult for Nigerians to  believe that bandits, in their hundreds, could move enmass on motor bikes to attack defenceless citizens, and our security forces would not get to know of such attack within minutes, no matter where in the country it is happening.

    Equally embarrassing for their non- availability, are advanced listening equipments which would enable our military to have advance information of  every enemy activity.

    Finally, concerning insecurity, it has been suggested that some Fulani elements are still able to kidnap in the South because this government is afraid of their powerful backers.

    I hope to God this is not true.

  • Nigeria: How we got here

    Nigeria: How we got here

    As Africa’s most populous country, largest economy and most notable) democracy, Nigeria is a bellwether for the continent. A weakening economy and rising insecurity threaten progress made in its democratic development. Amid deepening distrust in government and institutions, Nigeria has significant work to do in improving national, state and local security and governance following the national and state elections of 2023″- United States Institute of Peace, April 22, 2024

    With food inflation hovering at around 40 per cent, a threat of increase in the pump price of petrol, as well as an unremitting insecurity – gun men this past week returned to Plateau state – as if they ever left – killing about 40 people and   torching several homes in that latest orgy of insecurity in the state where the governor, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, is allegedly more interested in

    getting some elected, spineless opposition law makers to sign advance resignation letters( resignation from where, the House of Assembly? Wonders will never end in Nigeria), there’s more than enough reason to critically examine how we got to this terrible juncture in Nigeria.

    There’s this popular Yoruba proverb about a disabled who, when  told how unsteady the load on his head was, told the interlocutor to better look at his legs. There has been a deluge of criticism of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government, especially by political opposition titans, the likes of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi, both dishonestly attributing everything wrong in the country to the present government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu even when they both know that, truth be told, Nigeria did not get to this sorry pass in one day, or between May 29, 2023 and today.

    Any objective appraisal of the  Tinubu government must, therefore, take into cognisance how his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari (2015 – 2023) completely wrecked Nigeria, and took her back, economically, no less than 30 years. You would, in fact, be right to liken that government to Satan which the Holy Book said came to kill and destroy.This means that whoever became President May 29, 2023 could only have done very little in ameliorating our extant circumstances in one year.

    It is, therefore, necessary to summarily dismiss the shibboleth of President Tinubu being the source of our current multi- sectoral problems simply because, as they claim, he removed fuel subsidy too quickly as if there was budgetary provision for it beyond June, 2023 according to a statement  by Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, on 7 October, ’22.

     Although they now, opportunistically, claim that they would have waited ages to end it, all presidential candidates of the major political parties promised to make fuel subsidy removal their very first action in office.

    Long story cut short, President Buhari, through his sheer inability to have a firm grip on his government, especially on many of his key and consequential aides, the likes of Attorney – General

    Abubakar Malami, who coyly took over complete control of the EFCC, Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, who sold Nigeria cheap, claiming he was setting up a National Carrier and, of course, Godwin Emefiele the Central Bank governor, who so completely epitomised  Buhari’s laizerfaire,  Sheik-like approach to governance. 

    Emefiele made it his bounden duty to  ensure  that Nigerians went through agonising  anguish, queuing up for hours in banks trying to access their own money which he had earlier coyly confiscated, claiming he was going to redesign the national currency. So completely did Emefiele capture President Buhari that the latter was obliged to start giving his own interpretation of the Supreme court decision on the Naira re- design case after some state governors, belonging to the President’s own political party, had become so passed off at his actions on the issue they headed to the apex court for a quick constitutional resolution. For President Buhari, his position on the matter was a literal abdication of his official duties, indicating how powerful Emefiele had become, serving the personal financial interests of members of the Villa cabal.

    On my part, all I could do was record the sordid happenings for posterity. I did that in the article below, published Sunday, 19 March, 2023 drawing close attention to that Presidential aide who went toe to toe with President Buhari on the furious journey to Golgotha, taking Nigeria down with them.

    Titled ‘Godwin Emefiele: Not Until I Have Been Disgraced’, it read as follows, with slight editing for space:

    I was privileged to have been both a student and later, staff of the University of Ife, Ile – Ife, when Olawale Gladstone Emmanuel Rotimi Esq, best known as Ola Rotimi (13 April 1938 – 18 August 2000), one of Nigeria’s leading playwrights, and theatre directors dominated, and popularised theatre at the Source ( Ile – Ife, that is.)

    In one of his many plays, the Tortoise, a slow, ugly and very crafty character was seen preparing to go on a journey and was asked if he must, and when he would return.

    Without the slightest hint of shame, he retorted:”Not until I am disgraced”.

    As Lasisi Olagunju would put it later, “theTortoise is that character who fights on both sides, plunging the world around him into needless wars and anguish. Seeing himself as a charmer who cannot fail, he was without any moderation in consumption or in his assumptions.”

    Emefiele, like the Tortoise, never cared a hoot; not for Nigeria nor for Nigerians.

    The Tortoise story is, therefore, analogous to his  harebrained currency re- design and swap policy which, not surprisingly, failed spectacularly, turning millions of Nigerians to worse than beggars, when they were actually, not dying on queues in banks, lining up to get paid as little as N5000.

    However, concerning the ‘currency confiscation’ policy, it is President Mohammadu Buhari I pity the most.

    Readers of this column, especially during his first two years in office, would remember how much I eulogised him.

    Even though I later reconsidered my position and took all that back, I now, out of pity, earnestly wish he had left office even a day before Emefiele, and his co- conspirators, inflicted this currency deluge on Nigerians.

    Who exactly did Garba Shehu think he was deceiving when he issued his meaningless story about President Buhari not directing Emefiele and Malami to flout the Supreme Court judgment on the matter?

    Nigerians know that President Buhari is not hard of hearing but can we also say that he never one day saw, even on television, the thousands of Nigerians milling around empty ATMS, from morning till  night? Neither Buhari nor Enefiele was bothered that those children of perdition, those God forsaken Boko Haram elements and their sundry cousins, could have decided to vent their own anger on these hapless Nigerians, many of who hadn’t eaten for days, nor knew where the next meal would come from.

    As I wrote earlier, I sincerely wish, for purposes of historical reckoning, that he had finished his tenure a day earlier than the Emefielian ‘mala fide’ because, truth be told, President Buhari was in the process of regaining something of his old aura amongst Nigerians. But as things now stand, generalised hunger, anger and utter delusion have wiped off all that possibility. 

    Talk of his huge infrastructural achievements now and Nigerians are more likely to point to the unprecedented national debt, mention the railways,  and you are likely to have Nigerians tell you they dare not risk their lives on a kidnapper- infesred rail line.

    Nigerians have just been witnesses to the most inefficient duo of an arrogant Attorney – General and and an equally tactless CBN governor. 

    Only last week the defence in the P/ID 11B dollar arbitration case in London, raised serious issues of incompetence against the Attorney- General just as It will now take a new Attorney – General to let Nigerians know what and what have been sold, and for how much, of the humongous EFCC’s legal seizures.

    The least said about Emefiele the better.

    Having been  serving  his ‘real bosses’  better than he serves Nigeria, they were even prepared to make him President over us so he could cook more of his failed ‘rice pyramids’ which evaporated as soon as his presidential dream collapsed.Under him, the CBN had multi – dollar exchange rates over which

    not even the World Bank or the IMF could restrain him.

    For instance, the IMF’s Staff Concluding Statement on the 2022 Article IV Mission to Nigeria reiterated its past recommendations towards moving towards a unified and market-clearing exchange rate by dismantling the various exchange rate windows at the CBN, accompanied by clarity on exchange rate policy and supportive fiscal and monetary policies. That in the medium term, the CBN should step back from its role as main FX intermediator, limiting interventions to smoothing market volatility and to allow deposit money banks determine FX buy-sell rates, in collaboration with it. . They noted that an end to his crooked forex policy would help increase  revenue, thus solving a major Nigerian fiscal challenge. But all these meant nothing to our highly political CBN governor whose friends,

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     benefitting from the hopelessly skewed forex policy, din’t want it to  end, thus leaving a country struggling for forex inflow,  selling the limited amount it has at dubious rates.

    Indeed as at the time the two leading world financial institutions were advising him, he was acquiring over a hundred cars for his chimeric presidential election campaign.

    As in the case of the A-G, the incoming administration must make it a point of duty to let Nigerians know who exactly Emefiele is.

    For now, he has received his comeuppance, having been thrown under the bus from his  olympian heights.

    Indeed, if he knows what is good for him, he should simply resign, and give public service a long berth.

    It is safe to say that while President Buhari looked askance, Godwin Emefiele took Nigeria down with himself.

    It is now PBAT’s unalterable duty to lift her out of that wreckage and completely, positively re- engineer it the way majority of Nigerians crave.

  • Nigerians must say no to government’s intent to borrow from Pension Fund

    Nigerians must say no to government’s intent to borrow from Pension Fund

    I know government was targeting pension funds when it moved against Pencom. Instead of increasing the pension of retired workers in these difficult times,  the best the government can do is  deep its hands in the purse of poor pensioners. Soon and very soon, there will not be enough money to fund the pension scheme and pensioners will be back to square one” – Esther Bolade on Facebook.

    Only this past week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu acted the statesman, once again, when he stopped the commencement of the harebrained cybersecurity levy which the National Security Adviser, not the Central Bank of Nigeria as was initially wrongly believed, was eagerly trying to inflict on all Nigerians, even those now living on palliatives.

    But here we are again, this week, with another of their endless schemes targeted at  poor Nigerians.

    Wale Edun, the Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, at the end of last week’s meeting of the Federal Executive meeting on Tuesday, 14 May, announced to Villa correspondents, “a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country”.

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    These are like the same sweet words with which President Muhammadu Buhari sent us all into slumber, amassed tonnes of  loans from China, and built a Nigerian railway from Kano all the way to Marafi in Niger Republic so that, in his words, “the people of Niger Republic will enjoy affordable transportation”, even if today Nigeria alone is encumbered with the debt.

    As should be expected,  Nigerians are already talking, warning government not to dare touch that fund; that sole remaining hope of millions of Nigerians who have nowhere else to turn in an era of a rampaging cost of living palaver.

    The following intervention accurately, even if not completely, sums up the umbrage of Nigerians at the mere suggestion:

    “My attention has been drawn to a disturbing disclosure by the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, as he addressed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, 14 May.

    There is, according to the Minister, a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country. The Minister has indicated that although “the initiative is expected to attract foreign investment interest over time”, domestic savings are his ‘immediate focus’ for now.

    He provided no useful details, such as the percentage of the funds to be mopped up from the Pension Funds, for example. Even at that, this move must be halted immediately!  It is a misguided initiative that could lead to disastrous consequences on the lives of Nigeria’s hardworking men and women who toiled and saved and who now survive on their pensions having retired from service.

    It is another attempt to perpetrate illegality by the Federal Government. The government must be cautioned to act strictly within the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2014 (PRA 2014), along with the revised Regulation on Investment of Pension Assets issued by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

    In particular, the Federal Government must not act contrary to the provisions of the extant Regulation on  investment limits to wit: Pension Funds can invest no more than 5% of total pension funds’ assets in infrastructure investments. I note that as of December 2023, total pension funds assets were approximately N18 Trillion, of which 75% of these  are investments in FGN Securities.

    There is NO free Pension Funds that is more than 5% of the total value of the nation’s pension fund for Mr. Edun to fiddle with. 

    There are no easy ways for Mr. Edun to address the challenges of funding infrastructure development in Nigeria. He can’t cut corners. He must introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy and to leverage private resources, skills, and technology”.

    Although the above quote almost says it all, there are many reasons Nigerians must tell the Tinubu government to simply perish the mere thought of tampering with the fund.

    For one thing, the minister did not come clean with Nigerians on the real reason for this proposed foray into a fund which for the sanity, if not the very life, of millions of Nigerian workers, active and retired, must be strictly protected from the government. It appears to be the same reason several officials of this administration are coming up with all manner of taxes and levies on the citizenry.

    However, what he failed to tell Nigerians, both the IMF and the Bank of America have since done when IMF, in a release corroborated by the latter, released the following statement:

    “Nigeria’s reintroduction of  fuel subsidy is expected to guzzle almost half of its projected oil revenue this year.

    The implicit subsidy will cost Africa’s largest crude producer an estimated 8.43 trillion naira ($5.9 billion) of its projected 17.7 trillion naira of oil revenue for 2024″.

    The above is why Mr Edun wants to borrow from a fund that must always be kept far from  government because the history of the unreliability of successive Nigerian federal government is unmatched.

    Wrote Jide Oluwajuyitan only this past week in his column in The Nation:”But in truth, no one can blame incredulous Nigerians. They have in the past been serially betrayed by false prophets. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa adored for his simplicity and golden voice betrayed promise of nationhood of “Our dear native land where tribe and tongue may differ but in brotherhood we stand with our flag serving as a symbol that truth and justice reign”. Aguiyi Ironsi was a master of mischief and intrigue. Gowon thought he was fighting a war to keep Nigeria one. Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo destroyed the foundation of society – the academia and bureaucracy.  Babangida laid the foundation for our current socio-economic travails by opening our country to the labour of other nations.  Abacha, besides stealing the country blind waged a five-year war against us. Obasanjo, in spite of his “I only listen to God and not advisers” turned out to be obsessed by term elongation. Buhari, a prophet worshipped by some unquestioning 12 million ‘talakawas’ from the north left Nigeria worse than he met it because of his cronyism and provincialism.The paradox however is that despite serial betrayal, our survival as an organised society depends on politician’s versatility, brinksmanship and skilful exploitation of man’s infirmities. Who else can reconcile private affluence with public squalor or give ‘hope which rises eternal in the human breast’ but the politician”.

    If Oluwajuyitan wrote that of past governments, it is a truism that government is a continuum and there’s no reason to believe that with regard to reliability, Tinubu’s government will be any different from its forebears.

    Without a doubt what PBAT is presently dealing with is largely the consequences of President Muhammadu Buhari’s profligate government, but unfortunately, the Tinubu government itself has demonstrated only a little  difference. Otherwise, how come it thought nothing of wasting about N40B buying exotic cars for a people already being extravagantly overpaid for a job that should ideally have been part- time, and in a single chamber?

    Thank God a change to a parliamentary system is under serious consideration. For one thing, that will not have within it persons who are under serious investigation by anti- corruption agencies especially for fiddling with their state’s finances.

    Still intent on sending us to sleep with sweet  words, Wale Edun intoned, “the Tinubu government has

    “unveiled a strategic plan to harness the N20 trillion pension fund and other locally available resources for infrastructure development in Nigeria”. As shown above, however, Nigerian history, ancient and modern, has taught us that  these are nothing but mere words.

    We must, therefore, all in one voice, rise and stand ramrod against government tampering, in any manner or shape, with what remains the last hope of millions of Nigerians.

    It is,  therefore, apposite to repeat that the minister must brace up and “introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy”, rather than eye a pension fund which should be treated as sacred for the well- being of the millions whose entire livelihood depend upon its invulnerability.