The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Kano governor hard of hearing

    Kano governor hard of hearing

    A few weeks before he was sworn in, Kano State governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, also known as Abba Gida-Gida, disclosed that he would reverse many of his predecessor’s projects and policies, including the decentralised Kano Emirate, and demolish buildings erected upon lands which he angrily announced were improperly allocated. Mr Yusuf’s predecessor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, was theosophic about his successor’s threats. God, whom he understood so well considering His almighty and inscrutable nature, would not permit Mr Yusuf’s revisions, the former governor moaned almost under his breath. But dispensing with the radicalism of the then incoming governor and the sighs, resignation and philosophies of the then outgoing governor, Barometer on May 7 counselled restraint, admonishing Mr Yusuf in Hausa idiom to let sleeping dogs lie.

    But Abba Gida-Gida would have nothing to do with Hausa proverbs, idioms and aphorisms, regardless of how cute. Shortly after his inauguration, and still breathing threats and imprecates against his loathed predecessor, Mr Yusuf rolled out the bulldozers and began demolishing buildings and shopping malls erected on lands he argued were improperly allocated. A roundabout he claimed mocked Government House and compromised its security, but was unprecedentedly designed by a celebrated young female architect from Kano, also became a casualty. Sensing that his demolitions received acclaim, the governor intensified the demolitions with abandon. One after the other, the buildings fell, no matter how expensive, and notwithstanding the hundreds they rendered economically prostrate. He was yet to get round to reunifying the emirates before some of his supporters, ardent Kwankwasiyya movement activists, began to complain loudly that the governor had become reckless.

    At last the courts have stepped in. A member of the Kwankwasiyya movement, who voted the governor’s party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), into office, went to court to stop the demolitions. The member professed his love for the founder of the movement, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a former Kano governor, but vowed to resist the demolitions. The courts have ordered the government to stay action until the case is disposed off. The demolitions are unlikely to proceed as furiously as before. Indeed, it is also unlikely that most allottees would be found guilty of land appropriation. Dr Ganduje may have exceeded his powers in approving allocations with regard to some of the lands, for instance in hospitals, mosques and schools, but the courts would be appalled by Mr Yusuf’s resort to self-help. They may find the former governor guilty of bad judgement, but no one has yet successfully litigated poor judgement. It is not even clear, in any case, that Dr Ganduje was derelict in his duty.

    If the courts stopped Mr Yusuf dead in his tracks on the subject of demolitions, the chances that he would casually embark on the revision of the Kano emirate system may have receded considerably. Should he nevertheless embark on that needless adventure, it will be mired in controversy, ill-will and litigations, both in the courts and the House of Assembly. Making promises during campaigns is one thing, fulfilling them is another thing entirely: one is theoretical, the easy part; and the other is practical, the hard part. Barometer had made the following observations on May 7: “Mr Kwankwaso and Mr Yusuf, the governor-elect, will want to bear in mind the Hausa adage: A bar kaza cikin gashinta (Let sleeping dog lie/Leave a fowl in its feathers). When the former monolithic Kano Emirate was split into five, it was unclear how popular the policy was. But when the stools were filled and coronations took place, the emirates burst into raptures, whether real or affected. Now the five emirates have since moved on, and like acquired taste, the people have grown to become accustomed to their new emirs and their cultural and sociological appurtenances. Reviewing this elaborate restructuring will hardly be productive or wise, and returning Muhammadu Sanusi II to the throne, assuming he was popular in the first instance or his explosive and often iconoclastic statements and ideas could be tamed, would come with its own drawbacks…

    “Reinstating Kano’s emirate structure and returning Muhammadu Sanusi II to the throne may theoretically be easy to accomplish, but they will prove more disruptive than the hypothetical good Mr Kwankwaso and Mr Yusuf hope to achieve. The new Kano leaders should instead prove that their incoming administration is wise, mature, and progressive, not encumbered by minor issues or petty jealousies. Kano State is widely considered by many political scientists as one of the two or three states in Nigeria closest to the civic culture. Mr Kwankwaso should ride that wave which his movement has begun; but riding it will obviously demand more circumspection and adeptness than his speeches have inspired. And by insinuating a radical policy into the governor-elect’s agenda, not minding what the latter’s priorities might be, the NNPP leader seems unmindful of overreaching himself. If he persists in his present approach, he may get embroiled in the incoming governor’s administration and risk becoming a nuisance.”

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    Barometer had called on ex-governor Kwankwaso to restrain his protégé, the new governor, and also counselled both men still basking in the euphoria of their victory to moderate their convictions and beliefs. There are ways to revise and even revoke the policies and programmes of a past government; but these must follow the laws of the land. Dr Ganduje couched his actions and allocations in terms of the law and due process, whether they made sense or not, or whether they beautified the state or uglified it. To revise those actions, his successor must follow, not manipulate, the law. In the case of the demolitions, the new governor has seemed to rely on populism, not the law; and he was headstrong. Now the courts have restrained him; it is important that he seize upon that legal encumbrance to realign himself both to due process and the goodwill of the hundreds of thousands who voted the NNPP into office.

    Benue governor needs circumspection

    Benue State governor Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia is immensely popular, and he rode on the wave of that popularity to win last March’s governorship election. He deserves his victory, especially seeing the dire straits his state has come to. There are obviously tons of issues to look at, programmes to reappraise, allegations to investigate, and incompetence and inefficiencies to indict and punish. It was, therefore, not surprising that among his first actions was the suspension of chairmen and counsellors of the 23 local government areas of the state to enable their probe.

    But, as expected, the Association of Local Government (ALGON) in the state has described the suspension as illegal. Its officials headed to court and have, according to their chairman, Mike Uba, obtained a court order stopping the suspension. However, according to the governor’s chief press secretary, Kula Tersoo, the government had no knowledge of the court order. The governor, he added bleakly, is someone who obeys the law, and who will not breach court order. He clarified further that the House of Assembly recommended the suspension, not the sack of the chairmen, and the governor merely gave effect to it. They will stay suspended despite their threat not to vacate office, Mr Tersoo growled.

    Clearly, Nigerian states have not transcended the military culture of embarking on radical and sometimes populist actions immediately after assuming office. Consequently, some states in the past few weeks, particularly where there have been changes of ruling parties, have announced and even executed radical measures to show that new sheriffs are in town. Abia, Zamfara, Sokoto, Benue and Kano are examples, and the states are frothing with radical changes, some of them daring or mocking the law. The states, however, must be cautioned to follow the rule of law, transparently and accountably. After all, on a hypothetical tomorrow, ruling parties can and will lose elections, and risk being harassed by their successors. It is important that administrative and legal precedents be set in such a manner that succeeding governors would have no choice but to respect tradition, the law and the constitution, even if indigenes bay for blood. 

  • ‘Baba-Go-Fast’ takes crusade for FDI abroad

    ‘Baba-Go-Fast’ takes crusade for FDI abroad

    The last week made President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a month in office, having been sworn-in on May 29, 2023, last Thursday made it exactly one month since his administration was inaugurated. However, the week in review was spent entirely away from the seat of power in Abuja; it would be recalled that the President left for Paris in France for the New Global Financial Pact signing on Tuesday, June 20. He was there till Saturday, June 24 when he departed for London, the United Kingdom (UK), for a private visit. He was in London till the eve of the Eid-el-Kabir festival, to come in just in time for the festivity.

    Being away the whole week did not impede work or slow down the characteristic momentum of the man that has earned the epithet ‘Baba-G0-Fast’. As a matter of fact, while in France, the President went out to shop for goals that will further enhance the country’s financial standing. Explaining the key reason for President Tinubu’s outing in France, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr Dele Alake, said it all boiled down to shoring up the finance base through foreign direct investments (FDI), which needs to be shopped for.

    Alake was projecting what the outlook of the first foreign visit of the President would look like, while speaking to journalists on arrival in Paris last week Tuesday. According to him, “the essence of this trip is to network as much as feasible and as much as is practicable. The President wants to network with international finance corporations and institutions, countries that are well healed that would facilitate or that could facilitate direct foreign investment into Nigeria.

    “Don’t forget that Mr. President has taken some very bold steps in the area of economy, in the area of social engineering in the last three weeks, and particularly with reference to the unification of the multiple exchange rates, which has caused very positive multiplier effects. However, in the short term, we have noticed and expected that there will be a slight spike in the demand and then that would affect the value of the Naira, viz-viz the dollar”, he had explained.

    Indeed, before departing France after the main event and several other meetings and agreements on the sidelines, Tinubu had garnered some tangibles for the government to work with and made some of the needed progress in the direction of economic healing. Though Alake had projected only a few prospectives that the President was expected to meet and negotiate investment opportunities in Nigeria with, Tinubu himself sealed more deals than projected.

    Whereas his spokesman had seen the United States of America (USA), the host country of France, Switzerland and a couple others as prospective interests in Nigeria’s investment opportunities, President Tinubu met, negotiated with and got others, especially global development agencies, to give their words and indicate financial commitments to the development in the country.

    “At the last count about three, four different heads of state of developed countries have indicated willingness to meet with him, have a chat with him and explore areas of cooperation on the economy, on agriculture, on other areas that are salient to the development of Nigeria’s economy. That is generally the essence of this meeting”, Alake had said.

    However, much more than revealed by the presidential spokesman was achieved in sideline meetings, lined before the President arrived in Paris and he was careful in making the right choices for Nigeria’s economic prosperity. He met with the French President, Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée; the Swiss President, Alain Berset, at Palais Brongniart; President of Benin Republic, Patrice Talon; Director General of World Trade Organization, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina; President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim), Prof. Benedict Oramah; and President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Odile Renaud–Basso.

    In these several meetings and engagements, Nigeria won a number of deliverables, either in financial kind or in promissory kind. For instance, in his meeting with the EBRD President, Tinubu warned it would be disastrous for the world, including the developed nations, to ignore the huge natural and human potentials the Nigeria he now leads is offering. This warning was taken literally by Renaud–Basso when she said it would be a mistake for the development bank not to invest in Nigeria, after considering six potential economies for investment. She categorically identified the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) as a targeted area the bank would place its investment attention in Nigeria.

    Meanwhile, the Afrexim Bank promised to inject more funding into the Nigerian economy, additional to what it already had put, to further build confidence in other investors. However, the AfDB made a more physically relatable commitment to the economic development of the country; its President, Dr Adesina said the bank will be supporting the growth of Nigeria’s agro-allied sector with a $520 million in the development of agro-processing zones in the country. Besides the $520 million categorical commitment, Adesina further alerted that the bank will be committing more resources into investments in Nigeria and his simple reason for this is the fact that the administration had shown, within its few days of existence, that it is committed to uplifting the ordinary people.

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    He was also able to attract a commitment from one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, Airbus/ATR, co-owned by French and Italian investments. Tinubu met with the company’s executives, led by its Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Laurent Rahul Domergue, who assured that the company was prepared to invest in the Nigerian aviation sector, particularly in supplying planes. Baba-Go-Fast was able to elicit the commitment by assuring the team that the Nigerian Aviation Sector would be streamlined for efficiency, especially in maintenance of aircrafts and training.

    These were just a few of the achievements, but like it is trite knowledge, not everything, especially in foreign policy and security packaging, that is put out there for public consumption. The spirit with which the President returned home on Tuesday, after his private stop-over in London, and the high praises that have so far trailed his outing from both local and global quarters, have indicated that there should definitely be more to what has been achieved than the layman knows about.

    Two of the major highlights of the last week were the return of the President home after his first diplomatic outing as leader of the largest African economy and the fanfare/revelations made during his thank-you homage to two of the royal fathers in Ogun State. The first, being his return, gathered so much crowd that it was almost as mammoth as though it was another presidential campaign. Eager and enthusiastic Nigerians had gathered at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos since early part of the day, awaiting the return of the President, who arrived past 5pm. His return has been described as heroic.

    The second most significant event of the Presidency was considered to be his visit to the palaces of the Paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, in Ijebu-Ode, and Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, in Abeokuta on Thursday. It was at the palace in Ijebuode that he explained the legendary pronouncement ‘Emilokan’. According to the President, ‘Emilokan’ was a spiritual invocation against the attempt made at frustrating his journey to the Presidency. It played its role in the long run.

    According to the President, he invoked the spirits of freedom and determination, symbolised by ‘Baba Emilokan’ to overcome the obstacles in the election. “Our monies were confiscated. The cashless policy didn’t work, it was terrible then. I realised that, I came to Ogun State to invoke the spirit of freedom which we are noted for. I invoked that spirit twice. The spirit of Baba Emilokan. That’s Baba. Being blunt, being decisive, that’s him, he will tell you. The second spirit is that money or no money (we will do the election and we will win)”, he explained.

    The last week had its dual elements; local and foreign, but it was as eventful, and fruitful, as usual. There was even the possibility of the week being more fruitful than the past three weeks; this week took the crusade to the world stage in an attempt at foraging for a critically needed FDI life-support.

    Coming into this week, it is expected to be as eventful with a lot of tasks to defray. It is believed that a lot of files and memoranda are waiting for the President’s attention. Let’s go into the week together.

    By Bolaji Ogundele

  • Tinubuism: Touching the tangibles? (Part 2)

    Tinubuism: Touching the tangibles? (Part 2)

    “Gladwell in his book acted in sync with the duo of James W. Wilson and George L. Kelling, savvy social science scholars, who first muted the idea of the “Broken Windows Theory” in 1982. Subsequently and unanimously, police officers and social psychologists agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. The implication, from studies, is that one un-repaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing and could be the norm in such a society.”

    The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” is the debut book by celebrated and award-winning author, Malcolm Gladwell, first published in 2000. Gladwell defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” The treatise’s main aim is to depict and display the “mysterious” sociological changes that mirror daily life of people, irrespective of their clime. As Gladwell states: “ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread like viruses do.” One typical example pinpointed in his treatise and highly relevant to this edition of “Followership Challenge” is the steep drop in New York city’s crime rate after 1990. It is the rational belief of Gladwell that human behaviour could be sensitive and strongly influenced by its environment. In the New York scenario, it was discovered that a seeming “zero tolerance” effort exerted in combating minor crimes such as graffiti, fare-beating, pickpocketing and vandalism resulted in serious decline of more violent crime citywide! It was an amazing discovery!!

    Gladwell in his book acted in sync with the duo of James W. Wilson and George L. Kelling, savvy social science scholars, who first muted the idea of the “Broken Windows Theory” in 1982. Subsequently and unanimously, police officers and social psychologists agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. The implication, from studies, is that one un-repaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing and could be the norm in such a society. Window breakers could therefore term it as fun and be involved in more frenzy and frenetic fiasco not blinking their frowned faces! In essence, in any context, clime, community or country, the onus lies on the leaders to devise and execute a successful strategy to address apparent small misdemeanors. In other words, concrete efforts should be exerted in repairing the broken windows within a short span of time, possibly, within a day or week. The concomitant effect is that vandals’ hands are weakened in breaking more windows. Going this route, if the sidewalk is cleaned up daily, the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). In the same vein, as it was soon discovered in New York, arrest and prosecution of pickpockets, overtime, led to reduction in hardened criminals’ menace in the city. In essence, public problems are less likely to escalate or exacerbate into uncontrollable degrees if swiftly attended to at early stages where they apparently appeared infinitesimal or insignificant.

    Intent To Tackle Intangibles

    The Tinubu administration should not just focus on the seemingly tangibles, some of which had been highlighted in past editions of this column. In the introduction to this write up, it is crystal clear that intangibles are like cancer starting small and soon spreading to several organs of the body. It is high time, some of these critical intangibles that have been foisted on the psyche of this country, and frighteningly feasting as a parasite on our ailing economy, were scythed from the roots forthwith, if indeed the anticipated growth in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 6.0 will not be a utopia as declared by Mr. President in his inaugural speech.

    It is imperative as time ticks for President Bola Tinubu to get his acts together to constitute his cabinet whilst jettisoning pedestrian political patronage or parochialism. For the umpteenth time, it should be rehashed in the ears of the man in the saddle that round pegs must be in round holes if we, as a country, would not pander to the pitfalls of political demagogues who are bent in continuing the menace of “window breaking” without batting an eyelid! Pointedly put, it is when these savvy men and women who are counted credible, competent and cerebral to sit on top of crucial and core agencies of government, unleash the power and influence of their offices to surmount several seeming intangibles eating the fabric of the country that Nigeria can breathe fresh air. The President cannot be gloating over the whole space, the more reason he needs these eggheads in government. It was exciting and elating reading the lips of the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, vociferously declaring that he felt like a lion ready to devour Nigeria’s enemies. One hopes that this would not be a mouthed mantra analogous to a dog barking with no bite that will soon die with the tide of time! Will he be able to walk the talk? Will he be able to match his words with his actions culminating in the enemies of peace and safety ending up in the net or relocating from Nigeria in the next 6 months?

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    One of the onerous duties before appointed and elected men and women in office, starting from the Federal level (the President has to show the way) will be cutting off wasting of resources – human and fiscal. It would be politically unwise to advise the President to right-size the public service as some analysts believe the public service is overstuffed. This columnist, having served in the prestigious Lagos State Civil Service, differs. However, need and gap analysis should be carried out in order to move some workers around whilst halting employing new hands even as some are retiring. In addition, draining pipes oozing out needed fiscal resources should be sealed. Equally, the budgeting system of the Federal Government should be adjusted gradually to get more of capital than recurrent expenditure, if indeed the incumbent Presidency of Tinubu will make the needed impact in governance and on the people. Be that as it may, both Capital and Recurrent Expenditures should be properly tracked or monitored for performance, not just in the amount budgeted spent, but the outcomes and impact deliverables should be felt, seen, touched or embraced by the citizens. This is part of the social contract as the President is supposed to be a servant leader, waking the talk.

    It is saddening and worrisome that some Nigerians had died with their inventions with states and federal governments looking away unconcerned or paying lip service. This ugly and unwarranted stance should be stemmed. It is high time the Federal Government established an agency dealing with research and innovation that will open doors for budding inventors like in civilized climes. This agency, aftermath of deciphering the content and genuineness of the invention or innovation, should promote the inventor or innovator to the government and financial institutions thus charting the way forward. India and China are countries where cottage industries with small tools and plants to operate them abound. Nigeria can emulate this trend too. Moreover, this agency, to be effective and efficient should be proactive, non-partisan, but professionalized organ of government with core mandate to handle inventions and innovations all over the country till they turn into mass production of several items thus reducing unemployment, increasing productivity, enhancing income generation and promoting export of processed or manufactured goods within and outside Africa.

    In addition, apparently intangible is the multiplier effect of developing digital skills of our youths. It is gladdening that the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, mouthed the impending 1,000,000 (one million) digitalized jobs coming. This should not just be mouthed but be made to manifest through conscious and intentional strategic planning with a resultant effect of decapitating poverty and arresting insecurity as many of our youths, frustrated due to lackadaisical leadership leaning, have veered into cultism, internet fraud and other criminal activities.

    In addition, one other apparent intangible that should be seriously looked into is converting waste to wealth. There are huge benefits and potentials here we can leverage on in developing our dipping economy if we can go through the whole process of conversion. The same research and innovation agency, aforementioned, can handle this too, acting in conjunction with ministries of environment at both state and federal levels. Recently, a generator adapted to being powered by human urine was recently promoted online; the WhatsApp post soon went viral. Moreover, another budding innovator was alleged to generate diesel from bark of trees mixed with other items. Equally, there are so many others that we can exploit by converting wastes to wealth. In the light of this, the federal government should direct research institutes to liaise with the agency handling innovation and work in synergy specifically in making public all research findings gathering dust on the shelves of these institutes.

    Interestingly for decades, we have been used to our archaic and atavistic airports that are left unattended to as orphans. Our airports should be properly maintained whilst some should be concessioned for effective and efficient service delivery. It is equally imperative to plan for two new international airports – Abuja and Lagos – well situated and serviced for the 21st century ambience. Airports are now designed as communities where passengers are taken care of as their second homes. Indecorous and indecent attitude of begging and bribe taking should be anathema in all our airports as this unseemly attitude demeans us as a country. I remembered an occasion when I travelled with some Singaporeans, including my then boss, to Lagos, Nigeria. The unsettling attitude of cleaners and other unscrupulous officials begging for money was used against we Nigerians publicly when we arrived in Singapore in comparison to what obtained at the internationally acclaimed Changi International Airport, Singapore. Of course, one cannot be comparing apples with oranges! Therefore, it is imperative for workers to be trained to act professionally as obtained in sane climes as our airports are vital gateways into our country.

    Conclusion

    In surmising this piece, identifying certain and core seeming intangibles and tackling them could arrest discernible bigger crimes. Moreover, it must be succinctly and saliently stated that fixing round pegs in round holes as Ministers and Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) will ensure performance as credible, competent and cerebral hands will know what to do and share burden of governance with the President. This will allow the President enough headroom to tinker on crucial national issues. In concluding this piece, one core issue is that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should be proactive and less partisan in picking on corrupt public officials involved in pilfering public patrimony. In the same vein the IGP and Service Chiefs, in fact, the entire security apparatus and architecture being coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) should be up and doing; there should be swift action on small crimes. The “Broken Window Theory” comes into focus here. However, there should be less media trial so that the suspected culprits will not escape off the hook. As an addendum, the incoming Minister of Justice and Attorney General should liaise with the National Assembly (NASS) to review some of our archaic and atavistic civil and criminal laws to seemingly serve erring members of the society “no more business as usual” notice.

     •John Ekundayo, Ph.D. – can be reached via +2348030598267 (WhatsApp only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com

  • Reducing Nigeria’s monstrous cost of governance through president’s personal example

    Reducing Nigeria’s monstrous cost of governance through president’s personal example

    To save Nigeria we must, among other things, go back to Education, Healthcare and Infrastructural development, Cut The High Cost Of Governance, with the President, ministers, governors, legislators and all other political appointees taking a substantial pay cut to save money that could be  spent on the welfare of the citizenry – Chief Philip Asiodu, in an interview titled: ‘Where Nigeria Went Wrong’.

     The challenge of once, and for all, finding a lasting solution to the astronomical cost of governance in Nigeria is by no means new.

    It is one  problem most Nigerian presidents have toyed with, but shied away, from. Indeed, the most outrageous aspect of it all – the National Assembly’s totally outrageous emoluments – about the highest to Congressmen anywhere in the world  – has been attributed to none other than former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    In this regard, the  respected Chief Phillip Asiodu wrote: “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. He did not win any of these, but it was waived for him”.

    “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, even far above the recommendations of the Revenue Mobilisation And Fiscal Commission ( RMAFC) which arose from his second term ambition because he needed their support. Otherwise he would have been able to constrain them”.

    Also, because of his own second term ambition, attempting to have their humongous salaries and allowances reduced was a no go area for President Goodluck Jonathan who, however, set up a Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government’s Parastals, Commissions and Agencies Committee, headed by Stephen Oronsaye, a former Head of Service, but whose recommendations he knew he would treat with benign neglect just as he did the recommendations of the 2014 National conference.

    Outright listlessness, and a measure of self interest, arising from having packed nearly all the agencies, parastatals, Departments and commissions with Northerners who must not be touched under any circumstances, ensured that President Buhari paid little or no attention, whatever, to the report  until very late in his administration.

    Indeed, his late approval to implement the recommendations went to nothing.

    With respect to this nerve racking problem from which many of his predecessors simply turned the blind eye, President Tinubu is, no doubt, in a situation analogous to that of the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo when the  following were written about him:

    “To accomplish these, Awo and his colleagues were determined to blast their way through whatever problems, and compel the force of any adverse circumstance to serve their will. This was because they had put in, long and hard preparations, to meet the challenges and they had evolved elaborate plans which they were ready to launch at a moment’s notice”. What is more, and here am quoting the Avatar:”we had an abiding, flaming faith in the soundness and practicable-ness of our plans. We regarded ourselves as crusaders in a new cause, and as eminently qualified for the pioneering role which we had imposed on ourselves”.

    With considerable justification, after his 30 years of productive engagement in the politics of Nigeria preparing for ‘his life long ambition of becoming the Nigerian President’, President Tinubu should be able to own that assertive pronouncement by AWO, regarding his own preparedness for office.

    In consequence of that, he should now go ahead and deploy all his well known qualities as a dogged strategist, combined with his wide and varied experience, as well as his not inconsiderable network, to tame the conundrum of Nigeria’s unsustainable cost of governance, especially the atrocious emoluments of members of the National Assembly which is actually the elephant in the room.

    It is, without a doubt, a difficult task; difficult mainly because he will be confronting, head on,  powerful politicians and their hangers-on outside, whose  primary interest is SELF- LOVE, as against concern for the welfare of the people or even the country’s infrastructural development.

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

    To today’s generation of politicians, especially those now populating the National Assembly – most of who would probably think that ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’ is the title of a Nollywood video, all the Avatar wrote, will mean nothing.

    Their primary concern, in those hallowed Chambers, is the good life, but strictly for themselves.

    This will, therefore, be one of the President’s main problems in office given the key role of the Legislature as a co- equal arm of government. While political will shall be very important in resolving it, it will not be enough because they are a congenitally selfish lot.

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    This is where the President would, therefore, have to lead by personal example; one that would be irresistible and which, combined with the respect and goodwill he has attracted in his few weeks in office, will make the legislators see reason and play ball.

    Here the President  must demonstrate, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the Nigerian presidency became a life ambition for him only because he saw the office as the utmost position from where he could both meaningfully, and positively impact the lives of Nigerians,  irrespective of clan, tribe or religion. For him, this is the driving force propelling him all along.

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

    influence”.

    All these – values, convictions and leadership – are qualities President Tinubu possesses in quantum,  and they are the very things he must now bring to bear in negotiations with those who are rather being over paid from our common purse. He must encourage, and persuade, them to  willy nilly, take a substantial cut in their very high  emoluments which run into multiples of millions of Naira per month.

    He should let them know, if they don’t already, that Nigeria is on tenterhooks.

    The same treatment – cut in salaries and allowances – must be fully extended to the executive branch  where the President must lead by example by not only announcing a massive cut in his own emoluments, but ‘decree’ an end to the outlandish wastages that have characterised the executive branch over the years.

    The states will, naturally, replicate all these in their own areas of.jurisdiction.

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

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

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

    The approval allegedly given for implementation by President Buhari, and  forwarded to the Head of Service of the Federation did not see the light of day until that government left office.

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

    A country that serially borrows, year in, year out, to implement its annual budget should, if led by a serious government, never run a government half as expensive as Nigeria does without a hint of shame.

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

    The President, no doubt, should be well aware that cutting the cost of governance is long overdue, and no longer a stitch in time which as they say,  saves nine. It is now already far too late.

    Over then to President Tinubu. Nigerians are  waiting to see him rescue them, and generations yet unborn, from the. hands of these swashbuckling, and parasitic, rent seekers happily devouring our nation.

  • THE FLYING PHANTOM

    THE FLYING PHANTOM

    Our new airline is a flying fluke

    Fast and frightening like a costly spook

    It rumbles in the sky like a stricken bull

    Its push is faster than its sneaking pull

    After a long and tortuous quest

    It’s here at last, an awkward guest

    A glorified duck in green-white-green

    Begotten of a ruse that’s oh so mean

    The people yearned, the people dreamt

    Of a national carrier we can all accept

    True in name, true in deed

    Not some fake contraption, some flying reed

    For long we suffered, a flightless nation

    Giddy and groundless in our wingless station

    The world leapt aloft and surged in the sky

    We were good old dodo unable to fly

    But once upon a heedless time

    We had a fleet in our prodigal prime

    De-winged, destroyed by rampart sleaze

    It slipped into ruin with shameful ease

    Now here we come with a glittering jet

    Begged and borrowed from a foreign set

    Gaudily splashed with green-white-green

    And draped all over with a clownish sheen

    They create, we copy; they make, we fake

    4-1-9-country, a rowdy rake

    Scam-bag haven, its frightful fare

    Hail our new baby, Nigeria Air!

  • Tinubuism: Touching the tangibles? (Part 1)

    Tinubuism: Touching the tangibles? (Part 1)

    “Having lived as a Nigerian for up to six decades now by the grace of God; studied and worked in Nigeria and outside Nigeria; and traversed some other nations of the world in different continents, I have come to a certain conclusion that to fix Nigeria, replete with so humongous human and natural resources, will simply and squarely demand one core and crucial thing from the man who sits in the saddle as the President and Commander-in-Chief. He must die first on the assumption of office. As the man is taking his oath of office, he must write his will. Not done, he should sign his death warrant! These steps should not be done privately but be publicised …” – John Ekundayo, from the book, “TINUBU: Trajectory To The Throne”, published December 2022 in the USA by Amazon, page 245.

    Ab initio, most citizens, conditioned to the nauseating nuances of governance within Nigeria’s context, since the advent of the democratic dispensation counting from 1999 till date, were not so much eager or enthusiastic of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration exhibiting and exemplifying positive reflexes within 100 days in office taking cognizance of the horrendous hysteria associated with the socio-economic and political conundrum our country finds herself. It would be recalled that past presidents had been tagged with monikers such as “Baba Go Slow”, “Clueless”, etc. These aliases are borne out of leadership perceptions by seeming unanimity of followers within the polity.

    However, the inauguration speech of Mr. President generated waves of reactions and responses from diverse analysts, scholars, politicians, professionals and citizens generally. In fact, there was a backlash the same day! Aftermath of President Bola Tinubu’s seeming sonorous statement: “subsidy is gone!”, gasoline retailers jerked up the prices whilst some outlets refused selling the products. Presently, supply has been consistent and fuel queues have disappeared from petrol stations within a few days albeit the price regime has been reviewed upward depending on the marketer. Strategic leadership in principle and practice!

    Sheriff: Sour or Sweet?

    The body language of the man in the saddle in Aso Rock, is in sync with the sobriquet: no business as usual! It is noteworthy that a cross section of followers has tagged the new sheriff in town as “Baba too fast!!” Interestingly, President Tinubu is less than 30 days on the saddle!!! This columnist considering the gamut of gargantuan concerns and challenges ahead, wrote in this column a day to the inauguration of the President, precisely on Sunday 28th May 2023, inter alia: “Will Tinubu do things differently, in sync with the expectations of many followers, to terminate tangible troublous trails, and doing so within the nick of time?” Apparently, Mr. President, in comparison with other past presidents or heads of state, has, within a short span of time, turned the table giving a hint of where his government may be heading to in the next couple of months. Interacting with a core and cerebral analyst recently, this columnist heard him say: “Jagaban has demystified governance!” One crucial and delicate issue that exemplifies this perception is the withdrawal of petrol subsidy and the attendant atmosphere devoid of rancor and resentment despite the country’s bleeding economy draining the already pulverized purchasing power of the populace. This is a seemingly sagacious strategic step that is worth commending. Any wonder, market indices spiked sweetly a few days after the inauguration? There is indeed a new Sheriff in town!

    Fancied Frenetic Face?

    Discerning citizens, who are not novices to the nuances of governance, still know that the nitty gritty of leading the fractious entity called Nigeria to a glorious destination is neither a walk in the park or a tea party. President Bola Tinubu seems to show signals of knowing that route. Does he however possess the stuff, substance and stamina as well as the credibility, competence, carriage and charisma to strategically steer the ship of state northward to that desired haven? It is said that morning shows the day, and in consonant with the Yoruba common parlance, which the president is attuned to, a child that will grow tall, his legs will be thin (“omo ta gun, ese a tirin”), judging from the perception of many followers, cognitively rather than empirically, the President is on course within the short span of time having signalled a departure from the slow-paced nature of leadership Nigerians are wont and wired to. Nigerians, no doubt, desire to see changes in style of leadership, especially shipping out of round pegs in square holes left behind by the Buhari’s administration. How, and when, the incumbent President Tinubu will act is what they could not discern?

    Rising up courageously as though pandering to the desire of the followers, in less than 30 days, the man in the saddle at the centre has withdrawn petrol subsidy; commenced engagement of labour and students unions and association without impasse; signed into law Electricity Act that the erstwhile President Buhari could not summon the courage to do since July 20222; signed into law the Student Loan Act that will signal the pace for autonomy of our tertiary institutions in no distant time; and, made key appointments such as Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National Security Adviser, and core advisers, who are mostly technocrats. Moreover, exploring and exploiting his political strategic sagacity, President Bola Tinubu, got his preferred candidates elected into the Senate presidency and House of Representatives speakership without any stalemate. He acted differently from the politically unwise stance of the erstwhile President Buhari who once stated openly “I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody.” Buhari’s stance in siding with this statement accounted in no small dimension in the cabal cornering his government and counselling him wrongly especially in the matter of the National Assembly elections in his first term which the fifth columnists acting in cahoots with the opposition made mincemeat of his political aloofness.

    Moreover, as the President was preparing for his first official visit to France, in one fell swoop, the battle-weary service chiefs were given the boot! Not done, new ones were immediately appointed and to resume work immediately. In the same appointment list, a new head of brigade of guards and barracks within the precincts of FCT were also appointed. Curiously included in the list, is the removal of Comptroller General of Customs and appointment of a new one.

    Tangentially Touch Tangibles?

    Interestingly and instructively, most public commentators and analysts concurred on national spread and religious balancing thus dousing the demonizing Muslim-Muslim mouthing that the opposition callously chorused against the ruling party prior to the election. Right now, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) can compare which is beneficial to them of the erstwhile Muslim-Christian ticket of the Buhari administration and the incumbent government with balancing in region and religion. It is worthwhile pontificating on this page the herculean task embarked upon by the President in a series of engagements and meetings with various organs of his party and opposition in order to get elected his favoured candidates into both the red and green chambers. Senator Ali Ndume let the cat out of the bag when he was a guest of Seun Okinbaloye of Channels TV. The distinguished senator stated unequivocally that President Bola Tinubu bent over by calling some national assembly members to vote for his candidates. The President went further, according to him, to sneak out to places where he could find them to persuade and appeal to them to side with him in ensuring the candidates of his party that he put forward were elected. To this columnist, Senator Yari, funnily in Yoruba language, stressing his seeming stubborn stance, one would say ‘Yari, ti yari ooo’ (meaning: Yari has rebuffed all entreaties, including presidential one!). In the final count, he met his waterloo!! What is significant in this strategic sagacious stepping of the man in the saddle? It is not just that his candidates won, but in commencing national healing and reconciliation that he promised in his acceptance speech after being declared as the President Elect.

    Concluding Comments

    In essence, with virtually all the appointments thus far, the President has demonstrated and depicted a mix of spread; regional and religious balancing; competence and credibility; relationship and camaraderie spanning years. All said and done, this columnist will not state here and now that all the appointees fit in as there are few that will need to prove their mettle while in office. It is sagacious to reference the point made by the president to the traditional rulers when he conferred with them a few days after his inauguration. He pointedly posited, inter alia: “We may not have it right 100 per cent of the time, but we must get it right 90 per cent of the time for this country, …” In essence, we should be able to afford eccentricity and error of 10%. Whilst scoring 90% is a distinction mark in any institution or context, missing out of a 10% of vital part of governance can trounce and truncate the feats recorded in other segments. Hence, there is the need for the government to allow feedback mechanism and applying rigorous and robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) tools, ab initio as done in developed climes.

    Surmising this piece, does President Bola Tinubu embody extant empathy of the downtrodden in the society presently in Nigeria? How far will his government interventions, aftermath of the petrol subsidy withdrawal, touch the poor of the poor who are neither public servants or engaged in the organized private sector? Will it not still be better to constitute a National Healing and Reconciliation Commission to address sore and stubborn issues of coexistence within the context or contraption called Nigeria operating a non-truly federalism? In addition, how will building and sustaining strong political and economic institutions engender sustainable strategic development? Will the ministerial list to be presented to the Senate meet the expectations of the majority of the masses and be devoid of political pandering and parochialism that may jeopardize achieving tangible outcomes and impacts anchored on the “Renewed Hope Agenda”? This series will delve and dive into more of what to expect and strategically critique the move of the government in order to deliver effectively and efficiently the dividends of democracy to the populace.

    Surmising it thus, as quoted in the opening of this essay, anyone serving as Nigeria’s President should first die if he ever wants to make a meaningful impact. In the book, “TINUBU: Trajectory To The Throne”, written by this columnist and published in USA by Amazon, inter alia, it is succinctly and saliently stated on page 245:

    “I have come to a certain conclusion that to fix Nigeria, … the President and Commander-in-Chief … must die first on the assumption of office. As the man is taking his oath of office, he must write his will. Not done, he should sign his death warrant! These steps should not be done privately but be publicised …” Follow the “Followership Challenge” for this series while expecting your feedback.

    • Ekundayo, Ph.D. – can be reached via +2348030598267 (WhatsApp only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com
  • 2023: of Tinubu’s approach to governance, oppossition’s intellectual lassitude, propaganda and disinformation

    2023: of Tinubu’s approach to governance, oppossition’s intellectual lassitude, propaganda and disinformation

    I crave the indulgence of my  esteemed readers to do something am doing for the first time ever, that is,  jettisoning my own article for another person’s, on this column.

    Published Sunday, 11 December, 2022,  the article you are about to read predated ‘Nigeria: Arise O Compatriots’ for which I, this past Sunday, yielded the column to one of the Authors of ‘Nigeria- Before I Die’, by no less than 6 months.

    I am today,  assuming the concurrence of Dan Osa-Ogbegie of Benin – City,  to have published, mutatis mutandis, his article of the above title.

    I have finished my own article which I captioned ‘Tinubu: Chatham House And The Ensuing Chatter By Nabobs of Negativism’, before I ran into the Ogbegie article which completely bowled me over with its  uncanny understanding and capture of what I would like to describe as ‘The Essential Phenomenal Tinubu Persona’.

    Please come with me as I show you unencumbered truth from a writer who is not even of the same Yoruba ethnic stock as Tinubu. That fact alone should shame the naysayers – a small, but very loud, coterie of envious, animus – driven pranksters, especially among Tinubu’s own Yoruba. I forsee many of them joining Chief Bode George to emigrate abroad once Tinubu is elected President, come February, 2023.

    Happy reading.

    “The  presidential candidate of the APC yesterday addressed a group of intellectuals at Chatham House, London, and it was another big revelation of candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu on one hand, and that of the opposition – supporting Southerners, on the other.

    I woke up early today to the cries of some Nigerians on how embarrassed they claim they were at Tinubu’s outing at Chatham House and I was compelled to go watch the video myself.

    What I saw was a highly presidential address by a man who understands what is expected of him as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, correctly appreciating the relevance of Nigeria to the entire West African sub region.

    In the speech, he emphasised Nigeria’s role in Africa as a big brother and a beacon of hope to the entire continent; the ECOWAS sub-region in particular, where there had, of recent, been some military interventions.

    He submitted that if elected president, his administration will continue to provide quality leadership to the sub-region and ensure that democratic ideals reign supreme everywhere.

    He touched on security, energy, private sector participation as well as the building of a virile Nigeria that will provide leadership for the much needed African rennaisance. It was a beautiful speech any patriotic Nigerian should be proud of.

    During the question and answer session, Tinubu again demonstrated class by the dignified way he handled some rather insolent questions that would have made a Peter Obi flip, as he did sometime ago with a certain Dino Melaye.

    He was asked questions about his identity, age and health; all facts already available in the public space. Tinubu is 70 years now, and will be 71 when he becomes President of Nigeria by the grace of God in 2023.

    But why is his age suddenly an issue this year when it wasn’t in 1992 when he contested for the senate and won? Why was it not an issue when he sided with the Nigerian people to fight for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria when the country was under military dictators who held us all by the scruff of our necks? Why was Tinubu’s age not an issue in 1998/1999 when he was elected Lagos State governor, and started therefrom, what has now put Lagos on the map as the 5th largest economy in Africa?

    Why was his age not an issue when he staved off Obasanjo’s creeping dictatorship and emerged as the last man standing; rescuing Nigeria from the rudderless PDP, and leading a new opposition political party to win a presidential election for the first time in Nigeria?

    Or when he gave Atiku his party’s presidential ticket during one of that man’s many fruitless attempts at becoming president?

    It is all because they are scared stiff of the massive support Tinubu is attracting everywhere in the country. One reason opposition elements have relied upon to question his age is their belief in the outright lie that his daughter is 62 years old. Here, in  truth, is a young, 46 year old lady who my friend, Darlington Okpebholo Ray, a PDP member, now an Obidient , knows very well, and can attest to.

    Therefore, rather than discuss Tinubu’s speech as intelligent people should, the naysayers have been  busy whining about how Chatham House was imposing “a sick Tinubu on Nigeria” (Sahara Reporters) and how Tinubu allocated questions to members of his team to answer -(Dino Melaye and Peter Obi’s social media urchins).

    Ten questions were put to Tinubu after his speech, and in his characteristic way of showing that the presidency would not be all about him but, rather, about the first class team he would  assemble, he answered four, and shared the others between his ‘A’ team members, which included Nasir El-Rufai, a first class brain, and current governor of Kaduna state, Ben Ayade, a renowned Professor, and governor of Cross Rivers State, Dave Umahi, an Engineer and governor of Ebonyi State, who has turned the state to a major talking point in Nigeria as a result of his unparalleled development strides. Among them too was Dele Alake, a long time Tinubu confidant and associate,  veteran journalist and master strategist.

    The traction Tinubu got from delegating questions to members of his team after addressing the August assembly is enormous. His rivals know this and would soon try to copy the innovation which shows that he will rely on highly skilled Nigerians to get the job done as he did in lagos State.

    The choice in 2023 must not be an emotive one. We must, critically assess all the candidates and choose the one that has the track record required, not only to get Nigeria out of the woods, but  place it on a trajectory of sustainable development as we saw him do in Lagos state where he turned a measly N600M Internally Generated Revenue to a humongous, multi- billion Naira achievement.

    We must also take a good look at their record in public service.

    Nigeria needs a completely detribalised leader who sees all Nigerians as one, regardless of their ethnicity or religious beliefs.

    Our choice will surely not be a Peter Obi who, being  so clannish,  drove a wedge between Roman Catholics and Anglicans while governor of Anambra state. Nor can it be Atiku Abubakar who has shown how very divisive he is, by beating a fast retreat from initially condemning the crazed mob that killed Deborah Samuel, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto.

    If Obasanjo’s numerous complaints about Atiku are anything to go by, Atiku was a wrong choice for him as Vice – President then, and will be a wrong president now. Nothing has changed as Atiku remains desperate to become president, as was foretold by his marabouts. For that ambition alone, he has changed political parties more than a prostitute changes sex partners, having been contesting for the office since 1993.

    Today, coming all the way from Dubai where he now lives, he sees nothing wrong in selfishly breaking the principle of power rotation between the South and the North, showing how much he loves himself, but disdains a peaceful Nigeria.

    While Bola Tinubu created a first class civil service in Lagos state, employing Nigerians from diverse tribes and religions, Peter Obi was busy repatriating Hausa traders from Anambra to Delta state, and sacking fellow Igbos from other South east states who were

    in the Anambra state employment.

    If Peter Obi could discriminate against Anambra Anglicans in favour of Anambra Catholics and against non Anambra Igbos working in Anambra to a point of retrenching  them, how will he handle a  heterogeneous entity like Nigeria as president?

    Tinubu’s performance in Lagos is today, still an example to other state governors.

    He implemented a land administration system reform which made housing  ownership a lot easier, just as he embarked upon a holistic judicial reforms. He introduced a tax system reform that saw Lagos at par with international best practices. He equally embarked on a traffic management reform that has incrementally been improved upon by all successive Lagos state governors.

    Tinubu, a muslim, was the first governor to return mission schools to the original owners, as well as started the payment of O’level enrolment fees for all candidates in Lagos schools, irrespective of their states of origin.

    In contradistinction to that  Peter Obi increased school fees in Anambra state and compelled parents to pay three terms’ fees in the first term.

    When students and parents protested, he infamously replied that education was not for the poor, and that they could withdraw from schools to go and learn vulcanizing, carpentry or any other trade for which, according to him, formal education was unnecessary.

    All the reforms Tinubu institutionalised in Lagos have greatly impacted on the ease of doing business in the state that, as mentioned earlier, the state is now the 5th largest economy in Africa.

    I challenge Peter Obi’s supporters, home and abroad, to tell Nigerians one reform, policy, programme or project of Peter Obi – just one -that other states have gone to Anambra state to copy.

    What exactly is now the basis of supporting Peter Obi?  All he does is lie, superfulously, with statistics, enumerating Nigeria’s problems, but never offering their solution.

    Nigerians must not be emotive in deciding who governs us.No messiah is coming to take all our problems away at a go.

    What Tinubu knows, is what Nigerians also know about him – that he is a doer, not a talker, and that he has the capacity to put together, a team of very competent hands, from all over the country, for the good of the country. He has done it before and the evidence is all over the place.

    He can, and will, do it again, this time around, Pan – Nigeria”.

    Nothing confirms the veracity of all that Ogbegie said about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu above more than the fact that in less than a month in office as President, he is now being called PAPA GO FAST.

    Thanks to, among other things, his many years of preparation for office, something completely alien to Nigeria where a reluctant Alhaji Shehu Shagari, whose only ambition was to be a senator, was frog jumped into the presidency of Nigeria.

    Let me conclude with how REUTERS rhapsodised this exemplar in the history of governance in Nigeria when,  on 16 June, ’23, it wrote excitedly:”Nigeria’s new president, in office for less than a month, is pushing to put Africa’s largest economy on a reform track that investors have eyed for decades, fuelling excitement that money could flow to a nation that many had deemed uninvestible.

    President Bola Tinubu’s bold actions, including removing restrictions on the naira currency that allowed it to hit a record N790 to the dollar, and subsidy removal that tripled petrol prices, could take stress off the battered finances of Africa’s largest economy”.

    Even then, President Tinubu ‘sese nmeye bo lapo ni’ – Yoruba – speak, meaning that the President is only just beginning to dazzle.

  • An idea whose time is now

    An idea whose time is now

    • Students Loan Scheme is the desired lifeline to ensure no one is denied higher education on account of poverty

    Although I never benefitted from any student loan or bursary throughout my university education, I cannot forget how university campuses came alive whenever my friends got bursary awards from their respective states back then. I doubt if anyone of us from the southern part of the country met the scholarship scheme on ground. Those from the north, may be. Indeed, various northern states devised enticing pecuniary packages for their students to enable the region ‘catch up’ with the south in terms of education. Back then, the north was referred to as educationally disadvantaged. They remain so to date; only that we hear the term ‘educationally disadvantaged’ less often today. And many of their state governments tried through various schemes to encourage their own who could find their way into the university; many with rock bottom admission criteria, specially designed to bridge the educational gap between the north and south. Even in terms of the bursary, the difference between what the northern and southern states’ governments paid was extraordinary.  It was like comparing sleep with death. Most students from the north could then afford to live like oil sheikhs.

    I never collected bursary that was then available not necessarily because I was particularly rich but first because I considered the processes for collection too rigorous. But that was easy for me because my father picked all my bills relatively with ease. My mother too played her motherly role, though. Second, my needs were relatively few since I could refer to myself then as a minimalist.

    But I cannot forget how elated my friends were whenever they got the bursary awards. They painted the campuses red. The season of bursary collection was season of pride. Commercial business owners on campuses and even beyond, particularly those close to the University of Lagos that I attended knew that in those times, money was not the  students’ problem but how to spend it. I guess we met the remnant of the better life that those who attended universities before us had. Today, when I tell my children that my monthly meal ticket in the university was N45.00, yes, N45.00 translating to N1.50 per day at fifty kobo per meal, which entitled me to a sumptuous breakfast of pap/custard/Quaker oath plus sugar and milk, with yam or bread and fried eggs or stew; a lunch and dinner of rice or any swallow with meat or fish, they find it hard to believe. It was something else on Sundays when we had jollof rice and a sizable portion of chicken (no one dared serve you with chicken head or legs; as a matter of fact we never knew that those parts existed or what happened to them because we never saw them in the cafeterias), all these sound to our children like some fairy tale from wonderland. Yet, whatever we called enjoyment in our days in the university was a far cry from what our predecessors enjoyed.

    I had to travel this memory lane in order to properly situate the students loan scheme that the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration plans to resume in September, to lessen the burden of university education on indigent students, in context. It pains my heart that the scholarship boards that used to make life easier for indigent students in those days were allowed to disappear for decades without any government thinking of reviving them. Some of us still recall, albeit nostalgically, how some of our older citizens who had the best of these good times in their university days regale us with the pleasurable moments they had. Many of them who are something today would have ended up being nothing but for the benefit of loans they had to further their studies. Given the several opportunities that existed in their time, with some of them having access to more than one source of funding for their education, there is no reason they should have allowed scholarship to disappear from our educational system. Even in the advanced countries, despite their affluence, scholarships abound, making university education desirable, memorable and pleasurable. As a matter of fact, there are cases of exceptionally talented Nigerians getting scholarship awards outside of the country. But not in their own country.

    The unfortunate thing is that it is some of these very people who had the good times that killed the scholarship schemes. They simply removed the ladder after using it to get to the top. After destroying everything good that they enjoyed, they are now telling us there is no money to fund this; no money to fund that. I do not want to go into the debate of whether free education is possible at the tertiary level in Nigeria for obvious reasons. When we consider the way we squander money and the primitive stealing of public funds in the country, as if stealing is going out of fashion, we will know that this is truly debatable. A country where billions of dollars had been looted and stashed in bank vaults abroad over the decades! A country that the government merely wrings its hands in frustration even as it continually tells us that we lose as much as $40 million daily to oil theft! Not even the almighty America can live with that for long without unmasking those behind it and promptly committing them to prison. In a place like China, they would join their ancestors prematurely. Here, we treat them as if they are ghosts or spirits. Yet, the best our military authorities can say to that is to ask the person who told us what is not new, anyway, to name the culprits! How can anyone deny what is this obvious? It is like our  customs department asking for proof that our petroleum products were being smuggled to our neighbouring countries when the fuel subsidy regime was still in place.

    President Tinubu struck the right chord when on June 13 he told the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who paid him a courtesy call to thank him for signing into law the Students Loan Bill that “Poverty should not prevent anybody, any child, including the daughter or son of a wood seller, ‘Boli’ (plantain) seller or yam seller from attaining their highest standard of education, to eliminate poverty.”

    The president signed the bill on June 12, in furtherance of his campaign promises to liberalise funding of education in the country. The bill, titled “A bill for an Act to provide for easy access to higher education for Nigerians through an interest-free loan from the Nigerian Education Bank established in this Act to provide education for Nigerians and other purposes connected thereto” was sponsored by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who is now chief of staff to the president. Education Bank has however been replaced with Education Loan Bank in the act. Interestingly, Gbajabiamila was right beside the president as he signed the bill into law; a thing he probably could not have imagined when he took the bill to the House. It is sad that such an important bill whose journey started as far back as 2019 took so long to materialise. Yet, some people kept the pressure on the rest of us to accept an irrelevant thing like the Water Resources Bill. We should commend Gbajabiamila for using his position to ensure that the bill got the necessary accelerated push until it landed on the president’s table.

    However, more than fulfilling an electoral promise, the students loan is one of the avenues to mop up idle funds in the system. The quantum of such funds is mind-boggling and it is one of the reasons public officials steal as if we have conquered our environment and our problem is now how to steal the rest. Everyday we are assailed with news of so much billions stolen here and there.

    Moreover, such projects would enable government officials to put on their thinking caps permanently to sustain a project like this. We spoil them a lot in and out of office; they don’t have to do any rigorous thinking to generate funds to execute very important projects.

    The criteria to benefit from the loan and even the modalities may have to be tinkered with even before take-off, or as time goes on; the fact is that it is a good beginning. For instance, the idea of giving the loans to the poorest of the poor; in this case, parents whose income is not more than N500,000. I think this is rather too low because of inflationary pressures and the value of the naira. Without doubt, this is too low and should be reviewed upwards. Five hundred thousand Naira in 2019 when Gbajabiamila initiated the bill is not the same N500,000 of today. The naira’s value has dropped significantly. Even if the government still pegged the amount at N500,000 because it hoped to work on the country’s currency, the result of that may not be immediate.

    And the government must indeed work on the economy to ensure a conducive environment for business. Beneficiaries of the loan should be able to get jobs after graduation for them to have the capacity to repay. This is important because such loans are sustained by their revolving nature. When those who got loans cannot repay, not out of any fault of theirs but because the environment is stifling businesses and jobs, it is only a matter of time for the fund to dry up. You can only punish defaulters of such loans if they are chronic debtors who do not love to repay loans.

    But governments must be ready to expand facilities in the tertiary institutions to accommodate the deluge of youths who might want to take advantage of the loan scheme.

    Perhaps most profound, the old breed politicians must be eternally grateful to Tinubu for resuming a scheme like this. If they care to be reminded, time is not on their side as the younger generation is getting restless over what they see as the uncaring attitude of the ruling class to their miserable plight. I don’t know how many people are seeing what I am seeing. But any politician, old or young breed, who cannot see the looming danger in the absence of a scheme like this has to return to his or her mother’s womb to be born again.

    Education is the bedrock of development. A child that is not trained will end up misapplying whatever legacy you bequeath to him. I always remember the words of one of my seniors in the university who, in the acknowledgment section of his final year project thanked his parents for ‘gladly embracing poverty’ in order to send him to the university. I could understand his reason. That was the equivalent of what many parents, especially in the southwest who sent their children to the university, did. I have heard stories of those who were ready to go naked to achieve this lofty objective. Some sold their lifelong property just so their children could attend university. But it shouldn’t be so. Poverty is not pepper soup. So, parents don’t have to gladly embrace poverty in order to send their children to school.

  • Widening borders of economic latitude, setting security structures in place

    Last week was, in its own way, exciting at the Presidential Villa because President Bola Tinubu continued to pull more surprises, sustaining the identity he cut for the administration from the very first day. You will also agree that the consistency has earned the epithet ‘the back-to-back era’. From sustaining the agreement with the organised Labour on sorting out the issues ancillary to the removal of fuel subsidy and staving off a threatening industrial strike, to taking a real first step towards sorting out the myriad of security issues thawing at the very life of the nation’s stability and peace, to taking the crusade on reviving and reorganising the nation’s economy to the global stage and many other issues. It was a very busy week, as usual.

    Like suggested the upper week, the President pressed on with his agenda of salvaging the fortunes of the country by ensuring to take all the right steps at every approach. First, to ensure the state machine grinds without halting, his team resumed negotiations with the organised Labour to forestall an industrial action. If you have been following events since the Bola Tinubu administration took off, you would have known that his first action as President was dealing a decisive treat to fuel subsidy by sounding its end in his inaugural speech. Fuel subsidy has been described as the one single drain on national resources, which would have forced Nigeria to collapse.

    Removing fuel subsidy, which has survived for more than forty years and has fed the greed of a small section of the social system, will not go without a fight, especially as its rippling effects will sorely affect the larger number. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the two umbrella representatives of the organised Labour in the country, kicked against the action, which they said was taken without giving adequate consideration to how it would affect the ordinary Nigerian. This informed the need for the negotiations between government and the Labour, which reached an advanced stage last week.

    At the end of the meeting on Monday, June 19, both sides announced they had agreed to a timeline for the implementation of the initial agreements from the previous talks, which led to Monday’s conclusions, which the TUC President, Festus Osifo, disclosed to journalists after the resumed negotiation meeting, saying “we are looking at five broad technical committees that will be subsumed into Presidential Steering Committee. There must be timelines in these terms of reference but maximum should not exceed eight weeks. By next week Monday, we will be here again, same time”.

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    Having secured the uninterrupted function of the state system, the President went on with the process of reflating the economy, achieving stability by fixing the security system and attempting to spark the fire of love for the country in the citizens. Imagine Nigeria, at this point and considering how the daily affairs are for the individual Nigeria, having the entire system ground to a halt by a nationwide Labour strike. Every Nigerian should be thanking God that government and Labour found rhythm.

    Having sorted the harmony with the Labour, the rest of the week faced other pressing national issues, mostly economic. On same Monday, the President moved to save another major crisis threatening the maritime/oil distribution system of the country. The administration, in its bid to pool as much resources as possible to help the country tackle the various crises, went out to demand freight taxes from vessel owners, mostly foreign, who have owed taxes for more than ten years, running into millions of dollars. But there was a resistance, the vessel owners did not want to pay and their way of saying that was by threatening to stay clear of the Nigerian waters, an action that threatened freighting of commodities to Nigeria, including fuel importation.

    The President, through his men, led by the Special Adviser on Revenue, Zaccheaus Adedeji, Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, immediately intervened, negotiated an understanding, which staved off what could have been another devastating hit on the economy. “So, we’ve agreed to give the parties three months to come to the conclusion and we will also give a grace period of six months, when we will not enforce any of these laws, just to allow for reconciliation. In essence, no vessel or ship will be detained or delayed”, Adedeji told journalists.

    Meanwhile, the President has continued to further push the boundaries around the economy; besides what his advisory team has been doing by the sides, he has been leading the charge through meetings, calls, granting of courtesy visits and so on. Before he left for France on Tuesday, he received a couple of global economic players at the Villa, with whom he discussed areas of partnership and discussed his administration’s programme.

    For instance, he received the Founder of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal, whom he assured of the safety of foreign investments in Nigeria; met with the United States’ Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, Geoffrey Praytt, to whom he expressed Nigeria’s concerns on restrictions accompanying energy transition, placed side by side with Nigeria’s natural endowment in oil and gas, and the irony of poverty in the country. Then the meeting with two of the richest individuals in the world; Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and one-time richest man in the world, Bill Gates.

    Most of the meetings and courtesy calls have focused on the economy, something like someone who just opened a new business venture and is on a patronage drive. He took the patronage drive beyond the shores of the country on Tuesday when he flew to Paris, the capital of France, where he participated in the signing of a New Global Financial Pact. However, beyond just participating in the main event, he also needed to make the trip in order to showcase the potentials that Nigeria has to offer to investors. In the words of his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Tinubu went to France to also “network with international finance corporations and institutions, countries that are well healed that would facilitate or that could facilitate direct foreign investment into Nigeria”. 

    These days, people wake up in the morning to go check the news for the latest big step of Tinubu. They are usually looking to hear or read about a new declaration about an issue that has lingered eternally because of government’s indecision or lack of boldness, or the announcement of change of guards in many government’s formations. Last week, their back-to-back President did not disappoint because he actually took steps that got some people fired and another set appointed. On Monday evening, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) announced the appointment of a new National Security Adviser (NSA), Chief of Defence Staff, new service chiefs and an Acting Inspector-General of Police, an action which effectively sacked those who were in those positions till late that evening

    Almost two hours later, OSGF announced another shocker; the dissolution of the Boards of federal agencies, parastatals, institutions and government-owned companies, with the exception of those listed in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution.

    A rundown of activities in the course of the week reflected activities in different shades, even with the fact that Tinubu traveled out of the country since Tuesday. His week started with a message to the men folk on Fathers’ Day on Sunday, celebrating them for the role they play in society and reminding them of their duties to country.

    Then Monday was parked with so many events and actions, probably because he was already scheduled to jet out the next day. It was on Monday he met with Mittal, Gates, Dangote, the US Assistant Secretary of State of Energy Resources, Mr Praytt. It was still same day he sacked the entire security team and replaced them with new ones, as well as freed up the appointive offices of the Boards.

    Though he traveled on Tuesday, his deputy, Vice President Shettima, did not allow a vacuum, he decorated the new Acting IGP, Kayode Egbetokun and carried on with whatever needed to be done in the house, like holding meetings with the British High Commissioner to Nigeria and a roundtable with governors, Dangote and Bill Gates on Wednesday and Thursday.

    Even as he is in France, Tinubu continued to pursue the national economic agenda of attracting foreign direct investments and solidifying the country’s outlook to the rest of the world. Before returning to Nigeria on Saturday, he met on Thursday, in separate meetings, with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim), Prof. Benedict Oramah; President of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Odile Renaud–Basso; Chairman of Indorama, Sri Prakash Lohia, then on Friday with the President of Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, and the President of Benin Republic, Patrice Talon, all on the sidelines of the Summit for New Global Financing Pact.

    So over all, the summary of the President’s activities in the course of last week will suggest that he was mostly preoccupied with getting the economy back on its feet, accessing various channels, locally and internationally. Then there will appear to be an attempt at setting up the structures of the administration, when one thinks of, not just the change of guards in the security sector, but also the dissolution of the Boards.

    The excitement promises to continue this week, especially as many will be looking out to see how the President celebrates the Ileya festival (Eid el-Kabir) in his new position.

  • Team building begins in earnest

    Team building begins in earnest

    A little over a week after assuming office, President Bola Tinubu asked permission of the Senate to appoint 20 advisers. Less than two weeks later, the president kick-started his team building effort by appointing some 12 advisers in two installments, a significant number of whom are in their 40s. He did not seem able to put a foot wrong. The assemblage was fairly representative of the country’s diversity, considering that their inputs would be needed to help forge a reasonable democratic and administrative template for the country. And just as he was lauded for appointing the advisers a few days after assuming office, he was also applauded for the list containing a healthy sprinkling of women, some four out of 12 altogether.

    Though he promised to hit the ground running once he was inaugurated, he seemed curiously tentative when days after he took the reins he had not yet named his key Aso Villa staff to help him run his administration. But about five days after inauguration, he named the three key personnel of chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, and secretary to the government of the federation. In spacing out the appointments, not to say the sequenced meetings with key policy drivers of the nation, the president seemed to avoid the error of information overload. By last week, the appointments had culminated in the announcement of new service chiefs. So far, even at the risk of many analysts sounding sycophantic, the president has seemed to take measured, pragmatic and representative steps in his appointments. Yes, of course, there was the misstep of announcing a few military and operational appointments as part of the administration’s team building efforts. But that can be pardoned.

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    The cabinet has not yet been assembled, but in the appointments announced so far, including the change of service chiefs, the tension, anxiety and acrimony created by more than 15 years of skewed presidential appointments have been dissipated. This has led to many critics forswearing their habitual objections to presidential appointments, while some analysts have swooned over the president’s actions. Are they hasty and obsequious in embracing the president’s moves so far? If objectivity is equated with continuous and unbroken denunciation of the president, the answer is yes. But if objectivity is defined in terms of episodic assessment of the merit of any policy or appointment at a given time, it would be uncharitable to describe those who applaud the president’s actions so far as sycophants. That they laud the president’s moves today does not preclude them from condemning his actions or policies on a hypothetical tomorrow.

    In his appointments so far, President Tinubu has sensibly recognised and avoided the many pitfalls that circumscribed and distracted previous administrations. He has satisfied religious sensibilities, mollified nearly two decades of ethnic resentment, including gesturing in the direction of minorities, and pacified gender disquiet. For a new administration pilloried during the campaigns with unadulterated vitriol, it is remarkable that there has hardly been a whimper against how sure-footedly and briskly the president has proceeded. The Southeast, long frothing with rage over what it termed alienation of the region, has grunted its admiration. The North, which also bristled with a sense of entitlement under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, has not muttered any disadvantage. And the Southwest, almost completely excluded under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, has exuded a sense of belonging. If there is any stirring at all, it is probably from the Middle Belt. But even that stirring has been muted, as the region’s opinion leaders prefer to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt.

    So far, too, the Tinubu administration has not exhibited any sense of triumphalism. Recognising the rainbow coalition that fetched him the presidency notwithstanding a very acrimonious and bitterly divisive campaign, and despite deliberate bottlenecks strewed along his path by friends and foes alike, the president has acted, spoken and proceeded along generally conciliatory lines. He seems almost spookily incapable of taking umbrage at any insult and attack on his person. This behavior has helped him over the years in his political campaigns. That behavior is now expected to stand him in good stead as he presides over the affairs of a complex and implacable country. By the time he appoints his full cabinet, it will be abundantly clear whether his appointments so far were a ruse or at worst a red herring. His policies have been daring and in some instances affronting to established conventions and dictums; should he pass muster over his appointments, those policies would obviously elicit fewer misgivings and perhaps less trenchant denunciations from all and sundry. His motives will likely not be assailed; but the policies will as a matter of routine be assessed and belaboured on their merit.

    President Tinubu is proceeding apace in building his team. He seems quite capable of assembling a great and unusual team, one that is representative, technocratic, politically astute, and capable of displaying the character and tenacity required for these times. It bares comparison, unfortunately. Ex-president Buhari was clearly unable to assemble a team full of lustre. So, too, was ex-president Jonathan who brewed an amalgam of minor lustre and incomprehensible opacity. Mr Buhari spent about six months cobbling lackluster, and Dr Jonathan dispensed precious effort tilting at windmills. President Tinubu seems capable of doing far better, going by his character and deliberateness. More, considering how he has shown that he would be his own man, it is likely his team will reflect his character and his even more nuanced and underrated genius.