The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Loot, recovery, and re-use

    Loot, recovery, and re-use

    For example, it is still not clear how much of what was recovered from the Abacha loot had been used wisely or how much had been sucked up by new looters of old loot

    With so much to hear in the news about how much cash and other assets have been recovered from Nigeria’s thieves of state, it cannot but be tempting to join the debate from the perspective of development journalism on how to use whatever is taken back from looters.

    It is too soon to guess how much money would come to the country’s common purse, particularly since the federal government is not certain about how much exactly has been recovered so far. But it is not premature to start thinking about how best to use whatever is recovered while counting what comes in from week to week. For example, only a few days ago, the Minister of Transportation claimed in London that the government had recovered N3.4 trillion in cash and assets so far while his Information and Culture counterpart reported that only N78 billion and $3 million dollars had been recovered outside non-cash assets but that $9 billion has been blocked while pursuing final release of such funds in court. The Minister of Information added that what has been retrieved from looters so far cannot affect the country’s development in any noticeable way, as what is in so far is not enough to pay 50% of the federal government’s monthly wage bill of N165 billion, not to talk of the debt of N2 trillion owed to contractors presumably from past governments.

    Given the religious attachment of President Buhari to fighting corruption to death before corruption itself kills the country, it is expected that more funds will roll in as the fight against corruption heats up. In addition, given the fact that for decades Nigeria was a poster child for political and bureaucratic corruption, Nigerians and their international friends must be confident that more money and assets will be sighted and liberated from the clutches of roguish political and bureaucratic leaders. More patient observers are likely to invoke the Yoruba proverbial: Emi niimomaajeori, iwoni o maajeiru, kogbodosiwajueran pipa (I will eat the head and you will take the tail of the game must not come before the game is caught). But past experience with loot recovery in the country suggests otherwise. For example, it is still not clear how much of what was recovered from the Abacha loot had been used wisely or how much had been sucked up by new looters of old loot.

    Therefore, the recent pact signed in Abuja between the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General and the British Minister of State for Immigration on conditions for Britain to release the loot in Britain is in order. On the British side, the United Kingdom would release loot in its custody only if the Nigerian government pledged to spend the money judiciously. On the Nigerian side, the Justice Minister was remarkably forthcoming in his response: “Today, we are determined to change the narrative, regardless of who is involved. I want to assure the international community that all funds recovered within and outside Nigeria would be judiciously utilised for projects that will benefit the poorest segment of the Nigerian society as well as enable us support reform in the justice sector.…The position of the law in Nigeria today is that all funds recovered should be paid directly into the Consolidated Revenue Account. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case under the previous administration.”

    The focus of today’s column is on the first part of the two areas the Justice Minister prefers to apply money stolen from all Nigerians by past leaders. It is not too soon to cry out loud and clear that using recovered loot to pay for judicial reform is not a wise way to spend the trillions that citizens expect will come back to the public treasury at the end of the protracted fight against corruption. More importantly, spending such money on reforming the judiciary is not as citizen-oriented as the minister’s first choice of line of expenditure: “projects that will benefit the poorest segment of the Nigerian society.” The need for judicial reform is an urgent one that ought not be made to wait for recovery of loot. If anything, waiting for loot before reforming a judicial system that is perceived by many citizens as too compromised is more likely to frustrate the executive’s current spirited effort to recover stolen funds.

    The Justice Minister’s suggestion on spending recovered funds on “projects that will benefit the poorest of Nigerians” ought to be encouraged. And such projects should be ones that are concrete and tangible and whose impact are measurable and verifiable.  Such projects are not hard to identify. One way to use funds accruing from loot recovery is to energize the electricity sector. One way to do this is for the federal government to engage in a public private partnership with producers of megawatts of electricity, to save citizens from what has almost become a jinx: fluctuation between 2,500 megawatts in the dry season and 4,000 megawatts in the rainy season. Even in the last few weeks that electricity supply has improved in the country, it has been mostly in areas with pre-paid meters. This improvement is perfunctory as it affects just about 1% of the population with pre-paid meters, even three years after privatisation of the energy sector.

    Another way to spend the windfall from loot is to put more funds into overhauling the antiquated transmission system, which has been seeing some positive changes from intervention from the new government, according to reliable media experts close to the government. To this this better, a PPP that engages in building new capacity for transmission will benefit the poor and the middle-class alike. A related way to use recovered stolen funds transparently and cost-effectively is to invest it in a PPP project with reputable solar panel builders who are willing to establish their factories in Nigeria. This will make solar panels less expensive and will put the country in a good stead to increase its energy mix and set the country up for benefit from renewable energy technology. It will also increase non-grid or off-grid energy provision and consumption.

    In addition, revenue from anti-corruption fight can also be invested in provision of water in major cities in the six geo-political zones. For too long, poor people who cannot afford to construct boreholes have been living without potable water. In most cases such people have been drinking unsafe water at the risk of the health of their young ones in particular. If potable water supply to citizens has to be in the form of a PPP, it will achieve two things: stop the current method of selling untreated water to citizens in the country’s large cities and stop the proliferation of boreholes with dangerous seismic consequences that country’s visionless leaders in the past had ignored.

    Finally, while keeping recovered cash in interest-yielding accounts, all non-cash assets ought to be sold immediately to prevent depreciation and to avoid having them re-looted by future governments that may not have the vision of President Buhari about nurturing a corruption-free polity. With the ferocious way corruption has been fighting back with the hope of convincing victims of past brigandage that the current economic hardships are caused by a government saddled with cleaning the mess it inherited, it is not inconceivable that a new government can come back to the country in the future, to return to the era of impunity, to the extent of finding reasons to give unsold physical property recovered from looters back to their looters, all in the name of a new politics of reconciliation.

  • Has capitalism of the worst kind become permanent in Nigeria? – Resuming a forgotten debate (2)

    Has capitalism of the worst kind become permanent in Nigeria? – Resuming a forgotten debate (2)

    “You may know how little God thinks of money by observing what bad and contemptible characters he often bestows it.”
    A popular saying attributed to many people among them
    Alexander Pope and Dorothy Parker

    In ending the discussion last week with an observation that the leaders and all the members of our National Assembly ought to be in jail for openly and egregiously defying the clause in our Constitution that expressly forbids the concentration of the wealth of the nation in the hands of a few individuals or a group, I stated that this was both a half-serious and a half-playful suggestion. Why did I say this? Well, the serious part is that I actually and rather fervently believe that all our legislators, in all the political parties should be in jail for flouting this particular Constitutional provision. Compatriot, please look at the humungous salaries, emoluments and allowances our legislators pay themselves. And then on top of that look at the unconscionable “jara” of billions on naira that they also illegally obtain by padding the Budget sent them by the Presidency. Is this not arrant in its overconcentration of the wealth of the nation in a tiny group? That is the serious part of my suggestion that they all belong in jail right now and for a long time!

    The half-playful part of this suggestion comes from my recognition that the relevant section of the Constitution I am invoking here belongs to that part of the Constitution that lawyers call “non-justiciable”. What does this mean? Simply stated, it means that no matter the positive moral force and the degree of public good in the “non-justiciable” clauses of the Constitution, they cannot be enforced by law. In other words, as desirable as a constitutional clause in this “non-justiciable” parts of the Constitution may be, if you take those who flout it to the law courts, your suit on behalf of the nation and its peoples will be thrown out without even being heard. Bearing this in mind, I am almost certain that members of the National Assembly reading this piece and coming across the suggestion that they should all be in jail will be laughing and laughing hard.If that is the case, what then am I making of this fact in the context of this series on the very worst form of capitalism reigning in our country at the present time? Basically, it is this point: in capitalism that is so decadent, so filled with utter impunity as the type that we are now compelled to live under in great sufferance, there really is no distinction between what is justiciable and what is non-justiciable in the unregenerate consumption and wastage of the wealth of the nation by a few at the expense of the vast majority of our peoples. In the main, that is what I wish to discuss this week. But before going into it in detail, first I wish to make some further observations and reflections on why we need to resume the forgotten debate that we once had on good and bad capitalism in this country not too long ago.

    Of this I am absolutely certain: most of those reading this piece who are self-declared and sincere socialists and Left-of-center radicals are wondering why I am “wasting” my time in this series talking about “good” capitalism. In equal measure, of this I am also certain: to most readers who are not socialists or Leftists, talking about capitalism of any kind is so rare, so unusual in our country at the present time that they, too, must be wondering what I am about in this series. To both sides of this divide, I say that anyone who thinks that talking about capitalism in its various types is unusual or amounts to a waste of time suffers from both historical amnesia and ignorance of the fierce contemporary debates going on within capitalism in many nations and regions of the world, not least in the heartland of capitalism itself, the United States. Socialists and Leftists in particular must remember that socialism was founded on debates between reform of and revolutionagainst capitalism. Often, the two were posed in the form of a complete antithesis as reflected in the well-known phrase, “reform or revolution”. But in the most significant debates and developments, globally and in our own country, reform was not separated, not shut out from revolution; one was seen as connected to or leading to the other. And for all the non-socialists reading this, it is important to remind them that from its very beginnings, the struggles to reform capitalism, to give it a genuine human face has never stopped, with the exception perhaps of a few countries in the world like our own unhappy homeland, Nigeria, first under the PDP and now under the APC. On this note, let us return to the main line of our observations and reflections in this piece, this being the telling details of the extremely bad type of capitalism, of a capitalism that is absolutely without a human face and utterly devoid of the milk of human kindness in force in our country at present time.

    The form of capitalism reigning seriously unchallenged or perhaps seemingly unchallengeable in our country at the present time is so bad that in some of its main structural features, it seems not to be a “true” capitalism at all. In Economics 101, the most elementary level of university courses in the science of economics, students are routinely told that the consolidation and expansion of capital is so crucial that any entrepreneur, any capitalist that always cuts into and perpetually diminishes his or her operating capital will not last long as a businesswoman or man, a capitalist. And indeed, what is capitalism without capital? But this is exactly what Nigerian capitalism, PDP and APC mode, is in its essence. The major structural feature of this reality is as widely known as it also seems to defy anyone, any ruling party being either able or willing to do anything about it: year in year out, in the actual operation of our national and state budgets, recurrent expenditure far outweighs capital expenditure by a magnitude of the order of more than 3 to 1. Moreover, even the little that is left for capital expenditure is for the most part often looted through contracts that are both overinflated and barely ever satisfactorily executed, all with an impunity that can only mean that there really is no difference between “recurrent” and “capital” expenditure in the “capitalism” in force in Nigeria.

    Dear reader and compatriot, if you take nothing else away from the dire and unhappy musings of this series, please do take away and bear in mind this particular feature of this virulently thieving, looting and inhumanCapitalism Nigeriana of our predators’ republic: no economic and financial crime against the nation and its peoples, no matter how heinous, is really “justiciable” anymore since the difference between justiciable and non–justiciable as established in our Constitution has been effectively abolished. The worst and simply unbelievable expression of this reality is the fact that ours is the only country in the world, repeat the only country on the planet, in which interlocutory injunctions can be “legally” invoked and accepted in criminal proceedings in order to prolong them indefinitely. In every other country in the world interlocutory injunctions and applications for stay of proceedings are recognized and granted only in civil cases. Those calling for the arrest and prosecution of Speaker Dogara for the budget-padding mega-scandal – and I join my voice to their voices – should bear this crucial point in mind: arrest and prosecution is only the start of what typically almost always effectively proves to be in the end “non-justiciable”. For example, how close to, or how far from conclusion are the cases against Dasuki and Saraki? Ask the courts, ask especially the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who, in the final analysis, must be held accountable for the terrible miscarriage of justice in our law courts with regard to the unique privilege enjoyed by the mega-looters. In particular, ask the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court why he and his colleagues on the highest court of justice in the land have been remarkably reluctant to comply with and enforce the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 (ACJA) which, if done would significantly do away with all the obstacles to the successful, timely and just prosecution of the alleged mega-looters. I have on the pages of this column myself asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mahmud Mohammed (who happens to be the first indigenously trained CJN in Nigeria) this question before and ask it of him again today: why is he personally and professionally unembarrassed and unashamed by the fact that we are the only country in the whole world that permits the application of interlocutory injunctions in criminal cases?

    Lest it be thought that I am overstating and over-dramatizing things in this series, let me hasten to admit that the effacement of the distinction between the justiciable and the non-justiciable is not total, not complete in our law courts. Many offenses and infringements that are “justiciable” are still successfully prosecuted in our justice system and in their ordinary or routine operations, the law courts of the land still function, even if some of their administrative operations are so outdated and labyrinthine that it sometimes feels that one is in a medieval and not a modern court of law in present-day Nigeria. But I do hold strongly to my argument that in the most important areas of the economic order in force in the country, the distinction between the justiciable and non-justiciable does not exist because in the end, the huge mega crimes are effectivelyif not legally non-justiciable. This is what slowly – and hopefully wisely – Muhammadu Buhari and his AGF, Abubakar Malami, are gradually finding out in their declared war against corruption and the mega-looters. With most Nigerians,Buhari and Malami are also finding out that the looting has not only continued by and within sections of the leadership of their own party, the ruling APC but also appears to be tending towards the “non-justiciable” legacy left by the PDP. Every formof capitalism has the judicial-administrative superstructure necessary for its functioning and survival. Our criminal justice system, with regard to the open and defiant protection it gives to the unjustly rich and powerful, is one of the most unjust and irrational criminal justice systems in the world precisely because Capitalism Nigeriana is one of the worst forms of capitalism in the world. The epigraph to this piece states that if you wish to know what God thinks of money all you have to do is look at the evil and vile characters to whom he bestows wealth. I say that if you wish to know how really evil and vile our judicial-administrative superstructure is, look at the kind of capitalism that it endows with the protection of legality. This will be our starting point next week.

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                                        bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • The Master Guitarist at Seventy

    The Master Guitarist at Seventy

    “Whenever I hear the word culture that is when I reach for my revolver”. This quote famously misattributed to a great insider of Nazi Germany, the obese, bejeweled Hermann Goring, is a classic example of how the very notion of culture may rub people the wrong way, particularly when national pride comes in the way. Yet the entire Nazi project was itself a misbegotten cultural venture. Culture is what defines a people in their material, spiritual and intellectual essence. This is why it is often important to sidestep failure in politics in order to highlight success in other realms of human endeavour.

    On September 22nd, the great Nigerian cultural icon and musical superstar, Sunday Adegeye, aka King Sunny Ade, will turn seventy to great aplomb. The mesmerizing, serially gifted Ondo-born crooner and electrifying stage wizard has been with us for so long that he seems to have become a permanent fixture of the Nigerian post-colonial culturefest. That Sunny is only turning seventy is a glorious tribute to formidable staying power and indomitable will. Nigerian politics has something to learn from Nigerian music about human resilience and the capacity for ceaseless self-surpassing.

    But the word at the moment is that Sunny Ade has mysteriously absconded from the Nigerian scene for a sojourn in America, the land of endless possibilities. Like all kings, Sunny Ade is a man of confounding mystery. The bet is that Sunny will be back on time, and in the full radiance of old African royalty. The supreme irony of Sunny Ade’s life is that although born into royalty as an Ondo prince, it has taken his famed guitar and monumental self-belief to canonize him as a global monarch of mellifluous music.

    Yet in another important respect, Sunny Ade’s life confirms our dictum that great expectations often happen in great but unexpected ways. The word out there is that the young Sunny Ade fled his Oshogbo homestead for Lagos on the pretext that he was going to “university” but in reality to pursue his fledgling musical career. Decades later and as a crowning feather to a glorious career, Sunny was appointed a Visiting Professor of Music at the notable Obafemi Awolowo University without having seen the four walls of a university. It doesn’t get more dizzying and gravity-defying.

    Four years ago in pursuit of the stated and avowed mission of this column to honour Nigerians who have really and truly distinguished themselves in their field of endeavour, this column paid tributes to Ebenezer Obey, the other Yoruba musical titan and Sunny Ade’s great rival and historical counterfoil, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday ( “A Master-musician at seventy”). The personal parallels and points of socio-cultural convergence between the two musical geniuses remain the same and we must seek approval to borrow generously from the earlier column.

    Music is one of the greatest creations of the human species. The love of harmony and concord is at the root of civilization and human development .So far nothing can rival the harmony of sweet music. The great musician is also a healer, a divine shaman and seer rolled into one and operating at the shifty margins of hope and honourable delusion. Let’s face it life itself would have been intolerable without these psychological sweeteners. Often conceived in scary solitude, music is executed at the level of communal rapture. Music is the food of the soul.

    If Obey had become a great lawyer or medical practitioner as his parents had secretly wished, he could not have contributed more to the development of culture and civilization. If only Nigeria could produce politicians who work so hard, so diligently and so assiduously at their game. In less than fifty years, Sunny Ade together with his great Yoruba contemporary have taken juju music to a realm that could only be dreamed of at the beginning of the last century. In fact at that point in time, there was nothing like juju music.

    It is a befitting tribute to these two great musical maestros and illustrious sons of the Yoruba race that they have turned the dreams of our forefathers to sweet actuality. Juju music has been transformed beyond our imagination. Today, the Nigerian nation and the Yoruba race are culturally richer and thanks to the fruits of their endeavour, their worthy descendants have placed the nation on the global map.

    Perhaps no two other musicians have completely dominated the musical scene of their society like the two titans. Beginning from the end of the sixties, Obey and Sunny seized the musical imagination of the Yoruba society by the scruff of the neck.  Fifty years later, the duo are still at it in their different ways. While Obey ventured into gospel music, bringing his great genius for enchanting rhythm to bear on spiritual songs, Sunny, the son of a master organist, is still entertaining audience with his explosive foot works.

    It was originally a musical union of contraries, forged in great rivalry and tense competition. In many respects, one was the perfect foil for the other. While Obey was calm, demure and a bit frozen and rigid on stage, Sunny was gamey and enterprising, darting and strutting like an energetic peacock; while Obey affected the airs of the traditional musical aristocrat, Sunny ambled about like a cosmopolitan modernist; while the one was a great composer of memorable lyrics with delectable rhythm to match, the other was a master craftsman and instrumentalist of juju music as electrifying orchestra.

    The rivalry and urge to excel drove each to the very frontiers of improvisation and ingenuity. They both brought great innovations to bear on the genre they have inherited. Each kept the other on his toes. Obey has disclosed that he often composed in toilets and the strangest of places and could go on for several nights without sleep. Both were lucky that their era coincided with the advent of modern technology and the amplification of sound brought about by electricity.

    Often, the innovation would backfire and things would go comically awry. In their passion to radicalise the music, the form sometimes went beyond the content. For example, when Sunny Ade introduced the electric piano to juju music, it elicited a sharp jibe from Ebenezer Obey:

    Olomolanke o le gberu de Dugbe

    E se oooo

    Thereafter, the wheeled monstrosity made a dramatic disappearance from Sunny Ade’s musical repertoire never to reappear. Both musicians also suffered witty taunts and condescending jibes from Fela Anikulapo-Kuti who often counselled the upcountry yokels not to stray into areas of music beyond their professional competence. It was rumoured that Ebenezer Obey in particular took more than Afro beat percussion from the great musical genius and cultural icon, a situation which elicited some friendly fire from Fela:

    Esu lonse onimoto to pami laja ooo

    Esu lonse onimoto to pami laja

    Aja ti mo fi np’oya meta meta 

    Dende oro re….

    In celebrating the great duo, what is often forgotten is the influence of their local cultural milieu or what we propose as the tyranny of the mother culture on their music. In the case of Ebenezer Obey, the leisurely aristocratic beat with its brilliant talking drum as gloriously finessed by Mutiu Kekere Jimoh, the diminutive prodigy, reminds one of the Shakara music so beloved by the ancient Egba aristocracy.

    Shakara music with its sonorous crooning has influences of northern music as carried across Iseyin and the old Oyo plains. In the case of Sunny Ade, the pulsating muscular beat bears echoes of the coastal contacts of the old Ondo merchant class as seen in the music of the great duet, Suberu Oni and the Why Worry Orchestra and of course many forgotten and unheralded yoyogbe and gbatueyo folk musicians from the bowels of Egin  culture and civilization.

    The talking drum is a great innovation in traditional music with its own intricate dynamics and inner logic. It is worthy of further scholarly inquiries.  Depending on the mood of the drummer and the occasion, the talking drum sometimes complements the lyrical beat. At other times, it subverts the overall architecture of music by rebellious innuendoes. And when it is short of victims, it subverts itself like an eccentric ventriloquist.

    For example, when Ebenezer Obey sang the praise of Eji Gbadero who was later to meet a gruesome end at the executioners ’stakes, the talking drum went into a rapture of delirious approval:

    Omo Gbadero, dami, dami dami

    Ariwo majesin kii p’alakara

    Dami dami dami.

    But as soon as Sunny Ade begins singing about two lady fish hawkers in Ita Faji, the impish drummer began quietly upbraiding his master:

    Obinrin dudu obirin pupa

     Olorun maje o kuku obinrin.

    As it is in politics, so it is in music. In the dialogic imagination of the post-empire Yoruba people, there can be no authoritarian master voice. Snooper takes immense delight in decoding this class struggle even within the arena of music. Perhaps a peep into the very origins of juju music is in order at this point.

    As we have pointed out, juju music is very much a twentieth century phenomenon. The name juju itself is a corruption of voodoo, or African magic. Lagos was where it all began. There, freed slaves, their descendants and other metropolitan wannabes brought music back from Brazil, the Caribbean and Latin America. Lagos was a melting pot and port of strange music. Snooper could even detect a dash of the Dominican meringue music so beloved by the assassinated Trujillo aka the goat..

    Juju music began as lower class music fit for palm wine bars located in the inner city of old Lagos. It was the native antidote to High Life music and its more accomplished and refined instrumentation which was meant for the new coastal elite and burgeoning middle class. There were many great  artists of juju music who preceded both  Obey and Sunny but of particular historical significance were Ojoge Daniel, Julius Araba,  Fatai Rolling Dollar, Tunde King, Rose Adetola, Kokoro, the blind minstrel, Tunde Thomas a.k.a Nightingale and the great Ijesha crooner, I.K Dairo. As Einstein famously observed, a genius can see further because he is climbing on the back of earlier geniuses. These were the men on whose back Obey and Sunny rode to greater stardom and prosperity.

    There was also the intangible element of luck which Napoleon rates higher than sheer competence.  Obey and Sunny have been fabulously lucky in the historical conjuncture that threw them up. Sometimes there are priests without a religion and sometimes there is a religion without priests. The arrival of Obey and Sunny on the stage and the scene coincided with the dramatic explosion of petrodollar revenues.

    Tycoons, ersatz billionaires, emergency contractors, military buccaneers, land speculators, board members, metropolitan middlemen and sharp-eyed financial fixers also arrived on the scene. This new-monied class rewarded Obey and Sunny for their pains on a scale that was hitherto unimaginable and drove them to rarefied heights of self-surpassing excellence. Sectaries of class contentions should note that we are describing a historical process and not conducting a moral inquisition.

    Of the two musical avatars, it was Sunny Ade that was obviously more innovative and restless. There was a becalming and befitting equanimity about Obey which reminds one of the old Yoruba nobility. But it was Sunny Ade’s permanent experimentations, his restless innovations and creative edginess that eventually propelled him to global superstardom. According to Sunny himself, he was forced to borrow from modernist music when the ancient Yoruba instrumentations proved too archaic and simply inadaptable.

    But when it works, and when the form does not appear to outstrip the content, the fusion of the modern and the ancient is a glorious collage of superior music. The murmurs and tremors of internal dislocations as the medley marinates can be quite disarming and beguiling at the same time. It is a moot point as to whether Sunny himself knows how a particular beat will end or whether he simply surrenders himself to the corralling power of sheer musical genius.

    Thus a classic like omo wumi begins like a temperate semi-Highlife beat only to mutate into pulsating Ilorin drumming and echoes of Dadakuada music in the Oyinbo onitaba and bami shererere section. A wonderful panegyric to the ancient Alaafin throne and its current king incorporates the stately royal drumming of the ancient Yoruba Empire with unforgettable lyrics of feudal state power and its storied custodians. A brilliant homage to Erelu Abiola Dosumu turns praise-singing into a sublime art with its catchy rhythm and distant echoes of the Eyo masquerade and old Lagos royal beat.

    It has been said that when a man is diligent in his work, he will stand tall and walk before kings. In the case of Sunny Ade, he has not only walked tall and stood before kings, he has become a king in his own right, and before our very eyes too. He has done both his country and nationality proud. As he begins his autumnal descent into immortality, here is wishing the master guitarist many happy returns.

  • Ekiti panupo colloquium – restoring ekiti enterprise values and defining the pathway to lasting development

    Ekiti panupo colloquium – restoring ekiti enterprise values and defining the pathway to lasting development

    In my opening remarks as moderator of the first session at the Ekitipanupo Colloquium on the above topic, I said, inter alia: “A look at the array of speakers who will be talking to us today, unmistakably points to the fact that the Ekiti conundrum of one week, one trouble, is not the making of the gods; certainly not of the Almighty God who, indeed, gave us a surfeit of excellence in literally all areas of human endeavour. We must, therefore, take this opportunity, not only to critically examine what exactly is wrong with us as a people but begin the process of finding solutions to whatever the demons are that are tearing us apart. We cannot have a more qualified assemblage of Ekiti people to begin that divine assignment. And I am sure Ekitipanupo, to the last man and woman, is ready, and willing, to be guided by our elders who we hope know that whatever it is that we all do, at this juncture of our lives to help Ekiti out, is what we will be remembered for; not our riches, not our chains of university degrees nor how many chieftaincies we were given while on this side of the divide. We must, therefore, all serve Ekiti with an eye on eternity.”

    Bolaji Aluko, Professor of Chemical Engineering and the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Otueke, further reinforced this theme when, as lead speaker, he opined that “the issue of Ekiti should be beyond politics or party affiliation– and if they are, then there should be certain minimum standards below which we must not allow either politics or partisanship to be played.” The reality, he further said, was that as a 20-year old state, “if we had elections every four years, we would have had only five governors –or just three if two of them were re-elected – but since our state’s existence, we have had ten governors, two of them military administrators, which is a clear indication of political instability.”   He went on: “As a state with a land lush with rolling hills, rivers and water falls, vegetation and mineral resources – not to talk of the hardy and highly educated people, Ekiti State should be a veritable tourist destination and prime candidate for energy, food and economic self-sufficiency and sustainability.”

    Speakers at the one day event  which took place,  Thursday, 8 September, 2016, at the Anchor Events Centre, Agidingbi, Ikeja which was packed to capacity, included the elder statesman, Professor (Senator) Banji Akintoye who gave the key note address, Prince Julius Adelusi-Faluyi, Chairman, Juli Pharmacy, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, Banji Ogungbemi, a former Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Products Ltd, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, Professor Julius Faluyi of the University of Ife, Ile-Ife and Dr Biodun Adedipe, Chief Consultant, B.Adedipe Associates while Professor Modupe Adelabu, former Deputy Governor of  Ekiti  state ,moderated the second session. The event was chaired by Chief Afe Babalola OFR SAN and Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti who was ably represented.

    Ideas ranged far and wide but so were chilling statistics. For instance, one of the findings at the event was that while it is obvious that our fractious politics has been our greatest undoing, so also has our workforce which, instead of being the facilitator of economic activities, oiling and helping the growth of the private sector, it is abysmally huge and inefficient as the following statistics which compares Ekiti with its Southwest neighbours eloquently attest to:

    https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/profile_mask2.png. A good reading, and internalisation of the above facts by any Ekiti government, should have informed a re-orientation of priorities. As was also made evident at the Colloquium, the time has come for us as a people to determine what economic activity our government should lay emphasis on. For instance, the indices identified by Professor Aluko in his paper as gifts of nature should be the starting point. But on a much larger scale is agriculture which for a very long time was the mainstay of not just the Western Region, but Nigeria as a whole.

    It must be a surprise that while so much emphasis is being laid on Kebbi State and rice production today, hardly a thing is heard about Ekiti State and its sumptuous and extremely nourishing Igbemo rice.  Although this did not come directly into the discussions as Ekitipanupo did everything to make the occasion sans politics, we must encourage the state government to maximally leverage on the federal government’s diversification programme to enhance all the possibilities of Igbemo rice down to its value chain. A move in this direction will have tremendous positive effects on the state ranging from youth and women employment, increase in the number of SMEs in the state just as it will enhance security by keeping some jobless youths engaged.

    Dr Biodun Adedipe, as Chief Consultant of B.Adedipe and Associates, is already very involved in assisting states other than his own Ekiti in fashioning out these priorities and would be only too willing to put his expertise at the state’s disposal. He is, for instance, currently working with the State of Osun in training thousands of graduates in skills acquisition. There are thousands and thousands of our incredible  Ekiti compatriots out there, both at home and in the Diaspora, who will be ready, and willing, to help  take Ekiti out of its  self-inflicted cul de sac. And this is the more reason why we have to de-emphasise politics in the state, going forward. It has ill-served us this past decade and a half. Enough is enough. After all, we are the most homogenous people and state in the entire country. Today, it is not an overstatement to say that three out of every five youth in Ekiti want a role in politics, even as toughies. It has not always been like this as sons and daughters of very poor farmers are now not only university professors, but top executives of large organisations and self-employed titans. My father is poor was not an excuse in Ekiti, it shouldn’t be now. And Professor Akintoye did not fail to tell us at the event that even in Education, we were late starters because of our distance from the Atlantic coast but for over half a century now, Ekiti has been rhapsodised as the home of professors, with no family without a doctorate degree holder.

    I have chosen not to resort to a historical narration of the event but rather to emphasise my take-aways. In concluding therefore, I must go back to Professor Bolaji Aluko who emphasised the following four key ingredients for our revival: Courage, Prudence, Temperance and Justice. While space constraint will not permit my elucidating on these as he did in his paper, I will be too remiss not to quote his conclusion. His words: “I strongly believe that these virtues should be given both civic and religious under-girding in our educational system – from primary to university levels. The get-rich quick, situational ethics that currently pervade our young people –brought on by decades of public graft in the Nigerian polity – is disturbing and must be reversed. Adults who violate them –who show no courage to confront the real needs of the community, are unwise, intemperate, and unjust – should not be hailed in society – and should not be elected to govern the people.”

  • Wanted: A new social disorder

    We all showed off our foreign wears, clicked our heels on foreign shoes, waved our imported bags, gorged ourselves on foreign foods and later we were surprised to hear that our Nigerian economy was not growing. Can you imagine the effrontery of this our economy?!

    I attended a social function recently. At a free moment, I looked at the people who attended the ceremony as they bustled here and there in search of friends or food. It struck me that nearly everyone was wearing one lace fabric or another. Those not wearing lace fabrics were putting on something of equivalent status. Of course, they were all of varying designs and costs. As someone told me recently, lace fabrics can cost anything from three thousand naira to two hundred and fifty thousand naira or more. Clearly, to some Nigerians, the costlier the fabric is, the better. Well, I could not put the cost on what people were wearing that day but one thing that I did not see on anyone was made-in-Nigeria lace or even Ankara.

    I rather wondered what such ceremonies do to the economy, because in our lace outfits, we were not growing our own economy. We were not only dressed in foreign things, we even ate things made abroad. Most people were fed rice imported from Thailand. Now, everyone is complaining about how expensive rice is. I think I have tired of telling anyone who cares to listen that we have been living on borrowed throats eating rice, spaghetti, tomato paste, knorr and maggi seasonings, and everything else. Even our salt is imported. So, at that ceremony, dear reader, we all showed off our foreign wears, clicked our heels on foreign shoes, waved our imported bags, gorged ourselves on foreign foods and later we were surprised to hear that our Nigerian economy was not growing. Can you imagine the effrontery of this our economy?!

    It is a fact that people want social ideals. People want well organised social structures with working systems such as constant electricity, flowing taps, corporations offering good jobs, hospitals dispensing cures, etc. A good social order also embraces some wonderful mores and values that lift up the society for the sake of everyone. The values may include hard work, living only on one’s earnings, not living beyond one’s means, being accountable to the society, taking responsibility for one’s actions, etc. On the scales, I guess you’ll say we are still some way off.

    There is no telling what advantages can accrue to the country from a good social order. To start with, there is continuity of life: everyone gains from being assured that yes, they have the freedom to wake up tomorrow. Would you believe the number of people who have died silently from this dislocated social order we are practising – out of frustration, hunger, unhappiness, or plain, old illness? More importantly, there will be a place in the society for everyone – each according to his ability and reach. In other words, everyone can reach for the cookie jar as his/her height allows without breaking the jar. There is a jar on every level. This means that if all I want from life is a coconut, I can just go lie under the coconut tree until one falls in my mouth, or head as you will, and no one would mind.

    However, the absence of a good structure has introduced into the country a social disorder that allows everyone to do as he pleases. People provide electricity, water, roads, jobs, cures, etc., for themselves. I was at a very small business arena the other day and was amazed at the array of generating sets arranged alongside a wall. I stopped counting at thirteen as they all emitted the same grating noise and belched the same blue-black smoke into the air. The other day, someone attempted to sell me a bottle filled with a dark fluid that she claimed could cure everything.

    Worse hit is the social value which has indeed plummeted. For instance, a politician does not feel complete until he enters a venue with a retinue of attendants and uniformed men and women legitimately assigned to him by the Nigeria Police. I attended a burial ceremony once where one of the celebrants was waited on hand and foot by a uniformed para-military, to everyone’s annoyance and envy. The uniformed fellow insisted on standing behind the celebrant during the service, blocking some people’s view. The people could only hiss.

    Unfortunately, this culture of social disorder is built on reverse logic. Reverse logic is when you plant seeds of corn and sit down expectantly waiting to reap a harvest of beans, arguing that the soil that produces both is the same after all. It is a culture of planting chaos and expecting to reap order from it. For instance, people argue that it is not their fault that lace fabrics are so attractive and available. So, we can give our local fabrics a face-lift: invite the plastic surgeons. Those are real artists.

    The present system asks us to be dependent on foreign economies for every need in order to grow our own economy. This means that for every lace material we wear, we are promoting another country’s economy and ensuring another man’s job while our children cannot get jobs. This is reverse logic at work.

    True, the social order of the Nigerian system is a little confused right now, but we can straighten it out. I do remember a time during President Obasanjo’s time in office where he led Nigerians to patronise Nigerian-made fabrics to grace occasions. The move caught on like a flare. Everyone adopted the less costly fabric made in Nigeria as the wear of important occasions – weddings, burials, birthdays, etc. Then tailors became fashion designers and wealth began to spread. Unfortunately, the move died out in the time of President Jonathan and fashion designers became tailors again, though new and improved.

    Our social disorder has even grown wings. We watch as those who have stolen the country blind seize the privileges that should go to the entire society. We acquiesce that they should have better access to the country’s money. We acquiesce that they should enter the Central Bank Vaults to fetch it themselves at times, as I heard that Obanikoro once did. I’m still waiting for someone to deny this quickly so that I can sleep well at nights and stop tossing and turning, asking myself what I’m sitting here doing instead of…

    So, the thieves in high places have justice because they can easily afford the law. They have better security so petty armed robbers and kidnappers do not trouble them. They have better access to undeserved respect and honour because people prefer to associate with them rather than with me. I’m not the one they call to their high tables.

    Seriously, people, we have tried one type of social disorder and it has not worked. I think it is time we tried another kind of social disorder. The other day, we had electricity at my house for about six hours at a stretch and I developed the jitters. That was so abnormal that I felt sure something was wrong, a new social disorder, do you think? I rather liked it, especially as this abnormality seems to have become persistent lately.

    Another abnormality I would like to see is someone opening up the factories again and making Nigerian-made fabrics replace lace as the fashion wears at social events. Let the Ankara reign once more; let the tailors have work again (no, I’m not one), but you’ll be surprised the ripple effect that’ll have. Let the public taps run again – I’ll probably run out of the house when it first happens, but I’ll adjust. Let hospitals dispense health and doctors and nurses actually care for the patient rather than fight the government and each other. Who knows? We just may like the new disorder.

  • Ekiti panupo colloquium – restoring ekiti enterprise values and defining the pathway to lasting development

    It must be a surprise that while so much emphasis is being laid on Kebbi State and rice production today, hardly a thing is heard about Ekiti State and its sumptuous and extremely nourishing Igbemo rice

    In my opening remarks as moderator of the first session at the Ekitipanupo Colloquium on the above topic, I said, inter alia: “A look at the array of speakers who will be talking to us today, unmistakably points to the fact that the Ekiti conundrum of one week, one trouble, is not the making of the gods; certainly not of the Almighty God who, indeed, gave us a surfeit of excellence in literally all areas of human endeavour. We must, therefore, take this opportunity, not only to critically examine what exactly is wrong with us as a people but begin the process of finding solutions to whatever the demons are that are tearing us apart. We cannot have a more qualified assemblage of Ekiti people to begin that divine assignment. And I am sure Ekitipanupo, to the last man and woman, is ready, and willing, to be guided by our elders who we hope know that whatever it is that we all do, at this juncture of our lives to help Ekiti out, is what we will be remembered for; not our riches, not our chains of university degrees nor how many chieftaincies we were given while on this side of the divide. We must, therefore, all serve Ekiti with an eye on eternity.”

     Bolaji Aluko, Professor of Chemical Engineering and the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Otueke, further reinforced this theme when, as lead speaker, he opined that “the issue of Ekiti should be beyond politics or party affiliation– and if they are, then there should be certain minimum standards below which we must not allow either politics or partisanship to be played.” The reality, he further said, was that as a 20-year old state, “if we had elections every four years, we would have had only five governors –or just three if two of them were re-elected – but since our state’s existence, we have had ten governors, two of them military administrators, which is a clear indication of political instability.”   He went on: “As a state with a land lush with rolling hills, rivers and water falls, vegetation and mineral resources – not to talk of the hardy and highly educated people, Ekiti State should be a veritable tourist destination and prime candidate for energy, food and economic self-sufficiency and sustainability.”

    Speakers at the one day event  which took place,  Thursday, 8 September, 2016, at the Anchor Events Centre, Agidingbi, Ikeja which was packed to capacity, included the elder statesman, Professor (Senator) Banji Akintoye who gave the key note address, Prince Julius Adelusi-Faluyi, Chairman, Juli Pharmacy, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, Banji Ogungbemi, a former Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Products Ltd, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, Professor Julius Faluyi of the University of Ife, Ile-Ife and Dr Biodun Adedipe, Chief Consultant, B.Adedipe Associates while Professor Modupe Adelabu, former Deputy Governor of  Ekiti  state ,moderated the second session. The event was chaired by Chief Afe Babalola OFR SAN and Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti who was ably represented.

    Ideas ranged far and wide but so were chilling statistics. For instance, one of the findings at the event was that while it is obvious that our fractious politics has been our greatest undoing, so also has our workforce which, instead of being the facilitator of economic activities, oiling and helping the growth of the private sector, it is abysmally huge and inefficient as the following statistics which compares Ekiti with its Southwest neighbours eloquently attest to: https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/profile_mask2.png. A good reading, and internalisation of the above facts by any Ekiti government, should have informed a re-orientation of priorities. As was also made evident at the Colloquium, the time has come for us as a people to determine what economic activity our government should lay emphasis on. For instance, the indices identified by Professor Aluko in his paper as gifts of nature should be the starting point. But on a much larger scale is agriculture which for a very long time was the mainstay of not just the Western Region, but Nigeria as a whole.

    It must be a surprise that while so much emphasis is being laid on Kebbi State and rice production today, hardly a thing is heard about Ekiti State and its sumptuous and extremely nourishing Igbemo rice.  Although this did not come directly into the discussions as Ekitipanupo did everything to make the occasion sans politics, we must encourage the state government to maximally leverage on the federal government’s diversification programme to enhance all the possibilities of Igbemo rice down to its value chain. A move in this direction will have tremendous positive effects on the state ranging from youth and women employment, increase in the number of SMEs in the state just as it will enhance security by keeping some jobless youths engaged.

    Dr Biodun Adedipe, as Chief Consultant of B.Adedipe and Associates, is already very involved in assisting states other than his own Ekiti in fashioning out these priorities and would be only too willing to put his expertise at the state’s disposal. He is, for instance, currently working with the State of Osun in training thousands of graduates in skills acquisition. There are thousands and thousands of our incredible  Ekiti compatriots out there, both at home and in the Diaspora, who will be ready, and willing, to help  take Ekiti out of its  self-inflicted cul de sac. And this is the more reason why we have to de-emphasise politics in the state, going forward. It has ill-served us this past decade and a half. Enough is enough. After all, we are the most homogenous people and state in the entire country. Today, it is not an overstatement to say that three out of every five youth in Ekiti want a role in politics, even as toughies. It has not always been like this as sons and daughters of very poor farmers are now not only university professors, but top executives of large organisations and self-employed titans. My father is poor was not an excuse in Ekiti, it shouldn’t be now. And Professor Akintoye did not fail to tell us at the event that even in Education, we were late starters because of our distance from the Atlantic coast but for over half a century now, Ekiti has been rhapsodised as the home of professors, with no family without a doctorate degree holder.

    I have chosen not to resort to a historical narration of the event but rather to emphasise my take-aways. In concluding therefore, I must go back to Professor Bolaji Aluko who emphasised the following four key ingredients for our revival: Courage, Prudence, Temperance and Justice. While space constraint will not permit my elucidating on these as he did in his paper, I will be too remiss not to quote his conclusion. His words: “I strongly believe that these virtues should be given both civic and religious under-girding in our educational system – from primary to university levels. The get-rich quick, situational ethics that currently pervade our young people –brought on by decades of public graft in the Nigerian polity – is disturbing and must be reversed. Adults who violate them –who show no courage to confront the real needs of the community, are unwise, intemperate, and unjust – should not be hailed in society – and should not be elected to govern the people.”

  • Wanted: A new social disorder

    We all showed off our foreign wears, clicked our heels on foreign shoes, waved our imported bags, gorged ourselves on foreign foods and later we were surprised to hear that our Nigerian economy was not growing. Can you imagine the effrontery of this our economy?!

    I attended a social function recently. At a free moment, I looked at the people who attended the ceremony as they bustled here and there in search of friends or food. It struck me that nearly everyone was wearing one lace fabric or another. Those not wearing lace fabrics were putting on something of equivalent status. Of course, they were all of varying designs and costs. As someone told me recently, lace fabrics can cost anything from three thousand naira to two hundred and fifty thousand naira or more. Clearly, to some Nigerians, the costlier the fabric is, the better. Well, I could not put the cost on what people were wearing that day but one thing that I did not see on anyone was made-in-Nigeria lace or even Ankara.

    I rather wondered what such ceremonies do to the economy, because in our lace outfits, we were not growing our own economy. We were not only dressed in foreign things, we even ate things made abroad. Most people were fed rice imported from Thailand. Now, everyone is complaining about how expensive rice is. I think I have tired of telling anyone who cares to listen that we have been living on borrowed throats eating rice, spaghetti, tomato paste, knorr and maggi seasonings, and everything else. Even our salt is imported. So, at that ceremony, dear reader, we all showed off our foreign wears, clicked our heels on foreign shoes, waved our imported bags, gorged ourselves on foreign foods and later we were surprised to hear that our Nigerian economy was not growing. Can you imagine the effrontery of this our economy?!

         It is a fact that people want social ideals. People want well organised social structures with working systems such as constant electricity, flowing taps, corporations offering good jobs, hospitals dispensing cures, etc. A good social order also embraces some wonderful mores and values that lift up the society for the sake of everyone. The values may include hard work, living only on one’s earnings, not living beyond one’s means, being accountable to the society, taking responsibility for one’s actions, etc. On the scales, I guess you’ll say we are still some way off.

    There is no telling what advantages can accrue to the country from a good social order. To start with, there is continuity of life: everyone gains from being assured that yes, they have the freedom to wake up tomorrow. Would you believe the number of people who have died silently from this dislocated social order we are practising – out of frustration, hunger, unhappiness, or plain, old illness? More importantly, there will be a place in the society for everyone – each according to his ability and reach. In other words, everyone can reach for the cookie jar as his/her height allows without breaking the jar. There is a jar on every level. This means that if all I want from life is a coconut, I can just go lie under the coconut tree until one falls in my mouth, or head as you will, and no one would mind.

    However, the absence of a good structure has introduced into the country a social disorder that allows everyone to do as he pleases. People provide electricity, water, roads, jobs, cures, etc., for themselves. I was at a very small business arena the other day and was amazed at the array of generating sets arranged alongside a wall. I stopped counting at thirteen as they all emitted the same grating noise and belched the same blue-black smoke into the air. The other day, someone attempted to sell me a bottle filled with a dark fluid that she claimed could cure everything.

    Worse hit is the social value which has indeed plummeted. For instance, a politician does not feel complete until he enters a venue with a retinue of attendants and uniformed men and women legitimately assigned to him by the Nigeria Police. I attended a burial ceremony once where one of the celebrants was waited on hand and foot by a uniformed para-military, to everyone’s annoyance and envy. The uniformed fellow insisted on standing behind the celebrant during the service, blocking some people’s view. The people could only hiss.

    Unfortunately, this culture of social disorder is built on reverse logic. Reverse logic is when you plant seeds of corn and sit down expectantly waiting to reap a harvest of beans, arguing that the soil that produces both is the same after all. It is a culture of planting chaos and expecting to reap order from it. For instance, people argue that it is not their fault that lace fabrics are so attractive and available. So, we can give our local fabrics a face-lift: invite the plastic surgeons. Those are real artists.

    The present system asks us to be dependent on foreign economies for every need in order to grow our own economy. This means that for every lace material we wear, we are promoting another country’s economy and ensuring another man’s job while our children cannot get jobs. This is reverse logic at work.

    True, the social order of the Nigerian system is a little confused right now, but we can straighten it out. I do remember a time during President Obasanjo’s time in office where he led Nigerians to patronise Nigerian-made fabrics to grace occasions. The move caught on like a flare. Everyone adopted the less costly fabric made in Nigeria as the wear of important occasions – weddings, burials, birthdays, etc. Then tailors became fashion designers and wealth began to spread. Unfortunately, the move died out in the time of President Jonathan and fashion designers became tailors again, though new and improved.

    Our social disorder has even grown wings. We watch as those who have stolen the country blind seize the privileges that should go to the entire society. We acquiesce that they should have better access to the country’s money. We acquiesce that they should enter the Central Bank Vaults to fetch it themselves at times, as I heard that Obanikoro once did. I’m still waiting for someone to deny this quickly so that I can sleep well at nights and stop tossing and turning, asking myself what I’m sitting here doing instead of…

    So, the thieves in high places have justice because they can easily afford the law. They have better security so petty armed robbers and kidnappers do not trouble them. They have better access to undeserved respect and honour because people prefer to associate with them rather than with me. I’m not the one they call to their high tables.

    Seriously, people, we have tried one type of social disorder and it has not worked. I think it is time we tried another kind of social disorder. The other day, we had electricity at my house for about six hours at a stretch and I developed the jitters. That was so abnormal that I felt sure something was wrong, a new social disorder, do you think? I rather liked it, especially as this abnormality seems to have become persistent lately.

    Another abnormality I would like to see is someone opening up the factories again and making Nigerian-made fabrics replace lace as the fashion wears at social events. Let the Ankara reign once more; let the tailors have work again (no, I’m not one), but you’ll be surprised the ripple effect that’ll have. Let the public taps run again – I’ll probably run out of the house when it first happens, but I’ll adjust. Let hospitals dispense health and doctors and nurses actually care for the patient rather than fight the government and each other. Who knows? We just may like the new disorder.

  • Has capitalism of the worst kind become permanent in Nigeria?– Resuming a forgotten debate (1)

    Has capitalism of the worst kind become permanent in Nigeria?– Resuming a forgotten debate (1)

    Thou shall let nothing be wasted John 6:12

    Indeed, has capitalism of the very worst kind become permanent in our country? I hope not! I have a personal, existential stake in expressing this hope. With other members of my generation, I am in the last “phase” of my physical existence. Certainly, like all human beings, I hope for a long and relatively healthy life. But I am realistic enough to know that when you are a septuagenarian, you have lived considerably far more of your life than the time left for your existence to run out of its allotted time. The oligarchic, thieving capitalism that is in full control of our political economy at the present time is the worst form of capitalism there is. If it has come to stay permanently in our country, it means that for the rest of my life, the hope for a better, more humane and just society in Nigeria will remain precisely that – a fatuous hope with absolutely no possibility of fulfillment. What is even worse is the possibility that this form of capitalism will survive well beyond my life and the lives of all presently living generations in our country. Heavens help us!

    The terror of this nightmarish prospect is underscored by the fact that in my lifetime, indeed in the collective lifetime of my generation of Nigerians, we have seen and experienced capitalism of a better, more productive and transformative kind. Because the median age for Nigeria is 18 years, close to about three quarters of the present aggregate of all living Nigerians did not experience that kind of relatively benign capitalism. And so for the most part, what the majority of Nigerians alive now know and have almost come to regard as “capitalism” is the barawo-jaguda-onyeoshi(apologies to Wazobian popular lingo) variety now in full force in the land. In a series of three or four essays that begins with this week’s column, I wish to reflect on this profoundly disturbing fact of our political economy. But first, in a few paragraphs, I wish to say a word or two about the whole issue of “good” and “bad” capitalism, beginning with why the form of capitalism in Nigeria, first under the PDP and now under the APC, is the very worst kind of capitalism.

    What is the essence of this kind of capitalism? It is consumption as the be all and end all of “production”. In other words, in this kind of capitalism, consumption becomes so unrelated to production that it extends voraciously to products and services that your nation, your society doesn’t and cannot produce. Moreover, and quite significantly, thisfrenzy of consumption is available, not to everyone in the society but only to a few that are paradoxically typically the least productive members of the society. If we recognize that we are using the term cannibalism metaphorically here, we can describe this kind of capitalism as being profoundly cannibalistic, in essence implying that part of what the few consuming lords of the land consume are the lives of the vast majority of the peoples. Perhaps the single most frightening feature of this kind of capitalism is the fact that production in general, and virtually all productive processes in particular become so battered, so endangered that everything valuable is wasted on a monumental scale. This observation leads us to the relevance of the epigraph for this essay.

    John 6:12: Thou shall let nothing be wasted. This is our epigraph for this essay. [Actually the rendition of this quote in the Yoruba Bible is more poetic, more stunningly evocative: Eyin ko gbodo je ki ounkoun ki o s’egbe!] Think of the kind of capitalism in force in our country at the present time – and apparentlyfor the foreseeable future – as a complete reversal of this injunction of Christ to his disciples thereby giving us the following monstrosity: Thou shalt let everything, everything, go to waste! In the biblical story that serves as the narrative and theological context for this quote, Christ was referring specifically to the leftovers that remained from the huge feast with which he had fed the multitudes, a feast miraculously conjured out of only two loaves of bread and a lump of fish. Theologians have for ages speculated that the literal leftovers that Jesus was referring to in this quote was actually a symbolic representation of spiritual sustenance. In other words, it has been argued that Christ was really saying that if you can apply yourself to the practice of not wasting leftovers of food, you will position yourself well for preventing all forms and sources of sustenance from going to waste. It was Wole Soyinka who, right after the Nigerian-Biafra Civil War, first talked of the “wasted” generation. Since then, the metaphor of waste has been applied to just about every asset and resource that we possess, not only physical and material ones like crude oil and human labour, but human life itself. Waste on this scale and of such widespread dispersion causes untold hardship, suffering, violence, corruption and insecurity. We shall come back to this form of capitalism that is regnant in our country and has been so for a few decades, but for now let us move to the second of our opening reflections, this being the very question of types of capitalism, some “good”, others “bad”.

    A confession: one “inspiration” for my use of the term “good and bad capitalism” is the fact that there is indeed a book of roughly that title that is not only in print but has been in wide circulation since its publication in the year 2007. Here’s the full title of the book: Good Capitalism; Bad Capitalism: The Economics of Growth and Prosperity. The authors of the book are William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan, and Carl J. Schram, all professors of economics at prestigious American universities. The book identifies four types of capitalism in a list that goes from the worst to the best. Here’s their list: oligarchic capitalism; state guided capitalism; big firm capitalism; and entrepreneurial capitalism. Not too long after this book came out, I discussed it in a series when this column, in an earlier incarnation, was written for and published in The Guardian. For this reason, I will not go into a lengthy or sustained discussion of the book. For our current purposes in this discussion, here are the four things I wish to say about the book’s postulates about “good” and “bad” capitalism.

    First: discussions of varieties of “better” and “worst” forms of capitalism are not new and have been around ever since the emergence of capitalism as the dominant form of modern economic production.Second: most theorists and commentators,both of the Left and of the Right, agree with the authors of this book that the oligarchic form of capitalism is indeed the worst kind. Third: however, barely a year after the publication of the book, the global economic meltdown of 2008 completely disproved and debunked the authors’ claim that “entrepreneurial capitalism”, American-style, is the “best” form of capitalism the world has ever known. And there is also the quite significant fact that in this year of American presidential elections, devastating critiques of the injustices and inefficiencies of entrepreneurial capitalism constitute perhaps the single most dominant theme of the candidates of the two main parties. Fourth: we must look at other sources for a more productive discussion of “good” and “bad” capitalism, sources that are indeed more relevant to our present historic circumstances. In the present context, I will cite and briefly discuss only two of such sources, one foundational and international, the other quite local to our own recent economic and political history.

    It is hard to imagine now, but younger Nigerian socialists and progressives on the Left need to be reminded that Karl Marx and other founding leaders of modern socialism actually considered capitalism a profoundly transformative and indeed “revolutionary” force in modern economic and political history. Indeed, some sections of nothing less canonical than The Manifesto of the Communist Party, read like hymns to the progressive vocation of capitalism in general and the bourgeoisie in particular! Simplifying a little bit, here is the underlying idea of this view of capitalism in its “revolutionary” phase: it was releasing and it will continue to release powers of production on such a gigantic scale that, for the first time in human history, scarcity will become a thing of the past. Consequently, so goes the argument, there will be enough for society on a global scale to be able to undertake a massive redistribution of wealth that will forever abolish poverty and want and the degradations they impose on millions, billions of human beings. Of course Marx and others warned of evolving types within capitalism that would seek to blunt or even stop the progressive and transformative tendencies within capitalism. The chief of such negative, “regressive” types of capitalism is the monopolistic or oligopolistic kind, especially in its tendency to lead to war and a perpetual sharpening and deepening of the gap between the rich and the poor.On this view, the “best” form of capitalism would be that which pays attention to the vital links between the production of wealth and the fair and just distribution of the wealth produced. As a counter to this, the worst form of capitalism is that in which whatever wealth actually or potentially exists is kept away from both the generation of more wealth and fair and just distribution.

    It might perhaps come as a shock to many reading these words to learn that much of these things that have been historically and internationally discussed about “good” and “bad” capitalism have not only been very widely discussed in our country but indeed went into the writing of the 1999 Constitution. This is particularly true of Chapter 2 of that Constitution which deals specifically with economic production and the role of the State in ensuring justice and fairness to all. What is more pertinent here is that this Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution is in fact the product of widespread discussions throughout the country that had gone into the production of both the 1979 and the 1993 Constitutions. Indeed, the so-called “Preamble” to the 1993 Constitution specifically raises the challenge of simultaneously pursuing economic growth and distributive justiceat the same time. In this, there is a suggestion that you cannot pursue distributive justice on scarcity, on undeveloped productive powers. But the discussion makes it plain that the best form of government and economy is that which pursues both objectives simultaneously: growth through expanding productive forces and fair and equitable distribution of the wealth of the nation. Thus, though the term “capitalism” does not appear in the 1993 and 1999 Constitutions, there is not the slightest doubt that the idea of a “good” or benevolent capitalism is at the core of these documents.

    Let me end this opening essay in a series that will continue next week on a half-playful and half-serious note: on the basis of Section 16, subsection 2, paragraph c of the 1999 Constitution, Saraki, Dogara and indeed all the members of the National Assembly should be in jail right now in defiance of the nation’s governing Constitution. What exactly does this paragraph state? Here it is: “The State shall direct its policy toward ensuring that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of a few individuals or of a group”.  We will take this observation as our point of departure in next week’s continuation of the series.

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                                         bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • The Obasanjo Formula revisited

    The Obasanjo Formula revisited

    (Elite Pluralism or Electoral Federalism)

    Like all medical perplexities, the Nigerian patient has many physicians. Unfortunately, none is as yet a psychiatrist of collective hysteria. Hysteria defines the Nigerian condition. It drives the people to extremes of passion: from tender loving to mutual loathing, from reasonable cooperation with authorities to irrational confrontation with the state, and from kindness to many to cruelty to all. The human condition has never been richer in sheer diversity; or more intriguing in its seething and sizzling contradictions.

    As military rules recedes into remote antiquity in Nigeria, the contradictions of domesticated democratic rule are opening up. One of these contradictions is the very fact that the “open” society has now allowed Nigerians to have an idea of the glaring imperfections of democracy as naturalized in Nigeria. This is the longest spell of civil rule in the history of Nigeria.

    The First Republic lasted six years and the Second Republic four years. The Third Republic died invitro. With seventeen continuous years of civil rule under its belt, the Fourth Republic has even managed a historic regime change, with opposition elements defeating an incumbent government in the presidential election of 2015.

    Yet rather than thank God for little mercies and use the opportunity of relative stability to pose questions that will deepen the democratic process, or engage in fruitful and creative strategizing that will boost social justice and political inclusiveness, Nigerians have been quarrelling and bickering  over irrelevancies. It is all in the nature human societies, particularly when people believe they have been short-changed in the name of change.

    So, once again it is the season of open cynicism when men and women on the boil complain and question everything under the sun. But this monologic narrative about suffering under change does not exhaust the story in its diverse possibilities. Indeed, it is curious that we complain endlessly and rightly too about the legislature, the judiciary and the executive without appreciating the underlying irony or the conditions of possibility.

    These strident complaints seem to have come to a head with the administration of General Buhari for three interlocking reasons which may not be obvious to the president and his harsh interlocutors. First, given the circumstances of his current ascendancy, people complain because they believe that this ought to be a listening government.

    Second, they complain because they believe that they have a government strong and resolute enough and with the capacity and resilience to absorb criticism without toppling into self-absorbed intolerance. Finally, people complain because it is seen as part of change or a longing for change. The whole Buhari project itself, it can be argued, is anchored on a relentless electoral critique of the PDP project of perpetual power without responsibility.

    It was a political siege lasting for a whopping sixteen years and three epic presidential slugfests beginning from 2003. There is no evidence that Buhari was part of, or ever bought into, the military conspiracythat foisted General Obasanjo on the nation. The only time the two military heavyweights ever collaborated was during the short-lived Association for Good Governance- or something to that effect-formed after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election. Predictably, the whole thing ended in a fiasco as a result of multiple political ambushes.

    Having been a serial victim of electoral malfeasance himself, it will be very strange if President Buhari were to be seen opposing or rejecting necessary electoral reforms and the structural adjustments which will put the electoral destiny of the nation beyond the manipulative reach of a few people or an oligarchic cabal.

    Yet even more curious is the fact that in all the noise about restructuring, fiscal federalism, political reform, modernization etc.., we have been slow tocome up with the notion of electoral federalism in opposition to elite pluralism or the plutocratic politics so beloved of our retired generals and the dominant faction of the political elite.

    Electoral federalism presents a major challenge to multi-ethnic and culturally polarized nations, but it is also a nation-enhancing formula for overcoming primordial divisions. By giving sinews and strengths to the smallest units, it ensures that no part is made to feel electorally unimportant or surplus to hegemonic requirements.

    But even more importantly, the voting template is structured in such a way that no single unit or combination of two hegemonic blocs can determine the electoral fate of the nation.  In elite pluralism, once the political barons have made up their minds, two elite formations can combine to impose their rule if not vision on the rest of the society.

    The perils of elite pluralism and plutocratic politics can be seen in General Obasanjo’s recent assertion that he (Obasanjo) and three other people gathered together to impose General Buhari on the nation. Coyness and self-effacement have never been part of the former president’s virtues, particularly when it comes to political self-advertisement. Yet it is quite intriguing that on this occasion, perhaps jolted by his own dangerous indiscretion, Obasanjo issued a public retraction and ate his own word.

    But the Owu-born warlord need not be remorseful or sorrowful about this indiscretion. This is the nature of politics and democracy in Nigeria, particularly after the advent of military rule. The selectorate select and then ask the electorate to elect. If the selectorate fail to select, there would be nothing for the electorate to elect.

    This was how Obasanjo himself came to be in 1999 and in 2003 when he steamrolled the entire nation by unilaterally electing to act on behalf of the selectorate.  Again in 2007, Obasanjo, in a rather crude show of unilateral power, appropriated the will of the selectorate to impose Yar’Adua and Jonathan on the nation having failed in his bid to extend his tenure. The electorate had no choice but to elect accordingly.

    The only known exception to this iron law of electoralism in Nigeria was in 1993 when General Ibrahim Babangida,  panicked into careless brinksmanship, failed to select and the electorate elected an unanointed and unselected MKO Abiola. All hell was let loose and the election was summarily annulled by the full selectorate.  Having failed the nation in this military-ordained transfer of power to the extent that he imperilled continued military rule, Babangida was lucky that he was only forcefully shunted aside for General Abacha, the ultimate enforcer, to gather the reins of power and the scrambled wits of the military oligarchy.

    But not being very intelligent or an astute reader of the wider political currents, Abacha mistook his historic brief as the final undertaker of military rule to mean continued military rule or at the very least his own transformation to a civilian despot. His old military cohorts such as Generals Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, whoin their political delusion still thought there was something to play for were swiftly impounded and thrown into the dungeon of the dead and dying. But in a historic clearing of the clogged deck facilitated by external interests, both Abacha and Abiola had to be eliminated to pave the way for General Obasanjo.

    Having been the major beneficiary of this occult democracy and the deadly manipulation of elite plasticity in Nigerian politics, it is understandable if General Obasanjo continues to be enamoured of its schemes and scheming. Obasanjo himself and his disastrous impositions are prime examples of what is wrong with this type of command democracy and its manipulations of narrow elite consensus and institutional incoherence in the country.

    There is always a ring of fait accompli to this kind of oligopolistic politics and the manipulation of elite fault lines by a few supermen in a multi-ethnic country cobbled together by colonial interlopers, since nature abhors a political vacuum.  The danger with this kind of politics is not that it is inherently evil or amoral. It is more dangerous than that.

    Since it is unable or unwilling to avail itself of the need for the constant restructuring and the architectural revamping of the polity which throws up new talents and energies needed to galvanize the nation it is constantly scraping the bottom of the barrel and throwing up expired non-starters such as we have seen with Obasanjo and his jaded impositions. Its mere existence therefore becomes an iron and binding justification for its continued existence as we have seen in Obasanjo’s unguarded outburst.

    For example since the advent of the Fourth Republic and owing to the reality of structural marginalization and political amputation arising from the civil war and hegemonic politics, there is no evidence that a military general or political figure of commensurate stature from either the South South or the South East has ever taken partin the oligarchic deliberations which precede the foisting of a ruler on the whole country.

    The current turmoil and turbulence and the cries of exclusion and marginalization from those parts of the country should serve as a warning that we cannot continue to exclude significant sectors of the nation from its power configuration. Something will give and if care is not taken the force of inevitability will lead to the inevitability of force.

    The Americans who we like to ape for the wrong reasons are also conditional democrats. Their founding fathers also knew that the election of a nation’s president is too important to be left wholly in the hands of the electorate with its untamed and often unwise rabble. They therefore came up with the idea of an electorate college as the ultimate arbiter of who becomes the president of America.

    Consequently, when they are voting for a president, Americansare also selecting the electors who will act as the ultimate umpire in conjunction with the state legislatures, the governors and the congress. But America is a land of constant restructuring and ceaseless self-surpassing. When this inventive 1787 contraption ran into stormy waters in 1800 in the historic Jefferson-Burr presidential duel, they quickly came up with a structural amendment which has since undergone several amendments as unforeseen circumstances develop.

    In the light of the foregoing and given the sheer scope and magnitude of state corruption that has been revealed to the public by his fortuitous advent, General MohammaduBuhari will be the last member of the old oligarchy to ever rule Nigeria. The retired general should seriously ponder his strategic role and historic destiny as the final undertaker of the old Nigerian ruling class in all its political, economic and electoral turpitude and should not allow himself to be misled by hawks insisting that the current configuration will do.

    This is why the president, rather than seeing those who are clamouring for the urgent restructuring of the political, economic and electoral organogram of the country as irritants and closet adversaries should see them as allies seeking to help him midwife a new Nigeria. As it is, the general appears torn between the false claims of those who insist they brought him to power and the wider and more legitimate claims of the Nigerian masses who swept him to power to save them from their tormentors.

    Given the current mood of the country, if the retired general should choose to run in 2019 based on a revalidation or mere recombination of the existing formula rooted in the coalition of two hegemonic blocs, there is every possibility that the nation might dissolve into terminal anarchy and chaos. Here is hoping that President Buhari will not be the last ruler of Nigeria as we know it.

  • Fayose right for once

    Fayose right for once

    His law to tame herdsmen’s excesses is largely welcome

    Those who know me at least fairly well know that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State is not my dream governor. So, there is no way I can celebrate him as a role model. But there is one issue on which the two of us are agreed, and that is how to curtail the excesses of herdsmen. Some wonder how Fayose can be opposed to impunity because he swims in it himself; how then can he be against herdsmen who live by and kill with impunity? The same people asking the question say the answer can be found in the governor’s anti-Muhammadu Buhari stance. In other words, the action is part of the governor’s way of showing his disapproval of the Buhari government, or is it Buhari as a person?

    For Fayose Monday, August 29 was a memorable day. Anyone who saw him when signing the “Prohibition of Cattle and other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti Bill, 2016 into law would have seen the posture of triumphalism in the governor. He was in his elements, and this should send the right signals to those who care that he was not ready to tolerate the arbitrariness and impunity of the herdsmen in his state. The law prevents free grazing of cattle in the state and carrying of firearms by herdsmen. It also restricts grazing period to between 7am and 6pm, with six months jail term without an option of fine to any herdsman, who circumvents the law.

    Given that Ekiti State has not suffered any serious casualty from herdsmen, one is tempted to agree with those who believe that the bill is Fayose’s way of continuing the battle between him and President Buhari by other means. They may be right; they may be wrong. But the question is: should a governor wait until a festering problem in other places get to his doorstep before taking action to stem it? I don’t think so. So, the governor, for me, has only been proactive, irrespective of the propelling force behind the law. He should not wait until Ekiti people become mincemeat in the hands of those who do not know that there is any other right apart from their own right to graze cattle.

    Naturally, such a law will not be without antagonists. It is therefore not surprising that the direct stakeholders in the state, the herdsmen, are among the first set of people to pick holes in the law. Counsel to the Ekiti State Chapter of the Jamu Nate Fulbe Association of Nigeria, an umbrella body for herdsmen in the state, Mr. Umar Imam, said it was wrong for Governor Fayose to charge erring members of the association with terrorism for carrying light weapons. According to him, those carrying weapons like cutlasses, catapults, arrows and knives within the time stipulated by the law cannot be labelled terrorists.

    Speaking in similar vein, the Seriki of the association in Ekiti, Alhaji Ahmadu Mahmoud, appealed to the governor to amend the law, to enable his members carry lesser arms to ward off attacks from robbers.

    Imam said: “The law of the federation on terrorism is very clear and no one can be charged for terrorism for carrying lesser arms like cutlasses, catapults and knives during the grazing period as contained in Ekiti new law”. He added: “I also told them that movement at night while relocating from one place to another was to ensure that they don’t wreak havoc on the people during the day while relocating to other towns. I expected the state government to have taken care of these in the new law rather than total banning. What the state government ought to have done is to allow whoever wants to relocate at night to take permit from a certain government’s authority or inform their Seriki, but banning them from moving at night may not help the situation, it will make their jobs difficult”, Imam said.

    It is easy for critical stakeholders in the cattle business to defend night movement by herdsmen but those who had lost their lives and limbs, including their livelihood to herdsmen’s brutality would have a different story to tell. Ask victims of herdsmen’s attacks across the land, from Benue to Oyo, Ogun, Enugu Adamawa, etc. and they would readily tell you that they stand behind Fayose as far as the law is concerned. The point is, nothing short of the present freedom of the herdsmen will do for those involved in the cattle business.

    The lesson from all these is that even as laudable as Fayose’s audacity in making the law is, it is still not the solution to the herdsmen’s problem. What many Nigerians are pushing for is the establishment of cattle ranches all over the country. Cattle-rearing is big business; so, those into it must be ready to make the necessary investment in tandem not only with the dictates of their host communities but also in consonance with the demands of civilisation. The truth of the matter is that cattle-rearing at any time of the day the way our ancestors did it several decades ago has become anachronistic and unacceptable all over the civilised world.

    A situation where herdsmen carry sophisticated weapons like AK47 rifles in the name of protecting themselves against attacks from armed robbers and other marauders will not even be necessary when they have ranches. The good news here is the new deal by Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bankers Committee (BC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMA &RD) which said it was set to begin rail haulage for cattle and agricultural produce; this would hopefully make cattle rearing on our roads and farms a thing of the past . We present ourselves as primitive and impervious to change when cattle are allowed to roam about our streets as in the days of old.

    The Federal Government is committing a lot of money to rail transportation, and this is a good development. As many businesses as possible must be ready to hook onto the railways to transport their products. As a matter of fact, the signal to those into road haulage is that such mode of transportation is no longer sustainable. Apart from the damage to our roads, such heavy duty vehicles also constitute a menace to other road users. If people in this business are accepting this as a reality, there is no reason why herdsmen should think they can continue business in a crude and primitive manner in a rapidly changing world.