The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Powers Buhari needs

    We need to think out of the box for the way forward

    A newspaper report says the Federal Government intends to send a bill titled “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016” to the National Assembly seeking emergency powers for the president to carry out some radical reforms that have both executive and legislative components, to enable him address the country’s economic challenges. The emergency powers are to last for one year. According to the report, “the emergency powers that have the legislative components include the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, procurement process and virement of budget allocations. The objectives of the emergency powers are to reflate the economy by creating more jobs, boost foreign reserves, ensure inflow of foreign exchange, strengthen the naira, resuscitate the manufacturing sector and get contractors back to site”.

    The report says that in view of the delays associated with the procurement process in the extant Public Procurement Act which takes at least six months; the president wants suspension of section 34(3) of the act to fast track the procurement process and award of contracts to do away with the administrative encumbrances. In the same vein, the president is looking at the possibility of selling and leasing out some of what the report calls non-core assets of the country to reflate the economy. About $50billion could be generated from this. There is also visa issuance that he wants facilitated as well as business registration.

    The report also says the president wants mobilisation fees to contractors raised from 15 percent to 50 percent. He also wants the counterpart fund expected from states to access the Universal Basic Education Fund reduced from the present 50 percent to 10 percent. This will free about N58 billion trapped in the fund for the states to improve education. The president is also said to be interested in ease of doing business by ensuring that people seeking to register their businesses get approval within seven days. The emergency powers will also entail the president authorising the use of barges to supply gas to power plants, instead of pipelines in the present laws.

    Even though the Presidency has denied that it was planning to send such request to the National Assembly, the report would seem like kite-flying to see how Nigerians would react to it if and when it eventually comes. Indeed, if President Muhammadu Buhari had not thought along this line, he should begin to do so immediately.

    Reactions to the report have been mixed. For instance, some people are already saying that the president can still do something about the economy without asking for those powers. Perhaps this is true. For instance, does he need emergency powers to reduce the number of jets in the presidential fleet? Obviously, no. May be that is where to begin. Again, some say that some of the laws he is seeking to temporarily set aside have their purpose. But then, these laws (including the Public Procurement Act) were there in the Jonathan years when abuses took place in a manner we probably never heard of in the country. By the time the investigative agencies beam their searchlight on the oil sector, we will understand what I am talking about. So, the question is not necessarily about whether laws are there or not; it is more about how the laws are obeyed, especially at the very top.

    I guess some of these doubts would not have arisen if the government had shown a thorough understanding of the serious economic challenges a long time ago and had been seen to be working assiduously to tackle them, with results. Asking for such powers now is raising fresh fears, not necessarily because the president does not need them but because the massive enthusiasm that he would have got if this had come since is not likely to be the same today. And the reasons are not far-fetched. Things are not moving the way Nigerians expected. Indeed, it is because of a time like this that some of us had been warning that the government did not seem to appreciate the enormity of the task on ground given the slow manner it took off after its inauguration on May 29, last year.

    The election that brought the president into office was conducted on March 28, 2015 and there was no controversy over it as the then President Goodluck Jonathan swiftly conceded defeat on March 31, 2015, even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) formally declared Buhari winner. The government had an unusual advantage of two months to continue preparations from where it stopped (if it had been making preparations at all in anticipation of victory at the polls) such that it should have hit the ground running. Many of us hinted at this a few months back.

    Unfortunately, the government kept foot-dragging even over a routine thing as appointment of ministers as if it had till eternity to do this, such that it took it six months after inauguration to constitute the cabinet. And when that was finally done, it was not something extraordinary. Most of the cabinet members were those that had been speculated would be appointed. There were hardly any surprises. Six months in the life of an administration with four-year tenure is a lot of time.

    One can imagine the hostile reception which the request would get from the National Assembly if it goes to the legislature. To put it bluntly, it would be difficult for the National Assembly’s leadership to cooperate with the executive in this matter. And if it would disagree with the president, it is not because of any genuine reasons except that it has its own agenda which is clearly at variance with legislative duties. That the Buhari government has not thrown the treasury open as it was in the past is enough grouse. Anyway, we should not dissipate energy on that.

    The question we should be asking is: does Buhari need the powers he is asking for? I am afraid he does. As a matter of fact, such powers are long overdue, given the dire situation the country’s economy is in and the need to urgently bring it out of the woods. Indeed, the request should have formed part of the first anniversary broadcast of the government in May, at worst.

    The government should stop playing the ostrich by denying that there is no such plan for emergency powers yet for something that is long overdue. I share the concern of those who genuinely feel for the country should we inadvertently give the president powers to nail us, even if he did not set out to do just that. That is why the president should be specific whenever he is sending the said bill to the National Assembly. We do not have to give him powers that would be too wide for him to manage and we would have helped in crowning a dictator.

    But we must be careful not to throw away the baby with the bath water, as the National Assembly did when they threw away constitutional amendments that we sorely needed because of Third Term in the Obasanjo years. There is nothing wrong in reducing counterpart funding for accessing UBE funds from the present 50 percent to 10 percent. The money had been trapped for years because many states could not afford the counterpart fund. I also do not see any reason why contractors should be mobilised with only 15 percent, especially at a time like this when banks are reluctant to give loans for obvious reasons. Moreover, what says we cannot use barges to transport gas for electricity supply when we are having challenges with piping of gas to the power stations? We all complain that improved electricity supply would go a long way in solving some of our problems and we do not want a system that would ensure steady supply of gas to facilitate this simply because of an extant law?

    With regard to the Public Procurement Act and award of contracts, we do not have the luxury of waiting for six months in a time like this for contracts to be awarded and started. Again, why should it take eternity to register a business enterprise or issue visa to tourists that we so badly need, when other countries are making a lot of money from tourism? We need all the foreign exchange that such people are ready to part with. My main worries are with virement, sale or lease of some ‘non-core’ assets, and waivers. These are areas where the National Assembly should ask all the questions necessary before granting the powers. Indeed, if you ask me, some of these extant laws are unnecessary and counterproductive.

    What we should have done was to fight corruption ab initio; and some of the fears that led us to enact some of these laws would have been taken care of. For instance, we would not have fears over waivers if we had done that and churches, some rich enough to fund some countries’ budgets, would not have been beneficiaries of waivers. There is nothing wrong in granting the president power to grant waivers for the procurement of essential items to propel the economy.

    My point is that we indeed shot ourselves in the foot with some of these laws and this is akin to a rain maker who caused rain to fall only to start complaining of the accompanying thunderstorm.  What is required in all of these is integrity. But, if we can vouch for the president’s integrity, can we do same for all his subordinates? This is a natural question. But that is the risk we must take in times like this because, as I pointed out earlier, even when these laws were in place, they were still subverted.

    What remains incontrovertible is that it has become obvious that we need some thinking out of the box to get out of our present peculiar mess. As President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders, (NANTS) Ken Ukaoha, a lawyer, said: “we need to do extra ordinary things if we must pull out this economy from the woods and that includes some of the things the president is seeking the National Assembly’s approval to do”. The big question is: do we want to eat omelet? Then we must be ready to break eggs. Laws are made for man and not vice versa. We should not be slaves to our own laws.

     

     

     

  • Giving a dog a good name

    (A primer of political insults)

    Oh dear, of dear!! What do you do with these impossible Nigerians and their reckless impetuosity? It has been said that you give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. But what do you do about a fellow who gives a dog a good name in order to hang himself? It is only in Nigeria, with its explosive contradictions, that such impossible paradoxes stalk the land.

    But political insults have been with us from time immemorial. They jazz and sex up political discourse often creating an independent academic industry in the process. In addition to calling Margaret Thatcher Rhoda the Rhino, Dennis Healey, the recently departed old bruiser of British politics, once likened an attack from an opponent to being savaged by a dead sheep. Another British political heavyweight who was himself nicknamed “Tarzan” was known to have dismissed an opponent as a semi house-trained polecat. After being repeatedly pestered by his opponents to confirm whether he was a vet, a Roman senator finally exploded: “Are you ill?”

    Snooper’s favourite political insult of all time came from Nancy Astor, the feisty British aristocrat and game-changing politician. After finding herself in a hostile crowd of rustic farmers, one of them came forward to ask her whether she even knew how many toes a pig has, Nancy returned with a withering stare and then calmly ordered the lout: “Take off your boots and count, man!”

    Of late the print and social media have been awash with the story of a man who chose to treat his canine pet to a presidential patronymic. The rogue satirist, in full exercise of his fundamental human rights, chose to give his dog the name Buhari. When this was not achieving enough combustible traction, our man decided to emblazon the name on the poor dog whereupon he proceeded to lead it on a walk through Sango Ota, an area heavily populated by northern adherents of Islam.

    The miracle of it all was that Mr Joe Chinakwe lived to regret it. He lives in an area known for its tame and temperate response to social roguery. In some areas of the country prone to instant and prompt reprisal against what is considered religious and social affront, he would not have lived to regret it. Those affronted by Chinakwe’s conduct did the right and civilized thing by reporting him to the police. The police, without seeking to undermine his human rights, did the right thing by slamming Chinakwe with the charge of conducting himself in a manner prejudicial to public order. It is unfortunate that thereafter, barons of ethnic hate took up positions on either side of the divide.

    If we are going to live together in this country, and until we aggregate some core national values from the push and pull of continuous striving to build a viable nation, it is important to recognize and understand the cultural and religious sensitivities of our disparate people. In some Nigerian cultures dog meat is regarded as a heart lifting delicacy, whereas in other areas, the dog is regarded as a filthy animal to be treated with astringent disavowal.

    But even more politically important is the fact that however much President Buhari’s stock appears to have dipped and the diminished in some sections of the country, he remains a figure of mass adulation and messianic adoration among the Northern Nigerian masses who regard him with a fanatical and religious awe. From the political and cultural perspective, it is foolhardy and reckless of anybody to give his dog such a public presidential cognomen and then to proceed to walk it through a potentially hostile corridor.

    When cornered, Anakwe was alleged to have changed tack, claiming that he was a big fan of President Buhari and that he merely wanted to draw attention to his heroism and valour. This is surely a strange way to treat one’s hero. What all this suggests is spineless mischief of the low life, itinerant hawker variety. The fact that Mr Anakwe was initially unable to meet the generous bail condition suggests an existence at the hazy margins of society more miserable than we imagined.

    While one must take a very dim view of the tendency in certain parts of the country to resort to savage and barbaric reprisals, it is now imperative to start building the blocks of affection and mutual trust in this deeply polarized country all over again. A flourish of goodwill and official magnanimity are in order if we are going to jumpstart this process.  The Presidency should not allow the impression to deepen and to be frozen in the political consciousness that it does not warm to a section of the country simply because it voted against it in the last presidential election. Whoever ordered it, the case against Anakwe should be discontinued forthwith.

  • History and the Ganduje/Kwankwasiyya battles

    History and the Ganduje/Kwankwasiyya battles

    NEARLY one year of simmering conflict between Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and his mentor, ex-governor and serving senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has rubbished a proud history of mentorship and cooperation in the often volatile political terrain of Kano State. It is not unprecedented, but it is still shocking. Last week, the disagreement took a turn for the worse when policemen sealed the guest house headquarters of the Kwankwasiyya movement, a project designed to reinforce the politics and ideas of the former governor. Though a petition has been forwarded to the Police Service Commission to investigate why the police should ‘unconstitutionally’ abridge the rights of a people, the police authorities in the state said they were reacting to an ‘intelligence report that a mass wedding was to be held at the Kwankwaso-owned venue.’
    There are a myriad of reasons the two leading Kano politicians fell out, ranging from the post-Kwankwaso era composition of the state cabinet, image/influence supremacy battles, federal cabinet and board appointments, and even to the reckless and imposing behaviour of the supporters of both politicians, among many serious others. There will always be reasons to fall out between two powerful politicians. But few expect the nature and severity of the recent conflict. For eight years, the two had a great working relationship, first as governor and deputy between 1999 and 2003, and again between 2011 and 2015. Such friendship and loyalty are not forged on superficial bonds. But whether the damage can be repaired or not is the great question the Kanawa will struggle within the context of their radical and volatile politics to answer in the years ahead, especially shortly before and during the next elections.
    Political conflicts of the Ganduje/Kwankwaso texture are not a rarity in Kano, nor even elsewhere in Nigeria. The brilliant and charismatic Abubakar Rimi fell out with the iconic Aminu Kano, with telling and seismic consequences both for the two politicians and for the state’s economic development, and also for the cause of Nigerian progressivism. If Governor Ganduje and Senator Kwankwaso fail to reach a peace agreement, the naturally radical Kano electorate will ventilate their disagreements in ways that are difficult to predict or harness. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been unable to broker peace, for whether at state or national level, the party itself is too locked in fierce structural and ideological battles to be a credible and effective agent of peace. Of all the 36 states, Kano State comes closest to the classical definition of a civic culture. So without peace in the ruling party, the consequences may be electorally unpredictable, as the state’s very interesting recent history has shown.
    However, the malaise gnawing at the politics of Kano has precedence elsewhere, especially during the Second Republic. Even more than Enugu State in the Fourth Republic, the old Anambra State in the Second Republic seemed to be the archetype of political discord. In Enugu State, ex-governor Jim Nwobodo virtually enthroned Chimaroke Nnamani in 1999, but the former was chased out of the state by the latter. And when Dr Nnamani also installed Sullivan Chime in 2007, the latter also fed the former to the sharks. But the story of the old Anambra State archetype is a little different. There, two gladiators battled for the soul and body of the state. Chief Nwobodo, the man with a thousand political battle scars, constituted the so-called Jim Vanguard to entrench and sustain his hegemony against federal invaders, first and more tamely led by Vice President Alex Ekwueme, and then second and more fiercely led by the Nkemba Front inspired by Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was drafted from exile by the Shehu Shagari National Party of Nigeria (NPN) government to give battle to the Jim Vanguard. The Nkpor Junction confrontation between the two armed organisations that led to the loss of many lives bore testimony to the fierceness of the struggle in those days.
    If reason prevails in Kano, and law enforcement agencies can find the good grace, humour and professionalism to resist the temptation to take sides so brazenly as they appeared to have done last week, perhaps, eventually the friends of Dr Ganduje and Senator Kwankwaso, not to say the sometimes dithering party itself, may be able to find a formula for peace in the state. What may no longer be realistic is restoring the two Kano politicians to the state of amity and cooperation they enjoyed up till 2015. Let them eye each other warily if they must, but by all means let them keep the peace no matter how gingerly.

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

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

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

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

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

    NIGERIA MUST BE FREE! BY THE #RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA GROUP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • The lesson our youths are not learning

    This generation has not only proved to be bereft of ideas, it is barren of ideals. It has taught the coming generation (presently called youths) nothing but selfishness, ego and folly… It should be thoroughly ashamed of itself; I hang my head in shame for my generation.

    The world is upside down, but the problem is that I am still standing right side up. That makes for some very awkward viewing. For instance, I find that I have persistently gone around thinking that swimming pools should be dug into the earth, you know, near the foundation and all, not on the roof. I have also believed that it is practically impossible to walk on water; but when someone succeeds in doing exactly that, I’m at a loss what to call him: Jesus? In the same vein, I have always believed that adults should teach youths all about social behaviour, not the other way round. This is called the socialisation of the young. However, when youths begin to teach adults, then I call those children adults. Now, what do I call the failed adults: children?

    Over time, this nation has watched in horror as its youths have plunged themselves into the socialisation process from the deep end. It’s almost as if they were born zany, if you will forgive the expression. Mostly, they are holding life at the slippery edge of unreasonableness and the downright bizarre. If they are not flaunting their parents’ ill-gotten material acquisitions with immeasurable and baseless pride, they are waving their parents’ guns and influences in people’s faces. I tell you, it’s a crime against nature that I was not born a privileged youth in these times.

    Honestly, this should startle us as a nation. This column has repeatedly pronounced judgment on this country for the way it has handled its youth matters. We have vainly drawn attention to the fact that this nation cannot afford to let its youths grow up without a national orienting and orientating ideology that can point the way to a future for them and the country. It is not only wrong but also unfair to ask our youths to socialise themselves their own way just because we have been magnanimous enough to throw them into our poorly funded, poorly directed schools owing to the absence of a national youth ideology. But that is not why we are here today.

    We are here today to show us that our youths are not learning the right lessons from the adults. Let’s face it; the present generation of adults who constitute the leadership has failed this country. This generation has not only proved to be bereft of ideas, it is barren of ideals. It has taught the coming generation (presently called youths) nothing but selfishness, ego and folly. It has taught them that all that matters is getting a lot of money, it matters not how. It should be thoroughly ashamed of itself; I hang my head in shame for my generation.

    This present generation of adults has proved again and again that it has no idea what life is all about. By seeking material wealth only and teaching youths to also go madly in search of material wealth, the adults have not only missed their way, they have taught their children how to stumble and crash. They have proudly told the young ones that respect only comes in one package: money. Unfortunately, they forget to tell the young ones that they, these same adults, were the ones who set the bar in the first place.

    The reason is very simple. The generation before theirs, that is, the generation of the parents of the present adults and leaders, did not teach the pursuit of materialism as the gospel truth for correct socialisation. That generation taught all the things that make for communal peace including respecting others and the laws of the land. The present adults however threw these lessons into the wind and gave themselves a new testament that has nothing to do with kindness or nation building; just ego ‘tripping’.

    The consequence of sowing the wind is that we are now reaping some serious whirlwinds.  I read in the news just this morning an allegation that some lawyers had been caught writing some examination papers for some law school students. Now, how’s that for contempt of the court?! Seriously?! As it is, it is still an allegation that we understand will be investigated. However, it is clear that what has gone around is now coming around full circle.

    Listen to another one. I read that some three or four Nigerians were executed in Indonesia recently for offences that included drug peddling, among them a certain Mr. Ezimoha from south-eastern Nigeria. I also understand his body was not only brought home for burial, he was interred with a great deal of fanfare and pizzazz by his people. His poster, they said, described his death as ‘the painful exit of a hero’. Hero?! Sorry, but I am wondering how someone allegedly accused of and executed for drug peddling can, by any stretch of the imagination, be called ‘a hero’. Now you see how far out this country’s tide has gone.

    Listen, I am not blaming the youths. Indeed, I do not blame this young deluded man who thought money got by any means is money. He lived by what he was taught by the society. He is a product of a poor socialisation process that gave him a false illusion of wealth creation. He is as much a victim of this system as any of the youths who think that parading their parents’ wealth will earn them respect. This man thought that respect comes from being rich, no matter how many lives are destroyed in the process. By giving him that loud burial, his people are also affirming this erroneous notion.

    There are many youths who think like that young man. There are those who practice different trades like armed robbery, ‘yahoo-yahooing’, human ritual-killing, political touting, or just plain old drug peddling across the globe. Most of these people seem to have imbibed the lesson that the end justifies the means – i.e., being ‘a money man’ justifies how ever they may have got the money. This is one category.

    The other category of youths is the group being bred by their loving adults to be leeches and parasites on the society just as they, the adults, have been. These can generally be found among politicians who are breeding their children to succeed them in their political posts. The lessons taught these ones mostly centre on living on the society’s resources without contributing to it which is the same as living in opulence without labour, opportunism without care and privileges without responsibility.

    The last category consists of those unschooled, untrained and kept aside as a reserve force to use for social disintegration. Again, this odious move comes from the political class. This category has bred the boko haram, militant and other groups from among our youths.

    It is at this point that the country needs to accept its own blame for jeopardising the lives and future of its youths. In failing to lay down its laws properly for both goose and gander, the society has unwittingly affirmed the position that it is not the hunt that matters, it is the game at the end of it. By allowing so many of its adults to destroy the communal peace, the society has taught its youths not to seek happiness in the creative process of wealth seeking but just to seek wealth.

    Nigeria has failed to tell the youths the most essential truth: ill-gotten wealth is not wealth; it is robbery. This country owes its youths the right lessons, if indeed It is to be handed down to them. The most important lesson Nigeria needs to teach its youths is that the pursuit of personal happiness is the happiness.

  • Our overdose of corruption & unity rhetoric (2)

    But unity lost its prime of place in the nation’s political discourse once the war was over, giving way to return of corruption to the polity as excuse for each new coup maker

    Last week’s piece focused on Corruption rhetoric, thus leaving space for today’s column to discuss the country’s Unity rhetoric.

    Historically, unity as the core of security or of political discourse did not become prominent until the mid-1960s. Before that time, harping on unity as the challenge facing Nigeria’s development became popular among politicians during the trial of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, particularly in the mouths of those who preferred a one-party system for Nigeria. After Awolowo was sent to jail, the ruling group continued to plead for unity while the aggrieved people of Western Nigeria continued to demand for justice, particularly after the rigging of the parliamentary elections in the region.

    Between the first and second coup, the ruling group (then General Aguiyi-Ironsi) brought the spectre of unity back to the nation’s political and media space, principally through his Unification Decree that turned the four regions into provinces and national governance to a command system manned by an overlord surrounded by prefects in the clusters of provinces. With the success of the second coup, regionalism quickly replaced unity as a mantra. And not surprisingly, unity as an end became strident again during the civil war and the slogan “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.” But unity lost its prime of place in the nation’s political discourse once the war was over, giving way to return of corruption to the polity as excuse for each new coup maker. For most of the years of military dictatorship, there was no reason for political constructivists to worry about unity as a means of ‘securitisation,’ that is, an attempt to construct through ‘Speech Acts’ an issue as an existential threat to a group or nation, or a norm whose challenge can compromise group or national security.

    But once some sections of Nigeria called for re-structuring or restoration of federalism in the wake of annulment of MKO Abiola’s election, the rhetoric of imperative of national unity returned to the political sphere to crowd out the call for structural and social justice. Even the transition to democracy programme was constructed as an attempt to reunify the country, hence, the decision by military men in charge of transition to civil rule to make a member of Abiola’s native community the presidential candidate of the party that attracted most of the military generals, just as Shonekan, from the same community with Abiola, was recruited as Interim President after the annulment of Abiola’s election.

    Yet Obasanjo’s election as president did not end the eternal search for unity. Under Obasanjo, political discourse tilted more in the direction of geopolitics. And the most popular speech acts from the presidency re-branding of the country’s external image and unity, with emphasis on the threat that lack of unity could have on the country’s development and international image. To sustain Unity discourse in the media, Obasanjo convened a conference on political reform to look for how to keep the country united, apart from a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But all references to the conference died out soon after its sittings in Abuja. Similarly, the Jonathan era revitalised the unity discourse, first to counter the threats from Boko Haram and later to mobilise citizens for electoral support. Another national dialogue was called, and like Obasanjo’s conference, the recommendations were archived shortly after they were delivered ceremoniously to Jonathan, leaving self-respecting delegates to justify their time at the conference by insisting, after Jonathan’s departure, for implementation of recommendations of the conference.

    At the time of the 2015 election that unseated Jonathan, politicians in all parties did not act as if there was any threat to the country’s unity, apart from the Boko Haram menace in the Northeast. The party that won the election came to power not on the theme of unity but on the manifesto of change. The party campaigned noticeably on the theme of structural, political, economic, and social justice, which many citizens considered to be a recognition by potential rulers of the solidity of the country’s territorial and political unity. Voters, especially in the Southwest also believed that APC’s promise of change was (and is still) not at variance with the call for true federalism, which the presidential candidate and the party at large endorsed with the promise to “Initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit.”

    But soon after President Buhari came to power, the country’s political expectations got worse: Indigenous People of Biafra in the Southeast and Niger Delta Avengers in the South-south emerged with many demands, thus increasing the challenges for the new government. The new situation brought the mantra of unity back to the centre of the country’s political space. The irony that developed from this situation is that those thinking for the ruling group quickly included demand for re-federalisation in the basket of challenges facing the country’s unity. The need for a securitisation move quickly pushed the ruling party to move aside from its electoral promise of returning federalism to the polity and economy, on the excuse that unity and the economy now matter more than anything else.

    For too long, ruling groups’ harping on unity as a speech act to demonise calls for new political thinking toward a more conducive architecture of governance has been used to eclipse the dire need for new ideas. It is counterproductive for the new government to confuse demand for federalism with call for disintegration of the country. The likelihood that a serious attempt at re-structuring can douse the demand for a new country for Biafrans must not be dismissed, just as serious dialogues on re-federalisation can silence the guns and bombs of groups avenging Jonathan’s loss of the 2015 election, and even tame the drivers of Boko Haram within the country. In addition, it is not logical to view restructuring as a veiled form of secession. People who want to secede do not need to ask for a national dialogue on imperative of reinventing the nation’s governance culture. Even those dangling the sword of secession may just be seeking attention. People who are irrevocably committed to leaving any country do not usually ask for divorce; they simply take it unilaterally and face the consequence.

    Leaders in all political parties need to come to terms with the reality before the country: the imperative of diversification and decentralisation of the polity and economy. The on-and-off recourse to unity as an end in the last 60 years and as a means of making calls for restructuring sound like avoidable distraction or diversion seems to be wearing off in terms of significance. Citizens are seeing it as a bogey to create fear for lovers of fundamental change that can facilitate other desirable changes to the polity, economy, and by implication enhancement of positive unity and positive peace. Any unity that needs to be mystified as ours has been on-and-off since independence has the tendency to make search for national unity an eternal and only task while emphasis should be on protection of freedom of thought and action by citizens in all regions or cultures in the multi-ethnic nation-state to participate in production of the common good in an atmosphere of mutual cooperation devoid of any trace of dominance of one group by another.

    Architecture of governance, like nation’s constitutions, is a product of the mutual constitution of human agents and the structure it spawns from time to time. As a human construction, political and economic arrangements are subject to change at all times. Any attempt to make unity an end rather than a means cannot but constitute an overdose for citizens who expect more from their country than recurrent verbiage about unity as the be-all-and-end all of political organisation of conscious and achievement-oriented human beings who want to live a modern purposive life.

    • Concluded
  • Babangida at 75

    Babangida at 75

    EVENTS leading to ex-military president Ibrahim Babangida’s 75th birthday were not as controversial as his 70th. Since 2011, his annual interviews preceding his birthday celebrations have become much tamer, less pungent, but still idiosyncratically diversionary and superficial. Five years in the life of a septuagenarian can sometimes prove fatal and apparently significant enough to alter moods and moderate temper, even if every other superficiality is left untouched. Five years ago, IBB, as the former military dictator is fondly called, bad-temperedly joined issues with former president Olusegun Obasanjo, a truculent former military dictator and all-knowing elected president. “In my eight years in office,” began IBB testily, perhaps provoked by certain undisclosed actions or statements of Chief Obasanjo, “I was able to manage poverty and achieve success while somebody for eight years managed affluence and achieved failure.” The victim of that vicious broadside knew the cap fit, and not being one to shy away from battle, gave a swift and fierce riposte.
    Hiding behind scriptures in his usual engaging but self-serving manner, Chief Obasanjo bellowed: “Well, normally when I read these things I don’t believe them. Yesterday when somebody phoned me and said this was said, I said I don’t believe it. He said check on all the papers and I said get me all the papers; they got me the papers and I read; it’s a little bit unlike Babangida. But if Babangida had decided that on becoming a septuagenarian he would be a fool, I think one should probably do what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 26, verse 4. It says, don’t answer a fool because you may also become like him.” Chief Obasanjo immersed himself in more scriptural verses, flirted briefly with his own rhetorical gifts, and finally dismissed IBB on the gallows where fools at 40 are figuratively hung. Disinclined to leaving Chief Obasanjo with the last word, IBB described his former commander as a witless comedian.
    IBB’s 75th birthday interview is considerably less provocative. There is little in it that is profound or captivating. Other than his controversial attempt to repudiate the word ‘evil’ from his nom de guerre, the sobriquet most Nigerians have attached to him since Tell magazine editors interviewed him during the Sani Abacha regime, there was little else. Indeed, with every passing year, IBB has become less controversial and less engaging. In 2012, before his 71 birthday, he had reiterated to his interviewers: “I was asked a question by Tell magazine. They said people call you all sorts of names, ranging from Maradona, a deft dribbler and all those. They asked which one of the names I preferred and I said evil genius. They asked why? And I said because of its contradiction.” He was the originator of that label, not Tell magazine, nor any interviewer. It suited him because it was a contradiction, he had said. But it is probably because it sounded poetic to him and gave an energetic insight into the secret and interwoven world of his Machiavellian convictions.
    The famous Tell interview is arguably the longest he has ever given. In it, he prevaricated profusely as usual and parried quite a number of questions. But partly because of its length and the mastery exhibited by the editors who interviewed him, his leadership incapacitation showed forth brightly and brilliantly. He was not profound in the interview; he is still not profound, and indeed is no longer expected to be, on account of his age. He shirked and excused his responsibility to himself and the nation, and displayed such atrocious lack of judgement that should see him hauled before a court martial had he served in a great imperial and perhaps ideological military. He continues to defend his decisions as a military head of state, and shows none of the reflection age and wisdom sometimes confer on a leader from hindsight. Till he breathes his last, there will obviously be no remorse from him on anything or any policy, except very rudimentary and inconsequential ones such as the question on whether legislators should be part time or full time.
    In the interview to mark his 75th birthday, a grand old age by any consideration, he suggested there was nothing evil about him or the administration he presided over. He said nothing about the genius part. Well, everyone is entitled to a little self-indulgence and afterthought. So, without saying it, IBB would have his audience regard him as a genius. But genius of what? Of the Machiavellian politics he fawned over and for decades continued to adumbrate at every forum he was invited to? Of the mindless policy fecundity that hallmarked his administration for eight years or so? Or of his limitless ability to pawn his generosity in the service of his private goals and image embellishment, and to the disservice of national goals, principles and values? Whatever it is, like the sage Obafemi Awolowo, IBB was for a long time a recurring decimal in Nigerian politics and governance. Many of his marks are indelible, especially in view of his policy experimentations that saw Nigeria overwhelmed with new agencies and parastatals, but the passage of time, not to talk of shifting global and national mores, will continue to corrode and diminish his influence.
    When a bitter and offended Chief Obasanjo responded to IBB’s virtually unprovoked putdown on the Obasanjo years, it was to launch into a lengthy defence of his two terms in office, and of his incomparable projects and programmes. But programme for programme, and policy for policy, IBB probably had a more salutary and enduring impact on national affairs than Chief Obasanjo. IBB was a more rounded personality quite able to endure animosity without descending into the fierce vindictiveness that undermined and scarify the Obasanjo persona. Somehow, too, he managed to sustain some eternally tentative balance between his Machiavellian predilections, complete with human rights abuses, and his copious friendliness and determination to mentor others, particularly younger people. He loved to leave an impact on those whose paths crossed his, though it is not clear whether, as some say, it was to subvert their principles, or out of altruism to leave them indebted to him. In the department of humanism, neither Chief Obasanjo nor anyone who has governed Nigeria since IBB vacated office can hold the candle to him, not even President Muhammadu Buhari.
    As his many interviews show, IBB is no genius. The very many programmes and policies he undertook were the products of other people’s fertile imagination. This partly explains their lack of coherence. In none of his interviews did he intellectually engage those who asked him for answers. He didn’t even have the foresight to recognise the victory that June 12, 1993 presidential election meant to him and his legacy. That election was a lifetime opportunity to lay the foundation for burying the religious and ethnic divides that had truncated Nigeria’s peace and stability. It was also an opportunity to remould democracy in a way that fairly guarantees continental greatness. But he spurned the chance and denounced his own best efforts. Now he talks frequently of the country’s virtual two-party system, as if it was a conscious and deliberate bequest from him; but the idea, as everyone knows, was not original to him. It was borrowed.
    And so, whether it is IBB, or the late Gen Abacha, or Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, or Chief Obasanjo, or President Buhari, what unites them is excess of ambition. Many years back, IBB promised his memoirs. Hopefully it will be published in his lifetime, not posthumously, so that commentators and living witnesses can join issues with him. From all indications, however, even if this magnum opus is published, there will be no remorse in it, possibly also no reflections since he does not appear capable of the analytical depth needed to produce them, and no grand ideas of nationhood in the ambitious, pan-Africanist sense. He may not even demonstrate the courage needed to reveal the conspirators that subverted democracy in 1993. For far beyond his grandstanding and the quelling of the 1990 Gideon Orkar coup, he is at bottom not really a courageous man. If he publishes at all, it will be to burnish the image of his regime and make a case for the many fruitless experiments his regime undertook. It will also be about underscoring his capacity to make friends across all divides, about how he sustains the friendships he is noted for, and about why his political and economic programmes are to him, with a little modification, the best.
    IBB does not have the vigour anymore to influence public policy in the manner Chief Obasanjo still annoyingly does. But he has kept his friends and nurtured them far better than any past or living president. In death, notwithstanding his many appalling failings, he will draw more mourners than his peers can ever hope to attract. That should be his private consolation in the midst of the grief and gloom he and all Nigerian leaders since independence have caused a country much worthier than their capacity to give.

  • Lagos, the Black megalopolis

    Lagos, the Black megalopolis

    There is always something magical and enchanting about great cities. They seem to have a character of their own. You feel them and you feel for them, as if they are living entities. Their pulse and pulsations register with you. You pray for them and even imagine their travails. You sense that beyond their architectural wonders and epic feats of engineering lies the history of impossible labour and costly exertions. All great conurbations evoke this feeling of being alive and kicking. This is simply because they are a great tribute to modern national pride or ancient ethno-hubris. Just imagine how many lives were lost constructing the Egyptian pyramids or the ancient Chinese walls.

    Yet great cities also provoke irrational hatred and malice in people who believe that their own ancestors have been cheated. Rome was reduced to rubbles. Carthage was so fearsomely smitten out of existence that it was only in 1985 that a treaty was signed to forget the past. Paris was going to suffer the same fate in the hands of Adolf Hitler. But when Albert Speer, the great Nazi architect, finally arrived at the beautiful French capital, he was so overwhelmed by its grandeur and sheer magnificence that he decided that if the craven French could create such a human wonder, the Germans, with their Aryan hubris and superiority complex, ought to be able to come up with something even more spectacular. It was a pipe dream.

    It is said that adversity often provokes the greatest creative spirit in a people.   Now that it is clear that Nigeria is beset by urgent developmental challenges, it is time to begin to think out of the box. There is a time for everything. If Nigeria were not to collapse under the weight of political and economic malfeasance, it should be obvious by now that the era of those who seek access to power as an avenue for luxurious living and unearned social privileges has come to an end. We either come up with our first eleven as pathfinders or we end up with our last eleven as pallbearers.

    Thinking out of the box is not synonymous with reinventing the wheel. We have once suggested that Nigerian developmental planners should come up with the concept of autonomous zones which will drive accelerated development and the rapid industrialization of the nation and which must be allowed to develop at their own pace without interference from an overbearing but already overburdened centre frozen in unitary rigor mortis.

    These zones, with five in the north and five in the South and with Lagos serving as preeminent national hub, will serve as magnetic lodes for attracting investments and unleashing  gigantic human resources now trapped between abandoned farms and collapsed factories. They must be linked with an effective rail and road network and can be grouped around the old River basins and existing strategic landmarks such as the ancient city of Kano and the important commercial and entrepreneurial nerve centre of Aba. If we are serious, Aba should be able to link up with Port-Harcourt in a generation, just as Lagos is linking up with Abeokuta to its north west, Badagry to the west and Ikorodu/Shagamu to the north east.

    These were the thoughts that preyed on one’s mind last Monday as one witnessed the signing to law of two historic bills by the governor of Lagos State Akin Ambode. The first bill, the Lagos State Property Development Law, is a much hailed and welcomed breather for the law-abiding citizens of Lagos state in the sense that it criminalized the much dreaded menace of armed land grabbers and murderous miscreants known as “omo onile”.

    The activities of these people have turned life into hell for well-meaning investors and developers who are often subject to serial swindles that is if they manage to escape with their life. A lot of people have not been so lucky. Many have been wasted. But it is not only the “omo onile” who are involved. There are also organized criminal syndicates who forcibly expel people from their land and who act as if they are above the law. It is a practice that dates far back.

    Those who are not so young must remember the exploits of a leading Lagos socialite of the mid-seventies who specialized in eliminating legitimate landowners and rival speculators by coming up with perfectly concocted alibis until nemesis caught up with him in the guise of General Obasanjo during his first incarnation as a military ruler. Obasanjo made sure that justice was not only done but was seen to have been done.

    As many developmental experts have noted, the issue of land is at the core of modern development. Radical theorists of economic growth and rapid expansion have in fact come up with the template that links accelerated development to official valorization of landed resources and their judicious redistribution. You can only begin to talk of the possibility of rapid modernization when land is divested from the feudal clutches of titular barons of antiquity and other seigneurial speculators without any vision or notion of the modern society.

    Yet like all human enterprises, this one is also prone to abuse and open mismanagement. When the power of administration and arbitration is vested in a government of disoriented tribesmen lacking in rationality and the imperative of modernization, the allocation of landed resources can also lead to bureaucratic bottle necks, sharp practices and the advent of a new landed gentry which fuels social injustice and a perpetual class warfare between the possessed and the dispossessed.

    As it has been famously noted, all the remedial measures on earth can hardly help the poor when the earth is monopolized by a few. The Lagos State government under Ambode would do well to guard against this anomaly in order not to exchange prehistoric monkeys for primitive baboons.

    As the economic, political and cultural hub of the new nation, Lagos has taken its manifest destiny very much to heart. Ever since its forcible incorporation as a British Protectorate in the middle of the nineteenth century, the sprawling metropolis has served as the intellectual, economic and political pacesetter for the rest of the country. The urbane civility, dignified regality and royal courtesy of its succeeding monarchs are well documented.

    The patriotism of its famed anti-colonial pamphleteers and cultural nationalists is the stuff of heroic legend. The decorum, integrity and fair-mindedness of its early business class echoes through history and folklore. In the run up to independence Lagos was a shining exemplar of inclusive politics of a pan-Nigerian hue and multi-ethnic vigour which ought to have served as a template and redemptive trope for post-independence Nigeria. But this gathering of all tribes at the shrine of the new nation has evaporated, leaving a fractured and bitterly polarized nation.

    Although predominantly a Yoruba town with an infusion of ancient Edo nobility, the psychic energies that drive Lagos towards metropolitan stardom and its destiny as the first authentic African megalopolis are multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-racial. With its Brazilian returnees, its Sierra Leonean recaptives, its stranded Nupe warrior-class, its Igbo traders, its runaway Hausa soldiers and former European adventurers marooned by choice, Lagos is an authentic mélange; a statement of intent by Africa. This colonial and post-colonial hybridity has helped to foster a sense of oneness and belonging for all bar a few hiccups arising from competition for increasingly scarce resources.

    Why then, apart from its obvious advantages, does Lagos seem to excel and to be far ahead of the rest of the country in terms of spiritual independence, economic buoyancy and political gamesmanship despite the advent of military despotism and civilian autocracy? The magical answer lies in political will and sheer economic daring which confirms the thesis about the superiority of thinking outside the box. Lagos has been well-served by the political wizardry and fiscal devilry of its Fourth Republic leaders.

    Looking around the hall last Monday morning as Governor Akin Ambode signed the two bills into law, one cannot but be impressed by the dynamic energies among all the branches of government which is sorely lacking at the federal level. Inside the hall were the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Funmilayo Atilade, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Mudashiru Obasa,  the Attorney General, the chairmen of the two committees and of course the top technocrats and bureaucrats who worked the system behind limelight.

    But nothing that is worth it comes cheap. The synergy between the Lagos executive and its judiciary is the product of a series of modernizing reforms pioneered by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo while he served as Attorney General of the state. It has seen the Lagos judiciary top the national table as the best-equipped and best remunerated judicial entity in all of the federation. The succession plan is well-delineated and had never been subject to unwarranted external interference or undue political disruption. Everything works seamlessly. It is a system that has bought into modern rationality.

    Despite the occasional legislative firefight and the odd internal power struggle there is also an organic coherence and cohesiveness between the Lagos State legislature and the executive which owes its sustainability to shared vision and what is known as elective affinity. They are birds of the same feather, sired from the same political loin. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic, Lagos has been ruled by the same dominant political tendency, no matter the internal mutations, whether it is AD, AC, ACN or APC.

    This total politics, reminiscent of the total football of the famous Dutch masters of the seventies, is often a political beauty to behold in motion as it fires on all cylinders in its vertical and horizontal mobilization of elites and masses alike. It is a tribute to the superior organizational acumen and political wizardry of one exceptional individual, his tested loyalists and engine room strategists. It has created exponential wealth for the state and enough resources to commence a comprehensive welfare package which will rival the modernizing project of the avatar from Ikenne.

    Lagos State has been lucky that unlike what usually obtains at the federal level, it fell at the onset of the Fourth Republic into the hands of those who actually fought and resisted military tyranny. Needless to add that they are also cosmopolitan, well-travelled as a result of political adversity, and well grounded in the complex dynamics of the modern economy.

    The pay off has been tremendous and even epochal. The political cohesion has enabled Lagos to weather the antics of post-military civilian autocrats and to see off their barely veiled aggression in major legal duels which have become constitutional landmarks for the Fourth Republic. The Local Development Authorities created by the state may remain “inchoate”, but it is the inchoate and incoherent mindset of those who believe that all parts of the country must develop at the same pace and tempo that will eventually spell terminal disaster for the nation.

    Either as a British Protectorate, colonial enclave or post-colonial state, Lagos has bucked this dire unitarist arrangement. It is a model of strategic restructuring combined with relentless modernization without any frills or fanfare that commends itself to other parts of the country. This is the heroic legacy that Akin Ambode has inherited. A gifted economic thinker, strategic planner and deeply deliberate administrator, there is nothing to suggest, in fifteen months of brilliant governance, that he is unworthy of these glorious antecedents. Lagos is the first truly African megalopolis.

     

  • Who says there are jobs for young graduates?

    Who says there are jobs for young graduates?

    A media organisation recently advertised a vacancy to hire a young staff.

    Some days after the announcement, I asked the Managing Director of the company if he had received enough responses to the advert.

    His response was ” Just three so far and none suitable.”

    I was not really surprised that despite the large number of young graduates seeking media employment, the applications received were few and none of the three that applied was suitable, considering the requirements in the vacancy announcement.

    The requirements were supposed to be basic skills and experience media job seekers should have, but my experience in helping to recruit staff shows that, like a former minister was once quoted as saying, many applicants these days  are not employable.

    When media vacancy announcements include requirements like the three below, the applicants will definitely be few.

    • Mastery of grammar, spelling and punctuations which can be assessed based on the application letter.
    • Proficiency in digital journalism as well as active presence on social media which can be confirmed by checking the social media handles of the applicants.
    • Web-based materials written by applicants which must be included in the applications.

    I know a number of young and very bright graduates who may meet the above requirements, but many just don’t have what it takes to get hired by especially new companies that need ‘ready-made’ staff who can work with little or no supervision.

    I know some young graduates who have been changing jobs almost at will on the basis of their mastery of new media skills, while others are finding it difficult to convince employers to invite them for interviews.

    Vacancies are indeed not as many as they used to be considering the prevailing economic situation in the country and the changing media landscape, but those who have the required skills and competence have a better chance of getting jobs under the present circumstance.

    With the current high unemployment rate in the country, only the most qualified and competent can get employed when merit is the main consideration for employment.

    My advice to graduate job seekers is that they cannot afford to sit back waiting for employment when they don’t have enough proof of their editorial capabilities apart from their certificates.

    There are enough online platforms to demonstrate their skills, like having blogs, being professionally active on social media and publishing content.

    In the absence of jobs going round the army of job seekers, graduates should be ready to create new jobs that do not exist. More than ever before, graduates have to be innovative and come up with new ideas that can guarantee them employment in existing companies or the ones they can come up with.

    Graduates should have a good knowledge of the industry and companies they want to work in instead of asking for ‘any job’ available when they are seeking employment.

    I know what it takes to search for jobs for long after completing the national youth service. It took me almost a year to get my desired kind of job in 1986, 30 years ago.

    Jobs have always been difficult to get, but the competition has become stiffer. When the going gets tough, only the tough can get going.

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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