The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Like Oliver Twist, Jega wants more

    Like Oliver Twist, Jega wants more

    INEC boss is seeking powers we can’t afford

    Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), obviously stepped on some powerful toes when last week he asked for more powers for the commission, as well as canvassed for Nigerians in the Diaspora who are of age to vote in future elections. The INEC boss wants Sections 76(2) and 116(2) of the Constitution to be further amended to allow for only two periods in a year within which the commission can conduct elections to fill vacancies so as to engender certainty in the electoral timetable. Jega also advocated the establishment of electoral offences tribunal “to guarantee timely prosecution of electoral offenders,” as well as the disqualification of anybody convicted for electoral fraud from participating in electoral process for 10 years.

    According to Jega, “The National Population Commission is, however, given additional independence in its operations in Section 158(2). This should be the same with INEC. The independence of INEC should be constitutionally guaranteed in all its operations and in its management and control of the electoral process, as was the case in Decree (now Act) 17 of 1998 which first established the Commission before the 1999 Constitution.”

    Jega made the demands in a proposal he sent to the National Assembly, seeking amendments to the country’s constitution. In making these demands, the INEC boss would appear to have forgotten where we are coming from and, secondly, it would appear that it is yet Uhuru in INEC simply because he is the one in charge now.

    Although both INEC and the National Population Commission (NPC) are important, they do not perform exactly the same functions. INEC’s independence in its operations; may be yes. But I cannot understand what Prof Jega means by independence “…in its management and control of the electoral process”. If that includes the power to disqualify candidates, I say an emphatic ‘NO’. It is true that the political parties have largely not been honest in their primaries, to some extent, they have had to pay the price at the polls for not following the due process in selecting their flag bearers. Apart from this, it is dangerous to put such powers in the hands of one man. What Jega is looking for is what we are trying to retrieve from the President who is constitutionally empowered to appoint the INEC boss, subject only to ratification by the National Assembly. No single person should be given such ‘powers of life and death’ in our kind of milieu.

    INEC’s intention to make Nigerians in the Diaspora vote, thereby participating actively in the decision-making concerning the country’s leadership at all levels is good, at least in principle. This is the practice in many countries. But whether we are ripe for that is a different question entirely. Having credible election within is still a big problem, in spite of the relatively free and fair elections we have had in some places in recent times. Right here at home, we had the names of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton in our voter register a few years ago.. Obama’s name never featured in Kenya’s electoral register, but it appeared in our voter register here! What all these tell us is that it’s not yet celebration time; we still need to perfect many aspects of our electoral process before seeking more powers for INEC.

    As a matter of fact, INEC itself is calling for the setting up of Electoral Offences Commission to facilitate trial of electoral offenders. A major challenge we have is that many of the cases still last longer than necessary now that we do not have Nigerians in Diaspora voting. Where will we have the logistics to deal with the challenges to be posed if they are now allowed to vote? We may be surprised that the figures that would be turned in for them might outstrip the total number of Nigerians in whatever countries they are resident. Or, haven’t we had situations at home where the number of voters is more than the total number of registered voters in some polling booths and areas? This is a major challenge that the Jega-led INEC has not considered.

    It does not make sense to grant Jega’s requests simply because he is Jega. No. We need to build institutions and not rely on people’s integrity, the way we seem to have done in recent times. One Maurice Iwu once led INEC and we all remember what he did. It was because of his discredited role in the commission that President Goodluck Jonathan searched for Jega and the find was applauded across the country because of what we all saw as Jega’s antecedents. But while we should resist another INEC boss in the mould of Iwu, we should never delude ourselves that we would never have a president who might want to impose such character on us as INEC boss again. You can imagine Iwu having the powers that Jega now wants for the INEC. It would tantamount to when a slave becomes king. No one, particularly those whose faces he or those who appointed him do not like would be spared.

    Already, INEC has been empowered by the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended) to deregister political parties which fail to win at least a seat in a state assembly. And 28 political parties have had to die, with their de-registration by the commission, on Thursday. Also, the commission now has its funding included in the first line charge. This implies some level of financial autonomy that the commission needs in order to free it from the apron strings of the executive arm of government. Even this is yet to fully materialise with the reported withholding of the commission’s funds by the Federal Ministry of Finance. We need to perfect some of these freedoms or powers before asking for more. If we grant all of Jega’s requests, even the electoral offences commission that he wants established would be jobless.

    So, Prof Jega should stop being Oliver Twist. He cannot get all he wants for the simple reason that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We all love independence or freedom. But, where ‘A’s’ freedom ends, ‘B’s’ begins. Prof Jega can ask for all the independence in the world, it is our duty to set the limit. Even Iwu would have loved to have full autonomy; but with hindsight, we know where that would have led us if we had allowed him. Even the little power that we gave him, he abused. No responsible mother would put hot soup on her child’s palm (for him) to lick simply because that child sees the mother does same and begins to cry for a piece of the action. So, let Jega tread softly.

  • ‘Our’ corruption rating

    ‘Our’ corruption rating

    There is a way we celebrate negative ratings about our country that it is understandable.

    Due to our frustrations with the running of the country by successive governments, we are usually quick to accept ratings that confirm our perception about the state of our country.

    This explains why the recent poor rating of the country by Transparency International has usual been ‘well received’ by Nigerians as a true reflection of how bad we have sunk on the corruption index.

    Like in previous years, Transparency International, (TI), the global corruption watchdog ranked Nigeria as one of the most corrupt nation. In the 2012 Corruption Perception index released on Wednesday, Nigeria scored 27 out of the maximum 100 marks to place 139 out of the 176 countries assessed for the report. Consequently Nigeria is the 35th most corrupt country globally.

    Many of us would have questioned the outcome of the surveyed if Nigeria’s rating if it has not been that bad. There are even some who would argue that the result is not a true reflection of how bad our situation is.

    I have no reason to disagree with the TI like the Information Minister, Labaran Maku over how correct our rating is. Beyound the expert assessment and opinion survey which are the basis of TI’s verdict, the facts on the high level of corruption in the country are very obvious. This year alone, cases of misuse of public power and public funds for private interests like the fuel subsidy scam, embezzlement of the pension fund and others have left many wondering how effective the federal government’s anti-corruption crusade is.

    It’s hard to blame Nigerians who Maku claims are eager to tell the world how bad Nigeria is. Corruption, particularly in ‘high places’ has robbed the country the necessary development that would have ensure better standard of living for the majority.

    My only worry about the reactions of Nigerian’s to TI’s rating and other similar negative ones is the erroneous impression that only government officials are to blame for the decadence. We are quick to cite cases of corruption at all levels of government when as an author wrote “corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of our society” and many Nigerians are either involved in one form of corrupt practice or the other in public and private life or are guilty of criminal silence when we should speak up.

    If our rating is to improve, we all have a role to play whether we are in government or not. Public officers at all levels have to maintain the highest degree of public trust and stop giving us a bad name when they perpetrate all forms of corrupt practices in local and international transactions. People should stop demanding for gratification for doing what they are officially paid to do.

    Nobody should demand for gratification and nobody should give. Merit should not be sacrificed for pecuniary reasons.

  • The Doyen’s December

    The Doyen’s December

    Exactly five years ago this weekend this column paid a dutiful and devoted tribute to one of the all time greats of Nigerian journalism. It was on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Five years down life’s rolling and roiling avenue, snooper is happy to report that the great one is still very much around. Witty, urbane and ever debonair in carriage, Alhaji Alade Idowu Odunewu exudes the supreme forbearance and Olympian calm of a timeless sage.

    But if five years ago was the dean’s November, now it is the December of the doyen. It is the autumn of the golden patriarch. Even in normal societies, it is impossible for ripe old age not to be accompanied by its peculiar adversities. But when you live in a post-colonial hellhole, it is a different proposition altogether. The Yoruba have a saying that there is a choice between long life and its inevitable adversities or the abridged existence.

    In the past five years, Allah De has ridden the ugly bumps of life’s adversities with calm fortitude. A very private man, these personal adversities should not be for public consumption, lest it is mistaken for something else. Nevertheless, snooper must condole with the grand old man on the passing of his beloved wife and the gruesome death of his doting and devoted son-in-law at a Lekki police checkpoint a few years back.

    We must not wait for our few heroes to depart before heaping fulsome praises on them; or before scrambling for the condolence register to pen effusive panegyrics. That is the way of cynical and diseased societies. This morning, we republish the tribute to the old man on the occasion of his scaling the octogenarian bar. Once again, let us all rise in honour of a great man and the fathers that sired him. Many happy returns to the dean.

  • The Dean’s November

    The Dean’s November

    It has been a glorious week for journalism in Nigeria and for a scandal-fatigued nation by extension. There can be nothing more morally satisfying than watching good people finish first. In the ethical free trade zone that is Nigeria, this is immensely gratifying and a cause to be grateful to almighty. Allah de indeed.

    Watching the great man soak up all the accolades and encomiums , all the ringing ovations and rousing oratory at the Yoruba Tennis club last Monday, was like watching a king in autumnal splendour. It is the dean’s November. And all the men of timber and calibre came to pay their respects to the doyen.

    It was like an occult gathering of bi-centennial egunguns. The entire hall reeked of camphor cubes, organdi lace and other ancestral textiles. There were one or two double partings reminiscent of Edwardian dandies. Victorian Lagos came alive again.

    It was a Veterans’ Day, and as the reviewer of the collection, Dan Agbese, noted, it was perhaps the greatest collection of aging journalists that the nation has witnessed. Perhaps not since they founded Yaba Old People’s Home, snooper must caution. It was 17 years since snooper himself had a memorable breakfast of steaming Oturkpo yam porridge with Dan in company of the impossible Colonel Dickson Ovie-Itete. In the intervening years, the great Newswatch trailblazer himself has taken on a sage otherworldly hue.

    The man of the moment took it all in his stride. Not for once did the calm, impassive and Roman noble exterior betray any emotion. Like an all-seeing, all-knowing traditional deity, Allah De wore his usual mask of Olympian reticence. Only my master knew what my master was thinking about. Alhaji Alade Idowu Odunewu took in all the hype and hoopla with a regal forbearance that suggested good breeding and cultivated restraint. There is a stoic equanimity about the man that communicated deep wisdom and even deeper faith. When shall we see his like again?

    When Winston Churchill was told that Clement Atlee, his great rival and ultimate electoral conqueror, was a modest man, Churchill noted with caustic severity that Atlee had everything to be modest about. In our own Alade Odunewu we have a man who has everything not to be modest about but who has chosen the path of modesty and rectitude. There is something ultimately forbidding about Allah De’s simplicity and lack of airs. There is something about his casual, self-effacing mien that is a subtle indictment of the pompous self-importance of many of our contemporary rulers. Allah De is a different proposition altogether.

    There are great writers who are squalid human beings. There are great people who are squalid writers. There are people who are squalid human beings and squalid writers to the bargain. To be a great writer and a great person is a rare combination indeed. Alade Odunewu, by right and reputation, belongs to this special breed. Nigeria has produced greater writers and perhaps greater people in the realm of politics and entrepreneurial daring. But Allah De is in a class of his own as a great person and a great columnist.

    In their epic duel which was to earn Allah De the sobriquet of the dean of satirical journalism in Nigeria, Zik of Africa cautioned Odunewu about deploying major artillery to fight minor skirmishes. How about some preliminary skirmishes before the main tournament, Zik famously asked of his antagonist, trying to lure the wily journalist into a fatal clinch. Allah De did not decline. The result is a classic slugfest that has since become a benchmark for civilised discourse in post-colonial Nigeria.

    Zik, the apostle of Fabian socialism, the ardent disciple of Fabius Cunctator, the great Roman strategist of attrition, was drawing Allah De’s attention to one of the fabled tenets of delayed engagement and graduated violence as learnt from the master himself. Preliminary skirmishes must not be fought with major artillery. But the great Zik could have saved his breath. Allah De was never one to rush into political hostilities.

    In the end, it boils down to a question of style for great man and great columnist. The great riddle of Allah De’s life as a man and a prose stylist has to do with the complexity of simplicity. More often than not, it is not simple to be simple. Although Allah De’s style evinces a powerful simplicity, it is a simplicity that has been worked over several times by a profound and complex mind. It is not the simplicity of the Fleet Street journeyman, or the simplicity of the zealot of the American night school of journalism and ersatz fast food communication. It is a simplicity under-girded by a potent imagination.

    This is the point Dan Agbese seems to miss in his otherwise refreshing review. While praising Allah De for the simplicity and elegance of his writing, Agbese also betrays the mindset of the fundamentalist of the old school of journalism with its war cry of clarity and lucidity. By so doing, Agbese manages to skirt round the issue thus resurrecting an old stylistic ghost which dogged Newswatch at its inception and which provoked a memorable defence of stylistic complexity by one of its star columnists.

    It is true that the classical canons of modern mass communication are anchored on lucidity and simplicity of style. But such lucidity and simplicity of expression are often in collusion and complicity with ruling class agenda. They are tools of mass deception. The simplistic mind often hides under the mantra of simplicity to obscure and obfuscate complex issues.

    In the tortured and tormented labyrinth of the post-colonial state, with its state assisted crimes and ruling class delinquency, this kind of simplicity is going to be a tall order indeed. In a post-modernist world where writing about adventure is also the adventure of writing itself, this is like a relapse into stone- age verbal exchanges among hunter-gatherers of primitive information.

    At any rate, less is just less. Anybody who has something memorable to say must find a memorable way to say it, if they are to register with posterity. Poor Dan Agbese, journalism is too serious a business to be left to professional journalists. It is not by coincidence that the most remarkable journalists that Nigeria has produced are people who bring the fertile resources of other professions to bear on the trade.

    We are talking about the great Zik with his polyvalent potency, Awo with his classical erudition, Anthony Enahoro with his powerful intellect, Aiyekoto with his urbane and cosmopolitan swashbuckling, Allah De with his world-weary wisdom and superlative imagination, Sad Sam with his cynical perspicacity, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo with his polysyllabic virtuosity, Dele Giwa with his elaborate literary conceits, Stanley Macebuh with his mandarin ruminations and our own Olatunji Dare with the clinical clarity of an absconding scientist.

    While most of these men often return to their primary trade, while some of them would take a French leave from journalism, Allah De remains the quintessential journalist. Again, it is a question of style and taste. Allah De does not mix journalism with partisan politics. But this is not say that he was ever indifferent to the political fortunes of his beloved country. When affronted, Allah De roiled with quiet tempest. But he was wise and worldly enough to leave political rascality to the professional rascals. In such moments of sublime impotence, the great man would probably sigh: Allah De.

    The result is a body of writing that is at once penetratingly critical but also ruler-friendly. This is the man the entire nation celebrated last week. Since everybody seems to have an Allah De story, snooper might as well end with his own. Once upon a long time ago, Allah De missed his way in the jungle of primeval beauty that was one of the nation’s finest universities.

    Snooper snooping around as usual in the dense jungle recognised the great man and helped him on his way. The doyen was full of urbane gratitude. It turned out that in characteristic humility and fatherly affection the great man had come all the way from Lagos to thank one of his daughter’s teachers for his diligence and devotion.

    Last week the nation returned the full compliment to one of its most illustrious and noble sons. It was a moveable feast. Here is wishing the great dean many happy returns of the day, sir.

  • Mama Igosun haunts Okon

    Not even good old Okon could believe his eyes. The world is full of strange turns and twists. There are times when day dreaming turns into nightmares and when actual reality becomes a dream-like reverie. Is dreaming a slice of life or is life itself part of a huge collective dream? Whatever it is, when a child gets to the place of fear, fear must overpower it.

    Okon rubbed his eyes to make sure it was not a nasty dream. But there was Mama Igosun, now hunched and hobbled by age, leaning on a carved walking stick and blocking Okon’s exit from the kitchen. She was carrying her trademark apothecary’s pouch containing dangerous charms and fireworks. Her capacity for domestic confrontation remained undiminished by advancing years. Okon took a look and froze with fright.

    “God of Israeli, which one be dis one again? I think dem say say dis witch don die”, Okon mumbled to himself.

    “Iyanla iya baba ee”, the old woman began cursing in vernacular and then switched to her unique pidgin English, “na your grandma be witch.”

    “Mama , I hear say Ogunpa River don carry you go, abi na dem Tokyo boy?” Okon taunted.

    “Na your papa him grandma Ogunpa dey carry go like dat. No think say I no sabi say na you come set fire for house for Igosun. I dey take my time because pounded yam still they hot after twenty years. Now I come da sheria for you. Wey your oga sef?” the feisty old woman demanded.

    “Ha mama, dat one dey hide somewhere becos I don declare labour unrest for house”, Okon noted with a satanic smile.

    “Wetin be labour unrest? Your mama pregnant?” the old woman demanded.

    “Mama ..” Okon began and was cut off by the no-nonsense matriarch.

    “Shut up!!! If to say your mama pregnant, I fit deliver am. I train for midwife for Eku Baptist when my husband be PWD for Sapele, But we no dey allow oloriburuku boy like you to come out. Na for inside womb we dey finis dem, make dem no come cause trouble for ilu”, the old woman fumed.

    “Mama, you be illustrate woman. Labour unrest mean say I wan more money”, Okon jeered.

    “Who go pay yeye cook like you more money? I don tell Akanbi to fire you. I go bring am four Agatu for Mokola make dem come dey cook for am. Agatu pople no dey eat snail, but you Cameroon Kukuruku you dey steal sotey your belly go burst one day. Omo ale!” the old woman screamed.

    “Mama dis one you dey do na child abuse,” Okon protested.

    “I never abuse you. When I comot my knife you go see,” the old woman screamed. By now, Okon was considering the possibility of ejecting through the open window.

    “Okolobo, abi wetin you dey call dat your funny name? Set the kitchen, I wan cook olu and tata for Akanbi” the old woman raved and moved forward in a threatening manner.

    “Kai, mama, I know say Tata be one useless boy and Dan iska who dey write nonsense for dem internet but Olu be my girlfriend, make you no whack person just like dat.” Okon pleaded.

    “Wereeeeee!!! Olu na mushroom and tata na cricket,” the old woman fumed and lurched forward to hit Okon with her walking stick. Okon dived but hit his head against the sharp edge of the wall. It was at this point he woke up. It was a nasty dream.

  • The story of Georgia

    The story of Georgia

    Today, Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world

    Although corruption has since become analogous to a directive principle of state policy in Nigeria, it is a self-evident truth that President Goodluck Jonathan did not introduce it to the country. It is also untrue, whatever he might have done in that wise, that IBB socialized corruption in the country. It is my view that the honour belongs to the late Major-General Yar’ Adua who, from his Katsina redoubt, but operating principally from Lagos, corrupted the political process by sending huge sums of money as political expenses towards his presidential ambition in the early ‘90’s whereas the practice before then was for party members, of all classes, to make monthly contributions for party funding. In the Awo days, nothing made an Action Group party member, more proud than showing his party monthly contribution card. At that point in Nigerian history, members truly owned their political parties.

    I am not making this allegation lightly as I was personally present, in ‘91/92, when a former Secretary to the government of Nigeria handed a Ghana Must Go bag to the late university Professor who took us there for purposes of going to register members into the late General’s party in Ondo state. And that, I reliably learnt, was by no means a lone event. The other person present, a Lawyer, can confirm that, because that party was different from Papa Ajasin’s PSP group to which I belonged, I did not even as much as permit myself to be present wherever it was, that bag was opened. I excused myself.

    What is true, however, is that under the current presidency, corruption has multiplied a hundred fold largely because of President Jonathan’s audacity in defying PDP’s zoning policy in 2011 and the concomitant necessity of having to then outspend the Atiku campaign which, in itself, was not cheap. That humongous funding would come mostly from sources known and unknown and the misguided, attempted removal of oil subsidy in January this year was a direct consequence of that. The need to recoup has contributed, in no small measure, to what a recent PUNCH newspaper investigation showed as a total of N5 Trillion in stolen funds under this barely 18 month-old government.

    That publication is yet to be controverted by the government.

    The above notwithstanding, I am positive that President Goodluck Jonathan can still translate to a statesman, even, Father of the Nation. But he must be ready to damn the consequences of a rather simple process which is guaranteed to enjoy mass support. He must first relinquish every intent to contest the v2015 election and then, GO AFTER THE ROGUES, big and small. The President is not here being invited to re-invent the wheel. Rather, he is being called upon to emulate his one-time GEORGIAN counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili as much as possible, in what has become known worldwide as: THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA. The fact that Saakashvili was defeated in last month’s general election by Ivanishvili of the Georgian Dream Coalition, after nine years, does not vitiate this miracle that holds so much for Nigeria.

    Happy reading.

    This is a story of possibility from Georgia that should strengthen our hope in changing Nigeria in spite of its circumstances. It was told by Plamen Monovski, the CIO of Renaissance Asset Managers:

    “When the Prime Minister comes to sell you an IPO, you, the investor, take the meeting. When that Prime Minister turns up with no bodyguards and shows remarkable knowledge of the company he is promoting, you, the investor, take notice.

    When Nika Gilauri, the Premier of Georgia, tells you that the prosperity of his country has been achieved because it has become one of the “least corrupt” countries in the world, you, the investor must take note.

    But it was not always like that.

    After the demise of the USSR, Georgia was not only one of the most corrupt of the former-Soviet republics, it was one of the most corrupt countries in the entire world. Bribe-to-drive was the norm; police stopped cars at least twice an hour to extort some good money. The then Interior Minister infamously quipped: “Give me petrol only; my people will take care of their own salaries.”

    Being a traffic cop was so lucrative that you had to pay a bribe of between $2,000 and $20,000 to get the job in the first place. Graft was endemic. Georgians passed more envelopes to bent officials than the post office does letters. Meanwhile the economy crumbled and the state was left bankrupt and powerless.

    The election of Mikhail Saakashvili changed everything. A bold reformer, he was swept to power in the “Rose Revolution” at the end of 2003 by the overwhelming desire for radical change. His closely-knit team is unified by a common vision and supported by both the parliament and judiciary.

    The new government was not just radical – it shocked and awed. Ministers, oligarchs and officials were sacked or arrested. Those who resisted were dealt with decisively, sometimes brutally. The state confiscated $1bn worth of property. Custom officials bore collective responsibility; an entire shift would be punished if one officer was caught accepting bribes. Corrupt university professors were kicked out with a lifetime ban from academia. But the piece de la resistance was Saakashvili’s order to sack the entire 16,000-strong police force on a single day, to replace them with some of the best and brightest university graduates. Today, Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world and their standout uniforms are rumoured to have been designed by Armani.

    The campaign expanded irresistibly. Tax offices were equipped with CCTV; university examination papers were printed in the UK and held in bank vaults until needed; and officials were constantly tested in sting operations. The proactive assault on graft was accompanied by a PR campaign to undermine respect for criminal groups and introduce respect for the law. The campaign then turned to the sectors. First up was the power sector that was widely used as a cash cow, as it is here in Nigeria, for well-connected oligarchs. In less than a year, Georgia went from net importer to exporter of electricity and the sector became the target of long-term foreign investment.

    Tax collection followed. Georgia’s tax base consisted of just 80,000 companies in 2003 and tax collection was a mere 12% of GDP. Saakashvili slashed red tape and introduced flat personal and corporate taxes. Eight years later over 250,000 companies are on the register, and pay the equivalent of 25% of GDP. Georgia now boasts one of the most liberal tax regimes in the world, at par with the Gulf States and Hong Kong.

    Lastly came deregulation, with many rules and agencies simply abolished, removing channels of corruption in the process. Among other things, car registration became so easy that used cars became the largest export item in 2011. Georgia moved swiftly from the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (112) into the top 20 (16) by 2012. Foreign investment followed and fuelled a multi-year surge.

    But perhaps, the most lucrative Georgian export would be the fight against corruption itself – from which many states mired in graft could benefit. The Georgians patented a process whose steps are replicable: establish early reform credibility by radical action, launch a frontal assault excluding no sacred cows, attract new blood, limit the role of the state via privatization and deregulation, use technology and communication to maximum effect, and above all, be bold and purposeful. Georgia’s close and distant neighbours should take heed. Their prime ministers and presidents have got their job cut out for them.”

    Without a doubt, time has come for Nigeria to embrace the spirit and letter of such radical reformation to avoid the needless, prevalent and sickening bloodshed that now characterizes our national life.

    I am not that naïve not to know that corruption, which is now the name of every Nigerian sector will fight back ferociously. So did it in Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew and a group of Singaporean leaders bonded together, frontally confronted corruption in its most virulent form and transformed a poor, multi-racial city state into an astonishingly successful and corruption-free nation. Interested readers should go grab a copy of : FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST: The Singapore Story, 1965-2000 by L.K Yew.

    What is essential here is for Jonathan to know that he occupies, as yet unknown to him, the hottest part of the Nigerian kitchen. He must wake up and be counted as he could also kill off the dreaded Boko Haram with a successful crackdown on corruption. He needs to do this if he would like to see his name on the good side of history. Those currently misleading him will not even appear on the footnotes of that history.

  • Corruption as opium

    Corruption as opium

    Unless President Jonathan acts fast, this ‘forbidden fruit’ that is eaten freely now might define and destroy his govt

    Without trying to act a seer, I can see President Goodluck Jonathan struggling to do something about power supply in the country, at least to have something to showcase in the 2015 elections. He has no choice; he must do something so he does not lose his deposit even with the elections still months away. Losing his deposit would be tantamount to committing political suicide. A saying common in the south west of the country says that after one has prayed that God should not make one fall into disgrace, the next thing one begins to pray against is for God not to allow one die the moment disgrace becomes imminent.

    No doubt, power supply would play a crucial role in deciding the president’s fate come 2015. And it appears this is one of the few things he can do without much sweat. He is not winning the war on the economic front; he is not winning the security aspect of it either. Education is in a shambles; health care in tatters and there is a massive infrastructural deficit that fixing is beyond the government’s ken. But most of the ‘ingredients’ needed for changing the face of the power sector are already here; all the president has to do is mix them in the appropriate proportions and food (power) is ready. His estranged political godfather, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had done much of the spade work; only that he (Obasanjo) was not destined to wear the crown of glory as the president who gave Nigerians light. Some would say an ‘ebora’ can never give light. Nonetheless, Obasanjo had imported most of the equipment needed for the power sector; forget the many mistakes associated with the decisions, i.e. their failure to reckon with the transportation needs for the equipment, given that most of them were too large to be transported by road, and the non-dredging of the rivers to transport them by sea, etc.

    Before the former president takes me on concerning the ‘crown of glory’ that I said he was not destined to wear, let me say that being a two-time head of state is good; but it is not necessarily synonymous with wearing the ‘crown of glory’. Even in the scriptures that I know the former president must be familiar with as a Baptist Church senior citizen, the crown is not for the person who began something but for someone who accomplished it. Chief Obasanjo had all the time to lighten Nigerians’ darkness; unfortunately, he chose to squander the chance by pursuing irrelevancies, including an impracticable third term agenda that he dissipated much of his energy on.

    But this piece is not about Obasanjo; it is about his godson, Jonathan that has now come of age and has severed the umbilical cord that tied him to his godfather. But Nigerians have nothing to worry about that; the war between the godfather and godson is spiritual and it has just started. God has a way of smashing any scheming that is not of Him, the same way He knows how to put asunder what he has not joined together.

    Be that as it may, I wonder how President Jonathan manages to sleep with the mindboggling corruption ravaging the country. I have not seen this type of corruption in my life; not even in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari years. As a matter of fact, if I were President Jonathan, the only agenda at the Federal Executive Council meetings would not be award of contracts, but ‘corruption, corruption and corruption’, because, unless and until we fight corruption, we are deceiving ourselves; all the contracts awarded would only serve as avenues through which some emergency billionaires would emerge. I can see some people chuckle that that is the raison detre of the contract awards in the first place! Even in the Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha years, corruption was rife but it was not for all but for a select few in power and their cronies in the corridors of it.

    If the Jonathan presidency cares to be told; it is the laughing stock in all the high-wire intrigues that led to the Lawan Farouk/Femi Otedola ‘sting’ operation and its present stalemate. It is also the butt of all the jokes in the Ribadu/Oronsaye matter. As far as Nigerians are concerned, the Jonathan government has a case to answer in the scam that the fuel subsidy has become; indeed, its culpability is the reason why we are not making any headway in our attempts to punish the culprits. How it kept paying trillions for subsidy that we never spent N400billion in any given year on in 2011 (an election year) alone without asking questions could not have been a mistake. This could not have been anything but a premeditated swindle.

    And when one would have expected the president to be remorseful of his government’s action, he came out as usual with a most shocking statement that the fuel subsidy protests of January were sponsored. This is the height of his contempt for Nigerians. It is visible to the blind and audible even to the deaf that Nigerians have been milked dry by some fat cows most of who hobnob with the president himself, through fuel subsidy payments. And this much Nigerians have always known even if the Jonathan government pretends not to. So, in spite of all they know on the subject-matter, Nigerians still need some sponsors to give them bottled water and food to protest the insensitivity of the government that lacks the will to fight corruption? How can a president who understands the issues still have the guts to say this kind of thing at a time his government should be tendering unreserved apologies to Nigerians for the untold hardship that had been caused them by the conmen (and women) involved in the subsidy racket?

    Verily, verily I say unto the president, no matter what he does, his government cannot make any headway because he himself lacks the will to deal with those who stole subsidy money among numerous other frauds, for obvious reasons. Whatever anti- corruption war this country wants to fight can only make sense if it begins with the subsidy trillions. What the country has lost in the Jonathan years alone is mind-boggling. Even clerks now steal in billions. Let President Jonathan attain 20,000MW of electricity before 2015, it would end up amounting to nothing if corruption still rules the country. Why? The reason is simple: a child that one did not train will end up selling whatever inheritance one left for him, and for peanuts (to boot) because he cannot appreciate their worth.

    So, for President Jonathan to think he can leave any positive legacy in the power sector (or any other sector for that matter) is wishful thinking. He can only try; it won’t work for the simple reason that corruption will be at every juncture to wipe off the gains. What I am saying in effect is that the government can only succeed if it is possible to build on nothing. When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He told them they could eat of all the fruits there but one. It would appear that ‘forbidden fruit’ is the corruption that is the only exotic fruit that is freely eaten by the big people in the Jonathan era.

    •I could not feature last week but the printer’s devil burnt off the portion of my column where the notice to this effect was put. Sorry about that.

  • When life deals you a lemon … quick, reject it

    When life deals you a lemon … quick, reject it

    If we implement the fifty per cent cut, we would, in the spirit of fairness, have to start the reduction from Aso Rock by cutting the President’s or the Vice-President’s job

    In those days, when I still had fond dreams of being able to see my weight move in the direction of ‘slim’ or ‘will hopefully be slim in the nearest future’ (actual points on my scales), I planted a lemon tree. I had heard that its fruit, the revered lemon, was capable of causing weight reduction by some magic. Soon though, I found that its very sour taste was quickly giving me a dour look on life: rose bushes were full of thorns, no one could do anything right around me, and even the dog walking on its hind legs was very annoying. After much research, I also found that there was no magic in lemon that could help me lose weight. Rather, all that the blessed fruit could do was give me lemonade, fill me with vitamin C and, hopefully, cure me of scurvy should I be marooned on a ship for months on end, far from friends, relatives and sanity. Clearly, the lemon tree had to go.

    I am sure we all know the adage that says when life deals you a lemon, make lemonade. I am equally sure you know the antidote to even that, the lemonade that is, not the lemon. My religious compatriots do. At the mere mention of any undesired curse such as ‘May your days be filled with lemon’, up and around the head would go the middle finger and thumb, concluding in a snap, and then followed by a furious, hearty and immediate rejection verbalised in an religiously appropriate language, ‘I reject it in …’. Someone feeling feverish may refuse to take anti-malarial drugs but would heartily reject it. (Of course, who knows, he/she may eventually find him/herself lying down with malaria). There is no devil on earth that can withstand such a furious rebuttal, unless he has been naturalised as a Nigerian. My fear is that most devils appear to be carrying Nigerian passports and are strutting around now parading themselves as Nigerians. Because of that, the blighter devils don’t respect our rejections, sometimes even riding on them to one’s front door. Sacrilege!

    Just this last week, our Central Bank governor was said to have suggested that the national expenditure on the civil, legislative and executive services be reduced by cutting those jobs in half. His reason is that the country is carrying around on its head a very bloated expenditure that it is having difficulties sustaining. So, it cannot move forward. I say blame it on the devils pretending to be Nigerians. I know they are the ones causing all the heavy expenditures. They are the brains behind all the corruption we have heard so much about, embezzling funds, fixing large amounts for themselves as emoluments, swelling the work force with ghost workers, cornering all the contracts to themselves even though they are part of the awarding bodies … just what have they not done? Real devils, the lot!

    I am sure, however, that even the governor himself knows that it is not very realistic to reduce the country’s expenditure simply by reducing the work force because it is not easy to get rid of devils; believe me, I’ve tried. There is a devil that enters my pot of soup and simply makes it disappear whenever all kinds of condiments and tantalising enhancements like beef, chicken, fish, etc., enter into it. Against that saucy devil, I am helpless, as I find myself making more. There is another one that persists in increasing my workload so that no matter how fast or hard I work, I just don’t seem to see the bottom of the barrel. Real busy devil, that one. Then, there is one that just causes things to disappear when I need them most, particularly the ones I have hidden away to guard against their being lost. Right now, I just can’t seem to find my only piece of jewellery. I tell you, these mischievous devils are getting on my nerves, and obviously, on the CBN governor’s too. He can’t find the country’s money; but at least he knows the direction it seems to have gone to and a fair idea of how to recall it.

    If we are to do what he asks us to do, however, we would be in a bit of a fix. What, for instance, will we do with our investments in Aso Rock? I mean, if we implement the fifty per cent cut in jobs, we would, in the spirit of fairness, have to start the reduction from Aso Rock by cutting the President’s or the Vice-President’s job. Now, that will cause real wahala. It’s one thing for a president to lose an election and not be returned, but it’s a different kettle of fish for a president to be laid off. ‘Owing to cuts in public service expenditure, we regret to inform you that your job has been …’ I am sure the occupant of Aso Rock rejects it in …

    Anyway, should we succeed in Aso Rock, then we can move on to the legislative houses with confidence and take the census of a normal day’s session. Whoever is present retains his/her job; the absent ones will be deemed to have resigned. That should give us less than a third of them to pay any salary to. It is only then we can turn to the civil service.

    Now, everyone knows that the civil service is bloated, and for good reasons too, the principal of which is that the Federal Government boxed itself into that corner. This column has long and oft maintained that industries are being strangulated by the government. The perpetual habit of enacting national policies which favour only the cronies of the government in the name of close to one hundred and fifty million people can only lead to trouble. Countries are better when the wealth created is private sector-driven rather than government-given. Truth is, too many times, the government has made an ass of the law, and it is now getting close to pay-back time. The devil of vengeance is always just around the corner.

    Once, I was told, someone wanted to establish an industry in a city in Nigeria, so he procured a large acreage, got everything he needed ready including the machines and approached the federal government for a licence, explaining how it would provide labour, tax and other incentives to the country. Some government functionary then tipped his friend on the development who also got up and applied for a licence for the same product. His licence was not to produce however, but to import the product in order to get a better, faster and higher yield. The sad thing is that the importer soon tired of importing but not before a very original dream had been killed by the devilish dream killers.

    The result is that the Nigerian economy is not driven by the private sector but by public service; not even public utilities, just the service commission. So, the federal government is the only worthy employer of labour. This is why everyone wants in; and it also means that close to fifty people may be pushing a single file where a single computer button would do the job better. But, the country needs to keep the illusion of keeping us all engaged because it has not allowed private industries to grow. Everywhere else in the world, it is the private sector that employs more.

    So, rather than cut jobs, the eggheads in charge of our finances must find ways of making the little we earn do much by getting rid of the devils in the system. We must make something better than lemonade from our lemons.

  • Sanusi: The limit of candour

    Sanusi: The limit of candour

    There is little anyone can do to change Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s mannerisms and worldview. He is 51, and set in his ways. He does not shy away from battle, sometimes seeming to be even foolhardy, and cannot help but speak forthrightly on any subject that draws his attention, especially one that annoys him. This was why in Warri, Delta State, last Tuesday he again indulged his habit of not caring whose ox was gored and speaking candidly about economic issues. Speaking at the Second Annual Capital Market Committee Retreat, Sanusi had declared: “At the moment 70 per cent of Federal Government’s revenue goes for payment of salaries and entitlement of civil servants, leaving 30 per cent for development of 167 million Nigerians. That means that for every naira government earns, 70 kobo is consumed by civil servants.”

    Inflamed, as he always is when he addresses a large audience, Sanusi then turned on the heat: “You have to fire half of the civil service because the revenue of the government is supposed to be for 167 million Nigerians. Any society where government spends 70 per cent of its revenue on its civil service has a problem. It is unsustainable. The various tiers of government should cut down their recurrent expenditure and use the fund to provide basic infrastructure like schools, hospital, etc. How can we be using the proceeds from our major source of revenue to service recurrent expenditure, by paying salaries, allowances, etc. The country should be thinking of enhancing its productivity base rather than spending on things that cannot create wealth.”

    This was very hot stuff, a red rag to a bull. Predictably, the civil service bull, under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), picked up the gauntlet and has been calling for the sack of Sanusi. Candour, it appears, has its limits. Perhaps affrighted by the sheer volume of the calls for his sack and the near unanimity of opinion against him, Sanusi has begun to prevaricate, if a news report from London is believable. Speaking to Channels Television in London at the end of the 13th Session of the Honorary International Investors Council Meeting, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor explained that he was misunderstood. After saying those calling for his sack were “shying away from the reality of the time,” he added, according to Channels, that he was only asking for downsizing of political appointees, not civil servants, who take 70 percent of government revenue leaving a mere 30 percent for the 160 million Nigerians.

    He’ll still probably modify what he told Channels, if that also becomes controversial, for it is not conceivable that he believed political appointees took 70 percent of government revenue. Coming to his help, however, was the General Secretary, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, who wondered whether the CBN governor could not tell the difference between civil servants and public servants. Lawal suggested that the strength of the entire civil service was below 100,000, while the public service, comprising the Army, Navy, Customs, EFCC, NAFDAC, etc. had 970,000 workers. “The civil service is just a subset,” he continued. “If Sanusi now says we are the ones taking 70 per cent of the budget, we have to doubt his CV. The IMF said for every N100 spent on services in Nigeria, 80 per cent goes to private pocket; it goes to corruption. Only 20 per cent is spent on projects.”

    The NLC was not as patient or charitable as the ASCSN. In a statement by Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, the NLC president said: “We see in Sanusi an agent of death that must be defeated and crushed before he further destroys the Nigerian economy. While President Jonathan is promising to create more jobs, Sanusi is calling for mass sack of civil servants in a country with one of the highest number of unemployed, which has indeed led to gross deprivation and the current state of insecurity in Nigeria. While we believe the Federal Government will ignore the ranting of this hollow economist, Sanusi has never demonstrated patriotism in all his advice on economic and financial management in Nigeria. Sanusi’s only understanding of governance is simply about saving money and not saving lives, as his proposals are repeatedly devoid of human content and without consideration for the implications on the larger society. The burden that will come with mass sack as high as 50 per cent of civil servants, in addition to the already saturated unemployment market, can better be imagined. Governance is about improving the quality of lives of the people and not destruction of productive lives.”

    It’s unlikely anyone would heed the NLC’s call, or that the campaign against Sanusi would go far. As this paper’s Hardball column observed on Friday, the president, who is a politician and whose priorities are often carefully circumscribed by electoral exigencies, will simply ignore the CBN governor’s recommendations. Said Hardball last Friday: “Nigeria can use the candour and common sense of someone like Sanusi. But whether that candour befits a CBN governor is a different thing altogether. Nor is it likely that President Goodluck Jonathan will find Sanusi’s brave talk amusing. Jonathan is a politician, and he has an election to win in 2015, if he decides to contest. Sanusi on the other hand has no election to contest or even care about. Instead he has repeatedly announced he has a death wish – to be sacked. For someone who derives fulfillment in speaking candidly and making people squirm, which characteristics he deeply covets, the last thing on his mind is to please anyone or suffer fools gladly. Sanusi may have spoken idealistically, but Jonathan can be relied upon to act realistically.”

    The integrity of Sanusi’s views appears sound, even if slightly misplaced. The number of states is truly unbearable, unwise and burdensome. It is in fact shocking that Nigerians can be so far removed from reality that they are campaigning for additional states. Consolidation is needed to reduce recurrent expenditure in states and to increase efficiency. Even though the solution to civil service bloatedness is not the drastic downsizing Sanusi recommends, there is little doubt that something still has to be done, whether in direct relation to the civil service or, as the Association of Senior Civil Servants argued, in relation to the public service as a whole. And if we do not need a 36-state structure, why would we need a 774-local government structure? We have been financially too reckless for far too long. In addition, the national and state legislature simply must be restructured to reduce expenditure on them. Like the structure of the federation itself, the structure of the legislature is inoperable, downright inane and unrealistic.

    The problem with Sanusi is not so much his views – many of those views are in fact heartfelt and sensible – but the way he delivers them, and the fact that they come from him, the governor of the Central Bank. It is indeed unfortunate that his controversiality is beginning to overshadow his responsibility as the governor of a financial institution that regulates the financial health of the country through very sensitive monetary policies. The CBN governor should seldom be seen, and heard from sparingly. But Sanusi is voluble and gives the impression he is averse to working in the background where he would be more effective. He gives the impression he is more at home with incendiary statements, politics, religion and traditionalism. His position requires somebody who should hardly stir. But Sanusi is restless, verbally aggressive, sometimes showy, and even obtruding. If he eventually gets the boot, it will not be because he had ceased to be intelligent, as the NLC inferred last week, but because he lacked the requisite restraint Nigeria’s apex banker should possess.

    Surely, there must be a limit to controversy, even for a politician, let alone a top banker. Consider, for instance, that Sanusi pursued banking reforms, not with the studious patience and empathetic firmness required of the apex bank, but with the messianic and inquisitorial zeal of an extreme and opinionated campaigner. Consider also whether it was appropriate for him to appear in office in full traditional regalia following his installation as a chief in his native Kano State. Did he know the implication for his image? And what of his stubborn resolve to introduce the N5,000 note, in spite of the thunderous opposition against the project? Were he to be governor or president, he would be a dictator, probably even of the malevolent variety. It is certainly not enough to say controversy dogs him; given his predilections and his idiosyncratic leadership of the apex bank, it must also be said that he actively courts controversy. And it doesn’t matter whether the victims of his fiery denunciation is the influential National Assembly, which he says exasperates him, secular bankers, whom he says criticise non-secular banking because they do not know banking regulations, and those who denounce his partiality for directing the apex bank’s corporate responsibility in favour of Kano, his home state, and never for once in favour of other major northern states hit more lethally by Boko Haram and other terrorist attacks.

  • It’s surprising Ojukwu’s will is described as shocking

    It’s surprising Ojukwu’s will is described as shocking

    The last will and testament of the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu has finally been read. It provides for his widow, the former beauty queen, Bianca, much more than it offers something to any other member of the family. Perhaps we will have more insight into the will later on. But for now, the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra has not seemed to give reasons for the drama embedded in his will. Most newspapers that reported the reading of the will described it as shocking, unexpected, or surprising. Ojukwu’s life was all about drama, shock, irreverence, boldness and surprise. He would be untrue to himself if he went into the celestial realm without the drama and shock he was reputed for in his lifetime.

    One of the items in the will that surprised many is Ojukwu’s acknowledgment of a daughter, Tenny Hamman, unknown to family members. I do not know what is surprising about it. Was such a man that gave public indication he had an eye for beautiful women, and was not dissuaded by religion or any other consideration from giving free rein to his passion, not expected to engage in mysterious dalliances, made more adventurous by the longtime secrecy that accompanied them? I doubt whether he was afraid to acknowledge Tenny while he lived, or that he had to make provision in his will to secure the property (or the cash value) for her, or that he felt it was harmful for her to be known. Knowing him for who he was, Ojukwu acknowledged her because there simply must be something dramatic and newsworthy in the will. The press will try their best to discover the face of the mysterious daughter, who was born of a Sierra-Leonean woman, and I am not sure she will try her least to hide her identity.

    The media disguised their shock by saying the hefty provisions for Bianca was expected, though not by the margin with which she thrashed other members of the family. If anyone is shocked, it is because the person is unrealistic in his appreciation of the power of women over men. When a man is smitten, as indeed Ojukwu experienced thunderbolt when he met Bianca, he becomes a child again and is held in permanent thralldom by her charms. There was no way Ojukwu could have freed himself from Bianca’s charms, nor did he try, nor did he want. He was enraptured by her when he was alive, and he took scintillating memories of her to the grave, memories that are probably not attenuated by any supposition of her later marriage. When a man is in love with a beautiful woman, and that love waxes stronger as the man becomes enfeebled and the woman grows more resplendent, any other heir would be lucky to receive more than a gesture.

    Above all, I think Ojukwu’s will reveals more about men’s overrated power than about women’s underestimated power. How many men do not have one Tenny Hamman or the other somewhere? Perhaps, someday, a bright photographer will be able to match her face and her mother’s with the faces of two ladies who were at his burial, and who, unknown to the family, somehow managed to secure prime positions at the graveside. And very soon, too, we will know why the name of Debechukwu Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who continues to insist he is first son, is missing in the will. Ojukwu, it turns out, is having the last laugh.