The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

  • Jonathan for life!

    Jonathan for life!

    It is baffling that Nigerians can’t see the good in PDP’s own ‘Mandela’

    It is now I am beginning to understand that indeed, no one can please the world. So, this is the way Nigerians want to reward our hardworking President Goodluck Jonathan, a man who has been trying to transform the country in the last 56 months? Many Nigerians say they are angry over the president’s performance. They say he has not given them light; he has not given the school leavers jobs; he has not delivered good roads and that virtually all sectors of the economy have worsened under his watch. The critics say education is in a shambles; they say our hospitals are far worse than the ‘consulting clinics’ that General Muhammadu Buhari and Co. met in 1983.

    Not done, they say under the Jonathan presidency, corruption is emperor. They claim we thought we had proofs before that this was undeniable; but all these disappeared when the real proof emerged: General Ibrahim Babangida said given what he has been reading about corruption in the Jonathan presidency, then he and his team hitherto thought to be the most corrupt public officials Nigeria ever had were saints and angels. That was the end of discussion. What other proof do we need, the critics asked?

    Even Revd. Father Ejike Mbaka, founder of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Enugu State, who should have hidden under the canopy provided in the scriptures: “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people- 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Tim. 2 verses 1 and 2) to drum up support for the president was unsparing in his criticism of his government. The man of God really threw spanners into the president’s campaign because his scathing criticism of the government must have done incalculable damage to the speculated support the south east was thought to have for the president’s reelection bid. Father Mbaka is, among others, unhappy at the rate at which blood is being shed in the country. Here, the Revd Father was talking about the blood that the Boko Haram people have been ‘drinking’; but the way many Nigerians interpret it, it is as if it is the people in government that are blood-thirsty or that have an insatiable appetite for blood. Nobody in government has been able to reply the man of God, not even the most vociferous of President Jonathan’s attack goons. Mum’s the word from them all.

    Many Nigerians even say the most annoying thing is that this is the first time the country would be having a doctorate degree holder as president, yet, things are this bad. As if it is the president’s fault that the country he is working so hard to transform has simply rebuffed every transformation agenda capsule he has been administering on it.

    Not tired, the critics say the presidency is now employing all manner of subterfuge, seeing defeat staring it in the face. Even when some concerned eminent Nigerians (some of them better eminently forgotten though) thought they were doing the country a good service by suggesting that we consider Interim Government, the critics saw the hands of the presidency in this otherwise patriotic suggestion. They say it was a road we travelled before which did not work. So, if it did not work before, that is enough evidence to conclude it would never work?

    To show the depth of resentment the people have for an otherwise performing government that will be sorely missed by the time the president leaves, the people even did not see any big deal in the issue of the certificate of General Buhari that the ruling party had thought was its joker to knock the general out of the presidential race. Nigerians say even a buffoon should know that was a non-issue given the general’s antecedents. They are saying the matter is all about performance, integrity and corruption and the government people are here talking about cerfiticate. The people even went to the ridiculous extent of saying since this is how far a PhD holder can take us in about five years; maybe we now need a stark illiterate for a change. Now, Baba (Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the president’s political godfather) has said the PhD has K-leg, and some people are now saying, ‘no wonder’! Can you imagine? Is it not fit and proper for them to ask Baba  to prove this beyond reasonable doubt since Baba is fond of detecting K-leg at critical junctures like this, before believing him? I guess that is why the president’s men are not dignifying him with a response.

    Another laudable suggestion by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should postpone the elections by three months to allow it more time to get the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) across to more Nigerians has been made dead on arrival. Gibberish! The critics are asking if INEC is better prepared now than it was for the 2011 elections when the president was elected; that they did not call for postponement then because things were looking up for them. The critics say the INEC chair, Prof Attahiru Jega, should know that he is on the threshold of history and it would be tragic for him to allow himself to be dragged into the mud by those benefiting from the rot of a sinking government.

    These critics, they think they are God or what? How do they know that this government is sinking, after all the blessings that the president has got from almost all the religious groups he had visited and that had visited him in Aso Rock? It is disheartening that the critics cannot see the magic that the president has not been able to do in almost five years that he is now set to do if the election is postponed by just three months that the NSA is seeking.

    Well, it is not that President Jonathan has not been trying to make the people see reason or explain his own side of the story. The man has been talking through paid advertisements, but it seems the people have an obsession with selective perception: seeing only what they want to see in those adverts. They say the Jonathan government is not campaigning like an incumbent government; otherwise it should have its achievements speaking for it in the adverts. The critics, in their warped reasoning, then concluded that this is because the government has little to showcase in about five years. I don’t know where they got that impression from.

    Just to show how difficult it is to satisfy human beings, even when President Jonathan, during his campaign rally in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, saw a train passing by and quickly pointed to it as one of his achievements, the critics, rather than applaud, countered that it was an ancient locomotive. I wonder what people in a rustic ancient town have to do with civilisation that modern fast moving trains that the critics had in mind represent. How does that fit into the government’s transformation agenda? Can you transform a people beyond their level of civilisation?

    But these critics, I never knew they were so daft. None of them deemed it fit to remind President Jonathan when he chose to start his campaign in Lagos that it was the same Lagos he had in the heat of the fuel subsidy crisis in January 2012 lampooned for their spoilt brats being the sole beneficiaries of the subsidy. If I may add, even at the risk of doing the critics’ job for them, that was the time Nigerians should have been noticing the divisive tendencies that eventually killed the PDP, in the president.

    Anyway, in all of these, it is the president’s handlers that messed up his case by insisting that he did well. If they are honest enough to admit that their principal has failed, Nigerians will graciously allow him to ‘repeat’. If the old time religion was good for Paul and Silas; and Chief Gabriel Igbinedion’s joke that Lucky, his son, should be allowed to “repeat” if he failed as Governor of Edo State worked for the junior Igbinedion, then what says it would not work for President Jonathan? But, first things first; the president must admit he has failed and that he is now ready to take both the country and transformation agenda to the theatre for surgical operation and that, this time around, they definitely will respond to stimuli. Having spent about five years to lay a solid foundation for transformation, Nigerians should be rest assured that the president is now set to build on that solid foundation.

    But if President Jonathan has done well and therefore passed as his aides are trying to force us to believe, why then should he ‘repeat’? He should go to the next level: that is join the league of the country’s elder statesmen so that his immediate and subsequent successors would also be coming to him for advice whenever they are at the cross- roads. And, if the president is afraid of his own shadow, having called a prominent member of that league a ‘motor park tout’, that should not be a problem. Baba as a Yoruba elder knows that no matter how a child knows how to eat cold pap, it must always soil his hand.

    At any rate, why should the president bother about the ingrates called Nigerians that he has been labouring for in the last 56 months but who still do not appreciate that it is because of them that all manner of insults are being hauled at him by people, some of them not capable of unlacing his shoes? That is the way it has been since the days of Jesus Christ. A prophet is not without honour except in his own town. As the president himself said before, it is long after he would have left office that Nigerians would begin to appreciate him. The ingrates can’t wait any longer for that longing, when they should be making a fetish of Jonathan for life!

  • Hypocrites in power

    Hypocrites in power

    Power of election: No one is talking about subsidy removal again

    Just how hypocritical public officials can be in Nigeria was exhibited by the country’s finance commissioners when early in the year, specifically on April 13, they met in Abuja and passed a resolution for the removal of fuel subsidy, shortly after the month’s meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). According to Timothy Odah, Chairman of the Forum of Commissioners of Finance of the 36 states of the Federation, under whose auspices the commissioners passed the resolution, the decision became inevitable because of certain irregularities observed in the fuel subsidy regime. The meeting, which was chaired by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, was convened for the purpose of considering and approving the statutory allocations for February 2014.

    According to Odah, “We looked at subsidy on oil as more or less a solution worse than the problem it is meant to solve. Looking at it presently, you will discover that it is not solving the problem which it is meant to solve. In the first place, the NLC (Nigeria Labour Congress) and the majority of the Nigerian populace appear to have been deceived into clamouring for subsidy. “It is a system that robs Peter to pay Paul by making the rich to grow richer and the poor to go poorer”. Odah is not done: “There are some states that are fully industrialised and you use this subsidy in that particular place and the people who benefit more are those from the states that are industrialised,” he said, adding “So, what we are advocating is that the subsidy be removed so that every state or any member of the federating unit sharing from FAAC will take his own money, then decide to use it or grant subsidy in a level that it will be able to afford.”

    That was only about nine months before. Today, all the government officials clamouring for fuel subsidy removal have suddenly gone dumb; they have all conveniently forgotten a situation which they had presented as precarious if fuel subsidy was not removed.  Indeed, the way the commissioners went about their campaign for subsidy removal then, weeping louder than the bereaved, no one would have thought the country could still be up standing by now if their prayer was not answered.  After the meeting, they promised to take their resolution to their respective governors for onward transmission to President Goodluck Jonathan, who would have gladly embraced it, claiming it was the wish of the state governments; as if we did not know that the so-called resolution was the product of their conspiracy against Nigerians. The finance commissioners even gave a deadline for the implementation of the subsidy removal.

    Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for Nigerians, one thing had led to the other since they passed that satanic resolution, resulting in the fast depletion of whatever was left of the Federal Government’s goodwill. God threw confusion into their midst, with the Jonathan administration’s serial wobbling and fumbling in major policy decisions. There was the government’s running battle with Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. Matters were not helped by the defection of the House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28. The ruling party was yet to recover from the shock occasioned by Tambuwal’s defection when the APC held its national convention at which General Muhammadu Buhari emerged the party’s presidential flag bearer. All these naturally weakened the government’s ability or resolve to take the sort of anti-people’s decision that subsidy withdrawal represents.

    As at April when the state governments conspired with the Federal Government to further compound the hardship of Nigerians, the three tiers of government had a total of N634.721 billion that was shared among them as federal allocation for the month. That was N6.659 billion less than the N641.380 billion shared to the three tiers of government the previous month. Naturally, as a result of the lopsided revenue sharing formula, the Federal Government got N249.060 billion (52.68%) as against the N249.084 billion in March. The state governments got N126.327 billion (26.72%) as against the N126.339 billion they got in March while the local governments were given N97.392 billion (20.60%) as against N97.402 billion in March.  For the month, the oil producing states got N55.182 billion as 13 percent derivation revenue compared to the N57.270 billion they got in the preceding month.

    The mystery in the government revenue is that, as at April when the states were clamouring for fuel subsidy removal, crude prices were still high, compared with what they were last December. The challenges then had to do with stealing of crude and dwindling demand for the commodity by its former major importer, the United States of America. But then,   a report published by the Publicity Department of the Federal Ministry of Finance on December 22, 2014, indicated that the generated revenue for last November was N35.438 billion more than the N593.337 billion generated in October 2014 and shared to the three tiers of government in November 2014. In essence, therefore, the three tiers of government shared N628.8billion, only N6billion less than what was shared in April. Given the fall in crude prices, one would have thought the revenue would have dropped significantly. Indeed, an official report more or less confirmed this mystery: “A drastic drop of 33% in export volume between September 2014 and October 2014 and a further drop in crude oil price from $96.81 in September 2014 to $87.78 in October 2014 impacted negatively on the revenue for the month. Other issues that had negative impact on the revenue include the ongoing ‘Force Majeure’ by Shell since June 2014 and incessant shutdowns and shut-in of trunks and pipelines at various terminals”.

    In spite of these developments, would it not have been a natural consequence for the states to intensify their quest for fuel subsidy removal? As at last December, more state governments had been unable to pay workers’ salaries than the situation was in April. In essence, the states’ woes had multiplied as at December much more than they were in April. Yet, they have not remembered fuel subsidy removal. Is that not deceitful, because the only reason they have remained silent on the matter is the 2015 general election. Even some of the state governments that one had hoped would dissociate themselves from the resolution then kept quiet, apparently hoping that they too would be able to get more money should they succeed in forcing the subsidy removal down the throats of Nigerians. Apparently they had battled the Federal Government unsuccessfully on their dwindling revenue and thought the people would be a softer bone. Yet, we know that not much is happening in many of the states whose governments want subsidy removed. They only wanted more money to share.

    So, anyone with the impression that the governments, federal and states, are not talking about fuel subsidy removal now because of the fall in crude prices should perish the thought. In Nigeria, successive governments have proved that such logic has no place here as there are always people to defend such nonsense on behalf of the government. The ‘any government in power’ (AGIP) people are not in short supply here. If they are short of reasons as to why the subsidy must go, they will tell Nigerians that government revenue has fallen and there is the need to augment it. Their ears will be deaf to the argument of rational thinkers that fall in crude prices should naturally translate to reduction in the pump prices of fuel, obedient only to their own warped logic.

    The truth is that political calculations have changed in the country such that even the hitherto arrogant ruling party at the federal level knows that things will no longer be the same when voting takes place next month. The calibre of defectors from the party must have taught those in charge there that these are not the best of times to even whisper anything concerning fuel subsidy removal. To some extent, therefore, the shift in political alliances is a benefit to Nigerian voters in that it is making them the king that they should be. But this should not be an excuse for people to go to sleep yet; Nigerians should still learn to police their votes on the Election Day if truly they are desirous of ‘one man, one vote’ in elections as obtain in civilised climes.

    However, in order to be fully assured that the politicians would not resurrect fuel subsidy removal after the elections have been won and lost, Nigerians should make the political parties to tell them what they intend to do about the matter now. In other words, if any of them still has anything against fuel subsidy, he should say it now, or  forever hold his peace on  the issue. It is not the fault of Nigerians that subsidy is not getting to the appropriate people; it is not their fault too that their country blessed with crude oil is importing refined petroleum products.

  • Making the consumer king

    Making the consumer king

    Consumer Protection Council’s rift with Coca-Cola as litmus test

    After a three-week vacation, and one in which I deliberately decided to rest my column, one should return pregnant with issues to deliver, especially given the flurry of political developments within the period. True, I was tempted not to suspend the column during my vacation in view of the (then) pending primaries of the major political parties, the most talked-about being those of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which threw up the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari, respectively, as contenders for the presidency.

    Gen. Buhari’s emergence has no doubt altered the political calculations, especially in the PDP which had probably hoped that the result of the APC primaries would be different. Anyway, this is not a matter for today. The issue is still evolving and I intend to leave it for now. Next year is going to be loaded politically and one needs to reserve one’s energy so as not to dissipate it on rehearsal when the real dance is yet to come.

    I want to devote this piece to an issue that I had kept postponing since it began early in the year to attend to what appeared to me to be the real burning issues, national or international. But, I have to break that jinx today because the matter is also a burning issue in its own right; first because of the lives of the millions involved and also because of its wider implication for protecting public watchdogs in the country.

    It is the issue between the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and two big players in Nigeria’s food and beverage sector, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited (CCNL) and its franchise bottler, Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC) Ltd. The CPC had, following a complaint by a consumer that he bought two half-filled cans of Sprite, one of the products produced by the companies, issued an order on the companies in February, 2014, with specific timelines for compliance. This was sequel to an investigation which spanned over five months and entailed factory inspections, written and oral representations and analysis of evidence, pursuant to the consumer complaint. Eventually, the council fined the companies N100m, which they are contesting in court. For me, the fact that this has been challenged in court is a good development.

    It is true that Nigeria needs investors, but I detest this impression that these foreign companies are doing Nigerians a favour by operating here. It is true that our operating environment is not that business friendly but this should not be an excuse for people to give us subhuman treatment. Some people even wonder about the big deal in having half-filled cans of a beverage. It is difficult to blame such people given where we are coming from. The point is, we have been so dehumanised that we do not even know that we have rights as human beings. How many people here, for instance, know that there is something called ‘consumer product recall’ in which millions of defective products are withdrawn from the market in order to protect the consumer? In civilised climes where this occurs, the overriding consideration is not the loss to the companies but the health and safety of the citizens and consumers. These big companies know all these and more; they know how they are forced to shell out huge sums in compensation over some of the things we consider non-issues here.

    In the specific Sprite case, key findings of the investigation revealed that the cans of the soft drink were defective, that the companies neither had a written shelf-life policy for their products nor an implementation plan outlining practical steps for the implementation of the companies’ first in first out (FIFO) rule.  The investigation also revealed that the companies’ grievance resolution policy does not properly address compensation for injury or compensation in instances where replacement will be inadequate.

    It is only if we want to deceive ourselves that we would pretend that these defects are not there, not only with Coca-Cola products but with many other producers’ as well. We have had cases of people who saw cockroaches in bottles of their soft drinks. We have had cases of people reporting other particles in the drinks. Some of these are easily detectable if the drinks are not coloured; but detection is difficult in instances where they are, as one might even have started to consume the content before seeing the strange objects.  This could be the handiwork of some competitors in situations of unhealthy rivalries in which producers of similar product try to outdo one another. It could also be the result of laxity in quality control from the manufacturers. Whichever it is, it is not good for the consumers. And this is why governments all over the world create agencies to monitor manufacturers to ensure that they produce products to standard.

    On a personal, Coca-Cola is my favourite soft drink and it is likely to remain so until I find a better alternative. But I have also had cause to complain to the woman selling it on our premises on not less than two occasions that the taste of the product was different from the usual one. As a matter of fact, the usual gas released when the bottles are opened was conspicuously missing on all occasions that I experienced such. She would always ask me to come for replacement but I never did.

    I know that ignorance is no excuse in law; but I must confess that much as I am usually particular about the expiry dates of most other items I buy, including milk, butter and margarine, it never occurred to me that soft drinks have a shelf life-span. And if at my level I do not know, I wonder the millions of Nigerians who suffer such ignorance. But then, it is hard to blame anyone for this as not much emphasis is placed on the producers inscribing the expiry dates conspicuously on their bottles as do the manufacturers of drugs, cosmetics, etc. I think they are just beginning to do that. I guess too that I am part of the problem because I had always kept the defects in the product to myself and the retailer. But again, there is a limit to how far you can push such a case once the drink has been opened. You need all the angels in heaven swearing in order to prove that you are not trying to play a fast one on the company so as to make some quick money.

    The point is that the CPC needs the support of all in its bid to ensure that sanity is brought to bear on the beverage sector and in other sectors where it has jurisdiction. It is good that the Federal Government has waded into the matter by dragging the soft drinks companies and their chief executives to court for alleged criminal breach of Consumer Protection Council (CPC) Act. Early in the year, the council ordered the management of Aero Contractors Company of Nigeria Limited to compensate 39 passengers on its flight AJ132 of November 8, 2013 who were abandoned at the Abuja International Airport and left stranded overnight. Aero Contractor Airlines was ordered to pay N41, 000 each to the passengers, bringing the total fine to N1.599million. Such an agency is not likely to be popular with the corporate players it is supposed to regulate their activities in our kind of environment where many other public watchdogs are compromised.

    Although the practice of not wanting to abide by global standards is common even among many Nigerian companies, it is particularly worrisome that multinationals that should know better are in the forefront of this. What is particularly perplexing is that some of them even have different standards for the Nigerian market and do all kinds of things which they dare not in their home countries or even in some other African countries here apparently because no one cares about anything in Nigeria, or at least so they think. That is why they would have the temerity to threaten to have removed any chief executive of a supervisory agency who is not prepared to play ball with them. There is no way the  consumer will ever wear his crown as king if we continue to tolerate such nonsense.

    Thank you all

    I was away for just three weeks but some of my readers made it look like I had been off duty for far longer the way they kept asking what happened. I guess that was because I proceeded on the vacation unannounced in the first week. Thank God I am back. I am particularly grateful to Simon Oladapo, a regular reader of this column who got married on December13. He was the first person who called to find out what the matter was.

    I thank you all and wish you a happy New Year in advance.

  • Jonathan’s Nigeria

    Jonathan’s Nigeria

    A country’ s frightening descent into banana republic

    One question that I have always remembered most times when I stumble on anything on the French Revolution was that asked by my European History teacher in my Higher School Certificate (HSC) days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo: “How did the French Revolution beget the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte”? I guess someday, some students of Nigerian History would also be asked: “How did a potentially great Nigeria beget the serial incompetent and corrupt regimes hat brought it to this sorry pass”?

    It was clear immediately the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28 that the PDP would not take it kindly. I had said then that the party would resort to crude and primitive tactics instead of coming up with civilised means of settling scores, if any.

    In essence, the police take-over of the  National Assembly on Thursday was quite predictable. Discerning observers of the country’s political situation knew the day would not go without incident. President Goodluck Jonathan had written to the National Assembly for extension of the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. If that had been granted, it would be the fourth such extension and no one needs to be reminded that the emergency is not working. If more than 200 school girls could be abducted from their school in Chibok in spite of emergency; if bombs could be exploding in motor parks and other public places, including schools even in the daytime in spite of emergency, we need no one to tell us that the emergency has failed. And, as the House of Representatives noted, if you are using a particular strategy that is not working, you restrategise. There is no evidence that the government has done or is now prepared to do things differently. In the terror war as in other spheres of life, it has been tall in words but abysmally short in action.

    Ordinarily, one would have condemned the action of the House of Representatives members who climbed the iron fence at the National Assembly to make their way into the chamber. But then, that would not be fair because their action only resonates with what the ruling party has been doing and which the presidency has pretended not to see. Impunity is only begetting impunity. The most recent example is Ekiti State where seven lawmakers hired two unknown quantities to make nine, to ‘impeach’ the speaker. The same police force headed by Mr. Suleiman Abba that provided cover for those who perpetrated the show of shame in Ekiti said it had to move in to prevent a breakdown of law and order at the National Assembly. It further claimed that Mr. Tambuwal came to the assembly complex with thugs. Much as they would have to provide evidence of this, the question to ask Mr. Abba is whether he had expected Mr. Tambuwal to be walking all alone when he, Abba, had withdrawn his security details illegally?

    Weeks have passed and Mr. Abba is yet to restore the security details because, in his view, Tambuwal has ceased to be the Speaker on account of his defection. Obviously, Mr. Abba is not aware that Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and the speaker of the state house of assembly also defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the PDP, and none has relinquished his or her official position; none has lost any of the rights and privileges attached to their respective offices. Should the same law that binds the masquerade not be binding on the women in purdah, that is assuming Mr. Abba is in a position to say the action was illegal? Haba, Mr. Abba!  The IGP told journalists after a meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo  over the sad incident on Friday that: “Somebody was removing road blocks mounted by police, we have never seen this kind of thing in the whole world”. But he did not tell us where else in the civilised world the police are used for partisan purposes like the Nigeria Police Force. The police, now an extension of the PDP, and like the ruling party, are now the litigant, the prosecutor, the judge and the law enforcer. Clearly, this presidency is several centuries late in coming. Clearly too, IGP Abba does not belong to this age.

    But what all we have been seeing point at is that the Jonathan presidency is bare without the country’s security forces. Indeed, one would not be wrong to say that even the security agencies see themselves more as the president’s and his party’s security agencies rather than those of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    But things cannot continue this way for long, with democracy now being endangered by people who contributed nothing to the struggle for it. This should not be surprising though because you cannot value what you did not labour for. Unfortunately, it is the same people who were nowhere to be found during the struggle for the return of democracy that have cornered the chunk of the spoils of the bitter struggles that brought democracy back in 1999.

    However, it is instructive to point out that things were not this bad in 1983 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari and his cohorts were rendered jobless. Sadly, we appear to be following the same trajectory. When in the Second Republic the (now late) Chief Obafemi Awolowo said our economy was collapsing, the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which I consider the PDP its offshoot, said there was nothing like that only to come out with what it called Economic Stabilisation Act (1982) which spelt out some austerity measures some months later. The problem then was oil glut which brought crude oil prices to rock bottom levels. About thirty-two years later, we are back to square one. Crude prices are going down again. And, after living in self-denial for months, the Federal Government came up with its own version of austerity measures. Just as in the Second Republic, those who saw the trend coming and warned earlier were called names, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s finance minister saying the country was not broke but that it only had cash flow problems.

    This is why one can understand US President Harry Truman who in frustration demanded for a one-handed economist. “Give me a one-handed economist” he said, adding “All my economists say, ‘on the one hand…on the other’”. For God’s sake, what is cash flow problem? If the cash is there, why would it not ‘flow’? Instead of sitting down to address the looming danger which has eventually stared us all in the face, they kept assuring there was no cause for alarm. Incidentally, the same Okonjo-Iweala is coordinating minister for the economy. Apparently she was so chosen because of her Bretton Woods background, which may not necessarily be useful in our kind of situation as a developing country. A President Truman would by now be shopping for her replacement.

    Regrettably, not President Jonathan because, just as Nigeria does not require an Okonjo-Iweala kind of finance minister at this point, the country’s problems transcend a presidency that is applying analogue solutions (brute force, illegalities, etc.) to digital problems. The end-time signs of the Second Republic are already manifesting: bad economy, crippling corruption, crass incompetence in high places and, to crown it all, using the security agencies as crutches to sustain a corrupt and inept government. Where did Alhaji Shagari end despite unleashing the kill and go on Nigerians?

    Perhaps never in the history of mankind has the goodluck of one man become the albatross of millions of fellow citizens. A president who has spent over four years in office cumulatively does not have to be as anxious for reelection as President Jonathan is to the point of intimidating everyone considered a hindrance to this importunate ambition. If the president had worked hard in the right direction, what should be speaking for him now are his achievements. He should be telling Nigerians not just the amount of megawatts of electricity he has added to what he met on ground but how much of it is available to them. Years after he said we should be ready to dash out our generators, we are still importing more. The president should show Nigerians the dent he has made on unemployment; he should tell them what the exchange rate was when he took over and what it is now. Even on his basic responsibility of security of lives and property, he is a monumental failure. That is why, like an old woman who is never at ease when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb, President Jonathan has become so intolerant of those who think he does not deserve a second term. And that is why he is unleashing the police and sometimes soldiers on them, even as the soldiers are unable to grapple with their basic responsibility of defending the country’s territorial integrity.

    We wobbled and fumbled to this sorry pass because we failed to protest against little impunities like the ones the PDP is daily perpetrating now. The danger, however, is that, four more years in the hands of this government, the question that a great historian asked about Ghana Empire would be relevant to Nigeria’s situation: “Despite its opulence, greatness and wealth, by 1240 A.D., Ghana Empire was no more. The question now is: What caused such an inglorious fall of such a glorious empire”?

  • The road now taken

    The road now taken

    Aganga charts path towards improving industry, trade and investment

    With 17 parastatals, it would appear the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (MITI) has the largest number of government agencies in the country. By the way, I have always searched in vain for the meaning of the word ‘parastatal’ in any good dictionary, to no avail. I guess I must have missed the golden opportunity of knowing what it means or how we came about it in our civil service lexicon at the fourth edition of the media workshop for industry, trade and investment correspondents and senior editors of the local and international media held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, from November 7 to November 8. The workshop, with the theme: “Building a Greater Nation Through Sustained Transformation” was attended by the minister, Dr Olusegun Aganga, the permanent secretary, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, as well as directors in the ministry and the heads of its parastatals. Since the event was well attended by the heads of the parastatals, it should have been a good opportunity for me to ask them what the word means and how come it is only in Nigeria’s public service that it has gained currency. Anyway, there will always be another chance.

    And, talking about parastatals under MITI, one is not talking about some of those idle or irrelevant agencies of government but very crucial ones, especially in the area of developing the economy and weaning it away from its perilous dependence on oil and the vagaries of the international oil market. Here, one is talking about agencies such as the Bank of Industry (BoI), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Industrial Training Fund, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), among others. The credentials of the heads of most of these agencies and parastatals are equally intimidating. Indeed, this was the impression I got on the very first day of the workshop when some of them delivered their papers and answered questions from the participants.

    In this respect, Dr Aganga took the heat off my zone when he reeled out the academic and professional attainments of three of them, including that of the CPC boss, Mrs Dupe Atoki, on the second day of the workshop. Mrs Atoki, apart from the many national appointments she has had, had also served the African Union in diverse capacities including: legal consultant in the drafting of legal instruments; member of election monitoring/observer team to several African countries; commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, as well as the chairperson of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Africa. I singled her out deliberately because when she started her presentation and kept talking about challenges that are not making the consumer king in our (kind of) environment, I already gave her presentation the title “Lamentations of the CPC boss”. She however redeemed herself by the time she touched on the achievements of her council, particularly the celebrated case of the 39 air passengers allegedly abandoned by one of the airlines in the country without compensation or apology, which the CPC took up and over which it was challenged by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). I am waiting to see if by the time the matter is resolved by government, the passengers would still retain their crowns as the kings that they should be.

    One thing that cannot be taken from the minister is his business-like approach to issues. Another is the open-mindedness with which he took questions at the workshop. For instance, when I took him up on his automotive policy, his response was not totally satisfactory to me but he had his own point. My issue is with the state of infrastructure, particularly power, which is crucial to the success of the dream of a cheap Nigerian car and all its accompaniments. While I thought we should have sorted out the power problem first, at least; he felt otherwise. My concern is exacerbated by the fact that some of these things crisscross one another; it is not something for a single ministry to determine. In the specific case of the automotive policy, loans and interest rate (CBN) will be involved; the power ministry will be involved, etc. The danger is that all the ministries and agencies involved might not have the same passion and commitment to the project, which will invariably tell on the end-result.  However, the bone   of contention over our respective positions is which comes or should come first. It was not a fundamental question of the desirability of the dream car.

    There have been some firsts in the line of Aganga’s achievements. But I take personal interest in one. For the first time in about 100 years, the ministry has switched over from manual to automated registration of industrial property through the Industrial Property Automated System (IPAS) to improve the integrity of registration of trademark patent and design in the country. As the registrar, commercial law department in the ministry, Salman Mann said, “The automation is modern technology that would make it easier and faster for our staff and applicants in line with the international best practice as well as put the registry on the same footing with other registries in the world. It’s going to enhance our revenue and block all leakages and no process can be skipped in the course of the registration”, he said.

    In essence, a ministry like MITI is not one to be left in the hands of just anybody. It is a strategic ministry that should be handled by a pragmatic helmsman who knows his onions, especially in the country’s diversification efforts, given the recent developments in the oil sector. Without sounding unduly alarmist, we must begin to think creatively and vigorously too of viable alternatives to oil revenue before we start drinking the commodity or before we start hawking it like we do pepper and groundnuts, seeking buyers at rock bottom prices.

    However, there are a few things that I noted at the workshop which I cannot but touch on since two days were not enough to tackle all the relevant issues that arose from there. One of these is my observation that the ministry too believes this impression that the country’s huge population remains one key factor attracting investors into the country. This may be working for us now but there is need to caution that things must keep improving economically for this to continue to be, because what is important in the final analysis is not the absolute figures but the vital segment of the population; that is those with the ability to buy or make effective demand, as the economists would say.

    The point may be made that if the ministry is this efficient, how come we are not beginning to see or feel the impact? Perhaps the answer can be explained by the fact that things are so bad that the impact of little drops of water here and there from a single ministry cannot be felt immediately. The important thing though is that the minister appears to know what his job entails and has charted a course that he believes would take the country to the Promised Land, at least from the point of his own portfolio.

    Another important point that should be stressed is that whatever the major decisions reached at the yearly workshop should be summarised and implemented. In addition, the implementation must be well monitored, say quarterly, to see the progress made on them. Otherwise, the workshop would be like any other talk shop that the country is notorious for. I do not think there is any other country where seminars and workshops are held the way we do in Nigeria. The sad thing about it all is that we allow the papers and resolutions to gather dust in government shelves.

    All said, one can only hope that the minister’s case would not be like that of the cockroach that wants to dance, wriggling its waist, but which the prowling fowl looking for cockroaches to devour would not allow. Succinctly put, my fear is that much as the minister seems passionate about the government’s transformation agenda; his passion to transform industry, transform trade, and transform investment won’t end up making him a victim of political transformation. We once had a power minister that many of us thought was leading us out of darkness only to wake up one morning to be told that he had to go. Yet, many people who do not know their left from their right are still sitting pretty in office where they are consuming unproductively at the taxpayers’ expense.

  • Tambuwal’s ‘coup’

    The self-styled ‘largest political party in Africa’ turns to usual lawlessness as Speaker dumps the Humpty Dumpty

    Until the defection, last Tuesday, of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), many people had regarded the defection, in August, of the former presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2011 presidential election, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as the defection to beat. And that was quite understandable. ACN and other political parties that are unhappy with the state of affairs in the country have now teamed up to form the APC which is now trying to take over power from the ruling PDP.

    So, those who regard Ribadu’s defection to the PDP as the biggest such carpet-crossing have every right to hold that opinion. What on earth could have made a party’s presidential candidate abandon the ship only to want to run for governor on another party’s ticket? Well, much as Ribadu is now recuperating from his failure to get what he thought he was going to get in the PDP that probably necessitated his defection, the APC too, hopefully, must have learnt its lessons. What was Ribadu’s antecedent that qualified him to hoist such an exalted flag?

    However, now that Speaker Tambuwal has dumped the PDP, that has become the talk of the town and made Ribadu’s defection pale into insignificance. Tambuwal’s defection is the ‘mother of all defections’, at least so far. I said so far because no one can tell, the president himself might decide to jump ship before Noah’s Ark is full! ”

    My dear colleagues, pursuant to the extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and having regards to the developments in my home state of Sokoto, I wish to hereby formally notify you of my membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Let me register my profound appreciation to all of you, my colleagues, for the unflinching support you have continued to extend to me and the great sacrifice you are making in the pursuit of the overall national interest and the development of constitutional democracy …”. Tambuwal crowned it with a prayer that God should continue to guide his colleagues as they exercise the people’s mandate entrusted to them.

    With these words he adjourned sitting in the House to December 3. Although Tambuwal’s defection had been in the air for so long, why it still took some of the PDP representatives by surprise, to the extent that some of them reportedly wept after the Speaker’s announcement, is difficult to comprehend.

    Of course, everyone who is conversant with our political developments could have predicted how the Goodluck Jonathan administration would react to the issue that should be a battle of wits and guts. But trust the PDP and its government; they have already turned it to roforofo fight. Even as the Speaker was yet to return the gavel with which he hit the table to declare proceedings of the House of Representatives closed on Tuesday after dropping the bombshell, some of the PDP members had started calling for Tambuwal’s resignation from the party.

    Indeed, the ‘punishment’ has started. National Vice-Chairman of the party in the South-South, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, vowed to do everything within his powers to regain the speakership of the House from Tambuwal. “PDP is a very disciplined (disciplined?) party. If you come and steal in the PDP and use the PDP to elevate yourself and get into office, when the time comes, God will get you out like the issue of Tambuwal. You can see how God has exposed him”, he said. As if it is not common knowledge that the countless persons that God had truly exposed in the ruling party are the ones enjoying the fruits of the land!

    Expectedly, even if gratuitously, the Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, has joined the fray by withdrawing Tambuwal’s security men. By so doing, the acting IGP assumed the role of the judiciary which he has absolutely no power to assume. Moreover, there are many cases pending in courts concerning the Section 68(1) (g) that he cited as the basis for his action. At any rate, at whose behest did the IGP take the action? And how does that become a pressing matter for his attention and action? If the police boss could promptly react to the crimes plaguing the country the way he reacted to Tambuwal’s defection, a purely political affair, the country would be a better place to live in. Again, not only did the courts say that there was not only division in the party but faction, which later merged with the APC. So, on what legal plank did the IGP stand to carry out his clearly partisan action?

    It is obvious the PDP would even take more misguided and desperate actions in the coming days and weeks. For now, it appears the police force is enough. At the appropriate time, other security forces – army, navy and air force – may be involved. When the ruling party fights, it does so with all its fury and might, forgetting that the era of brute force is gone forever. Ideas rule today’s world. The PDP should however be well guided by Nigeria’s political history, and particularly by what  happened in Burkina Faso, where soldiers joined demonstrators in protesting the plan by that country’s parliament to extend (now former) President Blaise Compaore’s nearly three-decade rule. It comes to a point when even security forces become embarrassed by the unholy use to which lawless governments put them, particularly when the parliament that should do the needful fail in that responsibility.

    Another thing that should be expected is that, rather than the ruling party lament that it had lost a big fish (that is obvious because the country’s Number Four Citizen cannot be anything but a big fish), the party would, in its arrogance and ignorance (or both) suddenly realise that the Speaker is nothing but a political Lilliputian; someone whose kernel was cracked for him by the party only for him to turn round to bite the finger that made him politically relevant. The PDP said that when it lost Bukola Saraki, the former governor of Kwara State. When Saraki was in the ruling party, he was an issue, but the moment he defected, he became an inconsequential politician; the same was said of Rotimi Amaechi, the Rivers State governor. So, no one should be surprised if the ruling party now says Tambuwal’s exit from the party is good riddance to bad rubbish. Indeed, Ojougboh suggested that much in his reaction to the issue.

    Another likely fallout of Tambuwal’s defection is that he would suddenly become a corrupt person; (sorry, the PDP would now suddenly realise he is corrupt). So, he is likely to be ferociously hounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as if even if the allegation is true, he is the only corrupt person in the land; or, as if we do not see very corrupt persons around the corridors of power on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, the party would have forgotten while accusing Tambuwal of being corrupt that the president had said there is nothing like corruption in Nigeria and that what many of us call corruption is mere stealing! Tambuwal’s sins (if any) that would have been overlooked if he had not left the ruling party would suddenly be remembered and visited. The ruling party would now desperately start fishing for excuses to rubbish him. To them, it used to be unthinkable that anyone of substance could ever dump the PDP. No matter what we might say of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, he is one of the first big fishes to dump the Humpty Dumpty, even if he returned, only to quit again. But he made the point that there is nothing sacrosanct in or about the PDP. Tambuwal has revalidated that point, even if with bolder relief.

    From these reactions it is obvious the PDP and its government do not seem to appreciate the enormity of the damage they have done to this country in the last 15 years. Only people without conscience would still see the party as having something good to offer Nigerians. The party can only go more brutal and commit serial illegalities in its bid to rid Tambuwal of the speakership, further alienating itself in the process. The ideal thing to do, if indeed the ruling party is disciplined as Ojougboh wants us to believe, is to go to court to challenge Tambuwal’s defection rather than embark on self-help. If the PDP and its government are not comfortable seeking redress in the law court because of the slow pace at which justice travels in the country, they are partly to blame for that tragedy. They have had all the time in the world to reform the judiciary to make it more functional. Now that they see themselves as likely candidates or victims of that slow pace of justice, they resorted to self-help, thereby worsening their case. One may not know the party that would succeed the PDP; it is at least getting clear by the day that the ruling party has since lost whatever its allure was.

    Again, one thing no one can take away from the Speaker is that he has managed the affairs of the house well in his time. Even if the PDP now ‘exhumes’ some phantom sins against him, Nigerians would see through the shenanigans: why now? What the ruling party does not seem to realise is that more surprises could be in the offing. Given the government’s and PDP’s frenetic reactions to the incident so far, one may deduce that they both do not seem to appreciate the unfolding political drama in the country.  Suppose it turns out that Tambuwal’s defection was only the ‘champion’? Suppose ‘knockout’ is on the way?

  • A ‘divorce’ long expected

    A ‘divorce’ long expected

    Patience dumps Dickson as the scales finally fall from the eyes of the ‘romantic pair of lovers’

    Like all such ‘marriages of convenience’, the political alliance between Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, finally collapsed like a pack of cards on October 23. I cannot say precisely when the ‘romance’ started. But not many would doubt that it was initiated by the governor, who must have felt he needed the First Family’s support to realise his political ambition. It was in furtherance of this objective that the governor appointed Mrs Jonathan as a “super” permanent secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service in July 2012, barely five months after his inauguration. She was one of the 17 persons so appointed. Expectedly, the appointment caused outrage in the country, with many people expressing misgivings about it and the extent to which the civil service had been politicised, because, clearly, such appointment is injurious to the civil service, which is supposed to be the engine room of governance in the state.

    Without doubt, it was an abuse of privilege which did not make sense in a place like Nigeria. What would the wife of the President of Nigeria do with the ‘peanut’ that a permanent secretary (super or ordinary) earns monthly, compared to the unlimited pork in the care of public office holders here? May be elsewhere, where public servants, including the president, are closely monitored to ensure that they do not have access to more than belong to them from the public till, such peanut could amount to something; definitely not here where public functionaries can spend and all we would do is keep wondering who appropriated the money for them and when?

    But Governor Dickson, like most public officers in the country defended the appointment; he even quoted the constitution to support his decision. The governor probably would have quoted another section of the constitution to support himself or even quote the same section upside down if he did not want to do what he did. The point I am making is that deep down in his heart, the governor knew he made the appointment due more to political exigency, even if he was not willing to admit that much.

    Mrs Jonathan’s resignation has however confirmed what many of us have always known about such ‘marriages of convenience’. Once the scales fall from the eyes of at least one of the lovers (which is more than enough requirement for a ‘divorce’) the ‘wedlock’ collapses. Since it takes two to tango, and since, as the late Chief Moshood Abiola once said, one cannot clap with one hand, the collapse of the ‘unholy wedlock’ was only a matter of time. That time came on Thursday.

    Those who feel the resignation might be to pave way for others to climb in the civil service must have got it all wrong. Since when did the First Lady realise that her appointment was blocking others from making progress, after all, she was appointed more than two years ago? Secondly, how can only one space given to her be the obstruction on the part of those deserving elevation in the state civil service? At any rate, what would it cost the state government to create offices for the deserving even where none ever existed; after all, again, there is a precedent already? For sure, Governor Dickson would gladly have created other offices if that had been the problem. So, that excuse certainly, does not hold water. Moreover, at 57, the First Lady still has at least three more years to go, given the retirement age in the state civil service pegged at 60. Why then would she be in a hurry to leave the system?

    In essence therefore, the only plausible reason that could be adduced for her resignation is that she felt she has bided her time enough and it is now time for her to come out of her shell which she had recoiled into a few months back, following persistent bashings she received online after the now famous blood that they are sharing (shedding) saga. Mrs Jonathan ‘s running battles with the governor have been in the news for long; apparently it has got to a point where she can no longer stay in her shell if she is to stop the governor’s reelection bid. Already, according to reports, she has her eyes on Waripamowei Dudafa, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Affairs. Dudafa, a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Bayelsa State appears the only man that President Jonathan and former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha can trust and are therefore likely to back for the state governorship election in 2016. It would appear therefore, that Dame Jonathan is in charge of that flank for the election, apparently to allow the president concentrate on other areas that might not want to capitulate to the almighty ‘federal might’ in the coming elections.

    We cannot also forget that Mrs Jonathan is a veteran of political battles. Her issue with Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is still fresh in mind. She bared her mind on the rift with Amaechi to 16 bishops from the south-south geopolitical zone who visited the Presidential Villa in July, last year. According to her, “This matter started as far back as four years ago at Anyugubiri in Okrika when I begged him not to demolish a part of Okrika but (that he should) dialogue first with the people. After that incident, he called the chairman of Okrika (local government) and sacked him for holding a reception in our honour; that boy was the first victim. He also put my people on curfew for nine months. I called him and pleaded with him but he refused. Then I began to hear all sorts of propaganda in the media against me; this is not the way …”

    It is a long story but the kernel is that Governor Amaechi stood his ground from the beginning to the end. No doubt he paid some price for that because his state was nearly made ungovernable by the powers-that-be. It could not have been worse for Governor Dickson if he had followed a similar course that is almost certain he would have to pursue now that the president’s wife is almost set to go for his jugular. The governor must have realised, perhaps belatedly, that there are some people like that who can hardly be pleased once they have made up their minds or have their minds made up for them. But my own take is that what the governor cannot tolerate as a big man, he should have been rejecting even when he was poor.

    Mrs Jonathan has by her resignation confirmed the saying that the cane that was used to whip the first wife (Timipre Sylva in this instance) was never thrown away; it was merely hidden in the ceiling. Now that they have need for it again, they are going to retrieve it.

    This however is contrary to what Mrs Jonathan told the visiting bishops on Amaechi’s matter because; at a time in her speech to them, she went scriptural. At another, she went philosophical. Hear her: “… I pray that God touches Amaechi’s heart as per his hot temper because when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers …  Hebrews 12:14 urges us to embrace peace with all men without which; we cannot see God. Amaechi is my son; I cannot fight him, and I cannot kill him”. And the philosophical: “He shouldn’t be used by outsiders against his own blood because this seat is vanity. “One day, no matter how long it takes; we will leave this seat. Power is not forever”. Got the contradiction between words and deed?

    Anyway, all said, whether the forces against the governor would prevail or not is difficult to predict, but what may not be is the fact that even the Dudafa that they reportedly prefer today is coming to have the same comeuppance. It is only a matter of time for today’s lucky man to realise that he cannot please his political godfathers. Once upon a time, Dickson was the anointed child with whom they were well pleased. As things stand, the governor must realise that he has a lot to contend with. If Dame Jonathan could treat Amaechi whom she referred to as her “son” the way she did, then Dickson who is not her “son” should know what to expect. But, like all those who rode to power on the back of the tiger, he needs more than his present tough posture not to end up in the tiger’s belly, and to win the battle ahead. If the matter is about wars and chariots, he needs no soothsayer to tell him he is not in contention. He would be fought on all fronts – land, air and sea.

  • Marking World Food Day the Lagos way

    Marking World Food Day the Lagos way

    Empowerment of agric workers is the way to go

    If there is any country that should take the food question serious, Nigeria is it. The reason is that Nigeria was a big agricultural player before crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities in the country in the late 1950s. Unfortunately, we abandoned the farms as soon as the money-spinning crude oil was discovered and the petrodollars started coming in. But crude oil also came with crude problems. For the first time we became conversant with all kinds of jargons as an oil producer: ‘vagaries of the international oil market’, ‘oil glut’, etc, concepts that were never our headache when we were a major agricultural country. This was enough to make us know the dangers in having a monocultural economy. Unfortunately, many of our leaders, including those who took Economics as a subject even at the Ordinary Level and must have read in many Economics textbooks the need to diversify our economy obviously read for the sole purpose of passing examinations. The result is that we always catch cold whenever these ‘vagaries’ sneeze. Our challenges are now compounded by the Shale revolution which has led to the U.S. reducing crude oil imports from the country by more than 50 percent. In spite of these stark realities, our leaders do not seem to realise what is about hitting the country, and if they have, they are yet to take concrete steps in steering us out of harm’s way.

    Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State brought the looming danger into focus again on Thursday at the state’s commemoration of this year’s World Food Day/ Agriculture Value Chains Empowerment held at Johnson Agiri Agricultural Complex, Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos. The governor told the audience that he was just informed that this month’s Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting had been postponed as a result of cash crunch. So, no money for the states, many of which have not been able to meet  their basic obligations, like payment of salaries as a result of this incessant cash-flow problem that hit the country some months back.

    But, while many of these states have merely been lamenting their plight without taking any serious action except waiting on Abuja for the monthly handout, the Lagos State government has taken some bold steps to shore up its finances, with huge success. Yes, the argument may be made that it is easy for the state to raise its internally generated revenue exponentially as it has done because of its peculiar position; the same argument can be made for the peculiar number of people it has to cater for. What has become obvious is that Lagos, unlike many other states has had to reinvent governance, especially since the return to civil rule in 1999.

    Part of that reinvention is the reform of its tax policy which has brought into the net many people and corporate bodies that hitherto were perpetual tax evaders. Fashola indeed alluded to that when he said but for this improvement in tax collection, the state government would not have been in a position to do some of its laudable programmes, including the empowerment of the 3,149 people that it gave one form of agricultural equipment/assistance or the other at the occasion, to improve agriculture as well as make life more meaningful for them and, by extension, the larger society.

    The beneficiaries cut across the state, with some of them going home with 50 crates of eggs each; some went away with 50 kilogrammes of cat fish each, while others also received all types of feeds to boost their livestock businesses, among others. Some riverine communities also received speed boats to aid their fishing businesses. Perhaps the luckiest beneficiaries were the 217 who received title deeds to enable them obtain loans from banks for their farming operations. This is good in that it redresses the situation whereby industrialists who make use of the farm produce made available by farmers are able to get loans from banks while the farmers themselves are shut out due to lack of collateral.

    Little wonder the event was marked with pomp and pageantry, as it was attended by dignitaries, including the former governor of the state, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who received a standing ovation on his arrival; traditional rulers and the top echelon of the civil service as well as  beneficiaries of the agriculture empowerment scheme and their relations. It is therefore easy to understand why Governor Fashola was elated at the occasion. The huge crowd that turned out for the event was enough endorsement of the programme. Although one could not divorce political tinge from the event, it nonetheless did not detract from the raison d’etre.

    Governor Fashola made highly witty statements, many of which were weighty in their profundity; statements that put government and governance in bold relief. He spoke about the inequities and inequalities in the world. For instance, the governor spoke about our world in which we still find very poor people in some very rich countries, as well as the paradox of very few rich people in some poor countries. But the issue, as the governor rightly noted, is not much about the paradoxes but about making sense out of the inexplicable nonsense.  This could be done by redistributing wealth in a way that makes it possible for the needs of many people to be met, which was what the empowerment scheme was all about.

    World Food Day is celebrated worldwide every October 16, in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 1945. The theme for this year’s event is “Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth”. In a sense therefore, the state government has, by empowering such a huge number of people in the agriculture and agro-allied businesses commemorated the day not by mere sloganeering as many of our governments are won’t to do, but by concrete actions, in line with this year’s theme of the day. It is instructive that the empowerment was for agriculture and agriculture-related ventures. In a sense therefore, the state government is assisting in its own way to diversify the economy.  Such little drops of water replicated across the country could help in restoring agriculture to its pride of place and we would stop having headaches over volatility of the oil market. In addition, we would be able to save the billions we spend importing some basic food items, like rice, for more useful purposes.

    A fascinating aspect of the event was the presentation of the star prize to Ikeja Senior Secondary School, Oshodi, Lagos, which came tops in the Agricultural Science Quiz Competition among the secondary schools in the state. The intention is to ‘catch them young’ and it is a good way to “connect our children to the land” as Governor Fashola noted; it can never be a journey of books without food. The message is that no one should have the impression that farming is for the ne’er-do-well in the society.

    The sheer magnitude of the event was enough to make people who see workers in government ministries as parasites to rethink their view. One individual who cannot but be commended in all these is the state commissioner for agriculture and cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, who must have worked tirelessly along with his team to ensure the success of the event. Kudos also goes to Governor Fashola for  being thoughtful of the less privileged in the state.

    In sharp contrast to the ‘stomach infrastructure’ phenomenon which is becoming an issue in the country, the Lagos State government realised that it is better to teach people how to fish than giving them fish.  As Governor Fashola said at the occasion, many of the beneficiaries who as at the day before the event had nothing doing would from the day after boldly tell their relations and neighbours: ‘I am going to work’; whereas only a few days before, what would be in the subconscious of many of them is: ‘I am going to beg’ anytime they were leaving their homes, even if they could not have said it loud.

    The Lagos example must have been part of the ways that those who conceived the World Food Day wanted the day marked and definitely not by measuring affluence or prosperity by the number of people having private jets in a country, or the number of billionaires where abject poverty stares the majority in the face. International days such as the World Food Day have meaning when localised in a way that they connect to the respective peoples of the world. Not until we begin to see farmers as kings and give them the necessary assistance and encouragement not only to make them produce well but also ensure that whatever they produce is not allowed to waste (because most food items are perishable), we may never get out of the food quagmire.

  • Keeping vigil on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    Keeping vigil on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    Nightmarish 21 hours from Lagos to Oyo and back at 13 km/ h

    It was a trip that should have lasted between seven to eight hours on a good day; that is considering the ongoing construction works on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, but which ordinarily should not have lasted more than four hours, other things being equal. But because Nigeria is not a place where other things can be taken for granted, I ended up making the journey from Lagos to Oyo and back, a total distance of about 340 kilometers, in 21 hours, no thanks to the ubiquitous but invisible ‘Nigerian factor’!

    That was my experience on Friday, October 3. When I left my house at exactly 7.55 a.m. on that day, I had projected that I would be back latest by 9.00 p.m. That was because I thought I had to accommodate all the factors – known and unknown. Of course, I thought I had made ample provision for the Holy Ghost Night usually held every first Friday of the month by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at the popular Redemption Camp on the ever-busy expressway. I was later told that the ‘fall down and die’ people too, that is the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) for short, were also going to have their service early Saturday morning. These two events, being the crowd pullers that they usually are, are enough to make an intending traveller on that road think twice before embarking on any journey on such a day.

    Indeed, those who travel frequently on the road had warned me to prepare for a long journey. I did not ignore their warnings, because I had heard tales of people ‘sleeping’ on the expressway but I never experienced it. It only turned out that I underestimated their warning. As a matter of fact, it was the warning that made me add about five hours to my expected arrival time. But the (then approaching) Ileya festival for which the Federal Government declared October 6 and 7 public holidays to enable the Muslim faithful celebrate compounded the woes of travellers on the road.

    All appeared smooth initially, save for occasional hiccups on the expressway, due to the construction works on it, until we nearly got to Ibadan; that was when we began to have a feel of what to come. Indeed, that was when my projections began to fall flat in the face of reality. We eventually got to Oyo at about 3.30 p.m. after crawling in the traffic in the ancient city of Ibadan for more than two hours. Having lost so much time on the road, I hurriedly transacted my business in Oyo, and about one and a half hours later, we left for Ibadan on the return trip to Lagos, arriving the Oyo State capital at about 5.30 p.m.

    It was too smooth from Oyo to Ibadan that I almost wanted to start proving the ‘bookmakers’ who had predicted bedlam on the road, wrong.As a matter of fact, I had started to dream about attending the vigil on the day, which I still would have been able to make if traffic flow had been as smooth from Ibadan to Lagos as it was, first from Ibadan to Oyo, and vice versa. But just at about when I should have started to jubilate that things were turning out well on the road, I saw this intimidating traffic ahead of me. It was so serious that from about 5.30 p.m. when we arrived Ibadan, we did not get out until well past 11.00p.m. My wife who had earlier advised against our returning to Oyo to pass the night when it was still possible (because it got to a point when it was no longer feasible even if we had changed our mind, because of the chaotic traffic situation) must have seen the sense in my suggestion too late, as we both sat in the car watching the clock tick every second, every minute, every hour. When I heard people say they slept on the expressway, I had always thought they parked their vehicles and slept off. It was when I ‘slept’ on the road too that I realised that it was vigil that those people actually had. No one behind the wheel could sleep because sleep was a luxury that could hardly be afforded as traffic became like the thief in the night (unpredictable), moving at a snail’s pace unannounced when it would, only to be followed by another long wait on the spot.

    It was such a dreadful experience that was better imagined. But the journey was another terrible narrative of everything peculiarly Nigerian. All that a first-time visitor needed to do was observe proceedings on such a day on the expressway and he would return home with volumes to write about our country, our government and our people. This country must be one of the few places in the world where we would be losing such long man-hours to traffic frequently on a single road (never mind the fact that it is a major artery) without anybody getting worried, not to talk of bothering to tell us its implications in economic terms.

    One thing that immediately came to mind seeing the high volume of traffic on the expressway is security. From my observation, it seems we are just at the mercy of God because I did not notice much security presence. Perhaps the few occasions when we saw either policemen or soldiers were when such security personnel led the convoy of motorists driving against traffic. One would have expected that the security men would insist that motorists maintain their lanes; but no. Rather, they led the way while the other law breakers joined them, leaving the law-abiding motorists stranded on the road.

    Of course, more people became law breakers the moment they saw there was no one to enforce the law and that those who should were merely interested in making a way for themselves. The result was the chaotic traffic situation from both ends of the expressway – the Lagos end and the Ibadan end.

    For sure, this cannot be the way valuable time is wasted on the road in other places simply because roads are being constructed. Hardly could anyone travel in such circumstance with his or her life remaining the same after the trip. Agreed, things might often have to get worse before getting better, but people do not have to die before they can enjoy good roads. The way it is on the expressway, Nigerians must have been dying in installment, especially those who use that road regularly. To say that the knots and bolts in their bodies (not only those of the vehicles they are travelling in) would have been giving way gradually is stating the obvious. That is one of the reasons why so many people die here usually ‘after a brief illness’. Many of them have been dying gradually before death finally came and when we cannot understand why, we blame the deaths on witches and wizards. How much blood would the witches and wizards drink? Unfortunately, we make those claims unchallenged because those being accused cannot sum up the courage to defend themselves publicly.

    Then the many big potholes on the road. These include the RCCG area, the MFM axis, etc. These potholes naturally slow down traffic significantly. Lagos Traffic Radio talks about them almost every day such that even people who don’t frequently travel on the expressway but who listen to the station regularly must have known about these portions of the road; in which case it is assumed that government officials are also aware of the state of the axes. Nothing  stops the contractors from regularly fixing the potholes to save motorists the hassles that they experience, especially ithis rainy season.

    One other thing is the darkness that pervades the highway at night. One can only hope that our leaders who awarded the ongoing contract for the expansion of the road took provision of lights into consideration because no matter how good the road is, if it is not well lit; criminals who operate ithere would continue to have a field day.

    All said, perhaps the main question is why are there no alternative means of transportation, especially in an important axis like the Lagos-Ibadan route, bearing in mind its overall importance to the nation’s economy? Without doubt, many of the vehicles causing the gridlock would not have been there if, for instance, our railway is functioning well. Some experts have even said that it is only a question of time; the expansion going on on the road would not be able to accommodate the volume of traffic there. Are we preparing for such eventuality? Why can’t we have a flyover near the RCCG Camp that would make people not going to the place escape the traffic that those bound for the camp experience?

    Much as one commends the Goodluck Jonathan government for expanding the road, it should ponder these issues so that whatever amendments that can be done now would be accommodated before it is too late so that we do not go back to square one immediately we start experiencing the euphoria of the expansion. It would be suicidal to make travellers on that road pass through this harrowing experience again sooner than later.

  • The president and the proverbial lizard

    The president and the proverbial lizard

    Jonathan’s self-assessment on Nigeria’s 54th Independence celebration

    President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated himself over his administration’s performance since 2011. It has been wonderful indeed. The president had told Nigerians in his 54th Independence Anniversary speech that he has delivered on his electoral promises.

    But, beyond the felicitations and clinking of glasses despite what we were told that the independence anniversary was low-key in Aso Rock, as usual with the Jonathan government’s claims, we have done well by way of figures than by actual that Nigerians can see, feel or touch. I mean the assessment was tall in statistics even if abysmally short in reality. Hear Doyin Okupe, the president’s senior special assistant on public affairs: “It is an incontrovertible fact (hum?) that Nigeria under Jonathan has reduced its food imports by about 40 percent and increased its local production of rice, cassava, sorghum, cotton and cocoa in percentages ranging from 25 to 56 in the last two years.

    Indeed, he singled agriculture for special mention: “For the first time since independence, the Nigerian agricultural sector is attracting unprecedented Foreign Direct Investment.

    “Over the past two years, the sector has attracted $ 4 billion in private sector executed letters of commitment to invest in agricultural value chains, from food crops, to export crops, fisheries and livestock. Will Dr Akinwunmi Adeshina, our Minister of Agriculture stand up for special recognition?

    Okupe continues: “The number of private sector seed companies grew from 10 to 70 within one year. Over $ 7 billion of investments from Nigerian businesses have been made to develop new fertiliser manufacturing plants, which will (emphasis mine) make Nigeria the largest producer and exporter of fertilisers in Africa”. I underscored the word ‘will’ because many things that governments in Nigeria claim as achievements are things alwaysin the womb of time. Anyway, may be the reason they do this is because, as they say in Yoruba land, ‘whether the baby is going to die or survive, we should first congratulate the mother.

    And if there has been so massive investment in the country, where are the jobs so created? Why are Nigerians still dying on job queues? Indeed, Okupe himself anticipated what would have been going on in the minds of Nigerians by virtue of this claim, so he quickly added that “All these people who are bringing huge resources to invest in the Nigerian economy are no fools or novices”. He knew the people would be asking how come people would be investing in a country where the level of insecurity is so high and the power sector comatose.

    That brings us to electricity supply; the government also has soothing words (I wonder if Nigerians have not had a surfeit of that).  According to Okupe, “the major component of the reform which is the privatisation of the generation and distribution power infrastructure was successfully accomplished in 2013, thus putting Nigeria on a sure path of steady power supply in no distant future.” Whoever told Okupe that mere privatisation is the ‘major component’ of the power sector, after 15 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule and in spite of the billions of dollars already invested in the sector! The ‘major component’, for Nigerians, is steady power supply. The PDP cannot spend eternity to lay the foundation for insanity; if it does, when will it begin to exhibit madness proper? How can the same PDP government be talking about “a sure path of steady power supply in no distant future” in 2014 when by the various targets set by its previous rulers (and even the present of the I go dash you my generator fame), from the days of Chief Bola Ige as power minister, we are supposed to have achieved a certain level of power generation by now, which has never materialised?

    Anyway, maybe we have to give President Jonathan the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he is just bringing out the bird from the bag; we therefore should not be too inquisitive in knowing whether the colour of the bird is black or red.

    But, on a more serious note, only Lagbaja and the President’s unrepentant arm-chair critics could have regarded these palpable achievements as nothing. Fifty-four gbosas for President Jonathan! Congratulations. The President should not mind the critics because I know they would soon resort to proverbs, like that of a lizard congratulating itself by nodding when it falls from a wall and the people around do not acknowledge the feat it has performed. How can anyone in his right senses say President Jonathan has not performed; tell me, how? May be such critics do not know that it is possible to forward march to the past. Or that a leader can move his country forward in reverse? For sure the President cannot be behaving like the woman who has only one child and when told that her child was fighting, she asked, “which of them”?