The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • The humbling of Sanusi

    The humbling of Sanusi

    From the outset, everything about Project Cure, Mallam Lamido Sanusi’s much vaunted pill for restoring the naira, was defective. But he didn’t think so. That is the problem with this our almighty Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor; once, he makes up his mind on an issue, getting him to see reason with others who disagree with him becomes a fight, especially that variant called roforofo by the late Afrobeat icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

    Since Sanusi had decided on the so-called restructuring of the naira, there was no looking back for him. He was set to roll whether or not the people knew what he was talking about.

    He obtained President Goodluck Jonathan’s approval, no doubt, before unveiling his Poject Cure, but it should have occurred to him that it was an exercise that would generate heat because of the issues involved. Sanusi’s CBN was planning to, in one fell swoop, convert 50kobo, N1, N5, N10, N20, N50, N100, and N200 notes to coins.

    It also proposed to change polymer notes to paper notes. The big one was the printing of the N5000 note, and the mere mention of its coming irked the populace. The questions came pouring out in torrents as the people questioned the rationale behind its coming.

    The people were expecting Sanusi to educate them on why an economy like ours should be talking of having a N5000 bill considering our level of economic development, but he was not forthcoming on this. Rather than embark on enlightenment, he took to abusing and calling those opposed to the idea names.

    In a poverty stricken country like ours, what value will the N5000 note add to the life of the people. There were arguments that as part of the functions of money, it will enhance the measure of value of the naira. Good, but what about enhancing the value of the people. What value will there be in a currency, which cannot be accessed by majority of the people.

    Even, as of now, only a few people can access the N1000 note, but it is a manageable means of exchange compared to the N5000 note. This was why no two economists agreed on the planned introduction of the note before the president asked Sanusi to shelve the proposal to allow for wider consultation, something that the CBN should have done without being told in the first place.

    But because Sanusi was determined to have his way after clearing with the president, he gave no thought to the people who will be affected by the policy. The planned restructuring of the naira, he wanted us to believe, was for the economic good of the country.

     Hear the bank : ’’When the CBN introduced the N500 note in 2002, inflation dropped from 16.5% to 12.1% in 2003. Similarly, when the N1000 was introduced in 2005, the inflation actually dropped from 11.6% to 8.6% (single digit) in 2006 and dropped further to 6.6% in 2007″.

    But it forgot to tell us what the economic indices were then. It also forgot to tell us that there had never been an over 5000% increase in the oldest highest denomination and the new one as being contemplated before the proposed N5000 bill was stopped. We may be no economists but we are no fools. Likewise, Sanusi may be a good economist, but he is a bad mind reader, everything being equal.

     Without doubt, Sanusi is an arrogant man and he has been exhibiting his arrogance since he came to office. My problem with those who are haughty is that they tend to look down on others, including those superior to them. It is this attitude that led him to introduce non-interest (Islamic) banking without any feeling for the religious sensibilities of others.

    Then, he went to Kano to play Father Christmas with our money under the guise of helping those attacked by Boko Haram elements, again without caring for the feelings of many Nigerians. Sanusi’s supporters tend to say that he is highly misunderstood. I beg to disagree with them.

    He is not a misunderstood person; he just likes listening to his own voice whether or not he is making sense. Being CBN governor is not a licence to run one’s mouth. We have had CBN governors before and we know how they comported themselves. As CBN governor, Sanusi is not expected to talk any how, unfortunately, he does. Sanusi talks more like a politician than an economist.

    We know good economists through their thoughtful and profound policies and not harebrained remarks against those opposed to their ideas. What did former President Olusegun Obasanjo say to warrant his taking the general to the cleaners the way he did? Is it a sin to disagree with the CBN’s plan to introduce the N5000 note? What did Obasanjo say about the bill that had not been said before by others?

    By abusing Obasanjo, Sanusi was indirectly throwing barbs at all those opposed to the N5000 bill as ‘’very bad economists’’. Who are we to disagree with this Thomas Malthus of our time? But then, it takes a bad economist to know one because Mallam Sanusi’s Project Cure was not only bad, it was incurably bad ab initio. Let him return to the drawing board and do what is right and proper.

     Who killed Ozuah?

    The late Ugochukwu Ozuah’s

    story is one that touches the heart. Here was a man, who got married on September 15 and five days later, he was killed. What is worse; the circumstances of his death are now enmeshed in controversy. The late Ozuah was said to be in the company of his friend, Irikefe Omene, when the sad event happened. He was said to have driven Omene to the bus stop to take a cab. On their way, according to Omene, they were stopped by the police.

    The late Ozuah, he said, was trying to park the car properly when he was shot by a policeman. The policemen, he said, took off after the shooting. Omene then returned to the deceased’s home to inform the wife, Joan, who became a widow after five days of her wedding.

    By the time Omene returned to the scene, a crowd had gathered. Instead of rushing the late Ozuah to the hospital, they just milled around discussing the tragedy. Meanwhile, he was lying there on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

    The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Anthony Police Station had also arrived, following, according to him, a phone call. He said he was called by those who heard the sound of the gun shot. Omene in whose presence his friend was shot claims that the police pulled the trigger. The DPO disagrees, saying Ozuah was killed by robbers. I find it difficult to agree with the DPO that robbers killed Ozuah.

    Has the DPO concluded investigation into the case as to arrive at that conclusion? What gave him the impression that Ozuah was killed by robbers? Was there any report of robbery near that scene? Who were the robbery victims? At what time were they robbed? If those who killed Ozuah were robbers, what did they take from him? Was his friend, Omene, also robbed?  Why are the police so sure that it was a robbery? It is just as well as saying that it was an assassination without any prior investigation.

    I don’t think the police should discountenance Omene’s statement that Ozuah was killed by the police. His statement is worth investigating. I don’t see any reason why he would say the police killed his friend if it wasn’t so. What would he gain by making such a claim? For now, it is too hasty to conclude that Ozuah was killed by robbers or even hired assassins without thorough investigation of the incident.

  • The oil marketers’ revenge

    The oil marketers’ revenge

    For weeks, many outlets were running skeletal services, using only one or two pumps to dispense fuel. They knew what they were doing. It was a dress rehearsal for a full blown scarcity of petrol. Whenever filling stations start to behave like that, an alarm goes off in my mind.

    The alarm went off a few weeks ago when I started noticing some funny behaviours in some outlets and I consciously made it a duty to  always have a full tank. But I was afraid for my wife because I knew that she would not pay attention to such ‘’little things’’. So, last weekend, I did a small test for her after checking the fuel gauge of her car, which as expected was a bit below half tank.

    After my check, I asked why she did not fill her tank when there are signs of an impending fuel shortage. She disagreed, saying that the filling stations are selling,‘’ how can there be scarcity?’’.

    I looked at her and laughed. I told her that all the telltale signs are there of an upcoming scarcity. I reminded her that for sometime the filling station on the road leading into our estate has not been selling fuel regularly. ‘’What does that tell you?’’ I asked her. She could not answer. When she went out on Sunday, she saw things for herself. Queues had built up all over Lagos, heralding the coming of another fuel scarcity.

    Many motorists, at least those who are not vigilant, were caught napping by this sudden development because it did not follow the usual pattern of tanker drivers threatening fire and brimstone or labour calling workers out on strike to protest one government policy or the other. The scarcity crept in like a thief in the night last Sunday, causing anguish and pains for many people. There is nothing that disrupts people’s lives more than fuel scarcity.

    Once, there is fuel shortage, everything virtually grinds to a halt. In a commercial city like Lagos, things are even worse. Moving around becomes a problem as the roads are choked up with vehicles queuing for petrol. There is chaos on the road; at homes and offices things are not better because we need fuel to power our generating sets.

    Nigerians run a mini-government of sorts in their homes, providing their own light, water and security. We have a government, yet we don’t see the effect of government in our lives. There were abundant signs that this scarcity was on the way, but the government did nothing to nip it in the bud.

    It preferred to wait for the problem to come before adopting its usual fire brigade measures to address the challenge. This scarcity wouldn’t have hit Lagos, if the government had moved swiftly to tackle the problem when it reared its ugly head in Abuja and other parts of the country. Although the government may have been lax in addressing this fuel scarcity, we should not blame it too much for the problem.

    Marketers are the brains behind this scarcity, as they have always been, and it all boils down to their greed for money and more money. With little investment, they want to reap maximum profit. Where is that done in the entire business world? You know the answer already, it is Nigeria.

    The present scarcity has its taproot in the January 1 ill-advised hike in the price of petrol from N65 to N141 per litre before President Goodluck Jonathan graciously (don’t chuckle please) brought it down to N97.  Since then, marketers, who bought products based on the then prevailing rate of N65 per litre, but sold at the new price of N97, have been looking for ways to disrupt the process again for them to make another killing. They are not satisfied with the huge profit they made in the heat of the January fuel crisis.

    This is why today, they have resorted to the old argument of subsidy payment to cause another untold hardship in the land. Must we continue to be at the mercy of these oil sharks? Can’t the government do something about checking the excesses of these marketers? For long, we have been held to ransom by these marketers, who use all sorts of gimmick to perpetrate fraud under the guise of fuel importation?

    Should fuel importation be the sole business of these marketers? Is there no other area of the economy that they can play in to aid the growth of the oil industry? From all indications, they are, for now, only interested in importation where there is easy money to make rather than be burdened with the serious business of  drilling and refining.

    Marketers are a curse to the oil industry and until the nation is able to call their bluff, they will continue to ride roughshod over us. In our bid to do so, they will want to fight back, which should be expected, but we should not allow them to gain the upper hand. No matter how powerful they may think they are, they cannot take on the nation and expect to win and they know this too well. But to be able to fight them and go the distance, the government must be on the people’s side.

    Once the government decides to join forces with the people and not their oppressors the battle is won. Will the government ever be on the people’s side? I doubt if it will, but we must never give up until we force these marketers to treat us as human beings and not as mere numbers that should be added to their balance sheets.

    Shouldn’t they first balance human beings before balancing their books? To marketers, people count for nothing, they are tools to be used to achieve the businesman’s selfish goals. This is why they pay peanuts, but cart away huge profit at the end of every business year. But then they seem to forget that human beings count in the business equation. Without the people that they so despise, they cannot be making the huge profit that has got to their heads and made them believe that they are now tin gods. Nobody knows when the scarcity will end, with the Federal Government’s silence so far.

    There were signs yesterday that the scarcity had started easing. On its part, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) seems confused. It is blaming the vandalism of its pipelines at Arepo in Ogun State for the scarcity.

    If NNPC wishes to be sincere, it must know that, that is not true. I do not believe that the vandalism of those pipelines is the major cause of this scarcity. The major cause, I say with all emhasis at my disposal are the marketers, who have refused to import fuel despite an  agreement reached with the government last month. The pact followed their threat not to import fuel until they are paid their outstanding N200 billion subsidy. The government has since paid N42 billion out of the money, but the marketers are insisting on full payment to save their businesses. Since a labourer is worthy of its hire, the  government should pay them, but such payment must come after an audit.

    This means that the marketers must have done genuine business. Woe betide them if their hands are not clean, that means they will not be entitled to a kobo. Let them refuse to import fuel from now till thy kingdom, the government should not be moved to pay them except there is ample evidence to back up their claims. Any one of them found involved in any shady business should be made to face the music. By the way, what happened to the trial of those indicted in the fuel subsidy probe? Their trial should go on to its logical conclusion.

    The marketers will fight back, as they are doing now, but we should be ready for them. We should all remember that nothing good comes easy and cheap. It is at a price, which we should be prepared to pay or else remain in perpetual bondage.

  • Will Dana fly again?

    The rate of turn over of airlines in Nigeria is high.  In the past 10 or so years, no fewer than 20 airlines have come and gone. Many of them died after one or two crashes; others just went under, probably because of mismanagement. Airline business is not for everybody. It is not for the small fries, but for the super-rich, those who have the wherewithal to put in place all the things necessary for a smooth operation.

    What it entails to run a successful airline business are planes and those toys don’t come cheap. An aircraft good enough to service a route, whether domestic or international, must be in good condition.

    It must be a plane that has undergone all the necessary checks and has been certified fit to fly. Such planes must not be tokunbo as in those rickety jalopies that most of us drive on the highway. To fly in the air and to drive on the land are two different things.

    We cannot afford to take in the air any of the risks we take on the road by driving unserviced cars or those which engines are quarter to pack up. If we can risk driving cars without good headlamps or tyres, we cannot do the same when it comes to flying. Everything about an aircraft must be shipshape. This is why after an aircraft has flown for a certain number of years, it is no longer used. Its second hand value is not as high as that of a car.

    But because we are a nation that likes to cut corners in everything we do, we don’t seem to care about human lives in a business where priority should be given to safety of patrons. This is why airlines bring in all sorts of rubbish under the guise of aircraft and the regulatory agencies will look the other way until the worst happens. Then we will start to run helter-skelter as it was the case with the June 3 Dana plane crash in which 153 passengers died.

    We have heard all the things said about the airline since the crash. Despite the things said about Dana and the aviation industry generally, I can safely place a bet that nothing has changed. If we should look into the place today, we will be shocked by the amount of rot still there.

    Yet, the government has hastily returned the operating licence of Dana. For the airline to do what? To cause another havoc by flying people in an unfit aircraft? No matter what superlatives those in government may wish to dress Dana with, the people are not impressed. The government should not forget that in the recent past some airlines were so described, but how did they end?

    They ended up badly. I am not saying that Dana will go the same way, I am just drawing our attention to this, so that we should not be carried away by a so-called record, which has given some families anguish. How will those in government feel today, if any member of their families had been in the ill-fated Dana plane? Will they be talking the way they are now doing or behave like true human beings, who are bereaved?

    What has happened has happened, no doubt, but we need to learn a lesson to avoid a recurrence. This unfortunately, we have not done because those in power are more concerned about the business aspect of it all than the safety and security of the flying public.

    Why the haste in returning Dana’s licence? If the government knew it was going to let Dana off with a slap on the wrist, why then did it set up the Obakpolor committee? Or did the committee recommend the return of the licence? I don’t think the committee did that because, according to Aviation Minister Princess Stella Oduah, government took the action after being satisfied with the ‘’airworthiness of the airline after a rigorous technical, operational and financial audit.”

    If really Dana is that buoyant, why has it not paid the compensation due to the victims’ families? To some, the money is nothing, but what seriousness has the company shown in fulfilling its obligations to these people? Besides, what steps has the airline taken to show remorse over the tragedy? I am not against Dana returning to business after doing what is needful and necessary.

    There is nothing to show that it has been up and doing in the discharge of its obligations. Till today, many families, who lost loved ones in past crashes have not been fully compensated. We are talking about crashes, which happened over six years ago. Today, all those airlines are no longer in business, so who will compensate those families?

    Since that is the case, how are we sure that the return of Dana’s licence will facilitate the airline’s compensation of victims’ families? Does it have a time frame to do that? If it doesn’t, the government should give it a deadline to pay up, after, of course, the necessary verification. Dana cannot get back its licence on a platter without meeting its customers’ families at the point of their needs.

    Unfortunately, thegovernment too is not protecting customers. This may be why till today, airlines still treat passengers shabbily through unethical business practices. Is it the return of Dana’s licence that will make them sit up? Was Dana not one of them before the June 3 crash? I say this because of the statement credited to Princess Oduah that the airline’s licence should not have been suspended in the first place.

    She said Dana, after an audit, was found to be the best in the country. How do you suspend such a company? she asked rhetorically. Can Dana be better than ADC and Bellview in their heyday? I don’t think Dana can hold a candle to those two airlines when they were in business. So, what are we talking about being the best or not the best airline? Statements like these do not portray us as a serious nation. Such statements will also give the offending party, that is Dana, in this case, a sense of security that it can do anything and go away with it as long as its books are in order. We have turned ourselves into a cash and carry society.

    Perhaps, this is why the aviation sector is comatose. Those in the industry today are no better off than those there in the past and if care is not taken the sector may collapse. Presently, it is at the precipice and a little push, it will tip over. What do you make of a sector where the government is working hand in gloves with the operators to undermine the business in terms of providing the necessary infrastructural backbone? The only thing they know how to do is to fix fare and increase it arbitrarily. No business grows like that. Why are we blaming landlords for ripping off tenants, if we cannot stop airlines from charging passengers cut-throat fare?

    Despite all the money they made in the past, where are Intercontinental Airlines, Concord, ADC, Bellview, EAS, Slok, Sosoliso, Albarka, Okada, Savanna, Triax, Oriental, Air Mid West, Dasab, Fresh Air, Harco, Harka, Space World, Chachangi and Air Nigeria, among others today? It is a case of something built on nothing. What will happen? As the lawyers will tell you, ‘’it will fall’’. I pray that Dana learns from this or else, we shall be singing its nunc dimitis soon.