The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Oba Ajagungbade is 90

    Throughout last week the people of Ogbomosho and their well wishers celebrated with the Soun his 90th birth day and his 42nd year on the throne of his ancestors. If Kabiyesi was not the Soun, he would still have been a great man. In other words he brought greatness to the throne. His father  Bello Afolabi Oyewumi was Soun between 1916 and 1940. Bello’s father had also been Soun which means that even without the principle of retaining the kingship of Ogbomosho in one lineage, the Oyewumis have found favour with God and man to produce excellent candidates that were approved by the discerning Ogbomosho people for their throne.

    Prince Oyewumi as he was known before coming to the throne was a successful  self made business man. He lived in Jos where he made his fortune. For almost 30 years, he resided in Jos providing service for the plateau people during the period of British imperium. He was in Jos from 1944 to early 1970s when he relocated the headquarters of his company from Jos to Ogbomosho. When he was in Jos he maintained contacts with all those who mattered in the North. Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto had much respect for his business acumen  and maintained amicable relations with him calling him Ciroman Ogbomosho and treating him  with the respect which a fellow prince deserved. The then Prince Oyewumi was never a politician but he could read the signs that the future of independent Nigeria would be in the hands of the rising national political leaders.  Whenever the leaders of the Action Group came to the plateau they also sought the company of Prince Oyewumi. He was quite close to Awolowo and closer to Akintola his townsman and he selflessly provided them hospitality during their polical campaigns in the north.

    Even though he did not have much of formal schooling, he made up for it by attending courses as a young man when he first got to the north of Nigeria and had many English  miners as his friends. He was a great  socialite and he could dance to  all the western music then in vogue in colonial Nigeria. He made friends easily and this facilitated his business deals with the European firms that maintained trading monopoly in colonial Nigeria. He travelled to consolidate business relations with several  firms in England  and continental  Europe  particularly in Hamburg, Germany and Marseille, France in 1958. His business interest spans retail and wholesale distributorship, estate development, hotels and hospitality, light manufacturing and even shipping. By the time he ascended the throne, he had enough fortune to last him more than a lifetime and to give all his children the best education money could buy. He was a liberal father as attested to by all his children. He allowed them considerable freedom to choose their professions and did not force any faith on any of his children even though he is a strict Muslim. He believes that salvation is a personal thing and that we will all be judged as individuals rather than  as families  and that we will individually account for our lives on the day of judgement. He has managed to build a successful  family.

    As a successful father, he sees his Ogbomosho citizens as his extended family. He has tried to bring modernity to Ogbomosho and his reign has witnessed tremendous development in education, commerce and industry, banking, finance, telecommunication and road infrastructure. He is most happy about the great stride the Ogbomosho people have taken in education. When he came to the throne in 1973, there were only three secondary schools in  Ogbomosho; there are now over 150. He also contributed to the location of Ladoke Akintola University in Ogbomosho. He was also a major contributor to the building of a modern mosque in Ogbomosho. His reign above all has witnessed a period of peace. He is by nature a peacemaker. He did everything to make peace when the Action Group crisis broke out in the 1960s and when Ladoja and Akala had their political fight, he intervened unsuccessfully because he took Ladoja as a son and  did not want any crisis involving any Ogbomosho  man to affect Yorubaland.

    Knowing how tempestuous Ogbomosho history has been in the past, it is not a small achievement for Kabiyesi Oyewumi to have ruled this huge rural conurbation of millions of people without any crisis. The Soun deserves to be commended.

    It was a joy to see the number of dignitaries who attended the celebrations. Apart from friends of his children, the governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi was  there so were former governors, civilian and military, crowned heads such as the Olukare  of Ikare, the Gbong Gwon of  Jos and the emir of neighboring Ilorin who praised the Soun for his wisdom from which he has benefited in the past and adding that whenever he passed through Ogbomosho to and from Lagos, he always made it a point of duty to call on the Soun.

    Ogbomosho is a very important town. It used to be the third biggest town  in Nigeria coming after Ibadan and Kano. This was before census was politicized, and instead of being routine counting of citizens it became a competition in demographic rigging! I do not know its position in the demographic pecking order today. Its importance is however widely recognized by the fact that no head of state since independence has missed visiting the town. I was happy to have participated in the festivities surrounding the double celebration of a life lived for many and  a remarkable reign so far. Live Long  Soun Atobatele – meaning a man who was king before ascending the throne ,-a man destined to be great and who has achieved greatness. Live Long Baba. A boba lan boke koko lan bokuta.

  • The Avengers’ angst

    OF all things, militancy should be the last to occupy our minds right now; but it has crept back stealthily to the front burner. Many thought that it was dead and buried following the amnesty granted militants by the Yar’Adua administration in 2009. Under the deal, those who renounced militancy and surrendered their weapons were granted amnesty and rehabilitated by the government. The ‘men’, that is the leaders, were said to have been given a huge sum of money to give up their weapons; the ‘boys’, that is the foot soldiers, were taken to camps for deradicalisation.

    In the camps, they were paid stipends and taught handcrafts. Many were taken abroad for further training, with the government spending millions of dollars on them. The amnesty deal was, however, not embraced by all militants’ leaders. Dokubo Asari of the Niger Delta People Salvation Front (NDPSF) remains a known critic of the programme. Asari has also never hidden his disdain for the North, which he believes is responsible for the despoiling of the Niger Delta. The region is oil rich, but its people are the flotsam and the jetsam of the earth.

    The Niger Delta environment is not conducive today because of the operations of oil companies. They have messed up the waters and the farms from which the people derive their living without giving them anything in return. Rather than come to the people’s aid, successive administrations were believed to be in cahoots with these foreign firms to deprive the oil-producing communities of what rightly belongs to them. It was to call attention to their people’s plight that environmental activists like the late Ken Saro-Wiwa sprang up. But with the death of Saro-Wiwa and the likes of the late Isaac Adaka Boro before him, the agitation took a militant hue.

    Militancy changed the face of the fight because it became what the agitators could get from the struggle and not what could be done for the larger community. Militants resorted to kidnapping for money and blowing up oil facilities, which are the nation’s assets. As things stand now, it seems it is bye bye to amnesty, with the sudden emergence of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), starting the fight all over again. It is not that the fight had been settled; no, not all; but, at least,  the country was making headway in resolving it through the amnesty initiative. The Avengers, only they know what they are avenging, have thrown a spanner in the works, with their ill-motivated action.

    There is more to the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta than meets the eye. There is no threat to the region’s interests for now to warrant what the Avengers are doing, except if they are executing a hidden agenda. The militants may not be happy that the region has lost power at the centre and may be doing all this to rattle the Buhari administration to draw constant attention to the place. The Avengers are surely not fighting for former President Goodluck Jonathan, but fighting to keep what they were getting under him, which may no longer come to them, with Buhari at the helms. We were warned of this day long ago by Asari, but we did not take heed of what he was saying then.

    Shortly after the last presidential election, which Jonathan lost to Buhari, Asari rambled about the Niger Delta ideology at the gathering of the Ijaw for the 2015 yearly Isaac Adaka Boro public event. He was bitter that Jonathan had lost the election and without mincing words, he said his people would ‘’resume our struggle if Buhari draws the first blood’’. Asari forgot that Buhari was not elected to shed blood, but to preserve it. In the heat of the moment, he spoke the minds of his people on that occasion, threatening fire and brimstone, all because their son lost an election.

    Asari said : ‘’Yes, a new government begins in Nigeria and a new phase of our struggle shall begin also. The Jonathan presidency was like a restraining order; now that restraint is lifted. However, we will watch and wait; let them draw the first blood and we shall determine our best way forward. Truly, Nigeria will never be the same again; the future is pregnant’’. Is NDA the product of that pregnancy? Asari should tell us because a rabbit does not run in the daytime for nothing. The Avengers are dancing to the drumbeats of some people, but we do not know where these people are. Asari may know for him to have spoken the way he did last year.

    Using strong words to the delight of his fellow Ijaw, he went on : ‘’Should Buhari whom like Pharaoh has determined in his heart to turn desolate the Niger Delta draw the first blood by undermining certain interests of the region, then begin the systemic arrest, maiming and murder of our comrades, continue the confiscation of our rights for self determination and treat the region as a conquered region then it may be honourable for some of us to die in prison or on the field of war as nobody is afraid of him’’. Long before Buhari assumed office, the Niger Delta people seemed to have resolved to give him a tough time because of the fear of the unknown. Whatever gave them the impression that the president would come with an agenda to decimate them only God knows.

    Or are they trying to do to Buhari what Boko Haram did under Jonathan? Of what use will that be? Were they told that the president was Boko Haram’s sponsor? This shows how shallow their thinking is. The Avengers are having a field day destroying our commonwealth in these hard times and even daring the military to a fight. Those who know them should call them to order now because by the time the military takes them on, the story will be different. We all have our grievances against the system, but they cannot be addressed through violence. The earlier the Avengers appreciate this fact the better for them and their backers.

     

  • Stink and the Nigerian ‘saint’

    •(Of desperate philanthropists and advocacy gurus)

    There is no odor as dire as that which arises from tainted goodness. I will not deny any bit, the praise that is due to philanthropy, I simply say that we demand sincerity of all whom by their works and lives, pose to be a blessing to the country.

    This is the age of charity. And trust Nigerians, they are desperately exploiting generosity for all its worth. Thus everybody is a philanthropist; even youngsters as green as dug-up spinach have caught the bug – which explains the preponderance of self-acclaimed “youth leaders,” “advocacy gurus,” “motivational speakers” and “philanthropists” afflicting our world like plundering locusts at harvest time.

    A youngster on national youth service constructs tables and chairs for the school in which he’s serving and he pleads with selected mainstream media to mention it; then there is the advocacy guru who donates literature to a school library and pays the mainstream media to report it too, after which she posts it on Facebook and other social networking sites for all to see.

    Both characters among other things elevate and give expression to mankind’s greatest vanity: lust for applause and unearned greatness. In Nigeria, this has become social currency particularly among the youth. Youth seeking instant wealth and acclaim daily exploit the hackneyed terrains of philanthropy and what they perpetrate as “advocacy,” passionately praying and hoping that their exertions attract the attention and “goodwill” of local and international sponsors with deep pockets.

    “There is a clear-cut difference between philanthropy and advocacy,” many are probably jabbering by now. Agreed; but both fields of human endeavour are essentially set to the attainment of similar goals; sustainable development and the improvement of humanity.

    Philanthropy and “advocacy” as currently practiced by Nigeria’s youth is devoid of humanity. It is in essence, a partial and transitory act, projected in constant superfluity until the motives of the philanthropist and advocate are achieved. And what really are the motives? A fat bank account, a posh vehicle, a spectacular mansion, higher status, acclaim and unalterable greatness to mention a few.

    Greatness should be earned. The seekers of unearned greatness and material benefits are merely social parasites, moochers, criminals, who are too deficient in intellect and character to pioneer the oft tasking and spirited march to eminence. Essentially, they are a threat to humanity and the advancements we dream.

    There is nothing as deceptive and neurotic in concept as unearned greatness as it makes a wretch of the individual who seeks it. To substantiate it is in fact, impossible, thus the nation’s youth like her under-achieving ruling class, is caught in the web of such deceitfulness.

    Using ostentatious, indefinable sound-bites of altruism and collectivism as crutch, they struggle to give plausible form to their nameless vanity. Ultimately they seek to anchor it to reality to substantiate their deception to themselves and oft unsuspecting victims.

    Such deception never lasts. There is no short-cut to greatness. The best generosity and “advocacy” subsists in honest work. Be you a lawyer, doctor, accountant, journalist or accountant, your commitment to your calling represents the best form of advocacy.

    If you build a library, toilet or bathroom for your alma mater, why plead with the media to report it? Why package your so-called philanthropy or advocacy for the viewership and applause of all? It is only con-artists and social parasites that do that.

    Heartfelt, repetitive acts of diligence and altruism are sooner remembered and celebrated by the world. The world will accord you a listening ear and pay you the homage you deserve at fate and fortune’s appropriate hour. But a greater number of youth aren’t wired to accept such fact. They would rather seek the shortest cut to affluence. If by towing such path, they achieve their goals, they claim to be “smart,” but if they fail in their quest, they blame the government, their parents, the society and everyone else but themselves for the failures their lives become.

    It is our tragedy today that Nigeria still parades ‘promising’ youth with the heart of a lion and the wit of a hyena. It’s our tragedy that we still talk the talk of champions and walk the walk of cowards. It is infinitely heartbreaking yet amusing to see the Nigerian youth toil to harvest sugarcane where he planted thistle.

    The talk is of ‘seed.’ By every philanthropic act or showy advocacy, the lot of the unfortunate improves, it is claimed. Bet the “unfortunate,” ignorant recipients and audiences of such acts do not know that every such “charitable” act they approve, they applaud no humanity; rather they subject themselves as middling marks for their crafty philanthropists and “advocates” to rip off.

    By consenting to be deceived, the society establishes and confirms its shameful ignorance and it’s purely illusory foundations.

    This generation considers itself to be more intelligent than the one that came before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it thus its inexorable quest to outclass both bastions of our past and future. It is not clear however, how well it would fare in this arduous quest but many a youth have argued that it’s about time the “wasted generation” moved over.

    They claim that a new breed of Nigerian youth is fast evolving. This breed, they claim, do not seek handouts from the country’s under-achieving ruling class; no, they simply want the government to facilitate an enabling environment in which the youth could engage in gainful industry and thrive.

    By enabling environment, they speak of stable electricity, safe and usable road networks, security, access to free and quality education, free and affordable healthcare, and a corruption-free society to mention a few. I agree that such wonderful environment is overdue in Nigeria, but for what manner of youth should the government create such enabling environment? Resourceful, mean, currency-activated “youth leaders,” “advocacy gurus,” “philanthropists,” “motivational speakers” et al? Should Nigeria become more habitable for such characters and pretenders to humanity to flourish?

    To rebel against the established order, to criticize the current ruling class and in the same breath, court it; to lament the existing reality and confound extravagant hopes of the future by pillaging off the same reality are the common dispositions of a greater number of Nigerian youths. Add self-acclaimed genius to the mix, and you have yourself a perfect portrait of our leaders of tomorrow.

    You need to learn to crawl before you walk. It’s the way the universe is ordered. It’s about time the youth got busy doing honest work. The best advocacy occupies a crucial niche in honest industry.

    There is a sweet tang to success earned following years of slugging it out in the trenches. Career philanthropy and advocacy only encourages you to become a fraud unto yourself and your immediate society. There is no smart or street-savvy path to the good life. If you see certain people living large and amassing fortunes by circumventing honest sweat and industry, they are simply conning themselves off the rewards they ought to enjoy in their twilight.

    You need to be extraordinary at something before you earn recognition for it. Fortune seeks out he who has paid for it in sweat and honest toil but the lust for vanities steer importunate fools to the path to tragic twilight.

  • Alhaji Hamzat Ahmadu Walin Sokoto, Adieu

    Life is a stage and man and woman are but mere actors. When the curtain falls then our role is over. Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu, Walin Sokoto, has played his part and he is gone to be with his maker and to have eternal rest. May God grant him Aljanat Firdaus.

    I have known Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu for at least three decades. Throughout those years, he has always been forthright in his views and his views were not coloured by ethnic  or religious considerations at all. Whatever is right is right and whatever is wrong is wrong in his views. He was a quintessential Nigerian, he was a patriot to the core and he loved this country. He was not a typical Nigerian who saw the country from the prism of ethnic nationality or religion, yet he was a patriotic northerner and a serious and practicing Muslim. His religion made him to care for humanity at large, he epitomized the Renaissance man. He was polished and well groomed and he was  a man of high etiquette.

    He was a well trained diplomat and he served in many countries and he had the distinction of serving in the capitals of the then two superpowers namely Washington and Moscow. Yet when the Foreign Ministry came up with the idea that our most experienced diplomats should be posted to neighbouring countries, he happily accepted being sent to the Cameroons believing that peace at our borders are as important as in serving in glamorous places like Washington, The Hague, Moscow and Bonn.

    Wherever he served he gave it his best, he was an encyclopedia on Nigerian diplomatic history having worked with Sir Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon and Murtala Mohammed. Wherever he served and whoever he served, he was a typical Sokoto man whose religion of Islam positively influenced his comportment and zeitgeist. Fanaticism was not in his way of life. He was a Sunni Muslim without embracing the extreme Wahhabism chacteristic of present day Islamic fundamentalism. He died when his views about the so-called herdsmen versus farmers would have been helpful.

    Just like Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, the Emir of Ilorin said that not all the herdsmen are Fulani. I agree. The Bororo have lived with us for hundreds of years without any problem. In my hometown I was contemplating buying some cows to give to the Bororo to rear for me; this was the practice by my colleagues when I was in Maiduguri. In my place we have never had any problem with Fulani people. And to the uninformed, most of the Bororo are not even Muslims. Many of them are animists or practice some old religion and anthropologists have found traces of some crude Judaism  in their belief. They are simple, hardy people who are not envious of other people as most of us are.

    It is difficult therefore for me to imagine the peaceful solitary Fulani of my youth becoming the murderous Fulani of today; something must have gone wrong. In Newtonian physics, action and reaction are equal and oppositely directed, if these Fulanis have become violent there must be a cause for this and it behooves us to find the cause.  We should also realize that this farmer/pastoral divide and antagonism is not a North/ South  phenomenon. It exists all over Nigeria from Sokoto to Badagry and from Maiduguri to Calabar and from Kano to Lagos. We are not in anyway helped by heaping all the heavy blame on Buhari because he’s a Fulani man and I don’t think we are being fair to him. By asking him to come out and denounce the cow Fulani without ascertaining the facts, we are forcing him on the defensive and no leader likes to take dictates  or follow from behind. Leaders lead from the front. Pardon me for this digression.

    I remember with fondness Ambassador Clark joking with Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu of his people coming from Futa Toro in the Senegambia or Futa Djallon area perhaps in the 18th century or thereabout and Ambassador Clark turning to people like myself saying their neighbours were across the seas meaning the Izon people traded across the seas with Europeans and not people like myself in upcountry Nigeria. These are memories and memories are forever and I will always treasure my friendship with Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu.

    I worked with him in his later years as members of the Presidential Advisory Council which was set up by General Obasanjo and in spite of our difference in age, he related to me and everyone of us as equals. His anecdotal comments about former Heads of States with whom he served provided us background to whatever advice we offered to the new people in power.  When he had to observe his religious rite of prayers during meetings unlike most people, he never announced to anybody that he was going to pray and whenever I went to the washroom to ease myself, I will meet him making ablution preparatory to prayers. He was important enough to tell the meeting to stop and wait for him because he wanted to pray but that was not his style and whenever we had breakfast with Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan, he spoke sparingly and left all the presentations of our views to the chairman Chief Emeka Anyaoku. I deliberately emulated him and made whatever vigorous contribution I needed to make at the council meeting and not at the presidential breakfast meeting.

    By the end of our service in 2015 when we all deliberately said we were no longer interested in staying on in the same advisory capacity to the new president, Muhammadu Buhari, it was a collective decision because after 14 and half years of serving three presidents without pay or as non-stipendiary advisers, we felt others should be given the chance. I noticed at that time that Walin Sokoto as I used to call him was no longer as strong as he  used to be. He was by this time over 88 years old but still walked without the walking stick but he sometimes held to me or any person near him for support. His contribution to the foreign policy of this country will remain imperishable. His human relations will remain an example of how all gentlemen and ladies should behave. He brought integrity to the committee on national honours before the whole thing was bastardized and national honours became two for a penny and rogues looters and criminals found their ways to the list if they were politically connected.

    On a personal note, he was ever so considerate to me. When my brother Kayode died prematurely, he was always telling others what a national tragedy his death was and how American medical scientists held him in high esteem. When my wife passed on in 2003, he came all the way from Lagos to attend the funeral service. It is a pity that because of the Islamic injunctions for burial to take place within 24 hours, I could not go to Sokoto but a delegation of our former colleagues including Ambassador Jibrin Chinade carried out a message of commiseration from all of us to the Sultan. I remember one or two times when Ambassador was in Washington and while visiting he would ask for our neck size and you’ll be wondering why he was asking for this and before you knew it he will go inside his room to bring out a couple of shirts for us take home back to Nigeria. He was such a generous giver and in my religion, God loves a generous giver. Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu was involved in several areas of Nigerian life from banking, journalism and culture and I know that wherever he served, it was not for material purposes. If he had wanted to be stupendously rich, he had the opportunity but he never took it. His wife was from the South so in the North-South dichotomy of the Nigerian politics, he always took the side that was right by his own definition. One side of him that used to amaze me was his jovial relationship with his colleagues especially the ones from the south. He and Ambassador Akporode Clark were very close and they looked after each other. Hamzat Ahmadu is an unforgettable man and I will always remember him with fondness because it is people like him that hold this complex but complementary country together. I pray that he would find rest and God will look favorably on his soul and bless his family  he has left behind. They should take solace in the solid good name and legacy their loved one left behind which posterity will remember and celebrate. Adieu! Walin Sokoto

  • Suicidal governing elite

    The governing elite according to, Wilfred Pareto, (1848-1923), an Italian social scientist, governs society. It is made up of ‘conservative lions’ and an ‘adventurous but unscrupulous foxes’, according to Nicollo Machiavelli, (1469-1527) another Italian writer and philosopher.   Membership in Nigeria is often through inheritance, the high military command or the trader-capitalist. Many of their members occupying elective positions today are offspring of NPN stalwarts that wrecked the Second Republic, (1979-1983), colluded with military adventurers to destroy our boarding industries (1985-1998) or Babangida’s ‘New breed’  PDP politicians who openly engaged in looting and confiscation of our national patrimony (1999-2015). Like its counterparts elsewhere in the world, the Nigerian governing elite remains the bane of our society.

    Criticising the governing elite in Greece and Spain for its periodic tax increases to satisfy IMF bailout conditions, Charles Kadlec, in a piece in a recent issue of the Forbes magazine, accused it of ‘self love, sense of noble entitlement and arrogant belief in their good intentions which has succeeded only in destroying jobs and businesses in the productive private sector, intensifying the government debt home and abroad”. It was as if he had Nigeria in mind. Because of its self love, greed and sense of entitlement, the Nigeria governing elite has continued to behave as if Nigerians owe it an appreciation for its miss-governance of the nation. Between 1999 and 2015, Policy formulation and implementation by the Nigerian governing elite were designed as instruments of corruption to serve the greed of its members.

    Last week on this page, we made reference to how cash-strapped members of the governing elite after openly claiming they sold personal houses to contest election went on to create PPPRA which in turn appointed its members as fuel importers. They embarked on systematic looting of the nation’s resources through a fraudulent subsidy regime. They sourced from the CBN about 30% of our foreign reserve to import fuel half of which never got to Nigeria. Some of them who never supplied a pint of fuel forged documents to collect subsidy. Nigerian government paid demurrage charges whenever there was a force majeure at the ports. Government also paid interests on loans importers obtained from their banks. Government with its control of awesome apparatus of power had no clues as to those who vandalized 4000 kilometres of oil pipelines and government  tanks farms and had to patronize Independent Marketers’ state-of-the-art tank farms and their fleet of trailers where some individuals were said to own as many as 700.

    Similarly, a probe of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to 2007 by ‘Senator Ahmed Lawan was told how Public Corporations were sold at rock bottom prices. For instance, the Aluminum Smelting Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) established at a cost of $3.2 billion was sold for $130 million. Similarly, the Delta Steel Company, which was set up in 2005 at the cost of $1.5 billion was given away for $30 million. At the end, from total investments of about $100b Nigeria made between 1960 and 2007, what accrued to the nation from the ill- implemented privatization programme was about $1billion. Individual members of the group and their families who bought the assets at next to nothing, instead of fulfilling terms of purchase which by the World Bank projection would have created 7m jobs, they embarked on assets stripping, with the proceeds deployed to massive importation of the labour of other societies.

    We now also know that there was a massive rip-off in the energy sector.  For instance ex- President Obasanjo had during the theatrics of the seventh National Assembly declared “when our administration came in 1999, we met seven power stations – we have added six new stations as with the seventh almost completed at Alaoji; In other words, in eight years of our administration, we have provided six new power generating units of almost 2000MW, with capital expenditure and running costs between 1999 to 2007 (of) about $6.5 including outstanding letters of credit:”. We have not been told of what came out of an estimated $8b sunk into the energy sector in the Yar’Adua and Jonathan years (2007-2015). The nation has not been told what was recouped from the members of the ruling elite who benefitted from the sales of PHCN. They approached government for bailout funds and also secured waivers on importation of equipment. What the people got in return is increase in tariff and estimated bills sometimes for energy never supplied.

    We have also seen how the members of the governing elite in the guise of monetization policy shared the national patrimony they were expected to keep in trust for our children. Outgoing senate presidents, Speakers of the Lower House as well as principal officers of the National Assembly bought off their mansions built by taxpayers at next to nothing.

    Unlike its counterparts in developed economies that realized a long time ago that it was in its enlightened self-interest to ensure the poor lives above poverty line and the middle class enjoys decent quality of life, our ruling elite doesn’t seem to realize that the well-being of their members can only be guaranteed by the well-being of the marginalized, the exploited including their cooks, cleaners and drivers.  It also doesn’t seem to understand that for its members to hold on to the disproportionate share of the national resources they have cornered, they need the middle class, the salt of life without whose intervention society decays.

    The Nigerian governing elite is the greatest threat to its own survival because it is at war with both groups. The lots of the poor and marginalized are worse today than it was in 1999. The middle class seems to have simply disappeared.

    And as if to demonstrate it is on a suicide mission, its members are at war with themselves over the sharing of looted resources. It was they that called our attention to what some of their members fraudulently acquired through the ill implemented privatization programme. It was one of their own who became the whistle-blower in the N1.7t fuel subsidy fraud and it was their members that identified some of its leading lights that allocated prime properties to their family members through the monetisation policy.

    Added to this internecine war over looted national resources, our governing elite equally awarded themselves not only scandalously high salaries and allowances but also accompanied that with what the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (GNPP) has described as  indefensible severance packages which Revenue Mobilisation allocation Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) put at  N200m for two-term governors and N3.24b for ex- President Jonathan, Sambo his vice and other non returning federal lawmakers. This is in a country where about 75% of the people live below a dollar a day.

    As if ‘those the gods want to destroy, they first made mad’, governors under probe or facing EFCC charges in court are drawing pensions. Governors turned senators are drawing double salaries or pensions as Senate President Saraki has described it. Lawmakers spent N300b on toys called state-of-the-art SUVS. Taxpayers that fuel their cars and pay for their energy consumption are today called upon to pay N145 for a litre of fuel to power their cheap Chinese generators without prejudice to estimated bills for energy never supplied by the new owners of the power sector who after negotiating bailout also got tax waivers on importation of machineries.

  • President Buhari and Fulani herdsmen

    I think it is a great pity that the Buhari presidency, which started with a promise of change and hope for Nigeria, is now letting itself be defined by the most primitive development that this country has ever experienced. I refer to the series of barbarous invasions of various rural communities and small villages across Nigeria by the people whom we all call Fulani herdsmen.

    In the past few years, the rampage has been mostly in the Middle Belt, where a long succession of destruction of villages and massacres of their inhabitants has ultimately painted an unmistakeable picture of deliberate and systematic genocide. Today, no serious minded Nigerian can doubt what the citizens of the Middle Belt have been saying – namely, that there is a plan by the Fulani to wipe out some Middle Belt peoples and take over their territories.

    This Middle Belt picture is bad enough. The fact that it is taking place in today’s Nigeria disqualifies Nigeria to be regarded as a member of the modern world’s comity of nations. Worse, it is enough to eliminate Nigeria’s claim to be one country at all. And it continues, without any hope of letting off.

    At first, only few scattered forages of this sickening crime reached the states of the Nigerian South. But that has now changed. The rampage has now spread fully to the states of Southern Nigeria, even all the way to the states in the thick, and sometimes mangrove, forests of the Atlantic coastlands where there is not much grass to attract cattle. Suddenly bursting on rural communities in the dead of night, blatantly killing, maiming and seriously wounding men, women and children, burning homes and barns, and, reportedly, raping women, and then slinking away in the dark, this army of invasion has struck in almost every state of Southern Nigeria. A couple of weeks ago, the governor of Enugu State burst into tears when he saw the scene of total horror left behind by the invaders in a part of his state. Today, the Governor of Ekiti State is mourning the dead and struggling to save the lives of the maimed and wounded men, women and children of the small town in his state where the invaders struck a few days ago.

    It is getting worse. From the way this whole thing is shaping up, it can only get worse and worse. Nigerians are wondering why none of these desperadoes are being arrested. From time to time in the war against Boko Haram, we get reports that some of the Boko Haram terrorists have been captured and arrested; we are even shown pictures of these in the media. Nigerians cannot help asking, why the difference? Why are these people not being arrested?

    Indeed, why are they still able to move across this country at will and strike at will wherever they choose to? Why does it seem as if nobody, no authority, is doing anything to stop them – or even to restrain them even a little?

    Yes, Nigerians know that the president has ordered the military and police authorities to stop these people’s attacks on villages and farmsteads. But why is it that the president’s order seems to be producing no measurable result? Why, in spite of the president’s order, are these killers still freely and boldly spreading across Nigeria, killing, maiming and destroying, and getting away through long distances, all without encountering any disturbance by Nigerian law enforcement?

    Can Nigerians be blamed if they say, as they are now increasingly saying in the open media, that they suspect something fishy in this whole situation? Can Nigerians be blamed if, for instance, they say, as more and more of them are openly saying that they suspect that Nigeria’slaw enforcement authorities are afraid to deal with these killer herdsmen as they would deal with all other citizens because the killer herdsmen are the ethnic kinsmen of President Buhari?

    Moreover, since the Nigerian government has chosen to give little or no information to Nigeria about this killer gang, about its ways and means of operation, and about its purpose and objective for its hideous brutalization of peaceful Nigerian citizens across the face of Nigeria, is it surprising that Nigerians are themselves finding ways to fill the information gap? We have all tended to identify these people as Fulani herdsmen, but most of us are now saying that, though many of them are indeed Nigerian Fulani herdsmen, very many others are neither Fulani nor herdsmen. That very many are foreigners who have come to Nigeria.

    Very importantly, President Buhari himself has strengthened these suspicions. Without directly informing Nigeria, President Buhari let out the information in an interview with the CNN in London some days ago that many of the killers are indeed Libyans, elements from the highly trained and well-armed private militia of late President Ghadafi of Libya, most of whom fled south into West Africa after the fall of Ghadafi. Nigerians at home and abroad are wondering and asking, why did President Buhari not give this very important information at home and to his country? Why has he not done so even days after his London CNN interview? Why?

    Is President Buhari aware of the implications of that information to the CNN? Can’t he and his officials see that our president has said that foreign militia elements entered our country – invaded our country – and are killing people at will across our country, and our government has done, and is doing, nothing about it?

    How is it that they cannot see that a full statement – a full explanation of all circumstances of this crisis – has long been due from the President of Nigeria? Are we to live with the disturbing surrender to the fact that such a statement will never come from our president?

    The effect of this whole shady handling of this crisis is being reinforced daily by the kinds of statements emanating from significant Fulani citizens. Since these significant citizens know that foreign militiamen have been involved in the attacks on various parts of Nigeria, why have some of them been repeatedly claiming that the attackers are all Fulani herdsmen, Nigerian Fulani citizens who, as citizens, are free to go anywhere in Nigeria? Why that huge piece of misinformation?

    Is it surprising then that Nigerians are now increasingly coming to the belief that some very major, some extraordinary, objectives underpin this whole development. Many Nigerians are asking openly in the media whether this is not a heightened phase of the old Hausa-Fulani efforts to establish their sole and perpetual control over Nigeria, or to forcibly Islamize the whole of Nigeria. That is, have some in the Arewa North elite now gone so far as to recruit and bring into Nigeria Ghadafi’s uprooted private army, to hide among Fulani herdsmen, and to masquerade as Fulani herdsmen, for the purpose of intimidating the rest of Nigeria into some sort of surrender?

    Inevitably, over-arching the whole atmosphere of fears and suspicions generated in this crisis is its impact on the Buhari presidency. If President Buhari does not hurry to come open before the people of Nigeria, to give them full and ascertainable details about what is happening in their country, and to announce and convincingly follow up with plans to rid Nigeria of this terrible threat, his whole presidency could be doomed. Already, he must be aware that his stock has been falling gradually. Even his anti-corruption war, which started with a great deal of excitement and support, is losing enthusiasm and support as this Fulani herdsmen crisis grows bigger and bigger. It would be a great pity to see Buhari lose his once   considerable political capital over this squalid issue. It would be a greater pity to see Nigeria fall over it.

  • One year of change

    Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as president to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.

    -Buhari, May 29, 2015

    The magic word was change and it worked like magic. The electorate keyed into the word and voted for the party of change – the All Progressives Congress (APC) – in the last elections. APC not only swept the polls, it also  swept out the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ending the so-called largest party in Africa’s fantasy to be in power for 60 years. It took a change in government to open our eyes to PDP’s  disastrous 16 years outing spanning 1999 to 2015. It took that change for us to know that PDP took us for a ride all those years.

    With that change,  APC’s battle cry during the polls, comes the hope of a better tomorrow for our country. With that change we have hope that things will work and that outsiders will not continue to look down on us. The APC has a lot to do to change Nigeria for it to reclaim its place in the comity of nations. Transforming the country is not going to be easy, but President Muhammadu Buhari must start from somewhere. We are an extremely impatient people; we want quick fixes to problems. This is why many of us have come to see the president as being ‘’too slow’’.

    We want him to do whatever he wishes to do fast because the time is short – he has only four years in the first instance – to deliver on his promises to change Nigeria. By Sunday, he would have spent the first of his four years, leaving him with three more to go. What has Buhari done in the last 365 days? Has he delivered on his change deal? Has anything really changed? The president’s loyalists will quickly point out that things have changed. They will tell you that things are no longer the way they were in the last dispensation. What they are saying in effect is ‘’it is no longer business as usual’’.

    But his critics will say ‘’it is all motion and no movement’’. They will insist that ‘’nothing has changed’’ because the lives of the people cannot be said to be better than before. They will also point at the economy, noting that rather than improve, it is still haemorrhaging. They will refer to the high exchange rate, the fuel price hike, the erratic power supply and unemployment. All these were inherited problems, no doubt, but the critics do not want to hear that. To them, the issue is ‘’what has changed?’’ and they are quick to always add the clincher ‘’is this the change we voted for?’’

    This may not be the change we voted for yet, but it is better than where we are coming from. Things are hard today because they have to be so before they get better. In the last dispensation when there was money, what did the administration do for the country? Nothing. The leadership allowed the country to go to seed, while lining the pockets of a few. The government was more concerned about itself than the people. The welfare of ministers and their aides mattered most. That was why a minister could be gallivanting around the world in a charter flight under the guise of working for the country. What did all those flights yield? Nothing, but pains and debt for the country.

    We went through hell in the past in the hands of successive PDP administrations. If the people are today impatient with the Buhari administration, the government should try and understand how they feel. Once bitten, they say, twice shy. Former President Goodluck Jonathan pretended to be a good man and we gave him all the chance in the world, but what did we get in return? The Buhari administration must bear with the people. It should listen to their cry for the good things of life early in the life of the administration. The president is no stranger to how tough things are. He once wore the shoes like us and his being in power today should not distance him from the people.

    Things have become tougher under him because he has to correct the ills of the past in order to take off well. This is for those who understand; many do not. These people do not understand why fuel price had to go up from N86.50 to N145 per litre after several months of scarcity of the product, which during that period they even bought for as high as N250 and above per litre. They also cannot understand why power is still unstable despite the president’s promise to tackle the problem frontally. They want to take the president for his word, but the reality is otherwise. They keep asking themselves how long they have to bear these pains before the paean.  Their songs of triumph will surely come, the president assured the nation a few months ago.

    He said then that he was aware that people were complaining that he ‘’is too slow’’. He told his party members to tell us that he still has three years left to deliver on his election promises. We need not remind him of those promises. He knows that there is suffering in the land, with many workers going for months without salaries. As a caring father, he came to the aid of many states to pay salaries, but that gesture seemed not enough. Many states are still owing their workers. What about fuel, power and security? The president knows that these are issues he must address to remain in the hearts of the people after winning their votes in the last elections.

    At his inauguration last May 29 while reviewing the state of the nation, he said : ‘’At home, we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problem’’. That was not all he said. On security, he said ‘’we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all innocent persons held hostage by insurgents’’.

    Two of the girls have been found, raising hopes that others may also be found soon. It will enhance the Buhari administration’s image if all the girls are found. But, a better way to launder the administration’s image  will be to ensure constant fuel and stable power supply. With that, Buhari would write his name in gold. He has only three years left to do that.

  • Season of apologies

    Season of apologies

    When should a man say “sorry” for a perceived wrongdoing? When the wronged shows that he is hurt? Is saying “sorry” enough in all circumstances? When is an apology deemed to be a genuine exhibition of contrition; when it is dramatised in a manner that calls to question the remorseful man’s dignity, principle, pride and sense of self-worth? In other words, when does an apology become acceptable?

    But, dear reader, my apologies.This is not an attempt to embark on a winding, didactic monologue, keep you in suspense, bore you unnecessarily and waste your prized time. No. Neither is this a sermon on how magical the word “sorry” is. “Editorial Notebook” is simply moved by the manner of some apologies that have just been tendered – or discussed – by some of our prominent citizens, those self-conceited fellows to whom saying “sorry” seems to be a kind of aberration.

    Consider this scene: Dr Doyin Okupe, yes, Okupe, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s rumbustious public affairs man, the one who swore that Muhammadu Buhari will never be president (“call me a bastard if Buhari gets there,”  he once told a hostile audience in Britain) and one of the leading lights of the troubled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying sorry – in style.  He and some associates visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he had – with little or no provocation – tongue lashed as fastidious and pugnacious over his (Obasanjo’s) views about the Jonathan presidency. It was a private meeting, but somehow the photographs hit the social media.

    What a chilling and rare spectacle, an eyeful, if you don’t mind. The massive frame of a robust man rolling on the floor, like a punch-dazed boxer struggling to be saved by the bell. Obasanjo is sitting regally like a king, his hands resting on the glittering raised chair’s arms and his face turned away from the huge man kissing the canvass – to borrow the boxing writer’s language – pretending to be oblivious of the show of penitence going on.

    A reliable source, who swore by his late great grandfather’s honour that his cousin, who is a political associate of one of those fellows at the meeting, quoted Okupe as saying: “Baba, I’m sorry; have mercy. It won’t happen again. You remain my baba for life. E saanu mi. E gba mi o (have mercy on me. Save me o). Consider it as one of those hazards of our brand of politics.”

    Obasanjo frowns, his lips firmly closed. The source boasted that he could read the former president’s thoughts.”You, a prince who has refused to be princely. Waki-and-die. You and your man, the one who called himself your principal, thought you could embarrass me. Nobody can embarrass me. Yes. I’m ready to go konko bilo with you or anyone, so long as it concerns Nigeria’s health – if that is what you want.

    “Look at you now, rolling on the floor like an unrestrained  beer parlour client who has had too many a bottle. Just look at you. A prodigal son or what do I call this. Apology? Apology my foot!

    “Go and tell the man who sent you, your oga, that ungrateful boy…hum…hum(he clears his throat).Whatever he calls his name. Tell him that I, Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, can never be embarrassed. Any day and any time, I dey kampe.”

    Why the theatricals? Was Okupe pleading with Obasanjo to save him from the impending interrogation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which claims to have traced N72m arms cash to him? Is the government of Benue State still threatening to reopen the books concerning a contract the prince was said to have abandoned after collecting a hefty mobilisation fee?

    Whatever it was, Obasanjo seemed to have been magnanimous. How? A flashback to those exciting days of Benue State politics. The 2007 picture remains as vivid as ever, a poignant reminder of our politicians’ nauseating antics. Former PDP Chairman Barnabas Gemade, the one who cursed PDP – that because of the injustice done to him, the party will never know peace –  addressing a rally, a microphone in his hand and his left foot resting on  Col. Joseph  Akaagerger’s body as he lay flat –on all fours–on the dusty and dirty ground, begging. He was seeking support for his senatorial ambition.

    By the way, where is Senator Akaagerger?

    The former PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Chief Tony ‘the fixer” Anenih, was once quoted as saying that all sins can be forgiven, but political sins are never forgiven.

    Most “political sins” are traced to the lack of principle and greed, the “chop and quench” proclivity of our politicians. Is an apology a sign of weakness? To some, it betrays lack of confidence in one’s ability to fight. To others, it is an act of courage and humility, the hallmark of a gentleman.

    When should an apology be demanded? Is it right to demand for an apology when the truth hurts? When the other day in London British Prime Minister David Cameron described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt”, all hell was let loose. Many insisted that Nigeria should demand an apology for that “collective insult”, but when reporters asked President Muhammadu Buhari if he would demand an apology, he replied sharply: “I’m not going to be demanding any apology from anybody. What I will be demanding is the return of assets. … This is what I’m asking for. What will I do with an apology? I need something tangible.”

    Buhari’s reaction doused the fire of a potential diplomatic row which Cameron’s faux pass would have ignited. Would he have apologised if Buhari had insisted?

    When former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff saw that his ambition to be chairman of the PDP was in jeopardy after his aides lampooned some party elders, he swiftly denied them and begged the elders for forgiveness. “As a well- cultured and astute politician, I would never make any comment that would ridicule the party,” he said.

    Apparently, his was an apology that went off target. Now, he is faced with a desperate battle to keep the chairman’s seat after the governors who had stood solidly behind him as he took on his opponents withdrew their support. Prof Jerry Gana, whom his aides accused of plunging the party into a N500m debt, and some members of the BoT are pushing that the door be shut against Senator Sheriff.  Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday accused him of having  “a hidden” agenda against the PDP.

    The other day on “Facebook”, there was Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose decked out in a massive turban in Dubai, beaming, just as he was dressed when he visited an Ado-Ekiti mosque. Some said it was one of those Ballotelian stunts of his to grab the headline. Others said it was a desperate attempt to divert attention from the rumour swirling around his trip. It is neither here nor there.

    This being the season of apologies, will it be out of place to ask if Fayose would consider saying “I’m sorry” for claiming – without facts and figures – that Buhari planned to Islamise Nigeria?

    Besides, will the governor apologise for asserting – again, without facts and figures – that no Chibok girl was missing, now that one, Amina Ali, has been found?

    Will Pa Edwin Clark –happy 89th birthday, sir–apologise to his “son”, Dr Jonathan, for describing him as incompetent and lacking the will to fight corruption?

    When will the military apologise to President Buhari for that temporary loss of his certificates, which allowed the PDP to question his educational background and cast aspersion on his integrity – the very asset on which he built his battle for the presidency?

    Dr Jonathan has denied ever contemplating going on exile, as speculated –  in actual fact, affirmed – by some sources, who claimed that the EFCC was closing in on him for alleged corruption. Poor man. He says every time he travels, the rumour mill hits the overdrive – that he is seeking asylum. He says after serving Nigeria to the best of his ability, he has no need to run away. Will the peddlers of what the former President calls “a wicked attempt to link me with the renewed Niger Delta crisis” apologise to him?

    If “Editorial Notebook” has hurt you in any way, dear reader, here in this season of apologies and what music giant Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (God bless his soul) called “unnecessary begging” is my apology.  

  • Lust and prejudice in the time of Buhari

    Fear is the oxygen of change. It is what makes it combustible too. Fear of old iniquities and a pervasive terror of the new, drives many a man or woman to scurry into a hole or pitch tent with the proverbial known evil. There is too much uncertainty with the new.

    The fear of the unknown drove many to pitch tent with Goodluck Jonathan at the last general elections. Fear of old iniquities, the bleak present and an austere future drove many more to put their hopes in Muhammadu Buhari.

    Buhari’s emergence however, complicates our perverse dynamics of corruption. His immediate past predecessor was no revolutionary – Jonathan was no hero and he never pretended to be one. He was not interested in upsetting the status quo or ridding the country of sleaze – he understood that Nigeria throve on vice thus he simply played the role of passive leader and enabler. His infamous ‘Stealing is not corruption’ assertion accentuated imagery of his leadership as an intellectual and moral aberration.

    Enter Muhammadu Buhari, the redeemed dictator, self-proclaimed martyr and moral crusader. Buhari’s publicised distaste for corruption incites the separation and tension between moral and amoral personae. The attendant backlash from profiteers from the corrupt order, accentuates the thrill of seduction and revolt against the incumbent president’s  anti-corruption campaign.

    In the ensuing melee, hard choices have to be made and unpopular decisions taken, often to the detriment of the nation’s longsuffering citizenry. Although there are estimated benefits in the long run, very few Nigerians are ready to accept that the obnoxious hike in pump price of Premium Methylated Spirit (PMS) from N87 to N145 for instance, was a necessary evil amid the country’s bordello of chaos and institutionalised corruption.

    While the measure became necessary to check the excesses and criminality of Nigeria’s buccaneering oil cabal and their cohorts in government, the impact is more severe on the citizenry. In the gale of severe criticism that trails the hike in fuel price, flashes of reasoning and spirited arguments in support of President Buhari’s ‘harsh but necessary measure,’ resonate across the social and political landscape.

    This no doubt establishes burgeoning goodwill for the president among progressive segments of the citizenry. It also relates to trust. For instance, it can be inferred from various arguments in the social and traditional media that Nigerians are solidly behind Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign and occasional painful palliatives. Highly opinionated segments of the citizenry declare that they aren’t giving Buhari as much grief as they gave Jonathan because they trust Buhari “not to eat their yam” or leave it for random goats to eat.

    Nonetheless, Buhari’s brazen offensive against institutionalised corruption is seen as unwarranted invasion, trespass and criminal intrusion into the debauchers and debauchees’ sacred space. In pre-Buhari era, immoderate lust for riches was dismissed as priapism of want – like drunkenness and promiscuity, that was the fault of fools and satyrs. Buhari’s animosity against the debauched and his stark polarity of good versus evil canonizes integrity and amplifies the significance of honesty in public service.

    However, his inability to address the degeneracy within his cabinet will be counterproductive to his efficiency as president and anti-corruption crusader. Like this writer intoned in an earlier piece, of Buhari’s ministers, too many are vectors, mortal agents of the worst kind of viruses. Eventually, they will make his government food for worms. From the moment of their appointment, the infestation of Buhari’s administration commenced but Buhari and his political groupies naively maintained that if the head – that is, Buhari – be moral, the body (his cabinet and underlings) too will have no choice but get with his program.

    Buhari confuses their obsequiousness, exaggerated display of loyalty and forthrightness with a heartfelt yearning to serve Nigeria and bolster his campaign to redeem the country from the jaws of his predatory ruling class. He mistakes his capacity to instill fear in the hearts of his ministers as a trait of effective leadership. But fear is never enough. Buhari’s ministers may fear him but they do not respect or appreciate him. They do not buy into his vision for Nigeria because the system that produced them negates Mr. President’s dream of an ideal state.

    It is worthy of note that his ministers’ terror of him stems from their fear of being chucked off his cabinet. Their inability to arrogate authority to themselves and appropriate political celebrity for selfish ends, causes Buhari’s team great dissatisfaction. They consider themselves unduly chaperoned and monitored. Their predecessors, that is, ministers that served with the last administration, consider them Buhari’s parlour pets.

    Lust, an immoderate hankering for riches, which was an intrinsic trait of the Nigerian presidency is under chains and lock in the current dispensation. This is a good thing for the nation but a tragedy to Buhari’s ministers and the ruling class. Lust characterised the aggressive, predatory cabinet of former President Jonathan thus making it the norm and coda of public service. Consequently, Nigerians imbibed and bought into the culture of corruption. Those that hadn’t the nerve or the connection to profit from the rot, assumed the role of voyeurs, watching as the nation drowned in a quicksand of debauchery.

    As Nigeria mutated into a frightening theatre of politics and blood, Buhari emerged on the stage, donning the cape of a new-fangled alchemist hero. To actualise his fantasy of ‘change,’ he inserts Victorian ideals in a dysfunctional polity. The resultant clash of personal ethics and political culture is instructive. Tragedy morphs with comedy, the banal with lyric, and ideal beauty with the grotesque and obscene. Buhari’s culture and ethic of change soon conflicts with his cabinet’s. His ministers consider his politics a product of naive sentimentality, dubious patriotism and cynical sophistication.

    The fact that Buhari ignores them to seek the ‘wise’ counsel of his ‘closest confidant’ outside his cabinet rankles his ministers. It resonates jarringly to them. They understand that they are highly dispensable and replaceable. Rumours that certain men and women on occasional visits to the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock comprise the president’s preferred replacements to certain members of his cabinet. A few members of his team that sucked up to him and played acquiescent ‘Yes-men’ cum errand boys have come to the sad realisation that, like they used Buhari as a means to their ends, the Retired General from Daura, equally used them as means to his own end. Although they considered Buhari incapable of playing dirty, they found out that the president’s seemingly bland and linear politics is a hybrid of self-fertilising forms.

    Suddenly, they realise that Mr. President is aware that they are dubious change agents that rode into his cabinet on spurious waves of sentimentality, political indebtedness and dirty politics. Certain members of the presidential cabinet know they will not survive the current term or a second term with Buhari. From the president’s body language, they know he simply tolerates them. Buhari’s favourable run of goodwill among the citizenry also poses a grievous problem to them. Unlike the previous dispensation when they easily concocted and marshaled webs of brilliant propaganda against Jonathan’s government, they understand, albeit very sadly, that it is impossible for them to employ similar tactic with the incumbent regime. Buhari has to be corrupt or identifiable as an enabler of corruption for them to succeed with such plan.

  • Is it oil subsidy removal, or price hike?

    Is it oil subsidy removal, or price hike?

    I started writing this article at the weekend, believing that the federal government had, at long last, decided to do away with the long standing and costly oil subsidy. Whatever its attractions, it is no longer financially sustainable. Worse still, it has led to long queues recently at the petrol stations right across the country. I was going to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for his courageous decision to remove the oil subsidy. But half way through the article, my eyes caught some newspaper headlines that the federal government may not have dropped the oil subsidy after all. Both the Minister of State, Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, were simultaneously reported by the media in the course of the week as declaring that the wasteful and fraud ridden oil subsidy had indeed been removed. Not so, says the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who personally issued a press statement that there was no removal of the oil subsidy, but only an oil price hike to reflect the downward trend in the exchange rate of the naira. This is as a result of the falling dollar reserves and increasing pressure on the naira exchange rate. Demand for it is long, but supply is short. The independent marketers are now obliged to source their foreign exchange needs from the secondary market at a premium.

    Obviously, there is some confusion and contradiction in senior official circles over this grave matter, with the ‘realists’ in the government urging President Buhari to remove the so-called oil subsidy once and for all, and the ‘romantics’ insisting on maintaining some form of oil subsidy, or the other. The government is being pulled in different directions on the issue by its top economic advisers. But I prefer to believe the Vice President on this matter as he heads the economic team of the government, of which neither Kachikwu, nor Oyegun, are members. He is in a better position to know exactly whether or not the federal government has finally taken a decision to bite the painful economic bullet by removing the oil subsidy once and for all. President Buhari has not been categorical about this. But then, if the oil subsidy had indeed been finally removed, there would have been no need for the federal government to fix the new price of N145 per litre for oil sales. In a fully deregulated and free market, prices are determined by market forces. Fixing the price of oil will seem to suggest that there is still some official subsidy on oil imports and sales. But then there does not appear to be any provision for oil subsidy in this year’s budget. Or is the price of N145 per litre merely a guide which the importers may, or may not, comply with? Either way, the public is entitled to know whether the subsidy stays, or not. Full deregulation, which is what a removal of the oil subsidy implies, means that market forces will determine the pump price of petroleum, and that the government will have little or nothing to do with price fixing, except in a regulatory sense.

    If this is the case, that the oil subsidy stays, I think it is a pity that the Buhari government has again lost the opportunity to bring to an end the sordid state of affairs in our oil sector by not fully deregulating it. It should abandon the oil subsidy in response to compelling financial and economic considerations in our country. Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan made the same mistake in 2012 when, in the face of some domestic opposition, he abandoned his plan to end the oil subsidy. Had he done so then, it would by now have saved the nation about N6 trillion, about the size of this year’s federal budget. In fact, this time, the reaction of the public to the news that the oil subsidy was being removed was overwhelmingly favourable, despite the pains involved. Even oil workers, including NUPENG and PENGASAN, agreed that it was time for the oil subsidy to go. This positive response to the media reports that the oil subsidy was being removed cut across all sections of our economy, including the industrial sector and independent marketers. The reason is that the scarcity of oil supplies in the market was beginning to hurt the economy badly. Consumers were already being forced to pay up to N150 per litre, or more, for oil in the parallel market. Better to have the oil at a higher price and keep business going than close it down because of oil scarcity. It is a function of economic survival. No matter how acute the pain is, it is still far better than outright death. Businesses were beginning to close down right across the country because there was no fuel to run them. The NLC and the TUC should reconsider their plans to go on strike on this matter. They should think more carefully about embarking on a strike for which there is little public support. This is not to say that their anger about the awful mismanagement of the economy is not justified. But a general strike now will harm our country even more. It will lead to more job losses, as employers will be forced to shut down their businesses.

    It was never going to be an easy decision for the federal government to abandon the oil subsidy. When he came to power last year, President Buhari was not keen at all to increase the pump price of oil. A senior adviser of the government with whom I brought up the matter told me bluntly that President Buhari was totally against dropping the oil subsidy. He rejected all advice that he should do so. For him, the removal of the long standing oil subsidy was both an emotional and sentimental issue. He believed that doing so would hurt the poor more, in a situation of mass poverty. But as the IMF has pointed out, only seven per cent of the poorest 20 per cent in our country derive any benefit from the existing oil subsidy. In fact, President Buhari first tried the option of giving the NNPC, which accounts for some 50 per cent of total oil imports, a monopoly on oil imports to reduce the vast corruption in the sector. But this did not work out as planned, due partly to the fabled inefficiency of the NNPC, its abject lack of the needed logistics and infrastructure, and the determination of the oil majors and independent marketer not to offer the NNPC their cooperation. This led to a supply gap and the long queues in the filling stations.

    The NNPC had to admit that it could not perform as expected without the support of the big oil marketers. This was what persuaded President Buhari to bring the independent oil marketers back. The alternative option, a price hike, is indeed courageous as it could have political costs. In the short run, it could make the government unpopular. .

    Yes, the full removal of the oil subsidy will definitely hurt the poor, at least in the short term, as it will increase the cost of living, and this will worsen the prevailing mass poverty in our country.  But the government’s options on subsidy for oil imports were limited. This subsidy accounts for over 20 per cent of the entire federal government budget. It was clear that it could no longer be sustained with falling oil revenues. Savings from the removal of the oil subsidy will be substantial and will fill some of the gaps in our huge budget deficits. More financial resources will be released to meet our huge infrastructure deficits and more jobs will be created as the economy adjusts to a deregulated oil sector.

    The oil subsidy was first introduced at a time when there was a surge in oil revenues. This surge has not been consistent leading to volatility in oil revenues and a heavy and unsustainable burden on the finances of the federal government. Subsidies can in the long run only be met by budgetary surpluses, not deficits. This year, the federal government will be looking to borrowing internally and externally some N2 trillion to balance its budget. Half of this borrowing is expected to be from external sources. But it is unlikely that it can successfully tap external sources for this huge borrowing, not for investment, but for budgetary support. If the subsidy is dropped, the government will be able to save nearly N1.5 trillion, or more, this year. This will reduce its huge budgetary deficits and the need to borrow abroad by nearly half. In fact, with more prudent management of its finances, including the introduction of practical measures to reduce the cost of governance, the federal government can easily balance its budget next year. Oil prices are beginning to rise again and this trend will, if sustained, lead to higher oil revenues. But this favourable trend should not be frittered away again on the wasteful oil subsidy.

    In fact, the federal government should avail itself of this opportunity to undertake a comprehensive review of its entire subsidy programme and strategy. As it is now, it is totally confusing, inconsistent and ad hoc. It must be based on clearer, more coherent and more consistent principles and objectives. That is not the case now. The focus and target of any future financial bailouts and subsidies should be more on production and less on consumption. Financial subsidies on consumption cannot be sustained when the national revenue and economic growth rate are both declining. This year, our growth rate will fall from six per cent to less than three per cent. The oil subsidy is a subsidy on consumption, not production. And there is really no evidence to support the view that it promotes economic growth in our country.

    For most of the time, oil was being sold to the public at a price exceeding the subsidised price. In fact, as we have seen in recent years from the scandals in the oil industry, the so-called oil  subsidy was largely a mirage, a big scam from which the oil barons and importers made scandalously high profits. Next to the huge scam in defence expenditures, most of which as we now know, actually ended up in private pockets, the biggest source of public corruption in our country is in the oil sector, where the fall in global oil prices are not reflected in local prices of imported fuel, and where some fictitious oil importers are paid for oil that was not actually imported. A deregulated oil sector will end all that.

    Now is the right time to address the problem squarely. President Buhari should go the whole hog now by ending the wasteful oil subsidy. The advantages in the long run should make the short term costs and pains more bearable.