The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Making Osinbajo count

    Making Osinbajo count

    This piece, Ripples’ last for 2014, has been conceptually helped by two Facebook posts.

    One was by Kayode Samuel, journalist and former commissioner under Governor Gbenga Daniel in Ogun State; the other, by Dipo Famakinwa, entrepreneur and director-general at the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Cocoa House, Ibadan.

    In a December 20 post, Mr. Samuel compared the systemic collapse greeting the end of Goodluck Jonathan’s first presidential term to the collapse of the Weimar Republic in Germany (1919-1933): an “economic collapse triggered by heavy war preparations and the stock market crash, a doddering administration overwhelmed by national crisis, disappearance of the elite consensus that normally sustains a government in power, militant groups roaming free and plots all over the place.”

    But noting that such a German meltdown ushered in that global plague, Adolf Hitler, Mr. Samuel was not so upbeat on the perceived general mood of change-for-change-sake: “If we are going to vote for a medication that could be worse than the ailment,” he warned, “then we should at least do so with our eyes wide open and fully aware of the possible consequences …”

    It is not clear how Mr. Samuel came to his conclusion of voting a “medication worse than the ailment”.  But is it clear that as much as he appears fed up with the bumbling Jonathan Presidency, he has great dissonance with the North taking charge again.

    In a December 18 post, Mr. Famakinwa moves from Mr. Samuel’s sceptically negative mood to a sceptically positive one.

    In a secret memo he wrote some select Yoruba leaders on 14 June 2013, at the birth of the All Progressives Congress, APC (which his post made public), he argued that if the Yoruba must be lead players in the new APC, then they must ensure the Yoruba agenda is fully integrated into the  party’s manifesto.

    “What I regard as the Yoruba fundamentals — true federalism, regional autonomy and regional integration for development,” he declared, “must be put on the front burner; and must be the basis of our public engagements and public communication.”

    “The question is,” he insisted, “what is the APC putting on the table for the Yoruba people?  What is the APC value proposition?  This must be viable, clear, unambiguous, unmistakable, and must be persistently marketed to them.  It is a sine-qua-non for garnering Yoruba support, which is key.  The North,” he added, “has not minced words about their own fundamental, which is power.  We are too silent, and even being timid in pushing our own position.”

    What irks Mr. Samuel so much that he would invoke the improbable hyperbole of a change of presidential guard in Nigeria as akin to the Nazi emergence in Germany, just because the objective situations in Nigeria now are similar to those in pre-Hitler Germany?  The North’s apparent obsession with regaining power?

    That worry should stamp the imperative for a clear and radically different template; aside from newfound presidential firmness, against the (un)presidential waffle, that Dr. Jonathan now presents. Besides, to save the country, there should be more of structural overhauling, and less of personal daring.

    Perhaps Mr. Famakinwa’s recipe would help to deaden Mr. Samuel’s dissonance!  On route to winning power, therefore, there must be definitive fundamental tinkering, convincing the voter that the change APC clamours won’t be mere plastics.

    That is where Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the APC vice presidential candidate, comes in.  He appears, by his conviction and record as Lagos State attorney-general and commissioner for Justice, the personification of those structural fundaments that Mr. Famakinwa proposes.

    Indeed, what Mr. Famakinwa dubs “Yoruba Agenda” are logical constitutional propositions that should get Nigeria out of its present ultra-centrist cul-de-sac.  They should gel with every part of Nigeria, given the present turn of events.

    There was this costly myth that Abuja would always be flush with cash; and that distressed states, but which can beg, would always grab a piece of the hot cake.

    But that myth has cruelly exploded, with the federal government itself reportedly unable to pay December salaries before Christmas — and reportedly, for some months, in some agencies and ministries.

    Now that a perpetually buoyant federal government has proved a painful old wives’ tale, it is time everyone jerked awake from the centrist stupor that has so far ruined the country.

    Indeed, productive federalism, regional autonomy, and regional integration for development, to be sure pushed with passion by the progressive and dominant segment of the South West, should appeal to about any rational person.

    For starters, the North East is devastated — ostensibly due to the Boko Haram menace but really due to retarded economics from the cumulative politics of power, between the favoured North West and the not-so-favoured North East.  Even within the war cry of “One North”, the North East must feel the appeal of regional integration for development, under the general rubrics of productive federalism.

    The North West, eternal locus of power (even if it often plants its Middle Belt viceroys as acceptable fronts) has, through its alleged greed, wilfully and spectacularly under-developed itself.  Therefore, it needs to rev up its Kano-led economic dynamo to make the point it is nobody’s parasite, can pay its way and contribute to funding Nigeria.

    Neither would the North Central, which prides itself the glue that holds together the country, be averse to productive federalism and regional economic consolidation.  As a regional economic hub, that delivers development and mass prosperity, it would perhaps de-emphasise its Christian-Muslim animus; and help build a genuinely peaceful Nigeria, anchored on justice and fair play.

    In the South, productive federalism would benefit the South-South (which can gain more — by adding value to its domiciled crude oil — from its oil wealth, in the harsh face of plummeting global prices of crude); and the South East (which can fiercely focus on, and develop, its technical and technological niche, to build a humongous regional economy).

    Of course, the South West needs little prompting, for that would be preaching to the converted.  Already, the DAWN Commission is in place to implement its regional developmental strategies, though the emergence in Ekiti of an Ayo Fayose and the billeting in Ondo of Segun Mimiko, the one too infantile to commit to any developmental ideology; the other too ideologically non-committal beyond immediate political survival; plus a disturbing Lagos penchant for economic isolationism, appear to blunt this otherwise sharp developmental arrow.

    In Prof. Osinbajo, nevertheless, APC has a mind with the competence and temper to quietly drive a truly re-engineered, productively federal Nigeria.

    In him, the North can make a case that it wants power, not to parasite but for Nigeria’s overall development.  The South too can clamber on board, from enlightened self-interest.  Osinbajo can quietly boss and drive this process, without competing for headlines with the president.

    All the APC needs is a rigorous pre-election federal charter, which it should sell during electioneering; and be firmly committed to implementing, virtually from Day One, should the party triumph at the polls.

    That should assure millions of doubting Nigerians that APC stands for definitive, vigorous and qualitative change; and dull the dissonance of the likes of Mr. Samuel.

    That is the best way to make Osinbajo count as the APC vice-presidential pick.

  • Okonjo-Iweala and the missing $30 billion

    From the look of things, the controversies over the missing $30 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), as alleged by Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, have only just begun. If anything, we expect more of the fireworks in the coming days as both sides present different versions of the same account before the Nigerian public. Expect an administration that has been only too eager to pass off the mess it has made of the nations finances to the latest cycle of dip in global oil prices mounting the offensive as the lid is finally  lifted from its pretences that the nation’s current fiscal challenges are anything but largely internal.

    To say that a day like this would come is actually putting things rather mildly. Put in the context of the General Elections barely two months from now and rather the gloomy economic outlook foisted by the slump in global oil prices that has left the finances of most states on the brink, the current demand on the federal government to render accounts of its stewardship could not have been anything but compelling. Which is unfortunate really because the demands are not just elements of modern governance, they are supposed to be the critical pillars on which our federal practice is erected.

    So it was that Governor Oshiomhole would stir the proverbial hornets nest when he opted to task the federal government to come clean on its record keeping. In this, the governor neither said anything different or new from what his brother governors have expressed at one point or the other about the curious arithmetic in which higher differentials between the budget benchmark and actual sales price of crude have come to mean less and less in the piggy bank!

    With perhaps the exception of the federal government, the scenario which the governor had sought to paint was all too familiar: how come that a nation which has in the last three years assumed a budget benchmark of between $77 to $78 dollars but sold at the average price of $108 a barrel cannot resolve this basic arithmetic?  Put in another context: At a surplus of $30 a barrel and using a projected 2.3 million barrels crude production, how come the ECA is a paltry $3 billion when we should be talking of a figure close to $30 billion?

    Ordinarily, one would assume that the issue is so simple and straight-forward as not to lend to any obfuscation.  It comes to the simple arithmetic of how much crude the nation pumped for the period and the applicable price – minus the operational and marketing expenses.

    The difference of course is that the Comrade Governor thinks there is a gaping hole that demands thorough investigation. Most Nigerians would tend to side with him.  On her part, the nation’s finance chief thinks the governor is playing mischief; she insists that the complex econometric formulae used for the federation account is beyond the ken of simple minded Nigerians and that no dime is missing! Left to the minister, the irrepressible governor ought to be in the dock for “going public with a sweeping, political allegation based on casual, back of envelop calculations!”

    Let’s look at the minister’s defence against the weighty issues raised by the governor more closely. First, she says that the allegations are as “totally untrue”. To the extent that her version of “truth” is at least unknown to the governors or even anyone else for that matter, one assumes that it is one dark secret known only to her and her principal!

    Secondly, she charges that “the comments reflect once again, the unfortunate tendency of some political players to politicise the management of the economy on the basis of half-truths and sundry distortions”. The familiar word again – politicisation! And what’s the correct picture? Here, her self-righteous rage is supposed to be taken as sufficient defence!

    And then of course her reference to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meetings – something I consider even more amusing: “Anyone who is familiar with the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee process knows that this is simply not true. The meetings are held every month and commissioners of finance and other officials represent their states and agreements are reached on issues, including sharing of proceeds from the account”!

    I assume that the minister could not be referring here to the Fuji House of Commotion described as monthly FAAC meetings. Had the minister bothered to check on the proceedings in the last three years, she would have found that the picture is nowhere near her portraiture!

    However, beyond the pathetic attempt to muddle things up, what must stand as particularly galling is the insufferable arrogance underlying the minister’s so-called response. In her barely disguised irritation, she may well have said that state governments – as joint-owners of the federation pool – are ignorant, or that they have no business knowing how the accruals into the account are determined!  That’s how bad things can get – the very situation responsible for the current morass in which the nation is said to lose 20 percent of its oil revenue to a cartel of oil thieves!

    Beyond all of these however, it seems that the nation may finally be coming to terms with one profound character flaw in one of the more foremost players in the federal executive – her penchant to trade in cheap blackmail. I have not even here added one proven case of duplicity against her person such as when, contrary to verifiable records from the Nigerian Customs Service at the height of the controversies over the abuse of duty waivers, her ministry actually granted import duty waivers to the tune of N1.4 trillion in three years as against her claim of N171 billion!

    And by the way, only the minister pretends that the latest charges from the governor are anything new. She would admit that much when she observed that Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi has in November 2013 similarly alleged sharp practices in the management of the federation account to the tune of $5 billion. May I remind her that the issue has actually provoked nearly a dozen editorials without the government nearly succeeding in laying out its case?

    The expectation this time would be for the minister, along-side her counterpart in the petroleum ministry, to open the books to Nigerians for scrutiny. After all, she knows enough to affirm that federal government which she represents is right – and the rest of us – wrong. Opening the books to the public would certainly achieve far more than what the current low road of sophistry would ever do.

    Here is wishing you, dear readers, a happy new year!

  • Okupe-istic apostasy

    Okupe-istic apostasy

    A columnist with The Nation hit on the coinage, Okupe-istic cant, describing presidential public affairs spokesperson, Dr. Doyin  Okupe, and his great deeds.  Had that columnist tarried awhile, he would even have been gifted with a bigger catch: Okupe-istic apostasy!

    That is the latest from the stable of the stout and doughty Dr. Okupe who, somewhat reminds you, not of the graceful foot works or even the defence rope-a-dope of Muhammad Ali (The Greatest), but the brawl-and-let’s-brawl boxing philosophy of Smoking Joe Frazier (of blessed memory).

    Hear The Greatest, pay a pre-fight tribute, to his gamesome opponent: “It would be a thriller, when I square up with the gorrilla, in Manilla.”  That match-up, which ended in a 14th round TKO victory for Ali, was more than a thriller. It was the closest to death, Ali conceded of the victory over the man that handed him his first professional defeat!

    So, when Okupe does his chores, in the defence of his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan, he takes no prisoners.  He could be blown out, as a typhoon blows out everything in its way, as George Foreman twice blew out Frazier; or be savagely competitive, in a loss or win, as Frazier fared with Ali in their three fights.  But never is Okupe, a bit thickset not unlike Frazier, known to be a quitter.  No matter the punishment, he always bobs up for more — in the defence of his principal!

    Even then, Okupe’s latest misadventure, of comparing his embattled principal to Jesus Christ, has earned the gamesome presidential spokesman perhaps the greatest shellacking of his presidential spin career. Hardly any section has not heavily descended on Okupe on his rather impolitic, not to talk of careless, reckless and religiously irreverent comparison.

    Yet, what Okupe meant to say was that his boss was longsuffering and patient, a line which an angry editorial of The Nation even took to the cleaners. Jonathan, it contended, was not elected because he was the meekest or the gentlest. He was elected to do a job, for which he zealously presented himself — and he may as well get on with that job!  Phew, what comeuppance!

    But the Okupe unfortunate allusion somewhat reminds Hardball of another literary parallel, in Wole Soyinka’s play, The Strong Breed, in which the tragic hero, is a traditional Jesus of a kind, bearing the burden of his community, after a yearly ritual.  To the community, his sacrifice is a boon, on which consummation of the life and wellness of the community depended.  But for the poor human mule, it was sheer pain!

    Okupe, by his choice of metaphor, and the flak he got, gives the impression of the strong breed, put to an impossible chore.  Were Jonathan a popular and winsome figure, the reckless Okupe-istic (that coinage again!) metaphor would still have been condemnable, because of its insensitivity to the Christian faith.  Still, perhaps not a few would have rationalised, excused and generally spoken out in veiled defence of the mistake.

    But for Jonathan, with his eternal bumbling, whom earlier Okupe had nevertheless blabbed was the best president Nigeria had ever had?  Doyin Okupe certainly had it coming!

    Perhaps the doyen of reckless comparisons and irrational allusions will now learn to keep his peace — if he has nothing worthwhile to say.  That sure would be better than earning Okupe-istic scorn!

     

  • The memoir and the magistrate

    The memoir and the magistrate

    General Olusegun Obasanjo never does anything by half.  For him, it is the full Monty or nothing.

    Consider, first, the sartorial transformation he has undergone.  Time was when he went about his business in clothes that seemed to have been made by a journeyman carpenter.  Back then, he would not have won a competition for fine grooming even if he was the only contestant.

    Today, the finest fabrics and the most exquisite tailoring combine to make his wardrobe probably the most elegant among members of his generation and indeed any generation.

    If President Goodluck Jonathan is minded to look into how his estranged patron’s wardrobe has evolved quietly and almost imperceptibly over the past three years, he will find it a rewarding study in real transformation.

    Consider, next, the three volume blockbuster Obasanjo released two weeks ago by way of his autobiography.  Even without the controversy that has dogged My Watch since its release, and the rebuttals that have been issued by those chafing at its content, it is a landmark publication.

    Another memoirist would have released the first volume and spent some two years or longer working on the second, finally proceeding to work on the third and final volume, which would not go to the press for at least another two years.

    Not Obasanjo, and not for him that kind of leisurely pace.  He could not, to do a riff on the author’s style, tarry to stamp the era sharply and indelibly with his wit, wisdom, peeves, prejudices, insights, revelations, revisions, disclosures, afterthoughts, rationalisations and evasions, all spiced with rumour, gossip, putdowns and plain abuse.

    That, after all, is the quintessence of the political memoir.

    I have not read the memoir.  I have not even set my eyes upon it.  Everything I know about it has been gleaned from the newspapers and online publications.  And what I have gleaned from those sources suggests powerfully that, like its author, it is as blunt as a punch to the nose, and as subtle as a sledgehammer.

    I would not have said many of the things Obasanjo is reported to have said, or I would have said them differently. But then, I am not Obasanjo.  In matters of this kind, he operates by his own rules, untroubled by consequences.  If anything, he actually revels in the consequences, seeing them as conclusive evidence that he was dead on target

    And see how reactions to the memoir have poured forth.

    Even before it rolled off the press, President Jonathan, who must have been informed that Obasanjo gave him a thorough scalping in the book, reportedly appealed to the author to delay publication until after the presidential election scheduled for February 2015.

    Obasanjo refused.  As everyone who has worked with or for him knows, and as Dr Jonathan ought to know, Obasanjo is not the most obliging of persons. To his credit, Jonathan took Obasanjo’s refusal for an answer and moved on.

    Police Inspector General, Suleiman Abba, must have been attending to more important issues while all this was going on.   Otherwise, drawing on his acclaimed expertise in constitutional law, he would have deployed his men to block publication by all means necessary, even without instructions “from above.”

    In the end, it took a fugitive from the American criminal justice system with the improbable name of  Kashamu Buruji to do what Jonathan could not do  Buruji, a dual citizen of Nigeria and Benin Republic, had sought an injunction to block publication of My Watch, claiming that it contained libellous material that was the subject of ongoing litigation.

    Buruji had not read the book. Neither had the presiding judge, Mr Justice Valentine Ashi, of the Abuja High Court. Yet, amazingly, Justice Ashi granted the petition.

    This is a classic instance of prior restraint, or pre-publication censorship, and it is inimical to the freedom of speech and press consecrated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Its application had been derogated back in 18th Century by the great English jurist, Sir William Blackstone, in his monumental Commentaries on the Laws of England – the laws from which our judicial system derives.

    “The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state but this,” Blackstone wrote, “consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public: to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his temerity.”

    More than three centuries later, in the famous 1972 case of the Pentagon Papers  centring on publication of classified documents detailing the origins of America’s involvement in the Vietnam, the Supreme Court of the United States held that recourse to prior restraint carries a “heavy presumption” of unconstitutionality.

    It is in truth shocking, therefore, that in 2014, a High Court in Nigeria would grant a petition to block publication of a book that the petitioner – and the judge – had not read, on the speculation that it might contain material prejudicial to a defamation lawsuit the petitioner had filed in respect of the same matter.

    But Justice Ashi was not yet done.

    The book had been published before the injunction, and arrangements for its public presentation completed.  Obasanjo, being Obasanjo, went ahead with the presentation anyway, quipping that public presentation and distribution were not enjoined, only publication, which had been completed.

    Whereupon Justice Ashi, citing Obasanjo for contempt, ordered law enforcement officials to impound unsold copies in circulation and block further distribution until Obasanjo will have purged himself of contempt.

    In a narrow, technical sense, the contempt citation may well be warranted.  But the seizure ordered by the court is clearly an overreach.

    The material at the heart of Buruji’s petition has been discussed widely in national newspapers and newsmagazines and on the Internet for months. Just Google “Buruji,” and everything Obasanjo has been saying about him and everything he has said about Obasanjo in return literally leaps at you from the computer screen, as well as the narrative of Buruji’s entanglement with the American criminal justice system.

    Mr Justice Ashi therefore acted in vain, and arguably in error, when he granted Buruji’s petition to block publication of My Watch. If the memoir did further harm to the reputation Buruji is claiming than the publication that is the subject of his ongoing defamation lawsuit against Obasanjo, he was free to demand aggravated or punitive damages.

    Justice Ashi also overreached when he ordered confiscation of unsold copies of the controversial memoir. The book raised no national security issues, and the matter before the court involved only civil law.

    On both counts, his ruling was an assault on the freedom of the press as expounded by Blackstone.

     

    Re:  Mainstreamers at Work

    Chief Ebenezer (Ebino Topsy) Babatope was grieved that I characterised him as a “mainstreamer “and as an authority on “mainstreaming” in my December 2, 2014, column, “Mainstreamers at work, again.” He says he has never belonged in that group and does not subscribe to its ideology.

    I sincerely apologise for attributing to him views he does not hold and opinions he has never expressed.

    Babatope has paid a fearsome price for his political activism spanning five decades. There was no imputation in my article that his current political affiliation stemmed from pecuniary calculations.

  • Asiwaju and fiends

    Asiwaju and fiends

    Then 4th Republic history is written, a good part of it will focus on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu versus a concert of fiends, united in spite.

    If not brilliant, this ensemble has been persistent and deadly.

    A scant three years ago, Tinubu was a media angel, seemingly fated to eternal good press; despite these implacable foes.

    But some three years down the line — in the media at least — it appears some Pauline re-conversion: Paul, the immaculate apostle just slid back to Saul the horrible anti-Christ!

    Is this the same Tinubu about everyone hailed for his sound contributions to the June 12 struggle, which paved the way for the present 4th Republic?

    His pivotal tenure as Lagos governor, that laid the foundation for much of the fundamental re-jigging Lagos has experienced?

    His gubernatorial and post-gubernatorial activism for fiscal federalism and political restructuring; and the imperative for sound opposition in a democracy, which has eventually crystallized in the mergers that birthed the All Progressives Congress (APC)?

    To be sure, Tinubu has his fair share of lionisers, perhaps as passionate as the huge column in the demonising camp.  But both camps are bad for him.

    Lionisers destroy the hero because they always tell him what he wants to hear.  If the difference between hero and anti-hero is no thicker than a spider’s web, uncritical adulations and ululations often prompt a fatal slip across the divide.

    The demonising camp, on the other hand, are eventually as much danger to themselves, as they are to their target.  Not unlike a deranged visceral hater, they often end up falling upon their own swords of spite.  Before they do, however, they muddy the waters; and confound the polity.

    That is the danger now, vis-a-vis the Asiwaju public persona, and its implacable column of bashers.

    Still, the man is not faultless.  For a start, he would appear a tad too driven toward his goal.  So,  he is to Nigerian politics what Bill Gates is to global computing software.

    That plants resentment, if not outright hatred, in the  heart of his competitors.

    Then, having highly charged himself to attain his goals, he insists on his fair share of the results.  His opponents call this “over-bearing” and a penchant to dominate.  But the Asiwaju and his camp counter it’s equitability — the chef that sweats the most must savour the sweetest part of the gravy!

    Fair enough?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But it breeds no less spite from the enemy camp; and idolisers from the friendly camp.

    Both sides played out at the emergence of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, as the APC vice-presidential pick.

    Olisa Metuh, PDP national spokesperson, weighed in with his usual janja-weed sentiments: Osinbajo was just any of the thousands of former state commissioners, aside being just another Tinubu crony!

    But that was sour grape.  Any rigorous commentator would know that aside from the Lagos judicial reforms: improved judges’ welfare and work atmosphere, digitalisation of court proceedings and records, arbitration to curb litigation, the Office of the Public Defender (OPD), all of which bore Prof. Osinbajo’s imprint, the law professor was also central to the Tinubu government’s judicial mauling of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s imperial presidency, which put fascism at bay.

    The same Metuh, on the Osinbajo pick, dismissed Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as “weak” for meekly surrendering his presidential ticket to the Tinubu establishment, the same way he ceded governance to his late deputy, Major-Gen. Tunde Idiagbon, during his brief military rule stint.

    That surface comparison may resonate as an emotional weapon — with the gullible.  But again, it was just bluff and bluster, covering blind panic.  With Prof. Osinbajo, the PDP emotive grand theorem of pitching Christians against Muslims, in their janja-weed strategy, just collapsed!  Cursed are those who approach a crucial election with nothing but emotive bomb!

    But what if Buhari conceded to Tinubu because, perhaps more than any individual, the Asiwaju worked hardest to realise the APC dream?

    The Tinubu camp has, of course, hailed the professor’s choice as a master-stroke.  From neutralising the PDP appeal to base religious passion, it is.

    But not so from name recognition for — let’s face it — Prof. Osinbajo is no heavyweight politician, though he is a legal titan.  Indeed, last week, Ripples pushed for Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi (regional electoral stratagem), in the absence of Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola, SAN (political arithmetic).

    However, the professor would make a model vice-president: he would not compete for attention with the president; but add rare value in depth and competence.  Indeed, federalists would be especially excited, with him on the ticket.

    And the rich bonus: Osinbajo’s rich integrity, coupled with Buhari’s Spartan probity, is a dire reproach to the Jonathan-Sambo ticket: with the president still cooking his unfortunate theory of a dichotomy between stealing and corruption!

    But most importantly, the Osinbajo pick has underscored the futility of raw spite as effective political weapon, with the fond hope that hot hatred would melt cold facts.

    Tinubu is “rotten”, claim his traducers; yet only he could “warehouse” and present the polity with Osinbajo, a rare combination of sound learning and unimpeachable character; not to talk of the tiny needle that punctured the big PDP balloon of religious spite!

    This same Tinubu produced Fashola, no doubt the grand revelation of the 4th Republic, aside from inspiring, in the South West, a quad of gubernatorial performers, that give the region some hope, after the stagnation of the Obasanjo-inspired South West mainstream years.

    Yeah, Kayode Fayemi lost in the Ekiti electoral sweepstakes.  But even that would appear more of an Ekiti loss, with Ayo Fayose, post-haste, rushing his people back to the Stone Age.

    By the way, faced with the same succession situation, what did Obasanjo deliver?  Imagine: a Fashola after a Tinubu at the national level — would Nigeria today suffer this paralysis?

    In this age of seamless defection, Tinubu should perhaps have “ported” to PDP, after the 2003 South West electoral tsunami.  But he didn’t.  From the sole Alliance for Democracy (AD) surviving governor, he not only marshalled a South West progressive comeback, he was also pivotal to APC’s formation — APC that now strikes mortal fear in PDP, at the virtual eve of the 2015 election.

    Tough luck to those who think Tinubu’s life equates their own instant death: Afenifere grandees that, Rip Van Winkle-fashion, hawk Awo’s franchise, like Chaucer’s Pardoner hawking papal indulgences; their younger generation collaborators-in-spite; the Bode George camp with their me-too syndrome;  Tinubu’s gubernatorial comrades turned adversaries, and other equal opportunity visceral haters.

    They have their democratic right to want to unhorse the man.  But mere hatred just won’t do!

    Still, the Asiwaju himself must nuance his tactics, while not letting go of his strategies; and work very hard on his weak points.

    On that score, the Muiz Banires of this world are friendly fires to be treasured, not brainless rebels to be crushed, even if Mr. Banire himself could do with more tact.

     

    Merry Christmas to everyone.  But as you enjoy Christmas turkey washed down with choice wine, just pray for the Chibok girls.  Last year, they celebrated Christmas with their parents.  Now, they are in Boko Haram dungeon, and the Jonathan Presidency appears too incompetent to spring them.

  • Nigeria’s most dangerous road!

    Nigeria’s most dangerous road!

    Much as everyone would claim to know the extent of the regression in our national lives, the truth is that you never know really how bad things have gone until you experience an avoidable tragedy. That is when one comes to appreciate how bad things have become. Sometime last month, I got this terrible call from a family member that a younger cousin of mine based in Abuja had been shot between Eruku and Obbo-Ile, two communities at the Kwara State end of the Ilorin-Kabba-Lokoja highway.

    A group of armed ‘Fulani herdsmen’ (!), I would find out later, had blocked his car at one of the many notorious failed portions on the highway. They ordered him and his young family out of the car after which they thoroughly ransacked it. Their mission partly accomplished, they turned on the occupants, dispossessing them of cash and other valuables. As the now distraught family was being herded back into their car, a bullet from one of the more trigger-happy members of the gang was said to have hit the young man.

    Of course, he did not die – at least not immediately. The wife who could have taken him to the nearest hospital, unfortunately, could not drive. And as has become increasingly familiar in such circumstances, help from fellow motorists who saw him in the pool of his blood would not be forthcoming. Knowing how dangerous the entire 255 kilometres stretch had become, the unwillingness by the hapless motorists to act the Good Samaritan was perhaps understandable. In the circumstance, the best they could do was to wish the traumatised wife and children luck after which they abandoned them to their fates! With time ticking on and with no signs of help coming their way, the poor chap reportedly took to the wheels obviously believing that he could make it to the nearest infirmary. Well, he never did.

    So, you can understand my reluctance to venture on that road and the anxiety of other family members when only days after the terrible experience, my father, as we say in Christendom, would join the saints triumphant. My still grieving mum of course insisted that the journey was needless at this point in time – more out of hyper-sensitivity to that particular tragedy than anything else. Few of my friends on the other hand would regale me with gory tales of near misses on the same road. In the end, much as I regarded some of the fears as overstated having driven on the road at least twice this year, I needed no convincing that I would require than the normal dose of prayers and fasting before venturing on that road with Yuletide approaching!

    Between the penultimate week, when I finally did, and now, I can now testify that the Ilorin-Kabba-Lokoja road is not just one of the most dangerous routes to ply at this time, the stretch from the Kwara State end of the road right up to Kabba, headquarters of Okunland would number among the most ungoverned swathes on the Nigerian territory! I do not exaggerate. And I say this with all sense of responsibility. Today, there is nothing that needs to be said about terrible state of the road that has not been said.

    I need to be clear: nothing – except of course the countless craters dotting the stretch – has been added to the road constructed in the early 70s when yours truly was barely entering secondary school. The result is that a journey of less than 300 kilometres currently takes a whole day to make – and that for those lucky to make it alive. Of course, I have not even talked of the palpable sense of general insecurity reinforced by the displacement of the regular police by an army of ill-clad vigilantes now spreading along the highways – a window into the state capacity in full retreat. Coincidentally, whereas the vigilantes I encountered tended to be polite, less obtrusive, and in fact more business-like in their approach, the men of the Nigeria Police appears far more interested in checking vehicle particulars most especially tinted glass permits!

    Now, give it to the Kwara State government, they are at least doing something at their end of the road. In the course of the trip, I saw FERMA, the federal road fixing agency at work. I saw heaps of bitumen on the Ilorin-Idofian stretch of the road, evidence of something being done to ameliorate the terrible situation on the road.

    Now, what about my home state of Kogi? The absentee government in Lokoja under Captain Idris Wada is apparently too far gone in its Rip Van Winkle sleep to bother about road and security matters! Although I haven’t visited of late, I am reliably told that the Lokoja- Obajana-Kabba road is worse than hell! Lokoja-Okene-Kabba is no better. The spate of robberies on the two highways, I am told, is perhaps surpassed only by the daily orgy of blood-letting from the Boko Haram! All across the state, there is a sense of siege with neither acknowledgement nor help coming from any quarters – including an administration that claims to govern in their name. That is how bad things have become in my dear state of Kogi!

    Yes, I am aware that leading politicians from the area have done their very best to get federal government attention. I know for a fact that my very good friend, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has been on the neck of Works Minister Mike Onolememen pleading with him to do something. For his efforts, the federal government awarded the contract for the road – GEJ-style – without the needed cash backing! See why our nightmares will endure?

    Finally, let me comment on the siege on the two communities of Egbe and Odo-Ere by armed robbers last week. Of course, the attack on two old generation banks in the two separate communities which left three people dead was, to say the least, predictable given reports that the dare-devil robbers had long served notice! Many thanks to the power of the social media, particularly the Facebook, I actually monitored the siege as it took place. Odo-ere by the way is the capital of Yagba West Local Government where yours truly comes from; I say this lest anyone dares to accuse me of writing fiction. The question I couldn’t resist at the end of the siege was – where was the police? What did the absentee government, which had the experience of the last few years to guide, do while the siege lasted?

    No doubt, some Nigerians are truly endangered.

  • Dear General Muhammadu Buhari

    Dear General Muhammadu Buhari

    I count it an honour to be included among the “very influential and patriotic Nigerians” to whom Your Excellency addressed your letter Ref GMB/PE-2007/1, of May 29, 2006, regarding your intention to seek the ticket of the ANPP for the 2007 presidential election.

    You have since secured the ticket, and your presidential campaign is approaching full throttle.

    Congratulations

    From my current abode in the United States, I have been following the electioneering campaign and related developments as reported in the Nigerian newspapers and other information sources on the Internet. I have nothing but high praise for the single-mindedness, the energy, and the passion with which you are pursuing the quest.

    I owe you an explanation and an apology for employing this public medium to respond to your letter. Although it was addressed to me directly and could therefore be considered private communication, it was entirely about public issues. It was also addressed to me, I believe, because I am a public affairs commentator. Besides, since so many issues would be contending for your attention, I was not sure that if sent a private reply, your campaign staffers would bring it to your notice.

    As your candidacy and the support it has been garnering became a subject of heated controversy, I decided that this was the best time to respond, and to do so from this public platform. If this is a breach of protocol, I offer Your Excellency my remorseful apologies.

    In the letter under reference, you identified with remarkable perspicacity the challenges that lie ahead for whoever aspires to be Nigeria’s next president – establishing and nurturing democracy, fashioning appropriate institutions to ensure good governance, and building a just society.

    I am heartened that if elected, you will not abandon the disconnected majority of our compatriots to the not-so-tender mercies of the market, but will seek and maintain a proper balance between the caprice of the market and the judicious application of public policy. They in turn will also find very re-assuring your determination to bring about improvements in literacy, public health, nutrition, employment, and physical security.

    A good many of our compatriots will, I am sure, contest Your Excellency’s assertion that it has been resolved for all time that Nigeria should remain “a single, indivisible, political entity.”

    I can almost hear them ask: “When was the question resolved, where, and by whom?

    The presumption that this question has been resolved, Your Excellency, lies at the heart of some of Nigeria’s most intractable problems. It has bred in some ascendant groups an overweening sense of entitlement, leading them to treat other groups with condescension, to expropriate them and generally relate to them as if they were colonial subjects.

    This attitude has in turn moved disadvantaged groups to demand, with increasing militancy, a negotiated re-structuring of Nigeria, based on equity and justice.

    There is no room for complacency on this important issue, Your Excellency. The unity and indivisibility of Nigeria should never be taken for granted. Unity has to be cultivated and nurtured in the crucible of justice. Without justice, there can be no unity. When the system is seen to be working for justice, not thwarting it, Nigerians will unite behind common purpose, including preserving Nigeria as a single indivisible political unit. Without justice, that goal will remain an aspiration at best.

    I was somewhat encouraged on this score, Your Excellency, by the accent you are placing on social justice in your campaign. The hope must be that, under a Buhari presidency, this accent will at all times animate the process as well as the outcomes of public policy.

    But there is one section of your letter that I find troubling. I crave your indulgence, Your Excellency, to quote the relevant paragraph. It reads: “The first challenge, Nigeria to be or  not to be, has been settled once and for all in favour of Nigeria, despite the occasional picture of impending doom by harbingers of war, unguarded utterances and sensational reporting.”

    This may be nothing more than the speculation of an overwrought imagination, but I hear in the phrase “unguarded utterances” and “sensational reporting” faint echoes of Decree Four, the most repressive press law ever enacted in Nigeria. At the very least, the phrase suggests that Your Excellency still regards contrarian speech and “sensational reporting,” howsoever defined, as irritants that stand in the way of good governance.

    If this is a misreading of your thinking, I hope Your Excellency will quickly disavow it. For that perception runs deep among those who are implacably opposed to your candidacy and those who are merely ambivalent about it. They acknowledge that your Administration meant well for the most part. But they remember all too well how Decree Four, Decree 2, and indeed the posture of your Administration, created a climate of fear and rendered thought socially hazardous.

    Two incidents captured this climate of fear most poignantly. The first was the jailing by a military tribunal of two journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, for publishing a news story that failed the exorbitant test of not being “accurate in every material particular” – a standard unattainable even in particle physics. The story at issue had no bearing on national security, and the factual error that sealed the doom of the two reporters did not call into serious question the integrity of the reporting.

    The second was the firing-squad execution of three young men convicted of drug peddling by another special tribunal invoking a law passed after the offence was committed. Retrospective punitive laws are always reprehensible. It would be hard to find anything more odious than laws that prescribe death by retroaction.

    This record cannot be prettified, Your Excellency. It is no answer that these incidents occurred under a military regime. Nigeria was not a military barracks, nor was it an occupied territory.

    Unlike some of the people who claim to speak for you or to advance your cause, you have not tried to dodge the facts. You have not sought by vile tactics to assail the honour of those who insist that you confront the record. It remains for you to acknowledge, even if only in the antiseptic language of officials whose policies have gone frightfully awry, that “mistakes were made,” and to enter a solemn pledge that you will never embark on nor permit such measures again.

    Those measures may well have been discussed and approved by the Armed Forces Ruling Council over which Your Excellency presided. They were undoubtedly backed by law. Still, their application did not adhere to the rule of law. Rather, they belonged in the discredited practice of “rule with law.”

    Every barbarous measure the white supremacist regime in South Africa embarked upon was scrupulously backed by law; hence, they claimed, the rule of law operated in the enclave. But the world community was not fooled. It declared apartheid a crime against humanity.

    Your iron self-discipline, your Spartan lifestyle, and your capacity for following up and following through, your large appetite for work, your concern for the disconnected, and your reputation for integrity, will stand you in good stead in the testy days ahead, and if you win the race, in the years ahead.

    But you need to reach out, Your Excellency, to the human rights community, to those who have expressed strong opposition to your candidature, and those who were gravely injured by some of your policies.

    Play Mandela. Play Yakubu Gowon. Start with Nobelist Wole Soyinka, if only because he is the most outspoken and the most influential among your critics. Seek him out during your impending campaign tour of the Southwest, not to appease but to engage him. And be sure reach out to Umaru Dikko, whom you should have no difficulty locating.

    My apologies once again, Your Excellency, for addressing you through this public medium.

    I thank you for your time and attention, and wish you all the best in the race to Aso Rock.

     

    • First published in The NATION on February 6, 2007, this article is reproduced today for its contemporary resonance.

     

     

  • Imoke’s most fundamental legacy

    Imoke’s most fundamental legacy

    A man’s achievements cannot amount to anything if such achievements are not beneficial to the generality of the people; or if such achievements are not expressive of the aspiration of the people; or if behind such achievements there is a concealed attempt to blindfold the people not to see the truth with deceptive projects to create impressions while the goodies are siphoned, or if such projects, are fluid and cannot stand the test of time!

    Sometimes the people display the nature of passive recipients and this ineptitude gives impetus to the leader to think that the people could be played upon by giving them worthless projects since they may never react to it. There is a world of difference between such a leader and the one who would not seek to exploit his people.

    Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor of Cross River State came to power, with the firm conviction that the state was stricken with abject poverty and needed a man with a clear head, sound vision and sincerity of purpose to deliver it from such anguish. Shrouding his vision, intentions and purposefulness and starling qualities in an uninhibited show of humility and meekness, he was largely misunderstood by friends and foes alike. Those who held him in contempt, though not many did, were misled by a false façade of acquiescence. But there-in lay his strength. It is his utmost understanding of human nature that when you concede to even those who are not likely to be your match, they feel gratified that they could overwhelm you. It is from this position that Imoke watches the foolery of man that as he overates himself, makes his mistakes before one who keeps quiet guard.

    It is from this urbane, spartan and humble nature that Imoke finds the latitude to engineer his thought to positive completion.

    Imoke inherited an empty treasury when he took over power. The allocation from the Federation account to Cross River was too small to create a meaningful impact in finding a footing for the state. The Internally Generated Revenue was so insignificant to make a difference. To make matters worse, the 76 oil wells were taken away from Cross River and given to Akwa Ibom.

    So with this burden of financial insolvency, Imoke acknowledged  that the task ahead was enormous and there was no room for distraction for him to succeed. No room for witch hunting. No room for the blame game.

    He sat back to replan and redesign and he came out with the blueprint for the recreation of Cross River State. He created relevant agencies and commissions as the engine to drive this vision. Rural Development Agency (RUDA), Border Communities Commision (BORDERCOM) and State Electrification Agency (REA), were set up as the vehicles to make these vision work. There was the renewal of the urban development centres.

    In Akpabuyo, about 200 residential houses were built for civil servants. Construction of the second phase comprising 450 has reached advanced stage of completion. In Calabar South alone, over 40 roads have been constructed by the Imoke-led administration. The Margaret Ekpo International Airport Bypass with Calabar’s first interchange bridge is nearing completion. An ambitious underground drain system was undertaken and this has taken care of flooding in Calabar. Over 1000km of rural roads connecting over 200 rural communities have been constructed by the administration through RUDA and the Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP).

    Hundreds of schools have either been built or given comprehensive renovation. Over 810 health posts have been established in the rural areas with the aim of achieving the ratio of 300 households per health post.

    Expectedly, two local government areas have in the last two years recorded near zero infant and maternal mortality.

    A leader’s achievements could be measured tangibly and intangibly.  Imoke has tried not to ignore either of these.  To me, out of these two, the more enduring legacy is the one that exist in the intellect and the mind.  Intangible things are embedded in ideas.  These ideas when they are recognized and appreciated, catapult the present society to a more well informed and founded future much ahead of the contemporary society.  That is why it is said – ideas are the product of their time.  It is most time resisted by those who are less favoured to peep into the future.  But when through the insistence of go-getters and visionaries such progressive ideas are recognized and used, people become happy.  Then those who initially stood against the change would now attempt to claim the credit.  Sometimes, the originator of such idea faces persecution as powerful pretenders attempt to claim what they did not own.

    As soon as Imoke became governor, he had planned to entrench a firm system that would take Cross River not only to the next level but even beyond.  To achieve this, he envisaged the institutionalization of a sound socio-political system that would not be ephemeral but enduring.  To achieve this, Cross River must have internal peace and peace with her neighbours; there must be non-violence in politics and in general life situations; there must be harmony and tolerance of each other especially by the various ethnic groups. These expectations if achieved would not only bring reconciliation but permanent solution to Cross River’s political quarrels, suspicions and ethnic disparagements.

    When Imoke came to power in 2007, the issue of ethnic suspicion, fear and backwardness were in the front burner of his agenda. To surmount this, he  built bridges across ethnic barriers. He began by making the party the centre of this agenda as the members became one big family of PDP to bring people closer.  Outside the party, he made more friends in senatorial districts other than his.

    Certainly, these efforts did not go unrewarded as could be observed in the reduction in the propagation of derogatory remarks made in reference to each other by the various ethnic peoples.  Having moved closer in the abandonment of ethnic cleavages, it is expected that we now have a universal view of issues that concern us as a people.  This has been one of the most fundamental intangible achievements since 2007.  Imoke has built so much on it.  This is one of the factors that have stabilized PDP’s control of Cross River State.  This is one of the factors that have lessened acrimony in the state.

    When Imoke saw that the bridge building across ethnic divides had succeeded, it became easy for him to talk of the transfer of power to the northern senatorial district.  The whole idea of moving power to the north started in 2010.  It was not easy for Imoke to organize the north to come together to receive what was coming to them because some of the leaders were quarrelling amongst themselves.

    Nothing can be confusing about the fact that the idea of a northern governor in 2015 was wholly that of Imoke.   The transference of power to the north is one of Imoke’s most fundamental legacies and cannot be denied him.

    By the zoning of the governor to the north, Cross River power tussle has become a thing of the past.  From now onwards, it is going to be an easy affair.  Every senatorial district would know when its turn has come to avoid the struggles by all people causing so much damage, bitterness, bad blood and acrimony.

    It is from this perspective that Senator Liyel Imoke bases his consideration when he reasons that for equity and fair play, the next governor should come from the northern senatorial district.  So let us not attempt to gloss over or cover this lifetime achievement by Imoke.  If we do so, we would be taking the crown from the elephant killer to the elephant eater.

  • MTN’s milestone

    MTN’s milestone

    As I write this, there is no doubt that MT has crossed the 60 million subscriber landmark. By the end of June, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, MTN had 58,516,759 active subscribers. Judging by the average rate at which the company has grown over the last few years amassing over a million additional active subscribers in each of the quarters of the second half of the year, MTN has certainly hit this milestone.

    Sixty million active subscribers is a formidable achievement and a far-cry from the day when at 60,000 subscribers, MTN called a press conference to announce to the world how much progress it had made. Could those bright eyed executives have imagined that just a little over a decade later, they would be celebrating the attainment of 60 million subscribers? Did any analyst anywhere on earth believe that the Nigerian market was sufficiently robust as to enable a single player amass 60 million subscribers?

    The milestone is a testament to the beauty of market liberalization and excellent regulation. Less than 15 years after the telecom industry was liberalized and opened up to private sector participation under the guidance and active oversight of a regulator which understands the delicate nature of protecting multi-stakeholder interests, Nigeria is recording the kind of progress previously unimaginable. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, the telecom industry has been responsible for an inflow of foreign direct investment in excess of USD25 billion so far.

    Clearly the social and economic empowerment that is attendant to the ability to communicate in the way telecommunications makes possible is phenomenal. Whether it is by drastically reducing transaction costs or availing people with economic opportunities; whether it is by driving innovation or by fostering closer relationships; whether it is by enhancing economic productivity or creating jobs, telecommunications is a potent force for economic growth and development. Indeed, economists say that its potential to facilitate GDP growth is greater, the lower the country is on the development ladder.

    But telecom’s impact on development goes even deeper than the aforementioned and their related economic spin-offs. MTN for instance, has invested in infrastructure across Nigeria, to the tune of several billions of dollars. Apart from its record over 10,000 base stations, it has long erected fiber-optic transmission networks across the country and within specific cities. Its transmission backbone provides a critical intermediary platform for practically every other industry in Nigeria from oil and gas to banking and finance, from agriculture to defense and security.

    While MTN’s achievement is no doubt, formidable, the achievement of other players in the telecom space bears mention as well. Etisalat whose promoters were far-sighted enough to commit USD 400 million for a digital mobile license in Nigeria many years after the initial players who had paid much less had become entrenched in the market space, now has in excess of 20 million active subscribers. The combination of Airtel and Glo is also responsible for more than 50 million telephone subscribers across Nigeria.

    Overall, the telecom industry pays close to N300 billion to the government in taxes annually. The taxes comprise annual operating license fees, VAT, Rights of way; state taxes as well as federal taxes and sundry other levies.

    The success of the telecom sector, manifested in increasing subscriber numbers and by extension, enhanced telecom penetration, has spawned a huge multiplier effect across practically every sector, including government. Today, the digital route is fast evolving as the preferred means of engagement between government agencies and the citizens, business enterprises and even government establishments themselves. The use of electronic payments for public sector transactions is fast catching on and is quietly plugging some of the leaks and waste (read corruption) that hitherto existed. In the area of education for instance, it is increasingly common to have examination results released within a few weeks and uploaded onto the Internet for students to access.

    The challenges of rolling out telecom infrastructure across Nigeria have been detailed so many times, that followers of the industry’s trajectory may wonder if doing so again would achieve any effect. But repeat those challenges we must, if we are to correctly situate the context of MTN’s achievement and by extension the achievement of the overall telecom industry.

    With electricity from the national power grid insufficient and unreliable, an inordinately high proportion of operational expenditure, by some estimates up to 60 percent, goes into fuelling generators which operators rely on to power their base stations and other infrastructure. The result is that compared with many other African markets, network costs as a component of operating expenses, are disproportionately high in Nigeria.

    Telecom infrastructure vandalism which could include malicious damage to cables and other infrastructure or outright theft of such infrastructure is another critical issue. Industry-wide, there is an average of 500 such incidents per month.

    Multiple taxation is yet another albatross which the telecom industry shoulders. Multiple taxation itself is a simple term that like AIDS, aggregates a complex syndrome whose manifestations are sundry. In a nutshell, similar taxes and levies are arbitrarily imposed on the same income by different levels of government and at other times, arbitrarily increased. In some instances taxes are created arbitrarily and expressly targeted at telecom companies

    Of course, it is no news that telecom installations have been sporadically shut down by agents of government in the last few years, for defaulting in some of these arbitrary payments. This worsens the issue of quality of service, the age-old complaint of the telecom subscriber and in addition to the inconvenience and disruptions it instigates in the economy, disrupts national security, creating avoidable problems for the government and citizens alike. Thankfully, the Nigerian Communications Commission has since issued a stern yet diplomatic warning to its peer government agencies and other agents of state on the dangers of indiscriminate and unwarranted forceful closure of telecom installations situated around the country.

    Standing still, however, cannot be an option for MTN. The organization needs to aggressively gird its loins for the next stage of growth in the IT industry. Broadband will play a defining role in that next phase. The various dimensions in which ecommerce is creatively manifesting – from the rapid emergence of mega online retail stores to the emergence of music streaming and an entire online music and entertainment ecosystem as well as advances in mobile payments may be pointers to the fact that broadband is the future.

    In fact, the Presidential Committee for a National Broadband Strategy and Roadmap has since determined that broadband is an essential right and a basic requirement for social transformation and in so doing, outlined a vision for Nigeria as a “society of connected communities with high-speed internet and broadband access.”

    Capital requirements, however, remain huge as are infrastructure demands. Though it currently operates in excess of 10,000 base stations, MTN will need to put several more thousands on the ground to sustain voice and data operations especially in a future that will be increasingly data driven. This implies a future of continuous investment.

    As the industry enters this defining phase of growth, government must raise its game through policy action to ensure that the country is well positioned to benefit from the long-terms gains of sound policy interventions.

    Designating NITEL infrastructure as critical national infrastructure was a key policy approach of the military rulers of old, who sought to protect the then key national asset from the kind of arbitrary pressures to which today’s telecom companies are now being subjected to by all arms of government. The Association of Licensed Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ALTON, has long advocated that in the current dispensation, telecom infrastructure should be designated as critical national infrastructure. While doing so may not necessarily automatically redress all of the problems with which the sector is beset, it will certainly help create a protective bulwark against the onslaught of multiple taxation and multiple regulatory regimes that the telecom industry currently faces to Nigeria’s detriment.

    While congratulations are in order, no doubt, there is clearly an imperative for broad policy action to help drive the optimization of the promise which MTN holds for wide scale economic development. It is a challenge that our governments must brace up to, urgently.

    • Okoruwa is communications management consultant
  • Return of Buhari?

    Return of Buhari?

    Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native (1878) is a flawed heroine’s tale of dashed expectations.

    The heroine was Eustacia Vye, beautiful and enchanting, but priding herself above her native Egdon Heath; and all its young men could offer.  Clym Yeobright was the returned native, a former diamond merchant from Paris, France.

    In Clym, Eustacia saw one through whom she could live her dream: a diamond merchant come to lift her off the humdrum of Egdon Heath, to rich and sparkling life in Paris.  But Clym was bound to a humbler and less exciting stuff: a teacher in his native Egdon Heath.

    The marriage ended in a fiasco — and tragedy.  Eustacia drowned; and Clym, for the rest of his days, lived with the self-imposed guilt of killer of both his wife and mother — which he was not.

    Transpose Nigeria to Hardy’s Victorian England or vice-versa, and a comparison might just emerge.

    Eustacia is Nigeria: blessed but perpetually plagued by the waywardness of her nationals; but nevertheless hopeful a saviour would come some day.

    Clym is Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a former military head of state (1984-1985) turned reformed democrat, who not a few Nigerians now believe could offer Nigeria fresh hope, after Goodluck Jonathan’s six years of cascading fall.

    Still, Buhari’s first coming was sweet and sour.  Sweet: not a few hail his personal integrity; and his regime’s resoluteness, particularly its War Against Indiscipline (WAI), with which, Draco-like, he tried to smash some order into the decadent Nigeria he inherited.

    Sour: Not a few too nail his regime as the fierce face of malignant military rule, from the benign years of Yakubu Gowon, with the Murtala-Obasanjo regime, which the Buhari regime claimed an offshoot of, serving as link.

    That military gorgon would hit its nadir under the late Sani Abacha; leaving a country in a cul-de-sac little chance but to return to constitutional rule.

    So, Buhari the democrat come to correct Buhari the autocrat, a doughty voyage from military perdition to democratic redemption, is a tantalising historical prospect.

    No less appetising is Buhari the progressive politician, impatient for change, the war-cry of his All Progressives Congress (APC); against Buhari the conservative military head of state, smug with the status quo, even if his regime was “corrective”.

    But many cynics would slant Buhari’s return as the return of the North to its “born-to-rule” default setting.  Now, this is a piece of emotive blackmail that would crowd the media, as electioneering progresses.

    In 2011, a mob-think, arising from the Umaru Yar’Adua Katsina Mafia’s attempt to block Jonathan from the presidency, led to mass anti-North sentiments (zoning be damned!), that dwelled on some mythical luck, glossed over Jonathan’s frailties, and vaulted him beyond his competence to the presidency.

    Four years down the line, it is exclusive good luck to Jonathan but extensive bad luck to his voters; who see the Nigeria they knew virtually melting away, and Jonathan, supposed commander-in-chief at sea, even more than the people he was elected to lead.

    It is the devastating harvest of a lie the voters told themselves — and believed!

    Sure, Jonathan supporters, in an appeal to pity, would claim some northern elements swore to make Jonathan’s Nigeria ungovernable; and have since walked their talk.  Maybe.  But the same sense of blatant injustice that elicited those threats drives the presidential drivel and harvest of excuses.

    But no matter the excuses, Nigeria is worse off in Jonathan’s unstable hands; and leaving the country any further in those unsteady hands only courts apocalyptic disaster.

    That explains the Buhari appeal — a rejected stone from a discredited military past; that nevertheless appears the emerging cornerstone to rebuild the country.

    But is this the real deal — or will turn yet another hope dashed?  That would depend on a lot of things, not the least Buhari’s vice-presidential pick.

    Lagos Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, should be an out-and-out pick.  That choice is obvious: if Jonathan has administered Nigeria the way Fashola has administered Lagos, it would be sheer suicide for anyone to run against him.

    Indeed, in Sam Omatseye-speak, Fashola has been the “governor of example” to who about every governor nationwide refers to improve their states — with the possible exception of Rivers’ Rotimi Amaechi, who also carved a niche for himself, shortly after Jonathan, by the Alamieyeseigha impeachment, got gifted the Bayelsa governorship.

    Jonathanian muck, however, which pits Christians against Muslims, North against South, and ethnic groups against one another, for illicit political gains, has all but aborted Mr. Fashola’s prospect.  That is unfortunate.  After the mess of the Jonathan years, Nigeria would need her best pair of hands.

    But aside from Mr. Fashola, there are other tantalising choices — vice presidents that could add value to Buhari’s grit and integrity: flexibility, modernity, federalist ethos and breath of vision, as they have demonstrated with their respective gubernatorial tenures.

    Edo Governor, Adams Oshiomhole: in a short time, Comrade Oshiomhole has demonstrated the Edo have a right to developmental governance, after the wasted Igbinedion years.  Mr. Oshiomhole, however, needs to be a bit more federalist in his thinking, to balance out Gen. Buhari’s centrist thinking.

    Former Ekiti Governor, Kayode Fayemi: though he lost re-election, he showed enough to point to where Ekiti should be in the comity of modern states the world over, even with scarce resources.  He also garnered additional plaudits as chair of the APC presidential convention, which has become a reference point.  However, electorally right now, Dr. Fayemi would appear toxic, because of the Ekiti loss.

    Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi: in the non-availability of Mr. Fashola, Mr. Amaechi would appear APC’s best bet, if targeted goals — and not just political convenience — is the deciding factor.  In Amaechi, politics and policy comes to a harmonious whole; and his stellar achievements, from his Rivers tour of gubernatorial duty, speaks volume of his quality.

    Not a few feel Mr. Amaechi is abrasive and tough.  But without this twin-traits, he would have been crushed by the muscle-flexing but little-thinking Jonathan federal armada, after he dusted Jonathan’s man, Plateau Governor, Jonah Jang, in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) chair election.

    In Amaechi is a combo of an acute policy thinker and a tough political fighter.  APC needs no less in the South-South, where the Jonathan camp would put up a very nasty campaign of ethnic spite and blackmail.

    If the Buhari dream must deliver on its prospect, Nigeria must enthrone a federalist ethos that frees the states — or better still, the six geo-political zones — from an insufferable and oppressive federal Leviathan that delivers nothing but collective poverty, from the humongous resources at its disposal.  But that would be in the long run.

    In the immediate, Buhari as president would need a sound chief operations officer (COO) who will boss policy, while the president is the grand chief executive officer (CEO).  And in the post-Jonathan collective rescue, let no one contemplate the political waste of the vice-president as spare tyre!

    The return of Buhari — if and when it comes — must not end a tale of dashed expectations.  Otherwise, things will turn really bad.