The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Voodoo political economy

    Here we go again – with speculations rife that the nation’s finances may actually be in worse shape than citizens could have imagined. Although, it is not as if there was ever a time the economy as a whole could truly have claimed to have been out of the woods. This is despite the quantum earnings of the past decade. But then, the speculations have somewhat heightened in recent months. Before now, the closest indication about the economy being in any form of trouble was the acknowledgment by the federal government of the massive disruptions to oil production by activities of oil thieves said to have taken out a fifth of the nation’s daily output of 400,000 barrels.

    Today, with nearly the whole of the 36 state of the federation – minus the federal government of course – reeling in the after-effects of reducing revenues consequent upon the constricted oil output, with prospects of inability to pay wages of their workers looming and with many of them reportedly putting further implementation of capital projects on hold, things appears to have moved from the realm of speculation to grim reality.

    Of course, the lady in charge of the exchequer, Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has insisted that the nation is nowhere near insolvency, contrary to the averments by the governors. Her view would be re-echoed by the duo of the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Joseph Otunla and Director General of the Budget Office, Bright Okogwu in their joint appearance at the National assembly last week. Both had insisted that whereas cash flow issues are to be expected in normal cycles of business, what the nation is currently experiencing comes nowhere close to being broke.

    To be sure, not even the tell-tale signs of potential crisis would render speculations of an imminent financial Armageddon anything less than an exaggerated at this time. And like this newspaper observed in its editorial of yesterday, the nation does not as yet face the prospect of slipping into the balance of payment crisis as we had in the 80s through the 90s. No doubt, the point could be made that this is hardly on account of what the managers of the economy have done but more out the benevolences of nature and the market – the factors of increased crude output and sustained high prices in a little over a decade. Even at that, the truth is that no one has sufficiently explained the current paradox in which the federal government continues to ratchet new debts at a time of sustained crude oil earnings. That is however a different matter.

    Flowing from that background, the latest squabbling between the federal government and the states over the renditions into the federation account, and which eventuated in two botched meetings of the Federation Accounts Allocations Committee (FAAC) in July and August, and which is held as partly responsible for the cash crunch across the board, would seem at best a storm in a teapot. The issue at stake really is the augmentation being demanded by the states in the face of cutback in oil exports in the situation that the price has held steady over the budget benchmark price. Left to the federal government, the net difference should be warehoused in the excess crude account to save for the rainy day – and this, naturally against the objections by the states. It is therefore clear that the squabble is one over entitlement, a reflection of the ingrained sharing mentality and the fixation at all levels with rent collection. So, the squabbling could as well go on forever.

    What cannot go on is the delusion being championed by the federal government that it pays to do either little or nothing. Clearly, the econometrics of stashing public funds in foreign bank vaults at nominal interest rates of barely two percent is yet to be sufficiently explained let alone appreciated by Nigerians. This is even more so, in the event that the federal government’s promises about giving the private sector the required muscle to thrive have remained undelivered. Today, it is no longer in dispute that after more than 10 years of financial services sector restructuring, businesses still cannot get cheap funds to run their operations, thanks to Sanusi’s central bank for making fetish of inflation-targeting with industry’s reference interest rate pegged at 12 percent. Trust the banks, they have since mastered the art of making money without lifting a finger just as small businesses have long adjusted to coughing out anything between 22 to 27 percent rate on borrowed funds or risk closure.

    Of course, like every other thing, critical financial infrastructures either for direct financing of businesses or those designed to take the pressure of capital acquisition off them, (a good example is infrastructure for leasing) remain underdeveloped. Ditto, for the plan for mortgage development; it remains on the drawing board more than two years after Okonjo-Iweala first served notice of government’s intention to overhaul the sector.

    The story of the operators on the Main Street is one of double whammy. Because the states cannot get enough from the federation account, they swing into overdrive with their tax hounds demanding all manners of taxes from hapless entrepreneurs across the states. Meanwhile, at a time small and medium scale businesses are hardly able to keep their heads above water, the political establishment, together with their bureaucratic allies, continues to gobble more than disproportionate share from the national till.

    I don’t think the question of the country being broke has arisen, yet. The proof is not just in the bazaar going on in Abuja and the 36 state capitals, but in the voodoo economy that thrives in rent as against a day’s honest and productive work. How can the nation be broke when all it takes to join the big league is a one-way ticket to Abuja or wherever for a share of the gravy? Isn’t that why politics has become the most lucrative, the biggest business in town?

    Broke? We aren’t; at least, not yet. Why should we worry when we have enough to finance imports for the next nine months even for doing nothing? Isn’t our membership of the Sovereign Wealth Fund club meant to announce our arrival in the global league? Didn’t the Americans say that if it ain’t broke, you don’t fix? And who says Nigeria needs fixing?

  • Jonathan’s dialogue: protecting President’s interest

    Predictably, the Femi Okurounmu National Conference Committee has been moving round the country to seek the views of Nigerians on what they would want discussed when President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposed national dialogue comes on stream.

    Predictable because numerous other similar committees in the past had gone round the country to seek and collate public opinions on what the problem is with Nigeria and how to solve it with little or nothing near the solution being found. Nothing in the horizon suggests that the current exercise would be any different.

    In fact there is every likelihood that the Okurounmu committee might even be worse than its predecessors and be too eager to dance to the tune of the presidency; Jonathan’s presidency.

    Just like most of our past and even present leaders, President Goodluck Jonathan is deficient in integrity as not a few Nigerians have lost faith in his promises and words. Talk about saying one thing and doing another.

    Even his promise of making his proposed conference the “mother” of all such conferences in terms of covering vast areas of our national problems and proffering solutions to them has not dampened the cynicism of critics who believe nothing good can ever come out from this national dialogue. At best, they contend, it would be a rehash of the reports of similar committees in the past that had been gathering dust on the shelf somewhere in the presidency. That such reports are there in Abuja and we are still where we are today, talking of another conference suggest that we have either not learnt from our history or this type of conference is not the solution to our problems.

    The cynicism is not helped by the president’s decision to subject whatever became the report of the conference to scrutiny by the National Assembly, with implied powers to either accept, reject or even amend to suit whatever interest they represent.

    But by far the clearest indication yet that the report of the Okurounmu committee and that of the National Conference expected to follow soon could just be a rubber stamp of what the presidency wants was given in Benin, Edo State recently, when the Committee held a public forum to hear and collate the views of the South-south people on the up coming national dialogue.

    A member of the Committee, Colonel Tony Nyiam (of the Orkar coup fame, remember him?) verbally descended on Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole just because of the Comrade Governor’s belief that the conference is a waste of time and would not get us anywhere. His outburst was made more insulting as it came while Oshiomhole was making his personal views known at the forum. Nyiam would have none of this and not only did he shout the governor down, his action also invited some hoodlum who disrupted proceedings which was hurriedly called off by the organizers.

    The rest of the story I am sure you know, including the fact that the Committee Chairman not only reprimanded Nyiam but also apologized to the governor. But surprisingly, Nyiam found nothing wrong with his action and not only did he defend it but also explained that he did so in reaction to what he called insults being poured on President Jonathan and other Edo leaders by Governor Oshiomhole over the conference. He similarly justified his outburst because such ‘insults’ on the person and office of the president by Oshiomhole and others like him were getting too much.

    While Nyiam action (his outburst) is condemnable, I would rather leave that to the public to judge, the same way I would leave the public to make up their minds on Oshiomhole’s purported insult on the president. My concern here is the reasons given by Nyiam for his action. Could that be one of the secret directives (if any) given to the Committee by the president? Or rather one of the directives given to Nyiam to protect the interest of the president? How many of such directives were given to him or other members of the Committee? These we may never know now, but read my lips, if a member could say such things openly, then one could imagine what he would say or do behind closed doors when the Committee writes its report and recommendation to the president.

    How many of the Committee members hold this same or similar view about the person of President Jonathan as Nyiam? It is necessary for us to know to prepare our minds for whatever report they are going to come out with. If all or majority of them are similarly inclined then we should be prepared for a report written in the Villa, prepared by the President’s men and handed over to Okurounmu for representation to the Presidency as the views of the Nigerians the Committee met in the course of its jamboree round the country. By the way I wonder, when would they go to Damaturu or Maiduguri to hold the public forum on the conference for the North east zone? I am only being curious.

    But could the Committee be secretly working on a hidden agenda for the president but using the public forum as a decoy? What could this hidden agenda be? Some say it could be tenure elongation for the president or a third term in disguise; that the Committee is just shopping for relevant views to arrive at the answer/report already prepared by the presidency. More like what we call ‘wuruwuru to the answer’ here.

    But whatever it is, the Okurounmu committee has to be very careful and not tamper with the views of the majority in presenting its report because it’s credibility is already at stake, right from the beginning and now made worse by the unnecessary and unwarranted outburst of Nyiam on Oshiomhole.

    For Colonel Nyiam, it is a big disappointment. Here was somebody that participated in the Major Okah led coup purportedly to rid Nigeria of ethnic and religious sentiments that have been militating against our wholehearted oneness as a nation and a people, now pandering towards that same ethnic sentiment to defend President Jonathan who hails from the same South south geo-political zone as the former Army officer. It is well known that Nyiam has a very soft spot for the president on account of this zonal kinship, nothing is wrong with that you may want to say. But to allow that to becloud his sense of reasoning and duty to the nation is highly unfortunate.

    If people abuse or insult the president in airing their views how is that his business and where is the offense there? If it is or was an offense to say uncomplimentary things about the president or any of our leaders then our jails would have been filled to the brim during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. The former president was unarguably the most criticized and abused Nigerian leader in recent times, yet he took all on his chin. And where he felt so bad or annoyed he simply abused or insulted the other party in return and we all laughed over it. Criminalizing insults on the president (Jonathan) as Nyiam’s outburst is suggesting would make Obasanjo a saint or in retrospect looked a tolerant person. But we all know he wasn’t.

    Could Nyiam’s ethnic or regional sympathy for Jonathan account for his jettisoning of his earlier stoic support of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as opposed to the ‘ordinary’ National Conference (oNC) that the president is proposing? If that was the case, it would only be disappointing to hear that, but he wouldn’t have done anything illegal. Everybody has the right to change his/her mind anytime. After all, the committee chairman, Dr Okurounmu was once a staunch advocate of SNC as the only solution to Nigeria’s problems. He, like Nyiam, has now been converted to evangelizing for oNC. Hmmmmm, time will tell.

    This is also a test for Okurounmu as a person and his committee. The signs of imminent failure are there already. The boycott of the regional forum to collate views in some regions by the A-list leaders in those areas has not only created a credibility problem for the committee’s report but also a window of opportunity for these leaders to lampoon Okurounmu and his group if the committee’s report fell short of public expectations or was tampered with by the president.

    It would do Okurounmu and his committee a lot of good if the President is advised to allow a referendum on the report of the oNC as against passing the report over to the National Assembly. This will put all those ‘enemies of progress’ to shame.

     

     

     

  • Bayelsa’s crime eradication model

    Across the world, the challenge of security remains a critical issue in governance. Governments at different levels are battling with ever-increasing range of security challenges. In this regard, the idea of security governance has emerged, which among other broad themes, focus on the capacity and will of governments and other social actors in mitigating the endemic impact of insecurity on society.

    At home, the situation is no less a concern to the people and indeed the political leadership because security and development are interwoven hence the need to share perspectives on the success of the security reform and intelligence governance in Bayelsa State.

    At inception over a year ago, few could guarantee that the Seriake Dickson-led administration would be able to deliver on the lofty ideals of his manifesto which has security of lives and property as core objective. Such pessimism was not misplaced given the level of lawlessness in the state. It was more of a Hobbesian state of existence. The state was engulfed in brazen acts of street gang violence, investors fled the state, and professionals turned down postings to Bayelsa, just as contractors abandoned their sites. Criminal activities such as cult clashes, murder and assassinations put the state in the news for the wrong reasons. Worst still, kidnapping, proliferation of weapons, free use of explosive devices and illegal bunkering were a regular occurrence in Bayelsa.

    But today the story has changed, so dramatically that the once dreaded state is now a beacon of peace and tranquility with the resultant boom in economic activities.

    But how did it happen? What was the magic?

    Basically the change in leadership brought about some fundamental values which shaped the course of governance. Having appreciated the enormity of the security challenge, it was confronted headlong with the establishment of the Bayelsa Integrated Security Strategy (BISS) to harness the elements in the security programme of the administration. The modus operandi was re-engineering of policing and law enforcement and security operations generally to emphasize intelligence based proactive interdiction. It was a measure which leveraged on massive community and public participation through an auxiliary structure that effectively distills the contribution of the citizenry into the state security architecture. This system, I must report, has been very effective, affirming the zero tolerance to crime and criminality as promised by the governor. Now in the new Bayelsa, people go about their businesses with confidence, knowing that anyone who commits crime, high or low, no matter how long it takes, will pay for it.

    We must duly appreciate the tremendous work of the Bayelsa security apparatus as represented in the BISS which has such effective components as the Special Task Forces, Operation Doo Akpo, Operation Doo Akpo (Maritime), Co-ordination Assets, TETRA-Based Public Safety and Security Co-ordination Centre, Domain Awareness Systems and Urban, Municipal and Township CCTV Systems.

    Importantly, the security master plan equally involves Waterways Monitoring Systems, Aerial Surveillance Systems, Asset Tracking Systems, Public Vehicles Registration System and Indigene and Residents’ Identity Card System. It was massive though with a huge social cost which nonetheless was good for the people of the state.

    It is pertinent to note that the framework, infrastructure, equipment provision and organizational architecture to entrench law and order was built from the scratch by the Dickson administration with the support of President Goodluck Jonathan and heads of the security agencies at national and state levels.

    Yet it was not altogether a one way approach as the government also incorporated some socio-economic dimension to the fight against crime and criminality. The human element was well addressed through socio-economic programmes and projects with significant capacity to absorb and rehabilitate repentant criminals while denying any gang of new recruits. Consequently, in addition to government’s multi-sector development initiatives, development and implementation of a special human capacity development programmes were carried out which incorporates the phased training of youths locally and abroad in relevant fields of competence. This has helped greatly in reducing unemployment and possible attraction to crime.

    And for the success of the security governance in the state, Governor Seriake Dickson has been recognized and being appreciated with an award by the A.I.T’s Security Watch Programme in South Africa for leading the Most Outstanding Security Outfit in West Africa. Dickson, a shrewd and serious political leader, is not given to frivolity and as such believes in the philosophy that the best recognition and most testimonial of commendation of service to the people must first come from them. Of course, this has been done in several means and ways because the people can feel the impact of government with specific reference to their security and orderliness in the society.

    The award is a further affirmation of a job well done. Indeed, the people of Bayelsa from the creeks, to the streets, offices and marketplace are singing hallelujah on their new found sense of security, freedom and safety. Bayelsans at different fora have voiced their appreciation on the return of law and order in their domain. They also have graciously given the current administration kudos for the effectiveness of the professionally executed Bayelsa Integrated Security Strategy (BISS).

    By prioritizing the protection of lives and property as is expected of responsible governments, Governor Dickson has kept to his campaign promise to the people, who hitherto wallowed in fear, to return sanity to the state in order for development to thrive.

    The whole lot of economic and business activities right now in the state is a pointer to the success of the security governance in Bayelsa State. The state has since become a construction site and there is more to come.

    Dickson, as a former Police officer, lawyer, ex- Attorney -General of the state, understands the underlying nuances of combating crime. Of course, there will be isolated cases of crime in the state as criminality and deviant behaviour is as old as man but the impact can never be really significant. Right now in Bayelsa with the fantastic infrastructure in place, comparable to that found in developed countries, reported crime and every action taken about it, is recorded. There is a good communication infrastructure for security agencies in the state along with a dispatch system that works. Citizens who call distress centres get useful response within three minutes as teams are properly equipped to respond to security breaches in all parts of Yenagoa.

    With Governor Dickson working assiduously to make Bayelsa a tourism and investment destination of note, there is no doubt that a proactive and responsive security apparatus will remain one of the pillars of the administration just as the generality of Bayelsans believe that their governor is worthy of the Security Watch Award for leading the most outstanding security outfit in West Africa.

     

     

    • Iworiso-Markson writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

  • Matters miscellaneous

    Matters miscellaneous

    It is miscellany time again, time to fall back on that old, reliable expedient to address with broad strokes and in short takes some issues in the glut of recent occurrences as well as non- occurrences, lest the usual people feel neglected.

    The point of departure has got to be Oduah-gate, the alleged scandal that has concentrated national attention like no other recent scandal real or merely alleged, to the point of almost reducing to a footnote President Goodluck Jonathan’ s epochal pilgrimage to the Holy Land to offer supplicationfor the redemption, peace, unity and prosperity of Nigeria with himself in the saddle for four more years after the expiration of the current term.

    It even took some attention away from the Burial of the Year in Okrika, in Rivers State, and from the stirring victories of the nation’s “Under -17” soccer team in their World Cup outings. That is no mean achievement for a mere allegation

    When the story broke three weeks ago on the online publication saharareporters, it all seemed straightforward. The report was backed by what appeared to be indissoluble evidence. It surfaced at a period when planes had been falling from the skies with frightful regularity and air travel to, from and within the country had never been more fraught.

    The official denials that followed were feeble and perfunctory at best. The question was not whether the Minister of Aviation. Princess Stella Oduah,would resign voluntarily or be dumped by President Jonathan, but when.

    That was then. Now nothing is certain anymore. The whole thing has been spun into an impenetrable web of allegations.

    If asked what the whole thing is about, I would have to say that it is about an alleged scandal set off by the alleged importation of two armoured BMW limousines, allegedly by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority,for the alleged sum of N127.5 million each, with the alleged approval of the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, allegedly for her use, following all manner of alleged threats to her personal safety, allegedly by contractors and suppliers and supplicants whose allegedly corrupt overtures she had allegedly rebuffed.

    Neither the panel Dr Jonathan set up to investigate the matter nor the National Assembly nor the alleged supplier of the vehicles nor the Bank that allegedly financed the alleged purchase shown the will to rescue the facts from the treacherous web of confusion, to say nothing of the penumbra of ethnic jingoism in which they now lie buried.

    I will not be surprised if, in the end, they declare that no vehicles were purchased at all, whether for the reported price or a fraction thereof; that no import duty waiver was ever sought or granted, and that no official of any agency under the Ministry of Aviation or within the ambit of the Federal Government for that matter ever sought, received, or was a party to seeking or receiving, or knew anything whatsoever concerning any armoured or un-armoured vehicles of any description, contrary to all that has been reported in the media.

    Those conspiracy theorists whom we unfortunately still have among us are claiming that a real scandal is being shabbily covered up. If there was a real threat to Princess Oduah’s life, why did she not alert the police? Why did she seek refuge in armoured limousine when the police could have provided her with armoured personnel carriers protected from the air by helicopter gunships?

    Easy, gentlemen. Are you sure the good Princess, who is a stickler for doing all that is needful, did not alert the police, and the security services for that matter?

    In whatever case, the Princess knows, as her detractors seemed not to have noticed, that the police have in recent times been fully occupied preventing members of the political opposition from holding lawful meetings even in private premises. Under the circumstances, therefore, alerting the police would have served no useful purpose.

    Even this line of reasoning is resting on the increasingly brittle supposition that the limousines were requisitioned and supplied in the first place.

    But there is no denying that the story took attention away from some really important things that should lift the national spirit.

    Early in the year, the Weather Bureau warned the nation to prepare for unusually heavy rains that would make last year’s deluge look like a drizzle – the record rainfall that, as this column observed then, literally buried vast swathes of Nigeria from the parched Sahel to the mangrove swamps of the Atlantic coast under water, causing major rivers to swell and rage as never before, and swallowing up houses and washing away bridges and roads and farmlands and sparing nothing in their ravenous wake.

    If all this would be a mere drizzle compared with what was on the horizon, the augury was nothing it not apocalyptic.

    For four days in September/October, the column further noted, the national capital was cut off from traffic from much of the south, portions of the road linking Lokoja with Abuja having been washed away. Lokoja itself, like many other cities caught up in the floods, evoked scenes of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which our own Poet Laureate Niyi Osundare has memorialised for the ages in epic verse.

    Some 130 persons, most likely a gross undercount, were reported killed in the floods, with at least as many missing. The number of displaced persons had to be in the millions, and damage to private property must be reckoned in trillions of Naira. Tens of thousands of the victims are yet to recover. Tens of thousands among them will.

    And yet, the Weather Bureau warned, this perfect calendar of woe in the face of which the National Emergency Management Agency and the relief agencies proved utterly unprepared and inept, would be nothing compared with what the public should expect.

    The rainy season is almost over. Some flooding has occurred here and there, but not on the biblical scale forecast by the Weather Bureau. For a public starved of good tidings, this is cause for celebration. There should be dancing and rejoicing in the streets. But the unpatriotic elements who conjured up Oduah-gate have robbed the public even of that simple pleasure.

    Shame upon all of them.

    This tawdry Oduah-gate also swept off the front pages another development that should have been cause for national rejoicing. Finally, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency can state with absolute confidence and to the nearest millilitre the amount of gasoline consumed daily in Nigeria and where it comes from.

    The figure stands at 38.298 million litres. The NNPC imports 33 percent of the quantum, and 30 oil marketers import the balance of 67 percent.

    The good news is that when the nation’s refineries are finally rehabilitated, they will be able to contribute significantly to the mix of products entering the market.

    Nor is this the only good news in the pipeline (pun intended). The Department of Petroleum Resources is tantalisingly close to figuring out just how much crude is lifted daily from the nation’s oil wells.

     

  • Ekiti ronu

    Ekiti ronu

    If Ekiti ronu [Ekiti think] echoes Yoruba ronu, iconic caution as mass protest music by late dramatist, Hubert Ogunde, during the 1st Republic’s political storm, it is simply because a storm of similar magnitude is hovering over Ekiti.

    Should this storm dawn and thunder break, as the pan-Yoruba one did in the 1st Republic Western Region, Ekiti people would be the grand victims in the present South West.

    Indeed, in Ekiti, the third generation of Obafemi Awolowo’s developmental politics are about to fall upon themselves, ironically as the paterfamilias and his policy greats did; making hideous political killing fields of the same Western vista in which they had showcased startling policy wonders; and birthing the first generation of Yoruba political sinners and saints!

    Now what is this: history inevitably repeating itself or plain hubris, pushing towards avoidable ruin?

    Enter Samuel Ladoke Akintola and his fallen angels, among the brightest and best in the old Action Group (AG), the first generation of Yoruba political sinners versus Awo and faithful disciples, the first generation of Yoruba saints; then Akin Omoboriowo and pals, among the brightest and best in the 2nd Republic Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), second generation of Yoruba sinners versus Michael Adekunle Ajasin and brood, second generation of Yoruba saints.

    Now, is the black-or-white, famously unforgiving and notoriously ancestral-feuding Yoruba political clime ripe for a third generation of sinners and saints, in the looming Ekiti toss-up between Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB) and John Kayode Fayemi (JKF)?

    Both lead feuding blocs of the All Progressives Congress (APC), present South West political lords of the manor, and closest articulators of Awo’s development politics, among the varied groups laying claim to the Awo legacy.

    Indeed, Awo political descendants are no united phalanx. From the very genesis, even with Awo in charge, the ranks had always fissured. So, it is with the present generation.

    For starters, a bloc insists it is Awo natural franchisers, to be disputed by no one. This class comprises the living Awolowos, the Afenifere grandees, Awo-era battle-hardened but ageing veterans and other Awo ideology coterie and family friends, in the clergy and other fields.

    This group considers itself the Areopagus, apex chamber of wise elders in ancient Athens, from which the Awo franchise must be cleared. But aside from holding this virtual “spiritual brief”, to use legal-speak, they have done pretty little to concretise the Awo developmental essence.

    Indeed, it is not illegitimate to charge this bloc with illicit doctrinaire trade-offs, for immediate but eventually ruinous political gains (as the Afenifere grandees did with Ogun’s former governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, OGD, and his Ogun Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and currently with Olusegun Mimiko and his Labour Party in Ondo), when faced with political pressures from rival claimants to the Awo legacy.

    Then there is the Bola Tinubu group, from the Alliance for Democracy (AD) at the start of this 4th Republic, to Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now All Progressives Congress (APC). Though the Afenifere bloc regards Asiwaju Tinubu and his younger Turks as a breed of upstarts (and on both sides, the contempt is mutual), the Tinubu bloc has done more than any other to actualise Awo’s developmental vision.

    Indeed, what the AD class of 1999-2003 miserably flunked, the Tinubu current brood in the South West is doing with panache: in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti states, with the South West boasting robust development makeovers, reminiscent of the golden Awo days, in stark contrast to the abject developmental puddle of the Olusegun Obasanjo mainstream era.

    But aside from the Afenifere and Tinubu blocs, there are the Awo ideological fair weather friends, exemplified by the Mimikos and OGDs, who nibble the Awo rhetoric for political sustenance, but are political Machiavellis, sworn to the end justifying the means – or “meanness” to parody Prof. Wole Soyinka.

    Since every Tinubu gain necessarily translates into an Afenifere loss (and probably vice-versa), the Mimikos and OGDs are in booming business, entering sweetheart partnerships with Afenifere, as the unending battle flares, to control of the soul of the South West.

    It is to this vicious vista, therefore, that the looming MOB-JKF battle royale for the capture of Ekiti is opening. But that is not the only danger. Lurking in the wings, and waiting for carrion, are the federal political vultures of Goodluck Jonathan, a presidential camp desperately craving a second term (after making a hash of the first), and for whom a fissured Ekiti APC would be virtual gift from the gods!

    If all these would not jolt into sense the Ekiti gladiators, behaving as children without a sense of history, then it is plain hubris, the good old Yoruba eedi, at play!

    MOB, rumoured to be lining up joining forces with Labour Party (LP) would probably destroy himself. That is trite, but if only conventional wisdom holds right.

    So, after Akintola and Omoboriowo, is MOB bracing up to lead the latest generation of progressives-turned-demons in Yoruba politics? But what if conventional wisdom turns grand folly and MOB turns the table? Or worse: the federal reactionaries cook up the vote and bolt with the prize, while MOB and JKF, in progressive feuding, mutually self-destroy?

    But why would a man take such a perilous path? Why would MOB eye possible glory but probable doom, and yet develop a Samson’s complex to stake it all? That is what is not trite!

    That would suggest an intolerable political situation in his APC, that makes coexistence mutually unbeneficial. So, if a man cannot legitimately actualise his dreams in a union, why should he invest his time and loyalty in it? Vaulting ambition? Maybe. But ambition is no crime, and “vaulting” is only an adjective!

    That takes the discourse to the Fayemi side, now posing as saints in the divide. They are not. MOB and his coalition of the aggrieved accuse the governor of bad faith and of use-and-dump tactics.

    These allegations could be right or wrong. But the reality is that one side is incensed enough to torpedo the whole house. That cannot be good for a sitting governor that even the aggrieved admit – even if in private – has done enough to earn re-election.

    MOB must, therefore, beware of the Coriolanus syndrome. Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, in a fit of fatal anger, joined the Volscians against his native Corioli. He lost his life in the gambit.

    But JKF too must be wary of the hubris of gubernatorial conceit to crush a comrade turned foe. And those bent on media demonization of MOB are tragically mistaken. He who is down need fear no fall!

    Whatever it takes, the APC leadership must tweak the ears of both combatant camps, and bring both to reason – whatever it takes! On the basis of equal opportunity membership, they must hand each side mutual, cast-iron guarantees to build confidence and fend off the looming disaster.

    Each time the South West advances, reactionary forces gather to scuttle the efforts, using feuding progressives themselves as fuel.

    Should such happen again in Ekiti, MOB and JKF would take the flak. So, they had better both jerk awake before earning themselves a harsh verdict of history.

    Ekiti ronu!

  • Ministers of Bling

    Ministers of Bling

    Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Archbishop of Buenos Aires was a simple pastor. He lived an austere life. Shunning the official mansion of the Archbishop of a diocese of more than three million inhabitants, Father Bergoglio lived in an apartment and prepared his own super throughout the 15 years of his episcopal ministry in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    He was a man of the people; the people’s Bishop, so to speak. He was one and part of them. “ My people are poor and I am one of them”, he said on several occasions to explain his simple lifestyle. He travelled by bus and underground train when he could have used any limousine of his choosing which the Catholic Church could readily afford and would have gladly provided.

    The son of Italian immigrants, Jorge’s father Mario was an accountant employed by the Railways in Argentina while his mother Regina was a full time housewife devoted to raising their five children. He came from a humble background and never forgot that even when he was moving up the ladder in the Catholic Church. He remained faithful to the common man and was always empathetic to them. He felt what they were feeling.

    When he was created Cardinal by Pope John Paul II on 21 February 2001, he told the faithful back home in Argentina not to travel to Rome to celebrate his elevation but to donate whatever they would have spent on the journey to the poor and needy. They were always in his thoughts and he told his fellow priests in Argentina to do the same.

    God probably was watching him and preparing him for a future role as head of the Catholic Church worldwide. His people were also watching so also were his fellow priests, the Cardinals who converged in Rome in March this year and elected him the 266th Head of the Catholic Church. For his official title, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires until March 13, 2013 chose Pope Francis I.

    Though born of Italian parents, the first Pope from the Americas never forgot his humble South American background and his passion for the poor when he arrived in Rome. Typical of him, he declined to live in the Vatican opulent Papal mansion and chose a less grandeur place. He shunned all forms of flamboyance and seemed to have defined his papacy as being for the poor.

    And to demonstrate his zero tolerance for any ostentatious living, the Pope Thursday last week suspended the flamboyant Bishop of the Diocese of Limburg in Germany, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebart-van Elst for spending a whooping N43 million to renovate his official residence.

    Bishop Deluxe or Bishop of Bling as Father Tabart-van Elst is known in Germany has been in trouble with his congregation for some time now following his extravagance. Series of petitions from his diocese had been sent to Rome complaining about him, demonstrations against Holywood like lifestyle had taken place a couple of times outside his official residence. Some of his fellow priests in Germany were also getting concerned about his lifestyle. So, what did the Vatican do?

    Pope Francis invited him to Rome and after a few hours of discussion sent him on immediate suspension and ordered investigation. Another priest has been put in charge of Limburg Diocese temporarily. Decisiveness! Character! Firmness! Walking the talk! Call it whatever, this is leadership.

    Now come back home.

    Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was an anonymous civil servant or private person somewhere in Port Harcourt Rivers State ekeing out a living for himself and family before patience and fate brought him good luck and thrust him into limelight via politics.

    Born into an Ijaw family from Otuoke in Bayelsa State, Jonathan had a humble or shall we say poor background and, according to him, had no shoes when he was growing up. He knew poverty and poverty also knew him, if I could use that expression. He struggled to go to school and made it through just by His grace. His grass to grace story you all know.

    Like Pope Francis he wasn’t born into affluence, but unlike the Head of the Catholic Church he has embraced affluence clutching tenaciously on to it. He speaks out against corruption but doesn’t seem ready or capable of fighting it. Some members of his inner circle are strongly suspected of being neck deep in corruption yet he still goes about with them.

    Just like the German Bishop of Bling, one of Jonathan’s ministers is known to be not just flamboyant but extravagantly so. He has a Minister of Petroleum Resources who goes about with a handbag whose cost could build a modest primary school somewhere there for some of the millions of our school age kids running about the streets naked. In spite of public outcry against her ostentatious lifestyle Madam Untouchable remain unbothered and Mr President unwilling unable, incapable or may be powerless to either remove or call her to order.

    Some of his ministers and buddies either own private jets or fly about in one at the tax payers expense. Some even do so without shame and to the neglect of their duties. University teachers are in the fourth month of a strike that has kept our children at home and yet his coordinating Minister of Education was busy for most of last week coordinating the burial of the mother of the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan in Rivers State, spending our money on a purely private matter. He is busy fighting the governor of his state instead of fighting to get lecturers back at work and our children back in school

    The latest of Jonathan’s numerous Ministers of Bling is the one in charge of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah. I am sure by now you all know her story, the two BMW armoured cars that she caused the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to buy for her at 1.6million USD. The Naira equivalent in price I don’t know because I don’t know which exchange rate to use; CBN’s or the one from the parallel market? Both are unstable.

    In spite of the public outcry, President Goodluck Jonathan is still dragging his feet, unsure of what to do or unwilling to do anything to punish Madam Stella for this flagrant abuse of public resources verging on corruption. It is over two weeks since the scandal broke out now and all our president could do was set up an administrative panel to look into the case. Meanwhile Princess Stella Oduah, another of the untouchables in Jonathan’s government stays in office as if nothing happened. It is business as usual for her. She even accompanied Mr President on a pilgrimage to Israel, the first by a sitting Nigerian leader. What kind of leadership is this?

    When Bishop Franz-Peter Tebart-van Elst spent 46 million USD to renovate his official residence, Pope Francis didn’t wait for any administrative panel before sending him on suspension even if temporary. And if Vatican’s investigation exonerates him, I am sure he’d get back his position. The Pope acted first to protect the integrity of the Church as a against that of the Bishop. He has, by that prompt action, sent the message out that the Church, particularly his papacy will not tolerate that kind of behavior particularly from his priests.

    By keeping Stella Oduah in office while the three ‘wise’ men look into the bullet proof cars scandal, what message is President Jonathan sending out? If truly he harbors no tolerance for corruption as he often says and he remembers that sometime in the past, not too long ago, he had no shoes, and therefore luckly to be where he is today, then he should not be keeping the likes of Stella Oduah and other Ministers of Bling in his cabinet; those who care less whether the rest of us have shoes or not as long as their comfort is guaranteed.

    I do not know whether the president is a Catholic, but whether he is or not, he should draw inspiration from what Pope Francis did and suspend Stella Oduah immediately, while investigation continues. If she’s found not guilty, she returns to the cabinet.

    This culture of some “animals are more equal than others” in Jonathan’s cabinet will not only not help him but also further erode the thin integrity of his government and Nigeria’s standing in the eyes of the watching world.

    If another Minister other than Oduah, Madueke, Wike and any other member of the kitchen cabinet, has this kind of credibility problem hanging on his or her neck, will President Jonathan be this protective?

    President Goodluck Jonathan should remember where he is coming from and protect the interests of millions of Nigerians who had no shoes like him when they started but have worked hard to create the wealth he and some of his ministers and friends are now enjoying. They should spend our money responsibly and on things that would benefit us. The Ministers of Bling in his cabinet should be thrown out; enough of this irresponsible leadership. Pope Francis has shown how to be a responsible leader. It’s over to Jonathan.

  • Beyond Stellagate

    Beyond Stellagate

    This week, I return to Stellagate – the latest brand of impunity featuring Aviation Minister Stella Oduah and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Just as the histrionics that have attended the on-going investigations by the House of Representatives are not entirely unexpected, there is something in the attempt by the chamber to play the thief-catcher that smacks of hypocrisy – or worse, abdication. More than a week after, I mean the motions have become all too familiar; outrage couched in righteous indignation has not abated; so also is the fanfare of staged investigations that deliver no more than we already know. . Soon enough, the chapter will be closed in time for the nation to return to business as usual.

    Not even those who relish the placebo of elevating the ritual of fact-finding to an end itself can fail to be amused by the charade primed to generate more heat than light. It’s hardly a case of returning a verdict of failure of oversight more so since the House has denied approving the vote for Oduah’s armoured cars. However, there can be no running away from the preliminary point – which is that the body in which the constitution vests the authority to determine how public funds are applied, and which gobbles N150 billion of taxpayers funds annually, could do far more than the ritual of fixation with post mortems.

    Now, if you ask me – what is excitable in yet another putrid flesh being served hot and steaming to luckless citizens on prime-time TV? And since when has graft in high places ceased to be citizens’ daily staple in these parts? And what is new that we do not already know about the self-help culture which goes on in the name of public service? Isn’t it now obvious to everyone – save our self-appointed gate-keepers – that due process, like its law kin, is either a donkey or an ass depending on who is involved?

    Again, if you ask me, I would tell you that the bicameral chamber should focus on better things rather than reduce the hallowed halls to parliaments of trivia. This is what the so-called high profile inquiry would achieve. I mean beyond their sheer entertainment value, what purpose or purposes did previous investigations serve if not to further muddle the waters as we saw of the pension probe in which they played the spoilers instead of allowing the public service and the anti-graft agencies to do their job? And, by the way, what is the job of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC other than to establish whether or not the law was broken? And do we need a distracting and utterly superfluous activism of a presidential panel to establish that?

    Talk about the august body preferring to treat ringworm when a life-threatening affliction is indicated. So much for their activism; do our overpaid lawmakers have the foggiest idea about the crisis ravaging the public finance system beyond the episodic theatricals each time another high-profile thief shows up? How about treating the citizenry to the same dreary motions with predictable outcomes merely for the fun of being seen to be doing something?

    You call that leadership or governance? Well, I call that abdication!

    Focusing on the elephantine N4.6 trillion annual federal appropriations and their share of the pork described as constituency projects is not nearly quarter of the job for which our lawmakers draws a whole of three percent of the entire federal budget. I am talking of a National Assembly of 90 Senators, 450 Representatives, together with their hordes of assistants and allied bureaucracy gobbling up N150 billion of our four-point something trillion annual federal budget. That’s hardly money well spent!

    For once, I think our lawmakers should get their hands dirty by putting them to work. That means getting the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly to undertake a comprehensive look into the bastion of pork – described as agencies and parastatals. How many are they? How much of their fiscal activities are known? It would be interesting to know.

    How much of their revenue and expenditure profiles are captured in the appropriation process? How much of their fiscal operations are knowable or even known? How are their operating surpluses utilised and how effective are the institutional controls? To what extent do they comply with the mandatory requirement of periodic rendition of their audited accounts to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly? Now, we are talking of agencies whose revenues in some cases exceed those of some of the less prosperous states in the federation!

    For starters; what would it take for PAC to get the outlaw national oil corporation – the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC ) to comply with the law by throwing its books open? For how long will the nation continue to suffer the monthly eruptions at the Federal Accounts Allocations Committee only because the rent-collecting corporation insists on acting above the law of the republic? Now, I have not even mentioned the relatively less known cash cow of the ruling party, the Nigeria Ports Authority – a parastatal under the Ministry of Transport which came to national attention only because one Bode Gorge took his turn to eat!

    How much of the fiscal activities or operations of this important parastatal are known?

    That, to me, is the way for the National Assembly to go; evolving an adequate template of fiscal controls would seem by far more productive venture than the fruitless mission to catch the legion of execu-thieves.

    Interestingly, no one it seems bothers anymore about the root of the gravy: the Abuja behemoth which swallows 54 percent of proceeds of the federation account leaving the 36 states to share a paltry 24 percent; this they do in addition to countless other below-the-line revenues that are either unaccountable or unaccounted for. Ever wondered why there is too much money with pretty little thinking going on?

    By the way, isn’t it a shame that the Revenue Allocation Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission has had a whole of 14 years to strip the federal behemoth of the excess baggage but instead feigns helplessness? Isn’t it about time the members headed back home?

    If our lawmakers want to be taken seriously, let them take practical steps to tame the Abuja gravy and its expansive infrastructure. We do not need those spectacular shows to catch a few thieves.

  • A farewell to Baba and Omo

    A farewell to Baba and Omo

    Permit my literary licence.

    The one was not the father of the other anymore than the other was the son of the one as the juxtaposition of their names in the headline would appear to suggest.

    But Baba(rinde) Omojola and (David) Omo Omoruyi, were towering influences on Nigeria’s political life and development, and their deaths recently within a week of each other, both aged 75 years, have justly attracted national attention, despite the volatility that is the hallmark of public affairs in Nigeria.

    The circumstances of their passing could not have been more different.

    Baba Omojola died in harness. He had travelled from his Lagos base to the Ondo State capital, Akure, to make a presentation before the Okurounmu Committee charged with laying the groundwork for what its promoter President Goodluck Jonathan has at various times called a National Conference, a National Dialogue. and National Conversation, and may yet call by a different name altogether

    He had presented the Committee with the draft of a people’s Constitution that he had taken a leading part in fashioning, under the platform of PRONACO, of which one of principal conveners was the departed and much-lamented statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro.

    That was Omojola’s last public act. On returning to his hotel room, he slumped. He was dead by the time they got him to the hospital. Something tells me that he departed the way he would have chosen – active, engaged in a cause dear to his heart, and in the service of the public.

    It was in Chief Enahoro’s company I first met Omojola, in 1993, in the aftermath of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, though I had heard much about him, as must have any Nigerian who takes more than a passing interest in public affairs.

    Physically, he was rather smallish and slight, a far less imposing figure than I had imagined. He did not have the commanding presence of our host. But what he lacked in that department was more than compensated by his sparkling conversation, his lively and energetic spirit, his insights on a wide range of issues domestic and foreign, and a wry sense of humour.

    On many occasions, it was that small frame that saved him from the menacing forces of “national security.” Agents would barge into his home or his office, asking for Baba Omojola, hoping to find a figure so imposing that its owner deserved nothing less than the appellation “Baba.”

    He would reply calmly that he did not even know Omojola, let alone his father, and they would move on in search of Baba Omojola. After a while, the agents finally nailed their man. They hauled him to detention in Kuje Prison, in Abuja Federal Capital Territory, in the wake of massive protests against the continued tenure of military president Ibrahim Babangida, who had dribbled the nation into a standstill in a craven bid to perpetuate his rule

    As a student at the London School of Economics, Omojola had come under the spell of the legendary political theorist and socialist activist, Harold Laski. There he had honed his intellectual skills and left-wing activism. His brilliance marked him out for an academic career, but he chose o devote his great learning and his life to national development and the cause of the working people.

    Returning home after further studies in Eastern Europe, he served as a close aide and adviser to Michael Imoudu, and it is to him that we owe a biography of the man they called Labour Leader Number One. In his work as an independent economic consultant, the focus was on national development issues. Whenever matters touching on the welfare of the broad masses of the people were being discussed, there you found Omojola.

    It was therefore natural that he would be one of the leaders of the protests that rocked the Nigeria three years ago following the cutting of a phantom subsidy on petroleum products. By his reckoning, Nigerians were paying obscenely high prices for those products even before the government claimed that it had been providing hefty subsidies.

    The last time I saw Baba Omojola was at the Blue Roof Hall of Lagos Television Service, in Agidingbi, on June 12, 2012, at a ceremony to mark the 19th anniversary of the infamous annulment of the presidential election that heralded perhaps the most powerful intimations since the nationalist era the possibility of building a nation from the riot of nations inhabiting the geographic space called Nigeria.

    He was feisty as ever, even if less sprightly. Time and tireless engagement had taken their toll. But his intellectual acumen was not in doubt. As sole discussant, he did justice to a recondite paper on electoral reform presented by Professor Lanre Fagbohun, of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Lagos.

    Unlike Baba Omojola who died in harness, Professor Omo Omoruyi died long after he had done his work and that work had been undone by his estranged friend and patron, Ibrahim Babangida, the military president.

    Omoruyi belonged in a team of university professors, mainly political scientists, which Babangida recruited to serve as a kind of a Brains Trust for his office, which went by the grandiloquent name of “The Presidency.” When they were not turning Nigeria into a laboratory for crack-brained political experiments, they were fabricating elaborate rationalisations for the twists and turns of the programme that Babangida advertised as a transition to democratic rule.

    It was of course nothing of the sort, as the intellectuals-in-residence knew or ought to have known. Anyone who was not deluded or practically unconscious could see that the whole thing was an elaborate swindle.

    Omoruyi ‘s brief was to establish and run a Centre for Democratic Studies to prepare aspirants to political office as well as political parties for a future without military coups and without all the pathologies that brought previous attempts at civilised governance to grief.

    He plunged into the task with enthusiasm and energy, and became one of the more prominent and visible figures among the transition engineers. The programme survived one manufactured crisis after another until it reached its culmination, the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    Despite all the obstacles that Babangida confected and threw in its path, the election took place. It was clean and peaceful. And it produced a clear winner. Omoruyi celebrated that outcome, proud that he had contributed significantly to securing it. Instead of celebrating the result, Babangida annulled the election, in the process driving Nigeria to the edge of ruin.

    From the upheavals that followed the annulment, Omoruyi realised that he was no longer safe in Abuja. He fled to Benin City, only to be shot months later and left for dead outside his home by gunmen who have not been identified to this day. With help from friends in the diplomatic community, he was flown to the United States for treatment. Thereafter he took up a one-year fellowship at Harvard, and later settled in Boston, Mass.

    I believe it was then he was diagnosed with cancer. With aggressive treatment, the disease went into remission. He returned to Nigeria, reconciled with Babangida, served briefly as a strategist for Vice President Abubakar Atiku, and subsequently as head of Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s re-ëlection campaign. By then, his cancer had returned, and he was in desperate need of funds to return to the United States for further treatment.

    His appeal to his one-time patron, former associates and friends fell on deaf ears for the most part. In pained frustration, he lamented publicly that he had been “used and dumped.” It was Oshiomhole who came to his rescue.

    It was hard not to be moved to pity for Omoruyi. As director-general of the CDS, he had at his disposal a huge budget into which he could have dipped to ensure his financial security. In that era, remember, the term “accountability” rarely figured in governance. The man at the top, it was said, expected those who served at the altar to eat to their fill, so long as they did not stain their uniform or clothing in the process.

    Omoruyi seemed to have risen above the rampant thieving of that era. If he had corruptly enriched himself, the officials whose duplicity he documented for posterity in his book, “The Tale of June 12: The Betrayal of the Democratic Rights of Nigerians (1993)” would have exposed him without hesitation.

    Baba Omojola, as I have noted, died in harness. Omo Omoruyi died in near destitution, long after his work had been done and undone, his body ravaged by cancer. The one, a pillar of the Nigerian Left, lived and thrived not merely outside government but in spite of it; the other functioned mainly within the power structure.

    But both, in their own ways, served the public to the best of their great abilities.

    Nigeria’s public sphere is the poorer for their passing

     

  • Stella and her armoured limousines

    Have you been to any of Nigeria’s numerous airports lately, especially the federal airports? If you have you must have noticed some changes, let’s say improvements, on the terminal buildings.

    In some of them, like at Yola International Airport, the old terminal,buildings have been pulled down and new, modern structures springing up. From the rubble of the old terminal building, a new Sultan Abubakar International Airport is to be commissioned soon in Sokoto.

    The fratricidal politics of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State and President Goodluck Jonathan shadow boxing with Governor Rotimi Amaechi permitting, the Port Harcourt International Airport should join the league soon with a truly(?) international terminal building.

    And lest I forget, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja has been expanded while we have been promised an additional terminal at Nigeria’s prime gateway, the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, otherwise known as MAKIA has been upgraded, though underutilized, while renovations I am told are also going on elsewhere.

    While these constructions and reconstructions have not necessarily brought about improved services at the airports, kudos must go to Aviation Minister Stella Oduah for her aesthetic taste as some of the terminal buildings are indeed pleasing to the eyes, even where some of the (internal) facilities are less or non functional.

    The huge cost of these projects and where the money was coming from have been subjects of controversy since Madam Oduah, a member of President Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet began her dream of building a new aviation culture in Nigeria.

    And with the poor safety record of Nigeria’s aviation, her wisdom or lack of it in devoting more energy and resources to constructing or reconstructing terminal buildings have been called to question several times by industry experts and the general public who have been left shocked by incessant aircraft accidents and facility failures at our airports that have caused the nation unnecessary loss of human lives in their hundreds.

    While some have argued that some of these projects are not necessary or should not be priority, the loudest argument has been on the funding with the Minister accused of putting her hands illegally into the pool of funds generated by the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) Nigeria entered into with other countries. BASA is basically a reciprocity agreement where designated national carriers of the agreeing countries fly into and out of each other’s territory. The frequency of flights, the aircraft type, the designated airport, where to drop and pick passengers and such matters are included in BASA and royalties are paid (by the benefiting airline to its counterpart) where one of the parties is unable to compete or utilize its allotted frequencies. I think overflight charges are also included.

    These royalties generated by BASA, experts say belong to the country but earned largely by the national carrier by virtue of being the lead implementing agency on behalf of Nigeria in the agreement. The demise of Nigeria Airways has not stopped these royalties from coming in and they naturally go to the purse of the federal government and any disbursement from the fund must be approved by the government.

    The minister has been accused of spending this money on her new/modern airport projects without approval. But those who know her closeness to the president and the influence she wields in the Jonathan government say it is not unlikely that she had gotten presidential approval by stealth, without the matter getting to the federal executive council meeting. This is a matter that should interest both the National Assembly and the anti’graft agencies.

    Be that as it may, the matter here really is following due process and doing the right thing. You can’t do the right(?) thing through the wrong way and expect a pat on the back. If the source of funding for her airport project is/was deemed illegal then Madam Stella Oduah the Minister of Aviation owe this nation an explanation and those who should ask the question had better start now.

    Though the controversy surrounding the airport projects seem to be going down, the minister seem to have a penchant for courting more controversies.

    The latest of her numerous controversies and the biggest scandal of her ministerial tenure to date is the purchase of two armoured limousines for her exclusive use by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, one of the parastatals under her ministry. The BMW 760 Li cars were purchased by NCAA from the local representatives of BMW in Nigeria, Coscharis Motors Limited for a combined fee of $1.6 million or approximately N225 million in August and delivered to the minister.

    Kudos to the whistleblower that leaked the purchase to online newspaper Sahara Reporters, and the local media that had feasted on the scandal since it broke last week. Thanks to the unknown whistleblower who is now been hunted by the federal government for punishment according to NCAA Director General Captain Fola Akinkuotu, we now know how Madam Stella Oduah and her cronies run our aviation.

    Though Akinkuotu would want us to believe that the limousines were not meant for the exclusive use of the minister, but also some VIP visitors that his agencies regularly play host to while in the country, spokesman for Madam Oduah actually confirmed the vehicles were meant for his boss and were needed to protect her in the face of several threats she had received from certain interests she might hurt in the course of her duty as Minister of Aviation.

    Honestly I don’t have any problem with the minister riding a bullet proof/armoured car if her ministry could afford it. I am sure many of her colleagues and most of our politicians ride one. I think some of them do have genuine security concerns/fears. Why she had to force NCAA to cough out the money is my concern.

    If truly she had been receiving threats from God knows who over whatever she has been doing as Aviation Minister, she ought to have gone to her boss and friend President Goodluck Jonathan to seek extra protection if she wasn’t satisfied with the security arrangements around her. It is not the business of NCAA to buy those cars for her, if truly she needs them, but that of her employers, the federal government of Nigeria. If her ministry couldn’t afford them then the presidency should have paid if it was convinced that her life was in danger. To have burdened NCAA with the cost of the armored limos was an attempt to cripple the agency and endanger the flying public.

    In the face of inadequate human capacity to discharge the onerous tasks of aircraft inspection and certification, 1.6 million USD in the purse of NCAA could have done wonders in the training of its personnel. Because of paucity of fund, I understand statutory trainings, abroad in most cases, for NCAA personnel are no longer being carried out as and when due. They are now staggered with a huge backlog. As it is in aviation, if you are not rated on a particular aircraft type you cannot inspect or certify it even if you are the best aircraft engineer around. And this type rating has expiry dates, some are due every six months, just like a pilot’s license. Who knows, may be some of those our aircraft falling down from the sky were certified fit by incompetent engineers. We now know where the money for their training has been going.

    The annoying thing about this $1.6 m limousine purchase for the minister was that NCAA had to borrow the money from a local bank by mortgaging it’s future earnings. So, the money the agency has not earned it has spent, to provide comfort and security for Madam Minister.

    Whoever approved that purchase has misappropriated or is it misapplied public funds and must be punished. Mind you, this is not the first time the NCAA and the other parastatals under the Ministry of Aviation were being forced to do the biddings of Madam Minister.

    Come to think of it, how much does an armoured limo costs that we are buying two for $1.6million? Those who know say the two cars should not cost more than N75million. Can’t you see something fishy here? If EFCC still have any teeth to bite, this is the time. And if President Jonathan is serious about his anti-corruption stance, then he should act now and save Nigeria’s Aviation and the flying public from Madam Minister.

     

  • His blood on his hands

    He nailed an innocent man on the cross. So, his blood is on his hands.

    That would be history’s damning verdict on President Goodluck Jonathan, when the odyssey of eminent jurist, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, former president of the Court of Appeal, suspended for the past two years, is written.

    For fleeting partisan glory, the Jonathan Presidency has earned itself eternal stain. It is odium well earned, for a reckless campaign against justice and electoral sanctity.

    If this appears a tad too hard, a refresher on the Justice Salami story will do. His “capital crime”, to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), particularly its reactionary bloc in the South West, was that the Court of Appeal, where Justice Salami was President, flushed out election robbers in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states.

    That the robbers stole the vote was beyond question. That the Court of Appeal, after the earlier tribunals, found enough evidence to confirm a heist and kick out the robbers was not in doubt.

    The problem was the powers-that-be would rather have a quisling – like Justice(?) Thomas Naron, already dismissed for his judicial malfeasance in the Osun gubernatorial judicial challenge – do bare-faced injustice, which Justice Salami was not.

    For that, they swore to “deal” with him. But the jurist took all of their vicious punches, and still remained on his feet of honour, until he bowed out at the statutory age of 70 on October 15.

    Salami left in a blaze of glory, his integrity undiminished and his place secure among the pantheon of the brave, the committed and the principled, in Nigeria’s often troubled judiciary.

    But his traducers are covered in the odium of their own plotting and conspiracy, so much so that the tattered umbrella is now home to ferocious and conflicting old and new power rascals, dancing naked in the market place.

    Live by injustice, die by injustice! Gather by injustice, scatter by injustice! That would appear a fair epigram to PDP, now in the throes of breaking up.

    It is instructive that a party whose South West rascals swore to destroy Justice Salami is, before our very eyes, itself self-destructing!

    It is sobering lesson, if ever there was one! Live by intrigue, die by intrigue!

    The anti-Salami campaign was started by a newspaper advert by Iyiola Omisore, a former senator and post-Olagunsoye Oyinlola Osun gubernatorial hopeful, in which he made uncouth and reckless allegations against Justice Salami and his Court of Appeal, suggesting the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) partisans had allegedly compromised the court in their party’s victorious appeal.

    To be sure, Omisore was hardly neutral in the matter. For one, he had just been electorally pulverised in the 2011 senatorial race. For another, his bid to succeed the judicially sacked Oyinlola had turned a pipe dream. For the incoming Rauf Aregbesola, he knew, it would not be business as usual.

    Heraclitus-speak, there was no stepping in the Osun river twice. Osun’s political dynamics had changed forever! From politics of rumour-mongering and blackmail, it was morphing into politics of development. In other words, Omisore saw stark political death staring him in the face! That advert was, therefore, a death spasm of sorts; hence it was a study in wildness and recklessness.

    But that spasm sparked other high-tension conspiracies from even higher places. Pronto, came former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu’s strange “promotion” of Justice Salami, a sitting president of the Court of Appeal to a non-ranking member of the Supreme Court!

    Salami rejected the Trojan horse, only to be swarmed by other conspiracies. That climaxed in his suspension, which the National Judicial Council (NJC), through E. I. Odukwu, announced on 18 August 2011. The NJC charge was that Salami had “perjured” Katsina-Alu, simply because Justice Dahiru Musdapher, next in line for CJN Katsina-Alu’s job but alleged witness to Salami’s claim that the CJN asked him to pervert justice in the Sokoto gubernatorial case, would not confirm – nor rigorously deny – the allegation.

    But the same NJC, but now under CJN Musdapher, on 10 May 2012, lifted Justice Salami’s suspension and asked President Jonathan to reinstate the jurist. Was that CJN Musdapher’s brave but nuanced effort to salve his conscience, after opting not to confirm Justice Salami’s allegation? No one is sure now!

    Before this decision, however, the Retired Justice Bola Babalakin Reconciliation Committee had put Salami in the clear. It had also cleared the justices involved in the Osun and Ekiti gubernatorial appeal cases of all wrong doings; but indicted former CJN Katsina-Alu, for going beyond his brief in the Sokoto gubernatorial case.

    For “peace”, however, Justice Salami and indeed all of the parties were advised to withdraw their respective cases on the matter. Inasmuch as Justice Salami’s camp were not averse to withdrawing the cases, they insisted on reinstatement first – and soundly so, if you were dealing with a treacherous presidency.

    It was at this juncture that President Jonathan, himself a beneficiary of justice in his battle against the Umaru Yar’ Adua presidential cabal, decided to vote for injustice, clinging to the cant of sub-judice. He would not reinstate Salami because of cases in court!

    Perhaps, President Jonathan had emotional attachment to the injustice Salami’s Appeal Court was fobbing off? Indeed, during the Ekiti re-run, its Ido-Osi abracadabra and the fleeting heroism of Mrs Christian Conscience, there were media speculations that since President Yar’Adua had grave issues with his health, it was a certain Vice President, hitherto scorned, by the Yar’ Adua cabal as “spare tyre”, was the one flexing his muscles and giving the Ekiti vote robbers the Dutch courage to essay such in-your-face electoral robbery.

    This remains an allegation yet to be proved. But not so, the president’s anti-Salami scheming, using every trick in the book, to stone-wall Justice Salami’s reinstatement, until his statutory retirement.

    But as it happens, injustice and impunity have started consuming their own children.

    Oyinlola, who sat on Aregbesola’s mandate for nearly a whole electoral term, has had his own mandate as PDP national secretary annulled. Even his “election” as “New PDP” national scribe has been judicially pulverised, on account that “nPDP” was unknown to law.

    Olusegun Oni too, gubernatorial impostor in Ekiti, was also shoo-ed off his purported PDP office of South West national vice-chairman. Earlier, Don Quixote Oni had journeyed to nowhere, asking the Supreme Court to rule on a case Salami’s Appeal Court had already concluded. He fell flat on his face.

    And Jonathan himself? He is now undertaker-in-chief of his PDP, the electoral rogues of which he scandalously lent the dignity of his presidential office. Yet, it’s morning yet on comeuppance day, for direr judgments are bound to follow!

    But even as Jonathan and his PDP roil in the cauldron of impunity, it is a case of “two presidents”: one Jonathan, of the Federal Republic, who used his high office to attempt to crush an innocent jurist; and two, Salami, of the Court of Appeal, whose sheer integrity has turned the high-wire plots against him to glory.”

    Jonathan nailed an innocent jurist. Not even all the waters of the Atlantic can clean his hands of his career blood.