Category: Sanya Oni

By Sanya Oni

We will ensure that nobody undermines the territorial and national sovereignty of Nigeria. Our appeal is for all Nigerians and other stakeholders to join hands with the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security and intelligence agencies to ensure that our country is secured rather than looking at other methods that are likely to negate the national policy and community policing (my emphasis) that the federal government has approved…”

That was Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar briefing journalists at the end of the meeting of security chiefs with President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday last week.

Tried as he did to convince Nigerians to accept that the Friday meeting was merely routine – one of those meetings designed to rub minds with the commander in chief on the security situation, to the discerning however, the poorly disguised attempt to insert in the armed forces into the raging debate on Amotekun, as if to further undo the image of the institution as an aloof, impartial arbiter in the political process, could only have left more Nigerians bewildered about the actual motives of the meeting.

And to imagine that we had barely digested the import of the statement by the chief law officer of the federation on the Amotekun matter in which he had sought to appropriate and interpret the law to such an end that could only be described as fiendish: “The Federal Republic of Nigeria is a sovereign entity and is governed by laws meant to sustain its corporate existence as a constitutional democracy.

It is a Federation of states, but with the Federal Government superintending over matters of national interests. The division of executive and legislative authority between the Federal and State Governments has been clearly defined by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)”, he had stated.

“It is against the same background that matters relating to the peace, order and good government of the federation and in particular, the defence of the country, are enshrined in the Exclusive Legislative List. The Second Schedule in Item 17 deals with defence.

This is a matter that is within the exclusive operational competence of the Federal of Government of Nigeria. No other authority at the state level, whether the executive or legislature has the legal authority over defence”.

And then the barely disguised threat couched in implacable arrogance: “The law will take its natural course in relation to excesses associated with organization, administration and participation in “Amotekun” or continuous association with it as an association”.

And to now add Friday’s inelegant threat from the military high command: “We will ensure that nobody undermines the territorial and national sovereignty of Nigeria…!”

These are extraordinary times, no doubt.

Both actors, to be sure, are acting from the same playbooks of yore; the same mind-set of arrogance and intolerable conceit that have continued to sour inter-ethnic relations in the federation while at the same time hampering its steady march to progress.

The same mind-set that upholds the rightness of Hisbah, the moral police which purports to decree the trade in alcohol a haram and so insists on running those engaged in it out of business if not entirely out of town; that is after confiscating truckloads of their merchandise for destruction! The same mind-set would raise hell whenever the farmer-victims of rampaging herders insist – when confronted with the destructive activities of the vagrant invaders – on taking their destinies in their hands! And finally, the same mind-set that can only spot “a hidden agenda to prevent the Fulani herdsmen from grazing in their God-given areas” in any initiative designed to address an existential threat!

Read Also: No court can stop Amotekun, says Fani-Kayode

If one thought how easily our high officials have bought into that version of Amotekun; contrast with the efforts made by the promoters of the Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun) to present the outfit as a child of necessity, borne of the need to complement the works of mainstream security agencies in the country, and of the need to give the people of the Southwest, confidence that they are being looked after by those they elected into office, to appreciate how far some sections of the country would go to retain a country carved not only in their image but strictly in their own likeness!

Until now, I had honestly thought that the ambiguous alternative reality and the deadly paranoia which it feeds were exclusive to the Miyetti Allah and the scores of loose amorphous groups that have taken upon themselves the role of the arch defenders of sub nationalist interests, and who conceive of attempts to curb their sense of entitlement as treason.

Never in the imagination of yours truly could one have conceived a situation in which the chief officer of the federation, a Silk for that matter, would play poker with the law at a difficult time in the nation’s history; and a top brass – with all the intelligence available to the defence establishment –dignifying the farce with a dubious mind-game! And both operatives of state deign to pronounce, with magisterial fiat, on the actions of five elected governors, and this under a strange doctrine of legal cum defence guardianship!

Or does anyone think it mere coincidence that phrases like – territorial and national sovereignty, and defence of the country were freely and loosely deployed by the two functionaries within days of the launch of the Amotekun? Perhaps, such attempts at mangling phrases are what you get when fifth graders are thrust into offices clearly beyond their ken. It is nothing short of blackmail – and should be treated as such!

By the way, Section 14 (2) of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 is no way less operative than any other section of the much maligned constitution.

That section charges the governors with the duties of security and welfare of citizens whereas, Item 17 on the Second Schedule is in the domain of defence of the nation’s territorial integrity!

Although a challenge to the old, unitarist mind-set, what the southwest governors actually did are neither strange nor novel; in the current circumstances, it comes at best, to grappling with the dynamics in security and self-preservation more so at a time the national security architecture is not only outmoded but palpably inadequate.

More importantly is that the governors have proceeded in a way that is neither threatening nor offensive to the collective will – with perhaps the exception of those who either profit in mischief or who require the cover of the leviathan federal government to further their sinister designs!

As it is, there can be no wishing away of the Amotekun any more than a denial of the impressive collaboration between the Civilian Joint Task Force and the military.

Both, creations of necessity, are meant to be complementary. Exertions shouldn’t be about killing one or the other but about how best to integrate them into the failing architecture of security for better results! In short, there can be no aborting of a baby that is already born!

By Sanya Oni

Merely by the torrents of indignation that greeted the cruel murder of Favor Daley-Oladele, the 400 level female student of the Lagos State University by her so-called boyfriend Adeeko Owolabi, acting in concert with the self-acclaimed pastor, Segun Philips, one would be tempted to imagine the gory incident as a one-off aberration as against a testament of sorts to what we have become as a people.

After suffering the affliction of the ‘Badoo boys’ and the countless other variants of money cults and their cousins, the hordes of miracle-seeking, work-despising and due-process-loathing compatriots all of which have sadly now become commonplace, perhaps only a minority few still see the feigned outrage as anything but hollow.

And this is hardly an attempt to downplay a tragedy; rather it is to highlight not just the culture of denial of the cancer that threatens to obliterate our pretensions to modern civilization but primed to take us down that perilous route of savagery.

So much for the love of money, the young now wants the fruits of capitalism without as much as bothering about the famed protestant ethic, the hard grind of work and creativity, and the underlying ethos of frugality said to guarantee a prosperous future. Here, the problem really isn’t that our youths want the good life, they would rather have it upfront – the labour can come later!

Don’t ask me if the money-making voodoo actually works. Arguing for or against, at this time, is not only pointless but somewhat academic. It is what in sociology is called a reality sui generis. At least, not when we have a living proof in the multi-billion naira Nollywood in place to sustain the myth.

Or, the hopelessly flawed societal mores that seeks to reward indolence under different guises.  Add to these the delinquent youth culture that seeks to torpedo what itself is proving to be a malformed normative order; the poor governance infrastructure which, while shrinking the opportunities for citizens to realize their potentials, effectively ensures that superstition and unquestioning blind faith are allowed thrive. In the situation, the end result cannot be anything but the reign of anarchy of which the cannibal rage is only one out of its many derivatives!

In that sense, the tragedy which took place in Ikoyi-Ile becomes a mere metaphor of a grave societal crisis. Again, only in that sense would the gravity not be seen in the narrow prism of the lone act by the individual who, in this case was willing to pay that heinous price considered socially intolerable all in the bid to board the prosperity train, which if you ask me, is not very much unlike those prosperity merchants who encourage their flocks to pursue their dreams of wealth without work, but in the proper sense of a society in free fall.

Like the Biblical passage that this columnist finds fitting to paraphrase: while the parents may have indeed eaten the sour grapes, it is the teeth of the children that are set on the edge!

Still in doubt? Ask the Naira Marley-ans currently on rampage in streets and neighbourhood corners what force drives them if you want to get a sense of the long dark night ahead!

This takes us to a national pastime – the practice of gazing into the crystal ball at the beginning of a new year. President Muhammadu Buhari has of course spoken of a new decade pregnant with hope, optimism and fresh possibilities notably in security, economy and governance sectors.

Read Also: UPDATED: Buhari signs Finance Bill into law

Among others, he restated his administration’s commitment to taking a hundred million Nigerians out of mass poverty over the next 10 years; the on-going overhaul of the national infrastructures particularly the roads, railways and the power sector as indeed the agriculture value chain.

Then of course is the issue of corruption which has become something of an article of faith to the administration. In all, the president seeks not only to deepen the economy but to create a robust environment for businesses to thrive.

To start with, not even the most ardent of its critics would deny the administration some bragging rights in the area of infrastructure. Whether of the frenetic pace of road rehabilitation across the states of the federation or the on-going rehabilitation or is it modernization of the railways, not only is there a palpable sense of hunger to get things done but also at a pace that could be deemed exciting.

The same with its fight against graft.  While the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 may have been the brain-child of the Jonathan administration, that three former governors are current doing terms for stealing their states blind says a lot about the seriousness of the administration to get that critical pillar of the justice sector reform actually up and running. Of course, the administration’s achievements in agriculture are only too obvious.

However, there’s no gazing into the crystal ball to know that these achievements are insufficient for an economy in dire need of leapfrogging.

Not at a time youth unemployment is at an alarmingly high level of 20 per cent according to the International Labour Organization – a figure moist Nigerians would insist is highly understated. Not at a time our out-of-school kids’ population has ballooned to 13 million; and certainly not at a time our graduates are increasingly acquiring the notoriety of unemployability!

The reality is that we are nowhere there yet. And this is in spite our famed achievement in the digital and Information Technology sector. Fact is that the financial services sector is trailing light years behind in terms of its readiness to launch into the modern age via a simple investment in identity infrastructure.

And while the banks get pilloried for not embracing the consumer credit as developed and developing do, the banks argue that the kind of broad based consumer lending envisaged would remain a mirage without a fool-proof social security number for every citizen!

Citizens can only imagine what the basic identity instrument is causing the country annually – from automobile to basic household consumer goods manufactures all of which understandably thrive on consumer credit!

Few years ago, we thought 2020 was such a long time. Clearly, if prayers were all that is required to launch a rocket into space, Nigeria would have been there several scores over.

Today, not only are we still battling with the scourge of malaria and polio, we have remained at the level of fierce contestation over whether to rely on science to explain simple, everyday human phenomenon or seek the assistance of voodoo merchants!

Yes – that’s where we are in AD 2020!

Happy new year.

By  Sanya Oni

Aside the Sowore affair, one other subject that has sent Nigerians tongues wagging in recent time is the issue of the $29.6 billion request by President Muhammadu Buhari to finance critical infrastructure.

In a clime where seductive emotionalism often trump reason, the babel over what would ordinarily be a serious and informed debate would seem as not entirely strange.

From pulpits to the minbars, newsrooms to the hyperactive cybersphere, nearly every contribution has claimed a measure of authority on a subject that is as tricky as it is complex.

And the summary: The myth that the country only needs to cut the fat to get on the lane of fast track development! By the way, Nigeria – with GDP of $444.92 billion is supposed to be 29th in the world and first in Africa! South Africa which comes a close second on the continent with $371 billion in GDP is 37th and Egypt with $299.59 billion GDP is 42nd. Next door Ghana with $68.26 billion GDP comes to a distant 74th place.

Never mind that South Africa, according to the World Bank, with $ 6,340 per capita income ranks 85th on the global scale whereas the biggest economy on the continent with $2,028 per capita perches a distant 136th place!

It is of course unfortunate that the Lawan Ahmed-led Senate has rather conveniently foreclosed a public debate on the issue; aside denying the different shades of opinions their voice on that national platform no matter how seemingly jejune, the body’s leadership has by so doing handed its critics another ammunition to tag the national legislature a rubber stamp one.

I start on the premise of admitting that both sides of the debt debate have raised issues that are pertinent and substantive. On the part of the vociferous opposition is whether the country is, by now, not actually biting more than it can chew given the humongous loans that the current administration has taken in the last five years vis-à-vis the ever-growing burden of debt service.

Having grown our total external debt from about $10.32bn in 2015 to $81.274bn in March, the direct consequence of which some 50 percent of our revenues now goes into servicing our debt obligations, the simple and straightforward argument is – are we not now tottering towards the pathological as against capacity cliff?

Talk of reconciling the hunger of a country renowned for its warped sense of priorities with a near-reckless appetite for foreign credit!

The government’s argument on the other hand is – admittedly –compelling: Nigeria’s Debt/GDP, when compared with a number of countries, is relatively low.

To be specific, whereas in 2018 Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio was 27.26 percent, South Africa, Kenya and Mexico have comparably higher Debt/GDP ratios of 74%, 53%, 57% and 46% respectively.

However, whereas Nigeria’s revenue to debt service ratio was about 50 percent, the comparative Debt Service/Revenue ratios for the countries in that same order is 32.20%, 11.4%, 13.2% and 13.6% – a situation that puts them on a steadier scale of sustainability.

Read Also: On Buhari’s request for foreign loans

Here, the counter argument is that Nigeria’s problem, considering its paltry tax to GDP ratio of 6%, is the revenue side of the equation when viewed side by side with Kenya’s tax to GDP ratio of 15.7%, Morroco’s 21.8%, Cameroon-12.2% and South Africa’s 27.5%.

The more compelling, which remains to be made, in my view, is whether a country plagued with a wobbly infrastructure can afford the luxury of slow incremental growth the way it is being canvassed in some quarters.

It is after all, a subject that Nigerians are only too familiar: our transportation infrastructures are antediluvian; the ports and the power infrastructures long regarded as driving wheels of modern economies are light years behind in modernity.

While the health and educational infrastructures are worse than shambolic, the reason they are less stridently talked about is that their effects take longer to manifest.

Against such background, the story is that the country would require a minimum of $30bn (about N9.47tn) annual investments over a 10-year period to bridge the infrastructure gap – an amount which although nearly equal to the entire 2019 budget which the country does not even pretend to have!

I understand where those who readily tout our recent ordeal in the hands of the debtor cartels of London and Paris Clubs are coming from.

They have their point. After all, part of the untold story of that saga is how Nigeria’s profligate leaders paid amounts exceeding the original loan sum in penalties and charges and yet could talk of “debt forgiveness’’ not before shelling out $12 billion in some dubious final settlement!

I also understand the current anger over the mindless pillaging of the commonwealth by past and current leaders in various forms and disguises.

However, if I may flip Biblical saying about the poor being always with us – the real issue is whether a country in dire need of fast-track development can keep holding down the barrel until all things are in order – or as in this instance shut its doors to critical development partners for no other reason that it once got its finger burnt.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo in putting the issue in proper context nearly got it right when he said, inter alia that “A well-calibrated debt for infrastructure and other developmental goals could be very positive”.

However, in warning about the dangers of the current debt trajectory, the former president, quite typically couldn’t resist spinning that same old myth about debts particularly foreign ones as being potentially a cog in the wheel of development.

It shouldn’t be any more than the current frenzy to get the railways back on track or the Mambilla power project would constitute a burden to the future generation!

Rather than the current paranoia over the loans, the key to me– if I may borrow Obasanjo’s own words – is to find the “well-calibrated debt for infrastructure” that is specific and tailor-made to address infrastructure shortfalls; a critical element in the current moves to unleash the locked-in potentials across the various sectors of the economy.

What should engage Nigerians is ensuring that every kobo of the loan taken actually delivers corresponding value. That task, in my view, is as much the responsibility of the Lawan-led senate as it is of every Nigerian!

Here is wishing you, my dear loyal readers a Happy Year 2020!

Yours truly has been struggling to make sense of the showboat activism of the type mounted by Isa Ibrahim Pantami, since his assumption of office as President Buhari’s Minister for Minister of Communication and Digital Economy. It started with a ‘directive’ by the minister to the Nigerian Communications Commission “to compel telecommunications service providers to reduce the prices of data being offered subscribers” and to stop “illegal deduction of subscribers’ data by the telcos”. The minister’s personal assistant on new media, Yusuf Abubakar, said his boss issued the directive after he received a progress report on the implementation of Short-Term Performance Targets set for the NCC.

The rationale: A country of over 174 million internet users should rank among the top 10 African countries with low average price of data. As if the prevailing high cost of data in Nigeria is not bad enough, the minister claims that “citizens still do not enjoy value for money as subscribers battle daily with illegal deduction of data, poor quality of service, among others”.

The NCC, he said is to “immediately work hand in hand with the telecom operators and ensure a downward review of the price of data…improve the quality of service and check the illegal deduction of subscribers’ data”.

Now, if you considered that strange from a minister, how about the fiat issued to the NCC Board on November 5? Receiving the Olabiyi Durojaiye-led board on a courtesy visit, the minister had insisted that the NCC must work out modalities to reduce the price of data in the interest of Nigerians.

“His office”, he said “has been inundated with complaints from concerned Nigerians about the high cost of data by telecoms.

He then went on to canvass the now worn argument: “If you go to other countries, even countries that are not as largely populated as Nigeria, data prices are not this high”.

The long and short of it is that the minister wants data prices reduced – initially within FIVE working days and as it now seems –at all costs. As for the complaints by the telcos – of poor infrastructure, insecurity, multiple tariffs etc. – which although preceded the current administration but has gone unaddressed, the minister’s word appears to be – obey first; complain later!

And now that his fiat has been ignored, the minister is alleging blackmail by forces he claims are opposed to his ‘people-friendly’ policies!

Read Also: Pantami, populism and telecom sector

Hear the minister’s spokesman – Uwa Suleiman on the subject  only last week: “Since assumption of office, the honourable minister has consistently rolled out policies that strive to protect the consumer and entrench discipline and professionalism in the sector, this stand has obviously ruffled some feathers whose sole aim is to discredit Dr Pantami’s mass-friendly policies.”

“The strategy”, he said “is to compromise the media, using financial inducements and they have raised a considerable amount of money for this campaign.”

The essence, according to Uwa, “was to intimidate Pantami’s office into allowing the continued exploitation of Nigerians by compromising regulators”.

The minister certainly deserves pity. If, as one suspects that his problem is with the regulator, he should simply go ahead to report things to his principal? Wouldn’t that have been better than casting a veiled aspersion on one of the few institutions that have managed to stand the integrity test? By the way, isn’t the NCC a creation of law – as against being another parastatal – prone to being micro-managed by a powerful minister?

We must pity the minister for his exaggerated notion of the office that he occupies hence his promise of what is clearly beyond his powers to deliver! The minister obviously didn’t think that his remit stops at formulating and implementing policies for the digital economy; he wants to play the regulator as well including descending into the arena of tariff formulation whenever he deems necessary. And now that he’s apparently run into the brick wall, he in a moment of grand delusion would recline to playing the patriotism card!

“Mass-friendly policies”; sole-minded resolve “to protect the consumer and entrench discipline and professionalism in the sector”; what else are we not going to hear?

Or that the entire world, including his own regulator – NCC united against the all-knowing Pantami! And the media too! Over what?

Such conceit! Does anyone smell blackmail?

And to imagine Pantami is not your typical, run-of-the-mill political appointee. Until his current station, he was supposed to have been the top gun the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – a key agency in the digital economy orbit. A graduate of Computer Science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, he also holds a PhD from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

I do understand the seduction to populism. It is however too cheap. Unfortunately, that is the way we do business here. For other ministers, it is not sufficient to prance about in project sites even at the cost of distraction to busy contractors, outlandish promises have often come as part of the package if only to prove that the minister is truly working for the people! Just imagine what would have happened were the minister to have had his way with his so-called ‘directive’ on the telcos. For sure, he would have emerged as the darling of the masses; more, he would have secured for himself the spot of number one activist in government – never mind that this would have come at the cost of a fatal misunderstanding of his remit!

Now the minister is being forced to learn the hard way – that things are not necessarily as they seem; that issues of tariff determination in a complex sector like telecoms are neither simple nor straightforward; and that arbitrariness, no matter how well packaged has its limits. The awareness obviously makes the minister mad – hence his rage at imaginary enemies!

Here’s my one kobo: the minister should eat the humble pie by seeking the counsel from wide and near to carve a way forward. If he has a problem with NCC, he needs to sort it out fast!

He needs to engage the telcos as the key drivers of his digital dream – if ever there was one. He needs to understand that without the telcos, there will be no ministry to preside over! Aside seeking to understand their problems, he should be in the vanguard of the creative policies to address them. To put it in street lingo, the current adversarial postures won’t cut! In all,  to learn to work with the relevant stakeholders for the public good.

Most Nigerians, I suspect, probably paid nary attention to what is – again probably, the most embarrassing spat between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the so-called Brookings Institutions on Diaspora remittances. It started with a September 9 poser by The Punch columnist Henry Boyo – $26bn Diaspora remittances: Where are the dollars?

 It was, as the title suggests, an attempt to open the lid on the management, by the CBN, of the so-called diaspora remittances, which the World Bank claimed had grossed $26 billion in 2019 alone! While his main thesis was that ‘Diaspora remittances have inexplicably failed to bolster the economies of recipient nations’, he was even more critical of the role of our apex bank, as according to him, the “over $25bn annual Diaspora remittances, have failed to produce a stronger naira exchange rate or meaningfully impact Nigeria’s economy’.

Concerned about what he considered the unanswered questions on the matter, Etubom Michael Ani Minister of Finance 1993-1998, would raise the profile of the debate further with an article on the subject in the same newspaper on October 9. His summary: the CBN owes Nigerians lots of explanations. Alleging collaboration between the CBN, Nigerian banks and Western Union/MoneyGram; he insists that government must investigate and where infraction is established, “punish the money launders, and recover all past remittances retained abroad!

In the interim, he says, outbound money transfer services must be stopped and all remittances retained for naira stability and the nation’s development.

The CBN in its response says the $26 billion figure only exists in the creative imagination of those peddling the figures.   Says CBN Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okoroafor, the figure – purported to be from the World Bank – had also been queried by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBN, as it did not reflect the actual amount of inflows from Nigerians living abroad.

“We are looking for the so-called $26 billion diaspora cash because such cash will impact positively on our reserve.”

To him, $2.6 billion might be more like it!

In a clime where institutions have long acquired notoriety for muddling up just about anything, citizens might even wonder why anyone should lose sleep over where that tiny dot perches on the conjoined integers 26! Or better still, in a country where dizzying billions – whether denominated naira, dollars or euro – have little relevance to citizens’ daily struggle to eke out an existence, why anyone should pay attention let alone follow the controversy, never mind that such could actually precipitate a massive shakedown in serious financial circles.

Short of calling the World Bank data spurious, and hence the claims of those peddling the stats baseless, the CBN spokesman says an understanding of how their “data was sourced could provide an insight into why their figures might be off the target!

Even if we accept the disclaimer on its face value, the CBN position in this instance, is certainly disingenuous. First, the figures which the CBN wants consigned to the dustbin didn’t just chance upon us overnight. That document, notably, claims as source, the IMF Balance of Payments Statistics database, data releases from central banks, national statistical agencies and World Bank country desks. In other words, the World Bank merely processed and expectedly drew inferences from them as any typically data-driven institution would! Secondly, the data and the projections from them have been in the public square for as long as anyone could remember! Indeed, I have before me as I write, the spreadsheet of Migration and Remittances Data produced by the World Bank Group with the latest update being October 2019 with national figures going as far back as 1980! That the CBN has only now begun to raise methodological issues cannot but call in its true motivation into question.

‘The figures which the CBN wants consigned to the dustbin didn’t just chance upon us overnight. That document, notably, claims as source, the IMF Balance of Payments Statistics database, data releases from central banks, national statistical agencies and World Bank country desks’

So much for the latest enterprise in fault-finding by our apex bank, the issue is certainly more nuanced than the CBN would seek to paint. Certainly, the days are long past when the apex bank could deem its actions not only inviolate but also beyond scrutiny. Indeed, its claims to monopoly of records of cross-border financial flows are – to put it mildly – questionable particularly as remittance flows originate outside our shores – which puts the World Bank and the IMF in vantage position to track what is going on! Third – and this is particularly relevant to us, is that the rules put in place by the apex bank for remittance are not only light years behind; being purpose-made for the cartel of currency speculators at national and international levels makes for an unlikely scenario of the recipient country benefitting!

Imagine a scenario where a family member wires home – say $500 – and where under some curious arrangement fostered by the CBN, the sender is told that the beneficiary could only receive the funds in the local currency and on terms that are neither transparent nor equitable. Aside the recipient whose needs are momentarily met, the settlement, usually from the excess naira account in the absence of direct cash flows means that the economy gains nothing!

I guess it comes simply to who to believe between the CBN, the World Bank and allied institutions. Now, I haven’t quite said that the World Bank figures are any sacrosanct or that the alternative bandied by the apex bank is less credible! For now, yours truly is only guided by the underlying wisdom in the African proverb about the witch crying all through the night only for death to mark the arrival of dawn!

Remember the famous quote? “Today, most of the statistics quoted about Nigeria are developed abroad by the World Bank, IMF and other foreign bodies…Some of the statistics we get relating to Nigeria are wild estimates and bear no relation to the facts on the ground. This is disturbing as it implies we are not fully aware of what is happening in our country”.

Although worth remembering – don’t ask me who said those words.

And now – as if contrarian statistics being routinely dredged up by critics of the administration are not enough irritants, imagine being called up to ingest yet another toxic brew from supposedly the World Bank and the IMF!

By the way, isn’t the difference between $2.6 billion and $26 billion the place of that tiny, inscrutable dot?

By Sanya Oni

A popular saying in Yoruba, roughly translated goes thus: You give birth to a vagabond; expect to suffer the pang of being condemned to live with the reign of delinquency. In the case of my dear state of Kogi, it is actually a case of the chieftains of the ruling APC munching the sour grape while the teeth of the children – the hapless Kogites are set on the edge.

For a drama that started mid-month when a group 25 lawbreakers in Kogi House of Assembly not only upended the Nigerian constitution but proceeded to substitute a strange rule of procedure to suit their fancies, the week ended came with a fitting anti-climax when the revered court of the Attah of Igala, hosted another cynical spectacle: the conferment of Oga-Onu-ogu- Attah of the Igala kingdom title on Yahaya Bello, the state governor by the Attah Igala and President Kogi State Traditional Council HRM Dr Micheal Ameh Oboni II.

As you guessed – an inescapable part of the ritual was the presentation, days before, of a sparkling white Rolls Royce Phantom – allegedly, by Igala sons in Governor Bello’s government led by the 45year old Edward Onoja – until recently the Chief of Staff to the governor. A friend who sent the photograph to yours truly couldn’t resist sending another photograph with a footnote that the pock-marked, crater-riddled road actually leads to the new home of the pricey toy!

Read Also: Large turn-out at Kogi election campaign excites PDP

So much for the outrage over the so-called impeachment of the deputy governor, Elder Simon Achuba; those who make much of the travesty going on in Kogi perhaps forgot those elegant words of the scriptures as stated in Matthew 7: 17-18: “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good     fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither    can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit”.

Talk of expecting an administration sired in iniquity and a most cynical misrepresentation of the law to produce exemplar governance. It won’t happen!

Of course, many forget that Yahaya Adoza Bello, the current occupant of Lugard House was never a product of democratic choice. Certainly not of the good people of Kogi who trooped out to gift the APC candidate Prince Abubakar Audu with 240,876 votes trailed by his PDP challenger, Idris Wada with 199,514 votes in November 2015.  Unlike that Achebean character “whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit” and so expected to be humble, the straggler that swept into office with a miserly 6,885 votes surely knows about the efficacy of raw power to bother about the niceties of the law, process let alone the views of the ordinary man on the street. That would appear one lesson that the good people of Kogi are yet to learn!

Surely, Yahaya Bello is no ordinary governor. Here is a man who took on the civil service and rendered the institution totally prostrate. After suffering bouts of forced starvation, the institution today knows better than look the governor in the face. He sought to muscle the judiciary only to find its leadership a hard nut to crack. And with the legislature firmly in his pocket, he could do as he pleased, unchallenged. In Kogi, the word of GYB, like those of ancient kings, is said to be law.

In case you have not heard, he also claims to be the beloved son of the president – an association he routinely flaunt to anyone who cared. If you ever doubted about his stature, or his ability to make things happen, picture a man who could cause our world-acclaimed thrifty president to request National Assembly’s authorization for reimbursement of N10 billion spent by the state government on federal roads few weeks into his re-election! That individual with the appellation ‘White Lion’ surely knows a thing or two about turning the levers of presidential power particularly as the same request was denied the former governor in 2015 on the grounds that it would be used to finance an election that was also few weeks away. To those who say that the awesome presidential influence is yet to be felt on the infrastructure front after a record N50 billion in bailout funds, I can only say – sour grapes; who says presidential errands has been this good!

Back to the action of the 25 lawbreakers in the Kogi House of Assembly. Should that surprise anyone?

Until I read the silly statement credited to the assembly’s majority leader, Hassan Abdulahi, yours truly could have sworn that the members merely fell to the seduction of mischief! Now, it is clear that some the so-called legislators in the assembly may not have seen a copy of the Nigerian Constitution – whether the original or the amended; or as for those that have read, they surely have difficulty understanding the contents!

And what did the House Majority Leader Abdulahi say? First, that the panel was merely a fact finding body hence lacking powers to form an opinion! Secondly, that the rule of procedure which the panel members subscribed to was explicit about this! Thirdly, that the wisdom of the House supersedes the findings of the panel.

Remember, this is a panel that has a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, John Baiyeshea as chairman.

Ironically, the same House that was mindful of section 188(5) hence their directive on the chief judge to appoint a panel of seven persons to investigate the allegations made against the deputy governor would later shut its eyes to the express provision of section 188(8) that: “where the panel reports to the House of Assembly that the allegation has not been proved, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the matter.”

If you consider such climate of impunity terrible to bear, consider further that citizens will, less than three weeks from now be called upon to exercise their democratic choice.

Never mind that the electoral umpire has already dubbed the November 16 election as possibly the most monetised ever; a verdict will be returned one way or the other. And with the army of enforcers already on the leash, it would hardly matter how many heads will be broken or lives lost, an electoral contest would have taken place. Who cares about the rule of majority when the precedence of 2015 is there to guide? Surely, democracy a la Kogi is on the march!