The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Our Girls; A  National Sacrifice: Suspend NASS for 180 days!!

    Our Girls; A  National Sacrifice: Suspend NASS for 180 days!!

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Work and pray for their safe release.

    The Criminal Code Number 419 encompasses non-political and political criminal acts to extort money, favours, votes, all under false promises, a pastime of lying politicians and internet avengers. To add to the infamy of 419 as applied to them, the politicians have unwittingly  provided a new number – 180. Their new telephone number is +234-419-419-180-180. On TV Nigerians witness a rash of questionably ‘legal’, morally repugnant, reprehensible, but definitely defensive closing of the political ranks across political parties, ‘ayes’ 100%, ‘nays’ 0% against whistleblowers and those playing discordant tunes. The new mantra is ‘Suspended for 180 days’ of ‘sitting’ effectively denying the constituents who voted in the individual, herein-after called ‘the victim’, of a key element of democracy, ‘representation’, and other services for an entire calendar year. This is also an anti-democratic devastating deterrent to any ‘different opinion’ whistleblowing political gladiator who will also receive ‘Are You Mad wahala’ from friends and family.

    Nigeria should sacrifice for the economy by giving up our sick National Assembly (NASS). Give NASS a dose of ‘180 Medicine’, suspend it without pay for 180 days of sitting i.e. a year, as a multibillion naira cost-saving boost to our economic and political recovery. Alternatively perhaps NASS will self-medicate and commit suicide, ‘hara-kiri’, in the national interest. The ‘parasitic politicians’, under ‘parasitic parties’  announced ‘do-good projects’ which have always done ‘good’ only for themselves, their unborn progeny and their bank accounts. Nigeria cannot afford the gluttonous parasitic political class, parasitic party policies and machinery and the poor returns on political stock investment. Do Nigeria’s citizens benefit N100 in every N10,000 expended on and by the political class elected at murderous cost in bloody and violent campaigns, thuggery and death, voting time and rigging? What an institutionalised violent 419 against Nigeria.

    Today’s ever bolder and violently evil Epidemic Of Antisocial Behaviour is a malignant growth by non-beneficiaries of the TV promoted Epidemic of Instant Millionaire-Ism of the past 20 years strategised and promoted by an avaricious and misplaced immoral Corporate Product Promotion Strategy and the morally corrupt instant wealth of parasitic politicians – Money Without Work. Who does not want to be an Instant Millionaire?

    Justice Uwais’s Electoral Reform Committee provided solutions to illegal political funding, rigging and violence in elections perpetrated not by INEC or normal citizens but by the 419 politicians themselves and the party, never punished. Yet Nigerian political commentators castigate and vilify INEC for ‘failures’ when INEC is merely the umpire between inexplicably belligerent criminally dishonest, unpatriotic, unsportsmanlike and violence parasitic parties.

    Now the Electoral Reform task, unimplemented, is before a new committee, under Ken Nnamani, who as a politician participated in the elections methodology needing reform. Will the Nnamani solutions also take ‘for never’ to implement – 2019+? Will Nnamani be nationalistic at this, yet another, critical crossroads in Nigeria’s fate, I mean future.

    There are skeletons in every politician’s briefcase and even the most revered are found wanting. When some need money, they phone the CBN Governor for $10,0000 or $100,000 – no be 419? Can the police not see the master fraudsters sitting in NASS and government houses who perfected TAKING MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENCES even by multiple pensions -THE DEFINITION OF 419? The big Nija political boys and girls have always been first place in 419, wheeling and dealing in budget padding, contracts inflation and phantom projects.

    Nigerian society is conditioned to ‘no expectations’ from the political headship down to workless workers with low productivity and acceptance of government failure from a ‘combination lock’ of ‘Maximum Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence Selfishness’, ‘CINS’. This is the modus operandi of the parasitic political class, the lead architect of our ‘failure to thrive’. Which politicians removed or allowed the removal of history, civics and geography from our curriculum? We have not had an inspired or inspiring follow-my-lead leadership- until today hopefully. Is Buhari the leader, the stepping stone to the expected leadership or merely a diversion up to 2019 and replaced by a re-run gluttonous President –another of our harvest of treasury-looters? That gluttony is why there is no serious robotics in Nigeria’s engineering faculties. We must insert such items in the 2017 budget even if the space in the budget is filled with ‘zero allocation’ in 2017. Due to political gluttony today, five out of six cancer treatment units have collapsed. This emergency requires immediate courier solution! But Nigeria requires 37 to 74 such cancer treatment units, 1-2/ state, London has 250, and had the money. Is your governor not ashamed that cancer victims, 100 per day, must travel out of state for cancer treatment? One day someone in authority will make that long overdue allocation to robotics or cancer machines et cetera rather than steal. We live in hope and must raise our expectation and force it on the parasitic political class.

    The economy did not fail us. The leadership failed the economy, mismanaging the raw materials of prosperity handed to Nigeria by God, and then leave in penury as they gloat gluttonously over their massed massive dollar fortunes as the naira falls deeper into toilet paper range!  Our leadership constitutes the architects of this failure, lacking visionary vitality, consumed by the gluttonous conversion of Nigeria’s vote, treasuries and CBN for personal and party criminal gratification. Can Buhari, Uwais, Nnamani, stop the seasonal assault on INEC and Nigeria’s  treasuries?

     

  • Recession, hypocrisy and grandstanding in Abuja

    Recession, hypocrisy and grandstanding in Abuja

    A recession is a terrible thing to waste. Beyond the pains, the economic downturn offers this nation and its people an opportunity to take hard but necessary decisions that were impossible in times of plenty.

    This period is especially unique because the political leadership at the centre has exhibited the will to confront the vampires who have sucked the nation dry for ages. They may not be doing a perfect job, but they are having a go at it.

    Now, necessity is forcing everyone to focus on how to get out of our bind.

    Everywhere you look, families and companies are cutting back to cope. Luxuries and extravagancies are being slashed from budgets. Many middle class homes are suddenly discovering that it is impossible to keep up with the Joneses when the naira is exchanging at almost N500 to the dollar.

    Banks and telecommunications companies, for long the picture of ruddy financial health, have been ruthlessly shedding staff as they struggle to stay afloat.

    In government, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, at his presentation of the ‘Change Begins With Me’ initiative to the corporate world in Lagos during the week unveiled a long list of perks and privileges that have been cut by the Executive Branch because of the recession.

    You may dismiss their inability of ministers to buy new cars – following the example of President Muhammed Buhari – as tokenism, but every kobo counts at a time like this.

    Across the road at the National Assembly we’ve heard the leadership making all the sympathetic and politically-correct noises about how ‘things are tough’ and Nigerians are suffering. For our own good, the lawmakers have even shipped a slew of bills to the Executive which, ostensibly, contain the silver bullet that would terminate the recession.

    But not for our caring lawmakers any nod at even the smallest of tokens to show that they, too, are willing to sacrifice at a time like this.

    One of the priority projects for the senators in the last one year was the purchase of SUVs befitting their status as federal lawmakers. Never mind that some of them had just received loans to buy brand new cars. They justified the request for additional cars saying the fresh ones would be for official assignments.

    In the face of public outrage the senators struggled unconvincingly to  justify the timing of such huge financial outlay. But exhibiting the typical disdain of the average Nigerian office holder for public opinion, they went ahead after a fashion.

    Not all senators ended up getting the new SUVs – only the presiding officers. Additionally, one senator from each of the 36 states also benefitted using the yardstick of rating.

    But that is small beer compared to what Nigerians have always moaned about, that our federal lawmakers – unjustifiably – are among the highest paid on planet earth. Even with the economy on all fours they retain that dubious ranking!

    The influential British magazine The Economist in a report two years ago estimated that Nigerian legislators ranked only below their Australian counterparts in their global survey – taking in annual salaries of between $150,000 and $190,000 per annum depending on exchange rates for 180 days of sitting.

    By comparison their counterparts in Britain receive $105,400 yearly, United States ($174,000), France ($85,900), South Africa ($104,000), Kenya ($74,500), Saudi Arabia ($64,000) and Brazil ($157,600).

    The report then makes the damning assessment that the average legislators’ pay is more than 50 times Nigeria‘s GDP per capita – and that, in a country where millions live on less than two dollars daily and the value of the minimum wage is now roughly $40 a month.

    The foregoing is not to demonise the lawmakers but to point out that a bicameral legislature is a luxury for a country in Nigeria’s shape – and the recession is a wonderful opportunity to do something about it.

    In April this year, Senegal scrapped the Senate to save money. Egypt did the same thing in 2013. In the last 20 years several other countries have done so.

    But that is not likely to happen in a hurry here because our commitment to cutting waste and make savings in Abuja begins and ends with our lips.

    Sometimes when I come across some Facebook campaign trying to interest Nigerians in a drive to ‘Scrap the Senate,’ I picture people banging their heads fruitlessly against the wall.

    For the Senate to disappear, there would need to be a constitutional amendment. This bunch of politicians who have secured a lucrative and prestigious retirement in the upper chamber are not in a hurry to commit political suicide.

    But imagine how much this country would shed with a unicameral system. According to BudgIT, between 2011 and 2014, the National Assembly received N150 billion yearly. This fell to N120 billion in the 2015 budget. The study shows that between 1999 and last year, allocations to the National Assembly amounted to N1.26 trillion.

    As I said earlier, our lawmakers are so concerned about the recession that they have sent a bunch of bills to Buhari which they believe would turn things around. You don’t have to be clairvoyant to know that none of the bills prescribes downsizing the legislature. At least, the Executive made an effort by pruning the number of ministries.

    In fact, the constitutional amendment process currently on in the National Assembly rather than looking for ways to divert funds to proper development projects, is focused on vanity items like creating new states, reshaping executive tenure and removal of immunity clauses.

    Late in the week news broke of the decision of the House and Senate to invite Buhari to address them on what he’s doing about the recession. While they are at it, they should equally brief the president on what they are shaving off their bloated financial package to help the country out.

    Anything short of that would  amount to hypocritical posturing on the part of our ‘caring’ lawmakers.

    In defence of Mama Peace

    Nigerians are an interesting lot – but never more so than in this season of recession and rocky change. Now, depending on which side of the political divide we find ourselves, we defend the indefensible and rationalise that which is beyond the pale.

    Take for instance the current bid by former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, to unlock about $22.5 million dollars which she claims belongs to her. She was not in the picture when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) secured a court order freezing the suspicious funds traced to some companies.

    The firms in question have since pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. Out of the blues, Mrs. Jonathan shows up laying claim to the huge sums.

    Confronted with searching questions as to how she earned the foreign exchange, we were suddenly informed the monies belonged to her mother. Don’t ask whether the old woman owned an oil bloc.

    In her defence, a rent-a-crowd protest took place in Yenagoa on Thursday led by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) during which the ‘protesters’ argued for release of the frozen funds.

    Some of the ‘protesters’ reasoned this way: “Patience Jonathan is not the only First Lady in this country. A wife to former Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and President … are you expecting her to be a poor woman?”

    The fact is there’s no constitutional recognition for the office of the First Lady so there can be no official earnings accruing to a non-existing position. Secondly, her husband, no matter how generous his earnings in the office he occupied were, was never paid so lavishly in dollars to enable his spouse accumulate so much.

    It is only in Nigeria that the richest people are those in government. President Barack Obama is not among the richest persons in the US. The wealthiest people in America, Britain and across the West are entrepreneurs, entertainers, sportsmen and professionals among others.

    With these ‘youthful’ defenders of the indefensible reasoning this way, we should be greatly troubled about the future of the country.

  • Our Girls; Containing parasitic political parties and politicians

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014? Little talk and no returns, 905 days later. Shame.

    So another Oct ‘FAST’ has gone. Uniquely we have perplexed politicians forced to come to terms with the coming ‘political poverty’ mainly precipitated by a history of Nigeria being infected by ‘Parasitic Politicians’ from a ‘Parasitic Political Party Class’. As yet they have refused to even reduce the financial burden they have created on Nigeria. This is exemplified by their expensive antics in National Assembly (NASS) and state Houses of Assembly, foisted on the nation with SAP –Political Salaries and Perks and double/triple pensions and even salaries, crippling and strangling Nigeria.

    When will our ‘Political Parasites’ fully cut their coat to ordinary Nigerian size and just become another professional group and not make themselves ‘greedy mini-gods’. Outside their rowdy NASS ‘Parasitic Politicians’ they are becoming less noisy in society and more straitjacketed and forced into being ‘holy’ by an honest President in governance – no sleaze, stolen funds or envelopes slipped their way to get a good ‘Oversight Report’.

    Every kobo a politician throws around or uses for personal use or claims is a Personal Donation or a ‘Dividend of Democracy’, DOD, comes from funds belonging to Fellow Nigerian. How can ‘Parasitic Politicians’ be forced to undertake their primary role of care for people instead of their greedy kleptomania and pathological or psychiatric addiction to inflating their pocket?

    Complaints about the Treasury Single Account (TSA) are real but so also is the savings of billions from ghost workers not getting salaries which were used by many as a ‘slush fund’. The unholy mixture of previous party rejects and movers in the parties does not allow for a serious total  move against corrupt practices as too many were involved before and are still seeking ‘rewards’  and ‘compensation’ for ‘funding’ elections with ridiculously excessive allowances. Only time, and time is quite short two years plus, will tell if good anti-stealing leadership at the very top of Nigeria triumphs over chronic ‘parasitic politicians’ and hangers on and vociferous bad followers seeking ‘refunds’ on election investments having been deprived by TSA and presidential financial purity of their easy money at the expense of Fellow Nigerians.

    Certainly there will no longer be unbridled malicious misappropriation of the budget and CBN funds for party and politicians’ personal abuse. No one should ever again be allowed to seize access to the budget ‘as of right’ of being elected President, Governor, Senator, Representative, LGA Chairman et cetera.

    Imagine a Nigeria like Togo or Ghana, 23/7 power, without the deafening sound of generators generating economic hardship and misery in their ‘oil-slick’ rivers – the noise, air and engine-oil pollution seeping into the ground and the pollution of our money wasting, pouring down the drain.

    Research shows that Oxford University did not bribe to gain first place among universities worldwide. It worked hard by attracting $679m =N350,000,000,000 or N120-340b in research grants and donations. Asian universities also featured in the Top 40, and China in particular had allocated $33b to upgrade them to Top 40 through science and technology.

    Remember all that ‘free money’ stolen by 419 politicians under criminal ‘soft-theft’ names like ‘padding’ and other ‘titles’ is available abroad but in developed countries they use most funds, not for theft, but for research grants-something alien to the Nigeria politician, even those with Professor as ‘prenom’.

    If during the next two years alone, before 2019, all money available in the budget is actually used for the budgetary items identified, like in normal countries, we will make a giant stride towards maturing our budgetary process and spread, to many more items. We will probably achieve more than the inflated, non-transparent and corruptly spent budgets of the past 30 or more years. The 2017 budget and certainly the 2018 budget must have allocations along the lines of all advanced or developed country budgets. It would be super-wise for every Ministry and Department led by an intelligent team to obtain the budgets of similar organisations abroad, which are often available under transparency arrangements even from the internet. Imagine what a Faculty of Engineering in Japan would do without its budget for Robotics.

    I suspect that an anniversary like the 56TH YEAR OF DEPENDENCE ON GENERATORS AND IMPORTED FUEL is yet another time for analysis of our status and nothingness in the world as we wallow in 3,000Mw, insufficient for a decent city abroad, and myriad hallmarks of a poorly developed and poorly managed society. The main reason why we are where we are so low on the all scales of civilised ranking from UN, WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIDO et cetera is because our leadership to date has only offered lip-service to projects, did not care and had transmitted that ‘I do not care’ to the citizenry. The citizenry in turn, instead of demanding a caring leadership, have adopted the ‘the leader does not care’ as an expectation or ingredient of governance.

    The Nigerian psyche means that nobody expects a LGA chairman to be more than a stealing buffoon, a governor to be less than a flamboyant greedy non-performer, a NASS member to be less than a television clown and self-enriching and self-perpetuating liar, a minister to be less than an money-maker for himself, and a president to be less than a master-thief or 50% of the budget. The common denominator was glorified corruption and ‘legitimate’ theft… to be continued.  www. tonymarinho.com/blog.

     

  • APC: Conflict is not the problem

    APC: Conflict is not the problem

    Nigeria’s former ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) dreamt of a 60-year hegemony over the land. But the dream crashed in less than 16 years as the party imploded under a perfect storm of internal conflicts and do-or-die ambition.

    In less than one year, the tragedy of defeat has been compounded by those divisions festering to the point where a once proud political behemoth became a caricature with three ‘chairmen’ laying claim to headship.

    Since coming to power, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has managed to paper over the cracks and present a united front in public, despite persistent rumours that all was far from well within its ranks.

    Former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s explosive letter demanding the resignation of the national chairman of the party, John Oyegun, has blown any such pretence to smithereens.

    On the surface it was triggered by the handling of the party’s governorship primaries in Ondo State. But reading between the lines you sense the heart cry of a man who has been bottling up so much in the interest of the common good.

    Tinubu is an experienced politician who no doubt understands the implications of coming out publicly with such a crunching attack on Oyegun. He knows how it would be interpreted and the impression it would create about the party.

    Questions are already being asked as to whether history is repeating itself. Has the PDP disease of irreconcilable differences finally infected the APC? Can we assume that the same incurable divisions that laid the former ruling party low are about to send its successor to an early grave?

    Before we start writing obituaries, let’s put the issues in proper perspective.

    Way back in 1999, the founding fathers of what would become the PDP sought to create a party that would bring the mainstream of the Nigerian political class together under one ‘umbrella’ – their ideological beliefs notwithstanding.

    Given that over the years power had moved interchangeably between the military and civilians several times, the thinking was that there were – in reality – just two political ‘parties’ in Nigeria: the military and politicians.

    In trying to rally the bulk of the political class under one big tent, the promoters of the new party were making the honest admission that what separates parties in Nigeria is not ideology but simple ambition, and a sense that you are better placed to grab power by associating with a particular group or the other.

    Let’s not forget that even the political strand that eventually emerged at the last minute as the Alliance for Democracy (AD), was actually part of those discussions until some of the leaders sensed that in the contest for the presidential ticket of the new mega party, they would be at a disadvantage.

    The PDP formula produced a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that enabled the party to retain a vice grip on power for 16 years. It was not ideology or the absence of internal disagreements that made that happen.

    It took the longsuffering Nigerian opposition that same amount of time to come to the realisation that the only way they would ever make a credible challenge for power was to create their own SPV – another large tent where all comers were welcome – from the far right to the extreme left.

    So, those who mock the APC as a mere SPV set up for the sole purpose of ousting Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP don’t know what they are talking about. That’s what political parties anywhere on planet earth do – try to get power using every legal means they can think of.

    Against this backdrop it is unimaginable that these assemblages of strange bedfellows would be devoid of internal divisions. We should actually expect that as the multiple tendencies cohabiting under one roof contend for power and control there would always be tension.

    These internal divisions ordinarily ought not to be enough to bring down the house because the glue that binds all together is securing and retaining power.

    What has been the problem for PDP in the last seven years is therefore not the absence of internal conflict but the mismanagement of the divisions.

    The erstwhile ruling party foundered because the longer it held power the more arrogant and insensitive those who controlled it became. Rather than building the institution around a set of principles and rules, they sought to personify the party and dictate to it.

    Rules were not obeyed, agreements reached between supposed gentlemen were hurled out of the window because they were not written on tablets of stone, fairness and equity became strangers – leaving the party as democratic in name only.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s power grab through the failed Third Term Agenda set the tone given that the constitution clearly set out a two-term limit. Beginning with his fight with his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar, over this issue the party would not be the same again.

    The decline gathered pace with the unscripted demise of President Umaru Yar’Adua and the rise of Jonathan. By 2011, his bid to run for a second term while trampling on internal zoning arrangement prepared the ground for a northern regional revolt four years later.

    Of course, other factors like ambition, corruption and all-round incompetence of the administration led to the fall of the last PDP administration, but the inability of the then lords of the ruling party to manage internal differences led to the departure of five governors in one fell swoop.

    It was a pivotal moment, but so blinded with power had Jonathan and the then PDP chairmen become that they blithely dismissed the rebels as the problems of the party who they were only too glad to discard.

    Those who follow Nigerian politics understand that what happened in APC – from formation to electoral triumph – has been nothing short of the miraculous. Very few people expected that  those who came together to form it could ever work together.

    Former presidential adviser, Dr. Doyin Okupe, once famously declared that the unusual assemblage would collapse and never get to the stage of actually becoming a party. But at every turn APC defied expectations not because the potentials for ambitions and egos clashing was absent; it succeeded because its founders were more driven by the desire to oust PDP than anything else.

    I recall the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, retailing an anecdote about what happened in a heated moment between party leaders early last year. He said in  words to the effect that he knelt down and ‘told Asiwaju let us not fight now; let us win first – we can fight later.’

    The tragedy of the PDP was that it forgot what was in the common interest of its members and leaders. That ailment can also afflict APC if its leaders forget where they are coming from and how they managed to get elected when conventional wisdom said it was impossible.

    The myopic within the party can choose to make it about Tinubu and his supposed ambition to control things. But their lurid allegations contrast with the testimony of President Muhammadu Buhari about the man. He once said that while others were busy scheming for one thing or the other, the former Lagos governor ‘never thought of himself.’

    APC should ask itself if it could have handled the Ondo primaries and aftermath better. That is only one of the flashpoints. What about the bungling of the National Assembly leadership contest that led to the ruling party snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

    The party’s problem today is not the existence of factions and ambitious people; it is the inability to lead by established rules and principles such that when people lose contests, they can lick their wounds content that they have received a fair shake.

    No patriot should be happy that PDP is in disarray, neither should anyone be crowing at the evident signs of trouble in APC. That Nigerian politicians have now largely gathered in these two big tents is a function of the natural evolution of our politics.

    Our desire should be the strengthening of these two parties so they can check each other and provide the people a credible governance alternative at every point in time.

  • Our Girls; ‘Nigeria@56 Dependence’

    Our Girls; ‘Nigeria@56 Dependence’

    our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. We pray negotiators from anywhere help.

    Today we discuss The ‘Nigeria@56 Dependence’ on generators and imported fuel, our 3,000Mw rubbish power supply, Oxford University and UI!

    I still sit in the darkness@56 of 3,000Mw, like millions, for my second week of pre-Nigeria@56 personal protest and money-saving for myself and Nigeria by not buying imported generator fuel by 100-150 litres/week. In this perpetual darkness, I never pray to God for light. God has nothing to do with our monstrous power-failure and is busy in famine-ridden Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.  Nigerians refusing to protest decades of 419 governance abandoning grid growth and refinery output. Instead, we sheepishly ‘managed’ to buy 1+ million generators and now each pay N150-N10,000 daily for 10-100 million litres generator fuel nightly for light that should not cost 1/15th that if refineries, PHCN/DISCO delivered.  I type this article in 22-24/7 darkness with a torch. Buy luminous keyboard laptops for Nigeria’s Dark Ages. A 20 year is going back home because there is ‘24/7 light- and no generators’ in Togo’. We struggle@56 with 3,000Mw instead of 150,000Mw. Generators generate pollution and corruption and must be silenced.

    Breaking News: In response to President Buhari’s statement that Nigeria’s looters were behind the economic sabotage of bombing of oil facilities, The Institute of Looters Of Nigeria, I-LOOT-ON, direct descendant of The ABN- The Association to Bastardise Nigeria, sent the scum, I mean ‘some’, of their membership, a subsidiary called  The Nigerian Professional And Political Official Looters Association aka ‘NIGAPPOLOOTAss’, from their secret guesthouse HQ, provided by a governor seeking future immunity  in National Assembly, NASS for financial crimes to be committed, and situated somewhere near ‘14% Monetary Policy Robbery- I mean Rate’, MPR CBN Building, Abuja. [Who will bring the CBN Governor into No MPR and low interest rate line?].

    They appeared disguised in mufflers, mufti and masks before a World Press Conference to deny the Presidential claim and mischievously asked the Accountant General and Minister of Agriculture how much Nigeria was spending feeding the Presidential pet cow ‘with no name’, last spotted in 34 states nationwide on a ranch or on rampage near you! Their identity is being determined by Wikileaks and Sahara Reporters. Many were seen heading in convoy [back] to the ‘Complex NASS’ perhaps to a meeting with the committee investigating the goodness of padding and the badness of whistleblowing? At NASS, a crowd, herein-after called ‘We-The Masses’, had gathered but did not stone them with the pure water sachets made available for the purpose by a Coordinating Member of the Civil Society Organisations as We-The Masses cannot afford to drink pure water, much less throw it even at the most 419 politicians. Sometimes at an ex-President yes! Instead ‘We-The Masses’ drank the water weapon, consuming the evidence, and dumped the empty plastic sachets in the drains of the NASS in a cunning ‘block the drain’ protest. ‘An Act of God’ or a Maradona-ic ‘Hand of God’ downpour conveniently immediately ‘down-poured’ and flooded everywhere. ‘We-The Masses’, well soaked were duly arrested for Environmental Pollution by road agencies because Environment Staff never come out in the rain to supervise the drains, and the Road Agencies were trying to meet an Internal Generated Robbery I mean Revenue quota, herein-after referred to as ‘IGRobbery’! The arrested protesters aka ‘We-The Masses’ some armed with umbrellas and brooms have since laid down these ‘dangerous’ weapons of kitchen combat, and been charged with false assembly at the National Assembly, sabotage, possession of dangerous water, poor sanitation and waste disposal, abuse of ‘immune’ ‘Distinguished and Honourables’, bringing Nigeria@56 into disrepute during Generator and Fuel Imports Dependence Celebrations and failure to stop for a siren. On parade before the media they all claimed they had great difficulty in identifying a truly ‘Distinguished or Honourable’ Nigerian@56 among those self-styled as such and had gone in search of same. They were given bail in the sum of N5,000 ‘bail-is-free-he-he-he’ non-refundable ‘deposit’ to the inconvenienced ‘arresting’ police officer, their own recognition, passport photo A4size and BVN. Then miraculously they were discharged and acquitted as a Nigeria@56 present from the Chief Judge or was it the President.

    Meanwhile a group of NASS members held another Press Conference marking Nigeria@56 by insisting on part-time sitting and minimal sitting allowances, no salary or hidden allowances and to reduce the number of houses in NASS to one with one third the number of members if they could get 25million signatures demanding such followed by a referendum and threatened recall of all NASS members. They also ceremonially turned off their official jeeps and generators promising to wait for the grid to power their homes and offices. Nigerians are waiting for ‘change’ from a greedy 419 political class. A Luta Continua! We all have a dream for Nigeria come Oct 1st@56, abi?

    As we congratulated Para-Olympians, congratulate World University Ranking 1st Place Oxford University where the commonest mode of transport is ‘the environmentally friendly bicycle’. Where do Nigeria@56 universities stand in a country unable to provide 100,000Mw? The University of Ibadan is threatened for being Nigeria’s Cradle of Western Education. We say NOOOOOOO!  Science and Technology need research grants and 24/7 power. As a Chinese firm invents radar technology to track the US radar-proof stealth Bomber and the world uses robotics and debates AI, Artificial Intelligence, Nigeria still suffers corruption-driven ‘de ayes have it’ voice-voting in NASS. What ‘change’ in Nigeria@56?  tonymarinho.com

     

  • Too much change too soon

    Too much change too soon

    While this column was on break, a giddy mix of events stirred the polity – provoking extreme reactions of incredulity and outrage. One of those things that attracted the most discussion was the launch of the ‘Change Begins With Me’ campaign.

    For many who admit that there has been a near-total erosion of the values of decency, honesty and discipline, and accept that there is a need to take action to reorient a society that is increasingly philistinic, support for Lai Mohammed’s baby was largely tepid.

    On the other hand, those who felt duped by President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) promise of change, were on the verge of a collective heart attack.

    Such was their fury that the bunch who promised ‘change’ had the audacity to demand ‘change’ from the recession-stressed! If they had their way the word ‘change’ would have been expunged from the dictionary!

    Increasingly, the politically-dispossessed who lost power directly and their dependants who survived on their connections, are finding common cause with many who bayed fervently for ‘change’ early last year. And it’s all down to the disastrous state of the economy.

    I accept that a hungry man does not make the best analyst – but there’s the rub. We’ve lived a lie for so long we refuse to accept our true reality. The fact is our economy was never as healthy as it was presented.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan claims he handed over an economy that was ranked the largest in Africa. Well, it is either someone was playing cruel games with statistics, or the giant had clay feet.

    Two years ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a dire critique of how sick the economy was under Jonathan. But because he had fallen out with the Peoples’ Democratic Party and his erstwhile political godson, it was dismissed as bile from a bitter old man.

    But signs that the economy was already in trouble were all too evident. Earnings from our only source were on the decline. States, local governments and federal parastatals were beginning to owe salaries. Many federal contractors had not been paid for years causing them to abandon their sites. Insecurity across the North-East had destroyed the economy of region – triggering a ripple effect that would hit the rest of the country with a splash in 2015 and 2016.

    What made things tolerable in the last couple of years under Jonathan was that whereas Nigeria was not generating much money except what it earned from oil, a false sense of normalcy prevailed because stolen money was keeping the economy afloat.

    Billions were being plundered on a regular basis across all tiers of government with no questions asked. Banks were happy because their vaults were full. The building industry boomed because looters were ‘washing’ hot money buying mansions and building estates.

    It helped also that in the Niger Delta militancy had become an accepted professional calling. There was really no need to get violent, or militant in the true sense of the word, because governments at federal and state level were buying peace by paying protection money to the troublemakers.

    With no one bursting pipelines oil exports continued unhindered. Sullying this idyllic picture, however, was unrestrained oil theft that was going on. No one can estimate what Nigeria lost to this illegal trade in the last two decades.

    This was the state of affairs when we were thumping our chests celebrating borrowed robes as Africa’s number one economy. If the fundamentals were truly right, there’s no way the collapse we have witnessed would have been so swift and dramatic. What we had was a shiny exterior but a very rotten core which caved in at the very first application of stress.

    So if it makes you and your friends happy, you can keep telling yourselves Buhari invented the current recession as his ‘thank you’ to millions of Nigerians who voted for him.

    In a way, he did. He came and upturned the whole structure of the Jonathan economy which was running on graft. The illicit cash flow that was powering our false sense of wellbeing dried up the moment Buhari started chasing thieves with a vengeance.

    What the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under Ibrahim Magu is doing was unheard off under PDP governments – not even under Nuhu Ribadu.

    If anything, EFCC chairmen were ousted when they became too zealous in carrying out their mandate, or when they dared turn their searchlight on powerful members of the ruling party.

    For as long as I can remember, Nigerians have always bemoaned corruption in high places. The late celebrated Afrobeat icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, made his name singing about our dictatorial and kleptocratic rulers. His songs were smash hits because his adoring fans could identify with the sentiments they contained.

    So I don’t think that most people quarrel with the fact that Buhari has come to ‘change’ something they’ve always abhorred. What no one forgot to mention was that the disruption of the ‘corruption in high places’ which we so ‘disdained’ would directly disrupt life as we’ve known it for several decades.

    Put in another way, Buhari’s ‘radicalism’ is like too much change too soon for many people. You could blame him and say he didn’t have an alternative in place before dismantling a ‘winning formula.’

    But that suggests he should have allowed the continuation of a system diametrically opposed to everything he stood for. Demolition can happen in an instant but the rebuilding process takes much longer.

    There’s nothing palatable about the pressures that we are facing. But rather than moaning and whining, we should all be looking at how we make our individual adjustments while the government implements its own measures.

    It is the only way out. Nations pass through periods like this. Ghana in the early 80s went through economic hell. Her people were humiliated out of Nigeria – expelled in thousands – clutching their few miserable belongings in what came to be known as ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ bags.

    Today, that one-time basket case has been so turned around that – without any sense of shame – many Nigerians now brag about their children schooling in Ghanaian institutions. We boast about buying choice properties in posh areas of Accra.

    It could be worse for Nigeria; we could be like Venezuela – another oil producing country which never thought to diversify – where today citizens queue and fight on the streets to buy basic needs.

  • The Dame and her millions

    The Dame and her millions

    I confess that I have missed Dame Patience Jonathan’s one day, one drama reign as First Lady. Since Buhari’s ‘Change’ scrapped the First Spouse circus, we have been reduced to the subdued offerings of the office of ‘Wife of the President.’

    So imagine my astonishment when I read the headlines about the redoubtable dame laying claim to dodgy millions of dollars which the EFCC had frozen in some company accounts it was investigating.

    In the past people have described Mrs. Jonathan as fearless. She has demonstrated that by taking on an EFCC that has shown it means business. But sometimes it is hard to know when fearlessness graduates into recklessness.

    The lady is clearly one who wears her emotions on her sleeve – a trait that saw her make a string of badly-judged moves in her time in power. Those mistakes came from a misunderstanding of what her role really was.

    As First Lady she actually saw herself as co-president to her husband. She exercised executive authority in ways unheard of in this country. Little wonder that Obasanjo once said that under Jonathan, Nigeria actually had four or five presidents. The incumbent aside – others were Dame Patience, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Diezani Alison-Madueke.

    In staking claim to the questionable monies the Dame never paused to consider that questions would be asked as to how a Bayelsa State civil servant came to amass so much.

    What is more embarrassing is that some people would deign to defend her because she was once a presidential spouse – knowing what the legitimate earnings of office holders are.

    Sadly, the collateral damage to her longsuffering husband are grave. It is one thing when suspected wrongdoing is traced to his appointees. It is a totally matter when the stench starts emanating from his bedroom.

  • Our Girls; thinking out of the box

    Our Girls; thinking out of the box

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Pray and feed the IDPs.

    Today we discuss ‘out of the box’ ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS and REWARDS FOR OLYMPIANS/PARA-OLYMPIANS.

    The military bequeathed, and politicians perpetuated, a lifetime in darkness making Nigeria the UN’s LAUGHING STOCK ,no matter how many siren-ed Mercedes Benzes or UN General Assembly Meetings we address or US Presidents we meet. A country WHICH DOES NOT GET ITS POWER RIGHT HAS NO RIGHTS TO THE NAME ‘COUNTRY’ IN THE HIGH TECH 21st CENTURY.

    Do we want to be just a ‘Tourist Carnival Attraction Demonstrating Primitive Life On Earth’? Right now NIGERIA IS DOWNGRADED TO A GIANT CATTLE RANCH. The cancer of power failure has grown since the military and now handicaps every Nigerian, building and business, truncating every economic advance. O! How we have been forced to suffer by coup-plotting Nigerian officers and plotting Nigerian politicians, too few gentlemen.

    SOLVING THE POWER PROBLEM BY PROVIDING one to two million generators is stupid, uneconomical, mega-fuel consuming and NEGATIVE ECONOMICS, another huge backward step like the OKADA EPIDEMIC creating one million+ victims, orphans, widows and widowers. Everyone knows one okada victim and generator owner and has witnessed one okada crash and a generator poisoning the environment -The NIGERIAN GENERATOR EPIDEMIC.

    OCTOBER 1, is our 57th year of Independence and since approximately 1975, 42+ years ago, when generators began their evil journey to power Nigeria, draining our fuel due to 42+ years of inability to provide grid power  –an abysmal breach of Nigeria’s Human Right to a social development contract  and a major military and political governance failure.

    I have, 42 years and counting, this week sat in darkness whenever power was cut 15-24/24 hours/day  and I am going to continue. It is a depressing experience with only torch and no radio. It saves money and does not pollute and is silent.

    Contemplating our forced sacrifice for zero development, thinking out of the box, I recommend ‘ABSTAINING FROM GENERATORS’ for a DAY, A WEEK A YEAR  as a powerful economic saving of billons of naira weekly  to President Buhari, from the Federal Executive Council, Council of State, National Assembly (NASS), governors to LGA Councils and all MDA at all tiers of governance. BAN FUEL ALLOCATIONS TO GENERATORS NOW! Only then will they realise the bastardisation and backwardness from lost opportunity they, as a political class, have inflicted on the citizenry, even children reading for NECO,  for 42+years through incompetence and devilry. Civil Society Organisations can champion a march against generators in government offices and homes as part of the march for one NASS house, part time sitting and no dual salaries/pensions to save billions.  Nigeria will not survive more disgraceful powerless and political fissures without riots or revolution. Nigerians will not remain didirin or mumu forever!

    The OUT OF THE BOX CHANGE IN POWER starts with a BUHARI PRESIDENTIAL ORDER to STOP GOVERNMENT GENERATORS AT HOME AND OFFICE TODAY. The grid will quickly start to work properly. We want the Political and Electricity Contractor Class to shut down generators bought with Nigeria’s money and Nigeria will run without generators.

    The Emergency Economic Summit for ‘OUT OF THE BOX SOLUTIONS’ requires these ‘All Together Now’ solutions.

    A] Morale Boosters, Peace: Stop the Niger Delta insurgency. Get Our Girls back.

    B] LET THERE BE LIGHT! SAVE BILLIONS IN GENERATOR FUEL IMPORTS!! SILENCE GENERATORS, pollutants and money guzzlers! Give Nigerians ELECTRIC POWER in 2016!!! ‘Get out of the box’ with SERIOUS SOLAR and Google available EMERGENCY POWER COMPANIES TO PROVIDE AN EXTRA 10,000MW  immediately within three months like for Japan post the recent nuclear plant disaster. Then add 5000Mw /quarter to get 30,000Mw by mid- 2017.  You must use $2-5b CBN Solar/Electricity Power Loan Scheme to empower citizens and business to get into SOLAR.

    C] Nigerian Marshal Plan to get NIGERIANS MOVING AGAIN. Nigerians need an enabling environment, not hampering governance. 1) Business is literally stuck in potholes. Employ millions to FILL ALL POTHOLES and ‘MAKE SMOOTH OUR PATH’. 3) Build 100 Lekki Bridges to redistribute road transport! Choose some 30+ KEY BRIDGES Nationwide for international soft loans  2nd , 3rd Niger Bridge and 1-3/state to decongest Nigeria’s  clogged roads. 2) Implement through States/LGAs serious local materials LOW COST, MASS HOUSING SCHEME PERHAPS with Chinese and Pension Fund NOT SELFISHLY FOR FEDERAL CIVIL SERVANTS ONLY!

    D] Announce POLICIES THAT IN SIX MONTHS ALL PETROL PRODUCTS WILL BE REFINED AT HOME AND THE EXCESS EXPORTED!  Get 20 LGA/ private MODULAR SMALL SCALE REFINERIES APPROVED and working to CUT OUR FUEL IMPORT BILL TO ZERO in six months and make us exporter to West Africa.

    E] SINGLE DIGIT INTEREST RATES OF LOANS for ALL NIGERIANS. Cut MPR to under one percent.

    F] A ‘BUY NIGERIAN’ CAMPAIGN. NIGERIA IS OUR BIGGEST MARKET.

    Congrats to our NECO successes, Hurray to our teachers!!

    ABOUT PARA-OLYMPIANS: They got no Dasuki-gate or Halliburton grants. Beyond a ‘fat’ Presidential financial handshake covering their costs, emotional and economic, for the last four years. Will Nigeria give them jobs and corporations make them Brand Ambassadors,  Media stars, Nollywood documentaries/films  subjects,  LGA and States role models, give museums/exhibitions Olympian Corners and Primary schools named, books and plays on ‘My Olympic/Para-Olympic Odyssey’ in school, rewards for carers, funded tours or will they be ‘dropped’?  A physical challenge can be a challenge for life so they should not expect much in Nigeria which cannot save its own IDP children from war-like starvation.

     

  • Our Girls and the fate of IDPs

    Our Girls and the fate of IDPs

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014 and no firm sign. Any hope for the families?

    Increasingly we are hearing strident calls on this government to look forward to proffer solutions and not backwards to capture the causes of most of the current downturn in the economy and value of the naira. Naira approximates to less than toilet paper at present and people should pay for their crimes, corruption and entire careers of federal mismanagement.

    Every shade of party has its saints, too few, and sinners, too many who participated whenever possible in the grand larceny against Nigeria. Perhaps government is already doing what any sane government should do. That is to do a bit of both, divide forces into the ‘looking backers’ and the ‘looking forwarders’ and let each proceed quickly, courts permitting.

    Unfortunately the malnourished and starving children in IDP camps under federal government sovereignty speak volumes about Nigeria’s core incompetence and corruption with diversion of food by able-bodied members of government and agencies. The National Human Rights Commission must investigate this crime against innocent children and jail the culprits. I warned years ago that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were quite capable of looking after themselves. They were part of hard working self-sufficient communities before Boko Haram. Why does National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)or State Environment Management Authority (SEMA) think they have the right to ‘take over’ and actually feed fellow Nigerians with hands and legs and brains and time on their hands who love their children? All non- indigenes should be thrown out of camps unless the IDPs say they want them. Yes deliver food and living equipment to them but let them get on with their lives-cooking and selling, sowing, weaving, arts and craft, story-telling, engineering, medicine, nursing security and other professions. Employ them, pay them not ‘out of state’ people, to look after each other themselves. Establish an economy not a beggar’s camp.

    Government dropped the ball on this one and it is not about visits by high and mighty giving out Nigeria’s rice as their own but visits by real food-bringing people on a daily basis. A hungry IDP child today will be equally hungry tomorrow no matter what noodles or rice or gari you fill her stomach with today. Unless, of course, she is dead tomorrow and they do die in this ‘Great but cretinous’ land where National Assembly (NASS) members, ex-governors and others too numerous to mention, still in 2016, take millions home from the public purse monthly. Can you know a problem better than the victim and relations? Now we are witnesses to a totally preventable ‘near famine’ and for the malnourished it is a personal famine, not percentage. Have we no shame in our incompetence?  They should all be thrown out and new clean IDP hands found to feed themselves before Boko Haram says ‘life is more abundant on their side’.

    For those who want to forget about the past, let them look around the highways of their foreign retreats and look for the pothole- the sign of Nigeria. They will not find one for thousands of miles or the local government will be sued by the citizens. Let them ask their host for the intoxicating smell of diesel and petrol to fuel a million generators in case of a never-coming daily power failure or a destructive power surge. They will not find one generator in millions of homes many of which also use solar-Nigeria’s second gift from God after oil. Meanwhile we have a different yardstick in Nigeria. Success is judged by the size of your generator and your ability, or not, to fuel it 24/7 x 365 days x 30 years @ N4-10,000 a day. You do the maths.  Wives abuse their husbands, and even change them, for not meeting up to the 24/7 mark of those who steal for a living or have the office funding the generator.

    Nigerians have managed to convince themselves that their suffering is somehow in the national interest.  ‘You must suffer to develop`. No nation can grow if it enlarges potholes as a Federal Target instead of having a quick ‘pothole filling campaign’ nationwide involving local contractors and boys empowered like PWD of old-a man-a-mile.  Is it true that the petty traders dig the road at night to slow the traffic so that they can sell more goods? We cannot afford a few international roads, we want the kind of 1960s roads we can drive on not die on!

    Nigeria has no shame. It does not care who stole its collective wealth in trillions and does not care where it begs for its starving citizens and then the project implementers steal the funds raised. Someone should tell Bono and Zuckerberg how much Nigerians politicians collectively seize from the treasury, how much the country, parties and individuals are spending this month on elections.

    The ridiculous traffic on the Ibadan- Lagos ‘expressway’ is beyond imagination. By now the media should have taken to the sky for an aerial helicopter view or at least a drone view of the recurrent Sunday 4pm traffic, the same for three years, now compounded by the super performance of Julius Berger Construction stripping a lane of the long bridge and forcing the maybe one million vehicles and 10 million travellers per day into two tight lanes.   Even the aircraft on routes in and out of Lagos Airport that pass over the Expressway can photograph the debacle. Any change?

     

  • Our Girls and other matters

    Our Girls and other matters

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Ken Atsuete Barrister, Human Rights Lawyer is dead. More assassinations, making a holy host of Good Nigerians killed by cunning political will, riffraff or ‘merely’ killed by ‘idle’ security operatives thirsty for ‘daily blood’ not bread, at checkpoints and chance encounters, like carnivorous convoys of banks and devilish dignitaries. The dead shed their blood for an undeserving Nigeria, A STRANGE VAMPIRE LAND, where the wicked thrive on Champaign and THE HONEST DIE IN POTHOLES –thirsty for blood. Is pothole filling really Nuclear Physics for Nigerian governments? If so LET US EXPORT OUR ‘MADE IN NIGERIA’ POTHOLES!!

    Nigerians are ‘escorted’ to an ATM for illegal ‘bail’ or ‘fine’ money. We demand an APC ‘change’ Law that ALL ENCOUNTERS WITH CITIZENS, INTERROGATIONS, ARRESTS AND PAYMENTS MUST BE RECORDED ON CELL PHONE CAMERAS to protect the accused and the accuser! How many Nigerians have N25,000, more than minimum wage, for a false accuser in uniform of a state government participating in a governor-sanctioned INTERNALLY GENERATED ROBBERY scam! And sirens and checkpoints are back! Nigerians live in fear of uniforms, paid by our taxes, and this in a democracy-perhaps demented!

    Desperate soulless governors nationwide unleash a deranged ‘unsupervised’ army soullessly seizing the car of a woman and child who stole ‘nothing from nobody’. That is anti-God! No wonder they are in the Bible as tax collectors.

    This current assault on the citizens, with short payment times of taxes, and fines shows vulture-like state governments preying on citizenry. Answer ‘How easy is moving around and doing business in your state? The answer will paralyse further investment. Being a banker, the Ex-CBN Governor Sanusi ignored the human cost of Lagos State’s IGRobbery, with extortionist Demand Notices and fees for signatures. Bankers ignore the effects of a lifetime of 25% interests with 14% going to CBN. ‘Is 30% of all ‘taxes’ raised by towing in other states under APC going back to Lagos Consultants and their owners? Can those states afford such a 30% drain on their IGR resources instead of using ‘locally available contractors’? We should pray for APC INTERNALLY GENERATED ROBBERY STRATEGY CHANGE or come 2019 the traumatised citizens may vote a different ‘change’.

    Change is only good if it is beneficial. For me Lagos, my home state, is unkind to its citizens whose tax money was rumoured to be used to win elections in other states in the past- political sagacity? In your state, can government confirm that the money currently being raised is staying within the state or is 30% going to Lagos Tax ‘consultants’. Buhari’s APC fight against past corruption, in other parties, becomes nothing compared to this current corruption destroying a good business environment. There is NO CAR Park in Ibadan. Are cars to drive through like visiting Yankari Game Reserve? Do not stop or you will be eaten by the towing lions! WHO ARE THESE SUPER-INTELLIGENT PEOPLE MAKING ‘BUSINESS MUST DIE!’ DECISIONS? Do they consult the NISER Traffic Department or the local community before drawing Yellow lines everywhere as they have in Owo? Many roads have been widened by governments to accommodate PARKING WITHOUT GO-SLOW. Accessible shops make Ibadan a business hub.

    Unfortunately the Ife Roundabout under the flyover has again become a slum and hoodlums’ paradise because police are not there at night protecting the citizens and directing traffic. The gateway to Ibadan road leading to Iwo Road from the Roundabout is just one lane obstructed by commercial traffic there. There is an obvious ‘ignorance’ failure of governments nationwide to FILL POTHOLES to keep the people moving doing business bringing taxable activities.

    Nigerians feel raped when stopped by security operatives, Federal Road Safety Commission officials, Customs, Vehicle Inspection Officers or towing companies because their genuine documents are suddenly ‘fake’, some ‘fault’ is found and they are punished maximally, financially and mentally, without a civilised warning, a second chance, ticket or time to pay the huge N25,000 fine.

    Mega-contracts N1billion/kilometre are gone though some linger like the IBADAN EXPRESSWAY WHICH DOES NOT NEED 200KM OF DOUBLE CONCRETE MEDIANS when there are more than 10 MILLION MAJOR KILLER POTHOLES to be filled nationwide with that same money. NIGERIA NEEDS MAINTENANCE- FILL THE POTHOLES please!!! And build new and repair the OLD 60s ROADS without concrete medians. Medians can be inserted as prosperity returns. Since about 60-80% of contract sums were politically stolen, the non-stealing Buhari government must target building good roads at 40% of previous costs without stealing for party, political and personal reasons. ‘Compare and contrast’ the cost of filling all the paralysing potholes and section collapses on the Ibadan-Ife, Ife-Ilesha and Akure-Owo Roads with the funds their politicians have invested in elections. Has the Ibadan-Ife road been awarded three times? Ask the new Oni of Ife if he frowns on potholes murdering the citizens in his kingdom.

    We HOPED the APC FIRST YEAR PLAN FOR ROADS would be a ‘NATIONWIDE POTHOLE FILLINGS BY LOCAL CONTRACTORS’ to stimulate the economy and give locals Public Works Department jobs and improved travel, FOR BUSINESS and PLEASURE! Make this THE AGE OF POTHOLE FILLING and reduce axle load weight of trailers to cut road damage.

    NIGERIANS VOTING IN 2015 THOUGHT THE APC Change meant an immediate 2016 END TO Nigeria’s POTHOLESS. KILL POTHOLES NATIONWIDE IN 2016, NOT NUCLEAR PHYSICS. IF NOT, Entrepreneurs should fill or EXPORT THE POTHOLES. We have no excuse for not getting potholes off our roads. Have we no shame?