The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Our girls; et cetera!

    Our girls; et cetera!

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014.  We are talking of a Boko Haram- Our Girls swap. As unpalatable as that sounds, it may be the solution. We must never forget them or the 25,000 Boko Haram dead and 3-4million victims and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of both Boko haram and the in which 25,000 farmers and family members have been killed. We have warlike displacement of suffering millions with laying waste of blood-soaked farmlands! I warned two years ago that IDPs are old enough, educationally and professionally diverse enough in experience and should RUN THEIR PROGRAMME DIRECTLY and ‘PROJECT IDPs’ THEMSELVES. Why cannot IDPs manage funds inside and outside the Victims’ Support Fund management? I recommended that IDPs must look after themselves from procurement to distribution to cooking to eating and drinking and sanitation of camps, but you did not listen. Now we have tragic and preventable poverty in IDP camps and subsequent riots to eliminate the greedy middle men and women masquerading as humanitarians mostly from other states. Is ‘Shame’ Nigeria’s middle name?!

    Daily we have reports of Fulani herdsmen tragically killing farmers and other citizens including Catholic Seminarian and a woman most recently in Enugu State after scores were killed in Nimbo. When will this end. This war is too one-sided. When will we have an end to this very bloody war destabilising communities nationwide. Perhaps only when we have a MEAT BOYCOTT?

    Most roads are rubbish and do not need a 2-4 year contract until after the potholes have been filled to SOS, Save Our Souls, today not in four years’ time. I do not wish my worst enemy a trip to Lagos from Ibadan with the Berger bridge traffic jam adding 2-3 hours to the journey. Sunday afternoon has always been a day mare lasting 4 -5 hours for a 40km distance with standing traffic 30 kilometres long and 5-6 vehicles wide. Nigeria needs more and cheaper alternative, parallel and transverse motorable roads to take the pressure off the main road arteries.

    Government must reduce the tonnage carried by road destroying and traffic-causing smoky overloaded slow-moving trailers to speed up traffic while waiting for the railway revolution to increase and diversify haulage in Nigeria.

    Shame again at the needless loss of life at a dam in Ekiti State because the four boat researchers were without LIFEJACKETS! But they are clearly called LIFEJACKETS! What a waste of human capital.

    We Nigerians must also never forget the season of ‘poverty’ we are enduring is not caused by the drop in oil prices but the all-consuming greed of cross-party leadership and political followership since particularly 1999-2015. Corruption used to be one penny on every bottle of soft drink and then $1 on every barrel of oil and then 10 % of contracts and the Minister of Finance saying to a contractor ‘I dropped my wallet with £10,000 in it not £1000’ expecting the wallet to be filled.  Now it is multi-billion dollar with padding and theft with no apology for lives lost. Is sending soldiers to their graves, THROUGH CORRUPT DECISION MAKING not a crime against humanity? THE EVIDENCE IS IN ARMY ORDERS AND MINUTES OF GOVENRMENT MEETINGS. THERE IS A GRAND CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE CITIZENS AND COUNTRY OF NIGERIA. Grand larceny requires a Grand alliance against Corruption, the perpetrators and the beneficiaries! We cannot leave this battle to Buhari and a few good men and women. We, the nation, are under attack. Unfortunately the uniformed bodies are still doing ‘particulars’ and ‘wetin you carry’ checkpoints and ‘welcome to Nigeria, anything for us’ to innocent travellers. The uniformed bodies have so far failed to commit to the Buhari mantra of anti-corruption even after 18 months of pressure – still no change.

    Buhari must take the gloves off, reassess his current team, get compliance or appoint new faces, no nonsense people, to lead these forces or services to achieve the change agenda and change them frequently until we have clean forces. We have only two more years before the backlash tsunami or avalanche against change tries to wrestle the country back again. Nigeria will not survive another round of the corruption gangs from any party.

    We shout about the tourist trade as being a way out of poverty when the ‘tourists’ nemesis is armed and dangerous and walking the streets as often unfriendly ‘The Police Is Your Friend’, or more likely as FRSC ‘Stop You In The Middle Of A Traffic Jam And Search’ for ‘Particulars And Out-Of-Date Tyres’.  The rats have not left the sinking Nigerian ship. They are just waiting for more meals to steal. Will they get the chance? The citizens will clean up when the police and customs are clean! Do not expect tourists or current foreign residents to give a good report and get others to come as tourists when they and Nigerians in their own country are subjected to the ‘uniforms’ who are cunning and deceptive and legally-illegally tow their vehicles because of ‘parking laws’ without ‘No Parking’ signs. Efforts to raise Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, by any agency has been characterised by Internally Generated Robbery -IGRobbery. We have to superintend any ‘uniform’ charged or empowered to raise funds especially under this change regime. The Nigerian Human Rights Commission must be proactive and not reactionary and put out ‘Rules of Engagement with Nigerian Citizens’ for Police, Customs, State vehicle Transport Regulatory Bodies, FRSC et cetera.

  • Our Girls; Citizens ‘No Parking’ a Draconian Democratic IGRobbery! IDPs; Indian Solar Plan

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. What hope?

    One wishes that the leadership would move forward faster. Time is not on government’s side-a little over two years left in their ‘first term’ and there are complaints of delays within a long democratic bureaucratic process, particularly procurement methodology. Government must open up and speed up this bottleneck by bringing everyone into a Georgia-like single space ‘long room’ and paying overtime. Government is losing the battle for hearts and minds because people are fickle and want quick-fixes.

    Already many state governors are burning the ‘good will bridges’ needed for re-election in 2019 with draconian democracy characterised by heavy backdated tax regimes, unrealistic tariffs and pursuit of laws like city-wide No Parking Laws with zero ‘No Parking’ signs or car parks.  The on-going Highway War in Nigeria is to ‘open’ the roads and improves IGR, Internally Generated Revenue. Nigerian Human Rights Commission, when is IGR actually ‘IGRobbery’? Nigerians have survived a Civil War and successive 419 governments only to have another ‘democratic’ government unleash ‘undemocratic’ ‘pouncing’, extortion, bribery, threats of violence and entrapment? Where is parking? Government is killing business nationwide with its draconian soldiers who do not care ‘whose ox is gored’. That ox to be gored may be the government at the 2019 election. EVEN ERRING CITIZENS ARE NOT THE ENEMY. GOVERNMENTS: TREAT CITIZENS IN A CIVILISED COMPASSIONATE MANNER OR RE-ELECTION WILL NOT HAPPEN.

    Why are road soldiers never ‘helpful’? Where are the – ‘Traffic Offence Tickets’ and ‘2-4 Weeks To Pay The Fine, a helping hand or a ‘Preventive Measure Is Better Than Cure’, Cautionary ‘No Parking’ Announcement, or 1st and 2nd Warning? In Nigeria the training is AAA, Arrest-Arrest-Arrest or ‘Arass- Arass-Arass’ as in ‘Harass’ and not ‘Help’.

    Without the civility of road markings, posters and warning signs, directions, ‘advice to move’ they, by powers-invested-in-them by our ‘elected’ politicians, unseen edicts, bye-laws and ‘arrogance-of-uniform’, intimidate, extort, seize vehicles and demand immediately payable fines of N25,000 -which only politicians think is small and carry around- from often unpaid citizens. The Nigerian road fines are disproportionate to income. Reduce the fines to N2,500. STATE 419 GANGSTERS IN UNIFORM SHOULD ENSURE CITIZENS HAVE SOMEWHERE TO PARK INSTEAD OF NOWHERE TO PARK.

    BEWARE WHERE YOU STOP, DROP, SHOP OR CHANGE LANE. THESE ACTS ARE PROHIBITED IN NIGERIA-JUST GO, GO,GO! Avoid stopping for vendors colluding in an ensnarement scam. In Nigeria the best plans are distorted, disrupted and destroyed by the uniforms who see ‘POWER’ OR ‘BRIBES’, NOT ‘SERVICE’ – like Nigeria’s politics –a failure.

    If Governors unleash IGR teams using corrupt methodology as IGRobbers on Nigeria, then Nigerians should set up cameras strategically and use the web to expose these criminals in uniform. Let us have a ROAD BLOG/WEBSITE to post our experiences. And the governors must know that they are building Protest Votes in 2019. These traffic draconian democracy policies are ruining access to SMEs by clients and customers driving down taxes and making cities unattractive to do business REDUCING IGR. No customer will shop where they cannot drop or park. So government YOU are driving business away from YOUR STATE and yet you want to tax those same businesses stupidly! City roads are not expressways!

    Road authorities need close supervision. The Ministry of Environment’s army advanced on the citizenry WITH NO SIGNPOSTS belligerently for Internally Generated Robbery. Pity! No warning. No signboard. Just pounce, arrest, seize car, fine. It is 419 and illegal to extort money by IGRobbery. Law-abiding citizens respond to instructions not accusations of anti-citizen government agendas.

    As Nigeria’s faces massive pipeline damage wrecking its gas to electricity plan, we hear that the Niger Delta Avengers are going for dialogue. Good! It must also use renewable locally available un-wreckable alternatives to circumvent vandalisation and domesticate power production. Nigeria claims a subnormal 4,700Mw but we deserve and have prepaid for 47,000 or 100,000MW. The government may be listening to the Indians as they offer us assistance with serious solar structures. “The world must turn to (the) sun to power our future,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “As the developing world lifts billions of people into prosperity, our hope for a sustainable planet rests on a bold, global initiative.” India wants 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 including 100 GW of solar energy by 2022. The World Bank offers India a $1billion solar loan. Nigeria has that $1billion in our CBN and can borrow to make a $2billion SOLAR ENERGY FUND FOR SINGLE DIGIT LOANS FOR FACTORY CONSTRUCTION AND MANUFACTURE AND END-USER PURCHASE OF CUTTING EDGE SOLAR PANELS, BATTERIES AND INVERTERS. Nigeria, wake up to our darkness. Our past living leaders Obasanjo1, Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abdulsalami, Obasanjo2 do not apologise for their power failures or even keep quiet. Some seek profit from failure from new electricity contracts. African leaders, like Buhari seeking instant legacies should ‘Go Mega-Solar’.

    Sadly the Germans are forced to help 3000 Bakassi returnees and the UN is helping IDPs. Shame! Nigeria and Nigerians have abandoned responsibility. Nigerian should deprive themselves in this time of WAR to donate to IDPs.

    In Ibadan, the derelict old British High Commission grounds have been cleared! The compound is a metaphor for Nigeria. As the former BHC grounds are cleared, does that mean that Nigeria will be cleared for take-off developmentally? We expect the current leadership to be the best hope we have had.

  • Our Girls; BRT scam; Cut ‘MPR’ A government 419 against Nigerians

    Our Girls; BRT scam; Cut ‘MPR’ A government 419 against Nigerians

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. What hope as another video emerges?

    A selfish 419-driven political history of maximum greed and minimum service has made politics the number one Extractive Industry in Nigeria above even oil. There has been enough in this country to make everyone a millionaire in dollars. Greed has overrun need. There is another history of failure –a government perpetually failing its currency and economy also 419-related. We would not be in this penniless position if we had no theft by political parasites, political leeches or political locusts sucking our lifeblood particularly since probably from 1979. This economic history is an unfortunate trajectory of ‘Government 419’, breach of trust, treasury looting, each dollar stolen representing developmental failure to deliver on pre-paid promises i.e. 419, ‘death by deprivation and diversion -a dead Nigerian child, salaries and pensions unpaid and a ‘powerless grid’ costing business owners the price of a new car annually. The current spiral downward journey by Nigerians to professional and personal insolvency, penury and people pauper-y following lifetimes of productive but poorly paid work with ‘end-time’ denial of pensions is caused by all parties perfecting 419 political mismanagement, and epidemically escalating broken promises and 419 theft crowned with nonsensical media frenzy AWARD CEREMONIES for no growth.

    Government needs to monitor its men who deliberately lured vehicles leaving the expressway onto an UNMARKED, UN-SIGNBOARDED BRT LANE on the  Ojota Maryland Bridge, Lagos, last Saturday , arrested them and numbering many tens. Is that not Government 419? Will the Third Mainland Bridge be next point of BRT corruption?

    Politicians have ‘successfully’ subsumed their 419 avarice under many pseudonyms blamed as necessary 419 ‘strategies to support the party’. Such strategies include ‘outright theft’, ‘padding’, ‘party percentage 10-70%’, ‘party funding deductions 10-40%’, ‘election levy’, ‘campaign contributions’, ‘welfare in the forces’. All these 419 scams forced the ‘country’ to be devalued in development as with the currency, the naira building fewer roads, and the ‘419’ scam of constantly re-tarring of the same 5km of road instead of advancing additional roads going everywhere. Add to these the ultimate 419 administrative corruption which consumed pension funds for political gain and in many cases up to 50% of the budget and you can explain the devastation to development- failed promises, money obtained by false promises – 419.

    Only politicians escape this blatant 419 ‘rape of the budget and citizens’ by declaring for themselves ‘legally illegal’ ever-bloating 419 Salaries Allowances Perks, SAP, and multiple-sourced pensions for just 4-8 years in office leaving office with multiple mansions, bank accounts and cars worldwide. The benchmark of Nigeria’s corruption is best assessed by examining the fate of naira. When I started work in 1974, the one year old naira, DOB 31st March 1973, was stronger than the dollar. I, like millions have proudly worked hard for our Nigeria and our naira. Strangely our 419 governments, except Buhari’s, have no ‘NAIRA PRIDE and it is pitiable N400+ to the dollar, soiled toilet paper, in blind pursuit of the cedi, due to the political 419 profligacy 1999-2015 by all 419 politicians of all 419 parties, promising much but delivering little development for maximum cost, but especially the 419 ruling party of the time which must take full responsibility even as the members hide 419 stolen billions.

    We scream when Boko haram blows us up and when Niger Delta Avengers blow away our collective inheritance and when the North-North railways are fully refurbished even before South-North railways though the northern elite destroyed the railways to promote the trailer traffic which kills our roads. And remember the murderous Fulani herdsmen’s onslaught across Nigeria? However our 419 POLITICIANS HAVE COLLECTIVELY DONE FAR WORSE to each and every one of us by many 419 actions including 419 decisions to give away our oil blocks to individuals. Our blood is on the ground for every stolen naira or a discriminatory corrupt decision.

    Strangely our ‘survival’ economic tools are a weak naira, ‘stability’ with high interest rates, and a few favoured scheming ‘mega-billion loan’ customers with millions denied small loan banking assistance but who really run the people’s economy.

    Why is Nigeria’s response to economic crisis always opposite of what major foreign powers do: GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND CHEAP LOANS? We always introduce austerity, belt tightening and maximise poverty. We increase interest rates, make borrowing prohibitive, make businesses impossible to fund and run especially with NO POWER. Add THE GOVERNMENT RUN SCAM OF MONETARY POLICY RATE, MPR. In the USA and UK, Central Bank interest rates equivalent of our MPR here- the rate charged by government on all loans – have hovered around zero to 0.5% and the UK has just cut its interest rate by 0.25% to further encourage business borrowing to stimulate growth.

    The CBN holds these MPR funds for it and government to use or abuse or divert. Shame! Citizens and businesses needing loans should not have a high MPR. MPR IS ANOTHER GOVERNMENT 419 SCAM AGAINST NIGERIA and this government should cancel or severely cut the MPR towards 1% to stimulate the economy. The HIGH MPR IS PART OF A MASSIVE MALIGNANT GOVERNMENT 419 AGAINST THE NATION, SO LOANS IN NIGERIA ARE ACTUALLY BANK LOAN CHARGES 5-11% + MPR [14%] = 19-25%. We demand 1) Cancelation of MPR; 2) SINGLE DIGIT INTEREST RATES; 3) LONG REPAYMENT LOANS for all; 4) 20,000Mw and 5) Monthly Payments for accommodations and goods.

  • Our Girls; To stimulate economy, cut ‘MPR’ A government 419 against Nigerians

    Our Girls; To stimulate economy, cut ‘MPR’ A government 419 against Nigerians

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. What hope have the families?

    Beyond a selfish 419-driven political history, there is another history of failure –the graphic history of a failed currency and economy also 419 related. This economic history is an unfortunate trajectory of 419, breach of trust, treasury looting, each dollar stolen representing developmental failure to deliver on paid for promises i.e. 419, ‘death by deprivation and diversion -a dead Nigerian child, a dead labouring woman, a dead parent in a pothole, businesses gone bust, salaries and pensions unpaid and a ‘powerless grid’ costing business owners the price of a new car every year. The current spiral downward journey by Nigerians to professional and personal insolvency, penury and people pauper-y following lifetimes of productive but poorly paid work with ‘end-time’ denial of pensions is caused by all parties by 50 years of serial 419 political mismanagement, misunderstanding of development and epidemically escalating broken promises and 419 theft characterised by undeserved media frenzy AWARD CEREMONIES for no growth.

    Politicians have ‘successfully’ subsumed their 419 avarice under many pseudonyms blamed as necessary 419 ‘strategies to support the party’ while enriching themselves massively. Such strategies include ‘outright theft’, ‘padding for party sustainability’, ‘party percentage 10-70%’, ‘the need for party funding deductions 10-40%’, ‘election levy’, ‘campaign contributions’, ‘welfare in the forces’. All these 419 scams forced the ‘country’ to be devalued in development with the currency, the naira building fewer roads, costing more, and the ‘419’ scam of constantly re-tarring of the same 5km of road instead of advancing additional roads going everywhere. Add to these the ultimate serial presidential and governor and top civil servant-driven 419 administrative corruptions which consumed pension funds for political gain and in many cases up to 50% of the budget and you can explain the devastation to development-failed promises with money obtained by false pretences – 419.

    Only politicians escape this blatant 419 ‘rape of the budget and citizens’ by declaring for themselves ‘legally illegal’ ever-bloating 419 Salaries Allowances Perks, SAP, and multiple-sourced pensions for just 4-8 years in office leaving office with multiple mansions, bank accounts and cars worldwide. The benchmark of Nigeria’s corruption is best assessed by examining the fate of naira. When I started work in 1974, the one year old naira, DOB 31st March 1973, was stronger than the dollar and equivalent to 10 shillings. I, like millions have proudly worked hard for our Nigeria and our naira all our life. Strangely our 419 governments, except Buhari’s have never shared our pride in the naira. Now the naira is a pitiable N400+ to the dollar, soiled toilet paper, apparently in blind pursuit of the cedi, due to the 419 profligacy of the past especially 1999-2015 by all 419 politicians of all 419 parties, promising much but delivering little for maximum cost, but especially the 419 ruling party of the time which must take full responsibility even as the members hide 419 stolen billions.

    We scream when Boko haram blows us up and when NDAvengers blow away our collective inheritance and when the North-North railways are fully refurbished even before South-North and South-South railways though the Northern elite destroyed the railways nationally for 50 years to promote trailer traffic unfortunately killing our roads. We are right to protest but our 419 POLITICIANS HAVE COLLECTIVELY DONE FAR WORSE to each and every one of us by many 419 actions including giving away our oil blocks to individual Nigerians. Our blood is soaked into the ground every time they steal a naira or make a discriminatory corrupt decision.

    Can Nigeria never learn the lessons of the world and from its own past terrible economic mistakes? For years our economy has been run by CBN bankers who favour a weak naira, ‘stability’ with high interest rates, and a few favoured scheming ‘mega-billion loan’ customers to the detriment of the massed millions of potential customers who cannot get small loan banking assistance but who really keep the country going through the independent business activities of their personal lives which run the nationwide real non-oil economy.

    Why is Nigeria’s response to economic crisis always the same failed methodology, saving and stability, and the opposite of what major foreign powers do to fight recession with GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND CHEAP LOANS? We always introduce austerity, belt tightening and maximise poverty. We increase interest rates, make borrowing catastrophic, make businesses more difficult to start, fund and run. Added to this is THE GOVERNMENT RUN SCAM OF MONETARY POLICY RATE, MPR. In the USA and UK, Central Bank interest rates equivalent of our MPR here- the rate charged by government on all loans – have hovered around zero to 0.5% and the UK has just cut its interest rate by 0.25% to further encourage borrowing to stimulate business growth.

    The CBN holds these MPR funds for it and government to use or abuse or divert. Shame! Citizens and businesses needing loans should not have an MPR of this size. MPR IS ANOTHER GOVERNMENT 419 AGAINST NIGERIA and this government should correct past economic mistakes and cancel or severely cut the MPR towards 1% to stimulate the economy. The HIGH MPR IS PART OF A MASSIVE MALIGNANT GOVERNMENT 419 AGAINST THE NATION, SO LOANS IN NIGERIA ARE ACTUALLY BANK LOAN CHARGES 5-11% + MPR [14%] = 19-25%. We demand cancelation of MPR and SINGLE DIGIT INTEREST RATES for all. tonymarinho.com

  • Our Girls; 10yr Passport & Driving Licence; DL to 75yrs; Assassination Of Nigeria By Political Class

    Our Girls; 10yr Passport & Driving Licence; DL to 75yrs; Assassination Of Nigeria By Political Class

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. What hope?

    We want true ‘devolved’ federalism! Where are the TRUE NIGERIANS? Not those with undeserved prefixes like ‘Dis-Hon-Ex’ ‘winning’ or ‘taking’ elections and holding posts used to destroy Nigeria for personal gain. Certainly monitored by ‘live’ TV and the media, TRUE NIGERIANS are a tiny minority in politics.

    Time out from the ridiculous self-centred political scenario in NASTY NASS mired in ‘PREMEDITATED BUDGET FRAUD’ alias PADDING FOR FRAUDULENT PURPOSES. The innocent members are standing up. Nigerians must support transparency, investigation and prevent punishment of whistleblowing members! What is an internal affair when the smell of corruption permeates the NASS and is external? Nigerians expected NASS to face front and work for 20+% of pension funds for mass housing, increase the life of a Driving Licence to 10 years and raise the driving age limit to 75 or 80years and introduce ‘longer life’ 10 year passports.

    Ignore politics if possible and make concrete plans to take adequate evasive action for you and your family to survive the ‘ASSASSINATION OF NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS BY THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL CLASS’. If you sat in a five hour + traffic jam at Berger Bridge/causeway on the way to or from the Family’s 10TH YEAR MEMORIAL OF LATE ENGINEER FUNSO WILLIAMS’ you will be stressed –but take it easy. You die; you die; only family go really cry! Funso was killed in an ‘unsolved’ murder. President Buhari has reopened the Williams, Daramola, Uncle Chief Bola Ige and other cases. Only your family cares long after your ‘friends’ have ‘killed you’ and, like Elvis, have ‘left the building’.

    I travelled thousands of miles by train and road abroad in the last five weeks. No pot-hole threatened my life or blocked highway, no power failure, no cancelled train. Travel on the Lagos-Ibadan road has been a ‘slap in the face’ insult by governments on defenceless citizens for the last 20 years mainly because they NEVER FILL POTHOLES before they kill. Built in the 70s, development strategies suggest there should be six other express roads into Lagos and not just ‘A SINGLE POTHOLED ROAD REMNANT’ suffering from politicised contractor somersaults denying millions comfortable travel. It is now worse again as the good contractors, RCC and Berger, move back to site and close off lanes paralysing the travelling public in the name of finally finishing 120km road –hardly nuclear physics – using a well utilised third world vicious development strategy ‘YOU MUST SUFFER IN ORDER TO SMILE’. Road agents can keep traffic funnelling into a ‘FIRST COME FIRST PASSED’ to prevent queue-jumpers driving beside roads only to jump in-front of lane drivers! Do the contractors care about the 20km five-lane-deep traffic queue or discuss ‘CONTINUED SMOOTH TRAFFIC MOVEMENT’ with the supervising ministry and road agents? Development must not be punishment!

    The coming ‘change’ National Policy on Corruption Prosecution should ‘change’ emphasis to the French style where the defendant must prove he is not corrupt or ‘guilty until proven innocent’. Accounting for assets must never be the responsibility of the prosecution!

    Lagos State engages the Japanese in a belated Monorail Revolution. Remember Jakande Rail supervised by Funso Williams but aborted by Buhari in 1983 or so for which $184m was paid as contract termination penalty instead of completing the project? How much did Obasanjo get government to pay in order to disastrously terminate the World Bank contracted Lagos-Ibadan upgrade that subsequently floundered for 10+ years while Obasanjo and the CONTRACTOR DANCED TO THE TUNE OF MASSIVE TRASPORT MISERY!

    Meanwhile Oyo State engaged the same Japanese in building ‘common’ classrooms with a $6m grant. Imagine what that $6m would have bought as equipment upgrade for Polytechnics and Science Schools. Pity!

    Saraki’s call on ambassadorial nominees to be ‘patriotic’ is an insult as he speaks for a pathologically selfish generation of politicians of no known patriotism and politicians questionable moral standing and an avaricious attitude to government coffers.

    I have repeatedly warned that the management of IDP camps is a yard stick for judging Nigeria and this government. IDPs are not HIV/AIDS victims who we can cheat out of Bill Gates and Global Fund Grants. Why do IDPs especially children face malnutrition as if they are neglected foreign war prisoners. IDPs should run their own camps eliminating greedy thieving personnel from government agencies who should prosecuted. After being driven from your home, are you to be starved by the CINS -Incompetence, Incompetence, Neglect and Selfishness of Nigeria and its irresponsible agencies? NEMA et cetera must be probed. Or is this another case of the people in the field being starved of the tools to help IDPs while the bosses say all is well?

    Happily Nigeria’s accountant generals are looking into speedy trial for corruption offences. For those accused by EFCC, who have suspected stolen money of assets bought with such money in their or their relations and friends possession, the onus of confirmation of source of the questionable funds and property must be changed to be on the owner, as in France, and not the government or court, as in England. This would quickly allow the forfeited funds to return to the nation’s bank accounts. But who will judge and jail those whose corrupt actions and policies have ruined Nigeria’s rise to statehood? We are still not ‘pothole free’ or in the top 1000 universities.

     

    • Sorry… Back to stress next week.   tonymarinho.com/blog

  • Our Girls; The rats of politics Vs Nigeria and ‘Dr’ Buhari; Stealing Money is Murder; Stress

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. We pray.

    The money looted from Nigerian banks, federal and state and LGA treasuries and criminally inflated contracts between 1999 and 2015 do not make honourable, distinguished or excellent men or women. That stolen money is why our naira is toilet paper and all our incomes have been halved in international monetary value in the last 18 months. This must be added to the massive devaluation of the naira, with no fall in the oil price, during the oil boom and doom and ‘First Oil Windfall’ of the Babangida time and the serial profligacy of ‘the rats of politics’. Remember that padding, contract inflation, gifting of national assets like oil blocks to individuals, making individuals multimillionaires in dollars for little or no work done, were the stuff of the ‘coup-plotters and their nightmarish’ times. Nigeria is a cake which has had its centre excavated by the ‘rats of politics’, leaving only a thin layer of icing masquerading as a healthy cake which is now collapsing due to the fall in the value and volume of oil exports. Why is it that the round-cheeked ‘rats of politics’ who are very healthy during their years of thieving, suddenly all fall ‘too sick to stand trial’ when accused of corruption and demand humanitarian treatment? Did these ‘the rats of politics’ treat Nigerians in a humanitarian way when they, the rats, had the opportunity to save Nigeria from sinking by judicious use of those multibillions, trillions even? Now Nigeria sinks, the rats are suddenly ‘sick’. It is mind-boggling that ‘the rats of politics’ have never contrasted the stolen trillions with cheaply met needs of the innocent Nigerian masses.

    Nigeria did not start to die under purist Buhari. Nigeria has had arms, legs and brain and heart ripped apart by vulture-like serial killers and their cohorts in power. Nigeria may still die but the assassins are known already. Those vultures are the past civil servants, bankers, politicians shouting loudest for Buhari’s head when they failed. Buhari and his team are like a last minute emergency doctor who may still fail because the patient was nearly dead on arrival in 2015. Buhari and his team are interrupting the feast of these vultures on the nearly dead body of Nigeria–a near corpse. Vultures do not save lives!

    Even the EFCC on arresting a man who admits to stealing N1billion+, said he was to be released on bail because he was a ‘respectable man’. The thousands of Nigerians dead, destroyed and diseased by the theft of that money cannot be ‘released or returned’ to life and livelihood. EFCC, JUDGES:-STEALING MONEY IS MURDER, not a game of ‘catch me if you can’! There is the blood of Nigerian babies, children, women and the elderly on the dirty hands of such rats.

    How do you reduce stress in your life when such stress is caused by the politics destroying your earning power and position in your family and society? Beyond the destruction, you and I have somehow to stay alive for the ‘light at the end of the tunnel of doom’ and the ‘brighter tomorrow’- our children and grandchildren. Hope must overcome the hopelessness of random and systematic bombings, farm murders, kidnappings and robbery. Indeed the stealing of billions, trillions must count as the direct, remote and immediate cause of the current epidemic of bombings, kidnappings and robbery and general disgruntlement. Buhari and his team appear slow, too slow and he may have less than three years to reverse the corruption of 30 years. The thieves have billions to fight their campaign of misinformation and the citizens follow the money and are quick to change sides.

    Stress is all around us. From birth to death all is stress. Why do babies cry at birth? Stress! Remember that DELIVERY DAY is the Most Dangerous Day in the Life of Both Mother and Baby. From waking up, exams, coping with reading your books at night, lighting your path, keeping fridge contents edible when affected by power failure, traffic and the stress of meeting men and women in uniform are real stress-inducing phenomena. The fall in salary value is stress.

    Have you done your blood pressure this month? Do you do an annual medical examinations and special tests like PSA if you are male and breast and cervical tests if you are female? You know in medicine we used to recommend all girls and women ‘Do a Monthly Breast Examination’? In medicine, I am promoting that we now recommend everyone everywhere, FEMALE AND MALE, at every age carries out a simple ‘TOTAL BODY EXAMINATION’ AT LEAST MONTHLY. Choose a day you have time, maybe weekend, or last thing at night. Start with your SKIN. Examine your skin for changes and lumps, and your body from head to toe. Report any changes to your doctor. Early detection of abnormalities leads to early diagnosis and treatment. Too many young women leave hard swelling in their low tummy alone, hoping the swelling is a pregnancy or the sign of ‘good living’ only to report years later and be told thy have fibroids filling their abdomen and endangering their lives. Coping with stress is therefore an important responsibility of every Nigerian to help stay alive for the family especially today under this regime as tomorrow may be a brighter day. To be continued…  to_marinho.com/blog

     

  • Living dangerously in Nigeria

    Living dangerously in Nigeria

    These are very dangerous times to be alive in Nigeria. The nation is convulsing under the activities of organised criminals and freelancers.

    Last weekend, unidentified gunmen stormed Iba Community in Lagos State and abducted the traditional ruler, Oba Goriola Oseni, from his palace.

    Oseni’s abduction is only the latest in the thriving business of hostage-taking across the country. No one is safe – the famous and the faceless are snared sooner or later.

    Those not abducted for ransom, are spirited away and slain by people who think such ritual killings are the doorway to a life of riches.

    If you escape the kidnappers and ritualists, you could be unfortunate to reside in certain coastal areas of the South West – like Ikorodu – which recently became the designated killing fields of unknown murderers – conveniently classified as ‘militants.’

    The mystery of this strange episode of mass murder that stunned Ikorodu and some communities in Ogun State is that no one knows what sins the victims committed to deserve the death sentence. One frightened resident spoke of how the gunmen would stand by the roadside casually picking off their victims as though they were game.

    Over the years there have been clashes between herdsmen and local farmers. But many communities in the South West, South East and parts of North Central are still reeling from killings of uncommon brutality and regularity blamed on Fulani herdsmen. Some of the victims of these mass murderers were simply lying at home, or caught unawares as they worked on their farms.

    The South South zone is not left out of the wave of insecurity as militants look to destabilise the economy and the government by attacking oil production facilities and killing soldiers who stand in their way.

    This grim picture suggests that insecurity has worsened across the country with the only bright spot being in the North East where Boko Haram insurgents are in retreat and very close to be being defeated militarily.

    It is surprising, therefore, that President Muhammadu Buhari during his one-day visit to Zamfara State two weeks ago, declared that the security situation in the country had improved significantly since he assumed office.

    It is troubling that he didn’t limit his positive assessment to what has been achieved on the terror front. Reading the decimation of the extremist Islamist sect to mean peace and security across the land is grave error that is not backed by evidence on the ground.

    If the security reports the president receives suggest that things are calm across the country, then he’s being misinformed and the authors of such briefings are doing a disservice to the country.

    That said, it doesn’t require clairvoyance to see that there’s a link between rising criminality and Nigeria’s sick economy. Less than 18 months ago, Nigerians and then government in power back then were celebrating our designation as Africa’s largest economy. How did the so-called powerhouse find itself on its back in so short a time?

    People with a political grievance would be quick to blame Buhari for ‘mismanaging’ the economy as though history began in 2015. Unfortunately, we’ve just been wearing borrowed robes with our heads neatly tucked in the sand.

    Labels are nice and a sop to national pride but have very little value beyond that. For all the accolades our economy doesn’t have the strength in the depth of the likes of South Africa and Egypt who, despite not having our oil, can boast of manufacturing, tourism and others as major income earners.

    Our ‘largest’ economy has been shown up for what it is. It was ‘thriving’ largely because of reasonably high oil revenues and a sub-economy fuelled by cash flows from corruption.

    It collapsed because the price of crude crashed and Buhari disrupted illicit cash flows that were not the result of genuine economic activity, but simply the result of public officials and politicians dipping into the national till.

    It is so bad that a recent report quoted Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, as recounting the bizarre tale of how security agents recently dug up cash in the region of N1 billion from a farm where the ‘owner’ had buried it.

    Similar billions can no longer lubricate the economy because the government and its agencies are actively monitoring for any signs of money laundering. It is no wonder that the economy has contracted in the last two quarters.

    What looked like the economy was thriving – despite the absence of genuine activity and our monoculture system – was down to former ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) administrations turning a blind eye to massive plundering that was taking place.

    Today, many of the direct beneficiaries of that system are suffering from withdrawal symptoms and have become restless. Pipeline vandals who were engaged unhindered in a thriving business of illegal bunkering have had their livelihood taken away by a hostile government.

    Many residents of Ikorodu and surrounding communities which used to a major base for bunkering, swear that the recent mass killings were perpetrated by erstwhile vandals who had been forced out of their lucrative business.

    Beyond lashing out in anger against host communities, many have also diversified – deploying their criminal organisations to the equally lucrative hostage-taking endeavour.

    Even the other manifestations of insecurity in the Niger Delta and in clashes between Fulani herdsmen and local can be traced to unresolved economic issues.

    What is troubling is that as the security problems have festered, governments at different levels appear overwhelmed.

    Late in May, I was privileged to be part of a group that interviewed the president to appraise his first year in office. I recall asking him whether Nigeria’s security architecture could withstand the multifarious security challenges rearing their heads by the day. He never really addressed the question to my satisfaction – perhaps he didn’t want to admit the obvious.

    I believe, however, that it wold be foolhardy to expect Abuja alone to deal with the problem of worsening insecurity. No country ever has enough policemen or soldiers to guarantee security in the age of terror or at any other time in history. What makes the different is the strategy applied and the sum of collective efforts.

    In many countries effective crime fighting begins with citizens and communities assisting security agencies with quality intelligence. But here we expect these same organisations which have proved ineffectual to perform magic without our help.

    We may not have state police yet but communities can help by getting involved in intelligence gathering and cooperation with security agencies.

    Ultimately, the only thing that is going to calm things down is for the economy to rebound. But who knows how soon that would happen? The desperate are not likely to wait that long.

    In the short term we still need to utilise our security resources in a different way. I believe that Buhari has to put his security chiefs under pressure and replace those who appear not to be delivering. It works all the time: people are set targets and where they fall short they are out.

    We should also reconsider a redistribution of our security assets. There are too many men and women deployed to VIP protection and carrying bags and umbrellas, or checking vehicle particulars, who should be out there fighting serious crime.

    Lastly, the collapse of our social values also means that not many don’t see any point in hard work and would vote for criminality if it will deliver billions in quick order.

    It is sickening where the twenty-something-year old son or daughter of a minister can be found with inexplicable billions in their account and people don’t feel disturbed.

    It is alarming that people as so depraved to imagine that killing another human somehow produces wealth. Parents, schools, churches, mosques need to return to the basics of reorienting people.

    When this society goes back to recognising right from wrong, we’ll start witnessing a commensurate drop in the crime wave across board.

  • Obi at 55

    Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi was 55 on July 19 – a landmark that can be described as the prime of life. In that time he has made his mark as a successful businessman and player in corporate Nigeria.

    He also seamlessly made the transition from private sector to public life as governor. While you may not always agree with his politics, most acknowledge that he is a gentleman. Since leaving office this man of means has devoted himself largely to philanthropy.

    Here’s wishing him many more years doing good works and pursuing his  political goals.

  • Our Girls; No ‘change’ in rejecting True Federalism again!; Nigeria in the ‘Solar Century’

    Our Girls; No ‘change’ in rejecting True Federalism again!; Nigeria in the ‘Solar Century’

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) being properly catered for?

    True federalism seems to be a call to arms in Nigeria, but should unite, not divide us as we work to move the country to a level of equality, opportunity and maximum development! The power of the federal government to draw us back was again demonstrated before the last election when indigenes of states were given federal political positions to empower them to destabilise their own states run by ‘opposition parties’. That is False Federalism. Countries evolve. Nigeria should too! Look at the UK and its recent democracy issues in the last one month with the BREXIT and a disappointed PM Cameron’s humorous and non-bitter departing from power! No one country stands still to the advantage of only a few!

    God did not create this False Federalism. Military ‘man’ did starting with Ironsi and military men make mistakes often to the advantage of some, not the many. Armies are not democratic. Everyone in central government fights to keep their personal power under ‘current federalism’ exemplified by the Vice President Professor Osinbajo and cannot trigger true democracy, just as salaries will never be reduced for National Assembly (NASS) by NASS members! Military unitarian, centrist government may have helped save Nigeria during wartime, but now it is the opportunistic cause of the ongoing destruction of Nigeria and the destruction of legitimate aspirations of hundred+ millions. This spinoff of the unitary military government imprinted on a democracy as a ‘constitution’ is an aberration. It exists nowhere else and it has failed the majority of Nigerians, except a few tenacious elite, and it will fail us forever, enriching a few, until we ‘change’ it or die trying. Amendments to a bad militarist Abacha constitution cannot be the same as new constitution written by citizens free of military and ethnic oppression. Will a new constitution happen?

    That change from a FALSE FEDERALISM, self-centred, greedy centralism to true multi-pronged TRUE FEDERALISM, is possible but appears elusive, destroying the stage for the great leap forward towards becoming a GREAT AND THEN EVEN GREATER NIGERIA. True federalism can come during the Buhari regime but so far there is no ‘change’ in the fairly repetitive ‘rejecting True Federalism again and again’!

    For 50+ years Nigerians, mostly honest folk trying to get by in a corrupt society, have been made peaceful by swallowing an ELIXIR OF LOYALTY TO NIGERIA through the psychological trap of National Anthem and Pledge, leading to a miserable existence, in a country placing 150th + in every positive international index and top of every negative index like corruption. The ‘good’ elders weep at our lost glory and lost potential they worked for only to be thrown away by political greed!  Only those in active power or retired have been exempt from this tragedy because they stole ‘legally and illegally’ for themselves, their unborn progeny with blood-stained corruption treating the treasury as personal and political party property. Has this systematic federal and state treasury looting by the incumbent party stopped temporarily under ‘The Fear of Buhari’? If so, for how long?

    Do Nigerians in authority swallow some other ELIXIR OF DISLOYALTY TO NIGERIA which ensures they cheat Nigeria with perpetual pensions, undeserved salaries for life, plots of land, cars and servants for life? Strangely, the poor Nigerian citizens always fail to fight for rapidly broken promises of politicians who actually use the national anthem and pledge to cajole the citizens into becoming beggars and even Internally Displaced Persons–refugees- in their own country, begging. Why has a good 21st Century existence constantly eluded most Nigerians, their children and now their grandchildren who die mentally in rubbish schools, on rubbish roads and in rubbish hospitals and are denied pensions and salaries while all politicians get paid promptly and seek life pensions and perks and salaries for a few years work sometimes also getting governor and NASS salaries and pensions together monthly.

    While tackling Nigeria’s massive corruption, this ‘change’ government should introduce the ‘change’ needed to achieve ‘True Federalism’ and institute measures to save us politically, economically and morally from the years of ethnic authoritarianism and any future abuse of ‘Federal Might’. The sending of morally bereft indigenes masquerading as ministers from Abuja to destroy their home states is STATE TERRORISM. It must be documented as a low point in federal government/ state political relations and taught in political science lessons. The negative interface between federal and ‘political party state’ was Machiavellian mischief of false federalism and a disaster for Nigeria. True federalism ‘change’ is more than finance and can accompany current fiscal and agricultural reforms. ‘Change’ can dismantle a false federation. Long Live a True Federal Nigeria- if and when it happens!

    Nigeria must re-strategise and bypass all pipeline projects, only useable in peacetime, and redraw its plans for wartime survival. When war is ‘declared’ on Nigeria, Nigeria may talk but also must take evasive action especially in ‘POWER SUPPLY’. We also face the murderous Fulani–Farmers War and may boycott ‘blood meat’!

    Nigeria must decentralise electric power towards on-and-off grid ‘LOCAL POWER SUPPLY SOURCES’. Someone tried to tell Nigeria it has the wrong sun for solar power and should stick with oil, gas and generators. There is only one sun shining, offering every Nigerian God’s gift. We use solar to dry food and clothes.  Now let us use ‘Nigeria for Solar Power!

  • The many troubles of Saraki’s Senate

    The House of Representatives used to be the boxing ring of the legislature where politicians combined brain and brawn to resolve matters of moment.

    From the first Fourth Republic House where legislative pugilists tangled over furniture allowance, to a succession of coup plots against sundry Speakers, chairs have been hurled, punches thrown and well-starched agbadas shredded in the national interest.

    Sometimes the scuffling got deadly. In 2007, during the battle to oust then Speaker Patricia Etteh, a member representing Kano State slumped and died in the heat of battle. His colleagues ferried his lifeless body out of the battleground and carried on regardless.

    In one of the most enduring images from that war of attrition to remove the House’s only female Speaker, a certain Dino Melaye who was a passionate and outspoken defender of Etteh, was disappointed by his bulk as his garments were reduced to rags by fighters from the opposing side.

    In those days, people theorised that the House was volatile because it comprised younger, more hot-blooded types, while the Senate was filled with the elderly for whom climbing the chamber’s steps was exertion enough.

    But those days are long gone. Today, the House and Senate have traded places. The former is now the more dignified and quiescent place. True to the colour of its furnishings, the red chamber has become the scene of uncommon display of passion since Bukola Saraki was enthroned as Senate President.

    A naughty voice just suggested that Dino Melaye’s political promotion for Rep to senator has everything to do with it!

    But seriously, the events of last Tuesday during which the fiery Kogi senator clashed with his colleague Senator Remi Tinubu, must rate as the nadir for the National Assembly. He allegedly threatened to beat her up and add the coup de grace of impregnating her.

    Although he has since denied most of the allegations, Melaye had an interesting defence. ‘How could I have said so when she’s well into her menopause,’ he asked rhetorically. This raises the intriguing speculation about what the raging senator would have said or done had the lady in question been 10 years younger.

    A little over a month ago, I was reading what, by Saraki’s reckoning, the Senate had achieved in one year. One thing that was certainly not on that list was peace of mind, or institutional stability of the sort enjoyed by his predecessor David Mark.

    In June last year, after outsmarting his party by reaching a deal with Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers to emerge Senate President, I predicted that Saraki was unlikely to enjoy the prize he had won given the circumstances and bitterness that trailed the process.

    I projected that his tenure would be akin to riding a bucking Bronco at an American rodeo show – a rather turbulent and unsettling experience.

    I suspect that Saraki felt that as was the case with the Aminu Tambuwal rebellion in the House four years earlier, the party would swallow its humiliation after a while and accept what had become reality.

    But what people forget is that while PDP lived with its Tambuwal comeuppance, it never forgot what happened. He became a marked man treated with much suspicion. Had he not left for the APC and PDP been returned at the centre, I doubt if he would have returned as Speaker.

    In a further departure from the Tambuwal scenario, APC had to live with the double humiliation of having Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President courtesy of the intricate deal that produced the new legislative leadership. That it still rankles is evident from the recent statement attributed to APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, to the effect that they had no problem with Saraki but could not abide Ekweremadu as number two.

    While all of this might partly explain the lingering instability in the Senate, it doesn’t tell the whole story. The other side of the tale is how Saraki and his supporters have analysed the roots of their troubles and the strategy they have adopted to rescue themselves.

    Used to similar operations under PDP presidents from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to Goodluck Jonathan, they are convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari, or those working at his behest, is at the root of their woes – desperately manouvering to change the Senate leadership.

    But nothing could be farther from the truth. Buhari’s politics are as distant from Obasanjo’s as the east is removed from the west. Under the first PDP president the hand of the Executive was never hidden in such matters. Agents of that branch would move into Apo Legislative Quarters under the cover of darkness with Ghana-Must-Go bags of cash, and by morning a full-blown coup would be executed on the floor of the chamber.

    Buhari is a straight arrow that is unlikely to get his hands dirty in such dark schemes. Early in the contest for the Senate Presidency he made it clear he was ready to work with whoever emerged victorious. Many in the APC found his position naïve and frustrating as they felt a president in this environment needs to take more than a passing interest in who heads the legislature.

    Knowing the character of Buhari, isn’t it rather pointless on the part of Saraki’s supporters hoping that he would, at some point, order the judiciary to terminate ongoing legal processes against the Senate President all in the name of a political solution? For a man who plays by the rules that is not going to happen.

    The only path that would have stopped all these problems is for the forgery and false assets declaration petitions never to have been filed. People forget that the case about adulteration of the Standing Orders was reported by his bitter fellow senators angered by the manner of his emergence.

    If Saraki and his supporters don’t like the Executive meddling in their business, isn’t it curious that they think that those who petitioned are only doing the bidding of the Presidential Villa? After last year’s contest, were the losers not further humiliated and the party’s peace overtures spurned, making the offended more determined to exact their pound of flesh?

    Even the case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal is something that cannot be blamed on the president. The originators of the petition have been traced to Saraki’s former party in his home state Kwara. A monster has been born and now you blame the midwife for facilitating the delivery.

    The Senate and Saraki need to take a good look in the mirror and honestly analyse where their troubles are coming from. Part of the biggest problem of the legislators is their penchant for blaming others.

    In the heat of discussing the forgery trial last week one emotional senator declared that there was too much hatred against the National Assembly. That may be so. But has he stopped to ponder why the Executive that isn’t peopled by angels is not so reviled?

    It is unfortunate that a chamber filled with men and women who have achieved so much in their individual capacities often comes across as exhibiting an inferiority complex. It is as if as a whole they have something to prove to a hostile world on the outside.

    They are forever on the defensive – demanding to be respected by all and sundry. At the drop of a hat they would ‘summon’ anyone from high court judge to ambassador, often ending the invitations with bald threats of ordering the arrest of those who failed to comply. That is when they are not threatening to impeach a president whose only sin is his refusal to short-circuit an ongoing judicial process.

    None of that is necessary if people respect you, accept your work as important and you conduct yourself in a dignified manner. But when the elected servant puts himself on a pedestal, has a bloated sense of entitlement for doing very little, he sets himself up for trouble.

    Nigerian senators love to prefix their names with the word ‘Distinguished.’ But that adjective is something that is earned – not just appropriated by fiat. What was distinguished about last Tuesday’s abuse fest? What was dignified about the ‘she made me do it’ explanations?

    Judging by their actions since Saraki’s CCT and forgery trials started, it’s hard not to conclude that the legislators are their own worst enemies – not Buhari or some other imaginary foe.