The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Our Girls; Power: Solar CBN loans; Earache; Wars; Health Ministry: Pothole Warnings; CSO; EFCC Death

    Our Girls; Power: Solar CBN loans; Earache; Wars; Health Ministry: Pothole Warnings; CSO; EFCC Death

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

    Our power pathology demands urgent treatment. The Ministry of Power should initiate Emergency Recovery Measures like a CBN SOLAR FUND of $2-5b for immediate loans with five percent interest loan repayments for individuals and companies to solarise. The aim is to get millions off both grid and generator for most of the time, now, not ‘’incrementally’ in 10 years’ time.

    President Buhari has an earache. Sorry, Sir. We pray it is not from a headache caused by Nigeria’s problems. Does the President know whose job is it to immediately fill the murderous potholes on our roads before more tyres burst with more deaths? Filling potholes must come before contracts. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) should please reaffirm its primary role –to save lives and keep traffic moving’ and urgently REDEPLOY TO POTHOLE AREAS TO SAVE LIVES instead of ‘Operation Stop and Search on Every Highway’. Beyond the safety first during the FRSC ‘Ember Months’, all months fall under all-year-round ‘Unfilled Murderous Pothole Months’ while the government cannot tell us, between FRSC, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Works, who exactly has the responsibility to document, signpost with warnings and fill potholes and rough dangerous areas on roads. While they have trouble implementing the ‘change’, we appeal to the Ministry of Health to SOS –Save Our Souls- with a ‘Prevention of Death on The Road Campaign’ and put up 200,000 warning – ‘The Federal Ministry of Health Warns That This Pothole Infested Road May Cause You Injury Or Death’ – posts at all potholes.

    Nigeria needs heroes like Muhammad Ali but we keep losing the opportunity. BBC, ITV, CNN, Al-Jazeera all suspended normal programming to carry the funeral live. Nigeria’s TV stations deprived Nigerians of ‘The Final Match of Muhammad Ali’. But then Nigeria denigratedOlaudah Equiano, as well! Nigerians should not ask ‘Olaudah WHO???’ They should be taught him in school, and on the media in documentaries, action films and specific script references in Nollywood conversations, just as the UK teach its chosen heroes.

    The Fulani herdsmen war against farmers demands urgent attention from President Buhari who seems happy to flex muscles against the Niger Delta Avengers but is silent on the nationwide scourge laying waste the lands and livelihoods of millions even robbing this week on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at pothole areas where cars are forced to slow down. Police should redeploy to such rough areas to save lives. We are ‘told’ that the perpetrators are not Nigerian Fulanis but ‘terrorists’ from Niger, Chad or Libya. Why do we seek to outsource our ‘guilt’ even when to admit it would mean we are under an ‘invasion’-a state of War’, abi. How come our armed forces know nothing about this invasion, this State of War? And this even as more murders monthly, more land is laid waste with a looming famine from under-farming from fear, mass unemployment and redeployment from the farms to the latest weapon of war and mass murder, the city okadas.

    The Fulani herdsmen-farmers war victims may be lost to farming forever. If the herdsmen’s plan is territorial, to seize the land, it is achieving its goal. Death tolls have been 10-20/ week until the massacre of 300. That figure ‘300 dead’ is a deliberate decimation of ‘the enemy’.

    People, there’s a war on, real war, killing Nigerians. Indeed Nigeria faces five wars and each need it’s army. Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen-farmers war, MASSOB War, Niger Delta Avengers war and the anti-corruption war. The anti-corruption war may help to end the political rape of Nigeria, but unfortunately Mr President, the police and ‘Yellow Fever’ may not have heard of the anti-corruption drive. These wars need quick peaceful solutions lest they bleed Nigeria left to die by the multi-party political, civil and contractor class –‘The 1999-2015 politicians’ War against Nigeria’.

    The citizens know that when a thief, armed robber, herdsman or Niger Delta Avenger steals your property, livelihood and pollutes your compound, it takes time to recover to even put food on your table, let alone to replace what has been so maliciously stolen. The politicians, contractors and civil servants have done just that. Buhari is probably the only Nigerian leader who will not steal or divert Nigeria’s wealth. By stopping a 50 year history of ‘budget padding’, he has saved a trillion+ allowing our poor naira to go further. He alone holds our naira dear and given the right circumstances will reverse the value upwards. Those with stolen or political dollars are anxious to perpetuate naira problems to double their fortunes overnight. Why even in THE YEARS OF PLENTY 1999-2015 did no Nigerian President ever improve the naira back to even the N88:$1 under Abacha?

    O yes, please tell whoever that we do not want to know from him how Abacha or MKO Abiola died. He should first tell us how Pa Rewane, Madam KudiratAbiola, Onagoruwa’s son among others were killed when he was CSO to Abacha. Otherwise he should not speak. Rehabilitation should be resisted by a media blackout. I do not wish to mention his name in print.

    A suspect dying after six hours in EFCC custody may be murder, negligence, torture or a medical accident like a heart attack from fright, fear or deprivation of medication or food. It is a serious blow requiring National Human Rights Commission investigation and is not the way to recover stolen funds.

    tonymarinho.com

     

  • Robin Hood, Avengers and emergency militants

    Robin Hood, Avengers and emergency militants

    Suddenly, militancy which has been out of fashion in the last six years, is all the rage in the Niger Delta.

    The emergence of the so-called ‘Avengers’ has unleashed a rash of would-be liberators of the peoples of the South-South zone. One group is called ‘Ultimate Warriors of Niger Delta’, another goes by the moniker ‘Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF).’

    Another band dedicated to avenging a different kind of loss has just popped up. They are called the ‘Bakassi Strike Force.’ Their mission is simple: the Nigerian government must recover the Bakassi peninsula ceded to Cameroon or face the wrath of the group.

    To send shivers down our collective spines they’ve sent out the obligatory photo of gunmen covered in body paint dancing in a war canoe.

    So what does it take to prosper in this new growth industry? At best a Twitter or Facebook account and you are good to go!

    You can blow up an isolated pipeline in the backwaters of Bayelsa and the sound of your triumph would be amplified worldwide by a thousand screaming front page headlines.

    It doesn’t matter whether your armoury of missiles exists only on Facebook with your name creatively ‘Photoshopped’ on them; be assured that your threats would be helpfully ventilated on social media; or by traditional media desperate to outdo social media for shock and sensation.

    Which is just great as it solidifies the notion that in today’s Nigeria, only the gunman, rebel or outlaw gets the attention of the powers-that-be.

    And so, barely a week after it rolled out what seemed like an armada of warships, and set a stream of fighter jets cartwheeling through the skies over the Nigeria Delta, the tough-talking Federal Government has been quickly brought to heel to ‘negotiate’ with the militants who have successfully disrupted the country’s crude oil production.

    Such is the vulnerability of this nation which in 55-years has contrived to put all its eggs in one basket. Now a band of characters it cannot control is stomping on that basket to devastating effect.

    Whether the hurried talks of the last few days between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, service chiefs and governors of the South South zone were borne out of genuine conviction, pressure from world powers or simple realisation that the petroleum cash tap was being effectively turned off by the hardline militants, is not really important. In any conflict it is always cheaper to talk.

    But very rarely do you find an early consensus for dialogue. Parties in most conflicts always want to negotiate from a position of strength, or talk only when they have been virtually brought to their knees.

    It is no surprise, therefore, that the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) have spurned the olive branch offered by the government – signalling their intent by taking out a couple more oil production facilities.

    At this point the militants have their tactics spot on. Their attacks put the government under tremendous pressure as every facility destroyed results in lost revenue and torpedoes budgetary projections.

    The government, too, would be frustrated by the fact that rather than being intimidated, the militants have reinforced that old belief that you can’t fight insurgents using conventional military tactics. That is why the jets roaming the Niger Delta skies haven’t been able to stop the bombings.

    Which is not to say that the vandals can prevail against the might of the Nigerian military in the medium or long term. We’ve been here before. In the first year of the late Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency, the amnesty deal was only procured after a lightening military offensive that destroyed an extensive web of militant camps in the creeks.

    The impact of that military action was terrible on local communities – turning thousands of terrified villagers into refugees. No one knows how many lives were lost but the outcry from Ijaw leaders forced the hitherto recalcitrant militants to reach a deal with the government.

    Hopefully, the window for dialogue that has been opened would be exploited by the Avengers despite their  bluster. But, again, that might just be a fond wish.

    Anyone who has followed what the NDA has had to say about its actions and mission would have noticed an evolution in their rhetoric. Their latest statement has the sophistication of something written by a professor or some seasoned activist.

    “We are not like some of these personalities who run champagne parties or turn Rivers State Government House into a house patrimony of god-sons and prebendalism,” it states.

    This is a far cry from some of the barely literate stuff they dished out at the outset. Still, the overall message is no different from what their forerunners like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) trumpeted. They want control of the oil pumped from beneath their feet and self-determination.

    I would gladly line up behind any initiative that guarantees that the wealth of this longsuffering region trickles down to the people. But while the NDA talk a good game, I am very suspicious of them and their fast-breeding spawn.

    Let’s start with their name. What’s in a name you ask? Plenty, I say. It tells you so much and speaks to their mindset. A mission of vengeance is not ennobling, edifying, redemptive or positive in any sense. Who wants to be hitched to people whose raison d’etre is destruction without a roadmap to some future Eldorado?

    These are not some latter day Robin Hood reincarnations – robbing rich, oppressive Nigeria to redistribute to the poor denizens of the creeks.

    They are no different from the class of warlords who prospered under former President Goodluck Jonathan while their erstwhile foot soldiers remained pauperised.

    Speak with some of these ex-militants who supposedly signed up for the amnesty programme and they would regale you with tales of how only a fraction of the stipend due to them ever reached their hands because along the way their ‘leaders’ and sundry middlemen had creamed off a generous portion.

    Today’s emergency militants and their sponsors have seen that the fastest path to fantastic wealth in the Niger Delta isn’t through education or enterprise, but by taking up arms albeit in the name of the region but ultimately to feather their own nests.

    That is why you won’t hear them talking about serious developmental and environmental initiatives but the sharing of oil blocs.

    Some of the militant groups are demanding that 60% of ownership of oil blocs be allocated to persons from the South-South zone. On the face of it this would appear to be one of the issues that should be easy to resolve. I believe the government has indicated its willingness to revisit the issue of the oil blocs with a view to ensuring more transparency and equity in their allocation.

    How I wish that ownership of oil blocs were the solution to mass poverty in the South-South region. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

    The advertised data concerning present ownership of the blocs shows that that they are unduly skewed in favour of prominent individuals from the north. But what advantage has it conferred on the region? It remains the poorest section in the country – behind in all the measurable development indices.

    What about the few southerners who own oil blocs? How have they been an advertisement for how ownership of these valuable assets can be a tool against poverty and a catalyst for developing their backward communities?

    If anything, elite greed has ensured that the billions funnelled into the Niger Delta under existing revenue sharing arrangements have disappeared into the pockets of so-called leaders of the region who will not mind funding militancy as long as it protects their interests.

    If truly the Avengers and their ilk are concerned about the despoliation of the Niger Delta how come they didn’t let loose their vengeance all the years Goodluck Jonathan was in power and the ‘oppression’ of the region by ‘Nigeria’ continued unabated?

    Did the issues they would now have us believe has driven them to arms disappear all those years only to reappear magically in the last 12 months after Muhammadu Buhari became president? Is this not just about the fact that the spigot of cash has been turned off?

    I believe that the way out of the Niger Delta crisis is not to return to the old, discredited practice of paying protection money to warlords and gunmen to buy an illusory peace. Pay off this batch and another set would emerge with even more outrageous demands.

    I am all for engaging the communities in dialogue but I am also for terminating the criminality that promotes the wrong values in our region.

    What is unfolding in the creeks is very grave and once again the government could be repeating the same mistakes made by Jonathan early in the Boko Haram insurgency. Back then many called on him to take a tough stance and stamp out the burgeoning violence. But he kept repeating the politically-correct rhetoric about not “waging war against our people.”

    By election year 2015 “his people” had evolved into Frankenstein monsters – so much so that six weeks to the presidential polls, with his seat under serious threat, the peacenik president morphed into a hawkish commander-in-chief parading from place to place posing for photographs in army fatigues.

    I understand that some South-South governors have been making the same noises about not being “at war with our people.” I beg to differ.

    This is a shooting, bombing war against the nation’s economic interests. It is affecting what comes to Bayelsa and other states in the region. The militants have the nation by the jugular and some people think they are in a warm, cuddly embrace!

  • Our Girls; No Post-UME Test=0/11; Ali: Greatest; N/D Avengers- Give peace a chance. Wrong enemy!

    Our Girls; No Post-UME Test=0/11; Ali: Greatest; N/D Avengers- Give peace a chance. Wrong enemy!

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Two saved and counting! God Save Our Girls!

    Minister Fashola: Please order filling of potholes as an emergency before long term road contract awards. I nearly died in the over 200 potholes on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Total cost to fill? Maybe N100,000.

    Why has this government scrapped Post-UME examinations? Zero/eleven marks. Has government sanitised JAMB- an education ministry failure? It seems premature. The right of universities to screen or INTERVIEW FOR VERIFICATION OF ACADEMIC CLAIMS its ‘fresher’ candidates before they contaminate a university’s honour with fake WAEC/NECO/GCE/JAMB results is AN INALIENABLE RIGHT. Unquestionable centralised ministerial and JAMB ‘ADMISSION LISTS’ created a tsunami of ignorance and education terrorism and corruption. The Post-UME Test was championed by myself and others to filter out the corrupt admissions of underperforming students who then used cultism to get degrees at violent costs. All hail the Post-UME Test which saved tertiary education from collapse. Will it now paradoxically be re-infected by the old corruption virus and succumb under this anti-corruption change government? Stripping universities of final screening powers is an invitation to anarchy, or is to insert weak students under ‘quota systems’.

    We are used to a disappointing Ministry of Education failing by ruining curricula, cancelling practicals and entire subjects and introducing strategies supporting hidden agendas destroying education. Most of such education ministry agendas have pushing mediocre, cheating students into tertiary institutions depriving qualified students of places. Is the cancelling of Post-UME Tests to again smuggle unqualified students into tertiary education? What is the perecentage of forged and faked results presented to universities today? Is JAMB unjammed enough? Only the universities not the Ministry of Education can answer.

    So ‘I fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee’ and ‘I’m so mean I make medicine sick’ and ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful Cassius Clay –his slave name, Muhammad Ali, his conversion name, Mr Rumble in the Jungle and with the Rope-a-Dope strategy who put the Zaire on the map, The Louisville Lip, who bravely rejected the Call up draft into the Vietnam War and who had Parkinson’s Syndrome since 1996 and became Mr Charity, a major humanitarian, Athlete of the Century, has died at 74years, 1942 -2016. He was a worldwide man with billions of fans in and out of boxing yet he never has a fashion line. Perhaps it was the Parkinson’s disease. Gorgeous George, a flamboyant wrestler, was his inspiration. He loved to talk and saved boxing from relegation. His charity work was exemplary but unfortunately unmatched by any billionaire today. Ali was greater than boxing, humbler than humanity, giving his time, signing autographs for four hours for free. He was a 1960 Boxing Olympic Champion, won 100 of 106 fights. He was forced out of boxing for three-plus years for refusing the draft into the Vietnam War. He came back stronger and gave international audiences the opportunity to appraise him.  He and his wife set up Muhammad Ali Centre promoting charity and love. They say he was Muhammad Ali: The Most Famous Man On Earth OR He shook up the world OR The Greatest Sportsman of the Century. There will never be another Muhammad Ali. He conquered the world, first with fists and a fiery wit, the first rapper, which captured the imagination of the world and later with a warm charitable heart and that special Muhammad Ali Smile perhaps the male version of the Mona Lisa smile. Wow!!! RIPP.  Post Script: I am an interested party as I was taught to box by the great Hogan Bassey at Abalti Barracks in Yaba, Lagos in the mid-60s.

    Meanwhile back in Nigeria, our road to fame is the quantity of ‘Instant millionaires’, stolen money or the bigness of our political and social parties. Our sports suffers strangulation by funding lapses for school sports, corruption and greedy maladministration of administrators- look at NNF a look- alike  offspring of the malignantly corrupt NGO called FIFA.

    Government and Corporate Nigeria, stop wasting money on non-productive Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR! Give youth more structured institutionalised opportunities to discover their talent, tap and concentrate that talent through discovery by talent scouts and through computerised national data bases of achievers and treat all sports development and growth as part of youth entrepreneurial opportunities and a key to economic diversification. Sports should be a multi-billion naira business and a foreign exchange earner.

    We could not understand Boko Haram’s evil violence and Nigeria cannot understand Niger Delta Avengers’ violence. N/D Avengers, please give peace a chance. This government is not your enemy, yet! The common enemy is the cross party political and economic corruption that has impoverished and stunted the growth of even the wealthy Niger Delta. Surely, this is the time not to siddon look or even fight, but to help, not hinder, Nigeria struggling to overcome 50 years of pernicious mis-governance? Further polluting their own environment is paradoxical especially when the long overdue, since 2004, UNEP-led Clean-up of Ogoniland has been flagged off after 2000 deaths including the judicial murder of Kenule Saro-Wiwa and lifetimes of misery for tens of thousands. Avengers have your people not paid a high enough price already?

    UNEP: CONGRATULATIONS. FIRST EMPOWER ALL OGONIS TO TAKE ALL THE CLEANUP JOBS FROM PURE-WATER SUPPLY TO WASTE DISPOSAL AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS TO OGONIS. Employ Ogonis, do not enrich other people.

    FEDERAL GOVENRMENT: GIVE THE OGONIS/COMMUNITIES A PERCENTAGE IN EVERY WELL OR A WELL/COMMUNITY TO OWN. tonymarinho.com

  • Atiku and his 2019 manifesto

    Atiku and his 2019 manifesto

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is man God has blessed tremendously. He is fantastically wealthy and has a doting family. By divine providence he was promoted to Vice President when all he had aspired to in 1999 was govern Adamawa State.

    So what more can a man ask for? Simple answer: the Nigerian presidency. Atiku has run unsuccessfully for president for 23 years beginning in 1993 with the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).

    I am reminded of Atiku’s unrelenting push for the presidency by his powerful but pregnant intervention at the presentation of Chido Onumah’s book ‘We are all Biafrans’ in Abuja recently. The central thrust of his speech at the event was that Nigeria wasn’t working and the federation needed to be restructured.

    That is by no means a novel observation. Indeed, our unresolved national question has been at the root of sundry national and constitutional conferences since the late 70s.

    While it is hard to fault much of what Atiku had to say, it is equally difficult to condemn Buhari after 12 months because he never made any commitment to ‘restructure’ Nigeria during the campaigns. His focus was on the corruption, economy and insecurity.

    Atiku makes all the correct noises but cannot defend himself against critics who say that while in office as Vice President – especially in the first four years – he had all the clout to influence and actualize some of the things he’s now criticising the incumbent for.

    A deeper reading of what the former VP had to say shows clearly that this was no ordinary speech. This was an assessment of the state of the nation, a review of Buhari’s first year in office and a proposal of what he would have done differently if he were president – by one of the incumbent’s erstwhile rivals.

    This is a man putting himself in the shop window saying ‘hey, look, I’m your alternative’. The speech read like the outline of the manifesto for a possible 2019 run.

    I was stunned by what looked like a blithe dismissal of what Buhari has done in 12 months or is likely to accomplish in what is left of his tenure. These were the remarks of someone who had lost hope in what is possible and attainable with the current leadership.

    Soundbite after soundbite was unsparing. Here are a few choice quotes.

    “If I had won, I would have sold 10 per cent shares in the NNPC; that will give me 20 billion dollars which would build infrastructure for the Niger Delta but we will always end up with accidental leadership.

    “Again, here we come back to the same economic challenges that are facing the country but we also have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past and the leadership that is not prepared to lead.”

    Having said all that, Atiku then does his grading.

    “He promised to look into issues like power, insurgency, unemployment, corruption and diversification and if you are to take two out of five, you can give him a pass mark. He has dealt with corruption and with Boko Haram. For power, give him time.”

    Where I schooled two out of five is not a ‘pass mark’ but fail grade. So Atiku’s generousity is not supported by the parameters he has laid out. If he was trying to soften the impact of the hard knocks he had just delivered, he was unsuccessful.

    There’s something to be said for telling truth to power. But such friendly fire coming from a ruling party grandee like Atiku can only be indicative of frustration and disaffection. It should disturb the APC given that it was delivered at a time the government was taking flak from all sides for what some consider a less-than-stellar outing in the last 12 months.

    Like the clever politician that he is, Atiku’s speech has something for everybody. For advocates of restructuring in the South West and South East this is music to the ears; for separatists groups like MASSOB and IPOB there’s something; for Niger Delta militants and sundry avengers the prospect of selling a chunk of NNPC to develop the region should cause their heads to swim with dollar signs.

    I have no doubt that Atiku has prepared to be president and has a good idea of what he would do if he ever got there. In some ways, he’s like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who prepared himself rigorously but never found a way through the political thicket.

    I suspect that even if Buhari and APC lift their game in the next three years, Atiku would still run. However, he’s unlikely to do so on the platform of the APC which would probably still present Buhari if he’s good health.

    He won’t run on the platform of the PDP because the damage done to the former ruling party isn’t something that can be undone in one electoral cycle.

    That means he would most likely seek out a third force – an amalgam of refugees from PDP and APC as well as stragglers from existing parties.

    It would be folly to dismiss such a proposition out of hand. If APC formed barely two years to the 2015 polls could go on to win a comfortably victory, all things are possible.

    That is why rather than dismissing the Atiku speech, Buhari and the APC should regard it as a warning shot fired across their bows.

  • Our Girls; Tomato Famine; Troubled Medical Ministry, Referendum: Close Sinate! Grow veg-fru-meat@home!

    Our Girls; Tomato Famine; Troubled Medical Ministry, Referendum: Close Sinate! Grow veg-fru-meat@home!

    Our Girls missing since April 15, 2014 are being found one by one. May the others be found. Amen.

    Are the tomato famine and high tomato price due to the Fulani herdsmen/farmers war killing 25,000+, destroying crops and the crop cycle and driving millions from farms and livelihood leaving scarred lands and famine? Or are they due to cost inflation from initial nationwide fuel scarcity and increased fuel prices? Or are they due to Dangote supposedly buying entire tomato crops for tomato ‘puree’? Whichever, it shows the need to take Late Uncle Bola Ige’s advice – grow your own vegetables in your garden, community, LGA, state and region. Stop depending on others for your vegetable, fruit and meat eating habits. He advised against cementing gardens leaving no grass to GROW ‘GREENS’. Uncle Bola, like late Funsho Williams, was ‘murdered without a murderer being convicted’. President Buhari, please reopen their cases!

    The government is investigating grant projects in the Ministry of Health following international financial investigation into multi-millions of dollars of HIV/AIDS funds abused by government bodies, NGOs and contractors like IT and hotels for conferences. With corruption there is incompetence with drugs sent from central stores to hospitals for HIV patients and delivering drugs near their expiry dates to be used beyond the expiry date. Drugs were held in central stores for too long. The result is dead patients, more orphans and rich administrators/medical personnel and storekeepers who may take bribes.     ‘Corruption, diversion, misuse and abuse’ are the hallmark ‘fate’ of development, loan and Grant funds in Nigeria’s public life and even many University Research Grants.

    Many of us Nigerians, politicians and professionals, especially with ‘authority and responsibility’ do not appreciate or seek to increase the quality and quantity of Nigerian life.

    Unfortunately too many officials work as if it is not about the human, only about the money. The focus is not on the welfare of the citizen but the ‘kickback’.

    Because in their executive offices they do not see the patients dying or groaning during their conferences in five star hotels on ‘victims’, ‘malaria’ or ‘AIDS’. Such ‘big big’ officials only see money. They never see people dying horrible deaths whenever those responsible for their medication, safety, security, education, road networks, and care. So they abandon their role and prefer to steal. Corruption goes with Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness -CINS.

    Usually medical personnel and families see the pain, suffering, blood and bodies so why are medical personnel involved in corruption.

    Ask why should we depend on international funding to Save Our Citizens Lives, SOCL, solve medical needs, from USA’s, UK’s, EU’s or corporate giant’s prudent management of funds? Why should foreign money be used for Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets or to put health adverts in the media to save Nigerians? When will Nigeria take responsibility for Nigerians?

    If you think this HIV/AIDS medical scandal is a monumental disgrace to the medical sector, add the cost of the politically organised undeclared Okada Epidemic which has cost and lost billions, killed more and made more orphans than any war or HIVAIDS will ever accomplish. Every single Nigerian has witnesses, been involved in or knows a victim of the Okada Epidemic.

    The millions of potholes also kill but medicine is silent. Perhaps we expect Bill Gates and the Global Fund, Jimmy Carter or the Kuwait Fund to fill them with a Pothole Grant?

    The probes are welcome and coming from President Buhari, will yield fruit. They will not solve the systemic problems in medical administration. Remember this Nigeria is the wicked country which abolished practicals in the education system, where morphine and other opiates were banned causing years of torture to post-operation patients, radio-isotopes were placed out of the reach of teaching hospitals trying to treat cancer patients and even house-jobs can take three years to find. Why? Nigerians seem to lack the virtue and practice of ‘love of humanity’.

    PS: Of course ‘systemic failure’ means other ministries and not just the medical ministry. How easy is it to get zero Tax medical drugs and equipment through Customs and checkpoints and into stores without corruption? Do Customs care if HIV patients die?

    Grant receivers complain that there is a hidden by high cost of getting CBN, administrative and political NASS positive oversight approval of such grants. Are kickbacks demanded? What budget line is KICKBACK in MDAs and CONTRACTOR SITE Accounts? IS IT ‘WELFARE’, ‘PR COSTS’ OR ‘DEVELOPMENT’? What gift to the NASS officials for visits to project offices like NACA office? There has been a corruption pus-filled wound in the health sector for years. Will there be a change or just a change of administrative guard with resistant reinfection?

    Please add up any analysis of the probes of monies taken from the public purse to pursue private party agendas, the totals for Salaries Allowances Perks of political office-holders at all levels and the massive losses from the budgets through corruption like brown envelopes and Ghana Must Go bags-all government/citizens’ money-, under-executed contracts and funds taken from the CBN to corruptly and illegal manipulate ruling party elections at every level. We demand a refund and a referendum. The UK is having their IN-OUT EU referendum. Who is afraid of a Nigerian referendum on ‘Two or One House in NASS- Close the ‘Too Expensive To Keep And Very Wasteful Sinate’? At this time of costly goods transport,  take Uncle Bola Ige’s advice.

    – Grow veg-fru-meat@homeandstate.         tonymarinho.com

     

  • Buhari’s baptism of fire

    Buhari’s baptism of fire

    Successful political figures are often defined by their ability to distill a message that resonates with their audience.

    As a fresh-faced state governor back in 1992, the then US Democratic Party presidential candidate, Bill Clinton, understood he could not prevail against the incumbent George Bush on matters of national security at a time when the country was at war.

    But while the Washington elite and television talking heads understood that America’s national security interests could be negatively impacted by developments in the Gulf, the average US citizen who at the best of times is insular and couldn’t be bothered by developments thousands of miles away, was more interested in the fact that the national economy was struggling.

    Clinton was savvy enough to key into that latent vein of discontent in the electorate that year and came up with a phrase that captured the issue that would determine the race. It wasn’t the Gulf War. ‘It’s the economy, stupid,’ he declared. The rest is history.

    President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) triumphant 2015 campaign pulled off something similar. The candidate chose not to promise everything under the sun; he simply boiled his agenda down to three words: economy, security and corruption. At every campaign stop he hammered home these three themes.

    The focus on these three issues was largely down to the fact that at that point they were Nigeria’s most obvious problems and the Achilles Heel of then President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

    Such was the depth of dissatisfaction with the performance of the sitting government that the APC’s change seduction struck a chord with the hearts of the people. Only a deep sense of rejection could have caused Buhari who lost to Jonathan in 2011 by 10 million votes, to prevail in 2015 by three million votes. How did the incumbent manage to blow 10 million votes?

    Something awful, even traumatic, happened in those four years to trigger the political sea change that happened. It was the economy – falsely arrayed in borrowed robes as ‘Africa’s largest’, but which was still plagued by mass unemployment, fuel scarcity and power outages.

    It was insecurity defined by a Boko Haram insurgency that actually carved out its ‘caliphate’ on sovereign Nigerian territory. Bombs were going off in barracks, market and in major cities across the north. Adding the insult to our collective injuries, we became the captive audience of Abubakar Shekau’s regular ghoulish video productions.

    It was a corruption epidemic that was finally embraced by an officialdom that ought to have been its nemesis. Ministers and other high officials of state caught in dodgy endeavours were left to get away with murder. Confronted with unending allegations about mindboggling theft in high places, an increasingly defensive Jonathan chose to bury his head in the sand.

    By the time he came up for air at the start of his presidential campaign in Lagos, he acknowledged he had a problem by promising he would fight corruption with technology. Even if his late awakening had been sincere, it rang hollow pitched against the pledges of a Buhari who not only had words to offer, but also a reputation to back them up.

    The easy part was distilling the message; the difficulty lay in delivering results in short order. Unfortunately for Buhari and his party the problems they were tasked to solve don’t have overnight solutions.

    A monoculture economy is not going to be diversified in a matter of months. But when the financial mainstay crashes under your watch you have to deal with the painful fallout across the land.

    The hungry and the frustrated have issues that need to be dealt with immediately; these people are not amenable to logical discussions that trace problems to their roots. They received the promise of change with the faith of children who don’t care how daddy will pull it off. You may call it change, call it magic, they just want a dramatic turnaround in their lot.

    An already impossible job is made worse when politics is thrown into the mix. There is the standard politics of an imperfect federation that often triggers movements for self determination in different parts of the land.

    Today, the so-called Niger Delta Avengers are avenging themselves on pipelines in anonymous creeks. This latest manifestation of Nigeria’s discontented hordes has economy implications for foreign exchange earnings and power generation. When the oil doesn’t flow and gas cannot be fed to plants, the consequences are grave.

    But there is an even worse variant that pollutes the polity: it is the politics of bitterness which rank odour hangs over the land long after the 2015 elections. In recent memory last year’s politicking would go down as the most negative.

    There are many who couldn’t bear the thought of Buhari becoming president they actually wished him dead. He survived rumours of illness and imminent demise and found his way into Aso Villa to the chagrin of his foes. For many of these people the death wish tweaked has become a failure wish.

    Even some who claimed to have voted the president have been heard to mutter ‘Oh God, we made a mistake.’ Others simply ask in bemusement ‘Is this the change we voted for?’

    Yes, the price of petrol has gone up and the exchange rate of the naira against major global currencies has crashed over the last 12 months. But the question we never ask is ‘why.’ Actions have consequences; inaction also has its repercussion. What we are experiencing in 2016 is partly the result of what was done or not done in the last few decades.

    But then a sense of perspective is not our strongest point as a people, and if there was a global impatience index, Nigerians would rank in the top 10.

    When people ask ‘is this the change we voted for’, I answer yes. Buhari’s ‘Change’ is like the elephant described by six blind men. Each one had a distinct sense of what he had just touched and explained it in his own unique way.

    By voting Buhari, we repudiated the Jonathanian way of doing business. But it now appears that what some actually wanted was only a change of personnel. They may have wanted Jonathan, Dame Patience and their hangers on out, but business as usual.

    However, change, as the word implies simply means an alteration of the status quo for the better or worse. Sometimes, things may get worse before they get better.

    The optimist in me looks at the first year of the Buhari presidency and I see the progress made in the North East against Boko Haram insurgents. I acknowledge the efforts of the administration in fighting graft. However, the government has its work cut out on the economic front. Its one step forward two steps backward actions on some issues are not the sort of moves that inspire confidence in the business community. Here’s hoping that as the administration enters its second year it would walk with a steadier gait.

  • Our Girls; Stop Mother of Subsidies- POLITICAL ‘SUBSIDY’; Referendum: One House, Part Time/Sitting Allowances

    Our Girls; Stop Mother of Subsidies- POLITICAL ‘SUBSIDY’; Referendum: One House, Part Time/Sitting Allowances

    Our Girls are missing since April 15, 2014. Two of ‘Our Girls’ return alive. Amen. Amina and Sarah, ‘Welcome Home’. We mourn the dead and pray for others. Video recorded interviewing will provide evidence of conspiracy and names. Protect them from stress but get information on the kidnap, insiders, destinations, collaborators, locations and evidence against killers of six known dead girls. They must be protected from assassination and suicide bombers.

    Pray and help civilians and soldiers, victims of Boko haram and the Fulani herdsmen/Farmers War.

    Eyes, striking or not, are on Nigeria’s rocketed fuel price. The Vice President was asked to announce a high price; leaving room for the President to ‘magnanimously’ compromise with a halfway price before the May 29 Democracy Day corruption exposé. Nigeria must pass the Petroleum Industry Bill and privatise. Cheap fuel is the only God-given ‘palliative’ Nigerians ‘enjoy’, now misappropriated in the corruption of cabals, military and political classes. Generators take 40-50% of fuel purchases. Electricity, under 2,000Mw, is a DISGRACEFUL CITIZENS’ BURDEN IN 2016 and an unacceptable socio-economic, noise and air pollution environmental disaster crippling Nigeria’s quality and quantity of life.

    Is there a fuel ‘subsidy’? A banana, ‘indigenous’ to Nigeria cannot sell at the same price in Nigeria as in the UK where it is as an ‘import’. Our refinery incompetence fed by a massive corruption condemned Nigeria to a viciously expensive corrupt cycle of ‘export of oil- foreign refineries- import petrol, diesel and kerosene -PDK’. A Saudi Arabian oil barrel is produced at $10. Nigeria’s nko? The price change should have been after Nigeria’s fuel needs are met from local refineries and a reasonable electricity power supply, say 10,000Mw out of the needed 160,000Mw. These would cancel generator-use, every business’s nightmare, costing Nigerians too much ‘Time and Trouble’ and rubbishing profits.

    To misquote: ‘But I know there is another subsidy in Nigeria’. Yes there is a far bigger subsidy – unwilling subsidising of the political and milito-political class since forever. The greed and impunity grew and politicians including presidents dipped their greedy party-protected hands into every budget taking ‘subsidised’ 10-50% FOR THE PARTY AND FAITHFUL -the money thus stolen was meant to save children, educate youth, deliver pregnant women, fill the national pothole and provide electricity and produce honest Nigerians.

    If it is true that ‘The Fear of Buhari’ and the SANITISED CLEAN AND LEAN BUHARI BUDGET has cut their apparently corrupt subsidy access then even a CLEAN AND LEAN BUHARI BUDGET will grow more kilometres, drugs and books than the past budgets steeped in corrupt padding, diversion and 30-50% ‘forced subsidy’ to the ruling party.

    What is the cost-benefit to us of our expensive and corrupt political class? Do we need so many? Can Buhari lead Nigeria to recover from the odour of systemic corruption in the nose of Cameron and the world? Can we force the political, military, civil servant and contractor –PCC- classes to stop taking this ‘forced subsidy’ and become changed so Nigeria can recover its patrimony before 2019 elections?

    Our Nigeria in May 2016 cannot afford the past debilitating corruption or the MOTHER OF ALL ‘FORCED SUBSIDIES’-THE ‘LUXURY LIFE-STYLE POLITICS’ of 1999-2015. Nigeria cannot afford American political lifestyles. ‘The Nigerian professional politician’ must stop taking ‘forced subsidies’ by misappropriating budgets perpetrating moral and financial corruption. We were a rich people made poor by corrupt subsidised politics. Compare the colossal amounts ‘illegally legally’ acquired and mentioned in court to the poor ‘quality of leadership’ and ‘governance’ and poor ‘services’.

    Paradoxically the ‘Nigerian professional politician’ lives a luxurious lifestyle too high ‘above the people’. It is funded by an unwilling Nigeria through ‘legalised’ stolen subsidies which destroy Nigeria’s reputation and has brought Nigeria to international disgrace with political violence, SAP, profligacy and self-protectionist laws. These laws, at variance with the  will of the peoples, were made by the Sinate and House of Mis-Representatives, confirming the pariah Nigerian political class as greedy and self-serving and out of touch with the Nigerian economic reality.

    Sinators, there is no longer a ‘fattened Nigeria cow to milk dry’ or pontificate to. Nigeria cow don nearly die! Reduce your appetite for our tiny national cake.

    Citizens, please work and pray, text, tweet Sinators to have a cathartic conversion to non-greedy ‘Volunteer Nigerian Nationalist Politicians’ taking a sabbatical from their ‘FORCED SUBSIDY’ LIFESTYLE of SAP, Salaries Allowances Perks, and introduce legislation for PART TIME and TINY SITTING ALLOWANCES. If not, for national economic survival, Nigerian civil and all society must organise a REFERENDUM AND MOBILISE SOCIAL MEDIA VOTES AGAINST FORCED SUBSIDY IN POLITICS [Political Parties taking/stealing from the budget] and to get constitutional restructuring of National Assembly (NASS), closure of Sinate, making the House of Representatives  the single UNICAMERAL HOUSE – PART TIME WITH SITTING ALLOWANCES. The current ‘FORCED SUBSIDY/STEALING FROM THE BUDGET POLITICS’ has cheated Nigeria of 50 years development. The economic and political reality is ONE HOUSE IS CHEAPER THAN TWO. Ideally states should pay its members in NASS absolving the Federal Government of that burden. SAY NO TO FORCED SUBSIDY GREEDY POLITICS WITH MANIPULATED/STOLEN FUNDS FROM BUDGETS. REMOVE THE MOTHER OF ALL FORCED SUBSIDY – POLITICAL SUBSIDY- BEFORE IT KILLS NIGERIA! POLITICIANS & POLITICAL PARTIES: STOP STEALING FROM THE BUDGET! ‘Commot Your Eye’. POLITICIANS – GET A DAY JOB! Nigerian Political Parties must behave like political parties abroad, effectively Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, funded by members whose sole return is a political appointment or good governance, NEVER BUDGET ACCESS.

  • NLC: When is a battle won or lost?

    NLC: When is a battle won or lost?

    How long can the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) sustain its current adventure? From across the country, the consensus is that the nationwide strike it announced with so much fanfare is a damp squib. In a couple states there were signs that something was amiss, but in most places – it was business as usual.

    Past strikes that have been hailed as triumphs of worker power never achieved 100% compliance. What created a sense of success was the ability of the unions to paralyse the largest cities in the country. So far, Lagos, Abuja and similar cities have spurned the strike-the clearest indicator of how well the union’s action is faring.

    In a bid to spark life into the strike union leaders in some states are taking desperate measures. In Ekiti, NLC Chairman, Ade Adesanmi, and Secretary of the Joint Negotiating Council, Blessing Oladele, reportedly stormed some banks to disrupt business. They warned those who had been defying the ‘stay-at-home order’ to be wary or face the consequences.

    It makes you wonder what part of the constitution gives union leaders the power to ‘order’ Nigerians to stay at home.

    But all credit to NLC president Ayuba Wabba and his comrades. In the face of an unprecedented rebuff, they soldier on with rhetoric that suggests the strike action is going great guns. It is either they truly have the courage of their convictions or are simply living in denial.

    The advertised goal of the strike is to force government to roll back the recent fuel price hike and the deregulation policy that informed the increase. So far, nothing in labour’s three-day show-of strength – or exhibition of a lack of it – looks likely to force the hand of the administration.

    NLC has used the most potent item in its arsenal – the much vaunted nuclear option: the nationwide strike. Now that the action has been received so unenthusiastically across the country, its hand has become weaker even if the government deigns to talk with it now.

    The only choice open to it is to find a face-saving way to cut short its misadventure. But that might not be as easy as it appears given that egos are involved and that the unions have not lost this sort of confrontation in the last 16 years.

    It is hard to imagine how the NLC can come out of this smelling of roses. It is up against a government which has its back against the wall; an administration that says the nation is broke and deregulation is its last card.

    The unions don’t make it easy for themselves to win the battle for minds because they don’t offer an alternative beyond chanting ‘No! No! No!

    Interestingly, they have said in the past that, in principle, they were not opposed to deregulation. So both sides agree on something. This was what I had to say about the matter in my piece of May 17, 2015:

    “Times have changed and the unions also need a reality check. The NLC has argued in the past that while it isn’t opposed to ending fuel subsidy, it wants certain measures put in place before such an action can be contemplated. Among other things it wants the refineries working, an efficient public transportation system as well as other welfare measures in place first.

    “While these are not unreasonable demands they are not very practical. Fixing the existing refineries or building new ones could take anything from 24 to 36 months. Those who would like to see new refineries sprout also have to realise that investors are not philanthropists. It is a non-starter to think they would be attracted to a system that expects them to pour billions into a project only for the state to fix the price at which they sell what they produce.

    “Again, putting in place the sort of mass transit system that could move millions daily at a cheap rate could take up to five years – if not longer.

    “In the interim as we wait to create the perfect conditions for a painless exit from wasteful subsidies, we are forced to continue with payments that the country cannot afford! It is a vicious cycle and not the right way to go.”

    The issue remains the same. Another government – long after former President Olusegun Obasanjo started it – decides to raise the pump price of petrol and deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry.

    Every time that happened, labour unions successfully got the leaders of the day to roll back the measures without addressing the fundamental problems. The pain was postponed but so also was the evil day.

    In 2012, after days of street protests and the transformation of Fawehinmi Square, Ojota, Lagos into a symbolic center of active resistance, then President Goodluck Jonathan’s government caved into and slashed petrol price after a surprise hike on New Year Day.

    Just like others before him, he merely pushed the deregulation ball further down the line – as though a time would come when it would be convenient to deregulate. But that time is often illusory.

    Any observant person knows that beyond the sloganeering of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a lot has changed in the country over the last 12 months.

    President Buhari has described it as the worst economic crisis Nigeria has faced since 1960. He rates our present travails as far worse than anything we experienced during his brief military reign – and that is saying a lot.

    Today, Nigeria and Nigerians are poorer than they were any time in the last 16, not necessarily because of anything contrived in the last 11 months, but more because of our profligacy and wrong choices over the last two decades.

    The vast majority of our people face a crisis of existence. Many are engaged in a hardscrabble daily grind to eke out something for themselves and their families to survive another day.

    No doubt, the increase in prices would impact them negatively. But the NLC strike option which would keep them at home penniless for an indeterminate period is the impracticable option.

    Union leaders in announcing the strike warned Nigerians to ‘stockpile’ food for a long struggle against a so-called ‘neo-liberal agenda.’ These pretentious, high-sounding words don’t distill what this struggle is about in a way that the Danfo driver who lives on his daily takings can digest.

    If he was to make a choice between embarking on some esoteric journey with his would-be saviours, or wheel out his jalopy for another day or earnings, it is a no-brainer what his choice would.

    This was where the unions made their first miscalculation – using the same old tactics without realizing that the times in which we live call for a change of tack. Someone made this wise-crack: NLC leaders asking people to stockpile food didn’t realize that workers who hadn’t been paid for months were in no position to stockpile anything.

    Consider also that the workers and civil society coalition that successfully brought the government to its knees in 2012 no longer exists. The NLC has since become factionalised – with some of the more powerful unions pledging allegiance to the Joe Ajaero-led group. The unions never had this problem in the last 16 years.

    Some notable leaders of the then opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) who gleefully fired up protesters at the Ojota park with incendiary speeches are now in government.

    It would have been wise to fix that fractured alliance before taking on a behemoth that is the federal government. Many of those ACN types had become hardened by many years in the opposition wilderness and thought nothing of standing in the sun for hours – hurling verbal grenades at the government of the day.

    Fast-forward to 2016. There’s a new opposition in town. This group would have been the natural allies of the NLC as it tried to take down a supposedly unpopular policy. But somehow I just can’t picture PDP fat cats after 16 years of delicate living, trudging in the hot sun with some militant unionists.

    A little introspection, instead of charging arrogantly into battle on presumptions of its invincibility could have saved NLC the embarrassment and demystification it now faces.

  • Between 2012 and 2016

    Between 2012 and 2016

    So many activists, celebrities and politicians who protested against Jonathan’s deregulation bid in 2012 and have now gone silent in the face of the new measures, have been dismissed as hypocrites by some opposition voices.

    It is amusing watching some of them labouring to justify their new stance. Some say they now back deregulation because they trust Buhari, others say the country was awash with petrodollars and could afford to pay for subsidies.

    On the face of it the volte face appears hypocritical. But think of it this way: only a fool or egotist would not change his mind on a matter when confronted with superior arguments. Rigidity on an issue even when the cold facts are staring you in the face is not a virtue.

    Of course, there’s also the political dimension to the two episodes. Jonathan handed the opposition something to beat him over the head with and they did so with gusto – hurting his government and image.

    Now the PDP-led opposition has the opportunity to serve the now APC rulers a dose of their own medicine. But what do they do? They are whining in social media; waiting for the El-Rufais, Shehu Sanis and Femi Falanas of this world to lead the charge.

    This model of doing opposition business would only guarantee yesterday’s men a long stint far away from the corridors of power.

  • Our Girls; Can Nigeria afford the burden of political office holders? One house or two? A Lost Generation?

    Our Girls; Can Nigeria afford the burden of political office holders? One house or two? A Lost Generation?

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. We must get them back.

    Following yet another political year of poor results to add to the abysmally poor history of the National Assembly (NASS) since 1999, Nigerians know they must  rise up and demand an END TO THE ‘SINATE’ for unforgivable, grievous and numerous ‘SINS AGAINST NIGERIA’. Consider the multibillion cost to the nation in Salaries Allowances Perks, SAP, of the 109 ‘Sinators’ and 360 ‘Unrepresentatives’ who do so little for us in repayment for a magnificent life of extravagant luxury amid such poverty, joblessness and fuellessness. Nigeria’s economy and temperament of change and anti-corruption cannot afford a non-performing political class, failing the people. NASS NEEDS TO BE REORGANISED, REDUCED TO ONE HOUSE AND REVERT TO A PART TIME STATUS WITH 90% REDUCTION IN  SAP in order to get true Nigerians seeking to serve and not to hide or preside over a dying nation begging to be rescued and resuscitation by President Buhari. We can demand the necessary referendum or constitutional changes that will eliminate the disastrously expensive and unproductive bicameral governance and SCRAP THE ‘SINATE’. THIS MUST BE ACCOMPLISHED BEFORE 2019 leaving only a more penitent, responsive and chastised PART TIME House of Representatives. Increasingly the Sinate is seen by citizens as merely ‘ a safe seat for sinners’ to hide. This impression must be wiped out before the current crop of governors and ministers also seek their ‘right to the immunity of a Sinate Seat’. The immunity is misplaced anyway as there is nowhere in the constitution that a serving or past political office holder has immunity for criminal activity.

    EFCC and ICPC should, like the Police, also have a mass recruitment exercise of investigative and forensic accounting officials. The Sinate is not mystical, impregnable or majestic but greedy, base and mundane. Its future existence must be discussed and decided in the political and public space! It has not come to stay and must justify its existence. It is only a body of Nigerian men and women, many demonstrably too selfish and self-centred to serve or save Nigeria. It has become a failed institution abused by its self-overpaid occupants in dire need of reform or removal –like FIFA. I favour removal. Nigeria cannot afford the time to reform the Sinate or its sinators steeped in greed driven ways.  Buhari has fired the first shot with Nigeria’s first  CLEAN BUDGET since 1999. Nigerians should fire the second shot across the bows of the sinking Sinate ship and remove the senate from Nigerian politics. It is time to go. For its failure, the Sinate should commit hara-kiri, political suicide, pass a vote of ‘no confidence’ in itself and quit the stage. Only that will bring a nationwide standing ovation with massive savings.

    To fulfil its mandate, Nigeria clearly does not need it at this time of change and penury.  All created things once abused or having outlived their usefulness can be removed and cast on the dustbin of Nigerian political history. The ‘Sins of the Sinate’ are unforgivable. The revelations around budget padding alone are enough for the dismissal of the entire Sinate for ‘CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD NIGERIA’. The ‘Sinate’ must GOOOO! Can BUDGET BUHARI CORRECT THE MESS FOR THE ‘Generation Next’

    If you watch DSTV, may I recommend Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole on channel 136 for multi-pronged look at science and space in relationship to humanity? Wow! The application of the human mind to the world’s immediate and unpredictable future problems is really amazing. Meanwhile back home, we paralyse our minds with the terrible Bs- Betrothals, Birthdays, Burials consuming our fortune and creative weekend time. We need a huge societal ‘change’ upheaval. A young man came from a family funeral with a N120,000 debt when his monthly wage is N20,000, and after spending N100,000. Everyone groans under the weight of wakes and wedding which are consumptive and non-contributory to the economy, as clothes worn, decor and many consumed items are imported supporting foreign economies. ‘Change’ in politics must go with ‘change’ in outdated tradition. Like genital mutilation, extravagant parties will also die! The ‘mass party, mega social function’ strategy popular when there was ‘nothing else to do with money’ ruins families forced to beg, borrow and even steal or demand bribes. Everything from punishing bride prices and ‘traditional presents’ to burial ritual fees, all need revision downwards. Traditional bodies and ethnic-based organisations need ‘social’ committees to modernise bad traditional practices. The late age of marriage these days is partly due to the financial ‘Burden of Betrothal’. The man has to have a good job and have ‘wedding money’ either from himself or his family.

    In the 70s, marriage was within a year or two of graduation, with all children born by 30-35 years so that when you are 50-55 they would all be nearly working before you retire reducing the generation gap. It actually anticipated the unbelievable economic disaster meted out to millions of Nigerian families which for 30 years suffered the criminal syndicated systemic pension failures and massive N500+billion pension fraud nationwide which evilly pauperised pensioners and denied many retirees of the parental right, responsibility and opportunity to support their children through tertiary education. Look at families without wages or pensions to understand how Nigerians cope and pay the price of corruption. Political and Social Scientists must research this ‘Lost Generation’.