The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • When Baba met Barack

    When Baba met Barack

    Fresh from his electoral triumph in 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to Washington D. C. where he would briefly meet President Barack Obama before heading for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS.

    At the event he shared a platform with former United States President Bill Clinton. After wishing him well, Clinton said to Jonathan who was turned out in his trademark caftan and black bowler hat: “I can tell you the Secretary of State (his wife Hillary) tells me your hats are always cool.” The diplomats and VIPs at the meeting cheered and laughed heartily.

    “And I envy your name,” Clinton added to more laughter. “If I’d had a name like Goodluck, I might still be in office!” Four years later not even his uniquely optimistic name could help him cling to power – leaving Obama to welcome a new Nigerian president in whom the world invests the tall hope to deliver what Jonathan couldn’t.

    No one would ever accuse Buhari of being a fashion plate, so it wasn’t his dress sense that his host went on about. He praised his character instead. In a continent where leaders have become notorious for graft, frivolity, fickleness and excess, it certainly was a plus that a Nigerian president was being celebrated as an example for Africa.

    Towards the tail end of Jonathan’s tenure, much of the goodwill which he initially had with the US had largely evaporated. While the Americans were critical of his administration’s abysmal record on corruption, the greatest source of strain had to do with tackling the insurgency.

    The much-hyped US offer to help Nigeria track down and rescue the Chibok girls collapsed in a cloud of controversy over how the armed forces handled the intelligence they received. Some say the body language of the local security leadership suggested they weren’t too keen on having American cowboys riding roughshod over them and taking all the glory.

    Little surprise therefore that before the foreign helpers could parachute into our territory, the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh declared authoritatively that his forces knew where the schoolgirls were being held. Who knows, the handover notes received by the new service chief might just contain this top secret.

    As the elections drew close, relations between Nigeria and the Americans grew decidedly chilly in the light of their pointed allegations of human rights abuses against our troops and refusal to sell us arms on those grounds. With his ratings tanking, a desperate Jonathan was forced to resort to unorthodox measures. The $15 million cash seizure debacle in Johannesburg was the outcome and the rest is history.

    The speed with which the Americans invited President Muhammadu Buhari over, and the special welcome laid out for him, underscores how keen they are to mend fences with a traditional ally on the African continent.

    In the course of his almost six-year stay in Aso Rock, Jonathan met with Obama three times but I don’t recall anything arresting that was said between both men beyond the anodyne diplomatese.  Contrast that with the US president’s effusive praise for Buhari’s integrity and vision.

    So at the level of symbolism, there was a sense that the visit went quite well for the president and his country. For the first time in a very long time, the narrative emanating from these parts was positive: a seamless transition from an incumbent government to the opposition and an anti-graft leader in a nation that has become notorious for corruption. Apparently something good can still come out of Nigeria.

    But not everyone is swayed by the positive spin that has been put on the visit. Those who would have us believe Nigerians made a historic mistake by voting Buhari in March have been nitpicking. They point at everything from the gender insensitivity that saw the president travelling without a single woman in his team and having his son along for the ride.

    But of greater significance is the claim that the four-day trip was a waste of money because it didn’t produce a promise to sell things like the potent Apache or Cobra helicopters for use against the insurgents in the North-East. That sense of dissatisfaction was enhanced by Buhari’s statement bemoaning the continued refusal of the Americans to sell us arms hiding behind the Leahy Law, which bars such transactions with nations whose forces are accused of grave human rights abuses.

    The best way to determine whether the visit was a success is to go back to what Buhari outlined as his objectives before setting out. He was going to discuss military and defence cooperation as well as measures to strengthen and intensify bilateral cooperation against terrorism in Nigeria and West Africa. The administration’s war against corruption, as well as fresh measures to boost Nigeria-US trade relations were also up for discussion.

    In all that was laid out before the trip, there was very little that was specific and nothing suggested that the delegation was going to force their hosts to sign on to sell us arms. Obviously, emerging from the visit with such a deal would have been a massive coup.

    That said, it would be churlish not to acknowledge that the swift thawing of relations between the traditional allies was important. In the course of the visit, the World Health Organization (WHO), representatives of the World Bank, committed to spend $300 million to fight malaria in Nigeria.

    In terms of numbers, that sum was dwarfed by the World Bank’s pledge to invest $ 2.1 billion for rebuilding the infrastructure devastated by the insurgency in the North-East.

    Buhari has repeatedly stated his determination to recover monies plundered from the nation’s coffers by government officials and others. His plans received a boost as the Americans offered to track illicit money from Nigeria in all their jurisdictions.

    Given what we now know about outrageous sums that found their way into private pockets in recent years, a nation that cannot pay its workers’ salaries should not sneer at any deal to recover monies running into billions of dollars. I suspect that such arrangements didn’t deliver much in the past because friends of Nigeria couldn’t find reliable and zealous partners in our political leadership to get the job done. In Buhari they sense they have a man they can do business with.

    In the face of an insurgency that has received second wind with a wave of suicide bombings, a showpiece arms sales agreement would have been the icing on the cake. It is disappointing that it didn’t happen. It would have been expecting too much to think the Americans – no matter their desire for a fresh start with Nigeria – would rush into such a commitment with a seven-week old administration which still has a lot to prove.

    For now it is convenient for them to hide behind the Leahy Law. Rather than waste energy griping and pointing out the hypocrisy of the Americans who have never allowed a little thing like human rights stand in the way when they want to sell arms to some of their ‘special allies,’ Nigeria should consider what her options are.

    If we’re so enamoured of the Apache and Cobra attack helicopters, then we can begin to work to get off the list of countries categorised as human rights abusers. Buhari has committed himself to probing allegations made against the military by Amnesty International and has also pledged that under his watch, such practices would not be permitted. I’m sure that the US would be looking to see what concrete action he takes in this regard. Author of the act, Senator Patrick Leahy has suggested as much in his biting reaction to Buhari’s criticism.

    The alternative is to take our cash into the market place. The US and UK are not the only countries that sell arms. France, Russia and China to name a few are big players in the global arms industry. All three are keen to extend their scope of influence in Africa and around the world.

    All said and done, even if all Buhari achieved in Washington was the restoration of an old friendship, he should be applauded. Given her challenges, Nigeria needs all help it can get from friends around the world. That is far better than the hulking, sulking embarrassment it was fast becoming in the recent past.

  • Arepo is another republic

    Arepo, a strip of marshy land bordering Ogun and Lagos States is fast becoming the venue of regular man-made disasters. This last week, an estimated 100 persons perished in an inferno caused by a clash between two gangs of petroleum pipeline vandals.

    It is also a symbol of how the authorities are fast losing control over vast strips of Nigerian territory to anarchists and criminals. The example of Boko Haram is well established. But much of what they terrorise are areas in the middle of nowhere.

    The Arepo neighbourhood, on the other hand, is smack in the urban environment as you approach Lagos from Ibadan. It is a location in which several middle class estates are sprouting. But its curse is that an NNPC pipeline traverses it.

    On numerous occasions, the pipeline has been vandalized, leading to mass casualties. Government officials would pay visits for photo-opportunities, only for criminal gangs to return once repairs have been done and pumping of refined petroleum products resumed.

    In the latest disaster, scores were killed. Amazingly, for a long period of time neither the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) nor National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other agencies could access the site of the accident. However, heavily-armed vandals were roaming freely and almost murdered two photojournalists who strayed into their path.

    Arepo captures the recurring headache of securing pipelines that run through vast unpopulated territories. The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has proved largely ineffective and the other security agencies either have other distractions, or are not enthusiastic about the assignment.

    Jonathan thought the way out was to hand the job to ethnic militias in exchange for billions of naira in payouts. In the Niger Delta, many who were favoured with the contracts were those who formerly used to destroy these same pipelines. In other words Nigeria was paying protection money to thugs so that the supply chain won’t be disrupted.

    Gani Adams of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) – a beneficiary of the short-lived contract confirmed this theory – in his reaction to the Arepo attack. He suggested that in the few months his group executed the contract, vandalisation stopped. He blames the resurgence on Buhari’s refusal to continue with Jonathan’s arrangement.

    Adams perhaps doesn’t remember that long before Jonathan made him a potential billionaire security guard, Arepo was the scene of a terrible inferno that claimed the lives of scores of opportunists who gathered to scoop fuel from the ruptured pipeline. In 2012, three NNPC officials who came to fix a damaged line were killed.

    Down in Delta State, some so-called ‘militant’ group that goes by the name ‘Urhobo Gbagbako’ last week blew up pipelines belonging to the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) at Ighwrenene town in Ughelli North Local Government Area.

    Indigenes say the group damaged the facility to protest government’s refusal to hire its members to provide surveillance services over all the pipelines in their territory.

    What is now happening is that in certain parts of the country people feel the country owes them a living, and that the best way to attract attention is by destroying infrastructure. But paying protection money by whatever name is not the answer.

    Whenever a government gets into these funny arrangements, it passes a vote of no-confidence on its security forces and equally indicts itself. A regime that will abdicate responsibility of securing territory and infrastructure no longer qualifies to be called a government.

    The new Nigeria that Buhari wants to build – we’ve been told by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo – rests on the rule of law. We can begin to put the building blocks in place by empowering our security forces to take back territory that have been seized by rampaging marauders. Our leaders cannot be comfortable in Abuja while hoodlums claim sovereignty over places like Arepo.

  • El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune

    El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune

    Penultimate Monday July 13, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Lagos, held the seventh in its series of annual lectures in honour of the Nigerian Nobel Literature laureate. The venue was Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers and the theme “Nigeria and the Oil Fortune.”

    Not being an oil man himself, the reason for the centre’s choice of Malam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufa’i, the governor of Kaduna State, as guest speaker was not quite apparent. But then as a self-styled “accidental public servant”, the first class quantity surveyor has had an abiding interest in public policy and public finance for many years. So it was no accident that WSCIJ picked him to speak on what is probably the most topical issue facing an oil-rich country that has virtually bankrupted itself precisely because it is oil rich!

    El-Rufa’i’s over 3,000-word lecture reminded me of the trademark one-inch column front page editorials New Nigerian was famous for in its halcyon days.  Those editorials were compulsory readings if only for their style, syntax and substance. This particular one was published 41 years ago last month – on June 29, 1974, to be precise. At that time the late Malam Turi Muhammadu was editor and Malam Mamman Daura, nephew of, but older than, President Muhammadu Buhari, its managing director.

    Entitled “Oil Money: Honey or Poison”, that editorial is to me the most prophetic any Nigerian newspaper has ever written in post-colonial Nigeria. For that reason alone – not to mention its precision, clarity and relevance even today – it is worth reproducing in all its roughly 460-word length.

    “It is,” the editorial said, “commonplace to say that Nigeria is at the moment very lucky because of oil revenues. In a very real sense we have much more money than our system can absorb. Unofficial estimates put the figure added to our reserve this year at N2,000m. In many essential respects this bounty has been a blessing. It has enabled us to repay some of our outstanding foreign loans, liberalised commercial and industrial policies and has enabled increased revenue to be diverted to building of modern infrastructure commensurate with our executive capacity.

    “But the reverse side of this coin is painful to contemplate. The nature and source of oil money put it in a class of its own. A few years ago, a disturbing international report was published arguing in stark terms the failure of all underdeveloped oil producing countries to make more than marginal use of their splendid fortune. No effort is involved on our part. It is the foreigners who employ their capital and skills to exploit this resource and we simply receive huge autonomous additions to our national income.

    “Such un-worked for riches can land a country in trouble of a peculiar kind. There is soulless opulence of the few, in evil contrast to crushing poverty of the many. There is unimaginable corruption and disastrously wrong allocation of resources. Above all there is the absence of hard work without which the country cannot pull itself together. In that sense the oil money becomes poison rather than honey. How will an economic historian 50 years hence explain the relative expenditure on agriculture and on the various forms of so-called “culture”: All-African Games, Black Arts Festival and all the rest of it? He must conclude that we had taken leave of our collective senses.

    “Happily, in the Nigerian case, the situation is by no means irretrievable. We could deploy considerable energies and resources in producing a commodity which is more important even than oil: food. We must at all costs get agriculture on the move again. There are millions of acres lying fallow when they could be used to grow food for our burgeoning population. The setting up of the two River Basin Commissions is a great step in this direction (although the staffing has ensured that the two schemes would not take off for some time.)

    “Nor are we unmindful of individual state efforts. But fiddling about with N10-15m is just like one grain in a silo. We need a monumental plan. A N500m plan with the help of, say, Danish and Chinese experts under our direction, would do wonders for grain productivity in this country. We may or may not have oil in 50 years. But to survive we must have food. The ground work can be done now.”

    The New Nigerian’s economic historian still has nine more years to go before he enters his verdict on how we have managed our oil fortune. Yet even today the historian would be dead right to conclude that we took leave of our collective senses long, long time ago.

    In five years of Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency alone, for example, Nigeria, el-Rufa’i quoted United States Department of Energy as saying, earned nearly $500 billion from oil and gas trade, which comes to a stupendous N130 trillion! Yet today most human development indices say 40% of Nigerians, or about 70 million of them, live well below poverty line obviously because we’ve blown away all that good fortune in an orgy of incredible waste and venality.

    It all reminds one, again, of a survey The Economist published about the state of Nigeria’s political-economy in its edition of May 3, 1986, a few months after our soldiers overthrew the fiscally reckless Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari and Muhammadu Buhari took over as military head of state.

    “Nigeria,” the newsmagazine said in its abstract of the survey, “has had a stupendous party, but the wine merchants forgot to collect their money in advance. Now the debt collectors have arrived to find the winnings spent, the bottles and glasses mostly broken or stolen by the guests, and the soldiers who came in to keep order shooting each other.”

    Twenty nine years on after The Economist’s survey it’s like we are back exactly where the Second Republic ended, only far worse and only also that instead of khaki, the same Buhari has returned in mufti to clean up the huge mess left by 16 years of PDP misrule.

    Last time he hardly had enough time to start cleaning up the mess before he was thrown out in a bloodless palace coup. The question is, can he do the job this time, especially now that he cannot simply order people around? To rephrase this question using the words of the theme of el-Rufa’i’s speech, can a civilian President Buhari turn Nigeria’s oil misfortune into a fortune?

    Like most ordinary Nigerians, el-Rufa’i believes the president can – provided he can slay what the governor has described as three “huge dragons” that stand in the way, namely “(1) a fixation with public ownership and control of every major oil asset, (2) the corruption and distortion that oil subsidy is inflicting on our economy, and (3) the NNPC in its current form…”

    Put simply, el-Rufa’i’s solution is that the president should privatise our refineries, remove fuel subsidy and abolish the NNPC as it is, whereby, as he said, it has, at least since 2012, kept about 42% of its revenues meant for the federation, for its self-aggrandisement!

    El-Rufa’i is, in a sense, right about fuel subsidy and NNPC in so far as they are creatures of the corruption that has eaten deep into the nation’s fabric. However, I am not so sure about his own fixation with privatisation. Public ownership of the means of production may have its downsides but then so also does private ownership. We have, for example, privatised our banks and our airlines but they have hardly been any more efficient or transparent than they were. Even the relatively successful privatisation of our telecommunications industry hasn’t made it as efficient as it can be, given its huge profits. The truth is, good governance and transparency, and even efficiency, is no preserve of any ideology.

    As for the corruption that has eaten into the nation’s fabric, the problem is not so much corruption itself but the impunity with which it has been practised. After all, no society can be corrupt-free. What is important is to make sure people see that there will in the end always be a day of reckoning, no matter anyone’s station in life.

    To succeed in this fight against impunity, the president, as el-Rufa’i said in his speech, needs every support he can get from the media and civil society organisations (CSOs), for no other institutions in the society have the power for advocacy, education and enlightenment that the media and CSOs possess.

    Only time will tend how consistent the president will be in his war against impunity and how much support the media and CSOs will give him.

    Re: Asiwaju and the National Assembly leadership crisis

    Sir,

    I refer to the above article of last week and wish to submit that Chief Akande should have used the phrase “Most Nigerian elite” instead of “Northern elite” and that the conspiracy was against APC as a party and Buhari’s anti corruption crusade and not against the Yoruba.

    Secondly, you mistakenly wrote that APC has 69 senators. The correct number is 59.  

    Ademola Akande,

    Port Harcourt. +2348057224608.

     

    Sir,

    The APC leadership should realise that the party is no longer ACN but a conglomerate of different political tendencies. Therefore, it should consult with all stakeholders and interests before rolling out decisions. Buhari’s government has had its task cut out for it, which is enormous. The crisis his party is witnessing at the moment is a distraction. Time is ticking and people are expecting action and not altercation.

    Adewuyi Adegbite.  +2347013065440

  • Red Card for Service Chiefs

    [dropcap]L[/dropcap]ast week Monday, July 13, the top brass of the Nigerian Army converged on Abuja, the nation’s capital, for its annual ritual, the Chief of Army Staff Conference. There were banters and grandstanding all over the place among the red necks.

    Later they were engrossed in deep discussions over the prevailing security situation in the country. Suddenly, an earthquake occurred beneath their feet, throwing some of their commanders off balance. In a jiffy, all the Service Chiefs were gone, while new ones took over. The conference came to an abrupt end.

    The change of guard at the top hierarchy of the nation’s military command follows a convention that had been established in the country over the years. It has become almost a tradition that, as soon as a new government comes to power in the country, the first task is to sweep away the old service chiefs to pave way for new ones.

    But under the new president, it has not been so and people had been complaining aloud in view of the security situation in the country, especially the terrorism in the north-east, which has suddenly assumed a new, fearsome dimension in the last few weeks.

    With the sweeping changes, the direction of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration appears to be beginning to unfold. Expectedly, the appointment of new service chiefs triggered off debates across the country.

    Many people wondered whether the new crop of service chiefs could deliver on their mandate, especially in view of recent increase in suicide bombings by the Boko Haram terrorists which have extended beyond their traditional battlegrounds in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states and spread to other neighboring states.

    Others were concerned about the geo-political spread of the new appointments with Borno State having the lion’s share with two appointments – the Chief of Army Staff and the National Security Adviser.

    Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesman has defended the appointments. He said that merit was the yardstick used in making the appointments. Maybe. Maybe not.

    Considering the character of the president who appointed them and the current exigency posed by the rampaging Boko Haram terrorists in the north-east of the country, the seemingly lopsided appointments of two of the service chiefs from Borno State, to my mind, could be strategic.

    Borno State is the home base and operational headquarters of Boko Haram. What has now snowballed into a wider conflagration has its roots in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. This was where the late Mohammed Yusuf, the founder and leader of Boko Haram, ignited the rebellion in early 2009 that has now claimed more than 15, 000 innocent lives.

    But let us move away from the ethnic or tribal composition of the new appointments and instead, focus more on the country’s ability and military capability to crush the current rebellion going on in the northeast and criminal activities in other parts of the country.

    Almost all the geo-political zones of the country are today confronted by one form of insecurity or another. All over the place, there is the prevalence of such crimes as kidnappings for ransom, violent robberies, deadly cult activities and gang wars, among many others. This is a serious security challenge to the nation which requires concerted efforts by our security apparatuses.

    General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the new Chief of Army Staff, has clearly demonstrated that he means business when, on the first day of assuming office, he opted to go to Yobe State, one of the hotspots in the north-east, rather than stay back in Abuja or going to his village to celebrate the last Sallah festival.

    Although his visit to Yobe State could not prevent the bomb blasts that rocked Damaturu, the state capital, on Sallah day with the attendant loss of lives that followed, nevertheless, his visit was quite significant. Not only this, the General’s reassuring words that he would see to the welfare and armament of the troops shows that he knows where the problem with the soldiers lies.

    We are all living witnesses to the usual refrain from the battle front in the north-east where soldiers bitterly complained about lack of equipment and adequate welfare as the two militating factors affecting the performances of the troops fighting Boko Haram terrorists.

    In many instances, some of the troops including the officers have had to vote with their feet at the approach of Boko Haram’s rag-tag fighting force. This way, many Nigerian territories were taken over without firing a single shot, while large cache of scarce arms and ammunition were also carted away by the terrorists.

    As a result of this, many soldiers and their officers have been court-marshaled and some are still facing investigative panels from time to time over their “acts of cowardice”.

    Unfortunately, as may be unearthed in the days ahead, there are strong suspicions that money meant for troops’ welfare and armament may have grown wings in the past, which accounts for the lack-lustre performance of the troops in the war against Boko Haram.

    I am quite sure that under the new dispensation especially with the no-nonsense posture and body language of the incumbent president, the issue of some greedy senior military officers preying on funds meant for troops’ welfare and armament will be a thing of the past.

    Even if this is not completely eradicated, at least, we expect to see a drastic reduction in these acts of embezzlement and thievery which have been going on from time immemorial.

    Sometime last year when I engaged a senior official of a new generation bank in a discussion, I was shocked when he made a slip and said: “Oga, the way heavy deposits are now entering into the accounts of these senior military officers, is very surprising….” Obviously, he was carried away. I tried to prod him to say more, possibly to give any hint about the identity of these “billionaire” military officers. But then he suddenly realised that he was talking with a journalist. He exclaimed: “Ahh… Oga, let us leave that one. Many things are going on that we cannot talk about”. And then he switched the discussion to other issues. But the little he let out was quite instructive.

    There are allegations that the immediate past service chiefs who were unceremoniously eased out last week, have become stupendously rich before the hammer fell on them. Their ignoble role in trying to truncate the last presidential election is still fresh in memory. And when, in his maiden speech as president, Buhari ordered the relocation of the military command centre to Maiduguri, the heart of the war against terror and later approved new funds for them, it was like the party was not yet over for the service chiefs and their collaborators. As the president dithered in removing them, one or two ambitious ones among them allegedly started underground scheming for higher offices until the red card was suddenly flashed in their faces last week.

    Now, Nigerians are relieved. But if Buhari must live up to his billing of fighting corruption, there is the need to scrutinise the books of the military and the defence budgets under past governments since 1999. I am quite sure the nation would be confronted with mind-boggling revelations of looting which characterised the tenure of service chiefs even pre-dating the immediate past ones. Such an exercise must be total and entire, with special focus on the period of this anti-terrorism war which is being prosecuted at a whopping cost to tax payers.

    ‘if Buhari must live up to his billing of fighting corruption, there is the need to scrutinise the books of the military and the Defence budgets under past governments since 1999’

  • Our Girls; IDPs; Reduce bank rates; Rethink CSR: N1m Prize Vs 10xN100,000 Prizes

    Our Girls are still missing since 15th April 2014 even as younger girls are ensnared an evil abuse of the Nigerian child, creating ‘female’ child soldiers forced into terrifying mass murder by suicide bombings. Child soldiers were the sad, pitied and tortured product of war-torn distant African nations where murderous mutations like the Lord’s Resistance Army unconscionably send the loved children of other people to kill and die. Children are easily manipulated, instructed, memory erased, hidden in crowds, name changed, fed, mourned, buried and  easily forgotten as they have no history. So now we have our own 10-year old child soldiers forced by threats of violence by others or brainwashed into blowing themselves up. Boko Haram and ISIS have exposed us to an age of spiralling dangerous depravity. Now we have millions of Internally ‘Disturbed’ Children, unable to go to school or enjoy a normal life among the Internally Displaced People being treated like refugees in their own country. They ‘live’, lifeless, less than half of them in IDP camps, the majority unrecorded, scattered with family across Nigeria. Our Catholic Church with other groups collects funds to help IDPs recover their dignity. IDP camps are not national job-creation centres or photo opportunities for politicians. Importing NGO manpower to run IDP camps is wrong. Vacancies must filled from the IDPs first and then from local communities. Each IDP, like bomb survivors, has personal problems of despair, dignity, esteem, self-sufficiency and responsibility mostly solved by paid jobs or self-employment with donated or loaned business funds. Making a displaced person a paid staff or a teacher in the IDP camp will help repair the psychological and financial needs of a family. The policy of ‘IF IDPs CAN DO IT, LET THEM’ should be IDP Camp recruitment policy.   Meanwhile, our myopic political leadership, mired in divisive politics, neglects the ‘Matters of Urgent National Interest’ facing Nigeria, preferring dangerous selfish political manipulations. Meanwhile, dying for Nigeria are more than 100 normal citizens last week and how many armed forces and police personnel? Dying for what? Nothing?

    Meanwhile the naira value has lost 45% in eight months. Nigeria makes no single ‘machine’ in science, medicine, industry or business- all attempts killed by 39 years of political and electricity power failure. So the cost of every business has risen while profits plunge. We all suffer from naira devaluation. All except the banks which inexplicably defy logic, making annual multi-billion naira profits but doing nothing useful for 99% of Nigeria’s businesses in Nigeria –a ‘Banking Corruption Cartel’ requiring the Buhari Effect to ‘Challenge Bank Culture’ which ignores the naira. Why must Nigerians borrow at 22-25%? What business pays such profits? Only banks! The banks are infamous for internal collective corruption from illegal roll-over of government funds and from round-tripping forex. Bank of Industry tells Nigerians that it is different, even giving loans for solar factories. Good but not enough. We demand low interest funds for all Nigerians.

    Following the ‘Years Of Plenty’ running paradoxically in parallel with the ‘Years Of The Locust’, the economy enters ‘Years of Famine’ with recession and Corporate Nigeria facing austerity and lower earnings. The obvious casualties will be the N4b+ CSR Budget and the beneficiary NGOs and needy. Big companies in the service sector, auditing, accounting, maintenance, catering and entertainment, hotel running give little or no CSR.  This must change.

    CSR has often wrongly been misused as cheap publicity PR gimmicks by corporates. ‘Change’ in CSR and in the Corporate and banking ‘Bonanza Millionaire Culture’ is urgently needed. Genuine CSR must be separated from corporate advertising and bonanzas. The malignant epidemic of ‘Instant Millionaires’ has created a psychological culture among lazy youth of ‘get-rich-quick-and –for no-work-done’. These corporates therefore have responsibility to reverse this mind-set among Nigeria’s youth of ‘Wealth Without Work’.

    CSR ignores the villages, grassroots, the source of corporate earnings. Most CSR is concentrated at ‘Corporate HQ’ and neglect the revenue source – markets, shops, offices, petrol stations, schools, hospitals in villages and towns.

    Nigerians demand a ‘CSR Change Policy’- a ‘Corporate CSR Local Impact Policy 2015’- with more CSR spent at local Points of Sale. At Annual General Mettings (AGMs), corporate shareholders should demand dissemination of CSR to every village. The inclusion of ‘CSR Local Outreach Awards’ for Corporate bodies during Annual Media events will encourage new CSR Strategies. Yes, reward distributors but also use distributors as a ‘CSR Channel’. Use your staff as a ‘CSR Channel’ to their home neighbourhoods and villages. Ask staff to suggest CSR projects. Customers make distributors successful. Corporate Nigeria must ‘Change CSR Strategies’, in CSR, let BRANCHES AND DISTRIBUTORS DISTRIBUTE CSR to communities.

    Corporates must ‘change’ the ‘Instant Millionaire Policy’ reducing THE SIZE AND INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PRIZES AND WINNERS who must be required to DONATE SOME OF THEIR WINNINGS to their chosen needy cause. There are many orphanages and NGOs in real need of small regular amounts-N10-100,000. If Corporate Nigerian insists on making 2000+ instant millionaires’ annually then put in a ‘’Winners’ CSR Provision’’ to make the winners donate 10-25% to a charity, school or hospital as cash/books/equipment.  The magic of N1,000,000 works abroad, where incomes are higher, but Nigeria’s desperate 120m+ population, poor pay and poverty demand a new Corporate Policy ’change’  with more winners. Corporates would be more relevant, sensitive and valuable, touching lives of more economically, and assist 10 times more families by giving 10 prizes of N100,000  instead one N1m prize.

  • The persecuted and prosecuted

    The persecuted and prosecuted

    Seven weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari took office the docks of Nigerian courts are becoming overcrowded. A long line of high profile politically-exposed types have been paraded through them in recent times and many more are headed in that direction judging from pregnant statements emanating from the new administration.

    In the last few weeks were have been treated to the unusual sight of former Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako and son as well as his erstwhile Jigawa colleague, Sule Lamido and offspring being ushered into prison vehicles at the onset of their fraud and money laundering trials.

    Equally unexpected was the sight of Stephen Oronsaye, former Head of the Civil Service under President Olusegun Obasanjo, standing for two hours in the dock as he commenced the process of extricating himself from a long list of similar charges as the former governors.

    But for drama, nothing beats the invasion of the Abuja home of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, by two truckloads of Department of State Security (DSS) agents. He has since been released and the siege on his residence lifted.

    There was never any doubt that Sambo would have many questions to answer regarding the running of the office of NSA in the light of the seizure by South African authorities of $15 million which the Goodluck Jonathan administration claimed it was using to purchase arms.

    The diplomatic incident triggered by that unorthodox transaction as well as rumblings about misappropriation of huge sums set aside for tackling the insurgency in the North East put the spotlight on the man and the recently ousted service chiefs. It would surprise me if he didn’t expect to face queries at some point. His comments in yesterday’s edition of The Nation suggest he was shocked at the speed at which the government has moved against him.

    Dasuki is not the only member of the last administration who’s been feeling the heat. Former Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been in the wars – exchanging brickbats with Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole over her management of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and other actions whilst in office.

    Among other things she’s said to have caused $2 billion to be withdrawn from the ECA illegally. In the ensuing dust-up Okonjo-Iweala first claimed the monies were moved with the knowledge of the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings – only for state commissioners of finance to deny that they ever signed off on such an action. The minister would later say the amount was spent on payments made for petroleum subsidies as approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The ex-minister has put her travails down to political persecution; accusing Oshiomhole of embarking on a witch-hunt because she declined to approve loan requests totaling N15.37 billion which the governor sought to use to meet state obligations.

    In the current charged political environment in Nigeria, a wise man would refrain from making judgments as to who’s telling the truth or breathing lies. It is safer to wait because sooner or later the four-man panel set up by the National Economic Council (NEC) would make their findings known and the courts would rule.

    However, no one can escape the common thread that runs through the reactions of all those who have been put on the spot by the new administration. Okonjo-Iweala sees political foes at work. Lamido claims Lilliputians intimated by his political profile are frightened that he’s about to sweep to victory in the 2019 presidential race!

    As for Nyako, the problem is Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, who is desperately trying to insinuate himself into the good books of Buhari by framing innocent men and their angelic children.

    As of today we don’t know what the full list of Dasuki’s ‘sins’ are but he already has a zealous champion in Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman, Olisah Metuh, who’s crying ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights.’

    The more imaginative have suggested that through the visit of the DSS to the ex-NSA’s lair Buhari was finally exacting a revenge that was three decades in planning. Apparently, the retired colonel was among a three-man team of officers who at Sallah in 1985 went to arrest the general when he was military Head of State. So 30 years to the day Dasuki is getting his comeuppance – again at Sallah! Such impeccable timing!

    We should be ready to hear lots of these conspiracy theories as more outrageous exposes emerge of the malfeasance of recent years. The template was put in place by Jonathan when he prophesied before the handover that he and his disciples would be persecuted for their service to the nation.

    Some would be tempted to conclude from the travails of Dasuki, Okonjo-Iweala and others that the former president’s prophecies are coming to pass. But before succumbing to such a temptation let us remember that not only Jonathan’s acolytes are facing the music currently.

    Nyako and former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva are members of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC). Oronsaye was one of the most influential members of Obasanjo’s team. Lamido was a thorn in the flesh of Jonathan till the very end. He was a member of the rebel G7 PDP governors until he and Babangida Aliyu backed out at the point of defection.

    Whether or not there’s merit or not in ongoing probes, or cases being tried in courts, we must allow the system to resolve them. Too many times the judicial process has been short-circuited through the introduction of politics and sentiment.

    Indeed, sentiment is a curse upon this country. It contributes greatly to the impunity that we wanted terminated. Until people – no matter their station or how highly they rate their service to society – realise that there would be consequences for actions in and out of office, enduring change would never take root.

    Of all the irritating sentimental slop I’ve heard in recent times, the one that takes the prize is the suggestion that Buhari should disavow any plans to investigate wrongdoings of the recent past because Jonathan didn’t challenge the results of the elections. This goes back to the sense that in accepting defeat the former president somehow did us all a favour!

    Even if Buhari entered into some quid pro quo deal with his predecessor not to sniff in his mess as the condition for him going quietly, he will soon discover he has no such powers. He would be going against the laws he swore to uphold by bending them on the altar of expediency for privileged persons.

    If all those alleging ‘persecution’ would be reasonable they would admit that the offences they are accused of are quite serious. What we owe them is a fair process that allows them to clear their names. They should take comfort in the fact that Nigerian courts have proven that they are able to discharge their responsibilities in a manner that should give hope to those facing charges. The recent acquittal of former PDP presidential campaign spokesman, Femi Oluwakayode (formerly Fani-Kayode) on money laundering charges is a case in point.

    But the accused must decide whether they want to take their chances in the courts of law or resort to blackmailing Buhari and his administration by deploying sentiment. The latter option might provide a temporary feel good sensation but ultimately the media jury is worthless and of no practical effect.

    If newspaper judges declare you ‘persecuted’ on account of your ethnicity or loyalty to the last regime, and a high court judge finds you culpable for criminal acts then you are headed for jail for a long stretch. So what really is the point in all the propaganda? Why not keep your best shots for the judge that counts?

    Ultimately, the success of the clean-up exercise which Buhari is undertaking, may come down to how he responds to the blackmail he’s increasingly being subjected to. Given his past he would be accused of restoring dictatorship even if the police move to apprehend a bank robber caught in the very act.

    Those who have criticised the visit of the DSS to Dasuki’s home have labeled it an ‘invasion’ – creating the impression that it was done illegally. But the former NSA has admitted that the officers had a valid search warrant from a magistrate court.

    How times change! In the days leading to the March general elections, the DSS invaded an APC data center in Lagos – damaging doors and computers. They claimed the place was being used to clone voter cards and hack into Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) data base.

    Several of the staff working in the office were arrested and detained for days. The agents never produced any warrant. Rather than condemn the brutal action of the DSS, Metuh and his party simply echoed the trumped-up allegations against the opposition and called for the law to take its course.

    Where were Metuh and his PDP human rights activists when the same DSS was used to harass Sanusi Lamido Sanusi following his suspension as Governor of the Central Bank? Where were they when the police sealed off the Emir’s palace in Kano for days forcing the ex-CBN chief to be installed as traditional ruler in Government House?

    Members of the former ruling party and those who served under Jonathan somehow believe that they can escape justice for mismanaging the country by blackmailing the police and other agencies that would be raking through their mess in the coming days and months. The authorities should deny them the satisfaction by doing everything by the book.

    Luckily for PDP, in Buhari we have a president who is very sensitive to accusations about autocracy and intolerance. He is bending over backwards to prove how tolerant and democratic he’s become. That’s fine but he should also realise that the despoilers of Nigeria are stubborn characters who will try every trick in the book to get away with murder.

    They will only stop when convinced that they’ve met their match in someone of equal obduracy. Buhari has talked up a storm; he must now prove that he’s the man for this hour.

  • Service chiefs and ethnic champions

    Buhari appointees to head the nation’s security agencies provide substantial material for analysts to sink their teeth into. Two of them – Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Tukur Buratai and National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd) – hail from Borno State.

    The new Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar, is from Bauchi State. This means that of the five senior positions, three went to officers from the North-East, one each to the South-South and South-West.

    The underlying assumption appears to be that by selecting majorly those with direct connections to the hotbed of the Boko Haram insurgency we might see greater commitment in the war against the terrorists.

    So far no one has raised questions as to the competence of the appointees, but plenty has been said about their ethnicity. Some have interpreted the fact that none of the officers is of Igbo extraction to mean a new dawn of South-East marginalisation. Newspaper editorials have even been written about the ‘snub.’ Those who make these arguments need to take a deep breath and calm down.

    While their groups may be the largest, Nigeria isn’t just about Igbos, Yoruba or Hausa-Fulani. It is extreme arrogance to carry on as though beyond the big three other ethnic groups don’t count. Indeed, there are hundreds of them and we all have equal constitutional rights as those who can’t see beyond the interests of their clans.

    When Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika was Chief of Army Staff there were scores of other ethnic groups that were not accommodated in the leadership of the security forces. We didn’t hear them moaning about some perceived injustice.

    In the last administration, at a point heads of three pivotal security agencies were from the South-South zone: Ekpeyong Ita, Director-General of DSS, Lt. General Kenneth Minimah, Army Chief and Solomon Arase, Inspector-General of Police.

    To be fair, recent Nigerian presidents have gone out of their way to promote inclusiveness in appointing leaders of the armed forces. The point should also be made that this country doesn’t have enough service chief positions to go round every ethnic group.

    Those who think they are promoting the interests of their people by pushing these primordial arguments are actually hurting them as they end up cementing unhelpful prejudices and perceptions about them.

  • Asiwaju and National Assembly leadership crisis

    Asiwaju and National Assembly leadership crisis

    Chief Bisi Akande, former governor of Osun  State and interim national chairman of the now ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is hardly your typical politician, who is easily given to demagoguery. As anyone familiar with the key role he played in how the APC evolved into the eventual nemesis of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – the self-styled biggest party in Africa, which misruled us for the past 16 years – would testify, the elderly chief was a great voice of wisdom for restrain and the politics of give and take, all the way back to the genesis of the party before 2011.

    Late last month, however, the chief gave in to the strong temptation to be your typical politician when he issued a statement in which he described the raging National Assembly leadership crisis, which has divided the APC right down the middle, as a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.

    “Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels who never liked Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance,” the chief said in his statement, “are quickly backing up the rebellion against the APC with strong support…A large section of the Southwest sees the rebellion as a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.” With due respect to the highly-esteemed chief, nothing could be further from the truth.

    The frustration behind the chief’s statement is understandable. The political sleight of hand Dr. Bukola Saraki, incidentally himself a Yoruba, used to become Senate President on June 9, whereby 51 senators of APC out of 69 were denied their right to choose their leader, is a cause for great anger, especially given the gratuitous concession of the deputy Senate presidency to the PDP. Saraki is, of course from the North, even if a Yoruba minority in the region. But it should be obvious to even a political illiterate that the man did it for himself, not for the region; in making his bid, he neither sought for nor obtained anyone’s mandate.

    As with Saraki so also it is with Honourable Yakubu Dogara as Speaker, even though there is a difference in his circumstance; in his own case, no members were deprived of their right to vote even though, like Saraki, he submitted himself for election and emerged victorious in defiance of his party’s wish.

    Akande’s opposition to Saraki and Dogara clearly derives from the great anger of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the apparently successful defiance of the party by Saraki and Dogara. Without doubt, the Asiwaju is today the most pre-eminent Yoruba politician since the beginning of the current Republic in 1999, bar possibly President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    And just like the failure of General Muhammadu Buhari to seal the deal for an alliance as leader of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with Tinubu as leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) back in 2011 doomed his presidential bid to failure that year, their handshake last year was probably, more than any other factor, responsible for the general’s success this time around. So Tinubu is entitled more than most top shots of APC to call its shots.

    This status, however, does not entitle him to think, as many believe he does, that he is the conscience of the party any more than other chieftains are entitled. In other words, his insistence on party supremacy in the choice of the National Assembly’s APC leadership, though seemingly in the interest of party discipline and cohesion, is hardly as selfless as he and his acolytes would like the world to believe. Tinubu, many believe with good reason, has insisted on party supremacy only because it serves his interest of having Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, former minority leader and his crony, as the Speaker, instead of Dogara.

    In principle, party supremacy is necessary for discipline and cohesion. However, any party which insists on handing down orders from above all the time in the name of party supremacy without first gauging the true feelings of its rank and file, as is clearly the case in the current APC crisis, only courts precisely the indiscipline and chaos it seeks to avoid by invoking the mantra of party supremacy.

    As for Tinubu’s entitlement to call APC’s shots, surely he must be aware that there are widespread concerns even among some of his acolytes that, having singlehandedly nominated both the interim and the elected party chairmen and the vice-president, he has called more than enough of the party’s shots even as arguably its greatest architect. That this concern is not exclusively Northern can be seen from a full page news item in The Nation of June 14 as reported by one of its managing editors and ace investigative reporter, Yusuf Alli.

    The story, entitled: “How oil barons, others hijacked Senate, House elections”, spoke about how an anti-Tinubu cabal met at various times in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abeokuta, Abuja and Ilishan to plan how to “decimate APC national leader, Asiwaju Tinubu.” The plotters, according to the story, included four serving governors and seven ex-governors, two of each from Asiwaju’s South-west backyard.

    The story also claimed an “influential emir” was also involved. The emir, according to the story, had unsuccessfully pleaded with Asiwaju to intercede with President Buhari in the cases of some oil barons who have been fearful of the president’s commitment to investigate the oil subsidy scam. The story did not identify the oil barons but chances are they came from all sections of the country.

    What all this means is that the crisis of the National Assembly leadership election is not, as Chief Akande claims, any Northern conspiracy against the Yoruba.  Neither Saraki nor Dogara, it bears repeating, sought for or obtained the region’s mandate to do what they did. And, to the extent that there is any conspiracy to clip Asiwaju’s wings, most likely the co-conspirators come not from one section of the country alone but from all over.

    Besides, it is instructive that much of the public gloating about Asiwaju’s current predicament has come, not from the North, but from his own backyard. Predictably leading the gloating is Chief Bode George, the Lagos-born PDP chieftain who has blamed Tinubu for his jailing years back on corruption charges as chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority. Asiwaju’s political influence, George said with apparent glee, first in THE PUNCH (June 10) “is coming to sunset” and then added in the July 6th edition of the same newspaper that Tinubu and his group “have now been given political circumcision.”

    Quick on his heels was Dr. Frederick Fasehun, co-founder of the militant Oodu’a Peoples Congress. Fasehun said in a two-page advert in The Guardian of July 5 that the National Assembly leadership crisis had nothing to do with the Yoruba but instead was “the demystification of Goliath.” As such, he said, Akande’s call on the Yoruba to see it as a slight on their nationhood “should be ignored.”

    Not left behind was the voluble Mr. Femi Olukayode (formerly Fani-Kayode), spokesman for ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation, who, among other nasty things, said on his official Facebook page on July 9 that the crisis was “the destruction and demystification of Bola Tinubu and his Yoruba loyalists by his erstwhile northern allies in the APC.”

    The Asiwaju should not bother himself about all those gloating over his predicament. In politics, no one, not even the most sagacious politician, can win all the time. He may have lost the battle for the leadership of the National Assembly, but winning the war of stemming the rot of 16 years of PDP’s misrule is far more important. And this war can still be won in spite of the new National Assembly leadership, should it constitute itself into an obstacle against Buhari’s declared war on corruption and of restitution.

    Therefore the Asiwaju, as a key APC chieftain, should never regret the key role he played in the emergence of his party as PDP’s nemesis simply because he has lost one, albeit an important, battle, among the many he has fought to bring hope of a new dawn to Nigeria.

    AN EXPLANATION AND AN APOLOGY

    The attentive reader of this column in Daily Trust last week would have noticed that a few things were wrong with it. First, the article had no title. Second, it did not reach any conclusion. Third, the readers’ responses to the previous column were not edited to remove the sometimes annoying shorthand language of mobile phone texts.

    What happened was that I did not realise I had not saved my final draft before sending it out until I cross-checked my out box. To my great dismay, it turned out that what I’d sent was the original draft which fell short of the final copy by about 500 words and contained the errors I’d corrected.

    By then it was well past my deadline. So I called the editors of The Nation and Daily Trust, and later texted the editors of my online publishers, Gamji and Newsdiaryonline, to drop the article. Whereas the editors at The Nation used their discretion and reproduced an old piece, those at Trust still went ahead to run it because they said they misunderstood my instruction.

    I am sorry for the mix-up.

  • US’ Rainbow of moral decadence

    By the Supreme Court decision of June 26, the United States, US,   became the 26th country to fully recognise the right of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals, LGBT, to enter into state sanctioned marriage. This has obviously triggered off yet another wave of debates on the issue of same sex marriage.

    Quite amusingly, on the day the Supreme Court made the decision, the White House was covered in rainbow lighting to celebrate the ruling with the ‘triumphant’ LGBT community. The rainbow colours, as the media has shown, now represents the symbol of ‘gay pride’. The very phrase brings a bad taste to the mouth, a taste that reminds one that our deep dark secrets as humans, are now coming to the fore. Years of quiet tolerance has stoked the appetite for disdainful immorality and it has grown to become a brazen affront to the foundations of organised society.

    Same sex affairs have been a feature of human sexual relations for ages. However, never has it garnered such public support or been so openly canvassed. For us as Nigerians, widely considered to be intolerant to the LGBT community, the news is largely unwelcome. It is rather appalling that today, countries like the US have indirectly worked gay rights into their foreign policy by exerting pressure on other countries particularly those dependent on US handouts, to be more tolerant of the LGBT community. Even countries not dependent on the US, are not spared. A country like Mozambique had been forced to reverse its ‘anti-gay’ legislations even at a time gay marriage was not legal in all parts of the US.

    The US Supreme Court decision and its endorsement by President Barack Obama will only toughen the US’ gay rights drive across the world, much to the disapproval of religious conservatives everywhere. This is because religion, which is at the root of the opposition to same sex marriages, is not always in tandem with legal realities. However, it constitutes a major foundation for the law in many countries, including the United States. For others, religion and law are one and the same thing, especially in the Muslim countries.

    This kind of verdict in the US is not surprising. What is, however, surprising is the level of opposition to it. In fact, the US Supreme Court justices were evenly divided on the issue until the swing vote of Justice Kennedy assured a 5-4 majority in favour of the verdict. The said Justice Kennedy has been known to give verdicts in favour of gay rights in the past. One of the dissenting opinions was from Justice John Roberts, the US Chief Judge backed by traditionally conservative justices.

    So far, a large number of Americans are unhappy with the ruling. The Republican states have been at the forefront of opposition to gay marriage and Gregg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, was swift in passing a bill to allow religious leaders to legally refuse to perform same sex marriage ceremonies. Abbott stressed that it is important for the clergy to be assured that religious freedom is “beyond the reach of the constitution”. This means the White House may have gone overboard with its support of the ruling without giving thought to the teeming number who feel their religious and personal convictions have been eroded.

    While Abbott may be right, the opinion of the dissenting judges rather show that the US constitution still guarantees religious freedom, but the majority judges trumped that freedom with a right which the constitution never contemplated. As they suggested, it should rather have been left to the states to determine whether they wanted to recognise same sex marriages or not, as had been the case.

    Coming back home to our deeply religious but largely corrupt country, one thing is clear. Unlike in the US case where the right of consenting adults to act as they choose is widely recognised, it is the right of two individuals of the same sex to legally enter into marriage, with its attendant benefits, that was in issue. Here, homosexual acts are illegal. So also, are same sex marriages.

    There is so much Nigeria needs from the US. But the US’ meddlesomeness in the affairs of foreign countries is well documented. With the aftermath of the US Supreme Court decision still hot in the media, one only hopes that when our President, Muhammadu Buhari, meets with President Obama in Washington on July 20, the issue of recognition of gay marriages does not come up, or worse still, become a bargaining tool for receiving the much needed assistance from the US government.

    With our ‘Muslim North’ and predominantly ‘Christian South’, we are unashamedly religious, and in the same vein, very conservative in our religious beliefs. Even with religion removed, our cultural and moral fibre drives us to be conservative about many things, including sexual matters. Yes, polygamy is culturally accepted, even religiously sanctioned, it seems, in the north, but that is part of our culture. Homosexuality is not.

    We are what has been referred to as ‘social traditionalists’ and the current sexual liberalisation being driven by other secular states – yes, for all our religious conservativeness, we are yet a secular country– must be rejected in order to protect our society and maintain whatever order we have left in the country. If Nigeria, through the legislature or judiciary, were to legalise homosexuality and same sex marriage as has been done in some other countries, then the fallout may be too severe for any sitting government to handle.

    Homosexuality has been illegal all these years, quietly tolerated just as prostitution, equally illegal, is tolerated. The tricky thing about this kind of vice is that humans are morally weak and state action in respect of moral failings of the human mind and body, must be tactical. A secular state can hardly enforce virtue; neither should it endorse immorality. It is unfortunate that the US and many countries have taken steps to allow age long taboos, bringing human civilisation into a backward spin.

    Some unsettling developments in recent times include the German National Ethics Council, in late 2014, calling for the decriminalisation of incest between siblings and a district court in Tokyo, Japan, ruling that adultery, when it is for ‘business purposes’, does not constitute an extra marital affair. The UK, with the exception of Northern Ireland, already recognises same sex marriages. South Africa’s Constitutional Court had approved same sex marriage in 2005 and Colombia is set to follow suit.

    No one is calling for the lynching of homosexuals. Even if some African leaders like the despotic Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia and others are overzealous in their protection of traditional values, we cannot emulate the Islamic State in its barbarism. Remember that IS executed some homosexuals in response to the US Supreme Court ruling. But that is their own modus operandi; they are killers.

    Bestiality, incest and all manner of ungodliness now lurk dangerously in the corner. This is the time to pull out our Bibles and Qurans, we the ‘Muslim North’ and the ‘Christian South’, and make good on our ‘religious’ reputation by praying for the salvation of mankind, as it is now beginning to descend down a slippery slope into Sodom once again.

    This rainbow of moral decadence celebrated by Obama contains no pride. It is an affront on traditional society and a symbol of immorality. Now is not the time to lift the lid placed on immorality, rather, the West should realise that this is one door which should not be open more than a little crack or at all. President Buhari must carry this message to the White House.

    ‘If Nigeria, through the legislature or judiciary, were to legalise homosexuality and same sex marriage as has been done in some other countries, then the fallout may be too severe for any sitting government to handle’

     

     

  • Our Girls;  PMB: SOS at Mowe/Ibafo by JBerger; End ‘DRACONIAN DEMOCRACY’ in State, LGAs

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. More suicide bombers every day.

    President Buhari must engage Julius Berger about the failure of the Mowe/Ibafo-Lagos expressway causing 40km, five hour, five lane wide traffic jams every Sunday evening. It took four hours to jet to Lagos on Saturday morning, July 11. The problem is bad road sections which almost stop traffic, lack of pedestrian flyovers with thousands crossing the road daily and lack of laybys for domestic passenger vehicles in the towns of Mowe and Ibafo.

    Nigeria has had 1999-2014 the ‘The Democracy Years of Plenty’ or ‘The Democracy Years of the Locust’ – the locust being the greedy and corrupt political, administrative and contractor culture. This created a monster which consumed all we produced and borrowed more to steal and even pay salaries. The years 2015-2019 will be ‘Years of Famine’- financial famine. ‘We the people’ are forced to pay for the thieving and mismanagement signalled by the fall by the 50% in the dollar-from N150 to N232 in nine months, the 50% fall in oil prices and the 50% reduction in demand for Nigeria’s oil due to distance, new nearer markets, foreign political discrimination against Nigeria and reduction in oil demands by America from the rise in shale oil. This is lack of disaster planning.

    Nigeria failed to save adequately during the Years of Plenty. Remember the political outcry against the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the Excess Crude Account, by gluttonous governors greedy for more to spend on thin air and not salaries? Today, both federal and governors have nothing! And salaries are owed, mostly due to ‘diversion’ and corruption. What a tragedy and travesty of Nigeria’s inheritance? If Nigeria was a bank, it would have collapsed and the thieves would be in jail for financial crimes and the money restored to government coffers. A ‘Confession’, saying ‘Sorry’ without ‘Restitution’ is unacceptable. Of course there was a trust issue between states and the Federal Government which has managed to keep 52-4% of the budget. Such trust issues include inter-party suspicion, unfair federalism, uneven access to Ecological Funds and corruption.

    About now the federal government, governors and chairpersons of LGAs and their ‘hooligans’ have begun to seriously plan, against the ‘financial drought’. They are planning to substitute for the lost ‘oil money’ revenues by ‘drilling’ the local population to extract what was lost in oil prices and corruption. Even the corrupt have the need to feed their greed. ‘Buhari fiscal discipline’ cannot be in everybody’s heart, eyes and bank account. The Nigerian citizen is a mini-LGA while struggling against the corrupt uniformed officer in all colours white to black. Many Nigerians have been held, intimidated, insulted and robbed by armed robber ‘official’ thugs with LGA ID cards at a LGA roadblock -a scam.  This and excessive government taxes on the few with violent harassment of the rest have generated a massive citizens’ anger. This pain is aggravated by the natural inclination of any UNSUPERVISED uniformed or authoritarian personnel to have attitude, aggression, arrogance, abusive language and violence with malicious vindictive seizures of signboards, goods, vehicles, motorbikes etcetera with destruction, loss or even theft of seized items or release for a bribe.

    Governors and pension fund handlers do not all have clean anti-corrupt hands. The huge cost of tax consultants and the fate of the money raised have left many citizens disappointed. The Extended Family is the oldest NGO and ‘Bank’ charging ‘No Interest And No Security’ in Africa though irresponsibly unrecognised in academic, economic and tax circles. Africans look after the Extended Family. Yet there are no ‘Personal Tax Reliefs’ covering unemployed family members, parents and families of deceased members. These characteristics of African society support systems are unrecognised even by African Tax which takes ‘TAX TEMPLATES’ directly from the World Bank, Woe Bank, and the IMF, ‘International Morticians Funeral Fund’ who as Europeans, look after only their nuclear family. ‘Be thy brother’s keeper’ is a reality in Nigeria and only a church charity matter in Europe because of the support systems of the dole and incapacity handouts. In Nigeria we have no such safety nets but are denied tax rebates for substituting for government social network failures. This is one area where ‘A HOME-GROWN TAX SYSTEM IS NECESSARY’ giving reliefs for extended family members and activities.

    The drive for IGR, Internally Generated Revenue, must no longer be devilish resulting in more Draconian Democracy. This is the time for ‘change’ in the way government treats its people. The people did not steal, government agents did.

    The hallmark of Draconian Democracy is deliberately and unreasonably inflated demand notices and bills and hyper-inflated fines. This is a quadruple crime of 1] Abuse of office; 2] Official intimidation; 3] Attempt to steal under false pretences, and, 4] Extortion. This amounts to a Human Rights Criminal Offence requiring a monitoring body against any official proved to be extortionist. Such officials should be exposed, demoted, jailed and sacked and denied pensions.

    Nigerians expect a change in ridiculous corruption-driven taxation demands and utility bills, ‘crude, rude letters’, ‘demand notices’, intimidation and attempts to extort. State assemblies and the National Asembly (NASS) should quickly enact a LAW AGAINST UNREASONABLE/STUPID TAXATION, IRRESPONSIBLE OVER-BILLING OR IRRESPONSIBLE BACKDATING. This may aim at forcing the government and its agencies to give their bills for vetting to A CONSUMER PROTECTION TAXATION/BILLING OMBUDSMAN appointed by civil society. This ombudsman may arbitrate disputes.

    ‘The drive for IGR, Internally Generated Revenue, must no longer be devilish resulting in more Draconian Democracy. This is the time for ‘change’ in the way government treats its people. The people did not steal, government agents did’