The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Fuel Subsidy: Time to slay the sacred cow

    Fuel Subsidy: Time to slay the sacred cow

    How apt that the final images of Goodluck Jonathan’s shambolic presidency, is a nation camped out at petrol stations in desperate search of fuel! For long stretches of his tenure it seemed as though the queues had disappeared for good but the malaise was only being kept at bay by artificial solutions.

    In the last few weeks the experience of the average Nigerian trying to purchase petrol for his car or generator has been hellish. Very few bought at the official rate of N87 per liter. The product sold for between N150 and N250 per liter depending on location and intensity of the problem on a given day.

    The latest crisis has revived calls for the removal of fuel subsidies which different administrations have struggled with over the last two decades. The very suggestion that the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration could discontinue a system that guarantees artificially cheap petrol has provoked a predictably hostile response from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

    The union has always been the vanguard for resisting hike in fuel prices over the years. It successfully stared down a succession of presidents – from Olusegun Obasanjo to Jonathan – over the issue.

    The almost visceral reaction of labour and other activists revolves around the sense that the bulk of Nigerians who subsist on less than $2 per day would be hurt by the removal of subsidy. They also argue that this is the only benefit that this vulnerable segment of society gets from government and should not be touched.

    These arguments might be appealing emotionally and politically but they are becoming increasingly indefensible. Our experiences during these never-ending cycles of fuel scarcity demand that we re-frame the basis for the discussion.

    Also, the ongoing prosecution of the offspring of highly-placed members of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and their associates over subsidy payment scams raises the question of who really is being subsidised.

    On paper the subsidy is supposed to protect the less economically empowered in the society. But every time marketers throw a fit and refuse to import, we all – rich and poor – end up paying outrageous prices for petrol and carry on with our lives. In fact, the most powerful continue to get the products at subsidised rates because of their connections while those in the lowest rungs bear the brunt.

    Kerosene is supposedly subsidised for the poor and should sell for N50 per liter. But nowhere in Nigeria is the product retailed for less than N120 – and that is when you can find it. Meanwhile, the marketers keep getting paid billions of naira that doesn’t translate into a subsidy for impoverished citizens.

    Nigeria isn’t the only country on the continent that has operated or continues to operate a regime of fuel subsidies. But over time many have come to the conclusion they could no longer continue to do so. The latest to announce it is ending them from September 30 is Angola.

    Angola, just like Nigeria, imports virtually all of its fuel despite being Africa’s second largest producer. This is because of its insufficient local refining capacity. The result is she spent four percent of her 2013 budget on subsidies.

    Justifying the move, a government statement said: “Gasoline now joins the free price system, ending the burden on the state of the cost of subsidies. The ongoing effort to adopt realistic prices will help strengthen social programmes and reduce inequality, since subsidies benefit the most favoured groups and encourage fuel smuggling to neighbouring countries.”

    It is interesting that the Angolans make the point about those who really benefit from the subsidy regime. What an irony that when labour unions oppose attempts to change the existing system, they are actually helping the emergency businessmen feeding fat on it to continue taking us all for a collective ride.

    The point at which we find ourselves in Nigeria today the issue isn’t just whether subsidies that ostensibly benefit the ‘poor’ are good and desirable. The equally relevant question is whether they are affordable and sustainable. Can a country that is borrowing to pay workers and contractors continue to pay out trillions of naira in subsidies that don’t subsidise?

    The problem is compounded by the changing revenue profile of the country. In the boom years the payments may have been bearable, but with oil prices crashing to unprecedented lows they no longer make sense.

    And it isn’t as if the figures have remained static. Between the Obasanjo years and the Jonathan tenure they ballooned from an average of N300 billion that was being spent yearly up to 2007 to N 2.7 trillion by 2013! From a little over N400 billion under President Umaru Yar’Adua there was a quantum leap to over N1.2 trillion in the first year of Jonathan’s presidency.

    Even more embarrassing is the fact that between the Federal Government and the marketers there’s no agreement as to what is currently owed to them. While they claim N200 billion as outstanding, the Ministry of Finance says the figure is N131 billion.

    Whatever the true figures are it doesn’t make sense paying out N2.7 trillion to subsidise consumption. Petrol might be an important product which price ultimately affects the pricing of other goods and services, but it isn’t the only variable that determines that.

    That raises the question of how to move forward. First, we need to accept that the market doesn’t respond well to unnecessary political meddling. We need to review and repeal all legislation regulating the petroleum industry whose construction was not based on purely economic considerations.

    One of the pillars of the subsidy regime is the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) Decree of 1975. It was created to equalise the cost of transporting petroleum products from depots to filling stations and ensure that they are available at uniform prices throughout Nigeria. Elementary economics, however, tells us that distance will impact the price at which a product is ultimately sold in different locations.

    Even at the best of times, in spite of the existence of this legislation, petrol always sold at prices higher than the official rate in Nigeria’s extremities. Meanwhile, the marketer who has delivered his cargo, dutifully queues up to collect PEF payment (subsidy) for a product that the poor man in Damaturu buys for N120 per liter or more.

    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.

    Putting palliatives in place must go hand in hand with the necessary reforms. Imagine how many buses or train lines N2.7 trillion can buy. Just think of the number of refineries that can be built for that amount. You can build countless roads, schools and hospitals for what we throw away yearly.

    Religion is a touchy subject but the more I think of the subsidy the more I am reminded of India where there’s so much poverty and yet well-fed cows roam free because they are considered sacred. We’ve made the fuel subsidy into an idol that must not be touched. Unfortunately, it is our commonwealth draining away yearly while leaving the mass of the people untouched.

    The only way forward is to confront this cancer headlong. Nigerians are already paying outrageous amounts for petrol and I doubt whether deregulated prices can be worse. Indeed, if you were to poll our longsuffering population and offer them regular fuel supply at higher prices or intermittent scarcity at existing rates, they would jump at the former.

    Most of these arguments are not new. What has been lacking has been the political will to do what is necessary. Previous administrations were not able to convince people that the subsidies should go because they were sleaze-infested and distrusted by the people. That was why the argument that the subsidies were the only things the poor benefitted used to resonate.

    But against the backdrop of the exposure of massive scams dogging the scheme, the incoming administration has an uncommon opportunity to tap into peoples’ frustrations arising from the pains of scarcity to remove the subsidies once and for all.

    There is no right time or pain-free way to do so. The trouble with us is we desire to get to heaven but want to be saved the trouble of dying first. We want to have lovely babies but want to be spared the pains of childbirth.

  • Our Girls; UK Polls; Solar Energy Revolution; Bank Of Industry; Tesla Powerwall solar batteries

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. We pray the Chibok Girls will soon be free. Their painful stories must be documented as documentaries and stories, by Nollywood and in text books of contemporary Nigerian history ‘Lest we Forget’ for we are a very forgetful country. We even have a government which forgets, without apology, to pay its fuel bills promptly precipitating totally preventable misery for all, even government officials themselves. Even haughty National Assembly (NASS) was jolted by a power cut during session. Welcome to the real world. Why did government not pay two weeks ago to entirely prevent this fuel horror?  UK polls: No violence, murders, cheating at polls. Nigeria must learn the correct civilised political dance.  But let’s talk solar and progress in 3-6 MONTHS! AFRICA –GO SOLAR! NIGERIA –GO SOLAR, PLEASE! IF WE GET SOLAR RIGHT WE WILL POWER NIGERIA OUT OF PENURY AND REPLACE THE UNSUSTAINABLE ‘GENERATOR GENERATION’ WITH A SOLAR SEASON OF SILENT POWER WITHIN ONE YEAR. Nigeria needs modern solar factories to mass produce solar equipment, AN OPPORTUNITY LOST by Obasanjo in 1999 with cell phone factories. He preferred tobacco to telecom factories.

    The Bank of Industry (BoI) is supporting solar ventures but at what price or result? Did the BoI strangely post a profit of N5.2billion? Is it supposed to make huge profits or minimal profits on low interest loans? So how did BoI get N5.2b profit? The Buhari government should note that its ‘latest best friend’, China, has interest rates of just 5.1% vs 21-25% for the common man and common business in Nigeria-a CBN/Bank sector corruption. Bring down Nigeria’s interest rates.

    The Nigerian electricity single federal national grid groans in the federal darkness of just 2,800Mw in 2015 instead of the needed 150,000Mw for the population. Hurray, Independent Power Plants were finally approved, along with some scanty railway services, in a 40 years late decentralisation scheme. That federal might was wielded by selfish Fellow Nigerians, whose ideas still cripple plague us. Those ‘False Federalism’ ideas strangled development.

    Now, together with individual solar power, the sun is at last seriously creeping into Nigeria. A batch of 170 schools and some health facilities will be serviced by the 5MW Lagos Solar Project in Lagos and a 1,000MW Damaturu Solar Power Plant, Yobe State. Every single Nigerian state should take note of these and other solar events nationwide and try to save themselves by getting their citizens and businesses off the national grid. This will help the troubled grid to cope as it is assailed by unrestrainable ‘vandalism’ and ‘vicious pricing systems’ and ‘poor delivery systems’ decimating the gas supplies. And IF NIGERIA GOES SERIOUS SOLAR, DO NOT GO ‘OLD SOLAR’ with old lower efficiency technology. Nigeria must not become the ‘SOLAR DUMPING GROUND of even one or two year old equipment’. Solar research moves monthly. On April 20, the Tesla electric car guru Elon Musk announced the ‘NEW ENERGY REVOLUTION’ with TESLA SOLAR GREEN HOME BATTERIES with a 7kWh unit costing $3,000 and 10kWh Unit $3,000-ideal for homes and offices to get off the grid or when you are thrown off the grid. The Buhari government should lead the way to state, LGA, Private sector and CBN to Google this and other new solar technology to rescue from the grid and bypass the backward government officials still with 19th century ideas on power. ‘Tesla Solar’ should be receiving visits now.

    Nigeria does not need to reinvent the wheel. It should use that huge red powerhouse in the sky freely sent by a gracious God. NIGERIA JUMPED FROM LAND LINES TO CELL PHONES UNDER OBASANJO. IT MUST JUMP FROM GENERATORS TO SOLAR ENERGY UNDER BUHARI. It needs brilliant intelligent go-getting professionals in the corridors of federal, State and LGA to get their political bosses to take on board with solar and other cutting edge technology. ‘POWER NIGERIA AND YOU EMPOWER NIGERIANS’, ‘SOLARISE NIGERIA AND WE WILL ALL SMILE’. Remember the New Environmentally Friendly building just opened in the Pan African University, Lekki, Lagos? Have your government officials visited it for ideas to use during the next four years or are they just ‘armchair solar supporters’? ‘SOLAR MAKES SENSE’ –EXCEPT to entrenched FUEL CARTELS AND GENERATOR SELLERS. The CBN should set Nigeria free from the huge cost of excessive fuel and oil consumption to power and maintain Nigeria’s one million generators by setting up a $5billion solar Loan Scheme, low interest, 3.5 year repayment scheme to solarise Nigeria so the money will be back in the bank before 2019. The money can be used to purchase equipment and support factories to produce solar technology with today’s cutting edge solar science. The GENCOs and DISCOs will not like it but Nigeria requires 150,000MW.  Every Nigerian state is larger than 20-50 countries and must face the responsibility to the citizens who deserve more than exercise books, a few potholes filled and unfulfilled promises. States must provide Independent Power Plants to power their citizens into the 21st century. To date we have too little and it is nearly too late. At federal, state and LGA, we expect rapid fire progress.

    FOUR YEARS IS A SHORT 1460 DAYS. What are your LGA, state blueprint in power, education, health, transport, youth development, library services, youth centres? Without the detailed budgetary lines international examples and close monitoring, the money will be stolen again by politicians, party and civil servants using imaginary contracts.

  • The Eighth Senate rollercoaster

    The Eighth Senate rollercoaster

    In any elected government there are three arms, one to make laws, the second to execute them and the third to adjudicate on the laws. By separating their functions and powers, each is supposed to serve as a check on the others.

    The fundamental difference between an elected government and a dictatorship of whatever kind is the separate and autonomous existence of the law making arm. In any elected government, no one can spend one kobo from government’s coffers without the legislature’s appropriation and no treaty with any country can become law without the legislature’s approval. For me, these alone make it the first among the equal but seperate three arms, even though it seems the executive arm is the most powerful probably because, by definition, it is the largest. (It is, I suppose, this power that makes its head any country’s No. 1 Citizen and his deputy the No. 2.)

    As, at least for me, the more equal of the three arms of our government, it is not surprising that the subject matter of those to head our two-chamber legislature, the National Assembly, has dominated our media headlines since the end of this year’s general elections in April.

    Of the two chambers, i.e., the Senate and the House of Representatives, the election of the head of the former as the senior chamber, namely its President and the country’s No. 3 Citizen, has attracted, by far, the greater public and media attention than that of the head of the latter, namely its Speaker and the country’s No. 4 Citizen.

    Since Independence in 1960, the Senate has had twelve Presidents, three (Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Dennis Osadebe, and Dr. Nwafor Orizu) during the First Republic between 1960 and 1966, one (Dr. Joseph Wayas) during the Second Republic between 1979 and 1983, two (Dr Iyorchia Ayu and Mr Ameh Ebute) during the peculiar Third Republic – which was a diarchy in all but name under military president, General Ibrahim Babangida – during the last two years of his eight-year transition programme that ended in 1993, and six (Chief Evan Enwerem, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, Chief Adolphus Wabara, Chief Ken Nnamani and the incumbent, General David Mark) during the current Fourth Republic which began in 1999.

    The race for Mark’s successor has since turned into a rollercoaster with all its twists and turns that have left almost everyone in a tizzy. At the beginning, it all seemed a shoo-in for Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the ranking senator representing Kwara Central, two-term governor of the state, one time chairman of the powerful Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum, and apparently the worthy successor of his late father and Senate Leader during the Second Republic, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, as the godfather of Kwara politics.

    First, his geo-political zone, the North-Central, was bettered only by the North-West in delivering for the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the general elections and he played a key role in so doing. Second, he’d earned a somewhat controversial reputation for his capacity as a successful wheeler-dealer in politics and business.  Third, because of the first reason, his party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was reported to have initially zoned the Senate presidency to his zone and he looked like the sole beneficiary.

    This picture of a shoo-in for the godfather of Kwara politics has since given way to one of serious challenge to him from within his zone and from the North-East such that today the Senate presidency is a toss-up between him, Senator George Akume, the current minority leader and two-term governor of Benue State, and Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, who has been a federal legislator since 1999, twice as member of the House of Representatives and twice now as senator.

    Yesterday’s lead story of Thisday provides probably the best and possibly the most authoritative insight into the predicament the APC faces as these three battle for the Senate’s presidency for which the incumbent deserves credit for virtually single-handedly stabilising – whatever reservations anyone may have about his politics.

    In its first eight years, the Senate had a scandalous number of five presidents, giving an average of one and a half years per president, thanks mainly to meddling in its affairs by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Then Mark came along in 2007, following a controversial win of his seat in Benue State, got elected president after his party zoned it to North-Central, his geo-political zone, and remained president for eight years by managing to keep out external meddling and by beating all challenges to his leadership from within.

    Needless to say, the now stable Senate presidency has become a much more attractive political prize than it was before Mark and, not surprisingly, the fight for it has become highly intense. Thisday’s headline, “Intrigues, Horse Trading Trail Senate Presidency Race,” and its rider to the headline, “Lawan gets Buhari’s nod as Tinubu conditions support on Gbajabiamila as Speaker; Saraki, Akume intensify lobby; APC caucus may decide Wednesday,” were probably as accurate a gist of the fight as any news that have been published about it so far.

    Unfortunately this picture, to the extent that it is accurate – which I believe it is – shows that little has changed from the smoke and mirrors days of the ruling PDP where the main consideration was not how power could best be used for public service but who got what. Consequently, zoning trumped every other consideration for elective offices, and the final say always went to the president.

    Nigerians voted APC for change and not to carry on with the discredited ways of the PDP. This party introduced and popularised zoning in Nigeria’s politics. But 16 years on, the concept has only promoted mediocrity in politics as many of its critics, including this reporter, had predicted. Worse, it had also led to unnecessary acrimony and instability in the polity. APC should therefore discard it and allow a free-for-all in the elections for the National Assembly leadership, based on who its members think would lead them best and serve the public interest best.

    The most important consideration should never be where the contestants come from. Far more important are first, their demonstrated personal integrity and commitment to public service as opposed to self service and, second, their abhorrence of the old divide and rule ways of the PDP government leadership.

    There are, of course, other considerations like competence and a capacity to keep outsiders from meddling in the strictly internal affairs of the National Assembly. However, the overriding consideration must be the personal integrity of an aspirant and his commitment to public service such as would facilitate, rather than hinder, President-elect Muhammadu Buhari from bringing about at least the beginning of the change he has promised.

    It could be that none of the three current contenders fits this bill, given the fact that they are too steeped in the bad old attitude of the legislature to have the will to change things around. In that case, nothing, in theory at least, stops the federal legislators, most of whom are new, from looking beyond the lot on offer for the Senate leadership.

    However, since, in practice, time is now an object and as such has restricted the choice before the legislators to the three, they should be left alone by the APC to choose the least bad of a not-so-ideal lot.

    In my thinking that choice should be Senator George Akume. His choice could signal the beginning of an end to a badly divided North, especially religious wise, a division which, in turn, has been very bad for Nigeria’s peace, stability and progress. His choice is also likely to pose the least obstructive of the three to the Senate working hand-in-glove with the presidency to bring an end to the impunity that so much characterised the departing PDP government and made the lives of most Nigerians so nasty, brutish and short.

     

    Re: GMB’s ‘ban’ on AIT

    Sir,

    The proprietor of AIT ought to sit and reflect on a disgraceful season. Deliberate falsehood passed as news stories. Mr Dokpesi preferred money to decency. Freedom of speech is no licence to indecency.

    Mansur Kotorkoshi +2347034629236.

     

    Sir,

    While the President-elect has the option of resorting to the courts to seek redress for the irresponsibility and deprecating unprofessionalism, the remedy for NTA’s grand and ridiculous betrayal of public trust is a clean sweep of its top management as a harbinger to rescuing the organisation from the precipice on which it now hangs.

    Duncan Ibeabuchi +2349033424201.

     

    Sir,

    Whatever may be the decision of GMB, I had before the elections put AIT on total ban in my house and my decision was supported by my wife and children.

    Omotayo Owoseni +2348023002105.

     

    Sir,

    Is it the same Sola Omole, delightful NTA newscaster of those days, same as the current DG of NTA that has become such a nauseating megaphone of the outgoing government? I just hope they are different persons!!!

    +2348152849177.

     

    Still on Tamuno

    Sir,

    Izon, Nembe, Kalabari, Ibani, Okrika and some others make up the Ijaw nation. However, Professor Tekena N. Tamuno was Okrika, while Tamuno means God in Okrika, Kalabari and Ibani.

    +2348065221385

  • PDP: Time to face reality

    In the last elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), the party that has ruled the country for 16 years since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, was disgraced at the polls by the rival opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. That scandalous defeat of a ruling party that had boasted to high heavens that it was capable of ruling the country for at least 60 unbroken years has now almost torn the party into shreds. The defeat, though much expected by political pundits, seems to have caught those at the helms of affairs in the party by surprise. Now, the party bigwigs are enthralled in a trajectory of sleepless nights.

    The party is currently embroiled in a crisis of confidence which has reached a boiling point. At the centre of the crisis is the national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu,  on the one hand, and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC, who have come under tremendous pressure to abdicate office on account of the poor showing of the party in the last elections. Many of the aggrieved party members including some state governors are united in the clamour for the party leaders to leave the scene. But the leaders have vowed not to cave in without a fight.

    As usual, the media is awash with accusations and counter-accusations. While the accusations are predicated on why the leaders should throw in the towel after leading the party to a disastrous defeat in the elections, the leaders themselves are holding on to the constitution of the party which empowers them to be in office until the next national convention of the party which comes up in a year or two from now. But the warring members think this is mere balderdash. The consequence of this is that both sides are, at the moment, holding on to their gunpowder.

    As the May 29 handover date approaches, senior members of the party comprising governors and associates of President Goodluck Jonathan have perfected a grand plan to ratchet up the pressure on Mu’azu. The governors and Jonathan’s closest aides have been in a long-drawn battle with the NWC with both sides trading blames over who was (more) responsible for the party’s poor outing at the just-concluded elections. Top on the list are allegations of betrayal and diversion of campaign funds which are being peddled by both sides. Not even the president’s directive that the warring members should stop trading words in the media because it could escalate the crisis the party is facing, has been able to douse the raging storm. The president’s charge has simply been largely ignored.

    The fact remains that the governors and Jonathan’s trusted aides who are up in arms, seem to have vowed that they would not stay in the same party with either Mu’azu or members of the NWC as presently constituted. The issue seems to have been aggravated by the outcome of the recent elections in Britain. In the aftermath of the elections, those rooting for the removal or resignation of the PDP leaders have been justifying their stance against the backdrop of the resignations of leaders of the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and others in the United Kingdom following the failings of the parties at the UK general election which was held towards the tail end of last week.

    In what looks like a confirmation of the high-level resolution and determination of some of the PDP governors and party leaders to see to Mu’azu’s exit, Babangida Aliyu, the loquacious governor of Niger State, has joined Ayodele Fayose, his Ekiti State counterpart, in urging the NWC to emulate the British political leaders who resigned after leading their parties to defeat in last Thursday’s election.  Aliyu said any leader that leads his political party to defeat as it was in the case of PDP, is supposed to resign. As he puts it: “It is unfortunate that people had to be called to resign. The leaders are supposed to voluntarily resign their positions for the loss at the just concluded general election. It is unfair that they are threatening to form a factional PDP because they were asked to resign”. The governor noted that morality and principle were key attributes the PDP must imbibe to succeed for future elections, adding that what happened in the United Kingdom election last Thursday was a reflection of morality and principle, which must be brought to the Nigerian polity.

    In the last eight years of Aliyu’s stewardship as the governor of Niger State, he has consistently portrayed himself as a man who fires from all cylinders. Sometimes, he gets himself entangled in unnecessary and avoidable controversies. In this recent outburst, what Governor Aliyu fails to understand is that morality and principle have never been found in the DNA of the average politician in Nigeria. In other words, it is alien in this clime. Aliyu himself alluded to this many months back at the heat of the electioneering campaigns when he openly declared that there are no saints in politics, although he was to recant this later in the face of a deluge of criticism that greeted that speech.

    With the accusation of the embezzlement of campaign funds and the ease with which Nigerian politicians jump from one party to another like a woman changing wrappers, it is clear that there is nothing like morality or principle among them. Even the current crisis in which the PDP leadership is enmeshed is due to the fact that the leaders involved are either shameless or they lack principles and morality. Mu’azu and the others at the hierarchy of the party may hold on to their offices by hook or crook for the time being, but it is certain that come what may, they would soon be flushed out from their present comfort zones because they have failed to provide the needed leadership when it matters most. And there are no two ways about that.

    However, one thing that is clear is that the APC, a rainbow coalition of opposition parties that had been on the sidelines of national politics for the past 16 years, has learnt a lot from its seemingly weak position of yester-years and therefore, converted these weaknesses to strength through well-thought out and good campaign. The party’s victory did not come overnight. It is the climax and reward for a painstaking campaign at a time the people were crying for a change in the leadership of the country.

    Winning elections is certainly one of the things any political party will always wish for. But sometimes, it is not as simple as that. In every election, for the winners, it is a beautiful thing to behold; as for the losers, it inflicts a permanent nightmare of sort. That is, perhaps, the situation in which the PDP as the losing party at the last election, has suddenly found itself. Surprisingly, as it is, there appear to be too many contending interests in the party, all jostling to take control of the moribund party machinery. With the current fratricidal war in the PDP, it is doubtful if any lesson has been learnt at all from the party’s unimpressive outing in the last elections. Already, the party is seriously polarized along primordial lines. The major challenge now facing the party is to prevent itself from imminent extinction. Therefore, my unsolicited advice is for the party to quickly close ranks and settle down to its new role as an opposition party rather than crying over spilled milk.

    For a party that has over the years been calling the shots and dictating the tune, playing opposition may be quite a difficult task. The truth is that the party leaders should realise that the merriment is simply over!

    ‘With the current fratricidal war in the PDP, it is doubtful if any lesson has been learnt at all from the party’s unimpressive outing in the last elections’

     

  • PDP must earn right to criticise Buhari

    PDP must earn right to criticise Buhari

    “Many in the ruling party still cannot reconcile themselves with what has just happened: they are handing over the reins to the man they disdained and they just can’t stop the habit of sniping at him. This is the campaign that never ended, and the attacks would continue whether or not they are reasonable or morally justified.” 

    I overheard a conversation between two men on a street that captures the magnitude of the burden inherited by President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. It went something like this:

    Mr. A: “Why e come be say now wey your man (Buhari) don win naim we dey suffer dis kain thing? No light, no petrol, no money… Na so una dey shout change, change … him don win now see wahala!”

    Mr. B: Haba! But Jonathan is still in charge, Buhari never take over now!”

    Mr. A: “Look … we no go gree o!” And their voices tapered off in the distance.

    In stunned silence I digested what I had just heard. The size of the challenge confronting the next administration is gargantuan, but it is compounded by so much ignorance on the part of a longsuffering population who now expect their newly-minted leader to brandish a wand and sweep their troubles away. If only this was wonderland!

    Buhari’s assignment is complicated by the bitterness factor. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was unprepared for the loss of the presidency. Party spokesman aptly described his organization as ‘traumatized’.

    Many in the ruling party still cannot reconcile themselves with what has just happened: they are handing over the reins to the man they disdained and they just can’t stop the habit of sniping at him. This is the campaign that never ended, and the attacks would continue whether or not they are reasonable or morally justified.

    That the PDP is in disarray after its calamitous electoral performance is to be expected. The scope of the debacle is such that the party which has been in power for an unbroken 16-year stretch would be would be psychologically damaged for a long time.

    Up North it has been virtually wiped out by Hurricane Buhari. In the South West it is standing on two shaky legs in Ondo and Ekiti. These outposts are bound to come under sustained pressure from the new governing party after May 29.

    In the South South and South East zones it faces an uncertain future. Electoral litigation and potential defections are bound to erode its holdings in these areas.

    In Abuja, national chairman Ahmadu Muazu and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) are exchanging brickbats with aides and associates of President Goodluck Jonathan over the defeat while crossing swords with governors who want them sacked.

    But no matter how bad things look for PDP at the moment, the worst is yet to come. In the next few months as the new government begins a forensic examination of the Jonathan years we should expect more embarrassing scandals to be unveiled as whistleblowers – long restrained by the fear of the outgoing government – begin to sing.

    The savage in-fighting that has already kicked off is not going to disappear just because a committee has been appointed to examine why the party did poorly at the polls. Peace will only come when one of the factions contending for the soul of the party prevails.

    Although there’s no unanimity as to the best way forward most members agree that PDP has to reinvent itself. But that isn’t going to happen until the party understands where it went wrong. The reactions of some of its leaders – from President Jonathan who’s already dreaming of PDP’s speedy return to power in 2019 to Muazu who’s been bragging about transforming into a vicious attack dog who will give the All Progressives Congress (APC) government nightmares – shows they still don’t get it.

    Their comments and those of their camp followers on the internet show that their understanding of their new opposition role ends with lobbing criticism and invective at every move of the incoming lot and their leader, Buhari. It was that sort of wooly-headed thinking that inspired the hate campaign strategy that backfired spectacularly of March 28 and April 11.

    The tactic or strategy a party in opposition adopts is usually shaped by the circumstance. There is the ‘reaction model’ involving relentless sniping and nitpicking. This means harassing your quarry over every little failing. It could be quite effective where the government in power is already unpopular, but it is very risky where certain lines are crossed.

    The other option is the ‘proactive model’ in which the opposition tries to take the initiative by proffering new and more attractive policies than those set forth by the government of the day for dealing with challenges. This is mostly adopted where the incumbent regime retains a measure of popularity and credibility. In this case frontal attack doesn’t work because there’s not much to attack.

    APC adopted the relentless attack model, now the PDP lazily wants to follow that same tack without understanding why it worked. You don’t attack for attack sake. The power of a critic’s utterances comes from his credibility. When Buhari talks about fighting corruption there’s a ring of believability to his words because of his history. The same comments coming from some of our former heads of state immediately conjures images of very black pots calling the kettle names.

    Jonathan was roundly criticized because there was so much to criticize in his government. The flak hit home because it was supported by concrete evidence. If the opposition were hitting him over the head for corruption, they could point at several running scandals at every point in time. It was so bad that by the final year of his tenure the president had lost so much credibility locally and internationally.

    In trying to savage Buhari even before he’s sworn into office, the PDP is making a big mistake. The man still enjoys tremendous goodwill and this will not dissipate overnight; it will take him stumbling from disaster to disaster for that to happen.

    If anything PDP and its leaders should stay out of the way. As the magnitude of the mess it created becomes evident they should be hiding their heads in shame and allow the new team clean up their mess. And truly Nigeria in 2015 is one massive mess.

    Every day the sheer scale of Boko Haram atrocities becomes evident. On the positive side the military has recorded successes in recent times. But it has struck me that all the efforts of the armies of Nigeria and three neighbouring countries have not been able to wipe out the sect.

    After each day’s fighting the military reports new heavy death tolls of the part of the militants. How did they manage to get this big? How did they manage to build such a mighty force of men under arms? What were the administrations in charge in the last decade doing while this monster grew? All of this occurred under PDP’s watch.

    Under the same party the nation has become bitterly polarized along ethnic and religious lines like never before in her history. The hatred between groups is frighteningly approaching the intensity of the pre-civil war period.

    That’s not all. The economy has been run aground. There is no electricity. Fuel queues have become a permanent feature of our landscape. We squander billions of naira on dubious subsidy payments every year. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that neither the Ministry of Finance nor the oil marketers can agree on what the numbers are.

    Unemployment has assumed the status of a plague. Under pressure from falling oil prices the naira now exchanges at an all-time low of well over N200 to the US dollar. The foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account are depleted. With one or two exceptions most states cannot pay monthly salaries and even the federal government had to borrow to meet its own wage obligations. This is the country that PDP would be handing to the next administration.

    The clean-up exercise that Buhari has been saddled is going to take a while to get to done. We’re not going to wake up on May 30 to discover that Nigeria has become Paradise.

    I believe that the president-elect has started going about his business in a very sound way. Some have tried to make his attempts at lowering expectations out to be an attempt to renege on campaign promises. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

    Anybody who has bothered to read between the lines of his words in the past few weeks would notice he’s been clearly setting the style and tone of his government. In his comments on the first anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls he said the approach of his administration to resolving the issue would be founded on honesty. That required him to declare bluntly that there were no guarantees the girls would ever be found.

    One of Jonathan’s greatest undoing is that for much of his tenure he lived in denial and never leveled with the public about how bad things were. He preferred to tell the each audience what he felt they wanted to hear instead of the bitter truth.

    He glossed over the insurgency even when bombs were going off in Abuja – preferring the narrative that it was the work of APC and sundry enemies who were bent on unseating him. He and his wife didn’t initially accept that the Chibok abductions happened. Indeed some of his aides up till today insist that the incident was a politically-motivated stunt to embarrass the government.

    After he accepted that the incident did happen, he kept reassuring the country of their imminent return. At a point one of his defence chiefs even boasted of knowing where they were being held. More than a year after they are still not home. By promising what he could not deliver Jonathan did incalculable harm to his credibility. The result is he led his party to the electoral carnage we’ve just witnessed.

    Seamlessly the party responsible for our sorry state becomes the new opposition. It expects to get going in that role by deploying criticism. But the erstwhile ruling party lost the moral right to criticise by its criminal mismanagement of Nigeria. Indeed, it would be amusing watching PDP leaders moan about the state of the nation in the next one or two years.

    PDP must now earn the right to criticize those who govern the country. Introspection and planning were never its strong suit. But that more than anything is what is required in opposition. In 1999, the party’s first Minister for Power, Bola Ige, excitedly promised to deliver 24-hour electricity within six months. He didn’t wait to understand what the problem was. Sixteen years after his successors haven’t done better.

    The party needs to prove through concrete actions that it has repented of its old, discredited ways and can now be entrusted with power.

    It will not have the federal platform to showcase anything in the coming years. It would have to prove its competence using its few remaining outposts in the South-South, South-East and Gombe. APC did this successfully – that was why during the campaigns it could point to the achievements of its governors in Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Ogun, Oyo and elsewhere as examples of good governance it intended to replicate at federal level.

    Until it has something positive to show PDP and its discredited leaders must really stay out of the way of the cleaners.

  • GMB’s ‘ban’ on AIT

    GMB’s ‘ban’ on AIT

    Penultimate Monday, all hell broke loose, following news of a ban on AIT from the coverage of the activities of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB). Coming on the very day which was this year’s World Press Freedom Day, the widespread consternation at the decision was understandable. Certainly it couldn’t have been more ill-timed – and wrong-headed – even if, as the president-elect’s spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said, it was a gross misrepresentation of presidency-elect’s decision.

    AIT, Shehu said, was never really banned. The station, he said, was only asked to “step aside”, pending the resolution of some “security and ethical issues”. He did not spell out what those security and ethical issues were. He probably could not spell out the former, security not being under his purview, but he did not need to spell out the latter for anyone to know that there can be no love lost between the station and the president-elect, given the station’s media campaign against him, which is probably the most scurrilous in Nigeria’s history.

    Still it was wrong for anyone to have asked AIT to even “step aside,” never mind being banned. First, it was not AIT alone that maligned or was shamelessly one-sided against the president-elect. The Federal Government owned NTA, which claims a larger audience than the AIT, was no better. In a sense it was worse; as a publicly funded broadcaster it was not its prerogative to be partisan in any way. But as the Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group, Dr. Bakili Maluzi, said in a statement on March 30, “the flagship nightly television news on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) channel was completely dominated by reports of the incumbent party’s campaign rallies.”

    NTA apart, the News Agency of Nigeria, was also highly partisan. During the campaigns its managing director, Ima Niboro, issued instructions against running any positive stories about the general and his party, the All Progressives Congress. And when its editor-in-chief, Isaac Ighure, defied his boss and insisted on doing his job professionally, he was simply shunted sideways into the marketing department, where he is still languishing. Not surprisingly he has since been replaced by Lawal Ado Daura. Clearly, Daura got the job not simply because he was qualified, which he was; he got it more because he comes from the same town as the president-elect. Talk of shameless toadying-up to the new powers that be!

    The other two Federal Government owned media, FRCN (Radio Nigeria) and the Voice of Nigeria, behaved much better than NTA and NAN. But this was no thanks to the Federal authorities who put a lot of pressure on their managements to be just as partisan and malicious. By law VON does not carry adverts but the management of Radio Nigeria which does was able to reject the notorious hate documentary against the general carried by AIT and NTA and which came to define much of this year’s media election campaign.

    The independent press may have fared better than the broadcast media, but the conduct of the newspapers too was far from ideal, especially when it came to carrying adverts that were potentially, and in some cases, actually, defamatory. Again, to quote the chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group, “Many newspapers published ‘wrap advertisements’ which looked like normal front pages, but were in fact paid-for advertising masquerading as news.”

    Given the generally poor showing of the media in the coverage of this year’s election, asking AIT alone to “step aside,” no matter how briefly and for whatever reason, was clearly selective. However, there is an even more important reason than this selectivity for why the decision was wrong. And this is the need to respect our Constitution and our laws.

    As a veteran journalist, I have no doubt in my mind that AIT behaved in a most irresponsible and unprofessional manner in running its campaigns against General Buhari and I suspect most reasonable people will agree with my view. Certainly the general is highly unlikely to disagree. But in a democracy such as we aspire to, only the courts have the power to punish such irresponsible and unprofessional conduct as AIT’s, to the extent that the courts agree that the misconduct is defamatory.

    Not surprisingly, Raymond Dokpesi, the proprietor of the station, has said he does not see anything wrong with how his station has behaved. “Daar Communications,” he said in reaction to the purported ban of his station, “is a commercial entity and therefore, reserves the right to run anything it considers worthy of being televised…What is obviously clear is the fact that AIT believes that the historical information about the President-elect that was run was factually correct. Nothing was done to defame him or impinge on his character or integrity.”

    I believe most people who have watched AIT’s coverage of the elections, in particular its hate-filled documentary on the general which the station played again and again, would be shocked at the brazenness of Dokpesi’s defence of a documentary that was so riddled with half-truths and barefaced lies about the general’s person, his religious belief, his past, his late wife and daughter.

    Dokpesi is entitled to believe what he wants. But he should know that Daar being a commercial entity does not entitle him to defame anyone. And the only lawful way to teach him that lesson is not to bar him from doing his business anywhere but to take him to court.

    Happily, the president-elect has shown that he has put his old dictatorial ways well behind him; he said he was not aware of the ban and once he got to know about it, he instructed that AIT’s accreditation be restored immediately.

    The president-elect has clearly passed his first test as a born-again democrat. It is now up to him to decide whether or not to go to court to teach AIT the lesson that a democracy is no licence for defaming anyone.

     

    Re: Jega’s forbearance and Awo’s curse

    Sir,

    In as much I enjoyed the summary of Nigeria’s electoral history by you (April 22), you were not factual by claiming that people regarded the March 28 and April 11 elections as the most credible in Nigeria what with massive riggings in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta and written results!

    People just allowed ‘the sleeping dogs to lie.’ While we keep improving, the 1993 elections remain the most fair, free and CREDIBLE before the CABAL struck.

    Lanre Oseni, +2347064181043.

     

    Sir,

    The 2015 presidential elections were truly not free and fair. The votes turned out in Southsouth and Southeast were all bloated in favour of PDP. Without this electoral heist, APC’s margin of victory could have been about 10 million.

    Barr. Ngozi Ogbomor, +2348033397362.

     

    Sir,

    Your article on Jega’s forbearance and Awo’s curse refers. Please be informed that Awo did not place a curse on Nigeria. He only said that if Nigerians should continue to pervert democracy this generation might not know true democracy. That is a conditional statement not a curse.

    While I wish Nigeria well in her effort to consolidate democracy, it is no yet Eureka, for democracy is a journey not a destination.

    Dr. Ade Adebisi, Akure. +2348034703653.

     

    Re: Tamuno: the passing of a great historian

    Sir,

    Someone should say well done to you for your piece on Tamuno last week. For reasons I can’t quite understand, I haven’t enjoyed an article like this one in a very long time.

    Hector Collins Decker, +2348037172869.

     

    Sir,

    Professor Abdullahi Smith’s initial name was Henry Frederick Charles Smith not Robert as stated in your piece.

    +2348035067192.

     

    Sir,

    Your Wednesday’s column refers. It was not Joseph Smith who became Abdullahi Smith but H. F. C. Smith.

    +2348093468672.

     

    Sir,

    That was a wonderful piece on an extraordinary man. But late Professor Tamuno was from Okrika not Ijaw.

    +2348129146188.

     

    Sir,

    I thought Tamuno was a Kalabari name and not Ijaw. Please confirm.

    +2348035007010.

     

    You are right. He was Kalabari, not Ijaw. However, the two, along with Okrika, are kith and kin.

     

    Sir,

    Your piece, “Tamuno: the passing of a great historian,” was not only a tribute to the demised historian, but a concise account on development of historiography and the roles of selected historians in the evolution of African historiography. Factually, Tamuno deserves all the praises you showered on him for his service to humanity.

    However, my reservation was on the mix-up on the roles of the duo of Dike and Biobaku in the evolution of African historiography. As a matter of fact, I think there is a ploy to downplay the role of Biobaku. You refereed to Biobaku as one of the foot soldiers of Dike in Ibadan. This is far from the truth. Dike and Biobaku were contemporaries. Like Dike, he studied abroad and not at the University College, Ibadan, as you stated.  Biobaku studied at University of Exeter, England (1944-45), Trinity College, University of Cambridge (1945-47), and Institute of Historical Research, London (1951-52).

    As a matter of fact, Dike’s pioneering work on African historiography, Trade and Politics in Niger Delta was published a year ahead of Biobaku’s Egba and their Neighbours published in 1957. All others you mentioned built on the foundation laid by both Dike and Biobaku.

    I think Biobaku was a member of the Ibadan school not because he studied or lectured at UI, but because he aligned with the tradition of the school in his works. I think the only time he worked in UI was as a director of the Institute of African Studies. He was vice chancellor at O AU and Unilag at different times.

    Adewuyi Adegbite, +2347013065440.

  • And Ubah wept!

    And Ubah wept!

    The 2015 general elections may have come and gone, but the ripple effect of the keenly contested elections is still smouldering and reverberating all over the place. Last Thursday, outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan met with members of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation at the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, ostensibly to receive the report of the 2015 elections campaign and also to thank the members of the committee. It is a different matter when it comes to why it was necessary to thank the members. Is it for an assignment properly executed or an assignment that was poorly executed, leading to the magnificent defeat and disgrace the party suffered at the polls? At any rate, I think it was all done out of courtesy and civility not that the members really deserved a pat on the back.

    At that ceremony, President Jonathan’s address drew a thunderous standing ovation from the audience. But one man refused to join his colleagues in the ecstasy, a development that aroused the curiosity of those present including the ubiquitous members of the Press. This occurred when Ifeanyi Ubah, a prominent member of the campaign team and the founder and chief executive officer of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, (TAN), the body that was at the vanguard of the president’s re-election campaign, caused a stir as he started weeping like a baby right in the full glare of all those present at the ceremony. Reports had it that Ubah, who was sweating profusely, wept uncontrollably to such an extent that at a point, he had to excuse himself from the hall. This was after some party chieftains had taken turns to console him to no avail.

    I think Ubah has every reason to weep. The only amusing and embarrassing aspect of it is his choice of venue and time to weep out his immoral idiosyncrasies. As leader of TAN, Ubah participated in the multidimensional campaign heist which saw his group staging fake rallies all over the country in the build-up to the 2015 elections in order to bamboozle President Jonathan into the presidential race when they knew in the innermost recesses of their hearts that it was going to be a difficult road for Jonathan to tread. It was a perfect, well co-ordinated ploy to make money off the president and the PDP by deceiving President Jonathan that the whole country was solidly behind him. In a country where cooking or falsifying figures has become a rampant political gimmick to lure politicians, Ubah and his clique claimed they had collected 12 million signatures of Nigerians who wanted Jonathan to continue in office, after travelling all over the 36 states of the federation.

    Judging from the final results of the presidential election held on March 28, well, Ubah and his organisation may have been right after all. At least in that election, President Jonathan scored 12,853,163 while his closest rival General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, scored 15,424,921 to emerge as winner of the election. With this result, it means that Jonathan surpassed the pre-election prediction of Ubah and Co. by about 853,163 votes though this was not enough to see him through to a second term in office as he trailed miserably behind Buhari, by 2,571,758. This woeful result could have been a source of irritation to Ubah, a situation he could no longer control and he eventually ended up crying like a toddler.

    Quite recently too, Ubah had contested election as governor of his home state, Anambra, and lost woefully after expending a deep war chest on the elections. As if money was everything in life, he actually started his campaign by going to the United States of America, USA, where he opened several campaign offices in many cities in God’s Own Country, perhaps, to intimidate his co-contestants and cow them to submission. Back home, it was a media fiesta as he bought overwhelming spaces on television stations and newspapers to campaign vigorously for his candidacy. At the end of the day, all these paled into insignificance as the electorate proved they were wiser by rejecting him totally at the polls. Ubah beat a hasty retreat, went underground and disappeared from public view for some time. Probably to lick his wounds and count the heavy losses he incurred in the ill-fated election.

    Recall that Ubah, who also doubles as the chief executive officer of Capital Oil, has been in the news for some time for the wrong reasons. A while ago, he and his firm, Capital Oil, were at the centre of a messy deal with a fellow townsman, Cosmas Maduka, the President of Coscharis Group, who accused him of playing a fast one on him over a N21bn facility granted him for an oil-lifting transaction by a bank in which Maduka stood surety. The whole deal was so messy that the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police on Milverton Road, Ikoyi, had to step in. That was during the tenure of a current Assistant Inspector-General of Police, who was then the Commissioner of Police in charge of the SFU.

    The story of the arrest of Ubah by the SFU in Ikoyi, was very interesting. On the day he was arrested, he had gone to the station casually to answer an invitation. It was at the tail-end of the week. One thing led to another, and Ubah was eventually detained. Few days after, he came face to face with the officer in charge, the CP. In his characteristic arrogance, as soon as he was ushered into the presence of the CP, he (Ubah) fired the first salvo: “Is the Villa aware that I am here?” Since the question was not directed to anybody in particular, he did not get any response. There he was standing confused and lonely. He was then asked to sit down. Apparently because he was hungry, he had opted to join the CP who was by then eating rice at midday in his office. I don’t believe that Ubah was genuinely hungry at that time but only wanted to have an in-road into the heart of the CP who had become a difficult nut to crack for him. All the same, the CP needed to be civil as he ordered his boys to get Ubah a plate and some cutleries to enable him partake in the meal.

    That done, Ubah confidently opened up discussions with the CP as a way of finding a soft landing  out of the legal cobweb  he had become entangled. He made some tempting monetary inducements, which he said his boys could package in hard currencies and bring to the CP immediately if he would agree to play ball. But the CP turned it down.  Ubah then increased the bait but the CP, sensing danger and the possibility of a clandestine set up avoided getting involved in such a mouth-watering offer that could spell doom for him. Thus, Ubah became more confused and desperate for freedom. Many times the CP slipped away from office leaving Ubah wondering whether the end had come.

    After staying in the gulag for an upward of about nine days, during which time he tried profusely, albeit unsuccessfully, to get across to the lioness of the villa,  who was at that time recuperating in a German Hospital  after a near fatal surgery, respite finally came for Ubah. In the morning of the ninth day, the CP got an international phone call. The caller on the other end was the lioness and the message was simple and direct: “Na me o. I learnt that my boy…. is with you there.  Please allow him to go. He no go do that again, you hear. Make you allow him go, I go talk to am.” Of course, that ended the whole detention saga and probably closed the case sine die. Now tell me, why will Ubah not weep blood in place of tears at a time like this!

    For Comments, send text only to: 08058354382

  • Our Girls; Fuel: Govt. Inaction; Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers War kills soldiers, civilians; 1460days for dev –run!  

    Our Girls; Fuel: Govt. Inaction; Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers War kills soldiers, civilians; 1460days for dev –run!  

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014 with 300+ others freed by the military. Six soldiers and then 20-?200+ Plateau civilians murdered in retaliation in the ‘Other War’-the Fulani herdsmen/Farmers War. Will President Buhari end this justly?

    Nigeria was paralysed by an avoidable traumatic fuel scarcity- Irresponsible parting ‘Government Inaction’ gift, as billions go on 2015 politicians severance pay-a politicians’ ‘dividend of democracy’. If only government had competence to pay two weeks ago!

    Four years is a very short time, 1460 days. Government must fast-track recovery and distinguish the citizens’ ‘right to decent life’ from non-existent citizens’ ‘dividends of democracy’. If Buhari wants to build 100 bridges nationwide he must start now. In addition:

    Use ‘Mr President’, ‘Senator’, ‘Representative’  and  ‘Assembly Member’ .

    READ THE NEWSPAPERS. Press Aides can file: Good, Bad, Ugly Press. In politics Euphoria becomes Paranoia. Comments become Criticism within three months.

    Use the Presidential Address to recruit Nigerians – Day 1 or Day Zero of the ‘No Corruption  Campaign’ .

    ‘Wife of the President’ is Grand Patroness/fundraiser for volunteer female causes nationwide. She must be exemplary. The Boko Haram Internally Displaced Persons, Victims of the Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers War, the female victims of oil spills and erosion need her presence, prayers and OUR donations made ‘on behalf of Nigerians’ and not herself.  We pray for ‘50% Women In Politics And Board Rooms’.

    Ministerial & Agency List: Buhari must trawl the NIGERIAN DIASPORA for YOUNG DYNAMIC WOMEN and MEN. States lists must contain 50% women.

    In the Civil Service: International MEASURABLE standards, Goals, Targets, efficiency, competence, Monitoring & Evaluation,  CLOSE SUPERVISION, ‘Monthly Progress Reporting On All File Movements’- MPR – AF, Verdicts and Consequences for failure.

    Action on the Constitutional Review Report

    The Nigerian Diaspora: Ideas, exchanges, homecoming and rewards for remitting foreign exchange. Initiate NIGERIAN DIASPORA ELECTRONIC VOTING by 2019.  Let the BUHARI GRILLING INTERVIEW be a hallmark AND A REPEAT INTERVIEW 6 MONTHLY. No rubber stamp appointments.

    No Second Term For Ministries Agencies And Departments: There are many wonderful Nigerians. Use them.

    Corruption Prevention Systems introduced FROM TOP DOWN to get ‘FOUR YEARS OF MODEST HONESTY’.   EFCC, ICPC MUST PREMPT in every Ministry and Department with SUPERVISION. Forensic audit of Police, CID, EFCC and ICPC. THE UNIFORM IN NIGERIA is a weapon of corruption.

    Curbing Waste: STOP inflated contracts.

    Recouping The Cost Of The 2015 Campaign: Tell Nigeria how it will recoup election expenses.

    SPREAD THE ‘IDEAS ARE GOOD’ NET WORLDWIDE: Dawn is the time of good ideas using the internet to detect TED, New MIT, UN, WHO, FAO, Energy and other technologies. A BRAINIAC ROOM with 100 high tech people should explore the internet. Nigerians with ideas must tell government. Projects need starting early. The Second Niger Bridge should include a Third Niger Bridge Plan. Europeans are executing a SAHARA SOLAR FARM REVOLUTION. SOLARISE NIGERIA with a CBN single digit $2-5billion Solar Loan Scheme to capture the sun.

    EMERGENCY POWER’ : When the Fujiyama Nuclear Reactor in Japan was destroyed the Government in three months delivered replacement ‘EMERGENCY POWER’. Nigeria’s Government can introduce an ‘EMERGENCY COMPONENT’ to supply 20-40,000MW in three months. The internet has 25 Emergency Power companies.

    Stop the ANIMOSITY BETWEEN STATES AND FEDERAL.  WORK TOGETHER, GROW TOGETHER.

    TRUE FEDERLISM is a long overdue dream. Federal needs to shrink so states can grow.

    Education: The 20% public school pass can be tripled by coaching current SS2 students in July to Sept and December 2015 holiday coaching with Extra Classes. Come September, give 15 TEXT BOOKS/STUDENT. School Posters are as good for students as political posters were for politicians who printed 50-100m. 10 POSTERS PER CLASS x 1.5million classrooms needed. A BOX LIBRARY of 100-200 books/school.  The Education Funds must buy Books. ’BOOKS BUILD BRAINS ’.    Medicine: Use the media for a Massive Health Education plan. Put cancer therapy in every state capital.         

    SECURITY MUST BE PROVIDED FOR ALL: Redeploy police around politicians to community security.

    NASS RETURNEES: New NASS must be wary of Old NASS ‘returnees’ used to ‘NASTY NASS’ envelopes to facilitate oversight approvals.

    NASS Changes: Nigeria expects cuts in Salaries And Perks, SAPing Nigeria dry, remove Constitutional Projects, move towards a ‘SITTING ALLOWANCE’ NASS and a ‘PART TIME’ NASS AND STATE ASSEMBLY.

    Fulani Herdmen -Farmers war: Lasting solution before the citizens boycott meat in a ‘Blood Meat Boycott’

    Economics: Nigeria expects an appreciation of the naira at maybe N1/month.

    FINANCIAL STIMULUS: Recognise citizen’s entrepreneurship and work with CBN/ private sector to cancel the MPR of 13% and get single digit interest rate for all.

    Sports-MASSIVE MULTISPORTS DEVELOPMENT: Football-just one of 100 neglected sports. Budgetary line items for each sport. Reintroduce ‘PE’ PHYSICAL EXERCISE.

    YOUTH DEVELOPMENT: THE WARD IS THE SMALLEST POLITICAL UNIT. Each of the 16,400 wards needs a YOUTH INSPIRATION CENTRE.

    BUDGETARY COMPARISONS: Compare Budget Line Items with UK, USA, SA to expand job, opportunity and accountability.

    The Housing Deficit of 14-17million AFFORDABLE Housing is a growth opportunity. This is 14 million/48 months or 290,000 homes nationwide/month or 8,000 homes/state/month or 96,000/year/state.

    Politicians vs Professionals:   Many political programmes are gimmicks where professionals are ‘Yes Sir’ people. This must stop.

    The new government must Run, Run, Run or Nigeria will become one huge third-world refugee camp heading abroad!

     

  • Jonathan battles withdrawal symptoms

    Jonathan battles withdrawal symptoms

    Few things are more addictive than tobacco because of the chemical – nicotine – that it contains. Once it takes a hold on the smoker it requires super-human effort, even divine intervention to break free.

    In that transitional period between the decision to quit and total abstinence, the repentant smoker’s body begins to make the forced adjustment to tobacco denial. The internal chemical reactions as a brain that wants to quit battles a body that longs for its normal nicotine fix results in anything from irritability, anxiety, insomnia to depression – a collective known as ‘withdrawal symptoms.’

    Like tobacco, power is an even more addictive opium. It produces in men changes that the most mind-warping chemicals can’t. It is not for nothing that the famous English writer and politician Lord Acton wrote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

    Those addicted to exercising power don’t give it up easily – even if hanging on could cause them to wind up in a casket. That addiction is what has produced the likes of Robert Mugabe who has been president of Zimbabwe since 1980. Cursed with uncommon longevity he has outlived a long line of conspirators and conspiracies. If he had his way he would probably want to govern from the grave.

    It was the power addiction that drove Laurent Gbagbo to do stupid things in Cote d’Ivoire after it became evident that his rival, Abubakar Ouatarra, had defeated him in the elections. Rather than go quietly his supporters tore the result sheets on national television.

    It was the same thing that seduced former President Olusegun Obasanjo to succumb to the third term scheme. He only gave up when the whole fraudulent arrangement collapsed on the Senate floor. Many still argue that his reluctance to surrender power led him to install Umaru Yar’Adua who he thought would be a pliant president – allowing him to drive things from the back seat.

    Now in outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan we see the classic case of withdrawal symptoms manifesting. In the last four weeks we’ve seen two sides of the man manifesting. First, he meekly surrendered and conceded victory to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. The implication of that act was that he had accepted the outcome of the elections – warts and all – and was willing to allow the process play out in the national interest.

    In the last two weeks, however, a totally different side has been unveiled. It is that of an irritable and angry man. As the reality of losing the power of almost life and death sinks in, he’s suddenly having second thoughts about the results of the March 28 polls.

    We can make our guesses about a man’s thoughts and body language, but when he begins to verbalise his innermost feelings then it is time to take him seriously. While receiving the report of the Dr. Ahmadu Ali-led Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation at Aso Villa, Abuja, Jonathan said: “the Peoples Democratic Party couldn’t have got those kinds of scores” it had in some places.

    This sort of statement isn’t something to be dismissed lightly. For while his concession phone call has been credited with dousing tension that had built up as the nation followed the long-drawn process of releasing the presidential election results, this latest outburst not only draws a cloud over the transition – it restores some of that dissipated anxiety.

    It doesn’t make sense that a man would aspire to wear the toga of statesman and at the same time be doing things that make him no better than the average politician driven only by selfish interests. What exactly is Jonathan trying to achieve with his recent actions and statements?

    Briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, last week, National Planning Minister, Abubakar Suleiman, accused the APC leadership of trying to stampede the administration out of office because of some terms of reference given to the transition committee of the incoming government.

    To underscore the depth of anger felt by the current regime, the minister warned that the president’s ‘magnanimity should not be mistaken for cowardice.’ Anyone reading those words would think that Buhari and Jonathan had a wrestling match scheduled for the village square.

    But nothing that entertaining is on the agenda this May. The issue at stake is managing a transfer of power from a lame-duck administration to its successor. So what does ‘magnanimity’ have to do with it? Since the minister is educated his choice is very revealing.

    Has the president been magnanimous in constituting a transition committee to interface with that of Buhari? Whoever thinks so needs to be reminded that 2015 isn’t the first time power has changed hands between administrations in Nigeria, and whenever this has occurred teams from both sides have dealt with the business of the hour without drama.

    In what way does conceding defeat translate to magnanimity? Was this a personal favour from Jonathan who owns the presidency as a birthright to Buhari the undeserving? Isn’t there the little matter of the expressed will of millions of Nigerians that must be respected and upheld by all? Some may suggest that the minister misspoke but I am unconvinced. This sort of misplaced arrogance has been evident in PDP ranks for months. We’ve heard some of its governors boasting before the elections that they would not hand over power to ‘blackmailers and supporters of terrorism’ – whoever they meant by that. In that loose talk there was no room made for voice of the ordinary voter.

    After March 28 Jonathan always had two choices: accept defeat or contest the results. For me, he chose the first option in his best interest. Even if he had decided to challenge the outcome the sky wouldn’t have caved in over Nigeria.

    It wouldn’t have been the first or last time a loser would challenge the result of a Nigerian election. From the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo over the twelve two-thirds verdict in 1979 to Buhari in recent years, candidates have contested poll outcomes and the system always resolved things. Even when 1,000 plus were killed following post-election violence in 2011, there was a resolution and the country moved on.

    Let’s stop making a monument out of Jonathan conceding victory. He wouldn’t be the first to do so neither would he be the last in Nigeria or on the African continent. I have pointed out on this page that former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi conceded after losing the gubernatorial election last year.

    All the self congratulation over tension that was doused by the singular act of concession is just overdone. Elections always generate tension and anxiety anywhere. A people’s temperament could result in this occasionally spilling into violence. But even then this tension never lasts forever. Such situations are not sustainable and people invariably return to peace and normalcy.

    In any event it is not too late for Jonathan to recant. Instead of boring us with his bellyaching he can still take his grievances to the tribunal. He’s still well within the 180-day window for doing so. If he truly has the courage of his convictions he should be consulting his lawyers now.

    At the same event where he questioned Buhari’s victory, the president expressed his belief that PDP was still the ‘dominant’ power and would bounce back in 2019. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming. Politics, on the other hand, is a game of numbers.

    How can you be the dominant party when you opponent now controls 22 of the nation’s 36 states – leaving PDP and APGA with 14 states between them. How can you claim to dominate the landscape when APC now has a healthy majority in the Senate, and a bomb-proof difference in the House of Representatives?

    The president also sniffed at the 2.5 million votes that separated him and Buhari when the dust settled on March 28. He’s within his rights to do so. But even if the gap had been 2,500 votes – as long as the APC candidate met the constitutional requirements in 24 states, he was duly elected.

    It is not only when the difference is 10 million votes that a mandate is valid. In the 2000 United States presidential election, the Republican candidate George Bush didn’t win the plurality of votes. However, because his then Democratic Party’s rival Al Gore didn’t win the Electoral College contest Bush was still adjudged the winner after a recount and legal challenge at the Supreme Court.

    In the light of all of the ruling party’s well-documented shenanigans and attempts to hang on to power, 2.5 million votes is enough to secure this country a fresh start.

    A final evidence of Jonathan’s battle with withdrawal from power is the frenzy of sackings and appointments of the last fortnight. The only thing he’s not done is name a cabinet for Buhari just to prove that he’s still in charge for the next four weeks.  But the president also knows that everything he’s doing can be undone in a couple of weeks by the man taking over. So what’s the point?

    After his dignified conducted in the days after the presidential elections, it looked like Jonathan wanted to exit office with his head held high. But we appear to have misread his intentions once again: with every new move and utterance the man seems determined to ride into the sunset as the caricature of a president.

  • Tamuno: The passing of a great historian

    Tamuno: The passing of a great historian

    As kids growing up in the fifties we were taught in primary schools that Mungo Park, a Scot, “discovered River Niger”. In Hausa, the main language of instruction in the two primary schools I attended in Kano between 1957 and 1964, our History teachers taught us that the Scot was “mabudin Kwara,” literally “the key that opened Kwara,” in English,  Kwara being the Hausa name for River Niger.

    History, it is often said, is the prerogative of the conqueror. This obviously explains the arrogance of our British colonial masters in attributing to one of their own adventurers the “discovery” of a river along whose valley many kingdoms and even empires had risen and fallen long before any European set foot on our shores.

    In the twilight of our colonial subjugation in the late fifties, a number of Nigerians led by Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike took it upon themselves to decolonise this Eurocentric history of Africa which we had been taught not just in primary schools but all the way to our tertiary institutions.

    Dike was a pioneer in the reinterpretation of African history through the eyes of the natives. As the first African professor of History and head of history department at the University College of Ibadan he played a central role in founding the famous Ibadan School of African History. Among his foot soldiers was Tekena Tamuno, who joined the faculty in 1962 at a relatively youthful age of 30 after graduating from the university in 1958 and earning his PhD abroad.

    Others in that group included Saburi Biobaku, J. F. Ade-Ajayi, Adiele Afigbo, E. A. Ayandele, and Obaro Ikime. However, there were also British historians in the group, notably Michael Crowder and Robert Smith, who also believed there was an imperative for telling the Africa’s history from the African perspective. These two became professors of history at Ahmadu Bello University while the latter, who became Abdullahi Smith after he converted to Islam, founded what has since become the famous Arewa House for research into the history of the North.

    Each and every one of these foot soldiers of Dike became a notable professor of history. Three, Biobaku, Ade-Ajayi and Tamuno, went on to become vice-chancellors at the country’s first generation universities. However, only Tamuno had the privilege of being the first Old Boy of his alma mater to become its vice-chancellor; both Biobaku and Ade-Ajayi, who were his seniors in the university, became vice-chancellors of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the first in 1965, the other in 1972.

    Tamuno became the VC of Ibadan University in 1975 and served for four years. It was a reflection of the man’s cosmopolitan outlook that he became vice-chancellor at a time the university’s faculty was heavily dominated by Igbo and Yoruba when he himself was a minority Ijaw. By the same token, it came as no surprise that he took a Yoruba lady, who eventually became the university’s Librarian, for his wife.

    His period as vice-chancellor was one of the most peaceful in the university’s history.

    I came to know how excellent a leader Tamuno was when I became the managing director of New Nigerian Newspapers, Kaduna, in 1985. At about the same time he was appointed Chairman of the Federal Government owned stable. Before the Federal Government took it over completely in 1976, it had been owned by the Northern Nigerian government. As such it was the region’s mouthpiece, just like Sketch was that of the West, Renaissance, later renamed Star, was East’s and Observer was Mid-West’s.

    The take-over of the NNN by the central government to balance its acquisition of 60 per cent of the independent Daily Times of Nigeria, Lagos, following an internally engineered crisis at the DTN which was then under the late great Alhaji Babatunde Jose, put the NNN in an awkward position of being a regional newspaper that at the same time had to learn to speak for all Nigerians.

    Under its first three indigenous managing directors, Malams Adamu Ciroma, Mamman Daura and the late Turi Muhammadu, the newspaper successfully walked that tight rope; it became the most respected newspaper in the country, bar possibly the Daily Times, even though it did not shy away from looking at issues from the perspective of its original owners.

    As chairman of NNN, Tamuno never interfered with this editorial policy at the same that he insisted its newspapers must never publish anything that will threaten the unity and integrity of the country.

    As managing director of the newspaper what struck me most about the man, however, was not his benign over-all guardianship of the company, excellent as it was. What struck me most about him was how he related to everyone as if he was one’s age mate. Never for once did I see him relate to or talk to anyone with a master/servant attitude.

    Tamuno was not only an excellent leader who, because of his congenial, and apparently congenital, warmth, inspired respect rather than fear, he was and remained a great and active historian till his death on April 11. Among the great historical books he wrote or edited were The Evolution of the Nigerian State: The Southern Phase – 1898 to 1914, Nigeria: Its People and Its Problems, The Police in Modern Nigeria -1861 to 1965 and Nigeria Since Independence: The First 25 Years.

    Of these four – and more – perhaps his greatest legacy was the last which was first published in 1989. It was a ten-volume encyclopaedic history of the country on subjects that ranged from society through culture, the economy and politics to international relations. The book was actually a composition of contributions from over 120 eminent scholars within and outside Nigeria on ten subject areas. Tamuno was the chair of a panel of 14, including Professors Afigbo, Bolaji Akinyemi, Peter Ekeh and the late radical Historian, Dr. Bala Usman, which worked on and edited the ten volumes from 1980.

    In between writing and editing great history books the man continued to teach history at various institutions, including the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos. He also served as pro-chancellor of several universities, including at his native Rivers State’s University of Science and Technology.

    As an accolade to his erudition, he was a Fellow of Nigerian Academy of Letters as well as a Fellow of the American Rockefeller Foundation.

    His death and burial in Ibadan where he went to university, started his academic career and spent virtually all his life, was a fitting testimony to his exemplary outlook about life which regarded everywhere in Nigeria as home.

    May the Good Lord grant those he has left behind the fortitude to bear his great loss.