The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • ENDSARS; End.Nigeria.Corruption

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 1,200,000, infections 41,000,000, 62,000 confirmed cases and 1,200 deaths in Nigeria. Nigerians are acting as if ‘Nigeria Killed Covid’. It has not, ooo!!!!

    Every single Nigerian can today ‘ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately for a Nigeria@60’. Let each Fellow Nigerian swear and mean to be ‘Faithful, Loyal and Honest’. Simple but true! I have. Have YOU??? Nigeria needs Ombudspersons to adjudicate in many interfaces.

    It is so easy. Just you can ENDCORRUPTION in your social distance area -Abuse of Office, Bullying, Brutality, Corruption, Diverting Public Funds, Etcetera. Make an office or classroom wall poster.

    Many youths have been brutalised. Anyone 18 and above can join the Armed Forces and risks being killed as a pilot, as a sailor at sea, or shot as a soldier fighting Boko Haram or other terrorists. Indeed, Nigeria’s citizens are unaware of the bravery and sacrifice of many, but not all, its uniformed personnel who have paid the supreme price. Figures are always disputed. Years ago, I was in Sango Cemetery. Ibadan. Suddenly a minivan entered the cemetery and a frantic woman jumped out and ran to a military funeral in the cemetery shouting ‘You could not even tell me my husband was dead!’ Such poor respect for those who die in national service. Being young is not too young to die. It is not be too old to live, in or out of uniform!!! Being young is not ‘no brain to act independently’. The youth hurt!

    The ENDSARS is a protest of targeted brutalised frustrated angry youth disenchanted with drifting ship of state, Nigeria, riddled with easily prevented hate. Take the killing/brutalisation out of SARS, corruption out of police checkpoints, stupendous ‘Salaries And Perks’ out of NASS, exchange the NASS budget with the Health Budget, give Nigeria true federalism and ENDSARS would never exist. Blame the perpetrators, the abusers, not the victims -dead and survivors.  Blame perpetrators precipitating poverty, spilling blood of Nigeria’s youth which precipitated the crisis. As a doctor, thousands of women have painfully done their service to Nigeria by delivered their babies in my presence. Born to die young? I have witnessed too many ‘my precious baby’ lives lost and blood by tankerloads on the bloodthirsty floor. Needless death and suffering are no longer acceptable.

    Nigeria allows its 18-year-old youths to die but ignores the youth as an active volcanic powerhouse for change. Increasing retirement age also hinders youth progression. Nigeria has refused, apart from tokenism like giving youth ‘IT’ or ‘Youth and Sport’ Ministry, to invite the youth to participate in governance decision making.

    Nigerian politicians call 45-year olds ‘youths’ in a deliberate psychological policy to lower expectations of youth and expand the definition of youth to 40-50 to lock youth out of governance by saying ‘Youth, wait your turn’ as older politicians shamelessly recycle themselves around Commissioner to Senate and monopolise party political posts blocking access to new ideas or faces.  The two 4-year terms totalling eight years per office has blocked the path to political progress for progressive youth. Wisdom and foolishness reside in both youth and aged.

    Youth have a right to be listened to and invited. ENDSARS is listening time. In the NYSC Camp in 1975/6 as a young doctor, I refused the definition of youth at 26. Why was the care of NYSC members so poor? Today that care of the youth has worsened because Nigerian politicians operate mentally on ‘Maximum standards for politicians/Minimum Standards for nonpoliticians /Maximum Profits level! Remember the Channels TV report of the abysmal care of police recruits in Ikeja?  Nigerian politicians who ignored Nigeria’s greatest potential, ‘the youth’, and prefer to spend three times as much on themselves in a hopefully ‘soon to go’ bloated two-house National Assembly than on education. As youth we manned polling booths against thugs sent by politicians to steal the vote.

    For years today’s youth have watched their generation’s efforts turn to dust as they suffer the consequences of neglected ‘way forward’ papers, conferences, panels of enquiry, commissions which have vomited excellent recommendations to correct malaise in the police and society. All ignored causing frustration waiting for the trigger which exploded with the disregard of police for human rights. There is a collective youth anger at the poor position of Nigeria after 60 years of self-rule. We must give the ENDSARS youth 10 gbosas.

    ENDSARS-both Police SARS and NASS Salaries and Pension Scams were insultingly inflicted with other ills plaguing Nigeria by an uncaring, self-centred corrupt political class with hangers on.

    Dispel the myth that stopping corruption takes time. Just stop, now, today and Nigerian economy will grow as life becomes cheaper with no checkpoint bribery nationwide! It is a decision followed by rigorous supervision, punishment against a failed supervisor.

    President Buhari is familiar with the military term ‘With Immediate Effect’: Tell IGP to stop checkpoint and police station bail today. If in one week there is a ‘Supervisors Report’ of corruption from anywhere, then suspend/replace him. He will sanction juniors. All bail and checkpoint corruption will stop instantly. In one week!!! Apply this in your office! Change Nigeria.

    The NASS does not need the Presidency to cut its salaries. NASS should announce SARS= Senators And Reps Salary Review downwards by 75%. Why does NASS not give voluntary service like NYSC!  After ENDSARS please END. CHECKPOINT. CORRUPTION and END. UNSUPERVISED. POLICE. STATIONS!!!

    END. CORRUPT. NIGERIA. START. CITIZENS. ANTICORRUPTION. VIDEO. CHANNEL. All hail the citizen’s video! START.GREAT.NIGERIA!!!

  • #EndSARS and the endgame

    #EndSARS and the endgame

    Festus ERIYE

     

    WHAT started as a simple, targeted protest against police brutality has collapsed into an orgy of mindless violence across the country.

    Today, several states are under a curfew. Troops and anti-riot police squads have been deployed across the country. In many cities public and private buildings have been razed. The death toll in the last 24 hours is likely to be in double figures at the end of the reckoning.

    We’ve learnt from past mass actions – whether it was the June 12 annulment agitation, the SAP riots or the many protests against fuel price increases since 1999, that at some point they spiral out of control of those who think they are running things.

    You assume you’re are in control but you are really not. You can’t even guarantee the conduct of your supporters even if you had handed them a code of conduct manual. As for hoodlums and others who just see violent acts perpetrated in the charged environment as fun and games, you have no hold. It presents the government with rationale to step in with brute force – brandishing the good old law and order card.

    Let’s be clear, the fresh-faced young men and women who kicked off these agitations were not throwing stones or starting fires. They were waving Nigerian flags, chanting, dancing and tweeting their frustrations. But the longer it lasted, even after the authorities had given them a sop, the more of a threat they became.

    SARS was a small, clay-footed monster, swiftly sacrificed by those who created it, in a self-preserving act of appeasement. In quickly calling time on the much-hated police unit, the authorities thought they could buy time and defuse a phenomenon they couldn’t understand.

    A government that has been so intolerant of minor protests like the Revolution Now ones before now, folded spectacularly with minimal push from the agitators. Nothing captures official nervousness as much as the rushed announcement of SWAT barely days after the protests started.

    For government, the main challenge was how to restore normalcy, but it knew it couldn’t use deadly force. It would be messy and fraught with unknown consequences. This isn’t the world when Tianenmen Square happened and Nigeria isn’t China – a global power that can thumb its nose at everyone and get away with it.

    While state and federal authorities dithered, looking for a solution that wouldn’t make them future candidates for International Criminal Court (ICC) trials, youths at the barricades and the unseen hands pressing their buttons, sensed they had the government on the ropes and pressed their advantage.

    This was the very revealing and critical juncture that has brought us where we are today. The authorities were willing to end SARS and commit to police reform at their own pace. But the protest movement not only wanted these things activated at the speed of a tweet, they had moved on by brandishing a new shopping list of demands which the government wasn’t interested in.

    The challenge for protestors was converting what had been a stunning success in terms of their achieving their original objective, into something broader – creating a new Nigeria of their dreams.

    It’s like here’s this great platform, everybody jump on board! Come if your agenda is feminism, come if you want better roads, lower electricity bills, come if your beef is with federal lawmakers’ salaries, you’re welcome if you want regime change. That was the break point!

    Police brutality was an issue all could relate to irrespective of faith, ethnicity or political conviction. But the moment the agenda went beyond that, the door was opened for introduction of our national poisons.

    Slowly but surely agent provocateurs began spinning it as a North versus South opening salvo in 2023 presidential politics. For some it was a bid to kick President Muhammadu Buhari out of office through unconstitutional means. Yobe State Governor and interim head of the All Progressives Congress (APC) even suggested that advocates of restructuring could be fanning the flames.

    I am less surprised by the way the narrative has swung, than by what it revealed of protest leaders who live on Twitter but know very little about the country they seek to change. They should have seen the ambush coming, instead they ran into it with eyes open.

    Each side must now decide their endgame. How far do the protesters and their leaders want to go? They may not have a figurehead, but they have leaders. What is their exit strategy? Or is it a kamikaze movement that’s only interested in mutually assured destruction?

    Is this about reforms or overthrowing the system that currently exists? What would they put in place that’s an improvement on what we have now?

    Earlier, I referred to SARS as a small monster, the 60-year-old system that controls this nation is a hydra-headed leviathan that’s not going to be undone in a hurry. It took time to grow, it would take time to dismantle.

    The protests have achieved so much in highlighting police brutality. They have done even more in rousing our disconnected political elite to the level of poverty and misery in the land. There is deep-seated frustration and anger that any wise government should not ignore – even if they manage to temporarily tamp down the chaos.

    For the #EndSARS movement all is not lost. The young people driving it have shown that they have the capacity to achieve great things politically if they can learn from their mistakes. They must learn how not to squander public goodwill. The strategy of blocking roads only guarantees more suffering and frustration for those on whose behalf they claim to be fighting. Many no longer found the protests so entertaining when businesses began to suffer and livelihoods negatively impacted.

    A little humility also doesn’t hurt. Don’t lecture people about how the additional suffering is for their own good. Let them buy into the sacrifice willingly.

    People can always return to their demonstrations in a world where such long-running protests are now normal. The George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests have been on for five months, those in Hong Kong even longer. We must overcome the shock of the new and get used to a new generation that wants to ‘soro soke (speak up).’

  • Gifts Buhari should not have rejected

    Gifts Buhari should not have rejected

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    ORDINARILY, the celebration of a nation’s independence anniversary is an occasion for reckoning and self-assessment. The nation’s gains and failures are evaluated by the government and the governed. In the process, gifts are exchanged between the government and the people. Such gifts are often symbolic, rather than material.

    The government’s symbolic gifts are often packaged in a speech by the nation’s leader, as witnessed on the occasion of Nigeria’s independence anniversary on October 1, 2020. Perhaps unkowingly, the President invited symbolic gifts of counsel from the citizens in Paragraph 9 of his speech: “Sixty years of nationhood provides an opportunity to ask ourselves questions on the extent to which we have sustained the aspirations of our founding fathers. Where did we do the right things? Are we on course? If not, where did we stray and how can we remedy and retrace our steps?” The gifts of counsel discussed below are various attempts to identify where things went wrong and how they could be remedied.

    As usual, one-time military Head of State and two-term President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, initiated the series of citizens’ symbolic gifts on September 11, 2020. The shattered debris of the World Trade Centre, plane-bombed by a terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, lurked in the background as a coincidental backdrop for Obasanjo’s warning against the disintegration of Nigeria in the face of what he aptly described as “mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country”.

    The “mismanagement” has engendered various indices of possible failure-terrorism, banditry, sectarianism, nepotism, kidnapping, religious and ethnic bigotry, a depressed economy, rising inflation, separatist agitations, and so on. The thrust of Obasanjo’s statement was a call to mend broken and breaking fences in order to avert state failure, realising that “… even if Nigeria is broken up, the separated parts will still be neighbors … they will have to find accommodation as neighbors or they will be ever at war.”

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, followed with an endorsement of Obasanjo’s advice and chastised government functionaries for the insolent response in which Obasanjo was described, among other things, as “Divider-in-Chief”.

    A few days later, Lt. General Alani Akinrinade, former Chief of Army Staff and later Chief of Defence Staff, offered his own gift of counsel to Buhari through Lt General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the present Chief of Army Staff, on the occasion of the latter’s visit to commission projects in Osun, Akinrinade’s home state.

    After highlighting popular public perception of President Buhari in mainstream and social media as an ethnic bigot, a religious fundamentalist, a purveyor of lopsided appointments, and a failed fighter against terrorism, Akinrinade called on him to take charge: “He needs to stand on his table against the motley crowd of advisers and take a firm stand on their organisation of our country, physically, politically, economically and socially.” The veiled reference to Buhari’s aloofness, torpidity, and tardiness cannot be missed in Akinriande’s speech. The key solution he suggested is the restructuring of the country, which he likened to “reorganisation” in the Army.

    More recently, three respected clergymen came up independently with their own offerings, all reinforcing a similar message to President Buhari: Act quickly to avoid disaster in the face of various problems facing the country today.

    Admitting that “Nigeria is sick unto death”, Catholic Bishop Emeritus of Lagos, Cardinal-Priest, Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, highlighted four significant sources of downfall to avoid, namely, (1) selfishness; (2) falsehood; (3) the 1999 Constitution; and (4) “those who would manipulate our ethnic, religious and regional differences to attain and remain in power”. Echoes of Obasanjo’s and Akinrinade’s gifts are unmistakable.

    The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, sees Nigeria literally as “a pool of blood”, starting with the cold-blooded murder of our first Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, in the name of a military coup in 1966. Today, “After 60 years of bloodletting, blood has become embedded in our culture of existence”, Kukah added. He concluded that “our country now looks like a boiling pot in which everyone is trying to escape” owing to disrespect for the nation’s Constitution, sectionalism, and failure to fulfill campaign promises.

    The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, completes the trilogy of gifts by Men of God. Without mincing words, he advised the Federal Government to pay immediate attention to restructuring the country in order to provide a lasting solution to Nigeria’s economic challenges and separatist agitations. Adeboye recommended adaptation of aspects of presidential and parliamentary systems as well as the inclusion of traditional rulers in governance, by constituting a House of Chiefs.

    The language of the above presentations may appear strident, conveying a sense of urgency. Nevertheless, the call for restructuring the country is an old song. Two national conferences have even been held, each suggesting various forms of modification of the current structure.

    Central to these suggestions is the need to restructure the country in order to make it more governable and more responsive to the people’s yearnings and aspirations. This was also the key message of the Nigeria Governors Forum, as echoed by its Chairman, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, following the meeting of all 36 state governors last week. The Governors called for two types of restructuring. One, they want their present loans restructured. Two, they want the country restructured. Specifically, they called for the devolution of powers and fiscal federalism.

    The average age of the six interventionists discussed earlier is 80! The Buhari administration may not always agree with their views. However, dismissing them with a wave of the hand and calling any of them names is the height of insolence, as acknowledged by Professor Soyinka: “In place of reasoned response and openness to some serious dialogue, what this nation has been obliged to endure has been insolent distractions from garrulous and coarsened functionaries, apologists and sectarian opportunists.”

    By rejecting the gifts of counsel and remaining impervious to the calls for restructuring, Buhari is perpetuating widespread public perception of a sectarian leader, who panders largely to a particular ethnic group. The persistent resistance of leaders of that ethnic group to restructuring is all too familiar.

    Yet, restructuring would have been Buhari’s major legacy had he listened. But whether he does or not, this country will be restructured sooner or later.

     

  • Akeredolu; FSARS suicide

    Akeredolu; FSARS suicide

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 1,100,000, infections 38,500,000, 61,000 confirmed cases and 1,200 deaths in Nigeria.

    APC won Ondo election with nearly zero violence. But though even one stabbing or death is unacceptable in 2020. Congratulations to Ondo citizenry, security agencies and thugs who rejected violence suggested by politicians. Vote buying seems impossible to eradicate in our ‘stomach infrastructure society’ and many voters eat from both sides of their mouths or have, like the cow, two stomachs, one each for ‘cash for votes’ of two parties. However, this was also a vote against self-service politicians who ‘settle the boys’ and ‘buy the voter day’ instead of executing projects bringing normal rapid Social Development Goals, SDG progress. This is Nigeria’s self-service politicians’ ‘Knee on Our Neck’. Congratulations to Governor Akeredolu for choosing the often untaken and different path to the voter, targeting voter’s mind over voter’s and party faithful’s stomach.

    This Governor Rotimi Akeredolu second term victory should be a textbook guide to first-term governors. Most voters prefer to be fed with ‘better life’ development and progress for the majority, over abandoned projects and prosperity for the minority, ‘big gun politicians and contractors’ and their ‘permanently hungry, insatiably hangers-on’.

    The people’s care is a constant but neglected sworn requirement of leadership.

    This Akeredolu second term must dispel lies and fake news and plan not a ‘relaxed second term’ but a whirlwind of massive numbers of small ‘everywhere’ people-centred projects. More new bridges and 40-year roads in new directions. The Akerodolu Creative Team must work at warp speed and go nuclear. No excuses!!!

    Diasporan Ondolese: Now is ‘Realise your dream’ time! Get on board!!!

    Each of Nigeria’s states is larger than 10-20 countries. Therefore, our governors are as responsible for citizens as presidents. Our governors must upgrade their actionable plans to achieve a bigger footprint in UN-SDG and the environmentally friendly, climate change focused spotlight. Less corruption approaching zero per cent means the state budget will double in effect, the naira will construct extra kilometres, build more classrooms. The key is ‘less corruption; more supervision’. There is nowhere in the National Pledge and National Oath or National Anthem where corruption is an approved part of the governor’s job description. The key to getting the rain-beaten old and youth, especially the women to overcome voter apathy is ‘good programmes’ cancelling voter manipulation. Governor Akeredolu will collect pre-election comments and criticisms for actionable progress.

    The Akeredolu 4-year Ondo State Master Plan must be amazing.

    All Governors: The ward is the basic unit of politics. Do not ignore wards. Do something! Please make ‘The Political Ward’ meaningful between elections by starting a non-political Youth Edutainment Centre/Entrepreneurial Centre in every ward. Government ministries, agencies and departments can place material for local youth in a place of their own.  NGOS like the Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Blue Crescent, Educare Trust, BRECAN can also place notices, posters, hold meetings, give talks and do projects with local ward youth. A new building is not essential. Preferably community rented space, donated furniture and equipment. Government could give an initial take off grant for IT equipment, leave the individual community to run it or give running cost grants. Youth centres use role models from retired and serving community members.

    Schools require Primary School Old Students Associations to do what Secondary School OSAs have achieved. Government should encourage PTAs and businesses to donate educational material towards an ‘Annual School Requirements List’ and set out awards for the best OSAs and PTAs.

    Governor Akeredolu, as you continue your eight-year odyssey, may God give you maximum ‘Project Choice Wisdom’ to create more ‘Ondo Citizen’s Happiness’. Institutionalise ‘Close Supervision’ by inspectors for quality control by seniors of juniors to pre-empt corruption and human rights abuses by unsupervised officials who poison the waters between you and the people.

    FSARS was started with good intentions. It has done much good work. Though many FSARS members are hard-working fantastic Nigerians dying and risking their lives, there has not been enough senior close supervision carried out to prevent human misery and rights abuses, fake charges and yet another video of maltreatment and murder of a hapless ‘Fellow Nigerian’ by ‘UNSUPERVISED’ members of SARS, renamed FSARS. One murder too many??? FSARS finally shot itself dead, suicide, and stands disbanded and its personnel redeployed following their own heinous actions highlighted by nationwide ENDFSARS and previous human rights protesters.

    Almost everything government does is turned from gold into dirt and dust by ‘UNSUPERVISED’ workers e.g. in NNPC, unaudited for is it 17 years (??). Add the Nigeria Police which we are in daily fear of false charges, brutality, phone and computer abuse and extrajudicial killings. My father in the 70s said he was happy to grow grey hairs because he was treated properly at checkpoints. Checkpoints are unsupervised opportunities for uniforms with guns to bully, inflict cruelty, criminality, murder and run a corrupt estimated annual N12-24b extortion syndicate since civil war days when they were lucrative to the soldiers manning them. The police raised it to a quoted art-form, a macabre tragicomedy show with police pockets bulged with ‘checkpoint toll money’. Like with okada attacks, every Nigerian has witnessed checkpoint abuse.

    But ‘Ogas At The Top’ always fail, ignore police crime and do little supervision too late. Acting five or 10 years ago would have saved lives!! After ENDFSARS please more supervision to ENDCHECKPOINTCORRUPTION and ENDUNSUPERVISEDPOLICESTATIONS!!!

    All hail the citizen’s video spread by social media!!

  • A conversation on Kwara’s minimum wage

    A conversation on Kwara’s minimum wage

    By Salihu Ajibola Ajia

     

    THIS is the moment for hard truth and sober reflection. On Tuesday, October 6, 2020, a local blog published a screenshot of a story it had published on May 20, 2019, accompanied with a video footage of protesting pensioners and players at the Kwara United FC. In that footage, the protesters said their backlogs of salaries had not been paid since 2013. The same blog then captured how the new administration has commenced the payment of these salary arrears and sign-on fees of the players and officials of the club.

    These backlogs of salary, pensions and gratuities are not limited to the football club. It is a rule, not an exception, across several MDAs in the state. In the local government system alone, no less than N21bn is owed to pensioners. The arrears in the LG system for active workers is in excess of N6bn. Across the state MDAs, thousands of workers are owed outstanding of promotion arrears. Thousands got promoted and are on grade levels without commensurate pay. It is a debt on the state. Some have been on the same grade level for years without promotion, partly because promotion normally comes with the burden of backing it with pay rise. Promotion is a legitimate aspiration for workers.

    At the level of the local government, the wage bill and other statutory payments, which stands at N2.5bn as at September ending, is 91% percentage of their total receipts from the Federal Government. This does not include other expenses. When added, those expenses bring the wage bill to between 100% or 108% of their federal allocation. This (N2.5bn) wage bill, to be sure, is pegged to the N18, 000 minimum wage.  It will rise to roughly N2.9bn when the new minimum wage is implemented (depending on what the labour and the government eventually agree to).

    The question has always been where to get the difference between what is earned as allocation (an average of N2.6bn, including their 10% share of the IGR) and the balance with which to pay the minimum wage. If we assume that allocation may indeed rise to N2.9bn to allow for payment of the minimum wage, does it mean that all that is done at the LGAs is payment of salary? What happens to infrastructural development?

    You may ask, what about their IGR? Between 2019 and date, the total IGR  collected by KWIRS (Citizenships, Radio license, tenement rate and signage) on behalf of all the 16 local governments stands at N78.9m as of June 2020.

    Reality check: this calculation does not provide for promotion. What that means is that no worker can substantially move up the ladder as they ought to. Every worker dreams to rise through the ladder to the highest echelon of their profession. But the Kwara workforce is too bloated to allow for free, legitimate movement. It is a double tragedy for the state and the workforce, really. But it is the reality.

    Bloated civil service is a lose-lose for all: the employees and the employers. The employers would have to spend almost everything on the workforce while the employees would often time not get what is due to them. Often, three employees may earn what one employee ought to earn because the employers simply cannot afford more, except they want to borrow for consumption. No serious government does that. Ultimately, the employees are the greater losers because they are unable to meet up with basic challenges of life. For no fault of theirs, the hard working type may forever have unfulfilled working life.

    This takes us to the next phase of the conversation: how did we get here? What were the yardsticks for recruiting people into the public sector? Were there any needs assessment that warranted the numbers we have now? There are very brilliant and hardworking civil servants across the MDAs in Kwara. But are these eggheads in the majority today? How did we employ senior civil servants who cannot write good memos or design proposals? What yardsticks did we employ to recruit a teacher who cannot write a simple sentence or communicate in the language of instruction? The truth, as any sincere mind could tell, is that the Kwara civil service was designed in the recent years as a reward system for loyalists of the ousted dynasty. People got appointment often without writing any examination or attending any interview that tested their suitability for the job. The education sector was not spared. Some chaps once told me in Twitter DM how they got employed as sunset workers (teachers). Their parents got the slots from their friends in government. While headhunting may not always be a crime, it is not a licence to load the workforce with persons that cannot do the job. It is not a licence to give free meal ticket to friends and cronies without commensurate benefits to the system that pays the bill.

    Now the situation is dire. Labour wants the minimum wage implemented. It is their right. Workers need decent wage. But can the system afford it as it is? If it does, what suffers for it? Most likely infrastructural development that serve 99 percent of the public. If that happens, what is the future of the state including the civil servants who have children who would call Kwara their state? For Kwara to pay minimum wage at the local government level, especially the consequential increment, they would spend 107 percent of their total monthly receipts from the federal government for just workers’ salary. As noted above, this does not include other expenses.

    The situation is not so better at the state level. Currently, 71 percent of the entire FAAC receipts goes into paying salaries of workers. This does not include the cost of running government and allocations to the MDAs. In September, Kwara got N4bn as allocation. But that is half the story. The allocation went up because the federal government has suspended full payment of loans until April next year. This means allocation would dip when full repayment resumes. Also, deductions for foreign loans, which the government inherited, have now risen by almost 61.9% (from N39.6m to N64.1m monthly) because of the recent devaluation of the naira.

    The minimum wage table being debated between the labour and government will add N263m to the current wage bill of the state government. If this sails through, it means Kwara will now spend 79% of its total FAAC receipts on average to pay workers alone. What about the IGR? The spendable part of the state IGR is around N600m. What is left of the IGR are akin to revolving funds, such as receipts from hospitals or tertiary schools (school fee) and so on which go back to them to keep them afloat. But, again, how much should a state like Kwara spend on wage bill? For those who want government to run like business so that public can get value for their money, which business spends 79% of its earnings to pay wages alone?

    This is the Kwara story. As things stand, both the government and the labour have tough decisions to make for the future of the state. No side holds the ace. If the Governor inks the minimum wage agreement today, it is clear that the local government cannot afford it. The way out is to borrow to pay. Or the state piles up arrears of unpaid salary in the coming months. Should we do that? If the state inks any agreement that adds N263m to the wage bill, the consequence is glaring for infrastructural development.

    The government, for its part, appears to be trying to rev up its revenue without imposing more burdens on the stressed populace. But the facts are clear: businesses in post-COVID-19 are struggling to survive and must be so treated. Similarly, the government is carrying out reforms in the civil service without sacking workers. Investments would come with steady allocation of resources to infrastructural development to open up the state while reforms designed to ease the business climate are ongoing. North, South, and Central parts of the state are recording undeniable infrastructural developments worth billions of naira without borrowings so far. Salaries are paid 100 percent latest by 25th of every month, while arrears are being sorted gradually.

    The labour movement comprises very responsible citizens and leaders in their own right. Everyone is stressed. The waste and indiscretions of the past are gone with the past, even though they haunt us all. The government, to be fair, has been prudent. No official vehicle has been purchased for the Governor, his deputy, cabinet members or other aides. Those with official vehicles inherited them. Even so, operational vehicles worth millions of naira have been purchased for smooth running of the civil service.

    There is no easy answer to the minimum wage riddles at hand. Rigidity pays no side. And no side can afford the luxury of partisan sentiments. All that matters now, and would be in the overall interest of the state, is a huge dose of patriotism, forbearance, and good faith on all sides.

    As somebody who was once in government before and was indeed a part of the Kwara struggle over the years with appreciable knowledge of the state and sincere love for workers, I appeal to the labour unions to kindly take a hard look at the issues and put the interest of the state above every other consideration. That is the sacrifice we all have to make at this point.

     

    • Ajia, a former university teacher and publishing executive, is a public policy analyst based in Ilorin.

     

  • Nigeria Aviation: Flight in sync with national growth

    Nigeria Aviation: Flight in sync with national growth

    By Olu Ayela

     

    ALTHOUGH the aviation sector has chalked up seventy five years in existence, long before Nigeria gained independence, FAAN became a key partner in the activities of independence and a key celebrant who having provided the means of transportation for the most of the officials for the landmark event. The authority made history and has been consistent since then in the face of many of the airlines who hav e used the facilities and have fallen by the wayside. It is not just because it is a government agency, but it is the spirit of diligence and resilience that has been carved into the DNA of the authority over the years. After all, the national carrier was also a government agency opened to the same level of interference. The difference is certainly not of kind but of degree.

    That tradition of flexibility and strength in the face of adversity has become a generational trait in the authority becoming the backbone of the success so far recorded. It is a bragging to which one of the titans of the aviation industry, Captain Rabiu Yadudu can lay claim to as a banner of meritorious service. Captain Yadudu’s style of operation is unique and distinct and that is his mark as the Authority gradually breaks through the dark clouds of COVID-19. Beyond his sterling qualities that speaks volume for him, the man has seen virtually all that makes for an airport systems that meet internationally acceptable standard. With his appointment in May 2019, the man has kept his sight rigidly fixed on the mission statement of FAAN which has become his operation manual. In line with the expectation of the commitment of FAAN “to develop and profitably manage customer-centric airport facilities for safe, secure and efficient carriage of passengers and goods at world-class standards of quality,” the man has neither waiver to the left or taken a flight of fancy to the right in breach of the demands of FAAN.

    The innumerable distractions that are some of the pitfalls of the work including incoherent air transport policy, bad management, decaying facilities, loose security, closure of airports, intermittent air crashes has not deterred him from ensuring that there must be strict compliance with safety which is the bedrock of the aviation industry. He is an unrepentant enthusiast for the strict application of regulations for the sustenance of the aviation industry, combining efficiency and effectiveness in operations without compromising the comfort of the passengers around whom everything revolves.

    Captain Yadudu wears experience in the aviation industry as an emblem. His career is a litany of success stories interspersed with some of the challenges that are expected as the hazards of the job.    He is in his elements in Aircraft Operations as he is comfortable in airport personnel and facilities management, rising from the post of the Director of Airport Operations (DAO), of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) into the helm of authority in the Authority. He is an International Civil Aviation Organization/Airport Council International (ICAO/ACI) accredited international airport professional who came into the office highly prepared and duly motivated for the work and part of the results were the Aerodromes Certifications of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, in 2017.

    His certification includes training as a pilot and he captained a B747, Citation Sovereign and the Learjet 45XR with over 7000hrs of flying time under his belt, alongside being an experienced Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Avionics). He is confident in the air as he is on the ground. He is the proverbial round peg roundly fitting into the round hole of aviation matters. His strength is known to in his ability for insisting on professionalism.

    Expectedly, because of his desire to boost morale of the workforce and build on existing facilities, he pitched on strategic areas as anchor for his tenure especially in human capacity development, development and utilization, infrastructure upgrade and maintenance and improvement in processes & procedures. The areas so identified were designed to bring about a holistic revamp of the airport authority under his watch. Prior to his ascension to the office of the Managing Director, Captain Yadudu had devoted himself to understanding what is necessary to propel the Authority to a level that it begins to work with precision. He had prepared extensively and made the complex procedures as simple as possible through the identification of bottle necks that had impeded effective service delivery. The outcomes were tremendous reforms in safety, security, which have boosted the confidence, capability and competence of the eight thousand strong workforces.

    With the understanding that knowledgeable people can bring rapid transformation and improve on service delivery, he upgraded the FAAN Training School at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos to a global standard. Following the upgrade was a certification that has made the school one of the ICAO accredited Aviation Security Training Centre, a step towards attaining the ICAO Trainer status. What a huge impetus that little changes can bring as the school has become a hosting facility for ACI and ICAO training programs.

    The deepening of knowledge under him extended to issues of continuous training and capacity building and touched staff in the most sensitive areas in the airport namely in aviation security, fire and rescue, operations, safety and engineering departments, has received a new impetus. He adopted a strategy that will make the process to be fully internalized and owned by the Authority. He took on the train-the-trainer pattern through the Authority will train a class of fifty who would in turn step down the training for relevant staff. Accordingly, there will be no shortage of trainers in the Authority if the process is not truncated even in his absence.

    In his restoration of the confidence of staff members, he also considered the primary reason why the airports were created, the passengers. Their safety, comfort and security were prioritized by him so he reactivated the cooling system which had made the arrival hall of the MMIA a sort of a cauldron for arriving passengers who would suddenly step into a hot and really contrasting climate from the cool interior of an arriving aircrafts. Other major changes at the airport included the airfield lighting at the Lagos aerodrome has been upgraded, The Passenger Boarding Bridges at the MMIA have been awarded for revival and for upgrade to world class levels, while approval has been secured for immediate resurfacing of the taxiway Bravo linking the Domestic and International wings.

    There are other significant achievements that are difficult to be overlooked by any regular user of the Lagos airports. One of them is the menacing presence of a large colony of birds that have found them airport as habitable location. That is no mean feat because bird strike was almost synonymous with the Lagos airports and it was of serious concern to airline operators. Deploying a scientific management approach, the birds were eventually dislodged and the key flight path for all the aircraft have become a very safe runway.

    Confident that the exercise that dispersed the colony of birds is not a fluke that it scientifically proven to work anywhere, he has directed that every airport that has been exposed to the problem be provided scientific bird/wildlife hazard management equipment and perhaps once and for all because of the farsightedness of Captain Yadudu millions of dollars have been saved for airlines and not to mention the innumerable lives that must have been saved.

    In contemplation of absolutes in the primacy of knowledge for children and what heavy burden the cost of paying for the academic pursuit of their wards can impose on the workforce, he has begun a process of rewarding academic excellence among the children of the staff of the Authority. It is a novelty in FAAN, and it is an offer of a university education scholarships to the top five outstanding scholars of staff children from each of the federal regions.

    In yet another bold intervention which came through Medicare, the FAAN Hospital at the Lagos Airport has undergone massive improvement with the installation of world class equipment and service level. The services are rendered free-of-charge to all FAAN Staff and stakeholders. Plans are now underway to replicate this across the FAAN regions nationwide. Medical supplies have also been decentralized to enable the various airports to be more responsive and flexible in attending to the specific needs of staff and other stakeholders. The medical services upgrade will also go a long way in ensuring easier certification of the nation’s airports.

    Apparently, the competence level of Captain Yadudu is not only in aviation matters as he is equally well grounded and proficient in administration of men, utilization of materials and prudence in finances. Revenue generation has not only improved enormously but financial control systems to guarantee that leakages are minimized have ensured efficiency in the running of airport operations. Accordingly, one of the cash spots of the airport, the airport road toll operations are receiving attention with a view to up scaling its methods across the country as a veritable source of revenue.

    Definitely, men like Yadudu are rare in government circle and at time of dire needs like we have as a nation, it will be prudent to keep them in service in the next 10years at least, like other serious climes to ensure even developments and boast their economies. Captain Yadudu possesses the capabilities to improve services and maximize what Nigeria has in the airport. At a time when global airlines seem to have lost over fifty percent of their revenue, it is important that whatever will further decimate what has been achieved in the process of repositioning the airports, should be discarded. Such cacophonous conversations like concession that is an ill wind that will only fan the embers of destruction should not be entertained by supervisory agencies and government officials with oversight responsibilities.

    As a seasoned administrator, he is acutely aware that it is difficult if not impossible, to run the airports operations all alone. He has pushed inclusivity to a level hitherto unheard of in the work at the airport with the establishment of a working committee to review the financial standing of each airport to determine the viability and profitability of airports in Nigeria. What he would do with that report is wrapped in his wisdom and we cannot just wait to see it unfolding as it will be another masterstroke in the promotion of patronage for passengers as well as for cargo.

    In an exemplary offer of public participation, he operationalized his relationship with stake holders including Customers, Operators, Regulators and all external stakeholders giving an unprecedented and an uninterrupted access through which complaints, suggestions, general enquiries are can be channeled directly to his office. He exemplified the saying that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. In one act of classic management style he told Nigerians that they have a say in the airport they want and deserve.

    Intricately linked with the assessment of airports is the renewed efforts to incorporate the resolutions of the Airport Council International on Airport Service Quality Protocol. The initiative is to raise the bar of service for passengers. The protocol captures data relating to ease-of-connection, ambience of the airports, physical facilities like washrooms, executive lounges conditions and the quality of business. These data are analyzed, interpreted and would form the basis for services rendered to passengers.

    Where there is administration without feedback, the consequence will be disorder. To avoid anarchy Captain Yadudu has established a scheme, with a dedicated telephone that is directly linked to him without interference and is devoid of any attempt for to use sentiments to provide answers to people reporting incidents on pressing issues, seeking redress or resolution of grievances about airport services. line is available for direct link to him. The outcome of this whittling down of bureaucratic bottleneck was a dramatic change in attitude to work by the management of the Authority, cuts the red-tape and allows direct incident reporting and grievance resolution. This initiative keeps even the Management Cadre on their toes and ensures improved performance across board.

    Although the world is coming out of the gloomy days of lockdown due to the pandemic the Nigeria Airport Authority has been thinking sustainability and preparing a flight that is in sync with national growth. The potentials for world renown services are available and even with Nigeria aviation playing catch up for countries like Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Kenya in the aviation industry, there is a silver lining in the cloud. It bear repeating that airports are critical in the air transport ecosystem which is a key driver of local, regional and national economies and the communities they serve, and this global economic multiplier effect needs to be safeguarded to help underpin recovery.

    What is required for consolidation of these gains is for the master plans proposed by Captain Yadudu to be diligently implemented and Nigeria aviation will fly above the imaginations and expectations of the global aviation industry.

     

    Olu Ayela, Veteran Journalist, based in Lagos 

     

  • The bugbear called restructuring

    The bugbear called restructuring

    By Festus Eriye

    There’s something about the word ‘restructuring’ that triggers emotional reactions whenever it is mentioned in certain quarters and parts of Nigeria. Perhaps, because it’s nebulous and offers people whatever they dream of in their little corner.

    It began to be thrown about in the 80s and 90s as the country navigated a series of socio-political and economic crises: everything from traumatic military coups, to battles for civilian control of federal power, to agitation over sharing of national revenues.

    Three years ago, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, speaking on Channel Television’s Sunrise programme about the confusion surrounding the idea said: “What is restructuring? For some, it means creation of additional states. Going by the outcome of the 2014 National Confab it was recommended that we should have 20 more states.

    “For others it is all about resource control, for others it is about moving certain items from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List, for some it means community policing, for others it is about devolution of power.”

    We won’t get into the wisdom of some ‘restructuring’ ideas at this time: for instance creation of more states, given that most of the 36 existing ones are on the ropes – unable to meet their obligations.

    Mohammed’s definition stops short of saying that for separatists like the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the Southeast and Boko Haram in the Northeast, it means dismemberment of the federation and creation of new entities from our current whole.

    Of course, getting your own ethnic or theocratic enclave carved out of Nigeria, doesn’t automatically deliver an Eldorado in your corner of Africa.

    The clamour for ‘power shift’ and ‘resource control’ were by-products of the push for restructuring. These agitations forced the political class to make adjustments that led to ‘zoning’ in parties and enhanced allocations for oil and mineral producing areas.

    But none of these changes have produced the country that its longsuffering citizens dream of. Instead, whenever it seems like a new day a false dawn evolves; and with every fresh national crisis calls for restructuring become amplified.

    As the nation marked its landmark 60th Independence anniversary, the sound of frustration began emerging from the most unlikely of quarters. Take Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s warning that Nigeria needs prayers so that present cracks don’t lead to a break-up.

    A few days later, the respected Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) – a man not known for political flame-throwing – warned that the country must restructure of face the risk of a break-up.

    His comment was front page news across the land and clearly touched raw nerves in high places as shortly after the presidency released a statement rebuking those calling for restructuring. They were dismissed as unpatriotic, with the underlying warning that President Muhammadu Buhari won’t be stampeded into granting them their desires.

    For people like Buhari and other military officers who fought in the civil war, restructuring only means one thing – dismembering Nigeria with the constituent blocks retreating to their tents. So, he would resist the idea no matter how seductively packaged, no matter how eminent the marketer.

    For those with this mind-set, the present structure is as good as it gets. But nothing can be farther from the truth. Nigeria as constituted now is largely delivering frustration, sorrow, tears and blood. Certain individuals and groups may be doing well for themselves and their families, but the vast majority of our people were not so cheery on the recent anniversary.

    So whether the president likes it or not, whether he thinks proponents of restructuring are just troublemakers, it is clear something has to give.

    Read Also: ‘Don’t force restructuring on Nigeria’

     

    That said, the most vocal proponents of the idea have to be more specific about what they really want, rather than continue selling the concept like some pie-in-the-sky. They need to be practical about how they hope to actualise their goals.

    Those who crave dismemberment should perish the thought that any Nigerian president – least of all one who is a civil war veteran – is going to advance their cause. Are they willing to take up arms and go the route of Biafra circa 1967 all over?

    Are they ready to thread the path of entities that made up the old Yugoslavia who fought to restructure the contraption held together for so long by the strongman methods of Marshall Josip Tito?

    Even those whose agenda isn’t that extreme have to understand that Buhari isn’t interested in any radical modification of existing political or geographical structures; those are not his priorities for the final years of his tenure. So anyone expecting him to issue a dramatic proclamation from Aso Rock restructuring Nigeria needs to snap out of their dreams.

    Some have long sold the idea of convening another ad-hoc gathering of nationalities and groups to carry out the exercise. Who or what would confer legality to such a gathering? It’s a path well-trodden; it’s a path to nowhere and it’s unlikely to happen again.

    Every time such so-called confabs have been convoked, they came with ‘no-go areas’ – guaranteeing the delivery of cosmetic solutions that haven’t addressed fundamental problems.

    In any event, what makes those who would be appointed to such a conclave more credible that the underemployed senators and representatives thrown up by our elections?

    I would suggest that whatever our restructuring dreams are, the most pragmatic option for realising them at this time is to exploit the existing National Assembly.

    If people are serious and aren’t just grandstanding, they can build political alliances within the federal legislature to achieve what they want – whether it is by constitutional amendment or through the regular legislative process.

    We must also scale down our expectations as to what can be achieved immediately given the challenges of building consensus in a country with hundreds of ethnic nationalities – each with its own demands and aspirations.

    Finally, there’s a case to be made for patiently tinkering with this flawed structure, rather than making wholesale changes. In 60 years, we’ve not given the parliamentary or presidential systems sufficient time to flourish. Impatiently we’ve launched military coups, constitutional amendments and conferences in search of some perfect model of governance. News flash! It doesn’t exist.

     

  • Happy introspective 60th Independence anniversary

    Happy introspective 60th Independence anniversary

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 1,100,000, infections 36,000,000 with 60,000 confirmed cases and 1,200 deaths in Nigeria.

    Rank our leaders according to ‘Performance Vs. Funds’ as Federal Fiscal Allocation, LGA vote, Security Vote, IGR often Extortionist and extras like Paris Club Refunds and SUBEB counterpart funding. Mostly failures. To survive, Nigerian authorities must step up and execute a nation-saving restructuring to the constitution foisted on Nigeria in 1999 in which ‘we the people’ had no voting veto. Leadership must listen. The problems are glaring and human made. Parts of the country were carefully ‘advantaged’ in political and fiscal decisions including state creation giving political majority, lopsided and repeated LGA creation with massive increase in funding. These gave federal allocations from other states’ VAT etc. But the result of these ‘advantages’ was not used for educational, health, developmental, infrastructural advantage. So federal government lopsidedly poured more in and gave more administrative power posts. Result – little success. You cannot train citizens who-for whatever reason- reject training, but why not train people who-for whatever reason- are desperate to learn? The beneficiaries of ‘advantaged policies’ did nothing with 60-year financial and governance largess except to further empower and enrich sectional leaders. Not only that, ‘conservatism’ policies caused ‘arrested development’ nationwide. Of course, every governor and president except perhaps Peter Obi failed to deliver expectations for huge funds.

    The president, ignoring complaints about marginalisation and ignoring equity and federalism insults Nigerians’ individual integrity and perpetuates the master-servant relationship. No southerner has left the south to undermine or murder farmers in the north.

    Even under this ‘strict anticorruption regime’ how was Nigerian school children’s meagre /per capita food money stolen in billions? The thieves deserve a proverbial ‘millstone around their necks’ for harming a child. Nobody monitored, checked, raised alarm when one, ten, a hundred million, billion, 2 and 3 and 4 and N5billion entered accounts. Surely the bank’s CEO and Chief Accountant knew? Area bank managers must have welcomed the thieves. Nigeria should have outgrown or outsmarted the mega-thieves. Why this ‘continuous governance failure to nip corruption in the bud’? Why no alarm when N1m or 10million entered an account. This is a criminal mega-conspiratorial failure of supervision and monitoring requiring removal and prosecution of every government, institutional, bank and auditing financial official feeding from the money chain for ‘dereliction of financial supervisory duty’. The collaborating receiving banks should be fined, blacklisted, with licences withdrawn for ‘financial crimes against children of Nigeria @60’. Most politicians routinely are culpably guilty of crimes against the children of Nigeria!!!!

    On politics, Nigeria must cut the number in and the cost of politics; cut by 75% the Salaries and Perks of NASS sapping Nigeria dry. Nigerian requires ‘One House, Part-time, Sitting Allowance’ politics with accommodation paid for by the home state. Politics must be a service, not a self-serving financial cancer pauperising Nigeria.

    Mr. President, you chose ‘Togetherness’ as the 60th Anniversary slogan. Please get more of Nigeria’s ‘differing tribes and tongues’ people in your kitchen cabinet, customs, judiciary, the armed forces and NNPC. And please really federalise Nigeria. Nigeria deserves this birthday present.

    Are you enthusiastic to be a Nigerian on Nigeria’s 60th Independence Anniversary eve? Do you hold up your identity, passport, as a stoic Nigerian ‘living in hope’? Our leaders rubbished us as disgraced ‘Generator Generation’ which cannot even refine its own oil. Why? Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence, Selfishness-CINS and political or ethnic indifference?

    What achievements validate this 60th anniversary? Life, yes? It is murder, if stained wealth was acquired by cheating one ‘Fellow Nigerian’. Religion teaches not to curse. But who cursed them with greed above midwifing a geographical giant into a glorious Nigeria? Can they change? Restitution by Nigeria’s many political thieves would easily raise the $1-200b in foreign reserves required for Nigeria’s naira to bounce back.

    Many today remember 1960. But successive leaders sold their inheritance for less than a mess of pottage, abandoning the ‘political burden of responsibility for ‘‘Fellow Nigerians’’’. We have had policies, politics, military, laws, decrees, lawlessness, peace, civil war, true federalism, a unitary governance and now we are gripped by the python of a feudal ‘pretence’ federalism favouring too few while other Nigerians are strangled by federal might with its ‘Knee On Our Necks’.  Nigeria is at yet another crossroads. The haves have taken too much and done nothing good with it. We must share more and implement true federalism or remain a primitive undemocratic fractured society of master- servant or worse.

    Ask your mirror person ‘What will I do to heal Nigeria in 2020-1?’

    Surely Covid19 has taught wealthy Nigerians who treat Nigeria as one big extractive cash mining industry that their wealth can be temporary. Wisdom teaches corrupt Nigerians to return the billions needed to upgrade Nigeria to Series 2020.

    Nigerians do not deserve to be hated! Make Nigeria a livable and lovably great again for ALL Nigerians!

    Nigeria demands an apology for the naira decimation from $1=N0.75 to N465, in spite of trillions of dollars earned. This precipitated a poor nation with a tsunami of economic and political refugees and illegal migrants forced to be willing to risk dying to leave Nigeria? Who will revive a dying Nigeria @60? You? Perhaps he or she is reading this column. I hope so, for Nigeria’s unity/equity sake!

  • The canonisation of Obaseki

    The canonisation of Obaseki

    By Festus Eriye

    In many ways politics is like sport. When you prevail, you not only win a prize, you earn bragging rights. Not surprisingly, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki and his supporters have been crowing to the rafters – rubbing salt on raw wounds of the humbled.

    Fresh from his exploits, Obaseki has embarked on a lap of honour – stopping by Arise TV – where he was a noticeable no-show days to the poll – to hold court on the concept of democracy.

    He declared that his bete noire – Adams Oshiomhole – and All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Bola Tinubu, were “extra-constitutional players” who were a threat to democracy and had to be stopped.

    That statement suggests that only office holders like himself are permitted to participate, or have a say in the political or democratic process, however defined.

    Again, just like in sports, the end often justifies the means. No one remembers how many fouls you committed, or red cards you received in the course of a football match, if you wind up with the trophy.

    Today, Tinubu and Oshiomhole are demons and Obaseki the freshly-minted saint because he won. Imagine for one moment if Osagie Ize-Iyamu had defeated him!

    He would have been castigated no end for his many errors. He would have been called a tyrant who didn’t brook opposition. He would have been tagged a traitor who sold his benefactor down the river. He would have been called an anti-democrat who emasculated an independent arm of government.

    It would have been said he was inflexible for resisting every effort to forge a compromise between him and his mentor. He would have been reminded of the unforced error of not commissioning the hospital built by his predecessor – something he has admitted was a mistake.

    But today he’s the victor and in a country where convenient amnesia is a national endowment, he smells of roses and can deliver lectures on democracy and the fine art of godfather-slaying.

    Obaseki didn’t win one hundred percent of votes cast. This means a little over forty percent of ‘elector-jurors’ bought into the case against him.

    Among his greatest misdeeds was not allowing the House of Assembly operate freely because majority of lawmakers were allies of his foe. You could defend him and say he was merely playing survival politics. But the House isn’t his personal toy to play with. It sits duly elected representatives of the people from the 18 local governments. Their right to representation was crushed casually as the governor fought for his political life.

    The dodgy process of inaugurating the assembly in the dead of night, complete with a proclamation that didn’t indicate time, ranks up there with similar stunts by power-drunk governors across the country since 1999.

    Today, only nine persons in the 24-member House are ‘legislating’ because the majority don’t feel it’s safe to show their faces. Their fate wasn’t before voters two weekends ago; it’s hanging fire in the hands of one powerful individual.

    Days before the polls when the rebel majority decided to rattle the cage, Obaseki and his deputy sped to the assembly premises to commence ‘renovation.’ The roof was torn off and lorry loads of sand and gravel dumped at the entrance to prevent access.

    Imagine if President Muhammadu Buhari had deployed similar tactics at the National Assembly when Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara bucked the APC leadership to seize power! He would have been called a military dictator reincarnated and petitions would have reached the United Nations, the White House and No. 10 Downing Street, among others.

    So, with victory secured, will Obaseki the democrat now undertake to let the House where his supporters are a minority operate freely? Can he guarantee that lawmakers who are not with him would be allowed to represent their constituents without intimidation? That would be evidence that his democratic claims aren’t just self-serving platitudes.

    The governor’s campaign strategy successfully defined the election as a battle between him and an overbearing ex-this, ex-that. Once the dust settled, some have rushed to the conclusion godfatherism was slain on September 19. I disagree. It’s alive and well in Edo and in many Government Houses across Nigeria. It’s alive in the grand offices of many federal ministers.

    Who is a godfather? What do they do? In the concept we see paternalism fusing with the need to play God’s role of being in control. It’s about powerful individuals deciding who gets what and what gets done.

    The fight between Obaseki and Oshiomhole was about control. The governor wanted control of who led the House as insurance against impeachment; his predecessor packed the House with his loyalists as a check on his successor. Was he right to do so? You could answer by asking if there’s still room in politics for exercising influence.

    Many who are rejoicing over the former APC chairman’s political humiliation do so because he frustrated their own attempts to play godfather in their local fiefdoms.

    In the run-up to last year’s general election, former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, dramatically pulled out a list from his pocket and read out the names of who would be what to stunned party men. He declared he was off to Abuja to get it rubberstamped and whoever didn’t like it could meet him in the field.

    Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, tried everything under heaven to install his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as APC gubernatorial candidate. He even broke with his long time loyalist and deputy, Eze Madumere, over this.

    In Zamfara, then Governor Abdulaziz Yari executed a mutually-assured-destruction strategy that eventually handed the governorship to PDP on a platter just because Oshiomhole wouldn’t let him foist his handpicked choice on the party.

    When the Sarakis ruled the roost in Kwara, they controlled who got what. It was the same when the father held sway and not much changed when the son rose. Today, those who run things in party and government in the state, are still determining who gets what.

    Politics is a game where men peddle power and influence. It’s the same in most climes and one election hasn’t changed anything. When these influencers prevail they are hailed as democrats, when they don’t they are demonised as godfathers. That’s just the way it is.

  • Happy introspective 60th Independence anniversary

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 1,003,000, infections 34,000,000, 59,000 confirmed cases and 1,200 deaths in Nigeria.

    To lift your spirits at Nigeria @ 60, note that Nigerians still manage to keep the reputation of the country afloat internationally. There are many hard-working individuals everywhere. Three Nigerians stand out today, named in the 2020 list of 100 Time magazine’s Most Influential People. Dr Tunji Funsho should ring a bell. He is a retired cardiology physician along with two other Nigerians – the well-known Harvard graduate award-winning writer and teacher Ms Tomi Adeyemi, proudly female and 27 years old and Mr Tony Elumelu of Tony Elumelu Foundation- driving entrepreneurial empowerment across Africa.

    I met Dr Tunji Funsho in Lagos in 1974/5 when we did House Job in Lagos State among the big four hospitals Massey Street Children’s, Lagos General, Island Maternity and Igbobi Orthopaedic. Late Dr Taju Adenrele made up our trio. From housemanship we went to different places for NYSC in 1975/6 but remained in touch. Dr Tunji Funsho has been a member of Rotary International for 35 years where he massively impacted the Polio Plus programme which stopped 75,000 infections annually with associated lifetimes of misery, monetary medical costs. He became a main driver and public face having his practice and family in Kano for many years where his stellar professional and charitable reputation gained the trust of violent vaccine sceptics. In that dangerous environment, about 12 field vaccinators were brutally executed in the ‘line of humanitarian duty’. They will miss this celebration and Nigeria@60 and we must never forget them and must care for their children. I give this information because it is important for the younger generation to learn as much as possible through biographies of the ‘great and the good’ role models and trace them to a pre-famous time to confirm the hard work involved.

    Congratulations to Dr Tunji Funsho and his family especially Aisha who ‘donated’ him to Rotary led Polio Plus battle. Congratulations also to Ms Tomi Adeyemi and Mr Tony Elumelu.

    ‘Fellow Nigerians’! Repeat it x 60. Happy anniversary with 60 Gbosas [exclamations]. Do the ‘National Pride Test‘. Does standing in front of your national flag and singing or hearing your national anthem or taking the pledge or oath bring you to adoring attention, ignite a burning desire, heart fluttering, a strength to your breast and a lump to your throat?  Are the words ‘Fellow Nigerians’ from your heart? We have been hoodwinked by those two words, wrongly interpreted to be the arrival call of a real saviour with a real agenda, be he [never ‘she’] military or political or a dangerously oscillating mutating hybrid – milito-political or politico-military? Yet another failed saviour. Each one did the Nigeria Leadership Examination- ‘NLE’. Who passed?

    Congratulations to all those who fought for independence and suffered humiliation, exploitation and ‘western religion education and health and railways under colonial rule. Congratulations to the tens of millions of hard workers, in government and the private sector who have kept Nigeria going these 60 years, often with slave wages, without wages for months and certainly without pensions for years sometimes till death- what a sacrifice! Let us commiserate with the families of those lying prematurely in their graves from all sides of all the political election wars, the 1967-1970 civil war and all the undeclared wars we have fought and are still fighting. We commiserate with those dying as we speak and those who in schools, hospitals, potholed roads and as widows suffered the indignities of being deprived of their rightful educational, medical and infrastructural care and part of the Nigerian national cake and inheritance by the corruption of Fellow Nigerians in positions with responsibility over those matters to help build Nigeria into an SDG compliant nation.

    It is easy to optimistically say, ‘This too will pass’ of Nigeria’s troubles. But Nigeria’s troubles are not transient but have been made intransigent unlike Covid. They will not pass until the day when Nigerians individually and collectively decide enough is enough and take the Nigerian National Anthem, Oath and Pledge seriously.

    But will they? An institution is a building. Oaths and pledges are broken and bad corrupt policies and practices are made by individuals in NASS, the Presidency, the judiciary and administrative functionaries throughout governance and the private sector. As individuals we join forces against racism abroad but face racism here called tribalism caused by individuals. Only individuals can stop bad policies, agendas and directions. For 60 years we Nigerians have struggled for the development rights of electricity, water, pothole-free roads, useful railways, the East-West Road, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the second Nigeria Bridge, etc all forever sad dreams of a utopian Nigeria.

    Each individual chooses to lead the people under their guidance to success or disaster.

    Uppermost worries today are individual and ethnic security! Insecurity truncates growth and contentment. Nigeria’s terrorism is perpetrated by militias manifest by ability to murderously ambush convoys, even governor’s and colonel’s convoys and reduce farms, towns and LGAs to rubble.

    Will terrorism pass? No, not by itself. No one is safe. Terrorism must be confronted in a superior firepower warlike manner. Terrorism has created over five million IDPs in disgraceful camps or migrating for jobs and safety. A famine is predicted on lands laid waste by cows, herdsmen and terrorists, kidnapping and killing-insecurity. Nigeria has lost some 50-100,000 innocent souls. No IDP will be happy celebrating Nigeria@60!

    • To be cont’d