The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Bayelsa, Kogi polls: A post mortem

    THE fall into opposition hands of Bayelsa State, for 20 years a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fortress, is just the latest in a string of disasters that have befallen the erstwhile ruling party that once dreamt of a 60-year dominion over the land.

    As far as political upsets go, it ranks up there with the wiping out of the Saraki dynasty’s control over Kwara State at this year’s general elections.

    What transpired over the weekend goes deeper than one party prevailing and another losing power. Before our very eyes, the All Progressives Congress (APC), once considered anathema in the South-south and Southeast, is transforming into an acceptable platform for getting to power in these areas.

    Instead of a token presence in Edo State, its footprint is now planted firmly in Bayelsa with the prospect of further incursions into the rest of the South-south zone.

    Is it because the party is suddenly deodorised and the things that made it unattractive evaporated? Not so. Our reality is that not much separates the two main parties in terms of their politics and policies. That is why their members flit from one to another at the least provocation and without discomfiture.

    The Bayelsa election result is more about the personalities and pedigree of the candidates. It is also about how local party leaders foisted their preferred candidates on the party and the fallout their actions triggered.

    Many have blamed Governor Seriake Dickson for ‘imposing’ Senator Douye Diri on the party, ostensibly as part of a complex arrangement that would have cleared a path for him to run for the Senate seat presently occupied by Lawrence Ewhrujakpor – the Deputy Governorship candidate.

    The most formidable obstacle to Diri’s emergence was the presence in the race of the serial contestant, Timi Alaibe, who was clearly favoured by former President Goodluck Jonathan and some others.

    Dickson did what most governors have done over time by pulling out all stops to ensure his man got the ticket. But the upshot was that critical stakeholders whose collective contributions could have assured victory for the PDP were offended.

    The signs were there that all was not well given the gale of defections that persisted almost until Election Day. It was as if they were designed to exact the maximum political toll on Dickson’s goodwill as the departures happened in drip-drip fashion, on a weekly basis.

    As if that wasn’t bad enough, the absence of former President Jonathan and neighbouring Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, at the party’s grand rally leading to the polls sent out further signals of a divided house.

    Like most governors Dickson was probably deceived by the sense that his office is so powerful, he could deliver victory on his own despite all the hemorrhaging of support.

    But this episode has shown again that no matter how powerful he is, a governor can be outflanked when critical stakeholders band together. It happened in Lagos with former Governor Akinwumi Ambode. Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan also saw his bid to install a successor of his choice frustrated in 2015 by the coming together of disparate forces in the Delta State PDP.

    The spectre of disunity was equally present in APC. The party was dealt a body blow less than 48 hours to the election when the court ruled in the case filed by former Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, that it had no gubernatorial candidate.

    A brief judicial reprieve allowed the APC and its candidate David Lyon to remain on the ballot. But this legal complication may yet come back to bite the party.

    Indeed, Lokpobiri and the other primaries contestant Preye Aganaba, never accepted the outcome of the exercise. That is the reason the former minister never withdrew his suit – insisting he was the rightful flagbearer.

    Interestingly, while he claims he only asked to be declared the APC candidate, the court went a step further to void the entire primaries. If the Court of Appeal doesn’t strike down the ruling of the lower court, what happened in Zamfara State may well play out again like a horror movie no one wants to watch.

    In the end, there were lots of people embittered by the outcome of the primaries on both sides and they didn’t disappear quietly. It all came down to how their deliberate actions ultimately impacted their party’s fortunes.

    Alaibe is still in court as is Lokpobiri who, nevertheless, asked people to vote for APC in the hope that he would be the beneficiary somewhere down the line.

    On the PDP side the siddon look approach of certain individuals was glaring. But it would appear some went further with actions designed to frustrate the governor. The level of the party’s electoral collapse last Saturday lends credence to this belief.

    On reflection, perhaps Dickson may have been better served by allowing the emergence of a consensus candidate – even if the individual wasn’t his preferred one. After all as we have seen between Godswill Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel in Akwa Ibom; and between Adams Oshiomhole and Godwin Obaseki in Edo State, the governor you install could well turn out to be your worst nightmare.

    The situation is a bit different in Kogi State where 18 months ago, Governor Yahaya Bello was considered dead in the water. He owed a huge backlog of salaries to civil servants and was battling foes on every side.

    He even managed to alienate a deputy who he eventually hounded out of office in one of the most infamous episodes of crooked impeachment in Nigeria’s history.

    But he realised a long while ago that he was in political trouble and began scurrying around to mend fences. For all his shortcomings, Bello deserves credit for ensuring he went into the elections with a united front. Come polling day, the likes of James Faleke, Smart Adeyemi and the Audus were in the same camp with him.

    Now he has won a second term handily, not because he’s deserving on the basis of performance or that the people are suddenly enamoured of his heavy-handed style, but because he quickly realized that he couldn’t prevail battling formidable opposition under the same roof.

    It remains to be seen whether his stooping to conquer at the polls would translate into a more humble and humane style in his second term. But then we have Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai’s assurance, delivered on bended knees, to expect a wiser, more mature version of the Kogi State governor in the years ahead.

  • Rail; NGO, Hate Bills

    Weep Nigeria, well and long. You have been forced to operate at 10% capacity, a failure but alive. But your future was decimated, miniaturized by our leaders who have led us to loss. Blame nobody else, no war or enemy action. While Nigeria wobbled, our sister and senior independent country, Ghana@57, has done it again. Congratulations for signing a ‘High Speed’ train contract for $2.6b with the African Development Bank.

    I asked why Nigeria was not signing high speed railway contracts. I was told Africa is not ‘ripe or ready’ for ‘150-400km high speed’ trains yet. They said that about the cell phone remember? We have the cellphones but no cell phone factory in Africa. But Ethiopia, Kenya and Morocco have active ‘High Speed Railway’ Programmes! Apparently Ghana and the ADB’s Akinwumi Adesina, are following suit. Nigeria ignores its injuries, and loss of trillions of hours of Lagos travel time inflicted upon us in 1983/4 by unitary government’s Buhari’s action cancelling the visionary Lagos State’s local Jakande Metrorail Project. Buhari’s action negatively impacted Nigerians till today. We are stuck in Lagos traffic and Apapa gridlock from persistent government policy myopia. In fact, Nigeria@60 paid a contract cancellation fine of $84m- 184m. The citizens received no apology. Belatedly a second term Governor Fashola rekindled the Lagos railway to partial fruition through the ‘Lagos Light Rail Project’. Stuck in traffic, we stare at the stalled constructed concrete beams hanging over us like a burial tomb. How dare a then serving Lagos State governor, Ambode, repeat painful history and ‘re-cancel’ the light rail perhaps due to differences in contract sums or policy? Instead, gridlock reigns as Lagosians suffer where there should be no suffering -like on the Lagos-Ibadan ‘Expressway’ at the hands of Eighth National Assembly – NASS-8.

     

    ‘How dare a then serving Lagos State governor, Ambode, repeat painful history and ‘re-cancel’ the light rail perhaps due to differences in contract sums or policy? Instead, gridlock reigns as Lagosians suffer where there should be no suffering …’

     

    Even with Obasanjo’s opposition to Lagos and Tinubu, why did Fashola not restart the Lagos city railway back in 2007 with Lagos State’s megabucks Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). But that was not the only ‘failures to grasp future’. Obasanjo recruited late Chief CSO Akande to redraw a national rail master plan. From 1999, Obasanjo had the US, Canadians, Chinese, Indians and Germans begging to support him with railways.  Little or nothing happened and we suffered on.

    Read Also: Hate Speech Bill, a bad law

     

    Nigeria has the disease ‘Developmental Myopia’ plaguing many Nigerian leaders who are technically blind when they attend forward-looking international conferences. They utilise international standards only for self-interest and not spirit and practical people-development. Ride on Ghana. One day, perhaps, Nigeria will be led by ‘Great thinkers and doers’, not those who will execute another ‘Death Sentence’ – willing to kill to ‘win’ state elections. If not, we will remain in this misery in gridlock at roundabouts and on roads formerly called expressways. Even our current 2019 upgrading of railways will need an immediate re-upgrade to the 21st Century. What warped logic says that in 2019 a Lagos Ibadan-Express train has to run just once a day or through Abeokuta instead of a new railway parallel to the existing expressway and run hourly back and forth and side by side on two tracks?

    We must identify several components of the current NASS-9 rush to enact ‘strange fruit’ as new bills- particularly as relates to hate speech and NGO Bills in particular and the much advertised ‘DEATH SENTENCE FOR NEARLY ALL’. Professor Soyinka has spoken against the death penalty. Listen to him. Strangely NASS 1- 9 have never recommended the death sentence for any corruption crime even in billions and costing citizens’ lives. In regard to NGOs, first Nigerians know that government has failed to deliver in spite of trillions, mostly stolen, misappropriated and mis-acquired by all arms of government. In addition, our poor showing on all international positive indices and accompanying actions, including abolishing history, that have caused many NGOs to step up with kobo-kobo private and international resources to cover government failures and fill the gaping hole created mostly by theft and corruption. Poverty and social problems from schools still exist worldwide and need solutions.  Although ‘political and good governance and human rights NGOs’ will be first targets by the ‘full force of law’, old students associations social care-givers and their supporters will follow. After six months in office, nobody will be free.

    The NGO Bill is an all-encompassing draconic Unitarian piece of ‘illegal’ legislation breaching human rights which if passed will cause many to stop involvement as advocates of the needy, back-away from being philanthropists, withdraw volunteer time and reduce money available to be spent often substituting for the failure of governments to provide adequately for the down trodden citizenry. And this as the NASS basks in the stupendous ‘legitimately’ acquired  luxuries of office which would probably be considered before God if not the judge as ‘illegally legal’ or illegitimately or immorally acquired when placed on a scale of every other UN government political structures worldwide and Nigeria’s ‘enforced’ corruption-driven poverty.

    Another NASS-9 Law – ‘Hate Speech’ Law with a Death Sentence. This must go along with ‘Hate Action’ Analysis. You cannot take a comment on a mass murder calling for the prosecution of perpetrators of a particular group as hate speech without full appreciation of the horror of the ‘Hate Action’. Ignoring hate speech in our history which has laid the mistrust of today will merely create government backed illegitimisation of genuine expressed concerns and internationally accepted legitimate responses to Hate Actions today. Nigeria is plagued with more hate action than hate speech.

  • Road; Language; Plastic; Bill

    Don’t laugh. Six hours is a lot. It is a diabolical professional ‘engineering and political will’ disgrace of inhuman dimensions dangerously disrupting the daily duties and lives of many millions of citizens, families, businesses and casual travellers -an economic disaster. It makes rubbish of any tourist agenda. It is true that it took six hours on Sunday November 10, Ibadan to Lagos on the former and now desperately dysfunctional defunct on the 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Still not fit for purpose and postponed till 2020. In that time, the plane passing us in stuck traffic had arrived in London-4000+km. We only wanted to go 120km.

    When it was built in the mid-70s, we travelled the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, when it was an ‘expressway’, in 45 minutes sometimes two or three times a day. Then the potholes came from overweight trailers and poor and no maintenance.  Yes,  we can blame the collapse of the L-I-E on ‘permanent  maintenance failures’ by civil servants and their political and military handlers and the nonsense called ‘tolling’ which was ‘extortion/stealing in disguise’ from travellers money and also overweight, above axle capacity articulated trailers and a 50-year deliberate northern power block rejection of railways. Add to this the apparently inhuman, certainly callous and of course the Eighth National Assembly (NASS-8) which refused to release an allocated N150billion in 2018 Works budget for completion. If allocated for 2018, this N150billion would have saved every one of the over one million suffering citizens- on the road sometimes two to six hours of their lives/day wasted throughout 2019. Instead the NASS-8 diverted the N150b to constitution projects. EFCC is making some of NASS-8 members sweat as they ‘account’ for the money. But we have lost forever, those wasted millions of hours in 2018 and now millions of hours every single day x 365 days of 2019. Amazingly the last three months were not enough to finish the job and so the road, a common 120km road is to be finished in 2020 -perhaps????

     

    There are many new areas of study opportunity if only universities open their eyes on behalf of the students to fulfill the projected needs of the nation. Set up departments of drone development, robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, plant chemistry and pharmacology, renewable energy studies in partnership with foreign universities and corporate body support

     

    The word ‘maintenance’ should be compulsorily introduced into our government contracts and lexicon. And government officials and political parties must ‘hands off gratification from contracts’ believed to be 30-70% of the contract sum.  Now the Minister of Works tells us the roads are ‘Not as bad as road users claim’. He should sit for six hours on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. ‘Mr President -Give Us Our Road Back’.

    University Foreign Language: Yes, universities mean universal education opportunity and acquisition. But how can a university make foreign languages compulsory for all its courses i.e. every student must learn a foreign language?  Is that really the next great thing for university students in Nigeria -another unnecessary burden – being forced to study a language they mostly do not want or need? Presumably university students already have at least one foreign language, English, which is the language of communication. Certainly create new and refreshingly different courses in railway engineering with Chinese support but remember that technology is not the preserve of China alone and many English-speaking countries in the developed world also run high speed railways. If I were a vice chancellor or chairman of council, I would recognize that certainly our university Department of ‘Future Research and Development’ needs to Google and study the 1000 different and overlapping courses and curriculum available in the top 100-150 universities and polytechnics worldwide and synthesise them into some new courses that can be offered locally, with help from abroad if necessary- and preferably in English. It is a pity that too many students in Nigeria are trapped, even before any clear thought, into studying the same old courses and course content.

     

    Read Also: Fashola to appear before Reps over state of Nigerian roads

     

    How many of Nigeria’s over 120 universities themselves ‘Study the courses and curriculum content of the top 50 universities worldwide’? A comparison with local universities will surely enrich their own courses and content. There are many new areas of study opportunity if only universities open their eyes on behalf of the students to fulfill the projected needs of the nation. Set up departments of drone development, robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, plant chemistry and pharmacology, renewable energy studies in partnership with foreign universities and corporate body support. To this end Dangote, NNPC, Glo, Zenith and other top players in the stock exchange must look beyond their ETF and TEF contribution to tertiary education. They should take lessons from their counterpart corporate bodies abroad who invest in and request universities to develop strategies to investigate and solve problems encountered in their business, service and manufacturing environment. This they can do by sponsoring conferences but, much better, by actually providing grants international cutting-edge high technology science equipment to get cutting edge research done in the core areas of growth.

    Ban Plastic bags etc.: Nasarawa has established a ‘Solid Waste Management Plant’ targeted at reducing ‘plastic and polythene material’ pollution to make the state clean and reduce floods. All state governments should take note and implement similar projects before plastic strangles Nigeria. When will Nigeria ban plastic already banned in 10 African countries?

    The ‘Amended Deep Offshore Act’ or Bill signed by vacationing president in UK: Will Nigeria really get $1.5b per annum instead of the current $250m? Who will pay for governments which ignored this revenue until the president was in the winter UK environment? Government staff must be made more accountable and prosecutable for the consequences of their actions and inactions.

  • The ‘Nigerian Harmattan’ as a metaphor for protests

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    The harmattan proper is a dry, dusty wind, which blows from the Sahara over the West African coast into the Gulf of Guinea from late November to mid-March.

    It is a dry wind that can increase the risk of fire, cause severe damage to crops, and even break the trunks of trees. The heavy amount of dust in the wind can limit visibility, leading to cancelled or diverted flights. The drastic drop in humidity also comes with various health risks, including nosebleeds, dryness of the skin and eyes, and respiratory problems.

    Here in Nigeria, the dryness of the wind is foregrounded in the name given to the harmattan period. It is known as the dry or harmattan season, as opposed to the wet or rainy season, which typically lasts from March till October.

    As indicated above, the harmattan season can be quite disruptive, despite its relatively shorter duration. Its disruptiveness is captured in the “Nigerian Harmattan” as a metaphor for the citizens’ discontent with the situation of the country. As pointed out last week, the protests now spreading across the globe are manifestations of discontent (see the global spread of protests, The Nation, November 5, 2019).

    There are two take-aways from the global protests. One, in country after country, every protest is rooted in some domestic condition. In other words, every protest is local, to parody Tip O’Neal, the famous Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who popularized the cliché, all politics is local.

    Two, political or economic considerations underlie most protests. While the early protests in modern times were in response to political considerations, most protests these days tend to be in response to economic conditions as we saw recently in the Middle East, in South America, and even in Europe.

    Of course, political and economic considerations tend to be entangled, because economic conditions often result from government policy.

    Protests in Nigeria have followed this trend. Discontent has been expressed in various ways since Nigeria attained independence in 1960. For example, violent post-election protests with disastrous consequences occurred in 1962-65; 1983; and 2011. Thousands were killed and property worth billions of Naira destroyed in these protests.

    In general, election periods in Nigeria constitute the harmattan of the country’s democracy. In addition to physical violence, electoral litigation is a further indication of discontent with the political process. The 2019 general elections alone attracted nearly 800 court cases!

    The political protests of the 1960s culminated in a military coup in January 1966, which in turn led to a series of counter-coups, resulting in prolonged military rule.

    The first counter-coup of July 1966 precipitated a separatist movement, which culminated in secession about a year later. It took nearly three years of intense civil war to suppress it. A vestige of the secession is the separatist movement, the Indigenous People of Biafra.

    Discontent is also at the heart of the lingering calls for restructuring the country in order to reorganize its governance architecture, by devolving more powers to the federating units. It is argued that the federating units should have more control of their resources, police force, and financial management in order to accelerate development and self-actualization, while also promoting peaceful co-existence.

    Besides, protests have been staged or discontent expressed in other forms against rising tariffs and taxes, against rising costs of living, against rising petrol prices, against rising youth unemployment, and against legislators’ fat salaries and allowances. Highlights of these protests include the Agbekoya revolt against tax in 1968 and the Occupy Nigeria revolt against the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012.

    In addition to politics and the economy, religion and security have also been motivations for protests. As recently as July this year, the Shiites’ protests for the release of their leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, from detention turned deadly as the police resisted the protests with tear gas and live ammunition. The Shiites’ prolonged protests were viewed as a further security threat by a government confronted simultaneously by insurgency and kidnappings.

    Just over a year earlier, in May 2018, Nigerian Catholic bishops led a nation-wide peaceful protest against repeated killings by Muslim herdsmen of predominantly Christian farmers in conflicts over fertile land. The herdsmen want to feed their cattle but the farmers want to protect their land and crops. The Benue state government and leading sociocultural organizations from the South also protested against the government’s lethargic response to the conflicts.

    The herdsmen were also associated with rampant kidnappings, which Boko Haram shot into global news in the kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls in 2014. The Bring Back Our Girls movement developed in response to this kidnapping and led several protests against the government, demanding the release of the girls from captivity.

    True, many of the protests mentioned so far have involved casualties and property damage, none has succeeded in completely changing the nature and structure of government, save for the series of military coups and counter-coups between 1966 and 1999. Omoyele Sowore, activist and founder of the anti-corruption online news service, Sahara Reporters, as well as former presidential candidate, set out to do just that this past August.

    In preparing supporters for his #Revolution Now protests, Sowore declared: “This series of marches and rallies will continue until we have the Nigeria of our dreams … there is no respect for our dignity as a people. For you to get back your dignity, do what they’re doing in Hong Kong, in Algeria, in Tunisia and in Puerto Rico”. He then added: “Shut down this unworkable system …The revolution is now.”

    However, Sowore was quickly arrested, to which The Premium Times editorial responded: “Without a contest of ideas, fueled by dissent, Nigeria will grow more ignorant, timid, and ultimately, impoverished”. The various protests since 1999 may have been suppressed by the government. Nevertheless, they are a gathering, disruptive storm, like the harmattan. With rising income inequality and about 90 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty; rising food, rent, and healthcare costs; deteriorating infrastructure; plummeting education standards; controversial democratic transitions; and rising youth unemployment, the Nigerian Harmattan may well be around the corner. It will be fueled by the teeming unemployed youth population, do-or-die political thugs, so-called area boys, and social media.

  • Social media regulators, hate speech exterminators

    By Festus Eriye

    If you were to ask the average person what should be our priority at this time, they would probably say affordable food, healthcare, education, housing, motorable roads, security and so on.

    The government – executive and legislative branches – would insist they are doing everything to deliver on the above fronts.

    While we await results, there appears to be some agreement between the arms, that an even more pressing need is new legislation to control unfettered expression and communication.

    Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, recently announced with much fanfare government’s intention to regulate social media – ostensibly to stamp out fake news and hate speech.

    In fact, so gung-ho was he about the project that he was quoted as saying “no amount of criticism” would stop the administration from pressing ahead with its plans. That suggested that criticism, even if it is reasonable, would be ignored in the drive to deal with the despoilers of social media.

    True to his word, a committee of stakeholders has been swiftly cobbled together and is steaming ahead with the assignment.

    In the legislature, zeal to rid Nigeria of dangerous thought and harmful expression is equally catching on. The Senate on Tuesday introduced a bill to establish an agency to regulate ‘hate speech.’

    The bill titled ‘National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches (Estb. etc) Bill 2019’ is sponsored by the Deputy Senate Whip, Sabi Abdullahi.

    Abdullahi had first introduced a similar bill that proposed death by hanging and other deterrents for hate speech in May 2018.

    The latest incarnation of the proposed legislation prescribes that offences such as harassment on the grounds of ethnicity or racial contempt, would attract a five-year jail term or a fine of not less than N10 million or both.

    No one should downplay the gravity of fake news, ethnic slurs and comments that seek to denigrate and humiliate fellow humans on basis of their race, ethnicity or faith.

    From the old Nazi Germany, to what used to be Yugoslavia and apartheid South Africa, wars have been fought and nations torn apart because of these same issues. Indeed, the scars left behind by those conflicts are yet to heal in some of these countries.

    Again, we have seen how the spectre of fake news played a key role in the rise of President Donald Trump in the US. Today, what was treated as joke a few years ago has become an industry that has produced a gigantic headache for social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and so on, whose platforms are used to spread false information.

    The great danger with social media is spontaneity. People can react violently to a false post and lives would have been lost long before proper fact-checking can neutralise the fake news item.

    We have also seen that extreme terror groups like ISIS and Boko Haram have become quite adept in using social media and have manipulated it over the years to project messages that seduce the many to their cause.

    So whatever the government is planning is not strange. Countries as far afield as the United States, Britain, Germany, Singapore, New Zealand and Russia have introduced some form of legislation that seeks to check hate speech and abuse of social media.

    Where specific legislation has been made they have been of two types – those designed to protect public order and those for checking the dehumanisation of people on the basis of race or ethnicity. More severe sanctions are often deployed for those activities or utterances that can lead to a breakdown of order.

    What should worry us is the mindset driving the latest actions, the necessity of the new regulations, capacity for enforcement and potential for abusing a bad law.

    As if our long list of failed parastatals isn’t enough embarrassment, a senator is proposing a new agency for the near-impossible task of calibrating acceptable public utterance.

    We should be disturbed that all the initiatives, whether from the executive or legislature, are tilted towards punishment rather than prevention.

    We have a plethora of laws on our statute books for dealing with false information, libel, or instigation of violence or hatred on basis of ethnicity.

    Today, people are being tried for ‘cyberstalking’ and ‘terrorism.’ A journalist and activist ‘Agba Jalingo’ is even facing charges of ‘treasonable felony’ in Cross River State for something he published! So there remains considerable elasticity in our laws to deal with these new offences – no matter how dangerous or annoying they may be.

    In the hands of a smallminded political leader, some of these proposed measures would be dynamite that blows common freedoms to smithereens.

    It is easy to define fake news, but not so hate speech. A thin-skinned egotist would consider trenchant criticism sufficient ground to prosecute somebody.

    I see such elasticity in Senator Abdullahi’s bill. In his original legislation he prescribed the death penalty for hate speech. That proceeds from the notion of capital punishment as a cure-all for crimes. But we have seen that it hasn’t deterred people from committing murder or armed robbery.

    Such extreme punishments are an overkill for an offence that the world is still struggling to properly define.

    The other day the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, in not too subtle manner reminded the media that they may be in violation of the ‘Terrorism Prevention Act 2011’ for referring to some terror groups by their recognised names!

    He argued that addressing Boko Haram insurgents with “glorifying” titles like ISWAP or JAS gives them “undue publicity.” How?

    “Referring to such gang of criminals, bandits, insurgents such as Boko Haram Terrorists Group, JAS or ISWAP in Nigeria could amount to supporting or encouraging terrorism,” he said.

    “Unfortunately, many Nigerians are not aware that giving prominence to the criminal activities of the terrorists group through sensational headlines and fake news in both electronic and print media could also amount to tacit support to terrorism which violates the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011.”

    In other words a journalist who does his job by reporting a Boko Haram attack could find himself in hot water for giving terrorists “undue publicity” – even backing their cause!

    We are drifting into uncharted territory when soldiers become the ones who determine the news that is fit to be published or what is ‘sensational.’

    That is why for all the good that they hope to achieve, our would-be social media regulators and hate speech exterminators, need to make haste slowly so that their zeal doesn’t damage free expression in our society.

  • INEC: Ameyo Stella, RIP

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately for a Nigeria@60.

    When a man steals N1billion from the education budget is he not mad? Is he not a ‘murderer of Nigeria’s children’s mind’ and a terrorist and a high-ranking Boko Haram leader – the unarmed wing? The EFCC is alive and well. Much more please before they steal.

    We the citizens need to and want to and do love Nigeria. We know Nigeria should be much better after the huge unsung and unappreciated efforts of our parents, ourselves and our children. Those who seek and take and sometimes seize the leadership must know this and require a serious attitudinal change, otherwise Nigeria will not last forever. Nigerians mostly do not elect thieves. The elected strangely ‘elect’ to steal upon their election, ‘selection’ or ‘stealing the election’ aka ‘stealection’.

    ELECTION: Any political office holder can decide not to steal. Elections loom in Kogi and Bayelsa states. INEC is again faced with the prospect of yet another violence-prone election. INEC is not a security agency. It is merely to provide an election. The political parties should keep the peace, not INEC. Do not blame INEC or even the police if violent party people steal ballots and kill people. Blame the parties.

    Why do we loving citizens of Nigeria, to which we have given so much, live in fear of the oppressive actions of each succeeding ‘elected’ government and its local agents? Nigerians feel unprotected by government. We are under-policed and even robbed by the uniformed services. Nigerians feel they need protection from the government of the day confirmed by the current wave of insecurity, attacks in broad daylight traffic, robberies, kidnapping and mayhem even by uniformed agencies. Recently four FRSC staff were accused of murder. Can you believe that? When did traffic control authority become a ‘license to kill’? These agents, mostly unsupervised, are mostly greedy and dishonest with no psychological evaluation.

    Our police are murdered so that judges and others can be kidnapped. The press ignores the dead policemen and their families. Yet we are all equal in the sight of God.

    I know you do not remember to teach your children this. I know Nigeria, with its pathetic 10 year ‘Review Cycle’ Curriculum Review Committee Method, does not have a programme to teach all its 50million+ children this. ‘This’ is the huge story and lessons from the short life of Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, the female medical doctor and medical martyr and her co-martyrs who died and also those who survived confronting Ebola in an Ikoyi Obalende Hospital Lagos. She, Ameyo, died on Aug 19, 2014 and the episode is remembered in the film 93.  She was named by her father Professor Kwaku and Mrs. Deborah Adadevoh after her aunty, Stella Ameyo Folasade Marinho, nee Adadevoh who had a stellar nursing career in London, UCH Ibadan and then back in the UK, where she retires as a nursing sister and returned to Ibadan. ‘Aunty Stella’ was a grand-daughter of Herbert Macaulay and was much loved by her families of Marinho, Adadevoh and Macaulay and friends. Sadly this lady, the senior Stella Ameyo, has also died recently at 83, in Ibadan. We mourn her as we join her children Ade Jerome and Bunmi Marinho and their families in prayers for her safe repose.

    However five years after the doctor’s own premature death and as we bury her Aunt Stella Ameyo Marinho, we must use the death of her aunt to demand long overdue ‘Memorial’ action. Another death and a subsequent funeral create a powerful stage from which to join others demanding quick action from President Buhari and governors. They and their ministers and commissioners of Women Affairs, Health and Education must correct the non-recognition for Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh-Cardoso and the other medical workers, dead and alive. Living heroes and heroines are also valuable to the nation.

    The ‘Ebola-stoppers’ deserve posthumous and other awards and recognition and the naming of some permanent structure not for their sake but so that generations unborn will learn to do good. When will their story become compulsory history in the Nigerian primary and secondary school curriculum? When will their story be used as source and plot thematic material for theatre production in the many undergraduate theatre arts departments and faculties and even ‘Medical School Drama Nites’? There are many women’s groups and NGOs like Zonta, Inner Wheel, Girl Guides, women professional bodies in medicine, law, engineering, architecture et cetera. Do not forget several thousand old students and old girls associations. Each should immediately plan to award a ‘Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh [and coworkers] Prize for Selfless Service’, if they have not already done so to encourage and motivate their impressionable youth.  Perhaps the Obalende roundabout and a girl’s school and a female medical students hostel in for example Unilag where her father was vice chancellor and a female ward in General Hospital, Broad Street and a Virology Laboratory, and a corner or seat in the Gardens and Parks scattered across Nigeria can be named for her, Dr Adadevoh and the other heroes. They belong to us all and anyone can immortalise their memory. Such awards would be inspirational for all who hear about them, men and women, boys and girls to venture into science and science professions, promote girl-child education. Awards are not only for politicians.

  • The global spread of protests

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    IN political semiotics, protests are signs, that is, signifiers, of discontent. They take place everywhere—at home, at school, at work, and within larger political units, from the local government to the national level. Protests even could be, and have been, staged against supra-national organizations, such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.

    Wherever there are resources to be shared or distributed, protests must be expected by those who feel cheated, shortchanged, sidelined, or oppressed in some way. This is especially the case where such resources are kept disproportionately in a few hands, That’s why political scientist and astute ethnographer, James Scott, describes protests as “weapons of the weak” in his classic study of peasant resistance against the rich in a small Malaysian town.

    Such protests could be covert or peaceful, as in the Malaysian case Scott studied, or overt or violent, as in the ongoing Lebanon protests, depending on the nature of society, the volatility of the political and economic situation, and how soon and how well the protests are resolved. In some cases, protests could lead to civil or even international wars.

    Protests have been with us from the beginning. In modern times, they escalated with protests against slavery and colonialism. The American War of Independence (1775-1783) could be regarded as a watershed, which crystallized a series of protests against increased taxation imposed by the British colonial government. Ultimately, Americans rejected the monarchy and replaced it with a Republic. The French Revolution (1789-1799), which followed a few years later, was also a protest against the French monarchy and economic oppression, typified by increased taxation and rising food costs.

    The American and French protests would be replicated centuries later in various colonies for similar reasons. At the end of the day, more independent nations developed than there were before the independence movements. The demand for freedom from slavery, oppression, and colonial exploitation became a universal ideal.

    Nevertheless, internal colonialism, capitalist exploitation, poor governance, and corruption also became widespread, leading to increased protests everywhere. Globalization has also come with its own discontents. More and more countries are resisting immigrants. So has terrorism led to discrimination against certain ethnic groups and certain religions.

    Moreover, some older nations, such as China, do not wish to let go of some old dominions, such as Hong Kong, which was ceded to the British Empire in 1842. True, the British returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1947, over 100 years of British rule has changed the face of Hong Kong and the orientation of her people. Hence the ongoing agitation for democracy and self rule, triggered by an extradition bill rejected by the people.

    True, political and economic reasons underly most protests today, the dimensions have since broadened. It is not simply because the gap between the rich and the poor has widened but also because the number of people living below the poverty line has increased, partly because of population explosion and partly because of increasing unemployment figures, especially among the youth population.

    Thus, the reasons for protests today range from the desire for self rule and self actualization to the crave for the basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. The people want a change from temporary economic benefits to gainful employment. They want a change from pretend democracy to true democracy and from pretend federalism to true fiscal federalism. They also want governments to change policies that put the people or a certain proportion at a disadvantage.

    These demands came to a head nine years ago in Tunisia and spread into what has come to be known as the Arab Spring. Today, there are similar protests, albeit for slightly different reasons, in various countries around the globe, including Hong Kong, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Chile, and Uruguay. And we should not forget about the ongoing Yellow Vest protests, which began nearly a year ago in France on November 17, 2018.

    Nigeria is not exempt from this global trend. To a reasonable degree, Nigeria provides the archetype of the trend. Nearly everything that happens elsewhere happens here. And nearly everything (good or bad) that happens elsewhere has a Nigerian participant.

    Here in Nigeria, the rising costs of food, housing, and other commodities have even thrown some erstwhile members of the middle class out of position. You probably know of one or two previous car owners, who now travel by public transport, or of another one who moved into a smaller apartment or even a single room to avoid rising rent increases.

    Perhaps what is most detestable to the rising youth population in search of employment in Nigeria is the obscene lifestyle of the politicians, businessmen, contractors, and others who are believed to feed fat on government.

    Remember the guy you knew a few years ago, who could barely get his car running? He comes home now in a new Jeep, complete with backup vehicles, one or two patrol vehicles, and police orderlies. Your stomach turns when you recall that this guy probably didn’t even win his election fair and square.

    And then you hear of billions of Naira confiscated today and billion-Naira estates and jewelry confiscated tomorrow.

    Then you visit your old primary or secondary school, not to speak of your old university. And you want to cry. They are all worse than you left them. OK. Some have been renovated or rebuilt. But what about teachers? Not enough or not well trained. No appropriate facilities for teaching and learning.

    The road to the school is bad as are the roads between towns and cities. Highway repairs take forever, taking with them many human lives. Accident. Kidnapping. Robbery. They all happen on the roadways.

    And the unemployment rate keeps rising, in tow with the rising, poorly trained, youth population.

    True, various protests staged in Nigeria since the return to democracy in 1999 have been shut down one way or the other. Nevertheless, unless drastic measures are set in motion to reverse the present negative political and economic trends, the Nigerian Harmattan will surely come. It will be the Nigerian version of the Arab Spring. It may not be this year. It may not be next year. It may not be during the life of this administration. But it will happen, unless we begin to change course.

  • Power and the Vice Presidency

    Festus Eriye

     

    IN the aftermath of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election results, then President Ibrahim Babangida famously declared that he and his junta were ‘not only in office but in power.’

    He was responding to questions about what he intended to do about the large protests in parts of the country against the poll result cancellation.

    His arrogant comments which were meant to send a chilling message of caution to the protesters, aptly captures the reality of life for some in the corridors of power. You may occupy a seemingly powerful office, but in reality exercise only limited power.

    For Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, his place in the Aso Rock power equation was back as a talking point this week.

    Controversy was reignited by President Muhammadu Buhari signing the amended Deep Offshore Act in London whilst still on his two-week private visit.

    Pointedly, the bill was ferried him to him in Britain for assent by his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari – a clear reminder of the direction from which power still flows, notwithstanding the fact that the president is out of the country for all of three weeks.

    In his absence Osinbajo has already presided over the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting – a duty Buhari would most probably have handled himself had he been on the ground.

    For some, the symbolism in Kyari taking the bill to London for signature is another sign that the Vice President is increasingly marginalised.

    Others are interpreting it to mean Buhari ‘taking back control’ of his presidency and clutching jealously to its powers.

    Several weeks ago the issue was the transfer of certain social intervention programmes hitherto overseen by the Vice President’s office to the newly-established Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

    Although Buhari in his Independence Day address explained that his action was informed by the need to institutionalise the programmes, conspiracy theorists were not convinced.

    Their suspicions are understandable given that the changes were swiftly followed by an instruction to Osinbajo to always seek presidential approval concerning contracts in the agencies under his supervision. The VP’s office reacted that he had always followed due process.

    His actions thereafter helped to quell the rumours of unrest in high places. Instead of sulking he would at every opportunity reaffirm his unflinching loyalty to his boss. If there were problems, he ascribed them to the machinations of ‘fifth columnists.’

    The Vice Presidency is number two in the nation’s power hierarchy. It is a strategic office – powerful largely because its occupant becomes president if the incumbent dies or is impeached. The spare tyre metaphor is widely used to describe it.  We saw that play out in the case of Goodluck Jonathan stepping into the shoes of Umaru Yar’Adua.

    Aside this advantage of positioning, the Vice Presidency under our constitution can also be very limited in influence as its occupant is only as powerful as the incumbent president wants him to be. Buhari or any other president isn’t obliged to empower his deputy beyond what the constitution allocates to him.

    The constitution puts him over certain organs of state like the National Economic Council (NEC), but that doesn’t automatically translate to being head of the economic management team. A president may choose, as Buhari did recently, to seek counsel from elsewhere.

    As Vice President, Jonathan wasn’t very powerful or influential. In fact, legend has it that he was largely a passenger – sidelined in the scheme of things whilst in that role. Some governors, even from his South-south zone, related with him from the sense of his limited clout within the Yar’Adua administration. They would later pay a price for not treating him with sufficient respect as VP.

    In the Fourth Republic, Olusegun Obasanjo’s deputy, Atiku Abubakar and Osinbajo have been the most powerful Vice Presidents – especially in their initial terms.

    In Atiku’s case the humiliation he dished out to Obasanjo’s in his bid to get a second term had a telling effect on their relationship later on. This largely informed the former president’s concerted campaign to neutralize his erstwhile second-in-command.

    While there hasn’t been the same sort of falling out between Buhari and Osinbajo, it is hard not to see parallels in reduced clout. Even in the sharing of appointments to his home state of Ogun, former Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s candidates have had a field day to the detriment of the most senior political office holder from the state.

    But is history repeating itself? Are the VP’s political fortunes on the wane because some of those who have been hurt by his actions as Acting President are ganging up on him? We need weightier evidence before jumping to conclusions.

    If there is no conspiracy as such, then did Buhari do something illegal by not transferring power to the VP whilst away for three weeks? What does the constitution require of him?

    In September this year, Buhari in a reply to a suit querying why he didn’t hand over to Osinbajo when he embarked on a 9-day ‘private visit’ to Britain in April, argued that the constitution only required him to do so if his vacation exceeded 21 days.

    The Presidency has also sought to defend the signing of the bill in London on grounds that Buhari can exercise his powers as president from any location on earth.

    The same argument was made by former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, when Yar’Adua suddenly disappeared and was rumoured to be in Saudi Arabia. When people asked who would sign the budget if passed, he retorted that it would be taken to him for signature as he could act as president from wherever he chose.

    But even if Buhari has followed the constitution scrupulously, the optics don’t look right. The last time he was in the UK on medical leave, he sent back aides who had brought papers for his signature – telling them to go to the man who was in-charge. Perhaps, today Osinbajo isn’t Acting President as he was then.

    Or, maybe the amended Deep Offshore Bill was time-bound and needed to be signed in a hurry, and only by the president, to meet some National Assembly requirement.

    In the absence of clearer insight there is plenty of room for speculation as the intriguing ahead of 2023 kicks in.

    Buhari and his advisers should also understand that legalese is not always adequate to explain away awkward moves in a political environment.

  • Edozien; NASS: Prorogue, Laundering

    Al-Baghdadi, violent Islamic Caliphate and ISIS leader, is dead by the Americans. Any positive import on Nigeria’s painful anti-ISIS war?

    Professor Emmanuel Edozien, the Ojiba of Asaba, died on October 5 at 81 years old. He will be remembered by his contemporaries, corporate and government contacts, fellow economists and administrators, Catholic church and charity beneficiaries, students, family and friends by the many ways he positively contributed to their personal, professional, medical and societal progress and development. For us in Educare Trust, Professor Edozien has been a foundation patron since 1994. His particular fatherly enthusiasm towards the youth and personal grasp of repercussive dangers to society from ignoring youth development culminated in Educare Trust ideals. These are 1] Decentralise CSR to grassroots- the marketplace, distributorship sources of corporate funds instead of remote HQ CSR in Lagos and Abuja only and 2] ‘Building Permanent Youth Centres, one in each ward.  He used his corporate strength to guide the shareholders at PZ Cussons, to achieve the ‘Nigerian Youth Dream’ of a ‘PZ -C Permanent Youth Centre’ a reality for millions of ‘unknown’ youth.

    We pray God will console the Professor Emmanuel family. May he rest in perfect peace. Amen.

    Legacies, like Professor Edozien, are of value when we learn, build and act on them positively. And many LGAs and government collaborating with corporate Nigeria, take up the legacy of opening Entrepreneurship Inspirational Youth Centres in every one of Nigeria’s 16,000 wards. If not, the growing reactionary youth will totally consume us.

    How to partially prorogue NASS:

    I called last week for ‘New Bills to Prorogue [cancel/suspend] senate or House of Representatives (HoR) to force a partial NASS suicide’ to save an ailing Nigeria oppressed by a poor-performing political class and with over N100billion savable. Many citizens questioned the possibility of NASS taking this milestone by removing this overpriced political millstone from the neck of a drowning Nigeria from ‘NASS@SalariesAndPerks’, SAPing us dry.

    Answer: ‘Nothing Ventured- Nothing Gained’. ‘Let the NASS Reduction Games Begin’. The European Union (EU) has many EU-hating UK Brexit-eers as UK- MEP Members of the European Parliament. We need more politicians who want to reduce NASS size. It is not crime but a citizen’s right to remodel parliament. The associations of political parties, professional and allied bodies [NBA, NMA, ASSU, NANS, NUT, NLC and other unions and student umbrella groups and even socio-cultural and sports development associations and clubs must come together with the Association of CSO, CBOs and NGOs including JDPC to write new ‘NASS Partial Prorogue Bills’ and state level while Nigeria still has a nation to remodel.

    The needed ‘NASS Reduction Bills’ can be written by and debated at NBA meetings and by competition among every law student groups, law faculties and volunteer firms and individual lawyers:

    1] Bill to convert the bicameral house to one house and prorogue [suspend/ cancel] The Nigerian Senate [or House of Representatives] without compensation.’

    2]  Bill to elect only one senator per state in a new 37-member senate’ or

    3] Bill to reduce HoR membership to one or two [choose] per state

    4] Bill to have NASS members fully funded by their states of origin

    5] Bill to allow for ‘Sitting Allowances Only’ for NASS members, paid by the state of origin

    6] Bill to put all political office holders on existing but elongated salary scale up to level 25

    Let NASS start the ‘Bill Ball’ rolling. At first the Berlin Wall, fall was a dream, a joke. It fell. We will overcome NASS bloatedness. Amen.

    NASS Image Laundering:

    Tragically, instead of ‘Partially Proroguing’ itself, NASS sets up a committee to ‘Launder the NASS Image’. NASS members tarnished the NASS image by their greed, lack of stellar and timely performance, defensive clannishness when questioned, verbal abuse of citizens summoned before it and being too petty to attain the ‘political moral high ground’? ‘Laundering’ is required when something is dirty, illegal or wrong and needing cleansing, legalizing or righting. In ‘Money Laundering’ a criminal act, stolen money or crime proceeds are ‘made clean’ by injecting stolen money into ‘legitimate’ businesses.

    Nigerians are familiar with image laundering by past Nigerian governments which covered their odiferous and  traditional ‘failure of the country to thrive’ by hiring expensive foreign ‘Hollywood-style’ PR image makers to ‘de-toxify’, sanitise and otherwise ‘spin’ their self-inflicted tarnished images. We used to cringe in shame as foreign friends made rude jokes while reading ‘laundered lies’ which ‘PR laundrymen’ disseminated in numerous pages of military and other ‘Nigerian Government Adverts’ in Newsweek, Time, and international newspapers- costing millions of dollars to Nigerian citizens.

    Please tell NASS that the ‘NASS Image Laundering Committee’ is unnecessary. Self-examination is best and ask EFCC, CSOs, NGOs and the social Media for answers. NASS actions and deliberate inactions perhaps for gratification, god-fatherism, poor performance and recycling, all contributed.  NASS should ‘Act Responsibly’ with ‘political power’ and stop doing anything it cannot honestly explain to EFCC, God or in public. Slash SAPs to ‘sitting allowances only’ and paid by the state of origin. Cut NASS to one House, preferably the HoR. Cut or cancel the NASS pension scam/‘scheme’. Slash bill and budget approval times. Normalise January-December budget year. NASS members should consult in home states. Initiate ‘Operation Restructure Nigeria’.

    Look worldwide. People protesting politicians everywhere. Nigeria demands better, faster, permanent progress from politicians. Roads, railways and culverts, corrupted by 30-50% kickback contracts corruption cannot live up to ‘construction standards’ or construct themselves.

  • Key take-aways from Osun’s Executive Council Retreat

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    WITHIN the last one year alone, the Federal Government and several state governments have held retreats for their new Cabinets. The Osun Cabinet retreat stood apart in several ways. It was held last week at the MicCom Golf Resort in Ada, State of Osun, from Tuesday, October 15, through Friday, October 18, 2019.

    Unlike other Cabinet retreats, the Ada retreat brought together political appointees, featuring incoming Commissioners and Special Advisers, and top bureaucrats, featuring Permanent Secretaries, Executive Secretaries and General Managers of various Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies. The goal is to promote shared ideals and values as well as forge cooperation between political officeholders and public servants in delivering the Development Agenda carefully established by the Gboyega Oyetola administration.

    Here’s how Oyetola rationalised the format of the retreat in his opening remarks, in which he unveiled the Development Agenda around which the retreat was organised: “It is certain that political appointees cannot succeed alone. To succeed, we must work closely with our colleagues in the bureaucracy and forge a shared vision, mission and passion that prioritise the interest of our people and the development of our beloved state above primordial sentiments”.

    Prior to the retreat, the administration restructured the ministries and carefully worked out the functions and priorities of each Ministry, Department, and Agency in line with the administration’s Development Agenda. Rather than embark on projects that the administration likes or fancies, it went out to seek the input of stakeholders in two ways.

    One, during the Governor’s Thank-You tour of the entire state, the citizens in each Local Government Area were asked to prioritise their demands. Two, at the request of the administration, the UK’s Department of International Development conducted a robust Citizens’ Needs Assessment, compiled LGA by LGA. The data from both sources were aligned with Oyetola’s Campaign Manifesto in developing the mandate and priority agenda for each MDA.

    Furthermore, to avoid the historical conflict between Commissioners and Special Advisers, their distinctive functions and mandates were spelt out, even where a Commissioner and one or more Special Advisers were allocated the same Ministry.

    The objectives of the retreat included (1) specifications of the priorities and strategic direction of the administration; (2) enhancement of the capacity of political officeholders and key public servants to think and act strategically around the government’s policies, programs, projects, and priorities; (3) deliberation on the most effective ways of delivering political goods to Osun citizens, by aligning budgets with government priority programmes and projects; and (4) adoption of a framework for impact measurement and performance evaluation.

    Accordingly, all the 16 substantive retreat sessions were held in plenary in order to promote team-bonding and forge shared vision, values, and passion for service delivery. They were organised around the economy, with particular focus on the place of Osun in the national economy; budget planning and monitoring; the nature and functions of the Executive Council; the role of the bureaucracy in service delivery; how to stay out of trouble by adopting high ethical standards, values, and integrity in governance; service delivery and performance evaluation; and how best to communicate government policies and programmes to the stakeholders in particular and the the general public.

    The focus on the economy and revenue generation provided several interesting possibilities for raising the economic profile of the state, which is currently low, although the state has the lowest unemployment rate due to its high investment in social protection initiatives. The possibilities include engagement with potential funding partners, in addition to existing ones. To this end, a robust database was recommended that could facilitate the effective management of donor-supported funds.

    Moreover, various ways were discussed by which the state’s Internally Generated Revenue could be accelerated. They include enhancing the value of market places, parks, and transit corridors; revamping the agricultural sector and building on the huge markets for agricultural produce presented by Lagos and Osun’s five neighbouring states of Ogun, Oyo, Kwara, Ekiti, and Ondo; developing Information Technology Hubs across the state for harnessing the youths ICT skills and diverting them from negative enterprises on social media into productive enterprises; developing a robust framework for regulating the mining sector to increase its income generating potential; attracting Foreign Direct Investments, including Diaspora remittances and the floating of the Osun Diaspora Bond; and effectively implementing the Osun Tourism Master Plan in order to leverage on the state’s potential as s cultural destination for global tourism.

    Several interesting messages to the incoming members of the Cabinet emerged from the sessions. First, they are entreated to cooperate with the public servants in their ministries for effective service delivery. Second, they are admonished to uphold the principle of confidentiality of Cabinet deliberations and decisions. Third, they are advised to consider themselves as image makers of the state; as such, they should be mindful of what they say or do in public, how they appear and comport themselves, and how they communicate government policies and programmes to their constituencies. Finally, they are advised to relate with their communities and identify with their causes.

    The sessions on ethics, communication, and performance evaluation were particularly interesting and valuable. The session on ethics focused on the ethics of implementing civil service rules and financial regulations, while the session on performance evaluation emphasised the need for Osun to develop a robust service delivery and performance evaluation framework. The session on communication highlighted the need for positive image branding for the state through the centralisation of information and the designation of  spokespersons for the effective control of information and its dissemination. The state must avoid being branded by negative press.

    A constant fixture throughout the retreat was Governor Oyetola himself. He gave three presentations on (a) the state’s Development Agenda; (b) the ministerial structure and the administration’s development priorities; and (c) the governor’s charge and closing remarks. Even more noticeable was his ubiquitous presence throughout the retreat. He attended all sessions, took copious notes during the proceedings, shared the same meals with the participants, and shared the same hotel. His punctual and regular attendance, his attentiveness, and the commingling with the participants throughout the retreat were outstanding demonstrations of leadership by example.