The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Ajimobi-Ayefele Saga: Not exactly David versus Goliath

    Peace has supposedly broken out in the weeklong saga over the partial demolition by the Oyo State Government, of a building in the Challenge area of Ibadan, belonging to the popular singer and entrepreneur, Yinka Ayefele.

    On Thursday, a parley ostensibly put together by an All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirant and sundry peacemakers doused the fire. In attendance were Oyo State State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, as well as the singer Ayefele and a couple of others.

    At the pow-wow, the governor reportedly declared that the demolition was all about enforcing law and order and that he had nothing against Ayefele as a person. The singer, for his part, pronounced himself a law-abiding citizen who had always replied all correspondence on the building infractions levelled against him.

    After Ayefele’s team prostratged themselves before Ajimobi and the Oba, he was absolved of his ‘sins’ and assured of an amicable resolution of a saga that had provided feverish excitement and entertainment for the baying mob on social media for days.

    For the governor, the truce must have been welcome relief from the unrelenting bashing which has painted him as a stubborn autocrat who plunged into a public relations disaster with eyes wide open.

    Even, the peace meeting, which seeks to bring closure to the storm, is not all positive for him. Irrespective of who initiated the talks, the truth is he has come across as a Goliath – backed by all the awesome powers of state – who has been brought to heel by a physically-challenged but wildly-popular entertainer. It may not be the fairest of characterisations, but that is just the way it is.

    In reality, though, this is not your everyday replay of the Biblical David versus Goliath conflict. There is a bit of that, and lots more about what has brought Nigeria into the pitiable condition it finds itself today.

    In an environment where sentiment often trumps reason in public discourse, Ajimobi’s feeble attempt to stand on the law and order high ground was bound to fail. Nigerians are more likely to side with the underdog – with the powerful symbolism of his physical handicap – against a powerful politician portrayed as arrogant and unfeeling.

    So, while the government swiftly rushed to the court of public opinion with series of letters sent to Ayefele’s organisation about deviations from the approved building plan, the irate denizens of social media neither had the patience nor inclination to wade through tons of official correspondence, or even digest the content. They reacted emotionally to photos of Ayefele – chin in his palm – staring sorrowfully as the bulldozers chewed up parts of his building.

    The rage was raw, the reactions viral. Official rationalisations were never going to catch up. Did Ayefele deviate from the approved building plan? Were there genuine concerns about public safety for users of the road arising from the unauthorised alterations? Did he ignore past correspondence from the authorities on the matter?

    It didn’t matter. People were more concerned about the fate of the over 100 people said to be working for the singer who stood to lose their jobs if the roof came down on the structure.

    Ajimobi understood what he was up against because in the heat of the debate, he wondered whether Ayefele should be allowed to get away with the violations just because he had problems with his legs. That may not have been the most politic of comments to make, but it certainly goes straight to the heart of the matter.

    Two of the greatest challenges limiting this nation today are impunity and sentiment: impunity on the parts of the governors and the governed. Countries that work function properly because laws are enforced and there is order. If you beat the traffic light, a ticket would be delivered at your doorstep as surely as the sun rises from the east.

    The contrary is what we’ve become. Everyone wants to be free to do as he or she likes – and the laws be damned.

    On account of this reckless disregard for what is lawful, greedy developers who were allowed to bend the rules, end up as mass murderers when their flawed structures collapse on innocent victims.

    In some Nigerian cities, roads have become concrete jungles where motorists are engaged daily in mortal combat where only the fittest and their automobiles return home in one piece. Crazed ‘Okada’ riders chase harried pedestrians off the sidewalk. Desperate drivers going against traffic, hurtle towards those with right of way like weapons of mass destruction. The wise get out of their way in hurry. Desensitised traffic officials and the police look away – unconcerned.

    A government that attempts to restore sanity would soon be told how wicked it is because it wants to restrain maniacal ‘Okada’ riders and crazed drivers from endangering other road users. We are so blinded by sentiment that we’ve lost all sense of what sane behaviour is about.

    We need to accept that where there are violations of the law, whether with regards to building regulations, traffic or cold-blooded murder, responsible government must take action.

    But this should not be mistaken for an endorsement of how the Oyo government went about tackling this messy episode.

    For one, things could have been addressed before the structure was developed to its current state. What happened to the stage by stage reviews by the building authorities? What actions did they take to halt further building when the first deviations were noticed?

    Even when matters came to a head with the three-day demolition notice, the needless controversy could have been avoided because Ayefele went to court and supposedly obtained an injunction. It is easy for the government to claim it was unaware of any such judicial intervention. The controversial building has been standing for years, waiting another couple of days to verify the true status of the legal action would have hurt no one. The question many have asked – justifiably – is what was the mad rush about? Was there some deadline that had to be met?

    Even more suspicious was the fact that the demolition crew set about their task at the unusual hour of 4.30am – a time when God-fearing civil servants would still be snoring in their beds. Such efficiency is unheard of in state bureaucracies notorious for their snail speed.

    And so the government staggered from one unforced error to another – until it was put out of its misery by last Thursday’s parley.

    Even if it was so zealous about enforcing the law, there’s always a wise way to act and an appropriate time to take action.

    With barely four months to the next general election, this miscalculated demolition was akin to shooting oneself in the foot with a Dane gun. Already, many on social media had begun threatening retribution against the ruling party. Maybe some will forgive and forget, but depend on it that the opposition would not let voters forget in a hurry.

    Perhaps, the governor wanted to come across as a firm and no-nonsense administrator who would not brook breaches of the law no matter how eminent the offender is. The question would then be that he should have stood his ground and damned the consequences, having established that there were violations.

    As things stand, it is the government that is being made to look like it backed down in the face of unrelenting public criticism. Instead of appearing tough, Ajimobi has across like someone who was only too glad to have been offered a dignified way of escape from a tight spot by the peacemakers.

    To argue otherwise would raise this scenario: if some offending individual without Ayefele’s celebrity and physical challenges had been at the receiving end of this demolition, would the governor and traditional rulers be convening peace talks? After this bruising encounter would the government still have stomach to embark on demolitions where egregious violations of the building code are identified?

    Hopefully, some enduring lessons have been learnt about the uses and application of state power in pursuit of our common good. For those on the other side, perhaps time has come to ponder whether laws should be scrapped in Nigeria and every man should be left to his own devices.

  • Our Girls; Classroom Aretha/ Annan corners pls!

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Release the remaining Chibok girls. Inexplicably Our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released. Is government doing anything to save her?

    Selfishly, a politician lost an election and insultingly dismantled the projects he put in place with taxpayers’ money that paid him millions. This confirmed that the projects were just ‘voting tricks’ and not for development. He is no different from a political prostitute who changes political party like underwear, concerned not with service but only the need for greed. He should be dismissed from his party.

    The term ‘constituency projects’ is a corruption criminal corridor and should be removed from all budgets. Politicians should lobby and direct their local requests through relevant ministries to be included under existing budget headings. Then the National Assembly (NASS) will pass the budget quicker next time.

    First the great Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has died. She made the Otis Redding hit ‘Respect’ into a feminist anthem and also reminded everyone of the value of prayer with ‘Each morning I wake up, before I put on my make up, I say a little prayer for you’. Rest in Perfect Peace, Amen. And now it is Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, opposed to the Iraq War and peace mediator is dead. Unfortunately during some of his peace missions he was rejected on racist and religious grounds by some protagonists. He founded the Kofi Annan Foundation for International Development and was a member, later chairman, of the Elders Forum.  He was a key leader and motivator in the fight for a cleaner, cooler better-protected safer environment anticipating the fearsome global weather upheaval we see today with forest fires, floods and heatwaves and the epidemic of plastic everywhere including in the food we eat.

    Kofi Annan was a classic gentleman, a warm smile, a calming modulated unhurried empathetic voice, a super-statesman and diplomat par excellence on the world stage. He leaves that stage a distinguished gentleman who contributed hugely to the elevation of the African profile in the world except among racists. He personified the UN of which he was staff member, elected twice as Secretary General. May his soul Rest In Perfect Peace, a credit to Ghana, Africa, the human race and a template lesson for citizens particularly African.

    There is one last Kofi Annan legacy you can create and participate in: Homework for you as a teacher, lecturer or parent. Every teacher should obtain a magazine/ newspaper cutout picture of Kofi Annan and a newspaper biography and create a role model classroom teaching tool poster – a ‘Kofi Annan Corner’ for  every classroom, school and university department notice board worldwide. All students should be asked to write and read essays and opinions on his life and achievements.  Kofi Annan should already be in the African schools curriculum. Start a Kofi Annan Prize in your school and institution. This can also be done for Aretha Franklin and other great leaders, local and international.

    Walking in the footsteps of Kofi Annan, Africa certainly has many fine professionals working in all spheres of life and particularly in organisations at local and international levels. But politicians with questionable contributions to development get almost all media publicity. Shame on the media.

    In access to the media and ability to influence society, the media prefers the trivial pursuits and utterances of the worst and most disgraced politicians over efforts of the professionals to develop the country. Africa’s media personnel should promote such professionals and bring their ‘road of struggle and achievements’ to public knowledge. Young Africans at the secondary and tertiary institutions level, so preoccupied with ‘Reality Shows’ like Big Brother etc, need help and guidance and documentaries to improve their minds with what is good for their professional and moral growth.

    Our youth are distracted by the struggle to survive-food, water, sanitation- and the struggle to make progress surrounded by African schools’ bare walls in empty classrooms, libraries and laboratories and subjected to class subjects lacking in stimulating teaching methodology and updated curriculum content. The miracle is that our children often succeed in competing against youth attending fully functional schools.

    We envy developed countries and migrate to them because their budgets are not stolen in billions and the money is mostly used for development. Nigeria, indeed Africa, must put in power those who will see servicing the needs of the youth through sanitation and schooling as more important than stealing.  The potential African politician, contractors and civil servants require regular university-based 1-3 month workshop courses on Delivering a Development Targeted Democracy highlighting the cost of corruption. It can teach monitoring and evaluation of political agendas and projects, implementation of UN SDGs and UN and other agencies’ statistics like from Transparency International.

    International standards define a school. We put our children in rubbish non-schools and pray for the ‘Miracle Of Good Broad Education’ to be inflicted upon them while ignoring their needs in sport, brain-gain, morals as dictated by the definition of school in the dictionary or the internet. Most schools are abandoned by most politicians in favour of ‘theft of book budgets’ and have less attractive items than enumerated by Professor Soyinka when, at the age of three and a half, he followed his older sister to school.

    Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

     

  • Akpabio: The strangest of strange bedfellows

    A wise saying recommends you never judge a man until you’ve walked a step in his shoes. So, I would be the last person to condemn politicians switching parties as they battle for survival.

    It is even harder to be judgmental because virtually everyone – All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and sundry others – have benefitted from the seasonal migration.

    In the last couple of the weeks, following the movement of 15 senators and three governors from the ruling party, it did appear as if the opposition was headed for a crushing victory in the defection Olympics. Rumours of even more exits from a supposedly sinking APC ship must have sounded like sweet music in the PDP camp.

    But in this column, I had observed that the defections were certainly not going to be one-way traffic given that the factors driving them were largely local ones, differing from state to state, from institution to institution.

    Whereas the calculations in the Senate were comforting enough to encourage Senate President Bukola Saraki to jump ship, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has not been so fleet of feet, knowing how precarious his own position is. So, despite his expected exit from APC being one of the worst kept secrets in the political space, the Bauchi legislator has wisely chosen to fly under the radar for now.

    Without question, the PDP has been the biggest beneficiary numerically in the gale of the defections – a development that gave the party some momentum in recent times. But whatever wind it must have gathered in its sails has been largely deflated by just one movement in the opposite direction. I refer to the decamping of erstwhile Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio.

    If you want to gauge the shock and devastation felt by the PDP leadership over his departure, you only need to check the vitriol that has trailed his action. He has been called a traitor, Judas and a coward – and those are the more complimentary words used against him.

    But it is not just the PDP which has suffered this embarrassing PR blow that is stunned. As a political commentator, I am shocked.

    For months, when reporters filed stories about a supposed rift between Akpabio and incumbent Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, I would treat them with a spoonful of salt. I would turn them back to go and crosscheck their information. Many times I felt vindicated when the feuding sides – with straight faces and plastic smiles – would deny any problems. Frankly, most politicians possess greater Thespian skills than the so-called Nollywood stars.

    Even when tales of Akpabio’s imminent defection to APC picked up pace, I preferred to be cautious. After all, all the seers were so sure Kaduna State senator, Shehu Sani, on account of his bickering with Governor Nasir El-Rufai, was set to abandon the ruling party. Imagine our collective shock when he smugly sat back in the company of the devil he was accustomed to.

    It wasn’t until the former Akwa Ibom governor began appearing in chummy photos with APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari, that I accepted that something was indeed afoot. Today’s reality is that Godswill Akpabio is now a member of the ruling party!

    He may have taken one momentous step as an individual, but for the party of which he used to be a key leader, it is several steps backwards in the battle to wrest power from the APC.

    Akpabio was as PDP as they come. He was one of the pillars that made the South-South zone an impregnable fortress for the former ruling party in the last eleven years. Even when the then Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, pulled out because of his troubles with former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, his efforts helped shore up whatever loss the party suffered in the brief period Rivers State was not within its ranks.

    If he helped the party, PDP also reciprocated. In 2015, the party’s caucus in the Senate bent the rules to allow the newcomer to fill the Minority Leader slot – a position that would ordinarily have been occupied only by a ranking senator.

    Irrespective of what might have transpired within the PDP in Akwa Ibom, very few would have boldly predicted that Akpabio would now be making common cause with a band of politicians he derisively referred to four years ago as “expired drugs” – a play on the acronym ‘APC’ – the name of a once popular analgesic in these parts.

    He and others were equally vociferous in dismissing those who midwifed APC as a bunch of strange bedfellows who could never work together.

    So what on earth could have made him hop into bed with those many would consider strange bedfellows to him? Let’s not forget that he’s now locked in awkward embrace with some of those he edged out of the PDP in the heat of the succession battle of 2015.

    For instance, Umana Okon Umana, one-time Secretary to the State Government and now Managing Director, Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), quit the PDP when it became apparent that Akpabio was bent on installing Emmanuel who he had headhunted from Zenith Bank, as his successor. The parting between erstwhile political allies was bitter.

    In APC, Akpabio now has to caucus with the likes of John Akpan Udoehehe, his bitter rival for the gubernatorial seat who has long fancied himself the real leader of the party in Akwa Ibom. How would he respond to the assertive ex-governor who is not noted for taking the back seat?

    Some have suggested that Akpabio’s defection is a ploy to get the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) off his back. But I doubt this theory because nothing on the ground would encourage any savvy politician to bet his house on this sort of arrangement.

    Ask Orji Kalu if his praise-singing of Buhari and APC has slowed down the prosecution of his graft case. Perhaps former Plateau State Governor, Joshua Dariye, believed at some point that his membership of the ruling party would somehow ameliorate his legal woes. Today, in the anonymous prison where he’s serving time, he’s certainly wiser.

    Or could it be ambition? It is not inconceivable that the top job in the National Assembly could be on offer – especially if the APC succeeds in toppling Saraki. But this, again, is unlikely as it would mean upturning the zoning arrangements locked into place by the ruling party.

    The answer clearly lies elsewhere. It is true that politicians have a very low suffering or humiliation threshold, but something truly traumatic must have happened between Akpabio and his godson Emmanuel to have caused him to flee into the embrace of those he once fought with unrelenting ruthlessness.

    It must have been something quite grievous if he’s willing to bear being painted as the face of treachery by his one-time confederates in Akwa Ibom and Abuja.

    Whatever it was, the fallout between Akpabio and Emmanuel is an object lesson to incumbent governors who believe that by installing those they think would be their poodles, they are guaranteed a peaceful retirement where they would be governing from the back seat. This is another example that Nigerian gubernatorial ‘poodles’ have a nightmarish way of morphing into Frankenstein monsters.

    Akpabio has taken a bold but risky step driven by calculations which only he can properly explain. He is just one individual and we must be careful not to ascribe too much power and influence to him. Still, in the context of today’s politics of defections, the APC which lost more in numbers would welcome this one significant movement in its direction.

    A few weeks ago, the seemingly one-way defections were being interpreted by some as a bellwether for likely 2019 outcomes. But the unscripted reverse decamping by Akpabio is a significant psychological blow for the PDP and a coup for the APC. As we await the next act in the unfolding drama, wise men won’t go placing bets.

  • Our Girls; Old students, MPR

    Our Chibok Girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Release the remaining Chibok girls. Inexplicably, our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    We must establish Old Students Associations, OSA, in all primary schools. This encouraging act will get millions to assist primary school development. It will build on secondary school OSAs success which has provided billions to substitute for negligent authorities and the ministries, governors and state assemblies which underfund and abuse the inadequate education budget. Plagued with low education quality, Nigeria provides 1/6th of the UN recommended 26% of the budget for education. Nigeria runs an annual education budget of 3-5% subject to fraud and non-release reducing such budgets to 2-3% too miniscule to grow the brains of 70+million youth. Do not be deceived by those who proclaim ‘government cannot do it alone’. Government can do far more for education alone. Citizens and Corporate Nigeria are to supplement.

    Before Prof Is-haq Olarewaju Oloyede was appointed registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), N7,000,000,000 was probably stolen annually, oiling corruption in education. Are other multi-billion naira arms of the Ministry of Education -ETF, TET Fund, UBEC and SPEB? Congratulate President Buhari for appointing Prof Oloyede over the negative voices of ‘Corruption Fighting Back’ CFB Party. Buhari should investigate those opposed to Prof Oloyede’s appointment. Did they benefit from the annual N7billion in past years?  If politicians, civil servants, contractors and political parties stopped stealing, government could do its own share alone in education.

    Government in Nigeria has been made up of little small-minded selfish, citizen-neglecting, greedy men and women in big robes and boubous who hide billions behind statements about the pains of development while neglecting their responsibility to citizens. We hear of billions diverted even if wily lawyers and ‘anti-prison’ admission to hospital, thwart convictions! This is not the price or consequence of democracy, but demonic ‘billion-billion’ kleptomania while citizens suffer, becoming victims of criminality or criminals themselves. They refuse to do what governments can do for development.

    Just N1,000,000,000 of the many billions padded or stolen from an education budget is loss to 4,000 schools of N250,000 for laboratory equipment, 3-500 library books and a complete set of Chess, Scrabble board games with table and lawn tennis, field sports equipment like hurdles, javelin, weights, shot-put, whistle annually. But the loss is in many billions reducing the earning potential to self and Nigeria of a 30 school years of Nigerian students. No, our governments have no excuse considering what will be spent by INEC and politicians during the coming elections estimated at N750b -N1 trillion and also with the production of up to N1billion face posters of politicians but these politicians will never authorize school posters purchased or produced by ministries of education.

    Contractors on the Iwo Road, Ibadan have abused their moral responsibility not to punish the citizens during construction. The contractors and supervising government engineers are abusive of citizens’ rights by rendering major junctions almost un-motorable. To add to the insult, this atrocity is within sight of Government House, thus disrespecting and insulting the governor! The Maryhill and the Civic Centre junctions are a nightmare. Government must call the contractor to order and force the contractor to maintain decent temporary junctions even if they refuse to make the roads they have torn up motorable, notably Iwo –Akobo-Ojurin road, during the prolonged phase of construction which raises dangerous laterite dust for months. It cannot be right for contractors to inflict such maximum pain for a development gain. Is this ‘democracy pain for development pain’?

    There are government responsibilities to be taken to develop Nigeria while the National Assembly (NASS) is distracted with the repetitive struggle to clarify its permanent and seasonal pre-identity crisis.

    This NASS crisis is self-manufactured and macabre entertainment while the nation’s real news, the murders and police extrajudicial killings take the inside pages. Shame. The political shenanigans are ‘changing of the political garb’. Who has moved from party to party the most? Perhaps we should offer an award? Politicians love awards. They demonstrate no consistent ideology, no puritanical or logical distinction between progressive and conservative policy positions.  Movements between parties are so frequent now that politicians must be reminded by their personal assistant whose side they are on today. To keep track we should demand that whenever their NASS names are called, or used, they will be followed by the initials of their current party, their last party, second last party, and more. Mr So-and-so, PDP, APC, PDP, SDP, APGA to ‘give’ discredit to whom discredit is due for an Any Government In Power (AGIP) person. Political prostitution is producing the usual rash of diseases to infect us all, notably greed and kleptomania!

    So CBN seeks to increase the Monetary Policy Rate of 14%, further stifling any helpful business and personal loans. MPR of 14% goes to CBN coffers, killing business and family life. What does CBN do with the money it accumulated from such 14% out of the 21-30% that banks charge? Worldwide only 6/54 African countries and 4/74 other countries have rates similar or higher to Nigeria while more than 80 countries have rates 0- 13%. CBN leave us alone. What is the salary and perks of a CBN Director?

     

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16. 

  • Our Girls; Expressway suffering: CRS

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Release the remaining Chibok girls. Inexplicably Our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    Let us trace the people’s suffering amidst plenty of God’s gifts ‘sun, soil and oil’ its source! Even the traffic jam can be politicized as a failure of politics, governance, the budget, maintenance and of course ubiquitous multibillion corruption.  Can National Assembly (NASS) honestly say that their huge Salaries and Perks, saping us dry and their questionable constitutional projects are the necessary projects to project Nigeria’s development quickly after over 50 years of political interference and deliberate developmental inertia? Does any member of the current NASS deserve to be re-elected given the NASS position on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway?

    Everything is politics. Lest we forget, there was a N15b item in the 2017 budget to quickly finish by end 2017 the long overdue Lagos-Ibadan Expressway – LIE, the main artery in and out of Lagos, with millions of people and tens of thousands of vehicles /day. After many years of increasing life-taking suffering on the unmaintained, potholed road, Nigerians were skeptical when the road finally appeared on the government agenda. Nigerians thought it was another pre-election gimmick, like mythical Second Niger Bridge which is still believed to be economic punishment inflicted politically for the 1967-1970 Civil War. After all, Abuja is a city of 100 bridges, flyovers, but few streams let alone rivers. The promise of doing the mythical Second Niger Bridge has been ‘election promise’ political gimmickry since 1999. Yet its completion can only be good for entire Nigerian economy, but the myopic powers, even Jonathan, thinking ‘punishment over profit’ ignored the huge development responsibility.

    Similarly after years of politics and bloodshed in over 10,000 pothole craters, and fires involving multiple tanker/vehicle crashes, the LIE was started late, as an afterthought in the Jonathan’s PDP government. Distraught commuters actually thought it was another ‘Fake Pre-Election News Story’.But some good work was done by both contractors but at a huge insulting cost to the commuter tortured by ‘Mass Misery’ and suffering accompanying the construction, inadequate alternative routing for the millions of commuters causing 10-15 hour delays in narrow lane traffic and stuck in the mud on a diversion.

    Commuters, the voters, are always victims of politics and construction mayhem. For years they endured the ‘You Must Suffer, Have Pain To Have Development Gain’ a popular insult to the citizen from politicians once elected as government. When will the LIE suffering end? Unusually the successor APC government was keen to finish the LIE contract by end 2017 without too much of the usual trans-party bickering and contract reworking. Unfortunately NASS, whose members do not use the road and instead fly around courtesy of our tax money, tragically for millions of commuters, refused to appreciably fund the LIE.

    NASS rejected the APC budget for LIE-N15b. This further exposed NASS to Nigerians as an apparently greedy and self-centred third force in government preoccupied with constituency ‘petty local and poorly audited projects’ instead of channelling such funds to the national development plan and strategic projects from which all Nigerians will  benefit; NASS has been a selfish disaster for the Nigerian commuter. As you struggle around ask if any NASS member is worthy of re-election. Why not change them all?

    LIE is not for the Southwest. The LIE services every part of the country. The LIE would have been completed by December 2017. Instead the millions of commuters endure 3-6 hours in horrendous six lane, queue jumping, 30 kilometre jams, as I write this. And just for travelling 120km. We are told the contractors are on site, blocking off lanes, with almost zero control of off lane side-driving queue jumping vehicles further delaying those in the queue. There are too few traffic control personnel to control the 30km long traffic and the automatic queue jumpers and get the traffic to move. Even when they are there, they are more motivated and preoccupied by the current craze with ‘stop and particulars’, even in a four hour go-slow. I have been stopped more than 20 times now. Twice this last weekend.

    History, civics, geography and even Christian Religious Studies, CRS, were removed from the school curriculum by the federal government under political direction, crippling the knowledge base, dreams and job opportunities of tens of millions of Nigeria’s Generation Next. The state governors’ collective failure to verbally and actively defend their right to teach the full history of the various peoples originating in their own state history is a shameful and almost irreparable ‘Historical Error of Mind-destroying Proportions’. Governors should have taught their own school populations history, civics CRS and geography simply by keeping the children back in school for 30 minutes a day or an hour or two on Saturdays under the blanket title of ‘General Knowledge Classes’. If this had been done we would not have a generation of students, Nigeria’s best but wasted asset, who are ignorant of these foundation subjects.

    Happily CRS is being restored, employing many and improving morality. Hopefully it is not ‘Fake Pre-Election Feel Good News’ to be withdrawn by an elected/ re-elected president come 2019. Meanwhile the politicised tellers of fake news and twisted stories of Nigeria’s authentic history must be identified and their bad effects countered by local content books in schools and ‘after-school classes’.

     

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16. 

  • Our Girls; 10 yr driving licence & JAMB refund?

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Release the remaining Chibok girls. Inexplicably Our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    Dangote School of Business for University of Ibadan is good. More please. Coming 10-year passport is good. Now 10-year driving license please. 1,000 security personnel deployed to Zamfara is better late than never, good. Wider deployment with more men, better.

    Ghana legislature and the entire proud Ghanaian nation were addressed by televising the ‘Half Year Budget Performance’ of that country’s 2018-2019 Budget presentation to parliament. Nigeria is just warming up with the budget passed seven months late-a legislative failure, for that same time frame. Does Nigeria’s National Assembly (NASS) consider how Nigeria has been stopped from competing on a level economic playing field with countries which have January to December budget years, a yearning of the current government crushed by differences of principle, policy or politics with NASS. The Ghanaian example shames Nigerian legislators but have they any shame?

    With fanfare the Head of Service announced a face lift for the Federal Secretariat, Abuja. I was hoping for a similar resuscitation for moribund and mismanaged Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi Lagos where it is a painfully expensive eyesore of mega-proportions but they say is the ‘legalese’ of finance causing a 10+ yr so far 10+year delay. This aside, the reason why the ‘refurbishment of the federal secretariat reminds us that even at the highest level of governance in Nigeria, ‘incompetence’ is rife and ‘Maintenance is still a dirty word’.

    Why was everything good that the colonialists taught us about maintenance thrown out with the bad? Every conference harps on maintenance but no maintenance ever gets in the budget or it is merely another line in the budget to be stolen with no maintenance work done. In the 50s-70s, every government property, office or quarters had a painted circle on the entrance wall with the next date when the Public Works Department (PWD) had put in their diary to come to renovate the premises by direct labour. Every seven years, everywhere got renovated in stages according to the PWD Diary.  Every year 1/7th [14%] of the government property was renovated and every month of every year 1/12th of 1/7th [1.2%] of government property was automatically and systematically renovated, no bribe. Why did Nigerian government officials and politicians abandon that excellent ‘PWD Maintenance Dairy System’ of systematic renewal? As we embark on emergency federal secretariat renovation, let us institutionalise a seven- year renewal plan.

    At a time of almost uniform mourning and fear even on the Kaduna-Abuja highway when a female professor and many others were brutally murdered, the weeping was drowned by the jubilations surrounding the movements of NASS members removing their sheep’s clothing.  Politicians in Nigeria have performed far below expectation. Service is almost contrary to their visible character. Do Ghanaian parliamentarians dress simply but do more? Can NASS be as efficient in worrying about policies that will develop all Nigeria within the four years of any government instead of paralysing governments for upwards of two years with six month delays every year for four years in budget passage? And this even when the ruling party supposedly has the majority. The wolves have removed their sheep’s clothing having inflicted the planned budgetary delays and retarding the performance of the government unmindful that the budget and the policies are for the profit of the people of all parties and all parts of Nigeria.

    Even Nigerian students have been inflicted with massive corruption. What have they done to deserve to be overcharged, mistakenly or deliberately, by Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) which until recently was almost a criminal organization, yet another government agency unfit for purpose? Is there one that actually is fit for purpose, without bribes, delays and diversions?  JAMB used to be a corrupt organization feeding on students and providing fake results. It became untrustworthy. We championed the Post-UME to take back admission control to within the universities to guarantee they had the final say. This thankfully largely over five years cleansed the universities of a generation of pay-for place ‘unworthy in character and entry level-learning’ students who mushroomed into the violent and terrorizing cult revolution and ignorant graduates.

    Amazingly JAMB has paid to government its surplus in excess of N15,000,000,000, N15b or N7+b/year. This massive feat of the current chief eexecutive officer, Prof Is-haq Olarewaju Oloyede is worthy of being presented with an immediate highest national honour in an immediate ceremony in the president’s office and a ‘whistleblowers fee’ paid for him of 5% i.e. N350m for the first year as his payment. It was an irrefutable huge whistle-blowing statement on previous JAMB CEOs and top office holders. Actions speak louder than words and so does N7b. He cannot claim for Year 2. However the previous JAMB senior management must be grilled by EFCC/ ICPC to investigate prosecute and recover the N6b for 2016, N5b for 2015, N5b for 2014, N5b for 2013 etc.

    Since JAMB is an education exam body and is not a profit making one, this money amounts to a criminal overcharge on Nigerians students. It should be refunded to students who sat the examinations, just like when banks overcharge. This is N3,500 each from approximately two million students or over N4,500 for 1.5m students usually for servicing JAMB annually. Government must do the right thing and cut JAMB fees from N5,500 to N1,500 now, please.

     

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16. 

  • 2019: What’s defection got to do with it?

    IT was planned for maximum effect. In one fell swoop  15 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives  left the ranks of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC). Next day, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, jumped ship  exiting with 10 members of the state House of Assembly.

    With the threat that further defections from the ruling party will follow in coming days and weeks, defection is at the center of national discourse.

    For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose ranks have been bloated by the new arrivals, it was both a numerical and psychological boost. Long on the receiving end, as its members who are not used to being in the opposition wilderness bolted from its stricken ship, this was welcome news  something to be spun as sign that the political wind was, perhaps, beginning to turn in its favour.

    Its leading lights have been boasting about the defections unfolding in batches, as they continued their open flirtation with senior APC office holders. Some of the disaffected like Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara  for strategic reasons  may never formally cross until 2019 polling is virtually upon us.

    The smart money expects Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal and his Kwara counterpart, Abdulfatah Ahmed, to shortly confirm one of politics worst kept secrets: they are headed back to PDP. It remains to be seen whether the opposition’s gains from gubernatorial ranks would dry up thereafter.

    For the new APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, there couldn’t have been a more excruciating baptism of fire. It is his lot to steady the ship  not knowing who can be trusted to remain or who is secretly in bed with the enemy.

    Oshiomhole and President Muhammadu Buhari have tried to project calmness  suggesting that they were all for people exercising their constitutional right of freedom of association. Still, they are not likely to be jubilating over the loss of a boatload of high-profile members within the twenty-four hours.

    But the flow of defectors may not necessarily persist in one direction. For now, APC is nursing its bruises but very soon it, too, could be brandishing its own trophies  well-fed politicians crossing the divide for whatever reason.

    No one is deceived that these movements are remotely linked to any principle under the sun.

    That is why APC and PDP should limit their contest to one of numerical superiority and not attempt to score any moral points. Both sides are equally guilty of benefitting from a tradition of politics that emphasises the cult of personality over the contest of ideas.

    How funny it is to hear Oshiomhole denounce those who have gone back to PDP as men and women lacking in honour. But he conveniently forgets that the very foundation of the ruling party was partly secured by defectors who once upon a time operated under the ‘n-PDP’ banner.

    Not too long ago, after the court killed his power grab within the PDP by recognising the legitimacy of former Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Makarfi’s caretaker chairmanship, his rival  Ali Modu Sheriff  moved his entire faction’s leadership into APC.

    The then party chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, joined by three state governors and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, joyfully welcomed the new defectors who included the likes of Senator Hope Uzodinma, Gbemisola Saraki, Teslim Folarin and 34 state chairman of the faction at the APC’s national headquarters in Abuja.

    At the occasion, Odigie-Oyegun declared: “This is the first time this magnitude of event is happening since the amalgamation of the party and since the APC came into being.

    “It is the first time we are receiving a total party with all the structures all over the nation fusing into the APC.”

    So Oshiomhole’s comments are a bit rich given that his party has never been too embarrassed to embrace some of the poster boys of worst that PDP represented.

    As the drama unfolded, some of those changing sides sought to sell their action as driven solely by disgust over Buhari’s or the APC’s performance in office. In reality, however, they have largely been motivated by survival.

    A lot have jumped because their interests now conflict with those of governors who would pull out all stops to deny them return tickets to the National Assembly.

    Some are contending with two-term governors who are especially interested in retiring to the senatorial seats they currently hold. Others are chafing under the vice grip of local godfathers who wouldn’t let them breathe.

    In the case of a governor like Benue’s Ortom, defection is the only way he could escape the stranglehold his erstwhile benefactor, George Akume, has on the party in the state. Indeed, there was a question mark on whether he would get a second term ticket. Little wonder, he cried out that he’d been given a red card at state level  despite the reconciliatory moves of the national leadership.

    For the likes of Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar before him, there was the small matter of their unresolved presidential ambition. The former also had to deal with a successor in Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, who is committed to crushing him politically. Their intractable conflict left no room for cohabitation within APC.

    These defections are more complex than they may appear on the surface. It would be foolhardy to begin to compute numbers and draw conclusions about the ultimate outcome of the 2019 race just because the movements haven’t significantly altered the power dynamics in the National Assembly or across the country.

    In the Senate APC retains a nominal majority, but the coalition that installed Saraki is still in control. In the House of Representatives, the ruling party retains a fairly stable hold. Unlike in 2014 when the PDP lost five governors to the opposition, only one has switched sides so far. Even if Sokoto and Kwara eventually change affiliation, it doesn’t significantly damage APC’s spread.

    Perhaps the fascination with defections and defectors will pass, but as we have seen in the past, this phenomenon might just drag on as desperate politicians seek platforms on which to run.

    It is a shameful development that only underlines the poverty of our politics. Rather than focusing the 2019 discussion on the critical issues that confront our country, we are all giddy with excitement over leopards switching sides without shedding their spots.

    Nigerians should not be made to decide who gets a mandate to govern by how many defectors they were able to attract. This is country at a critical juncture facing an existential crisis. There are grave problems with the economy that are exacerbating our security challenges. Depending on which side you are on, corruption in public office has either be contained or metastasized.

    So, as it was in 2015, the 2019 election ought to be a referendum on the performance of Buhari and his APC administration over the last three and a half years.

    Nigerians are within their rights to ask whether they are better off today, than they were three years ago. If they are not, are there mitigating factors that would make them consider giving the incumbent a second chance?

    The opposition would also be justified to pose that same question as it stakes it claim for another mandate to run the nation. But in doing so, the PDP, which dismisses the incumbent as incompetent must offer a credible alternative. If it were in APC’s shoes what would it have done differently?

    The challenge it faces is having to sell a believable alternative plan, while dealing with the issue of trust. How can it get the vast majority of Nigerians to trust it again when the rank record of the last PDP government still reeks in the nostrils of many?

    It was only three years ago when many were baying for ‘change.’ What changed in the conduct and character of the erstwhile ruling party to make it believe that those who rejected it would so swiftly embrace it again?

    We have barely six months to when the first ballots would be cast in 2019 and yet we don’t have that clear alternative. You can judge Buhari and APC by their record in office. But what do PDP and its presidential aspirants offer as alternative?

    Veteran presidential contender, Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to quickly end widespread insecurity and killings. What he conveniently neglects to address is how. Or are we just to take his word for it because he is Atiku?

    If all the PDP and others have to offer as their case for taking over power is how many defectors they have been able to lure from APC, then their hope of returning to power soon might just end up as pipe dreams.

    They need to present to Nigeria a compelling argument for being returned to office, just as the APC needs to defend what we’ve seen them do in the last three years. Only on that basis would we make our 2019 choices.

  • ‘Total Chairman’ meets ‘Maximum Chairman’

    I HAVE never found out why the PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus, is fondly called ‘Total Chairman.’ It is certainly not because he’s totalitarian in his ways. Observing him from afar he looks like the genial sort who is more comfortable wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, than sounding off before a bank of microphones and cameras.

    The same cannot be said for the APC’s new chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. The former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has a reputation for giving as good as he gets.

    Right from the moment his ascent was formalised I knew there wouldn’t be any dull moment under his leadership. Unlike his predecessor, John Odigie-Oyegun, who had a diplomatic  even soporific  style of leadership, Oshio-Baba as his political associates and friends call him, is as combative, articulate and outspoken as they come.

    I am sure if any of his promoters had any misgivings about him, it would have been whether he would be controllable. He obviously has very clear ideas about his role and powers as party chairman, and he intends to make the APC more assertive in its relationship with its members who are holding office.

    Not surprisingly, he has grabbed the assignment with characteristic zeal  the less-charitable would say overzealousness  leaving a few unexpected victims already bruised in this short period.

    For failing to inaugurate boards of agencies under their ministries, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige and Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, were threatened with expulsion from the ruling party.

    While Sirika has meekly reacted with the silence of a lamb, the pugilistic Ngige has hit back by suggesting that his newly-minted party chair needed to be educated on the inner workings of government at a higher level.

    It is a bit surprising that one of Oshiomhole’s first political battles would be with a man who many have long believed to be his friend and comrade-at-arms. But perhaps in politics personal relationships sometimes have to take a back seat.

    Still, I feel Oshiomhole was overly aggressive in issuing an ultimatum to ministers who don’t report to him, by giving them two weeks to inaugurate boards or face sanctions as grave as expulsion.

    The problem with hurling ultimatums about is that to maintain your credibility, you are forced to carry out your threats, otherwise you are exposed as a having a bark not backed up with a bite.

    Even worse, the chairman’s comments which suggested that President Buhari somehow condoned disrespectful treatment from his ministers, was totally out of line  irrespective of whatever powers the APC constitution confers on his office.

    He said: “If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. They have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly disposition.”

    If he’s going to succeed in his new role, the APC chairman needs to understand that he’s been called to be as much a conciliator healing a divided house, as he is expected to be a fire-fighter or verbal pugilist taking the fight to external foes. He definitely needs that balance if he’s not to end up as a ‘Maximum Chairman’ who must be obeyed.

  • Our Girls; Mandela; ‘Continuous Forensic Audit’

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Release the remaining Chibok Girls. Inexplicably, our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    The Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund faces a N62.3billion fraud and a $4m ministerial bribe attempt. What an insult to those companies forced by law to pay and those employees denied N62,300,000,000 in support, just like National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and its N130b or so. Every good intention crumbles into corruption dust. Why do we wait for billions to disappear, no honest person to stop it?

    Nigeria urgently needs a Pro- active Fraud Prevention Bill eg ‘Compulsory Continuous weekly Forensic Audit Bill’ for continuous forensic audit in every government Ministry, Agency,Department (MDA).

    Market fires again? Jos today, where tomorrow? No serious fire-fighting equipment or grid-plan for market fire-fighting. You say there are no jobs. Firefighting has unfilled jobs requiring recruitment of 50-100,000 firefighters nationwide!!

    Get the Mandela Lectures commemorating his 100th Birthday, especially the Obama+ Lecture and the ‘Madiba Would Have Reminded Us…’ Lecture by anti-corruption guru Prof Patrick Lumumba. Every African, African abroad with children and Africanophile worldwide must study them as Africa faces re-colonialisation from foreign commercial interests and losing its inheritance to religious and ethnic bigots and to fellow Africans stealing the commonwealth. Africans, show your wards these lectures which summarise our African condition in a falsified culture making ‘Instant Millionaires’ and ‘Instant Billionaires’. History is a ‘no no’ for many Africans, partly because they say ‘history is boring’ and history was shamelessly suppressed, politicized and twisted into Fake History.

    So the serpent which I called Ejo Eko, Lagos Snake, a python, has finally strangled Lagos, bringing Apapa to an anguished standstill and the vice president to Apapa, by helicopter viewing the 15 km long EjoEko made up of containers, trailers and tankers. This is the classic example of the evil that ‘False Federalism’ does to negate development. Shame on past and present federal governments for their insincerity to develop essential infrastructure since 1999 and the 3 ½ years currently in power manifest by such a huge disgraceful costly embarrassment. This is yet another deliberately neglected ‘under-funded’ development disastrous event compromising the National Development Plan because of trailer commercial preference over railway.

    Every new government even from the same party does a policy summersault, starves previously government approved projects of funds and undertakes painfully slow, negative contract reviews. Are such old contract reviews genuinely altruistic to save government money or to encourage the contractors to corruptly pay the new people in power? Contracts are cancelled or put on hold, paralysing and rendering useless billions of government naira belonging to citizens suffering a resultant development deficit. Witness the numerous empty-shell building sites littering Nigeria even in continuously same-party states. The disgraceful waste of the federal government secretariat pains Nigerians to the marrow as does the see-through uncompleted blocks at the Third Mainland Bridge started by Babatunde Fashola. But Fashola should have been pragmatic enough to complete one functioning block rather than leave the skeleton of 10 blocks haunting and taunting Lagosians. The project may never be completed because of differing funding priorities, political or personal differences, or questioned contracting specifications from the same party. Such issues like the ‘Problem, Cost and Prevention of Uncompleted Policies and Projects’ should be studied by political and social scientists and taught to politicians by their parties. States and FG should have 4-year plans from Day 1 and deliver in four year terms.

    It is unfortunate that developmental of Port Harcourt and Calabar and ‘Four-Track Cargo Train Container Evacuation’ from the port demanded for an international port have been corruptly rejected and frustrated, yet Nigeria quickly built trains running around Kaduna and Kano – ‘Corruptly Misplaced National Priorities’. Even Lagos still has not completed its internal railway, a project first terminated by Buhari in 1984. Will the truck owners, fearing loss of business monopoly, keep stalling Nigeria’s ‘Southern Port Railway Policy’ which is no threat, just a development and a better managed transport system? The truck owners refuse to pay for parking in holding bays just like the cow herders’ bosses refuse to pay for food on the herders’ route, unleashing the terrorist monster. What is the contribution of port corruption, multiple taxation and many security services to the gridlock? Closing the Third Mainland Bridge will compound the ‘Hell on earth’ woes of commuting Lagosians. Where is the Fourth Mainland Bridge?

    Nigeria is at several battle crossroads. The Apapa/ Tin Can Cross Roads, Corruption/ anti-corruption, Violence/Nonviolence, Governance/ Good Governance, Who To Vote For/ Who Not To Vote For. Worldwide politicians and professionals abroad are being prosecuted and jailed for corruption or sexual or policy indiscretions in the past. Nigerian politicians and professionals are no saints. Interrogate candidates for office in politics and government. Whitewashing corruption in no way cleanses the corrupt. Yes, the stolen money gives political clout but should disqualify and imprison politicians. The 2019 election must become a watershed election against money and moral policy corruption. Politicians consume a sizable budget proportion for few ‘I love Nigeria’ decisions. Too many have been in too many parties. Waking up daily, they cannot remember ‘Today’s Party’ and cannot be taken seriously as ‘Nigeria Political Policy Change Agents’. Political prostitution is alive and well with the expected diseases of Corruption, Underdevelopment, Wasted Generations, Economic Migration and now Internally Displaced Persons.

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16. 

  • NEF’s Elders Summit and state of the nation

    It is the age of the alliance. As the nation hurtles towards the 2019 general elections, more Nigerians are discovering that there is power in making common cause on political issues.

    First, it was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) corralling more than 30 other parties into the contraption called Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), whose sole aim is toppling President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

    Then last Wednesday, an ‘Extraordinary Summit of Leaders and Elders of Nigeria’ was convoked in Abuja at the instance of Professor Ango Abdullahi’s Northern Elders Forum (NEF). Aside the grand title of the event, the list of attendees was equally impressive.

    It is not every day that you gather the NEF, Ohaneze N’digbo, Afenifere, Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and sundry others in one room, and emerge with an agreement. For each of these groups set their stall as ethnic and religious champions whose interests hardly cohere.

    Into the midst of these sectional leaders, the conveners parachuted Buhari’s bete noire former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who loves to posture as the arch-nationalist, as guest speaker – thereby setting the stage for what you would have expected to be a fractious gathering.

    But agree they did. In a communique titled: ‘State of the Nation: The Rising Spate of Killings Must Stop’, the leaders and elders condemned the bloodletting, called for the emergence of a new dynamic and visionary leadership, as well as resolved to work towards the restructuring of the country.

    The communique must have made for grim reading at the Presidential Villa as the summit returned a damning verdict on Buhari’s stewardship with regards to the economy, security and corruption – the three pillars of his 2015 election campaign. On each item they handed him a failing grade, rounding it up by dismissing his performance as incompetent.

    Their call for a ‘new visionary and dynamic leadership’ to lead Nigeria out of its present crisis was certainly no endorsement of the president’s second term bid.

    The Presidency hit back in a cutting response by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, which dismissed the gathering as an unholy alliance of selfish leaders motivated by hunger.

    HeHHe accused them of shedding crocodile tears because they felt alienated by an incumbent who had introduced a transparent and accountable system which disrupted their disproportionate survival on resources of the state.

    Shehu then reels off a number of ongoing security interventions in Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kaduna and Niger States to debunk the suggestion that his principal was merely sitting on his haunches while the country bled to death.

    With the battle line between Buhari and the old political elite – north and south – sharply drawn, it is tempting even if you are not a presidential spokesman to question the motives of the summiteers. Many have been active participants in government at all levels from as far back as the 70s. They, Obasanjo included, had every opportunity to move the country in a better direction but blew their chance.

    They could have restructured the country economically and politically but were among some of the most vociferous voices that have pushed for the sustenance of our virtually unitary system of government. They could have been visionary and foreseen signs that the minor economic and sectarian problems they left to fester would one day threaten to break up the country.

    So, Shehu may have a point that a lot of the finger-pointing is hypocritical coming from many who helped to create the mess that now requires cleaning. The downside for the president and his team is that, our history notwithstanding, they were elected to clean it all up. It is too late in the day to moan about the scale of the exercise or the motivations of the ever-present army of faultfinders.

    No matter how unfair the critics may be, Buhari and his team must ask themselves whether, in the context of what the nation is passing through, their solutions are enough? Defensiveness would not do. Saying that the killings didn’t start under your watch, or that the body count was higher under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, is a totally unacceptable position.

    Although Shehu listed several ongoing military operations, it should alarm everyone that in spite of all he says is being done, so much bloodletting continues. It really goes beyond effort; it is all about the efficacy of what is being done. When Boko Haram was bombing major cities back in 2013 and 2014, the Jonathan administration also regaled us with all it was doing to battle to sect.

    To be fair, the Buhari government has done well with blunting the insurgency. The Islamist group is no longer the frightening force it was in 2014/2015.  The government equally deserves commendation for the number of Chibok girls it has rescued, as well as its quick response that led to the return of almost all the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls – leaving only Leah Sharibu as a sore point.

    Boko Haram maybe on the wane, but the overall security picture is bad news for the government. In terms of numbers and perception, the bloodshed of the last few years clearly surpasses any other period in recent peace time Nigeria.

    Herdsmen killings in the Middle-Belt, savage banditry in the Sokoto-Zamfara axis, and the swarm of kidnappers around Kogi, Abuja, Kaduna and many others parts of the country, have obliterated whatever feel-good dividend Buhari expected to reap from his successes in the Northeast.

    Indeed, the gravity of the situation was captured recently by former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa who said the kidnappers had become so evil they have taken to abducting poor Almajiris from isolated farms and asking for ransom as low as N3,000.

    A person who would abduct another human being for as low as N3,000 is really not much of a kidnapper; he’s just a desperately hungry fellow whose only solution is base criminality.

    One direct consequences of the abduction epidemic is that farming takes a hit. The herdsmen killings also have the same effect – compounding poverty and the country’s larger economic problems.

    What is happening is very complex and cannot be easily attributed to just one or two reasons. Clearly, the parlous state of the economy is a major factor. A clichéd expression speaks of the devil finding work for idle hands.

    There are environmental problems at play as desertification forces herdsmen down south where their unrestrained encroachment on farmlands sparks conflict and killings.

    There are the x-factors. Many of Nigeria’s immediate neighbours to the east and north are seething with conflict: from separatist groups in Cameroun to the untamed regions of Libya, there is unceasing flow of small arms that end up in the hands of criminals.

    The president and his team would also have us believe that some of the killings are sponsored by politicians. My problem with this is that the government with all its powers has not moved against those it accuses. That is hard to understand.

    At different times agents of government have highlighted these points. But to my mind the biggest challenge remains economic. Until the economy is sorted out, a thousand military taskforces would not pacify this land. We would never have enough soldiers and policeman to keep watch over isolated villages, farmlands and highways north and south.

    The Elders Summit communique mentioned new statistics that claim Nigeria now has more poor people than India. It should surprise no one that this dubious distinction coincides with the nation’s serious security crisis.