Category: Tony Marinho

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

Thanksfully, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally named his ministers. The delay is a bad administrative lapse and a poor example for governance at a time of war. Of course you have to choose between bad and very bad people, honour is not a priority for political appointments around here, and not many presidents are empowered or bold enough to choose the ones they want. This arrangement is said to ensure ethnic and ‘political clout’ and ‘who won the election’ balancing, and ‘compensation for compromise or contribution or loss. You are not innocent as sometimes you have neglected ethnic balancing in appointments? As president, I would also wish to freely appoint ‘my team’.

All presidents must however make quick decisive decisions about key appointments within the first few days in office. It demonstrates they mean business as they need the ministers, aka servants, to be the presidential hands and legs and eyes both in implementation and in monitoring and evaluation. Presidents can always reverse such decisions and replace ministers at will as they are not tenured civil servants. Ministers usually sign an undated ‘Ministerial Resignation Letter’ to keep them in line and for the day of ‘Presidential Displeasure’. Ask Donald Trump, Theresa May and Olusegun Obasanjo. Already Nigerians have waited too long as they suffer maximum insecurity nationwide. Imagine the senate ‘being forced’ or ‘given opportunity’ to give a deadline on ministerial list submission as ‘five days’. Altruistic or patriotic or do they want to go on two months vacation with their first salary and allowances and first cars.

Meanwhile Nigeria’s suffering citizens, our insulted and physically abused pensioners, went through another agony last week enduring yet another verification exercise from their employed children. Computers were invented 50 years ago, o! All Nigerians have been captured, face and fingerprints and perhaps toe prints for driving license, voters’ card, TIN, BVN, passport, at offices of employment and by pension offices nationwide. Every day our civil servants travel the world learning latest IT techniques. Has nobody heard of ‘cross referencing’ IT databases? As long as every agency seeks to do its own thing for personal gain, for that long will we march and not move. Nigeria is at war. We cannot wait for six months for ministers like in your first term when we thought you were saving us money. Wrong. In governance often speed is far more important as a signal than getting it right every time.

Unfortunately you are keeping some ministers against advice to pick a completely new team from the professional brilliance overflowing, and so underutilized, in Nigeria. If so, send the ‘sure banker returnees’ and even the tentative not-so-sure list. You can always change them by using ‘tweeting destroying’ style or going to their houses for lunch and sacking them on TV. Be reminded that you have only 43 months. Enough is enough. Begin to go quickly or we will remain in the dark ages. Already another 20 killed in Sokoto, senior army officers and soldiers killed. Mr President, you may be shielded from the truth or covering your eyes and ears but we are in a war situation.

Different analysts blame the nearly nationwide panic, mayhem and murders now 10,000+ and maybe up to five million Internally Displaced Persons on different causes. Some say ‘foreign bandits’, ‘foreign terrorists’ and even ‘foreign Fulani herdsmen’.

When ‘foreigners’ run rampage across 2/3s of any nation, the ‘foreigners’ whether ‘invited’ or not, whether ‘politically motivated’ or not, whether nurtured for ‘elections gone wrong’ or not, whether sent ‘to seize farmlands from rightful owners ‘or not, whether to ‘slash and burn villages and towns and cities’ or not, equal ‘war’ by any definition. If you are one of the 10,000+ dead, you do not care about foreigner or mercenary or local bandit. It is your loved ones, burdened by grief and impotence to seek and get justice and unable to return home safely or get compensation rapidly affecting millions. What compensation is there offered for a life taken wickedly while knowing that the security outfit and the political apparatus will only report the next day, after your blood has dried into the ground?

Nigeria has lost many gallant military personnel since this ‘Undeclared war on Nigeria’ by ‘internal and external forces’. Strangely it took the death of a prominent person for the armed forces to be called out to garrison the roads to protect us even temporarily from a similar fate?

These warmongers have killed thousands of unarmed travellers and farmers, unhindered with bombs, machine guns and guerilla tactics- all weapons of war. They even returned to Chibok and killed. Now they have killed a Colonel; will we get an admission of a ‘Declaration of War against Nigeria’. What arrogance and what irresponsibility on Nigeria’s part to fail to protect the people who have lost so much-their children- Our Chibok Girls and Leah? We need below-the-radar forest commandos and must garrison hotspots and surrounding areas with encirclement to cut off escape routes with no advanced press announcements to allow the enemy change location.

Unashamed and irrationally, we are still stealing from pipelines and no security outfit can prevent a catastrophe at Ijegun, Lagos State. Jesse’s 1,000 were roasted to death. How many between then and today?

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

Greetings to Professor Soyinka@85. Thank you sir, for your civil society tremendous efforts. Unfortunately you still have to speak out. Live long. Lagos toll gate free at last, if only for four hours, from a time wasting expensive disorderly unnecessary greedy multibillion transport stranglehold. Sorry Super Eagles, you tried!

“Ministers please, President Buhari. You had only 43 effective months of work. Is your agreement to restructuring just politics? Your one year delay in signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) is calculated by economic observes to have cost Nigeria AfCTA leadership to Ghana and has cost Nigeria a free new African country member states international airport hub built as an essential requirement ‘gift’ and much tax revenue and tens of thousands of job opportunities, and incomes from housing, transport, feeding and schooling and of course the reputation of being ‘The Hub’ to misquote Governor Akeredolu. Anyway it is probably better this way as Nigeria has already ruined too many opportunities, ceding border roads and ports and some education services to Ghana.  Can Nigeria get our port, roads, rail and airports right in the 2020s? Congratulations to Ghana, again!!

Is this the 100th or 1000th ‘Presidential death sympathy statement’? Who believes him? The murder of a defenceless, female, socio-cultural and political leader, Funke Olakunri in an unstoppable cowardly and malicious torrent of terrorizing bullets on a federally protected highway is beyond the cause incidental armed robbery or Fulani herdsmen. She is dead. What age did the murderers lose their humanity? Insecurity has murdered sleep. One death is not more important to God than another. We have been murdering thousands on our roads for years but now in frighteningly exponentially growing numbers. We are at war! In the last few months, Ikire attacks made the trip to Obafemi Awolowo University and Ile-Ife a high risk journey. We are all defenceless by law, not allowed to carry protective weapons.

All civilian vehicles have no weapons in Nigeria, so shooting them up is callous, creating maximum human carnage and deliberately killing harmless and arms-less Fellow Nigerians. The attack screams loudly for the 10,000th time at the desperate need to activate our ‘armed uniforms’ in the security system to be proactive to stop such heinous crimes. Personally, we barely escaped on March 19,  2018 at around Km 41 on the Ibadan-Lagos road from herdsmen attack.

Some tertiary unions announce another strike in response to the federal government paying N280b to the university system following the most recent ASUU strike. They claim their own 20% share of the funds is too small. Is this the 100th tertiary union strike so far? Perhaps we should have a ‘Celebration of the 100th University Strike’? Or a requiem, perhaps. How many millions of sessions have been lost by millions of Nigerian students aspiring over the years due to these tertiary union strikes? Yes, we all know the unfortunate truth that without repeated ASUU strikes, government would by now be allocating zero or 1% to education. ASUU’s fight successes were extracted from greedy governments at great cost to ASUU’s members and Nigeria’s tertiary students still fleeing to private universities here, in Ghana and overseas for education. Though emoluments are only part of the long list of ASUU demands for equipment etc, why were all the university unions not in different rooms, with federal government in the central, to bring out one spreadsheet solution? Are our tertiary institution youths to continue to be pawns during 2019-2023 in this eternal inter-union battle? Almost every Nigerian student has ‘suffered a strike’. Many lost entire sessions and have paid with 1,2,3,4 years of their young lives, sometimes even doubling the length of their courses, with no compensation or even cancellation of NYSC, due to a weak federal government neglecting to honest university-rebuilding proposals by genuine suggestions and demands of tertiary institution unions which then resort to strikes.

The students have weighed in as well.  NANS calls for anti-corruption investigation into TET-Fund Projects. What a good idea -100%. EFCC, you are invited O! Just like with Constituency Projects and JAMB and the N7b corruption /year?

We must not allow distractions or media boredom to allow the cowardly ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’ to sneak away or survive in the senate. His confrontation with his senator mates in the NASS circus demonstrates his arrogance under investigation. Imagine what he says to ‘ordinary’ police investigators. All hands must be on deck, articles, protests at NASS gates by all human rights bodies to raise a cacophony for a speedy trial, justice and financial compensation for the victim of the ‘Pushing and 5-Slap ‘Sinator’ ’. We must all be ‘the victim’ of the ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’ daily until a prosecution and judgement.  Shamelessly, with all the live witnesses, the case against the man, Evans, the alleged kingpin of kidnapping is dragging on with no comfort to the victims or general public.

Who benefits from corporate mega-fines imposed on erring companies by regulatory agencies like MTN, AMCON seizures and now $5b Facebook? Are the fines in Nigeria correctly used? Do the agencies consume the funds? Which branch of government manages these funds? Do fines for overcharging or costly poor services to customers get back to customers as discounts or free service periods and lower prices? What is the accountability process for the best use of such mega fines and return of recovered assets?

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

Congratulations to Nigeria’s Super Eagles in AFCON. Thank God, Buhari signs the AfCFTA. President, please present the ministers. RUGA dead at last? Fellow Nigerians, eat only ‘nonviolent meat’ delivered to you without deaths of our relatives or destruction of our property. Ekiti students scholarship, Hurray! All governors stop stealing youth scholarship funds and resuscitate state scholarship boards.

Sorry is not enough without punishment. A punishing jail term and a punishing financial ‘victim’s compensation’ to hurt the crime perpetrator. Sorry is just a word. The ‘sorry’, even if extracted under public outcry was probably given only because of irrefutable CCTV evidence which the perpetrator would probably have been destroyed if the opportunity had arisen.  ‘Sorry’, alone is meaningless to the victim of maniacal violence and no compensation. ‘Sorry’ is also meaningless to us who have also been mentally assaulted by the violent video.

Fellow Nigerians insist there is to be no forgiveness without suspension, expulsion, sacking and jail time and a proper ‘deterrent fine’ administered at the discretion of the judge or after the family wins ‘compensation’ through the court. Will there be a pre-trial offer of millions? Is the victim safe from threats and worse violence? And this in a ‘friend’s’ shop.

Let him be an example to all, particularly politicians, abusing their power. We must be camera-ready vigilant for all violence- and we are all vulnerable. Vulnerability is not a sign of being vanquished but a state requiring protection. By expectation, but not fact, a senatorial candidate, seeking the toga of ‘Distinguished’ must be respectable and respected. Impossible now. Hopefully this ‘sinator’ will not escape public prosecution and democratic disgust just because of a few questionably sincere apologies. He should resign and go to jail. He is unfit to hold any office.

Imagine being a woman receiving not ONE, not TWO, not THREE, not FOUR but FIVE forceful malignantly malicious ‘Dirty Slaps’ from a powerful man who recently begged for votes. Historically ‘The Dirty Slap’ was a popular weapon of humiliation and subjugation by uniforms during our military oppression. Unfortunately it did not die when democracy was resurrected, probably because our democracy was not really resurrected, erected as a skeleton puppet with the military pulling every string – a militocracy. It continues today as a ‘Democracy Dirty Slap’ and we have had many undocumented and documented cases with medical complications including someone slapped to death. Today we add the ‘Sinatorial Democracy Dirty Slap’ rubbishing the Oath of Office, SDGs and the Human Rights of the female victim to the long list of crimes committed under democracy.

A slap is not a slap. It is assault. This column has addressed the moral, mental and medically devastating torment and havoc of the ‘Dirty Slap’, the first weapon of attack in Nigeria. Injuries include eye injuries like blindness from cataract, retinal detachment, vitreous haemorrhage and popping out of the eye. The slap can also cause ear injuries like deafness from ruptured ear drum followed by infections and also ringing in the ears. There are also brain injuries from concussion, banging the brain around within the skull, brain swelling, internal brain bleeding and bleeding compressing the brain and death.

The ‘Dirty Slap’ is certainly a dangerous weapon especially in the hands of an elected lawmaker ‘Too Young to Respect Fellow Nigerian Women’. I wonder what the ‘sinator’s’ own sisters and mother think of this malignantly outrageous public display of decadence. His wife cannot be pleased. His in-laws should ask if she been a victim of domestic violence?  She will lose the appellation ‘Mrs Distinguished’ or Mrs Senator’ or ‘Senatoress’ even before the ‘instant millionairism’ of ‘Greedy NASS’ membership. No provocation or even tongue lashing justifies a man attacking a woman. When a slap is administered with full male force to a woman’s face, we can only expect the worst. She will bear the mental scars for life.

The ‘Dirty Slap’ is cowardice. In Nigeria there is a widely published federal Code of Conduct, SERVICON, for workers and customers in offices.  Would the ‘sinator’ have proceeded if Anthony Joshua stood beside the woman as her brother? The media should bring forward the male relations, brothers, cousins, of the slapped woman to discuss with the ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’. Already the social media reveal many serving lawmakers are accused law-breakers, and have murky pasts as ‘Sinators’. Imagine what this ‘not too young to run’ ‘sinator’ would have said and done if not for the CCTV installed in the adult sex shop. Truth ke? The ‘sinator’ was protected by a morally bereft and impotent paid-for policeman.

The policeman ignored the crime-in-progress but nonsense upon nonsense on instruction by ‘the slapping sinator’ actually shamelessly arrested the victim, like happened when you reported crime. He spun a web of lies to extricate himself and only apologized when the tsunami of truth overwhelmed him. Nigerians are used to ‘big’ men and women escaping through the very large loopholes, so carefully enlarged by NASS lawmakers and breakers. Last week’s column dealt extensively with this problem of politicians overstepping their bounds. No one listens to advice.

If we the people, Fellow Nigerians to the woman slapped, do not defeat this ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’, every miscreant will have permission to ‘Sinator@Dirty Slap’ every woman in sight without provocation. Time for a full stop to the cowardly ‘Dirty Slap’ by ‘Sinators’ and everyone.

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

As we open the 2019-2023 cycle of political life, governance puts on the armour of pomp and power, burying dirty secrets inside robes and unquestioningly adopt questionable traditions of ‘bowing to parliament’ and the ‘wait-for-me, perpetually late, syndrome’, ‘assume names’, ‘DEH’ Distinguished, Excellent, Honourable-names they mostly do not live up to – and also ‘change friends’. Yet we are surprised when they become political monsters and bite us with draconic laws and ‘Demand Notices’ for outlandish ‘heart stopping’ bills beyond greed.

The courts have intervened in too few political excesses like the Ikeja lawyers/Ambode case and ‘The Political Pension Corruption Scam’. But stopping a stupid ‘anti-people law’ without an indicting judicial statement and a punishing multimillion naira fine against the guilty government is not justice. It encourages criminal politics. We demand punishment and fines for the politician as governor, LGA chairman or commissioner or minister for ‘attempting to criminally extort-a 419 scam’ such ‘extortion’ or ‘intimidation’ or  ‘threatening the citizenry’  or ‘threatening to steal citizen’s property’ or ‘threatening the peace’ or ‘causing grievous mental harm’ to citizens.

Social and political science departments should calculate the cost of production of a politician. This should be done in moral, monetary and social areas – elections, election-days business losses from closure from work-free days, posters and billboards and other advertising, INEC costs, voting cost to voters, violence, injury, death, and even bribes. They should also calculate the productivity – most citizens think the political greed and poor productivity is unjustifiable. Certainly politicians almost never ask for our advice.  We are suddenly the enemy. Most politicians once born again at an election become a new, ugly species in a new self-centred arrogant group. They become mini-gods, treated like royalty. We are to stand up on their entry and lie down as they trample over us and drive siren-blaring in their blacked out, covered number plated convoys as we run the gauntlet of cane, koboboko, gun butt or bullet to our bodies heads, mirrors or windscreen. Do the politicians and their appointees have any ‘real idea’ of why they are in political authority?

Much of our daily frustration is caused by a failed profligate politics too costly to maintain and complemented by greedy civil service and contractor classes. And now we are to add post-political office self-awarded stupendous pensions to the budgets. Are we stupid or what when many pensions are not paid to millions and governors have largely misused huge Paris Club refunds?

I was one of the first set of special marshals of FRSC. So when I see draconian uniforms, bullying and extorting citizens especially vehicles with women and children, I am upset. LASTMA, yes, do your job but uniforms are no gods and no saints. They need supervision. Citizens often need guidance and advice and are not prey. Give warnings. Government’s first Highway Code responsibility is to signpost roads and the second is citizen’s responsibility to practice the Highway Code. ‘Bold Highway Code Road Signage’ is key. Lagos is very unfriendly as it has too many long segments of dual carriageway with no overhead bridges or turn arounds for many kilometres, crammed narrow lanes of vehicles for several kilometres before relief and no emergency exit.

The BRT lane needs redesign and relocation to the feeder road on Ikorodu Road and removal of the concrete lane divide to free the main Ikorodu Road. Ambode started re-doing roads well. Sanwoolu can continue. The Ojota exit from the expressway needs Lagos State/FG resurfacing and redesign and relocation of the petrol station and redesign the Phillips ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ access to Maryland, Lagos.

Is this government going to eliminate ingrained corruption in our uniformed officials nationwide? Can this government do it? Yes. Will it? Probably not, but we live in hope. To eliminate ‘uniform’ corruption tricks, uniformed and other workers need good pay for work, good conditions of service and eagle eyed honest internal supervision. I have witnessed uniforms covering ‘One way’ signs with cloth to lure citizens or ordering citizens to enter the yellow zone and then walking away for another uniform to come and make an arrest. It is unrealistic for fines to be more than one month’s minimum wage. Elsewhere, fines are 1-2 days minimum wage like fines of £65-80 on Oxford Street, London. Catching two LASTMA men for extortion is good but a subsequent prosecution and exemplary prison sentence of 10 years is better by Lagos State prosecutor for ‘bringing the state into disrepute’ and for trying to ‘419’ citizens.

Victims of uniform corruption need an association and should sue and be compensated, N100,000-500,000, for each case of ‘unlawful physical contact’, ‘Mental assault causing anguish and loss of earnings’. Some road-users just make mistakes. In Ibadan for eight years OYASMA pounced without a single ‘No Parking’ sign or carpark citywide, making thousands of N25,000 arrests without warning, complicating the ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ and reducing IGR because businesses were inaccessible. Let LASTMA and all Nigeria’s ‘uniforms’ be well ‘preventively supervised’ by EFCC and ICPC, NGOs and social studies departments in Lagos State. What is the public perception of LASTMA and other uniforms? An Independent Anti-Corruption Database and Weekly Corruption Report would help EFCC and ICPC and supervisors. Nigerians will not tolerate a 2019-2023 suffering from unsupervised uniforms.

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

Water crisis in India and Cape Town; now considering towing icebergs from Antarctica at $200m and heatwaves in Europe and floods in Benue; warn our 2019-2023 Nigerian politicians to drive water development and fight water pollution and climate change -SDCs.

According to Fareed Zakaria in GPS on CNN, 330m tonnes of plastic /year equal to the volume of all human beings banning plastic starting with bags and single-use plastic is good but not enough. Now the dumping grounds of plastic like Vietnam, India et cetera will not accept ships bringing plastic waste from abroad. Yes, Nigeria is banning single-use plastic bags. However, beware, African countries and Nigeria’s politicians must resist the corruption-driven temptation to make Africa the world’s next plastic dumping target.

The current vile mindless violence and unprecedented poverty rate of 75% demonstrate that Nigeria is more than National Assembly, NASS, politicians passing self-enriched laws or even 20 multi-billionaires or Nigeria’s wealthy oil well ‘owners’ appropriating Nigeria’s patrimony. Nigeria is about the millions of citizens in the markets, mud huts and slums. Nigeria is in crisis and expects a serious NASS to stop ceremonial bowing and long protocol self-congratulatory name-calling of undeserved nomenclature and instead serve the citizens with rapid passage of the budget, and a cut in salaries. The poor also pray and God listens. God equates one politician to one poor person.  A redemption parliament must reverse the many selfish decisions taken by past NASS. Start by putting NASS politicians on a government scale and cutting perks by 75% because that is the correct thing to do. There is more to life than local politics. Politics must serve.

Nigerians do not want much. Today Nigerians are frustrated with insecurity and their lowly lot, at a high personal cost. Already they are their own LGA providing everything for the family. Nothing comes from government except the air of Nigeria and huge bills for politics. Will 2019-2023 politicians introduce an ‘Environmental Bill 419 to regulate the Excessive Consumption of Air by Citizens’ and bill us for air consumption during jogging, dancing and even during sex!! But for politicians it is the reverse – everything comes from government-free housing, water, transport, electricity, generator fuels 24/7/x4 years and secret perks and pensions. This huge ‘cost of politics’ Nigeria’s tsunami, has a contrasting poor performance and low productivity.  The new NASS and state assembly politicians will collect undeserved millions annually for their every need except the air we breathe. How can we stop this profligacy?

Read Also: PDP knocks INEC, group over server

The people all want in improvement in the ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ not only in ‘big picture’  Abuja but in ‘small picture’ zones like their LGA neighbourhood, transport, markets, farms, schools, hospitals where uniforms and NURTW plague their lives and increase the cost of doing business. Frustration is expressed within families, in communities, in the violence we see, in the frequent women’s marches and the recent breaking of car windows at the Nigeria High Commission in London reacting to arrogant but typical poor services from diplomatic servants.

It is time for AGIP, Any Government In Power, to have made its presence felt in daily life and not just in government bonds. Yes, children have school meals but governance is about 10,000 ‘small things’ that obstruct and ‘pain the people daily’. For example the checkpoint corruption should have been wiped out by sacking/suspending the supervisor- the DPO or state Commissioner of Police, CP. Simple. Suspend/sack supervisors 2-3 times to correct the system. No one wants to die for another man’s matter.

All governors must start ‘Good governance of small things’ immediately by eliminating bottlenecks and potholes and improving statewide road access for ‘The Ease Of Doing Business’ access. Many states are strangled and losing business visitors because their entry, exit and other roads including railway crossings are unmanaged. Not everyone has a siren and convoy.   Negligent authorities refuse to control swarms of okadas, taxis and petty traders placing wares on the roads and sidewalks choking road access nationwide. For example in Ibadan this occurs at Ago Tailor from Abeokuta, ‘Sango railway chaos’, Polytechnic/UI Road junction, Oja’oba, Mapo, Mokola, Bodija Market and Challenge Roundabout et cetera.

We want jobs, millions of paying jobs which pay a living wage regularly every month. Worldwide, economies and companies rise or fall in the stock market, based on consumer consumption. Citizens with no salaries do not consume much. Jobs do not create themselves. People create jobs. Entrepreneurship is as old as time. The private sector has existed for ever in Nigeria. Every single market, every street is full of entrepreneurs who need recognition and relief just as the new generation entrepreneurs.

Governors must help IGR and local economy by moving traders, wares, wheelbarrows five feet from road edges, limit okadas to 10/team and remove them from roundabouts and junctions, removing taxies from within 50 yards of junctions, getting bigger transport -buses. We also need more alternative roads. Traffic police should be at junctions from around 6am -9 pm before the traffic builds up to when it is over.

Hurray, politicians have reintroduced the subject History into the Nigerian curriculum after 15-20 years. Who killed history? Name, shame and punish them for ‘Policy Corruption’ and those who killed geography, civics and cancelled scholarships and practical science and sport and murdered the library, depriving it of book grants. Restore them all to our children between 2019 and 2023.

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

First it was politicians and pension fund thieves swallowing tens of billions. Next everyone had read George Orwell’s Animal Farm and a slippery snake swallowing N4m+ and then it was a greedy gorilla swallowing N6.7m – dumb animals accused of what politicians do with ease – swallow other people’s money. The Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, should spray for cockroaches and rats.

We begin another four years and must focus on the dangerous youth bubble – underprivileged, underprovided for and underemployed. They are witnesses to the corruption by street uniforms, the mega-theft and let down by the polity and the poor state of schools and hospitals and roads and an education system forced by bad education policies and poor funding. We teach the theory of everything with no practicals.

A nation which deprives parents’ salary and pension breeds a rebellious youth.

In our days in the 60-70s, sport was a weapon of youth development. We visited each other’s sports fields for Principals’ Cup, Grier Cup, National University Games Association et cetera. All these were murdered by government policy against practicals!

Nigeria has never participated in over 50 different sports on the world stage-an opportunity. Sports people get on TV and become role models and ambassadors for community and country. Is there one sports scholarship in Nigeria to university? In the USA, sports scholarships are important.  We deny the young their sport at our peril.  But we in Nigeria are known for our emergency sports facilities and last minute sportsmen and women. We are ‘Last Minute.com’ with a ‘Fire brigade approach’ to sports. How many times have our athletes and teams, after years of personal discipline, been seen begging for visas the day before international competitions like the Olympics or faced cancelation of national sports events due to politically motivated and criminally caused ‘lack of funds’ or being denied appearance stipends and match bonuses or even a hotel bookings while sports officials walk away with billions??? Always no prosecution for negligence.

Happily there is breath of fresh air and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa in Delta offers all governors an easily understudied ‘Sports Success Story’, which is following the footsteps of late great Ogbemudia in Bendel State to create a serious sporting environment; complete financially supported and rewarded environment to develop the youth in the state and raise the level of youth empowerment in the area and country. Ogbemudia’s Bendel Model for Youth and Sports and Education Development was condemned by other governors of the time and destroyed for being too successful and Bendelites were punished with highest cutoff points in JAMB. Today Okowa’s Delta’s School Sports Festival, Catch Them Young, Headmasters’ Cup, Principals’ Cup and active development ladders in over 50 different sports etcetera are reminiscent of the 50-70s. Today he gives youth N1m for gold medals.  Unlike other governors who have rubbish facilities and funding for sports leaving their youth unmotivated and unfocused, Okowa has empowered a generation.

Even within states the federal government might disrupts individualized development. Ogbemudia, Peter Obi and a few other governors have demonstrated that a lot can be done. The federal government is too slow to articulate devolution of powers as it has already been in power for four years with little devolution. Indeed ex minister, Babatunde Fashola just announced that states are free to generate and distribute electricity outside grid covered areas. Is it possible that governors did not know this? Of course all states have schools and universities in part pride and part answer to the discriminatory Unity School entry qualifications and  ridiculous JAMB cutoff points scheme which allows admission to federal government universities with no standards at all for some states which have claimed to be disadvantaged for over 50 years in spite of their huge budgets, men owning oil wells and VAT allocations.

One of the major steps to be added to the manifesto of all governments is ‘Practical Sports’ not just board games but physical, active, body developing, self-empowerment, mind improving, teamwork building, friend making, practical sports. To reintroduce sport in 2019-2013, all governors and even LGA chairpersons  in governance must get  their ‘Standing  Think Tanks’ to please visit the Olympics 2020 website to find out how many different sports disciplines Nigerians could add and excel in if well informed, well equipped, well prepared and well-funded. The funding must come into schools and in community youth centres firstly by governments which always complain of lack of funds but its officials are so used to 24/7 funded generator power and stealing billions from the people’s budgets. Stop stealing. The second source of funds is the private sector at local level, not Abuja HQ. Every bank and business must impact the school next door. The private sector has been too pre-occupied with short-term selfish advertorial goals and two or three sports of which football being number one.

Which unknown leaders murdered ‘practicals’ in education in sports, laboratory, library, technical schools, agriculture, engineering, arts and scholarships ruined school and university. For years students have been theory only. We even steal the practical aspects of health ‘Drugs and Modern Equipment’?

Any visionary government must direct youth into sport for employment, community development, empowerment and personal and honour.

Many youth in Nigeria are never even given a piece of paper and paints to identify and develop talent to triumph, your struggle to success, your potential to perfection. Domesticate sport as a poverty alleviation strategy.

Also FG/STATE cooperation, slow flip/flop courts judgements;

ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

Please make copies of this for friends and foe. Stick copies on your notice boards at home, school, church, mosque, office, bedroom, classrooms, school hall, lecture rooms, your door, backpack, car etcetera.

Each of us can contribute to the anticorruption fight. Take the  ABCD decision and invite others. If not we are responsible for any coming corruption started after today. Corruption is a human act, it is not ‘institutional’. Humans institutionalise corruption and corrupt the system. A building, a business or a computer cannot be corrupt. It is the humans in and using them who are corrupt.  A corrupt person is a criminal and criminals stop their crime immediately when caught. They do not need a period of time to reduce their corrupt behavior slowly like being weened off the drug corruption. Today even after the new government change, there has been no attitudinal change. Buhari should suspend and sack the ogas allowing corruption.  Only a united anti  ‘B&C’ Campaign can immediately  save us. Take the ‘Avoid Bribery & Corruption Decision Everyday’ – personal, collective, corporate and government. If not corruption will kill Nigeria.

President Buhari, please maximise ‘ease of doing business’ cooperation between states and federal government, cross-party. Please initiate a high powered, red tape cutting, multi-ministry Presidency based ‘Committee of FG/ State Cooperation’. This will give quick approvals and decisions on state requests for FG permission for state projects needing FG input like the wonderful Yar’Adua/Fashola led Lekki bridge. This will reduce the friction and powerplay reducing state development, time wasting and speed state progress.  Beyond grandstanding politics do the federal government staff and politicians know that healthy states mean a healthy federation?

Still on time wasting. Wasting someone’s time is a calculated weapon of the devil and a sin. Everyone has a limited time on earth allocated by God. How dare you as governor, GM or gateman waste someone else’s God given time. Punctuality and precision are power. Time wasting is a harrowing strategy practiced nationwide and characterized by carefully concocted delays like waiting one hour to start meetings and programmes,  taking time to give information, giving a 14 point information sheet one point each day instead of at once, go-come-go-come instructions, deliberately misplaced or ‘lost’ files kept at the bottom of oga’s or even the messengers draw , file is with an untouchable ‘Oga’,  appointments given but the official is deliberately never-on-seat to sign off documents. These are a deliberate strategy to perpetuate the suffering of the citizenry beyond endurance forcing a bribe. Though the private sector is also corrupt, time wasting is a specialisation of government/civil service. The amount of time wasted is the main difference between the public and the private sector. The government and local secretariat, the worst places for ease of doing business, must be forced to cut the time for delivering services to citizens.  To combat time wasting files must be easily tracked, alarm bells should ring if files are kept for too long by particular officers, appointments should be logged and adhered to. Date and time should be inserted in each and every file movement. Supervising Senior administration staff need to be appointed as ‘Time Wasting Elimination Officers’ to closely monitor the Daily File Movement Register and raise red flags for identified infringement. Indeed, the whole issue of time wasting requires a much higher profile in ‘easy of doing Business’ studies and strategies as time wasting is usually direct evidence of corruption, or incompetence for example in delivery of forms, a required list, the end product eg a license, permission, certificate or document. No anticorruption strategy will work while unsupervised staff can maliciously and without consequence block citizens’ access to services.

Identify how many new roads have crossed state borders opening new state zones and bypassing deliberately abandoned ‘FG roads’, deliberately left abandoned to keep states in check – subservient to a subversive FG? Instead we watched while the Ore Benin and Lagos Ibadan and other roads became death-traps and unmotorable without a whimper for fear of offending the FG. We cannot even signboard the millions of potholes with ‘Slow Down: Potholes Ahead’ for fear of offending the non-existent or criminally crippled ‘Maintenance Section’ of the Federal Ministry of Works. Our old regions were very successful as ‘economic zones’ and were successful at road maintenance, some lasting even 60 years till today and shaming modern day contractors and mocking corruption. Unfortunately, the cancer greed for power under the guise of military unitary government put its foot in the door of governance and refused to remove it from the pot of gold called the budget.

There is also time wasting in the legal world. The wave of legal reversals and flip flops especially in political cases are not amusing or merely an exercise in legal gymnastics. The reversals have tremendous costs in waste of both time and money and nation impact. Happily judges are increasing the fines for unnecessary delays and wrong prosecutions or frivolous legal arguments. Such fines should be increased and cover the total cost of the delays.  These have cause and consequence for the entire political landscape as delays and further confuse the citizenry do not auger well for Nigeria. We are still awaiting the conclusion of the trial of an arrested person being accused of being an infamous kidnapper.