The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tony Marinho

NSNC: Federalism, Revenue Allocation, Party Funds; Fed Exclusive List; NASS Restructuring

Very special congratulations to my teacher, Professor Mrs Oyinade Odutola-Olurin who was 80 on Feb 2. She was a Head girl. She married EO Olurin, later Professor of Surgery and President of NMA. She broke through the glass ceiling, becoming the first African female Professor of Ophthalmology, UCH, Ibadan. She is a consummate role model, mentor, teacher, professional, humane and empathetic leader. She was ‘multitasking’ before the word was invented in medicine, in NGOs like being patron in Educare Trust, in business, religion, social and family life. People smile on hearing her name. Who smiles at your name? Work on your humanity. Be like her, become ‘The Miracle In Some Stranger’s Life’. ‘Happy 80th Birthday, Ma’am. E pe fun wa, Ma’am, Live long’.

So the conference is officially the National Conference. We fought for 30+ years for a Sovereign National Conference. We will call it ‘The 2014 NSNC –the 2014 Non-Sovereign National Conference’. Is half bread better than none? Only time will tell, but we the people can make it happen. ‘They’ say there is a hidden agenda to keep Jonathan in power. So what? There is always a hidden agenda by politicians or civil servants. Remember the third term agenda of Obasanjo, the election agenda of Babangida and Abacha? The only people supposed not to have a hidden agenda are the Nigerian citizens.

So let, ‘we the people’, have our say and our way for a change. Let us reveal the ‘Hidden Agenda’ of the masses of people that the 492 ‘chosen many’ delegates will represent. THE DELEGATES MUST NOT BE PAID SECRETLY OR PUBLICLY OR GIVEN ‘ALLOWANCES’ EXCEPT BY WHOEVER SENT THEM. THE CONFERENCE MUST HOLD IN A SCHOOL OR POLY OR UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, NOT AN EXPENSIVE HOTEL COMPLEX.

Fellow Nigerian citizens have the ‘Hidden Agenda’ of ‘De-corrupting Political party funding’; ‘True Federalism’; ‘Good Governance’; ‘Revenue Re-allocation Formula’; ‘Reduction of Federal Exclusive List, removing Railways, Electricity, Waterways and a branch of the Police’; Reduction in National Assembly (NASS) Houses from two to one; Reduction in numbers of NASS members, salaries and perks as unsustainable; Reduction in days of sitting to 180 days/year.

True federalism is not just enforcing federal character for appointments. Once you get a federal job, discrimination may force you to remain in one office while favoured colleagues are moved with frequent posting around departments and on secondments, making them ‘over-qualified’ for accelerated promotion. Is this a regular feature of NNPC, agencies, judiciary and Civil Service?

The key areas needing resolution are several fiscal and moral including the revenue allocation formula which gives the federal government more than 56% of the budget plus control of Excess Crude Account with subsequent underfunding of the states and LGAs especially with corruption at all levels.

The major source of Nigeria’s massive political and civil service corruption is ‘The Official And Unofficial Funding Of Nigeria’s Political Parties In And Out Of Political Power’. Corrupt civil servants enable political corruption based in the common ‘Corruption Multiplier Effect Principle’ that ‘If I steal for you, I steal for me’, thus multiplying the ‘taken funds’. The political parties do this by inflation of contracts, diversion of contract funds and demands of 30-75% of contracts and consultancy fees. These brazen methods purportedly execute the ‘legally illegal’ scams for corrupt enrichment of party and officials and the consequent impoverishment of the citizenry. Political parties must keep their hands out of the government purse. The need to expose party finances to public scrutiny and solid accounting future controls, must be put on the agenda for the 2014 Non-Sovereign National Conference. We must make these the real issues of the NSNC!

So the only ‘No GO Area’ is the ‘unity’ of Nigeria? Unity requires happiness with the outcome of the NSNC. If not, then ‘unity’ will become a very ‘Go Go Area’. If true federalism reigns, the need for dissolution of Nigeria will not be discussed in homes around Nigeria and in the diaspora.

For Nigeria there is no greater opportunity than now to sort these problems out. There must be a more equitable revenue allocation formula- maybe 30% for federal. We must make sure it gets on the agenda. Please, you can help save your country, peacefully. Contact, see or send a letter, phone, e-mail, tweet, Facebook, your nominated representative, write to your professional representative, your royal and religious leaders, your NGO representatives, write letters to the editor against this problem. Do not leave it to others. Do It Yourself. Jonathan can still write his name in gold, but Rivers is a black blot on his reputation. Good governance is the goal but it requires the NSCS and your close personal attention to the above details. The wide range of delegates is fantastic as is the curbing of politicians which will force politicians to listen to our concerns for ‘our’ nation.

Mysteriously, President Jonathan chose the main ‘interested party’, the National Assembly, over the ‘We The People’ referendum, as the final arbiter. The National Assembly’s greed is notorious worldwide. Will it agree to destroy one of the NASS houses and go part-time when demanded by the NSNC? Let the NASS know that ‘we the people’ are Nigeria and we are greater than our employees –the NASS and politicians. Can the NASS be trusted to lead ‘belt tightening’ within itself and display that rare trait- Nationalism, or ‘In The National Interest’?

February 5, 2014
How not to save the Railways; Wanted: A Housing President

So Bamanga Tukur of Chairman PDP and NPA ‘infamy’ or fame in the 1970s is back in transport, as chairman of the Nigeria Railway Corporation. Is this a blessing for Tukur and Nigeria or a blessing for him and a curse for Nigeria? Did his record in NPA including an investigation into his involvement in a $5m private purchase of a ship, recommend him for the job? Did he open the state branch of the CBN for a party spraying event?

Chairmanship of the railway corporation is a national moral assignment requiring integrity. To fully recover from the 40+ years deliberate destruction of Nigeria’s railway system in favour of road trailer and tanker transport, Nigeria needs a strong modern, vibrant nationwide, all inclusive, non-politically or ethnically biased railway and railway policy. It is difficult to see how and what Bamanga Tukur brings to the railway table that will justify his appointment. Yes, the railway corporation is suddenly juicy with many new contracts, but is it Bamanga Tukur’s task to bleed the railways and contractors in order to raise funds of the party in power towards the 2015 ‘s-elections’? I think not. Is he there to rest, after the hypertension of the PDP chairmanship? I hope not. He should better rest at home.

Is he in the railways because of his tremendous knowledge and expertise in transport, modern engineering and 400km/h fast trains? Definitely no! Is his job for personal compensation and financial gain as chairman after a job well done in his party? Who knows? Whatever the truth, Bamanga Tukur may have a conscience especially at his age of 80+ now that God is close at hand. His party is fond of floating 80+ year olds as if the 40-60-year olds are incompetent, though they are presidents in other countries. After all President Jonathan saw other leaders in banks, business and politics in Davos. How many were 80+? Nigeria must once again endure Tukur as chairman of railways and the consequences of Tukur, if the railways staff do not strike in protest, and if Civil Society does not protest adequately. Tukur has probably supported the destruction of the railways in the past or support the benign neglect of the railways under all governments till this one. Why would Jonathan send Tukur, not known for success, to head one of his more successful projects? After all, who objected to the railway evacuation of goods from the NPA harbours throughout Nigeria during these last 40 years? Has he had a change of heart? Can a camel lose its hump? If not Nigerians should demand his redeployment to be chairman of prison commission or ask him to retire.

I was invited to a television programme on the housing shortage last week. My contribution was brief as I did not say what was expected. So I will say my piece here. The reason Nigeria has a housing problem is totally political. There is no great ‘Housing President’. We have a lot of lip service from presidents but little practical action. What little is done often benefits a fraction of the civil service class with special housing and land allocations. Though Dangote is the 25th richest man in the world, not including silent shy Nigerians and retired generals, the poor housing situation is compounded by the high price of cement under his cement ownership, the land policy in Nigeria with the politics of the Certificate of Occupancy, the high cost of land and building materials and the almost absence of genuine mortgage loans and decent outright or long-term purchase terms.

The great nations of the world built mass housing through politics- government programmes and policy decisions of the leadership- some mired in corruption with corrupt construction companies frequently in court. In spite of this corruption, the housing gets built and the loans are given. The post-war building programme that gave most Americans a home was a presidential directive to give work to the returning soldiers and the people a lift out of post-war depression.

In the UK, it was the building policies of the Labour Party which provided council housing for the masses. In Lagos and most of Nigeria, most of the official housing was for government workers, taken over from the colonialists GRAs and police barracks. Awolowo’s AG and successors did build estates, some of which fell into private hands. It was during the time of Jakande of Lagos State that massive attention was paid to housing. He can rightly be called ‘Jakande the Builder’ as his policies and actions gave many Lagosians a chance to own a home even though 40 years later most of them are crumbling. The federal government has attempted to build token estates in every state but political squabbles made some of them to be located in insalubrious areas and being federal government contracts, the quality was often less than standard. The private sector has also tried to intervene but the resultant efforts are usually high end multimillion housing scams, I mean schemes. The result of these efforts is a massive under-supply of common man and middle class housing, estimated to be between 14 and 17million homes or apartments. Nigeria knows it cannot build high-rises, as our poor maintenance culture will make the upper floors uninhabitable with security risks of gangs running estates as happens worldwide. Nigerian needs a ‘Housing President’.

January 29, 2014
Komla Dumor; 8-hour day; Okada gift; Oil blocks; Solar Fund? Revenue Formula

We join the BBC in mourning the death at 41 of Komla Dumor. May he Rest In Peace. He was a wonderful voice and presence to watch on BBC Inside Africa programmes and others. Death can occur at any time. However, I hope it was not from overwork. If everyone was forced to work no more than eight hours a day, salaries would go down but there would be work to go around and there would be many more jobs. Some offices will need to employ two or three people to do the 24 hours on call demanded of certain offices in power. The work madness in banks should stop. This would cut the unemployment in at least half. Just look at the case of the UK banker-trainees including the poor young man who committed suicide after a 20-hour work load. In years to come there will be a Gold Medal for eight-hour job compliance.

Millions of Nigerians have been unable to exit the ‘Pit of Political and economic Hell’. Every time Nigerians work hard enough or accumulate sufficient funds, some government agent or agency fails to deliver water, electricity, trains, roads or education or else devalues the naira against the dollar forcing them all back into poverty. This failure costs families funds and happiness the index now used by the UN to judge well-being. How many millions of Nigerians were injured, orphaned, maimed, killed and affected by the okada motorcycle -a political gift, a Trojan Horse, to the nation and double edged sword?

Will the new political party APC, comprising progressives and plucked and fallen fruit mainly from the PDP, offer any different future? No doubt the experts are busy preparing the blueprints to be offered Nigerians as inducements to vote for them when the time comes. It requires a creative ‘Massive New Emergency Power Policy’ and needs to supply power in three months like Japan replaced the Fukushima nuclear plant with alternative emergency power. This will change Nigeria in one year. The new party should plan solar loans to millions. Under good leadership Nigeria will become the next big ‘Solar Country’ destination. Under Sanusi, or the next governor, CBN can secure N100billion for cheap long solar loans, reducing the power of the new generation of ‘Generals and Mandarins in Electricity Power’ like Abdulsalami. It will also use God’s gift to Nigeria and Africa -the sun. We saw on NTA this week that the Federal Government had used solar energy to light up four communities in the FCT using a German contractor and the President was there to launch the effort. Amen. Hopefully it is a pilot scheme and it will grow exponentially. May government which still has a year plus in power, multiply this effort by 10,000 times immediately. Please note that we have been appealing to each and every government to go solar. Solar will get cheaper as the cost of equipment has nosedived in the last two years and will get cheaper with the application of plastic solar panels cells. The governments need to have their experts on top of the solar and other power supply technology. Every government should take solar energy seriously and do something positive this year. The CBN could create a fund say $1billion soft loan for solar powering rural areas and even city citizens to bring immediate relief to millions of suffering. Nigerians are used to maximum suffering with minimal survival.

Do we sell oilfields outright and forever? Why not a 10 or 20-year lease with an annual rent fixed at 10% of the profit going to the local community, a tax for the state and the nation in an agreed formula? What is the community stake in any oil field what about the corporate stake in the community?

Only when a politician is heckled will he think and listen. Look at what happened to Zuma during Mandela’s funeral.

So there are only 700,000 slaves in Nigeria? I thought we were all slaves of the political class. Na wa O. Odumegwu and now Sanusi’s revelations, show that truth is dangerous to your ‘reputation’ and working health. The revenue allocation formula is the most potent of weapons of federal power in Nigeria. Some heads of state have walked away with 50% of the budget, leaving the rest to civil servants. Nigerians have witnessed the power of the state to destroy lives and delay development. Many Nigerians states are larger or have larger populations than 40 other countries and deserve to be given financial power to serve their people better and also deserve to be treated as nearly sovereign units within the Nigerian nation. The massive theft and incompetence at the centre is manifest by the appalling state of major roads and the inability to rapidly fund maintenance of such roads. Every region has roads and bridge failures. Properly funded roads and hospitals should never have a federal/ state dichotomy in quality or service delivery. The less the federal fiscal budget, the more for states and local governments and the happier Nigerians will be. A figure of 30% federal seems popular but 28% is better, with 40% for the states, 30% for LGAs if they must be kept, and 2% for compulsory savings and investments. The fiscal federation issue of the revenue allocation is the foundation of Nigerian happiness.

January 22, 2014
To be ‘Arrested for writing petitions against FRSC?’; Art work in building; 20,000Mw

Warning: Beware of Ogere FRSC checkpoint. We were stopped there on Sunday evening by FRSC checkpoint maybe Number 242 vehicle. We were breaking no laws. We were driving in the right lane when most people drove in the left lane to avoid the FRSC who often jumped out of the way of vehicles refusing to stop. We were asked for particulars and then fire extinguisher. Another officer took a keen interest in the licence on the windscreen and scrutinised me. I did not look at him. The particulars officer asked us to go when the scrutinising officer gesticulated to others. He said to my hearing, ‘this is the man who has been writing petitions against us.’ We were ordered us to stop again. This same officer got on his phone to announce to his superior that he has ‘arrested a man who has been writing petitions against the FRSC and is impounding his car’. My driver was ordered to hand over the keys to the car. I was asked to get out of the car. Things were getting a little tense though most of the officers did not know what was going on, as they were attending to two other vehicles, a white pickup and navy blue Benz. Knowing that we had not broken any law and anxious not to be falsely arrested, I asked my driver to bring my FRSC file which I carry around. From it I extracted a plaque given me by FRSC and a Q&A booklet to the Highway Code written by me in 1991 after we had written the Highway Code on my dining table under Professor Wole Soyinka and Olu Agunloye for which we took no fat contract fees –just love of country. The sight of these mellowed things down and we were asked to go, but not before I advised the FRSC staff that we want to love them but they make it so difficult with their ‘uniform is God’ behaviour. I can only imagine what could have happened if the FRSC were armed. I do not write petitions. I write facts. Change the facts and I will change my writing, arrest or no arrest. I was among the first set of Special Marshals, so to be stopped is interesting. To be harassed is a crime against my human rights. I seek no revenges. Let the FRSC train and retrain its staff to ‘help’ not ‘hinder’ road users whether they ‘petition; or not! I love FRSC in which I have invested a lot of my time. I will not allow bad FRSC people to destroy my investment and the investment of good FRSC people, past and present. We must stop the corruption of the uniform –moral and monetary. Nigeria is part of the world and cannot continue to provide no or minimum standards when Nigeria earns and squanders so much money annually. Nigeria’s aviation gurus should visit Mumbai’s ‘swanky’ new airport terminal before congratulating themselves on what they have done at MMA and elsewhere. The artwork is fantastic along all the walls you find scenes and historic events from India’s past including maps made from recycled circuit boards which is being used by many of our own artists. At least one percent and sometimes two percent of all funds expended on public buildings is allocated to iconic artwork in all civilised countries. Is such a law enforced in Nigeria? This is what the arts groups and architects associations need to fight for in all Nigeria’s public building contracts. Are Nigeria’s authorities who travel all over the world first class at Nigeria’s expense blind when they pass through the airports of other countries? How dare they make us appear as a country with no art! Our artists should google Mumbai’s new airport and protest through organised sectors. They should get to work getting entrepreneurial jobs for their members.

This government promises just 20,000MW in five years when South Africa has 45, 000 MW now and will have 80,000MW in five years.? Rubbish. So power is not a priority? This government is saying that there is no money to finish the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway used by millions a day. Rubbish. So this road is not a priority. Is this political punishment or economics?

Be in no doubt about how politicians despise and hate you until a week to the elections when they need you and are forced to tolerate you as they would a necessary evil or a poor relation. How else do you explain why they seem to have a right to every good thing while you remain with nothing, chicken change even though you supposedly put them there through the manipulation of your vote? When you complain, they reply quickly that change will come slowly. Well my friends ‘Change Must Come’. Even unelected political office holders owe their positions to the electorate for voting for the employer.

There are those seized by greed. The phone camera will force police and VIOs and FRSC to earn your respect. Let us put up posters around the country –‘There may be cameras monitoring your corruption. Beware! We must never forget those who, by greedily seizing the political space, forcing Nigerians to bow to them and call them distinguished, honourable and representative. The political class succeeded in subjugating the people to keep Nigeria as ‘The Dark Country’ in electricity, education, health, economics, housing while devaluing our businesses, currency and lives.

January 15, 2014
APC’s dance with death? Scrutinise PDP supporters before ‘porting’ them to APC

As APC the political saviour? There is a gathering storm beyond the–‘Resign from elected office if you change party’, which is a principle I agree with, but parties have never applied it in Nigerian political history nor in the USA.

Though I am neither Buhari fan, nor Tinubu fanatic, I am happy that APC started well but did it gather all the peripheral parties before, to use the IT term, ‘porting’ the New PDP elements? Now APC is compromised, some say contaminated, as a moral authority and ‘saviour’ with a progressive ideology. Absorbing willing PDP governors is a masterstroke, ‘The 2013 Civilian Coup’, not for any corruptly acquired ‘war chests’ rumoured to be the political custom, but only if the governors were screened and found efficient, people loving, non-corrupt and ideologically compatible to APC’s progressive agenda -which we have not seen.

Is APC sacrificing integrity by its ‘APC dance with death’ i.e. with evil masquerades and yesterday’s historically established architects of Nigeria’s serial military, economic, electricity, refinery and political failures including letter writers?

APC initiators are not saints, but appear the lesser evil when Nigerians need miracle ‘Good Governance- No Greed’ parties’. In the unregulated political arena, most politicians of all parties and all civil servants profiteer, stealing, by ‘divine right’ from the public purse. However the APC team apparently has done more for the people than those in the PDP and they ‘smell’ sweeter on the Corruption Index. Can APC lose its ‘saviour’ identity by these antics? It is already made overweight and unattractive by consuming everything PDP-good, bad and ugly. It may develop a tummy ache and have to vomit PDP rubbish.

There is an argument that the APC must not make the Awolowo mistake of ‘puritanism’ said to have cost Awolowo the 1979 election to Shagari. Recent revelations suggest the military took the election from Awolowo and gave it to loser Shagari, precipitating a 35 year democracy backslide. Is voter results’ manipulation not a crime? The lesson for APC is that Awolowo’s moral force won the population’s vote and the election battle. However it lost him the war as it created enough fear in the ruling military class as to deny him victory like they did for Abiola later. It is now clear that the military never stopped planning a comeback anyway but it would have found it harder to fault a sounder Awolowo government than a wayward Shagari government with Umaru Dikko shenanigans. Remember that Jonathan was actually voted in by Nigerians for non-interference in round one of the last elections. Unfortunately, the subsequent avalanche of PDP baggage -paid employees, members, hangers-on, election riggers and probable thugs has resulted in the dead weight that is Jonathan’s current failure. This uncontrolled mass ‘porting of PDP’ to the APC, with admission of anything PDP, new and dropouts, may ‘win’ the short term battle for numbers in National Assembly and at governors’ meetings. However it will hamper the APC in the voting wars of, 2015, when it will need firstly, moral and ideological leadership to attract votes. Secondly, when APC will need to retire its current generals like Tinubu and Buhari and search for and throw up Nigeria’s real Kennedys, Mandelas, Martin Luther Kings and maybe Obamas like Fashola et al. They will marshal a new generation of front-liners to change the face of politics in Nigeria. Traditionally the old generals and politicians on Nigeria do not lie down well until they die still struggling to ensure Nigeria’s further failure. The old seek gratification, homage and payment into the grave. ‘The party must pay for my funeral’. The terrorists are with us-politicians.

Will APC convert the PDP baggage ‘stalwarts’? Will the ‘I don port’ PDP bite at the heart of APC? APC must be cautious of having 100 past PDP stalwarts, a Trojan Horse, all with cell phone direct links to the old PDP hierarchy and destructive PDP machinery inside the APC fortress. Will they foment trouble instructing their followers to cause a violent exit, destroying the APC? And what quality of followership have the PDP leaders taken with them as they ‘port’ or change sides? Does the APC want the opposition’s ‘ace thugs’ hiding in its new political agbadas and babanrigas? Oyo State was dragged low into moral and human rights abuses by thuggery under PDP control. The APC and INEC, if serious, must talk to Governor Ajimobi about how he ‘de-thugged’ the elections and governance. Was it money, amnesty, employment, publicity or imprisonment? Who is screening the PDP followership ‘porting’ to APC? Are there any members of ‘Reformed Association of Thugs-RATs? APC should avoid ‘porting’ known thugs and murderous ‘petty’ strongmen. Clean up the parties!

And who will de-fang the violent NURTW through positive publicity like enlightenment, positive newspaper stories, TV coverage of motor-park management and interviews. Elevate the esteem of the NURTW membership to make them ashamed to ‘thug’ in 2015. Nigerians are not burdened by apartheid or slavery but by ‘party’ slavery. Even apartheid victims had 46,000Mw electricity. Nigeria has 3,000Mw after 14 years of PDP apartheid! APC must not im-‘port’ the devil’s baggage. APC: Do not dance with death, stay ‘clean’ and the voters will ‘port to you’. Marry the devil, and die with the devil’s virus. Meanwhile what is APCs Solar Energy Strategy, please? APC should also check Kenya’s Solar Sunny Money Solar Roller and Geothermal Rift Valley programme shown on BBC.

January 8, 2014
Christmas Corruption; Stop ‘selective’ charity; ‘A 2014 Cellphone Anticorruption Drive?’

Welcome to 2014. Can we have a list of the bonuses presents, and cost, given and received this Christmas by all Nigeria’s top 5000 government employees –in the Presidency, NASS, State, LGAs, Directors in each ministry and agency. Even the private sector is involved. Christ’s name is now being used for a new massive corruption –‘Christmas Corruption’– the siphoning of funds for ‘Christmas Cheer’. The proportion of gifts for the poor nationwide is not up to one percent of this total. For every N1 spent on publicised photo-op children’s parties and visits by dignitaries, probably N1,000 is spent on ‘oga on top’ Christmas parties and presents. Remember that less than one percent of the needy homes are visited. Next Christmas governments at federal and state level should listen to Christ and consult their register of all ‘Needy Homes‘ and allocate funds in December in the budget for food, presents and activities.

No, we did not have much power for most of Christmas Day and none on Boxing Day in 2013 and probably none today. Government should apologise to the millions of children and mothers, disappointed, disillusioned and depressed and distressed by serial failure of governance. Think of the billions in losses due to extra costs, changing plans, and the distress of darkness in the 21st Century. Shamefully it was too much for the N4trillion federal government after being in power since 1999 i.e. 14 years and their appointed power companies to give us power supply on Christmas Day 2013. If 14 years ago the electioneering campaign of the government in power had said ‘sorry we have no plan or commitment to get power to you in 14 years but vote for us anyway’, would anyone have voted for them? Of course we must remember the corruption of the ‘election’ process. But the federal government officials had power at home paid for by the powerless Nigerians. Government has budgeted over N100b for fuelling its home and office generators in 2014. If I had political power for one year, I would ban generators in all government and official residences and those of private managers in the power sector. ‘Operation Switch Off’. We pray that power-filled days will come as they have in Ghana, Congo, South Africa, Togo. But the powerlessness did not hinder the electricity workers reporting to greet Nigerians for ‘Christmas Gift’. Is there a threat of further disconnection for no gift? Blackmail! No one can convince me that it is not possible to provide uninterrupted power for all Nigerians. The excuse of lack of gas is a lame excuse as countries without gas manage. Is this incompetence or corruption? Nigeria will not have 24-hour power until all politicians are forced to use only the grid and come down to our level and remove generators and fuelling costs from the budgets of Federal and State government and National and State Assemblies. The rewards of power failures are too high to be abandoned without a fight. It is only then that solar will be taken as a serious alternative source energy in this sun-stroked land where we hide form the sun instead of harnessing it as in countries with 10% of the sunshine days we have. Government should institute tax breaks and reduced customs tariffs in a new Solar Power Policy. Instead it allocates billions for fuelling generators with imported diesel and petrol in the offices and homes of tens of thousands of ‘big shot’ politicians and civil servants nationwide. The ‘I fine pass my neighbour’ generator palaver is alive and well but has moved up to ‘my government paid generators is bigger than you generator because I am a Perm Sec and you are a Director and ‘mumu’ citizens in darkness are paying for it’. Who is the loser and who pays?

We know most Nigerians are hard-working. O Nigeria, where is your salvation? Message or no message, not with Obasanjo, he lost the opportunity and could not give us electric power when he was in power and 14 years after his continuous PDP government took power -a political power failure? Not Jonathan, has he performed adequately to deserve a second term? However he has 2014 and 2015 to perform a miracle of ‘good governance’. He can cripple mafias in the ministries, customs corruption, 25-75% contract kickbacks and pilfering from the poor. Nigeria will collapse unless all government employees take the ‘Keep Clean Hands Oath’ and stop cheating citizens visiting their secretariats and ministries. It will be a miracle for Nigeria but ‘good governance’ is the normal in most countries. We have African ‘hope but not much expectation’.

In 2014, we want no more rudeness to Nigerians invited to National Assembly (NASS) meetings or the police station. How many NASS members were honestly elected? Many Nigerians are proud to be Nigerian but Nigerian governments are successively not proud of us allowing government agents and government ‘uniforms’ to treat us like undeserving servants. Have you ever been to a ministry for your right? Did you go back 100 times or 400 times? I did.

That is the lot of Nigerian citizens in 2013 -To suffer needlessly and then smile and vote foolishly. Nigeria’s politicians and civil servants are mostly abusers of power and not servants of the people. Can they change in 2014? The fear of the citizen camera can help beat corruption in a ‘2014 Cellphone Anticorruption Drive’. Upload to Channels etc.

January 1, 2014
Merry Christmas; The Sovereign National Conference

Happy marriage to Daniel and Justina Henshaw. I am very sure that nobody is going to read this article. After all, it is Christmas Day! Just in case –Merry Christmas. Be Christ-like – nice today to your family, to your friends and to your hired domestic help. They need a good Christmas more than you. Domestic help are treated particularly badly by many upright people masquerading as Christ-like. Granted they are often criminal in intent but a decent meal is what even a prisoner awaiting execution is given. The long overdue focus on human rights among the world’s and particularly Nigeria’s domestic help is welcome, as many are kept in almost slavery conditions. A merry Christmas to you and your domestics.

S-NC BUSINESS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS AND EVERYONE’S BUSINESS -ESPECIALLY THE UNDER 40s. Let us find younger adults to take us forward from this S-NC. The S-NC is about much more than just politics The S-NC is about life itself, existence, hate and happiness and not just mind control and mineral control. Everyone should be involved in this non-political journey during the next few months. Nigeria’s survival depends on it. Our successful transition from disaffected country to a cohesive nation or back to pre-amalgamation primal self-interest depends on this S-NC.

Modalities are being worked out. Let the word SACRIFICE resound from Nigeria’s dungeons and rooftops. Of course there must be ‘NO ALLOWANCES FOR BEING MEMBERS’ only ‘NON-MONETISED ACCOMMODATION AND FEEDING’. LET EACH COMMUNITY, GROUP OR AGENCY SPONSOR ITS CANDIDATE. The VENUE must reflect Nigeria’s problems -AN EDUCATIONAL FACILITY LIKE A FEDERAL UNITY SCHOOL, POLYTECHNIC OR UNIVERSITY-not six months in Ladi Kwali Hall! So who will be in the S-NC? There are many suggestions. About 80% should be under 40 years and 50% should be women. Women have suffered the most. Women represent children –two in one. We have fine females in all spheres. Any proposed proportional representation is based on our fraudulent census while executive whistle-blower Odimegwu is unjustly dismissed/ resigned and Nigeria looks on. Shame! This gives serious doubts from the beginning.

Amalgamation collected together different ethnic groups, many very uncomfortable bedfellows, not having been treated fairly, by federal equity. This is decision and payback time. Reassessment may require apologies, reparation, redistribution, payouts. It will certainly require a redefinition and redistribution of federal political and administrative structures, fiscal federalism, exclusive listing changes and ‘federal feeling’. Every Nigerian interprets that ‘FEDERAL FEELING’. They will examine the flaws in federalism and the constitution and participate in fashioning a ‘NEW FEDERAL NIGERIA’ if possible and a ‘NEW REGIONAL FEDERATION’ with a ‘NEW NIGERIAN REVENUE AND REPRESENTATIONAL FORMULAE’ if necessary. No Nigerian will feel oppressed, marginalised after this S-NC.

Therefore if there are 344 ethnic groups in Nigeria, let them each send one person, the best brained person, to meet, greet and avoid deceit. One person, one voice per group. Let them advance their ideas and retreat home for contemplation on Nigeria surviving as a nation. Enough of WAZOBIA or WAZZZOOOOBIA. There are more than three tribes in Nigeria and they and their coat tail tribes have failed to improve Nigeria or bring it into the 21st century. The term should be consigned to the dustbin of history. It is an insult to the other 341 tribal groups and a reminder of the oppression, real and imagined, inflicted on ‘other ethnic groups during the last 53 years. This is 2013. We can no longer be playing colonial politics with fellow Nigerians who are Nigerians in their own right and not ‘minorities’ -another word that should be expunged from our vocabulary.

Old battles still open fresh wounds. Conquerors must confer with their former adversaries to concur and conjure a non-violent way forward. Swords are no longer the way to stay on the same boat. Wound remain open too long in Nigeria and fresh ones are opened daily making co-habitation without one eye open and a hand on a weapon impossible in some areas. Where is the love of self and each other, sister and brother, friend and lover? But love cannot come when agendas are for the belligerent takeover of other people’s property. There must be conflict for resolution but there must be evil intent for conflict in the first place. That pervading evil intent is capable of destroying even the new Nigeria and ‘the falling apart as the centre cannot hold’. To be proud of Nigeria we must be proud of each other. If we despise and deprive one group, no amount of disguise will make us feel Nigerian.

The centre is a huge bone of contention in Nigeria and the unbundling of the federal structure is of paramount importance to any sense of belonging. The federal structure has been seen as self-serving of incumbent powers that be and oppressive of the peripheral authorities especially if they are seen as wrong party, wrong ideology, or wrong-footed or anti-centre. Millions of Nigerians have suffered untold hardship and been forced to invent the circumstances of ‘I de manage’ due to the unfair withholding, unfair distribution of their federal rights in terms of funds, opportunities, projects, infrastructure and federal presence. Indeed many have died at the hands of federal agents like the police during political and other activities. ‘Federal bias is often lethal, fatal or injurious to your health’ easily summarises to power of the centre over the country and its citizens. This needs to be reversed. MEXAHNYIA

December 25, 2013
Tale of four letters; Three Pretoria people; Road/Niger Bridge Travel as ‘National Disasters’

The world buried Nelson Mandela and begins the search for a successor-an international honest political hero, Meanwhile Nigerians read the horrible revelations in two letters from Sanusi of CBN and Obasanjo, ex-President and look at the third ‘letter’, a Supreme Court Judgement in favour of Bode George and a fourth ‘letter’, a High Court ruling in favour of Nasir El Rufai. Nigerians shudder at the consequences of corruption, poor governance, vindictive prosecution and abuse of investigative organs of justice since before 1999 and questionable court judgement. Nigerians must remember that there is no difference between government trained snipers, killer squads, thugs and police KAG –‘Kill and Go’. They all kill and all parties use one or another. If we can stop one, we must stop all. A sniper’s bullet in the heart or brain has the same effect as a cut throat from a machete or brains spilt with a thug’s stick. For example how many were imprisoned, executed and died mysteriously during the dreaded Abacha regime, yet he still has a stadium named after him and his henchmen and offspring will soon again run for President if not governor? How many die each election.

Christian Amanpour of CNN reminds us all that Pretoria and South African experiences link three great heroes of this generation. They were all burnt or seared by apartheid and miraculously went on to personal greatness. Churchill was held in Pretoria during the Boer War and escaped to become a war hero and later the great leader of Great Britain during World War 11 and though he later described Ghandi as ‘bloody kafir’, Churchill in the heat of WW11 in 1943 still managed to set up the machinery that would bring higher education to English speaking Africa with the founding of the Universities Ibadan, Legon and Fourah Bay. Ghandi was thrown off the train to Pretoria for being Indian. He subsequently fought apartheid and became the non-violence icon during struggles to lead India to independence in 1947. And then there was Mandela, Madiba.

From adversity and pollution sometimes comes magnificent resolve and unimaginable greatness leading often excruciatingly slowly to purifying the society and FREEDOM. But during the process of ‘purification’, many, in their miserable millions, are ‘contained’, minimised in needs and deeds, crippled, killed, die in reality or economically, of their wounds, mental and physical. They remain unsung except by loved ones. How many must suffer for one suffering hero to emerge? How many suffered and died in slavery before abolition? How many times did Mandela’s name come up for execution or appear in the crosshairs of a sniper’s rifle? What saved Mandela when other mortals in Sharpsville and Soweto and victims like Chris Hani were fair game for dog attacks, beatings, brutality, bullets and murder?

When good men and women keep quiet or are silenced bad people fill the vacuum. That is why the EU is trying to solve the electricity problem spawned in Nigeria by the serial failure and collective small mindedness of past political and military visionless leaders with no spark of national energy during the dark ages 1983 to 2013! God gave us the sun but we need someone with solar-vision to harness it for development. Will that be the new Mandela’s task? What is the new apartheid to be confronted by the new Mandela? Is depriving Nigerians of their livelihood, security’, health and education by removing electricity from their expectations the new apartheid leading to oppression by denial of power, exploitation of the people by petroleum and generator oppressors? Will they be defeated by solar power?

So we MUST suffer at the hands of contractors to smile. The 20,000 vehicles in five lanes on each side and 25 kilometres long caught in both sides of the Saturdays of 7-12-2013 and 14-12-13 traffic mayhem cannot all be wrong. What manner of supervising governance, contractor-customer care and country is this? RCC and Julius Berger should have a better CONTRACTOR-CUSTOMER CARE pact. And do not forget the Niger Bridge. The FRSC must redefine its role to keep traffic moving at all times and not pluck unfortunate suffering vehicles for ‘particulars check’. Why is ‘travel’ a ‘Natural or national Disaster’ in Nigeria? We are our worst enemies. Uncaring FRSC, contractors, events like religious events, queue-jumping as a way of expressway life, too few points of turning on the expressway, absent pedestrian walkways all contribute to 4-6 hours for a 127km trip. Judge Nigeria by absent flyovers or pedestrian walkways at Redeem and the slow pace of work on the Lagos Secretariat Alausa pedestrian walkway taking more than six months, the same time as it is taking to build the tallest building in the world! Is there a light at the end of this tunnel? There will be light only if all Nigerians, every Nigerian, join hands to shine their eyes and torches to dispel the evil. Nigeria is dying, not rising. Nigerians must rise up and demand a seat at the table, directly or indirectly. Nigerians must contribute to, eat, drink, thank, talk, walk and sleep and dream ‘The Nigeria of their Dreams’. As we clock 100 years of ‘AMALGAMARRIAGE’ it is time for all to make the changes to our polity and politics, economy and education, humanity and health, safety and security, fiscal and excusive list in the constitution, now with this ‘Sovereign’ -National Conference. Merry Christmas, will you have electricity on Christmas Day?

December 18, 2013
World, you have lost your leader. Mandela: Robben Island Prisoner 46664, RIP.

World, you have lost your leader. Nelson Mandela, Madiba, Rolihlahla aka troublemaker, 18-7-1918 to 5-12-2013, 95, laugh, dance, smile all the while, RIP=Robben Island Prisoner and Rest In Peace.

Who does not know ‘That Name’? Yet Mandela is not a product of commercial advertisement for products for sale. Indeed Mandela has never been on sale or commercialised at the cost of billions like the ‘big brands’. But perhaps he has been on sale since the ‘Troublemaker’ days. The Mandela Price was unusual, not personal gain or 10 houses in different world capitals and billions in foreign bank dungeons. The Mandela Price has always been Freedom- for himself, his people black, his people white, his people South Africans, his people Africans, his people citizens of the world.

World, you have lost your greatest most outstanding selfless leader. In our youth the memorable ones were Lumumba, JFKennedy, MLKing Jr, Che Guevara –the T-shirt silhouette icon- but they were sectional heroes, cut down in their struggle, loved or hated depending on your socialist or capitalist leanings. Mandela has been different. They could not, or dared not, cut him down. Mandela has been the closest thing we have had to a world leader, not country leader, we have had. In another age, Mandela could have so easily been the President of Africa or the President of the United Nations, meeting intergalactic legions. The people of the world and particularly the poor are the poorer for the lack of next generation Mandelas. Ever child-loving and humble, Mandela even lent his name to a Hand Washing and Toilet Use Campaign.

How many Nigerian and African headmasters and principals and priests and Imams did what we saw their counterparts doing worldwide by teaching ‘Mandela-ism’ to their students and congregations? Following the Mandela-Rhodes Foundation successes at higher learning, every school in Africa and the world should have local ‘Mandela Prizes’ for the most Mandela-like student in each class, set, and an Annual Mandela Award. That way we may raise 200 million Mandelalets a year worldwide, just one in each school. The Mandela guidelines would include Love your enemy, Constructive engagement, sports/games for unity, inclusive government, exemplary honesty in office, quitting when the ovation is loudest.

He led, with many others who suffered and have died, and won a war against a distinctly evil system of government apartheid. But apartheid is easily recognisable as evil because it is black and white, or colour based. There are many ‘apartheids’ which escape the media microscope because they are not colour but creed, domestic, gender, ethnic, age, work or wealth related. Mandela may have lived and left a legacy that ‘could’ change the world but ‘will’ it change the world? The answer is in your hands as president, politician, parliament, people, police. Mandela has shown the world how to walk the walk on the Long Road To Freedom.

Now it is your turn to continue the journey. Are you up for it or in your case did Mandela waste the example of his life, sacrifice, 27 years in Robben Island breaking rocks and his upright leadership, modesty, honesty, dress code and smile? He has gone to rest. We loved the easy way he dressed. His struggle against apartheid was our life guide. He was always on our side. And all the while there has been that generation smile. Rolihlahla aka troublemaker, we have a saying in Nigeria –trouble de sleep, yanga come wake am. In death you have raised more questions and sent several billion people soul searching for more than just the funeral arrangements. Madiba, legacies, yours and ours, are exposed on the table of life by your death. RIP Permit me to donate the rest of this column to excerpts from my work The Laterite Road related to relevant segments to our late revered Man-dela, Great Man, Good Man, Gi-normous Man whose shadow has fallen comfortingly across the peoples of many of the world’s nations.

On The laterite road

Mandela took his long walk to imprisonment

Each prayer, working day and worrisome night

Terminating in nightly dreams of death, Maturing into longevity granting him, Near immortality and immunity

And 27 year Robben Island solitary sanctuary

And finally a long walk to freedom. Paradoxically prison healthy living

Found him his oppressors, outliving.

The universities of hard knocks

Mark tombstones for ‘trouble’ makers

And risk takers.

Maula, Luzira, Babati, Kamiti, Beitbridge, Robben Island,

Kirikiri, Gula, African gulags, imprisoning isles

For tears, torture, Terror and termination

Of innocent and guilty

On the laterite road

On the laterite road

See Chaka Zulu’s heel, Lumumba’s sandal,

Mandela’s footprint, Slaves’ enchained toes.

Look upwards, The shape of the clouds

Our own cloud Rushmore. Use your mind’s eyes,

See Mandela, Lumumba, See Sankara, Schweitzer,

Look Tutu in the face. The laterite road

Led to Robben Island Prisoner

RIP, but alive, Number 46664.

So few returned

Parting the offshore sea

With their wisdom wand

Traversing sand and rock

To walk the last steps

Bridging the divide

Between slavery chains

Clinking around necks and ankles

Linking Nubian mountain climbs

To apartheid treks. ‘No blanks. Whites only’

Obviously a ‘blank’ is not a white, On the laterite road

Africa’s vine, a vascular system, Cardiac, pulsating, Connecting

Cape to Horn, Alexanderia to Djibuti, Maghreb to Madagascar,

Senegal’s Gory Gorée Isle to South Africa’s Robben Prison Island

Rabat to Timbuktu, Lagos to Takoradi

Bulaweyo to Soweto. World, you have lost your leader.

December 11, 2013
Where is the love? We, the people, must stop this 2014 vehicle tariff policy

Today, mournfully, let 100+m honest Nigerians express righteous indignation and join ANA and ASUU members who attend or offer up an ‘Iyayi silence’ prayerfully to sympathise with the family during the funeral of late Professor Festus Iyayi today Dec 4. Let no one be in doubt about this most important funeral. ASUU is under threat and orders to resume work or face sack and proscription. We have travelled this road before. Does no one learn from history? Is ASUU over-demanding or is government arrogant? Certainly without ASUU struggles, the universities would be 100 times worse! If only secondary school teachers had such clout, the education foundation would never have deteriorated!

After the funeral ASUU should note that the proposed vehicle tariff increase, will make nonsense of any agreement with government. Increasingly, the ogas at the top, government and NASS, wants to live in maximum ‘European luxury’ alone while the citizenry remains in penury at the bottom. They have government cars, car allowances, fuel or mileage allowances, air-conditioned toilets and bullet proof cars got by disenfranchising citizens. And the private sector is not far behind with the DISCOS and GENCOS planning to cancel prepaid metres which honest Nigerians were forced to pay N45,000+ for. Remember the compulsory answering machine before being allocated a phone? Was that under Minister David Mark who said that phones were not for the poor? Enough.

Ethiopia has a French-run wind farm which will generate 10,000Mw in Ethiopia. It cost $290m. The Nigerian 700km long seafront is available for renewable energy. Nigeria has the hottest weather in years but that solar energy is wasted. Countries with minimal sun have cities run with solar power. Is there a conspiracy against power in Nigeria? Certainly the satellite DSTV rates in Nigeria are perhaps the highest in the world at N11,000 + per month ie £44 or $68/month. Where is the ombudsman to protect the customer? What is the DSTV satellite TV tariff in South Africa or USA?

Nigeria is yet to see citizens offered shares in the newly formed power giants, owned partly by most of the old boy military past presidents’ network. It is like the days of oil blocks when no oil, cell phone or internet company appeared on the Nigerian stock exchange. It is a pity that government policies sell us as slaves and ‘commercial workers’ to feed the greed of big-man companies.

Politicians and government officials must answer the question: WHERE IS THE LOVE YOU PROMISED NIGERIANS when you became President, Minister, National Assembly member or civil servant? Government is often very selfish people hiding under the toga of office with an agenda to DECEIVE AND DEPRIVE the citizen. Look at the Police checkpoints, LASTMA, YES-O and all uniformed services involved in entrapment of citizens and other bad behaviour!

Now government plans increases tariffs on imported vehicles even though any new local cars are four years away. What government meeting decided that the best way forward for the automobile industry and easier transport is to increase the cost of imported vehicles? Nothing stops government from buying local vehicles. However the preferred vehicles are overpriced bulletproof. Are government officials jealous of other citizens in good cars? Already only politicians can have ‘tinted windows’. Is that not enough? In their tiny government minds, is the answer to the nationwide traffic jams and bad roads, putting cars out of reach? Just imagine the effect on transportation costs for goods and Nigerians. Everyone will claim increased costs. Nothing goes up by a fraction in Nigeria. It will be 100 or 200% or nothing. Fuel is transported in trucks so fuel prices will also go up. The domino effects of this economically detrimental weird transport system policy will cause economic trauma across society including all contracts, education, health, manufacturing, and consumer items. Everything will be affected negatively from food, pocket money, transport allowance for children and getting to work.

This policy will negate CBN’s effort to control inflation. Is Governor Sanusi party to this attempt to cancel the questionable gains of CBN? I do not agree with his 12% baseline interest rates or his weak naira but he has some good ideas.

Does President Jonathan not see this as the country being misled into executing a dangerous ill-thought-through policy? The policy has the elements of a perfect storm of malcontent, escalating costs and denial of cheap transport. It will bring his government into disrepute. All the questionable ‘gains’ of poverty alleviation strategies, Sure-P, ‘tight monetary control’, too high interbank interest rates, lifting people above a ‘dollar-a-day’ earnings and surviving massive political power abuse will be wiped out. It will wipe out any successes in youth empowerment as it will push millions back below the poverty line. It will negate any salary increments and ruin pension plans, earnings and it will increase rents. The ramifications are huge except for decision makers- they have government cars, petrol, food, drink, accommodation and multiple tax-free allowances.

Every time we Nigerians adjust to cope with government leadership failure, a policy comes to rob us of our money and dignity. Do non-governmental, non-political Nigerians not deserve new cars? Can new cars and ‘Completely Knocked Down’ cars be built overnight especially in Nigeria? Will the vehicle shortage not further fuel inflation and make the locally produced vehicles cost more? Nigerians must brace for a fight or more government inflicted misery. Are we mumu or men and women?

December 4, 2013