The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • No better than terrorists

    It may be easy to organise fund-raisers for the sake of the country’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), but it is so damn difficult for funds raised to reach the targets. This is the puzzling picture painted by no less a person than the Chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III.

    At the opening of the Council’s second General Assembly in Kaduna on November 23, the Sultan was quoted as saying: “When we go into closed session, we will discuss that thorny issue of displaced persons, mostly in the Northeast. It is a very sad situation; people are suffering. Billions and billions of naira have been collected or put aside for their welfare, but what we hear everyday and what we see on the pages of newspapers is very bad. It is important that this money be disbursed immediately via the governors.”

    Sultan Abubakar continued: “The billions of naira collected must be utilised now because, when somebody dies, he does not need anything again except prayers. So, since they are still alive, let’s feel for the IDPs; they are our brothers and sisters. We must feel for them; we cannot live a luxury life when our brothers and sisters are suffering. We do not sleep very well when we see things like that.”

    Of course, he knew what he was talking about. In conclusion, he said: “So, please, we want the governors to take the issue more seriously; take it up with Mr. President and ensure the release of the funds because I was part of the team when this money was collected for the IDPs during the last government. They should find out where that money is and disburse it immediately.”

    To put it as mildly as possible, it is scandalous that this is happening concerning people who are not only displaced, but also distressed, particularly considering that they may be described as innocent victims.

    It is noteworthy that recent statistics by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) put the IDP population in the country’s Northeast at 2.2 million. According to UNHCR’s Representative to Nigeria, Ms Angele Dikongue-Atangana, who gave the figures at its yearly stakeholders’ briefing in Abuja on November 19, “the number is increasing specifically because regaining control of the territory by the military opened further access for the humanitarian officials so they can count many more IDPs, be they old IDPs or very recent ones.” To a large extent, the IDPs in question are products of acts of terrorism by the Islamist guerilla force Boko Haram, which has tormented the country since 2009.

    It is terroristic that these victims of terrorism are being denied the benefits of funds gathered for the purpose of humanitarian support.  Those responsible for this situation are no better than terrorists.

  • Death and the candidate’s party men

    Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, wrote the play, Death and the King’s Horsemen, a gripping tragedy by any account.

    The play fused the best in Yoruba culture and tradition with the English medium of theatrical rendition, and made the grim point: you bait tragedy when you enjoy privilege but try to escape the corresponding responsibility.  That was the tragedy of Eleshin Oba, the tragic hero.

    On November 23, Fate imposed a no less gripping tragedy on Nigeria’s politics.  Were it a fictional play, it would probably have been titled Death and the candidate’s party men.

    A few days after Wole Soyinka won the Nobel in 1986, Dele Giwa, the celebrated journalist, was parcel-bombed.  In his inimitable way, our own WS proclaimed the “celebration turned ashen in our mouths”.

    Just as it was in 1986, so it is now with the Kogi election. Though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared it inconclusive, Abubakar Audu, the controversial All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s)  candidate had virtually won, given the vote returns.

    And then, death — sudden and vicious!

    Where does that leave his party (wo)men, on the cusp of jubilation over a stunning return to power despite the late Audu’s controversial image, in a poll not a few described as an election of no choice?

    The incumbent, Idris Wada, is a grand failure, from his woeful performance record.  The late challenger, on the other hand, was perceived as proud, pompous and overbearing; but was nevertheless credited with the little modicum of quality governance Kogi ever enjoyed since the return to democracy in 1999.

    So, as flawed as the late Audu was, his return was to be some renaissance.  And from the result, a 16-5 local government rout, just showed how impatient Kogi had become with its gentle but incompetent governor; and its steely resolve, if it came to that, to endure the late Audu’s perceived flaws, just for a bit of his government magic.

    But at that critical juncture?  Death!  Where does that leave everybody?

    The ousted Kogi ruling party, PDP: perhaps fake sorrow and tempered joy.  Sorrow, because  by African tradition, death changes everything, even between the worst and bitterest of enemies.  So, even Audu’s worst enemies won’t publicly go gloating about his death.

    But tempered joy?  Well, Audu might have been close to winning.  But with the election declared inconclusive, PDP would fancy new hopes, never mind that the clear incompetence of its candidate and sitting governor would not vanish.

    APC, the ruling party-in-waiting: irritation and frustration — how can we be so near and yet so far away?  In politics as in football, it is not over until it is over.  So, expect over-the-heel conspiracy theories.  When two or three are gathered in politics after all, some conspiracies or theories of conspiracy are likely brewing!

    And to the polity?  A novel constitutional situation; perhaps never anticipated by the drafters of our laws.  But though (wo)man is mortal, God the immortal still created (wo)man to be master of his environment.  So, the legal arguments, fierce and hot, would blow over.  But at the end of the day, there would be some progress, to be cited as legal precedents, in case of future tragedies.

    The Abubakar Audu demise on the cusp of personal glory just shows the vanity of life and the supremacy of the Almighty.  May Allah forgive him his sins and console the grieving family, personal and political, he left behind.

    Even then, the Audu family should appreciate the final grace God bestowed on their patriarch.  He exited when the ovation was loudest.  Hardball hears Lokoja was yesterday filled with rumours that Audu had risen and would after all take office!

    That posthumous charisma doesn’t cut the portrait of the candidate as a repulsive megalomaniac.

    Indeed, for Audu, it is glorious beatitude after death.

  • Obiano Vs. Obi: Of incumbent and incubus

    It seems like an obsession now. Hardball would never been able to fathom why the sitting governor of Anambra State, Governor Willie Obiano, would resort to what is coming out as a life-long contest with his predecessor (and some say his benefactor). One had always thought that winners made jokes while losers were left to lick their wounds. But in this Obiano versus Peter Obi instance, the reverse seems perplexingly the case.

    There seems to have been no love lost between the incumbent, Obiano and his predecessor, Mr. Peter Obi and the animus may have begun right from the handover day as keen-eyed people noticed the eerie mirthlessness of the new ‘kid’ on that momentous day. It seemed not to matter that Gov. Obiano was being handed the biggest prize in the land almost on a platter; he was not amused. And a feud festered between the twain for 19 months.

    Last week, Gov. Obiano seemed to have moved to enact a final onslaught against the large, overhanging shadow of his predecessor. Oh yes, it must be this cloud that may have become an incubus over the incumbent. Obi left office in a blaze of glory so to speak showcasing a glittering performance and leaving a feat rare in this clime: not a dime of debt.

    This of course is a tough act to follow not to talk of surpassing in an age of official brigandage and impunity. Hardball envies not the incumbent: it is alike contesting against a deity; an annoyingly unfair contest. What’s to be done? Pull down the totem, trample it, make it ordinary, vitiate his essence and mortalise him!

    This was exactly what happened last week when Gov. Obiano moved to demystify the Obi mystique and legacy. The N75 billion claimed to have been reserved in the treasury of Anambra State for his successor and posterity must finally be debunked and Obi unmasked. It is a phantom sum, they say.

    It is mere N9 billion and not N75b says Prof. Solomon Chukwulobelu, SSG, (well, shall we thank goodness for small mercy).

    And let’s take this quote straight from the Obiano camp, dear reader, so that you might judge by yourself: “Obviously worried about the final verdict of history on his administration, Obi made frantic efforts in the final months of his tenure and invested the sum of $155 million or N26.6 billion in Eurobonds and other foreign denominated securities held with Access Bank, Fidelity Bank and Diamond Bank…” With the naira vastly depreciated now, see the wisdom in this investment today!

    What more is to be said than to admonish the incumbent to worry more about the final verdict of history on his own administration.  A governor who has no record of borrowing one kobo over eight years, yet has some surplus in the banks deserves respect and commendation and awards in today’s Nigeria, and not vilification. Hardball feels strongly about this singular principle and commends it to other governors.

    That N26.6 b in Eurobonds could have been N26.6 b in bank loans and salary arrears and unpaid pension and gratuities. This is indeed the story in most other states. Obiano must quit this mortal combat with his predecessor’s shadow and set about creating his own legacy. Time is short!

  • Obiano Vs. Obi: Of incumbent and incubus

    It seems like an obsession now. Hardball would never been able to fathom why the sitting governor of Anambra State, Governor Willie Obiano, would resort to what is coming out as a life-long contest with his predecessor (and some say his benefactor). One had always thought that winners made jokes while losers were left to lick their wounds. But in this Obiano versus Peter Obi instance, the reverse seems perplexingly the case.

    There seems to have been no love lost between the incumbent, Obiano and his predecessor, Mr. Peter Obi and the animus may have begun right from the handover day as keen-eyed people noticed the eerie mirthlessness of the new ‘kid’ on that momentous day. It seemed not to matter that Gov. Obiano was being handed the biggest prize in the land almost on a platter; he was not amused. And a feud festered between the twain for 19 months.

    Last week, Gov. Obiano seemed to have moved to enact a final onslaught against the large, overhanging shadow of his predecessor. Oh yes, it must be this cloud that may have become an incubus over the incumbent. Obi left office in a blaze of glory so to speak showcasing a glittering performance and leaving a feat rare in this clime: not a dime of debt.

    This of course is a tough act to follow not to talk of surpassing in an age of official brigandage and impunity. Hardball envies not the incumbent: it is alike contesting against a deity; an annoyingly unfair contest. What’s to be done? Pull down the totem, trample it, make it ordinary, vitiate his essence and mortalise him!

    This was exactly what happened last week when Gov. Obiano moved to demystify the Obi mystique and legacy. The N75 billion claimed to have been reserved in the treasury of Anambra State for his successor and posterity must finally be debunked and Obi unmasked. It is a phantom sum, they say.

    It is mere N9 billion and not N75b says Prof. Solomon Chukwulobelu, SSG, (well, shall we thank goodness for small mercy).

    And let’s take this quote straight from the Obiano camp, dear reader, so that you might judge by yourself: “Obviously worried about the final verdict of history on his administration, Obi made frantic efforts in the final months of his tenure and invested the sum of $155 million or N26.6 billion in Eurobonds and other foreign denominated securities held with Access Bank, Fidelity Bank and Diamond Bank…” With the naira vastly depreciated now, see the wisdom in this investment today!

    What more is to be said than to admonish the incumbent to worry more about the final verdict of history on his own administration.  A governor who has no record of borrowing one kobo over eight years, yet has some surplus in the banks deserves respect and commendation and awards in today’s Nigeria, and not vilification. Hardball feels strongly about this singular principle and commends it to other governors.

    That N26.6 b in Eurobonds could have been N26.6 b in bank loans and salary arrears and unpaid pension and gratuities. This is indeed the story in most other states. Obiano must quit this mortal combat with his predecessor’s shadow and set about creating his own legacy. Time is short!

  • Unapologetic apology

    A week after he sounded remorseful and apologetic, Chief Raymond Dokpesi performed a somersault that had the features of a stunt. The media owner and chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national conference organising committee said in a November 16 statement: “My attention has been drawn to claims in the media that I apologised to the nation on behalf of the PDP over the fielding of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last general election. Such other media comments and reports actually went further to say that I had apologised for the misdeeds and wrongs done to the nation by the PDP in its 16 years in the saddle since the return of democratic governance in 1999.”

    According to Dokpesi, “these reports were clearly deliberate and mischievous misrepresentations of what I said at the press briefing.” He was quoted as saying that he was proud of Jonathan’s achievements in office as well as the country’s democratic gains under the Jonathan administration.

    Now, shall we play back his November 9 media briefing in Abuja?  He reportedly regretted the party’s rejection of its zoning formula which favoured the North at the time, adding that Jonathan’s resultant emergence as the party’s presidential candidate in 2011 was a mistake and a factor in its loss of the presidency this year.

    A report said: “Dokpesi apologised to all party chieftains who felt offended by the action and extended the apology to the Nigerian voters who were denied the freedom of choice by the PDP.” Dokpesi was quoted as saying: “Make no mistake, the PDP is aware that there were errors made along the way. We admit that at certain times in our past, mistakes have been made. We did not meet the expectations of Nigerians. We tender our apology.”

    If Dokpesi has had a rethink, and he is no longer comfortable with his expressed apology, that may be understandable. But his denial of the meaning of his words is beyond understanding.

    He is perfectly entitled to his private interpretation of his words, but he cannot insist on interpreting his words for the public, particularly when the words can be correctly interpreted by the public.

    Now that Dokpesi has withdrawn his apology, it suggests that he may not have fully understood the implication of his apologetic words when they were uttered. It also suggests that he is ready to live with the implication of his lack of remorse for what is generally considered an era of misrule by his party.

    It may be that Dokpesi is genuinely confused about good governance, and cannot appreciate his party’s failure, which makes his case even more confounding.  Whether he thinks the public deserves an apology or not, the people have demonstrated their sovereignty by rejecting Jonathan and his party, and what they represented. The people do not owe Dokpesi an apology.

  • Okupe is back … with a whinge

     Doyin Okupe, the Goodluck Jonathan presidential bull dog, is back, but with a whinge, not a bang.

    He whinges on end, like a bad artisan blaming his tool, even as he helps himself to more historical fantasies to justify the historical failure of the luckless Goodluck.

    Okupe, of course, is not new to self-induced fantasies; so the ebullient Remo prince did not disappoint in his latest release.

    It was he who said people should call him a bastard, if the newly merged opposition alliance, All Progressives Congress (APC) lived up to one year.  APC not only did that, it marked its one year with the unhorsing of Jonathan, Okupe’s principal, and the humpty-dumpty Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    This same Okupe went among some Nigerians in the Diaspora, boasting and bristling, perhaps on his sterling credential as “owner of Nigeria”, that Muhammadu Buhari would never become president.  Even when he was shouted down, he persisted.  Such impunity!

    He cut the sorry picture of some modern day false prophet, pushing the doomed King Ahab to his doom.  Well, his principal was game for believing Okupe’s empty histrionics.  Just as well, they both became history.

    But not even that wilful misadventure could wean Okupe from fantasies, even in his after-power life.  In analysing the misfortune he actively and wilfully brought upon Jonathan, the bull dog still appears trapped in the hellish mediums.

    Jonathan failed, he submitted, not because he was a candidate doomed to fail (as a contrite Raymond Dokpesi earlier pushed) but because Jonathan did not resort to impunity to sack Attahiru Jega, the INEC chair.  But under what laws might he have done that?  And even if he had found or confected some law, how would he have spun it that he wasn’t subverting the same democratic processes he swore by law to protect?

    He accused Jega as an “unfair and compromised electoral officer, who was allowed to conduct the election in spite of his obvious and profuse partisanship.”  Well, the trained medic is no lawyer.  But he should thank his stars Nigeria is not an especially litigious society.  Otherwise, the injured should have been suing every kobo out of him.  Jega, an obvious and profuse partisan?  That is reckless, partisan fantasy gone ga-ga!

    And, in his Okupe-istic wisdom, the erstwhile presidential bull dog growled inconsolably that even if his principal had failed to sack Prof. Jega, he should have foresworn the use of  what he called the “infamous” the card reader!  Sure, fame to some is notoriety to others, depending on their mindsets!

    But then if the card reader, the distinctive feature of the 2015 election that made a huge difference from the criminally padded polls of the past, was in Okupe’s words “skilfully manipulated to the disadvantage of the PDP presidential candidate”, then Hardball has a clear idea about the most probable beneficiaries of soulless rigging in the past!  Another Okupe-istic untruth, at its most daring and reckless!

    His final serenading of Jonathan is firmly founded on quicksand.  Okupe suggested Jonathan should have criminalised his office by subverting the election, even when it was clear he had been soundly rejected.  Thank God he didn’t buy that folly for whatever is left of his legacy would have dipped in concentrated odium.

    Jonathan sure does have them: an Edwin Clark that junked him without much ado after preening about as presidential father during the halcyon days of sweet power; and an Okupe that now serenades him with arrant falsehood.

    If history is to make anything of Jonathan’s ill-fated presidency, he had better keep his distance from the costly mirage the likes of Okupe unfazed epitomise.

     

  • NNP sea

    Dear reader, you must be at sea as to what Hardball is up to making a watery affair of our dear NNPC. The truth actually is that Hardball too is at sea or better put, lost in the deeps as to the direction Nigeria’s bumbling behemoth is facing. In fact Hardball is so distraught about the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation that he had so much trouble casting a proper headline for this piece.

    Nearly all Nigerians jubilated when a ‘technocrat’ was appointed a few months ago to clean up what has become a putrescent Augean stable. Remember that in the Greek mythology, Hercules had to divert two rivers to clean up the sorely dirty stables. Though Mr. Ibe Kachikwu boasts of no deity status, the issues, we thought, seemed clear-cut and well defined by the last occupier of that seat, the dowager, Diezani.

    In fact Diezani so despoiled and smudged NNPC that all that was needed was a mop to clean it out. But the only things that have changed are some high-ranking personnel; the leviathan may have returned to its old mould.

    Is it true that NNPC was part of a 110-man delegation to South Korea on some phony conference? Is it true that kerosene, which is supposedly subsidised to sell at N50 per litre, is selling at N120 per litre; a perfidy Diezani perfected with graceful impunity for about four years?

    Is it true that NNPC’s crude oil swap agreement transactions are still shrouded in secrecy? A House of Representatives committee has cried out that NNPC is evading queries on this. Twice it had been written formally and twice it had failed to respond. Did you just say déjà vu? Remember Lady Diezani used ‘everything’ she could muster (including the courts) to hedge from going before the Senate.

    Haa, the more things change the more we become confounded isn’t it? Our NNPsea recently shelled out over N400 billion to pay ‘subsidy’ to marketers. Just when we thought we had outgrown all that jazz about subsidy, marketers and huge pay outs. We thought NNPC told us they had fixed our refineries to a large extent; we thought they told us NNPC would import the shortfall of products, which was the practice in saner days. Just how long does it take to answer this subsidy question? When are we gonna stop the ‘madness’ of exporting palm bunches and importing palm oil? If we had handed the Chinese N400 billion six months ago, would we not see a refinery or two rising on the Nigerian soil by now.

    And finally this: Nigeria is close to finding oil in Chad Basin – Kachikwu. This is the headline of a recent report and here is the reasoning behind what has been nearly four decades of wild goose chase: “It is key both for the geographical balancing of oil production and for the purpose of refinery placement in the North in terms of access to crude. I am optimistic that by the end of the year, we should be able to announce something major on this.”

    It will be interesting to also announce how much has been sunk so far on the Chad quest and for how long we have been at it. Just to satisfy ‘geographical balancing’!  Now don’t you feel lost at sea?

  • Committees without portfolio

    A man in a suitcase often carries the aura of lofty indolence. He sports a nifty suit, brand-name shoes and his wrist glitters with a watch only a few can afford. But he is essentially from nowhere, soars in choice companies of business and the political elite. He has no address, no office. He is haughty, well-spoken and well-spoken of.

    No one loves him, but it is hard not to admire him. Hardball sees a few resemblances in a scenario developing with our lawmakers. We have heard in the past few weeks a phrase that reeks of corruption. It is called juicy committee. Every lawmaker wants not only to work in a “juicy committee,” he or she wants to head one.

    By juicy, they mean the lawmakers will have access to slush money, or to use less indelicate language, they are awash in bribes. So when House Speaker Yakubu Dogara unveiled his self-serving committees, some others felt more than a little unhappy. The committees, verging on a hundred, are really ridiculous. Many of them are believed to even overlap.

    But that is not what bothers Hardball. It is their lack of foresight or understanding of the change era of crimped offices and lack of abundance. For instance, the Buhari government has said it will collapse the number of ministries and agencies. What this means is that we are not going to have that many ministries to supervise or to monitor.

    In the first place, where we had ministers and ministers of state, we are going to have only ministers. And some ministries that stood proudly alone are going fall under the shadows of others.

    The interesting thing is that Hardball and the lawmakers do not know what shape the new ministries and MDAs will take. Yet, some lawmakers are already sitting pretty as heads of committees and they are smacking their lips ahead of the juices that will drop from the plums in the big, fat tree of politics.

    Now, what if you are in charge of, say, a committee that is juicy and you are looking to perform your oversight functions over a ministry. Suddenly, you learn that your ministry has been collapsed under another ministry. Again, what if the collapsed ministry bears the name of your committee and that of another committee and then another committee? And what if all three thought they were severally juicy in their own rights? What will happen to the affected committees and the heads?

    Does it mean we shall have a new scramble for juicy offices? Because the new scene will be ugly. Those who huffed and puffed as heads of committees suddenly find themselves as subordinate to another. In fact, it may turn out burlesque that those who have no juicy committees may become better juiced by comparison than those with so-called juicy committees that have been collapsed.

    They will fall into a Kafkaesque world where light is dark. If they are fighting now over committees that are bound for Golgotha, what will happen when they have to be pruned? The man in a suitcase may even be better. At least, his portfolio gives him wealth and dubious honour. What shall we say then of committees without portfolios? Because that is what is about to happen.

  • Clark the father, Jonathan the son, and Abati the …

    Folks, let’s do a gospel parallel on Nigeria’s ever boisterous political terrain.

    God the Father, goes that inviolate classification, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  That is the Holy Trinity, right?

    Well, apply that to the fiercely contrasting tirades from the Goodluck Jonathan presidential camp: one, from Edwin Clark, political father; the other, from Reuben Abati, political aide; but both fallen on barren political times.

    Abati dubbed his riposte to Clark’s Jonathan putdown, “Clark the father, Jonathan, the son”.  Did he have the holy trinity in mind?

    If he did, it probably would have panned out thus: “Clark, the father; Jonathan, the son; and Abati, the …

    “Holy Spirit!” the repressed but relieved ex-presidential camp would have blurted, given the spectacular way Clark had chucked his one glorious godson, saying he was feckless.

    But “Evil Spirit”, the other camp would have countered, particularly given Epa Clark’s latest riposte to the Abati holier-than-thou challenge, in the defence of Goodluck Jonathan.

    Now, both reactions could be credible, for it appears a classic clash between political and media merchandising, in the vigorous defence of an extant political order; and its aftermath, when that order went extinct.

    For Epa Clark, political merchandising has been something like careerism.  Well, you call it merchandising.  But Epa calls it patriotism.  Both views are not incorrect.  It just depends on from which side you’re commenting.

    From Gen. Yakubu Gowon to every other order in Nigeria’s chequered, if troubled, political history, Epa Clark had been there, giving his patriotic support.  Why? He was a long time Gowon federal commissioner (now called minister) for Information.  That was way back when Hardball was in primary school!

    Now, if Epa was that patriotic for the North, why won’t he be even more, for his own Niger Delta “son”, for whom he was rightly and patriotically well pleased?  Or, in Nigeria’s political hypocrisy, is patriotism inversely proportional (to borrow a jargon from basic chemistry) to one’s nativity?  In other words, do you get less patriotic, simply because you support your own, when the principle — patriotic support for central power — is constant?

    Hell, no, Epa’s supporters would yell!  Yeah right, valid proof of political merchandising, the contrasting camp would equally bawl!

    It’s nothing but where you’re coming from, see?

    Now, to Abati — holy or evil spirit?  Not a doubt, holy spirit — not with the way he, a mere aide, rallied for his fallen principal, when the father virtually threw him to the dogs.

    But what of Abati’s pre-Aso Rock days, which the Epa, not illegitimately, dredged up in the virtual roforofo fight?  Back then, Jonathan was plain Ahab (again, back to a Biblical allusion) and his spouse, the very Jezebel.  But progression to Aso Rock, and everything changed: Jonathan, from Ahab, morphed sharp-sharp to David and Solomon combined, the very best in all of Israel!

    Now, who are Abati, the media analyst; and Abati, the presidential spinner? The political equivalent of the two-faced Janus, whose being harbours two fiercely contrasting essences?  Or the Nigerian contemporary equivalent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — one sweet; the other sinister?

    Whether patriotism or merchandise, the driver would appear basic economics.  That seems to logically explain why Epa Clark would fiercely turn against his lifetime allies, briefly rally for a co-native, but quickly revert to his default setting, immediately that co-native ran into storm.

    For Abati, the columnist’s conversion from Paul to Saul, on the patriotic road to Damascus, explains no less.

  • Taxonomy of Ebonyi new tax regime

    Should we conduct an economic classification of Nigerian states and regions deploying such human development indices like per capita income, gross domestic product, maternal mortality ratio, infant mortality ratio, poverty index, to name a few; there is no doubt that Ebonyi State and its people will feature prominently at the lower rung of the charts. Ebonyi State can be classified as the back-quarters of the Southeast of Nigeria. Landlocked and hemmed in, it boasts neither of a major commercial outpost nor historical tourist and industrial landmarks. However, it could have been a famous agro-industrial patch notable for the production of Nigeria’s number one staple food – rice, if anyone had had the will and gumption to drive that objective.

    Unfortunately, none had managed to map the enormous potentialities of Ebonyi and harness same. Thus, the state has remained as bereft as those who have been managing it since its creation nearly 30 years ago. As in most other states, the managers of this hapless state had been content with picking up the monthly booty from Abuja and disbursing same with the judiciousness of a prodigal. Today, the Abuja revenue tap has dried up considerably and everyone is flummoxed; at sea as to the next step forward.

    This is the crux of this long introduction. The government of Ebonyi, this highly deprived state, has introduced a new tax regime as a quick fix for its current state of acute fiscal disorder. Hardball had always known that hiking of taxes would be the lazy recourse for most governors who had never seen the running of government as productive business. Increased taxation would naturally be the line of least resistance, a halfway house for a condition that is poised to be protracted and ruinous. It is also akin to the callous milking of lean cattle.

    Governor Dave Umahi had quickly introduced a new tax regime and unleashed his tax hounds on the people to forcibly extract the cash from a horde of impoverished people. And the tax ‘dogs’ needing help themselves, had in some cases, back-dated the period three years down to 2013. What atrociousness! Of course the already depressed people of Ebonyi had kicked, threatening to re-enact some of the tax riots of yore whereupon the governor had quickly stepped in last week to douse the tension.

    Hear it from the governor: the new taxes are not intended to punish the people, but to cushion the impact of the dwindling allocation accruing from the federation account. He stated further that with an improved revenue base, his administration would execute projects that would transform the state and better the lots of the people. Wow!

    From the above statement, it is obvious that the governor and his cabinet has not given a hard thought as to how to pull his state out of the impending deep fiscal crisis unfolding before our eyes. Coming in at a season of economic anomie, Hardball has been looking out for that governor to think out of the box and show us a paradigmatic blueprint for running his state. Why are we fixated on federal allocation and taxes? There must be a thousand and one ways of generating revenues in any state. Governors must think!