Category: Hardball

Kenyan President William Ruto’s daughter, Charlene, has stirred the hornets’ nest. She runs an ‘Office of the First Daughter’ that she claims is a private entity not funded by Kenyan taxpayers. Over the last week, she incurred a firestorm of criticisms by her countryfolk who accused her of misusing public funds. She countered, however, that she wasn’t doing anything wrong.

William Ruto was sworn into office as Kenya’s fifth president last September, succeeding ex-President Uhuru Kenyatta who served out the two terms permitted by Kenyan law. Since her father became president, Charlene has been regularly meeting leaders across the country, attending international fora and meeting foreign dignitaries. She’s also held high-profile events and meetings under the office that isn’t known to Kenyan law. In a video lately shared widely online, Ms. Ruto was seen speaking to an audience at a summit in Tanzania where she introduced her “team from Kenya” including her adviser and another designated as “head of trade and investments at the Office of the First Daughter.” The audience appeared to chuckle aloud, prompting Charlene to say “I don’t get what is funny” as she attempted to continue with the introductions.

There has been an outrage from Kenyans, with Ms. Ruto trending on Twitter last week as her countryfolk queried the status of her office and whether she was using taxpayers’ money. In obvious reaction, she responded with a statement saying: “The Office of the First Daughter is a private entity. It is neither a constitutional office nor is it being funded by the Kenyan taxpayer.” She went on to explain that her “office” has an “independent structure and facilitators,” as she touted its “objectives of championing youth-based agendas and climate change advocacy.” Charlene had sparked online debates previously amid her political engagements, with many Kenyans describing her as a “low budget version of Ivanka” – the daughter of former United States President Donald Trump who played high-stake roles in her father’s administration. Some nicknamed her ‘Quickmart Ivanka,’ referencing a low-cost Kenyan supermarket, which she didn’t seem too upset about as she tweeted a video of herself smiling and walking around the grocery chain.

But Charlene’s argument about her office being a “private entity” does not wash. If it is, why tie it to her father being president rather than give it a private identity? Besides, it is ironic that her father ran on the narrative of ending dynasties in Kenyan politics – he contested the August election against Raila Odinga, son of a former vice-president who was backed by outgoing President Kenyatta, himself the son of Kenya’s first leader. Now she seems to want to create a new dynasty.

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has made an overture of sorts to President Muhammadu Buhari with whom he is perceived to be at political odds. He has invited the President for project commissioning in his state.

As Nigeria’s leader, even though elected on All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, it is standard for President Buhari to go flag off projects in any of the 36 states nationwide regardless of the party affiliation of the sitting governor. When he stumps in states ruled by APC governors, like he recently did in Imo State where Governor Hope Uzodinma holds turf, the visits are perceived as shoring up the ruling party’s capital. But the President as well goes to states ruled by non-APC governors. He was lately in Bauchi State, where Governor Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) holds the reins, to conduct ground-breaking ceremony of some oil leases in the the Kolmani field located on the border between Bauchi and Gombe states. He was also recently in Rivers State, represented by Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister Abubakar Malami (SAN), to inaugurate the Port Harcourt complex of the Nigerian Law School constructed by the administration of Governor Nyesom Wike who is of the PDP.

Ortom, who is also of the PDP, has often been critical of the Buhari presidency against the backdrop of recurrent attacks on Benue communities by suspected killer herdsmen. He has often railed at the President as failing to provide security in line with his constitutional mandate, and failing to rein in the menace of the attackers. But even with ostensible basis for his bitterness, Ortom’s venom spewing against the Buhari presidency was viewed in many quarters as partisan squabbling. In recent times, though, he has been at odds with his own party following the presidential primary that threw up Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its flagbearer for the 2023 election, upon which a splinter group of governors tagged ‘the G-5’ has demanded resignation of PDP National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu as precondition for supporting Atiku.

The Benue governor, early last week, said he had invited President Buhari to come commission two newly constructed cell blocks at the Makurdi medium correctional centre in the wake of jailbreaks across the country. He made this known at a meeting with the people of Ugondo, the host community for the correctional service. There must be other projects lined up for the President to flag off; otherwise, a presidential visit to commission prison blocks?! It would have been a cynical underhand against the presidency and an extension of the war of attrition if not well intended. But even with the best of intention, it cheapens the President to commission jail blocks.

At the beginning of the year, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum had supplied disturbing information showing that the Federal Government could not correctly claim to be winning the war against terrorism. He said two local government areas in the state were under the control of Boko Haram terrorists.

Winning the anti-terrorism war should actually mean that no part of the country is controlled by terrorists. So, if terrorists were in control of parts of the country, it suggested that the authorities did not understand the meaning of winning.

The troubled governor had given the troubling information to members of the Senate Committee on Army during their visit to him in January at the Government House in Maiduguri.

Zulum had told the visitors: “Two of our local government headquarters are still under the control of Boko Haram terrorists, Malamfatori in Abadam local government and Guzamala. We want the owners of these two local governments to take over, that is the government of Borno State and the two local governments.”

This month, as the year is ending, the Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, told journalists that two local government areas in the state were controlled by terrorists.

According to him, ‘’two local government headquarters – Gudumbali and Kukawa towns are no-go areas for civic activities because Boko Haram is in control. And this should worry the federal government.”

The lawmaker lamented that because of the situation the residents of the affected areas had not benefitted from the state government’s development projects in the last three and a half years. “These two council areas have received nearly zero developmental projects,” he said.

It is unclear if the governor and the speaker talked about the same areas. But it is significant that the heads of the executive and legislative branches of the state government talked about terrorists controlling parts of the state.

The Federal Government has been unable to defeat Boko Haram in a war that has gone on for more than a decade. The growing presence of another terrorist group, the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), which has come strongly into the picture, suggests that the country’s war against terrorism is not going to end soon.

The presence and activities of terrorist groups should not be normal features of life in the country. The areas directly affected by terrorism are not the only ones that are suffering because insecurity in parts of the country amounts to insecurity in the country as a whole.

Starting this week, Nigerians should begin to transact in the new naira notes being introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The set date for dispensing the new notes is Thursday, 15th December, but it could come earlier since Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele last week said the apex bank had issued the new N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations to banks for disbursement to their customers ahead of the scheduled circulation date.

The CBN had mid-October announced the policy by which old notes in the stated denominations will cease to be legal tenders from 31st January, 2023, against the backdrop that there’s reportedly three trillion naira cash circulating outside of the banking system. Cash holders are required to pay their old notes into bank vaults before expiration date, and Emefiele confirmed last week that the apex and deposit banks had cumulatively taken in about a trillion naira. A major objective of the naira redesign is to drive CBN’s cashless policy, hence the bank last Tuesday unveiled a revised cash withdrawal limit of N20,000 per day and N100,000 per week for individuals, and N100,000 / N500,000 for corporates effective from 9th January.

There is no question the radical CBN policy will help liquidity control in the economy and deal a heavy blow on money launderers. But the proverbial Nigerian factor will likely hobble the policy and cause pains for citizens in the street economy. One strand of that factor is the ease with which the poor masses would be able to get the new notes. The CBN boss did assure that the new currencies “will go round, let’s just be calm.” But this is a country where mint notes used to be hoarded and traded in by persons connected to the banking system, and it remains to be seen whether illicit quick commerce would not be made with dispensing the new notes. Besides, Emefiele was upbeat the old and new notes will circulate concurrently as legal tender until 31st January. Only it doesn’t work out so smoothly in the street economy where operators could begin rejecting the old notes soonest out of legitimate fear of how easily these could be swapped before expiry date. Mark it, some people will start rejecting the old notes right away.

Another sore point is the new cash withdrawal limit. The Nigerian economy is far from being digitalized, and available digital platforms function fitfully at best. You would have to withdraw cash over a couple of days now to buy a bag of rice from a market seller who neither has a point of sale terminal nor can be bothered about one. And to get live groceries, you would need to draw cash over many weeks. It’s Emefiele’s world!

It always showed up now and then. But nothing freshly highlighted dysfunction in the Muhammadu Buhari administration like the credibility battle that lately raged between Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister Zainab Ahmed and her Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development counterpart, Hajiya Sadiya Farouk, over a N206billion vote in latter ministry’s 2023 budget.

As part of legislative processing of government’s budget proposals for appropriation, both chambers of the National Assembly quizzed the two ministers on a N206,242,395,000 cost line in the humanitarian affairs ministry’s 2023 budget said to be for purchase of military equipment. In her defense before Senate Committee on Special Duties, Hajiya Farouk disowned the cost line, saying she needed clarifications from the finance ministry that allegedly inserted it in her ministry’s budget. “On the N206billion, when we saw it, we didn’t understand what it was meant for because the explanation wasn’t clear. If you put N206billion in humanitarian affairs ministry’s budget and the narration is purchase of military equipment, definitely something is wrong,” she told the Senate panel inter alia. Pressed by the lawmakers on whether she had requested N206billion for something else, but it came with a different narration in the bill, she simply fudged: “It’s not exactly that way, and that is why we need clarity from finance ministry.”

Finance Minister Ahmed has explained, however, that the cost line is rightly domiciled in the humanitarian affairs ministry, only there was a coding error by the Budget Office in the budget preparation system. She gave this explanation in her separate appearances before the Senate and House of Representatives committees on appropriation.  According to her, the vote is for the National Social Safety Net Project of which a World Bank loan is the funding source. She explained that there is a projected drawdown of $473,500,000 calculated at N206,242,395,000 using the N435.57/$ exchange rate applicable to the 2023 budget, noting that the same project was correctly captured in the 2022 budget of the humanitarian affairs ministry, with $30million drawdown amounting to N12,304,500,000 at N410.15/$ exchange rate used. Ahmed argued that the humanitarian affairs minister should have called the attention of the budget office to the error like her counterparts in other ministries who had similar challenges did. She canvassed collaboration among ministries, department and agencies of government, saying issues would’ve been easily clarified between MDAs if they followed established lines of budget preparation.

Even before now, tendencies in government showed the finance minister was utterly right. In other words, there has been enough dysfunction as to undermine the coherence of the administration. That, obviously, is unhelpful. And though the Buhari administration has only a few months left, it isn’t too late to effect redress.

Finger-pointing by political authorities in the country is not the proper and effective response to the national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 17.

Significantly, the MPI is a new perspective on poverty that goes beyond Monetary Poverty Measurement (MPM) and provides new insights into the issue. They together give a holistic picture of poverty in the country.

The MPI report said 133 million Nigerians, over half of the population of Nigeria, were “multidimensionally poor,” and “high deprivations” were “apparent nationally in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing.” This figure represents 63 percent of the country’s population of more than 200 million.  Three out of five Nigerians live in poverty, according to the report.

In a defensive article, the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, observed that the rural areas “contributing the most to the country’s poverty status are outside of the Federal Government’s obligations but sit squarely within the jurisdiction and legal responsibilities of sub-national government, that is, state governors and local government chairmen and councillors.”

The junior minister’s observations showed that tackling poverty in the country demands contributions from state and local governments too. He argued that “It is patently unfair to leave the Federal Government alone to take on the task of poverty alleviation in the country.”

Certainly, it is important to ask what state and local governments have done, and what they are doing, to tackle poverty in the spaces they govern.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) also got defensive. Its Director of Media and Public Affairs, AbdulRazaque Bello-Barkindo, said in a statement: “The primary duty of any government is to ensure the security of lives and property, without which no sensible human activity takes place. But the Federal Government, which is responsible for the security of lives and property, has been unable to fulfil this covenant with the people…

“How does a minister whose government has been unable to ensure security, law, and order have the temerity to blame governors?”

Data from MPM and MPI calls into question the anti-poverty efforts of the Federal Government, and also raises questions about the seriousness of state and local governments in the fight against poverty. Poor governance provides enabling conditions for both monetary poverty and multidimensional poverty.

The mutual accusations are of no use and a waste of time. All levels of government in the country should deal with the poverty problem using good governance.