The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • ‎Buhari and Fasehun’s Numbing Irrationality

    I am trying hard not to succumb to the temptation of believing Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, the founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has reached the age of diminishing values or returns, natural with  the human person. I don’t want to accept the reality starring me in the face that  Fasehun  has become senile. Accepting his senility would place a moral burden on my conscience for not voicing out at the obvious risk  of venerable Nigerians who might throng to him for medical attention.
    A few days ago, Fasehun addressed a clan of journalists in Lagos. At the media interface, he declared President Buhari unfit to continue in office and counseled for his resignation. Fasehun is a medical doctor, but his conclusions about the unfitness of President Buhari to continue in office is not based on any empirical or verifiable medical inquest.
    Fasehun has not told Nigerians whether he medically examined President Buhari personally or he is privy to any report by the London doctors of the President who may have declared him too frail and weak to continue in office. Fasehun spoke like touts in the motor park.
    It is sad that Fasehun disgraced the noble medical profession by relying on what Nigerian comedian Gordons  call “eye gauge”, to pass his judgment for public consumption. To civilized minds, Fasehun’s outbursts on the medical condition of the President  belongs to the realm of quackery. It explains my initial fears about the potential risk Nigerians face if they dare to patronize his medical shop.
    Nigeria is an interesting nation. It is a country where people earn a living through farcical confrontation of government or the holder of an important office in the land. And the only inducement for such dishonorable conduct, most times, sprouts from a personal or selfish interest that is thwarted or truncated somewhere.  So, they become disillusioned and utter all inanities like accident victims.
    Fasehun has advertised himself on this shameful plank. Freedom of expression democracy has guaranteed is a sharp and dangerous sword. Those immersed in its liberty and excited by the protection it embodies, sometimes,  expose themselves to ridicule, like in the instant case of Fasehun. In his perverse conviction, he was cleverly blackmailing President Buhari and instigating Nigerians against his continued occupation of the office of the President. But he ended up chanting the chorus of his foolery.
    The OPC founder is bruised and sad with the APC government led by President Buhari. He is angry because the Buhari Presidency has terminated the multi-billion naira juicy contract awarded OPC for the protection of oil pipelines. They did nothing, but got paid handsomely as their “share”  of the national cake.
    It translated into government paying people for idling. But President Buhari is not ready to play that kind of game. So, he terminated the contract and, Fasehun is piqued that the cord nourishing his thirst has been severed.
    So, Fasehun sees no reason for the continuation of the Buhari Presidency, now that sickness, the unforeseen, took him off his duty for months. Therefore, the OPC leader has seen it as an opportunity to lament and wail himself out, but through the dubious façade of playing the card of public interest.
    But Fasehun’s antics have refused to fly in the face of Nigerians. The antics are meaningless and no sane Nigerian recognizes him as a personality deserving serious attention. He is a bad case and should zero his mind about inciting anybody.
    I am sure President Buhari will  not  annul his decision of cancelling the oil pipelines protection contract the PDP government awarded to OPC. It makes no sense to him,  because it is duplication of public expenditure. If government pays security agents to secure Nigeria, it has no business paying private people to again secure Nigeria. It is like government encouraging the usurpation of the job of security agents. Fasehun is obviously unhappy that security agents are performing this duty excellently.
    Even if Fasehun stokes the blackmail of the Buhari Presidency further, by instigating renewed oil pipelines vandalization in the region, the President Buhari I know will not engage the services of private security providers. He will opt for Nigeria’s conventional security – the Police, Civil defence and possibly, the military, if the situation escalates beyond civil security agencies.
    In Nigeria, most elders like Fasehun have mortgaged self-worth and gambled their conscience on the altar of mindless quest for wealth acquisition.  Their utterances betray everything noble. President Buhari has just returned back to Nigeria after his medical vacation in London. Every Nigerian, including those who have decided to declare him their enemies are jubilating and thanking God for preserving his life for the nation.
    But it does not make sense to the likes of Fasehun and his comrades in distraction, such as  Ekiti state Governor Ayodele Fayose and the irritant character, Femi Fani Kayode. And so they are kicking and mouthing meaningless obscenities that dissipates faster than whirlwind.
     Fasehun is thinking on the reverse side. He wants to be more catholic than the Pope. So, he knows better than Buhari and his doctors in London. He has placed himself in a position to dictate recuperation time for President Buhari.
    The rational question I wish to ask Fasehun is, must a person recuperating from illness necessarily resign his job to guarantee full recovery? Such thinking is only in fool’s paradise. And unfortunately, Nigeria is not a fool’s paradise, but a nation peopled by intelligent, sympathetic and conscionable men and women. The likes of Fasehun would certainly resent the decency that has become of Nigeria, especially under the Buhari Presidency.
    The OPC founder laughably alludes to a cabal in the Presidency who are frustrating the resignation of President Buhari. I don’t want to dabble into the myth of a cabal in the Presidency as bandied by some Nigerians. But it is insulting for Fasehun to attempt to diminish the intelligence and aptitude of the President by insinuating that President Buhari is incapable of independent and rational thoughts and decisions.
     Buhari is not a robot and cannot be regulated by a cabal. But if the cabal is so powerful as to restrain President Buhari from resigning, would the ranting of a Fasehun dissolve this resolve or weaken the capacity of the “cabal” to hold unto the strings? Its absolute nonsense! It makes no sense to me.
    Nigerians are quiet and would neither protest nor call for the resignation of President Buhari as canvassed by Fasehun. It is so because there are no compelling reasons to toe the path of Fasehun’s irrationality.
    What   Fasehun is dreading or the reason for his fears is something I cannot fathom. But I guess he is voicing out for the veiled interests that wanted President Buhari dead in London in the first place. Or those who were expecting to see him comeback an incapacitated man who is aided to disembark from the Presidential aircraft;  aided to his official car, speechless  and assisted to feed. They would have shouted hallelujah and giggled to themselves in their dark shrines, that “we said it”.
    But they are not God who gives life and good health. So, they are disappointed to see President Buhari bounce back incredibly. They should just lick their wounds quietly, before they provoke national outrage against them.
    Okanga writes from Agila, Benue State.
  • APC’s battle to restore meritocracy in Edo

    APC’s battle to restore meritocracy in Edo

    The logic and reason behind the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) criticism of the policies of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State are often disturbingly shallow and many times, absolutely ridiculous.

    This is especially so because this same political party ruled over this country and indeed Edo State for nearly two decades and literarily left the nation and all the states where they held sway in ruins.

    You only need to look at the pages of the newspapers on any day, and you are certain to see revelations of the mindless looting which was supervised by the now degenerating political entity.

    Under the guidance of the PDP, an estimated N400 billion, or the equivalent of $4.6 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP), representing 39 per cent of the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016, was paid out as bribes to public officials in Nigeria annually. As shown in a new report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), revealed last week.

    The National Corruption Report, which covered the period between June 2015 and May 2016 also showed that almost a third of Nigerian adults (32.3 percent) who had contact with public officials between June 2015 and May 2016 had to pay, or were requested to pay a bribe to such public officials.

    This was the sort of culture which the PDP promoted both in Edo State and in other parts of the country, invariably resulting in a failed system where people had to resort to corruption to get ahead.

    So terrible was the situation that adults in the public and private sectors; young people and children in Universities, Secondary and Primary Schools, were introduced to a new ‘normal’ where success, wealth and victory did not come to you based on your competence but based on how much bribe you are willing and able to pay or how many people you knew on the corridors of power.

    Essentially, meritocracy was sacrificed on the altar of malpractices and corruption, leading civil servants, teachers, businessmen, students, pupils among others to abandon their quest for knowledge and capacity enhancement for the simple reason that promotion or increase was no longer secured on the basis of how good you were or how much you knew.

    Such was the state of Edo when the APC wrestled it from the PDP. Unfortunately, as they say, old habits die hard, and so the new ruling party in the state has been riding tirelessly against the tide of the culture of corruption enthroned by the PDP, trying to get the people to see that merit as the only currency for success and promotion has been restored.

    This same problem surfaced recently when Governor Godwin Obaseki introduced capacity enhancement testing for civil servants to identify the areas where government workers have skills gap to be able to fashion out appropriate training programmes for them.

    The same PDP leaders who damaged the system which the APC is now making efforts to fix began to scream and misinform government workers that the testing being done by the current government was designed to select workers for victimization and sack.

    Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Governor Obaseki has since dismissed the fear looming in some quarters that the ongoing assessment of senior civil servants in the state was designed to fish out incompetent workers for sack, assuring that such fears are baseless.

    Obaseki who was at Imaguero College, Benin City, venue of the assessment, last Wednesday, said that the exercise was in good faith and not a competency test as being rumoured.

    He explained that Edo civil servants are competent and do not require any further competency test. “Before they were employed, their competency was tested, and that is why they are working in the Civil Service. But before promotions are made in the Civil Service, senior civil servants go through assessments to fill vacant positions in the directorate cadre,”

    He added that the exercise was part of the strategy to strengthen the Civil Service for effective service delivery and assured that no employee writing the examination would be sacked.

    The governor disclosed that the recent examination conducted for staff members on levels 16 and 17 in the state was an eye opener as some civil servants were discovered to be very good and were appointed Permanent Secretaries.

    “We are not sacking anybody, but want to strengthen the service so that it can deliver quality services to the state. The assessment is not compulsory but necessary for promotion as those who need to be promoted would have to be assessed. If you refuse, then there may be no basis for your promotion,” Obaseki said.

    For teachers who kicked against the assessment, the governor said it was unfortunate as his administration did not intend to exclude teachers from the resulting promotion exercise and added that the two teachers that performed very well in the last exercise were appointed Permanent Secretaries.

    “We want to give everyone the opportunity to participate, but if teachers say they don’t want to be part of the process, no one will force them, we would, however, have no basis to promote their senior colleagues,” he added.

    This explanation of the issue by the governor has been completely sidestepped by mischief makers who are bent on constantly stirring a storm in a teacup, with the intention of smearing the good reputation of Governor Obaseki.

    Suffice to say however that this propaganda is an effort in futility.

    The Edo people who chose Obaseki as their governor did so with deep discernment and this ability to assess peoples’ character very much resides with them. They know without doubt that Obaseki in all his actions is fighting for their best interest.

     

    Osagie is the Special Adviser to Governor Obaseki on Media and Communication Strategy

     

  • Think before you talk

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s (PMB) presidency resembles that of the United States of America, President Donald Trump, in many respects even though there are significant differences. One similarity. While many of their admirers would give their lives for their sake, many also despise them. So, while they are the messiahs for some, for some others, they are the problem. Polarized, there is love and hate, with equal intensity.

    As you read this, PMB is supposed to have made his much awaited speech yesterday.  But will the speech change anything? If Trump is my President, I would have gotten a handle on what he is likely to say as I write, through his tweets.  But unlike Trump, and even some of his traducers who had pontificated that they had proof of his near death misses, PMB thinks before he talks as the mother of the protester killed in the racially induced crisis in the USA, advised Trump.

    If PMB were Trump, he would have since in one fit of tweetism given away the secret about his health. But not PMB. Instead of hinting at whether he underwent a life changing medical process in the past 103 days, he lived in the Abuja House, in London, or whether like the former first lady, Patience Jonathan, it was staying away from Aso Rock which Ruben Abati hinted is infested with strange spirits that cured him, there is secrecy, as I write.

    Unlike Trump, who once is excited would ignore his handlers and spill the beans, there is no social media hint or off the cuff interview from PMB, whether it was his famous doctors that finally gave him the green light to return home, or whether he disobeyed his doctors and came back to Nigeria, to prove to Charly Boy and company of the Ourmumudondo group, that his admirers who unquestionably support him, are no mumu.

    Indeed, as I write, there is no hint whether PMB will resign to save his health from relapsing, as some advised, or whether he has recovered fully to get down to the business of governance and even start to assemble his re-election campaign team for the 2019 general election, to stop in their tracks, those who have been toying with the idea of replacing him, as some of his dyed-in-the-wood followers, clearly wish.

    As the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, former minister, Femi Fani-Kayode and their ilk grapple with having failed woefully in their prediction that PMB would never come back to Nigeria, healthy or even alive, talk less of comparatively bouncing down the stairway of the presidential aircraft; the country after the euphoria of PMB’s return from a medical tourism that should thoroughly embarrass our country for the billions of naira squandered over the years maintaining our medical facility, will face its dire straits.

    While this column is happy that PMB is well enough to come back to our country, it has no doubt that if PMB stays as president, then he has to change his tactics to make any significant difference. This column hopes our dear president realises that the nation he leads is ailing even more than he was and does not have the luxury of seeking for life-saving efforts from competent experts, abroad.

    So, if the president honestly wishes to achieve something, then the change must begin with him. The crisis facing our country is enormous and there should not be any form of make-believe. For instance, while the president has huge followership, especially among the northern talakawas, (the point sought to be made by his handlers who leaked the information that he was returning and mobilized his supporters to boot), he must know that he has not significantly affected their lives.

    To make a difference, the president must build a new political consensus to be able to improve the economy, in other to be able to change lives. He had run a one-man show while he was fully in-charge, taking advantage of the way the country is structured. With too much powers concentrated in the hands of the president, the vice president was no more than a spare tyre, until the president was temporary deflated by illness.

    But while his absence gave a form of elixir to the power-base of the vice president, the rest of the power-elite are still in a lurch. Indeed, if the president hangs around for long without changing tactics, the little oxygen gained by those who gained, would be exhausted, and they will have to join, even if tacitly, those already gasping for life since the inception of this regime, with the national oxygen shot away from them.

    The cyclic crisis is a product of the over-concentration of power in the hands of whoever runs the central government. President Buhari, if he has the courage, could gain pre-eminence as a leader if he works to decentralize some power from the centre. While nothing short of emergency powers, will be needed to return the country to regional government, there is a lot the president can do democratically.

    Few days ago, I had a conversation with a nephew, a graduate engineer. He told me in clear terms that he compares our country to the Apartheid South Africa. In his view, while the Hausa-Fulani are treated as the white supremacists, his own tribe, the Igbo and many other tribes, represent the then deprived blacks. I argued differently that there is a systemic discrimination between the corrupt-elite and the poor, in a near lawless Nigeria, (with the Hausa-Fulani who has welded more political power since independence producing more of the roguish elite).

    But I adopt his thesis on apartheid, to the extent that it is those who have been benefiting from the status quo that must give up some of their privileges, just like the white supremacists did in South Africa if they don’t want to lose everything in the chaos that will come. The president must be told that there is the preponderance of opinion that it is people of his descent that are refusing the attempt to restructure the country.

    And considering that it was under the military governments that the states, save the Mid-west State, were carved out of the three regions negotiated at Independence, in 1960; the president’s region has an excessive proportion of representatives in the National Assembly, and they have used it to scuttle any attempt at democratically restructuring the country.

    Again, using the apartheid model, the president’s region should use their current advantage to negotiate a workable deal to save the country. Of course, I do not mean the recent strange proposition by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, asking that instead of restructuring the country – to share the nation’s productive opportunities and power centres; he rather supports the sharing of some national assets, like the dams.

  • NPA vs. Senate: Where Umar got it wrong

    Moral icons, whose words and conduct can scarcely be impeached, exist in every society. More often than not, any intervention they make is always done with a high sense of responsibility, always guided by the knowledge that any misplaced opinion could injure the innocent or imperil the group or society.

    I want to believe that our moral icons like Abubakar Umar are aware that their every speech, even body language, sends strong signals to the society whether in Nigeria or abroad. The people listen, trusting that their views would form that ethical barometer for gauging the moral health of the society.

    From available evidence, our own Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar did not apply the necessary caution before sending out his recent article, Watch It, Nigerian Senate in which he attacked the Joint Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs, and Marine Transport for purportedly arm-twisting the Nigeria Customs Service and the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala Usman. He claimed that the joint committee was frustrating the anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari. It was obvious that Umar’s target was the Senator from Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise Duties and Tariffs.

    As an experienced administrator, the highly respected soldier will admit that where the premise is wrong, the deductions are bound to be questionable if not flatly hopeless. Unfortunately, on many occasions, he was caught flat-footed in his article. Let us start with his claim that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff weighed in on the matter of Customs versus Masters Energy Commodities Trading Limited because he is also the chairman of the Masters Energy. That is “fake news”. The chairman of Masters Energy is Uche Ogar, one of Nigeria’s leading industrialists.

    Then he goes on to echo the allegation by the NPA management to the effect that the joint venture agreement between Messrs Niger Global Engineering & Technical Company Limited and Calabar Channel Company, CCM, did not follow the due process. But the bid invitation was advertised in The Guardian of September 21, 2014. Companies were screened and Niger Global won after the attorney general of the federation had vetted the contract and presidential approval received. The retired colonel claims along the same line as the NPA that the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, opposed the Calabar deal. That again, is not true as there is evidence that the BPP director general at the time, Engineer Emeka Ezeh indeed issued a certificate of no objection to the agreement. Also false is the claim that CCM/Niger Global was paid for work not done. Official records not only confirm that work was done but show that payments were made to entities with global renown in dredging activities.

    The most damning rebuttal of the claim that no work was done comes from within the NPA itself, that is, the report of an internal panel set up by Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman herself. Recommendations (iii) and (iv) of the panel, make nonsense of any allegation of fraudulent claims by Niger Global. Section (iii) states: “Having verified volumes dredged, all outstanding payments to CCML should be effected in line with the provisions of the JV Agreement” while Section (iv) states: “That in view of the subsisting Presidential approval for the JV, CCML be allowed to continue with the operations but at a reduced scale to be determined by the Authority’s need and CCML’s Board Technical and Finance Committees”.

    Between Umar and the NPA MD, somebody must be economical with the truth.  But before you jump to any conclusion, cognizance should be taken of the fact that documents that are already in the public domain show that, through the United Bank for Africa Plc, Niger Global had made some payments to its partners thus: Societe Dragage/Luxembourg SA ($3, 600, 000); Dredging International Services (Cyprus) ($1, 207, 440) and Nigerian Westminster Dredging & Marine Limited ($500, 000). These payments were made between August 21, 2015 and August 24, 2015.  Furthermore, the Nigerian Navy also confirmed that it had provided security services to the dredging company for Calabar Channel between 20 November 2014 and 15 January 2015

    It is shocking that in spite of the welter of evidence, Ms. Hadiza Usman and Col. Umar (rtd) want the world to believe that those payments were fictitious, that the NPA panel, headed by Professor Idris Abubakar, an executive director of NPA, should be ignored, that the Nigerian Navy lied; that all is just a conspiracy to remove this young woman who is doing an excellent job!

    It is indeed appalling that Umar could be hoodwinked into believing the fiction that Niger Global was incorporated in 2014, as a special purpose vehicle to corner the Calabar project and siphon public funds whereas Niger Global has been in operation since 1996, 15 solid years before Hope Uzodinma got to the Senate; it couldn’t have been incorporated to take advantage of his position as a senator.

    It is pertinent to ask: why has Umar singled out Senator Hope Uzodinma for blackmail in a situation where another senate committee, marine transport, is involved? Was it Hope Uzodinma who blew the whistle on the “missing” 282 vessels? Did he single-handedly script the petitions, and railroad the Senate into constituting a joint committee to achieve his selfish interests? What confers on him the capacity to micro-manage the entire Senate? Or do we accept conspiracy theories that the managing director of NPA was looking for a scapegoat to abort investigations into the “missing” vessels thereby causing the federal government huge revenue losses? Who, then, is undermining the fight against corruption?

    The claim that Senator Hope Uzodinma is victimizing the managing director of NPA is a gratuitous insult on a man who has placed the national interest above every consideration in his legislative activities. Perhaps Ms. Usman and Col. Umar (rtd.) should carry their campaign to Rev Jonathan Nicol, the president of the Shippers’ Association who, not long ago threw his weight behind the probe by the joint committee of the Senate. Admonishing the joint committee not to succumb to “cheap blackmail” Rev. Nicol disclosed that the practice whereby ship owners colluded with importers to evade customs duties had been on for some time and that his association’s effort to have audience with the MD of NPA on the matter had not yet succeeded.

    From the above, it is obvious that the claim of witch-hunting cannot be sustained. I regret to say that Col. Umar got it wrong this time around. As a public servant, the NPA chief executive should submit the activities of her agency to public scrutiny, a role that the legislature is constitutionally empowered to perform. She is already in the ring; she cannot hide. Let her explain to the Senate joint committee what she knows about the missing vessels. That does not and should not interfere with whatever she is doing about the Calabar Port. In fact, those of us from the South-south with particular reference to the old Cross River State will be overjoyed when the port swings into full operation. And the federal government should not be shy spending money in our zone.

  • Saving oil revenue for the rainy day

    All over the world, resource-rich countries like Nigeria that depend on revenues from natural resources to finance annual budgets plan early to insulate themselves from  price volatility in the international market and depletion of the resources. Many of these countries do so by setting up stabilization funds to save for the rainy day and for the future.  This essentially requires a deliberate policy to set aside money earned from natural resources especially during periods of high prices to smoothen expenditure when prices fall.

    The stabilization funds also protect these countries against total dependence on natural resources revenue. The essence of saving for the rainy day is that it also helps resource-rich nations to effectively address the resource curse syndrome and the moral burden of generational equity.

    In Nigeria, the idea of saving a portion of oil and gas revenues for the rainy day and for the future generation began in 1989 when the Stabilisation Fund was set up.  The objective was to set aside 0.5% of revenues going into the Federation Account to support “any state of the Federation that suffers absolute decline in its revenues as a result of circumstances beyond its control.”

    However, investigations reveal that management of the Stabilization Fund over the years was anything but prudent. For instance, the Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement Audit Report by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), released in 2013 showed that while N109.7 billion was transferred into the account for the period between 2007 and 2011, N152.4 billion was withdrawn from the Fund for purposes other than its original intent.

    The result was that the opening balance which stood at N41 billion in January 2007 was further depleted to N36.1 billion by December 2011. A recent Occasional Paper released by NEITI disclosed that as at May 31, 2017, only N29.02 billion was left in this Fund.

    In 2004, the government again set up another fund known as the Excess Crude Account (ECA), most probably to address the failure noticed in the management of the Stabilisation Fund. This time the government adopted what it called an “Oil Price-based Fiscal Rule policy” in the management of the account. Under the arrangement, revenues in excess of a pre-determined commodity price were saved in a Consolidated Revenue Fund under the custody and management of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The law that set up the Excess Crude Account also provided clear stringent conditions under which spending from the account could be permitted.

    However, findings in a recent publication by NEITI revealed that the conditions for withdrawal from the account were seriously abused and violated..

    The Occasional Paper which focused on “the case for a robust oil savings fund for Nigeria” revealed that the total credit balance in the Excess Crude Account as at May, 2017 was a meagre $2.3 billion for a country with a huge population like Nigeria.

    Again, and  perhaps in efforts to address the challenges being experienced in the management of the Excess Crude Account and the Stabilization Fund, the National Economic Council in 2010,approved the creation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) with a seed capital of $1 billion. The Fund was placed under the management of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, specially set up for this purpose.  Since coming to power in May 2015, the Buhari Administration has boosted the fund by injecting additional $500 million bringing its total capital base to $1.5b.

    The SWF is quite unique in several ways. This probably explains why three distinct (ring-fenced) components   were created within the fund structure namely; the Future Generations’ Fund, Nigeria Infrastructure Fund and Stabilization Fund.

     Under the arrangement, 60% of the Sovereign Wealth Fund was allocated equally to the three components while 40% was allocated at the discretion of the Board of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. Investigations by NEITI revealed that the Board allocated 40% each to the Future Generations and the Infrastructure Funds, while Stabilization Fund has 20%. The threshold is to be reviewed every two years by the NSIA, giving consideration to our country’s population and growth projections.

    The Stabilization Fund component of the Sovereign Wealth Fund was invested in short-term assets that are easily monetized for possible budget augmentation. Up to 10% of the Infrastructure Fund was invested in identified key “development projects” such as agriculture, healthcare, motorways, power and real estate. The projects include the presidential initiative to deliver locally produced fertilizer at an affordable price. The immediate aim is to deliver 100 million metric tons of fertilizer in 2017 for direct delivery to rural farmers, resulting in potential budgetary savings from fertilizer subsidies, foreign exchange savings and job creation. Other projects include the $200 million Agriculture Fund Investment, the Family Homes Fund, and the Second Niger Bridge while up to 60% of profits from the SWF are available every year for distribution to the three tiers of government.

      Findings by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), shows that investments into the SWF seed capital of $1.5 billion has  generated net income profit  of N505 million in its first 15 months, N15.8 billion in 2014, N26.3 billion in 2015 and N149.83 billion as at last year ending. This is a feat never achieved by savings in the Excess Crude Account or the 0.5% Stabilization Fund.

    Further disclosures by NEITI report shows that all Nigeria’s efforts at saving some portion of oil revenues for the rainy day  put together have only yielded a total of $3.9 billion. The break down consists of $95 million in the Stabilization Fund, $2.3 billion in the Excess Crude Account and $1.5 billion in the SWF.

    A quick comparison with other resource rich countries that have imbibed the robust culture of saving for the rainy day and for the future of the next generation shows that Nigeria is amongst the lowest in the world. For instance, Norway with a population of 5.2 million has so far saved over $922 billion since 1990 when that country embraced the savings culture. In this direction, Russia has saved $89.9 billion since 2008 Kuwait with a population of about 4.1 million has so far saved $592 billion and Chile $24.1 billion. Even neighbouring African countries have done better. For instance, Angola has saved $4.6 billion while Botswana with a population of 2.3 million people and  endowed with solid minerals resources only has so far saved $5.7 billion since that country embraced compulsory savings culture in 1994.

    It is against this background, that NEITI has strongly recommended that the time has come  for Nigeria to embrace a robust saving culture irrespective of whether oil prices is low or high. Our country’s experience over the current   economic recession and volatility in the oil market has made this decision quite imperative.

    Under the circumstance, and given the importance of healthy savings as one of the tools for tackling resource curse, NEITI strongly recommends that the federating units especially the federal and the states governments should seek speedy resolution of all pending cases in this regard at the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of remittances to the Excess Crude Account and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.

     Besides, NEITI is of the view that all the oil revenue savings in the ECA and Stabilization Fund should be moved to and consolidated into the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund. In making this recommendation, NEITI is persuaded by the recent ranking of NSIA by the global Sovereign Wealth Institute Transparency Index, the highest by an African Sovereign Wealth Fund.

    • Dr. Orji is NEITI’s Director, Communications.
  • Obaseki and his Knack for tough decisions

    Obaseki and his Knack for tough decisions

    There is no question about Godwin Obaseki’s commitment to the welfare of Edo people as he continues to make the difficult decisions to clear out entrenched behaviours that inhibit growth Crusoe Osagie writes

    Lying adjacent to the University of Benin, Ekehuan Campus, is Garrick Memorial Secondary School (GMSS), a privately owned institution, which consists of rows of classroom blocks facing a vast open field. Regularly, especially on weekends, the open field hosts loud parties complemented with shrilling music. From burial ceremonies to wedding receptions to birthday celebrations, the catalogue of activities it hosts is endless.

    But, on August 2, the Edo State Government released a press statement, signed by the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Hon. Paul Ohonbamu, announcing the immediate ban of the use of public school premises, roads and other public places for social events. The rationale for the ban, the government said, was that the act is detrimental to the advancement of learning and the overall development of children who are forced to cope with the adverse after effect of this practice.

    “By our ancestry as Edo people, we have always shown the example of public order and decency which others have emulated over the years and this administration is determined to make Edo a model of magnificence and beauty once again,” the release said. “Henceforth, any violation of this decision of government will be dealt with in accordance with extant laws.”

    So, although the GMSS parties will continue considering that the school and its property are privately owned, the same will not be the case for its contemporaries that are owned by government.

    A Ferocious Backlash

    In a report published by the Vanguard Newspaper ten days after the ban was announced, it was alleged that a number of Edo people are not happy with the decision, after some scheduled burial and wedding ceremonies had to be disrupted as a result of the ban. The thrust of the Vanguard article was that the policy was targeted against the poor masses, “who may be unable to afford to hold such ceremonies in event centres, hotels and other private places.”

    The article quoted a press release by the Benin Youth Congress (BYC) condemning the government’s decision.

    One Osadolor Okonzuwa who issued a statement on behalf of BYC said: “The decision came too sudden for those who have made elaborate plans for marriages and burials of loved ones. Partying in houses, schools are age-long customs.”

    He claimed that the policy is anti-poor, and a gross disservice to the mass of electorates who favoured the governor’s candidature.

    “The saddest part is that youths who survive by installation of canopies and chairs will be out of business since event centres have fixed chairs and tables,” he claimed.

    However, it is rather unfortunate that the likes of Okonzuwa whose view on this issue seems precariously shallow was given the privilege of responding on behalf of the masses.

    It is sad that Okonzuwa and his cotravellers who claim to be defending the interest of the poor and downtrodden in their response to Obaseki’s policy could not wrap their minds around the fact that preserving the sanctity of these public schools is in fact an action towards the protection of the future of these poor people and their children.

    These half-baked activists need to wake up to the very elementary fact that the only sure path out of poverty for these ordinary people is a sound education which is clearly imperiled by the acts which Obaseki has now moved to terminate.

    Okonzuwa and his friends must remember that only the children of the poor attend public schools these days, and if Governor Obaseki takes a step to prevent the continued vandalism of these schools by banning partying in their premises, then it is a step invariably targeted at the well being of the less privileged and not the other way round.

    Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Basic Education, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe explained that the ban by the Edo State Government on the use of premises of public schools for social activities would check vandalism of government infrastructure, create an effective line of communication and strengthen the harmonious relationship between schools and communities where they are located.

    “With such a measure in place, communities will take over ownership of the infrastructure as critical stakeholders and put the problem of vandalism behind them,” she said.

    Law and Order for socio-economic advancement

    Obaseki’s ban is not a surprising move, judging from the kinds of decisions he has set in motion since becoming the state governor. When he decided to sanitise Benin-City’s busiest spot, Ring Road, he was confronted with lots of criticism. “He should have built a motor garage for us first,” a taxi driver lamented to me recently in the ancient metropolis.

    But more than physical infrastructure, Obaseki believes that development starts from the mind, a function of mental gymnastics. If a people cannot think development, then no level of infrastructural progress can lift them out of the muddle of mediocrity.

    “People from this side of the world have always believed in doing the wrong things. So, for me, he has done the right thing,” a Doctor of Communications at the University of Benin, Daniel Ekhareafor, noted. “It is the same with his decision to clear Ring Road. Do you know the level of crime in that place before now? What the man is trying to do is that we must have a saner society where people play according to the rules.”

    Whether Obaseki’s “doing the right thing” will earn him favourable ratings is a political mystery, but there is no question about his commitment to the welfare of the state as he continues to clear out entrenched negative behaviours that inhibit development in societies.

    For example, because a prominent person dies, some people will just decide to block major roads, pausing the flow of economic activity. This is what the Obaseki government is against. In a civilised society, there should be law and order. If you want to celebrate, rent a hall – there are actually cheap alternatives – or use a personal space, like a family compound.

    At least, be creative, so the wheels of Edo society can continue to function without unnecessary hiccups.

     

    Osagie is the Special Adviser to Governor Obaseki on Media and Communication Strategy

     

  • Oil: Another Paraffin for Terror

    The war against terrorism being persecuted against Boko Haram has entered another phase in which the terrorists are trying to resurge. They were sufficiently degraded when they were defeated in Sambisa Forest in December 2016. The war against terrorism was fought at that time with the impression that Nigeria was up against religious fanatics, whose driving force was a burning desire to impose their own brand of Islam, a strict implementation of the Sharia Code. Recent events highlighted the significance of revisiting the ideology behind Boko Haram following their attack on a group of Nigerian workers that were out on an oil exploration mission. It revived the imperative of interrogating the relationship between Boko Haram’s campaign of terror and crude oil.
    It is certainly not the first time that the allure of the revenue accruable from crude oil exploitation has been at the root of acts of terror. In Nigeria’s Niger-Delta, violent activities were once hidden behind agitation for better attitude towards the environment before it later degenerated into kidnapping to make demands and later full-blown acts of terror perpetrated by diverse militant groups in the region. Eventually the militants betrayed the impetus for their acts of terror: it was never about the environment but about them bunkering the crude oil – a process that did more damage to the environment than the legal commercial exploration while none of the accruing revenue trickled down to the impoverished population contrary to the funding claims. Even more perplexing is the trend of these militants bunkering oil with and for other nations.
    Between Nigeria and Cameroon, the animosity over Bakassi Peninsula is well documented. Nigerians expelled from their ancestral homes continue to face harrowing experiences. Cameroon, drawing on the backing of its former colonial power, France, would like to argue the case as its efforts to correct a historical wrong but would it have been interested in Bakassi Peninsula if it were a wasteland without oil resources? But for the fact that the aggression against Nigerians that were forcefully evicted from the peninsula were committed by Cameroonian Gendarmes they would have squarely qualified as terrorism.
    The conciliatory disposition of the Nigerian authorities, it appears, has not saved citizens from the harrowing experiences that come with resource conflicts. The peace bought in playing soft with the former French colony could well be the incentive that guaranteed that Nigeria’s north-east has been a killing field nearing a decade now. The Boko Haram insurgency, once explained away as religious fanaticism, has deftly transmuted into a war for the control of resources. Curiously, there is the French connection playing out again because Cameroon, Chad and Niger – all francophone neighbors in the northeast of Nigeria could have pitched in better than they did so far in the effort to rid the sub-region of terrorism.
    The oil exploratory team that were killed are working in the Lake Chad Basin region, which could potentially be excised to join any of the three neighboring countries had Nigeria not fought hard to defend its territorial integrity. Of interest is the curious coincidence that saw a degraded terror group replenishing its ranks of fighters and apparently so from outside the borders of Nigeria.
    While the military operations against the terrorists have been robust, responses on the political and economic have been tame, not much different from the peaceable approach to the Bakassi Peninsula affair. The military option would have to be continued, actually scaled up, to confront the deadliness that Boko Haram somehow manages to work up with the acquisition of sophisticated weapons that this group continues to mysteriously acquire each time it is degraded. Nigeria must therefore take that bold step to turn on the economic and other pressures of countries that are using Boko Haram for a proxy war to corner the oil resources in the Lake Chad Basin.
    For one, there is no point feeding one’s enemies, even hidden ones. Saudi Arabia knows this principle well when it imposed its blockade on Qatar after establishing that it was a state sponsor of terrorism and regional instability. Further lesson from the Middle East nation is the way it got other nations to back its measures against Qatar. Nigeria must give strong consideration to imposing its own version of blockade, which should extend to access to over land haulage of goods to errant neighbors.
    Nigeria should enlist the international community to leverage diplomacy in getting all those involved to back down and allow it have peace and enjoy the freedom to exploit its natural resources. In this, Western nations would be great assets in calling any of their own to order, as in the case of a country like France that have been mentioned as having geo-political interest in the region. For whatever it is worth, the positive disposition of the United States’ President Donald Trump is one to take full advantage of. It should be impressed upon the west that its options are limited as it were: the world is too interconnected to stoke crisis in one country and not expect matters to go full circle. A Nigeria wracked by terrorism would eventually become a global headache when the terrorists return to their francophone countries and from there into France and subsequently into other countries that have visa-free policy with the European Union.
    This is where Mr Trump must prevail on his counterparts in these countries since he risks his anti-terror efforts being rubbished. If they create conditions that allow terrorists like Boko Haram to thrive it is a matter of time before they make landfall on the American continent in waves. In addition, he should escalate the sale of military hardware to Nigeria so that the country can locally contain this menace while there is still time.
    There is no doubt that there are international NGOs waiting in the wings to unleash fake news propaganda against such genuine move to deal terrorism a decisive blow. They will do this with sole goal of slowing down any onslaught to crush Boko Haram’s Abubakar Shekau and what is left of his fighters using blackmail or any trick in the book to weaken the war on terrorism, which has mutated into something else anyway.
    The world must know that Boko Haram in Nigeria is no longer a ragtag horde of religious fanatics frothing in the mouth. They have become an economic army, soldiers of fortune that have been commissioned to carve out a piece of Nigeria for their paymaster. Will the world boldly challenge their sponsor?

    Babatunde is a conflict resolution expert and writes from Abuja.

  • Boko Haram: A Jihad Without Religion

    What has been the consistent campaigns of Boko Haram insurgents is the desire to establish an Islamic State, opposed to the ideals of western education. It has been at the core of the vigorous attempts to impose their own version of Islamism on Nigeria. Boko Haram has been seeking to forbid Muslims from participating in any political or social endeavor laced in Westernization.

    Therefore, at the point terrorists seized swathes of territories in Nigeria’s northeast, the insurgents declared them their “Caliphate,” and administered them with some strange Islamic doctrines opposed to anything sane to Islam. Insurgents deposed or killed the incumbent religious leaders and replaced them with those appointed by them.

    At the peak of terrorists’ atrocious and violent raids of communities and villages in Nigeria, they indiscriminately murdered both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The Boko Haram jihadists abducted children and women, whom they raped and contracted into forced marriage. They killed Christians, politicians, security agents and even Islamic clerics who opposed their ideology were executed. Such acts defiled all known creeds of Islam.

    In justifying their devious and absurd acts through circulated videos, the fanatical factional leader, Abubakar Shekau normally quoted copiously from the Qu’ran. But all Islamic leaders and clerics in Nigeria have declared their ideology and murderous instincts as un-Islamic.

    Perhaps, it was this sustained condemnation that sprouted the internal revolt within Boko Haram, as in the open bickering Abu Musan al Barnawi harshly scolded Abubakar Shekau and expressed deep aversion to his style of Jihadism, which spares no one and is too bloodthirsty. Musab al Barnawi, the son of the founder of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf and Shekau’s former publicist loudly decried and denounced the style of Jihad mounted by Shekau as anti-Islam, questioning his tactics.

    However, in spite of the wide condemnation of the ideology of the Shekau-led faction of Boko Haram and its atrocious outings, Shekau has kept aligning it with a religious flavor. But in recent times, the religious content of Boko Haram appears to be waning. The emphasis on establishing an Islamic Caliphate or theocratic state has dwindled considerably.

    Something striking happened in December 2016, when Nigerian troops invaded the formerly dreaded Sambisa forest. Raging troops dismantled Sambisa forest and penetrated it’s Camp Zero, where Abubakar Shekau had been dwelling in protective custody of his lieutenants. Shekau had escaped before the invasion of Sambisa, but Nigerian soldiers recovered some items in Camp Zero, Shekau’s residential shrine.

    The recovered items included a Abubakar Shekau’s personal copy of the Qur’an and flag, their insignia. Shekau abandoned these religious instruments which gave him inspiration to torment Nigerians. Symbolically, it meant the religious content in Boko Haram terrorism fled with him, much as it marked the defeat of the religious sect of Boko Haram insurgents by the Nigerian military. And probably, Shekau has been unable to lay his hands on another religious book to contrive fresh demonic doctrines to terrorize the people.

    So, the capturing of Sambisa forest, the fleeing of Shekau and the subsequent surrender of scores of Boko Haram’s top commanders to Nigerian Army had essentially announced the defeat of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria. The clearance operations conducted in the Northeast by Nigerian troops was basically to cleanse communities of remnants of fleeing terrorists.

    Some terrorists fled to neighbouring countries, where they got nourishment and regrouped. They have continued to stray into Nigerian territory to launch intermittent attacks on soft targets, mostly around the Lake Chad Basin of Borno state. These acts have heralded the morphing of the group from a religious sect to a gang, greased by the economic interests of the sponsors.

    It is therefore not completely strange the sudden resurgence of suicide bomb attacks and abductions, particularly in Borno state. It is a good guess that the terrorism emphasis and heat on Borno is also economical, hence large swathes of land in the Lake Chad Basin, with crude oil deposits has spiraled into the state.

    Experiences have indicated that politics of the control of oil resources is shadowed in some of the countries where terrorism has continued to fester. Afghanistan and Syria are classical examples. It is curious that Nigeria’s neighbours, Chad, Niger and Cameroun together with Nigeria collectively formed the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to battle terrorism in the region. The outfit was designed to function in unanimity in battling acts of terrorism in these countries.

    However, while Nigeria has actively backed the MNJTF to actualize its mandate, the other partner-countries are not keen about its functionality. Records indicate that these other countries have largely ignored funding of the security outfit meant to combat terrorism.

    It is very safe to conclude that MNJTF exists only in name and Boko Haram terrorists who flee Nigeria find safe abodes in some of these neighbouring countries, where they recuperate and gather fresh momentum to attack Nigeria. MNJTF has remained a toothless bulldog in tracking fleeing terrorists in these countries; hence the current insecurity around Borno spurred by terrorism is now greased by economic interests.

    An American conflict resolution expert, Mr. Richards Murphy recently provided strong insights that linked France’s silent force in the resurgence of Boko Haram in Nigeria. He argued that France through its proxies and former colonies could probably be funding Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria to shut out Nigeria from drilling the crude oil resources in the Lake Chad Basin.

    Murphy says, “It is not surprising that Boko Haram fighters that earlier fled into these neighboring Francophone countries have slinked back to renew attacks in Nigeria shortly after the French summit that was supposed to have fashioned a solution to their madness. If the authorities in Nigeria get their homework right they should have observed by now that something has changed. The true intent of Boko Haram is emerging and doing so fast. A pointer to this is the July attack on the team of researchers that went prospecting for petroleum in the Lake Chad Basin area.”

    Earlier reports indicate the illegal exploration of crude oil on the Nigerian side of the Lake Chad Basin. Chad Republic is reported to have engaged in this unwholesome act using the 3D oil drilling method, which it exports through the permanent Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading, (FPSO) vessel, with a capacity to store 2million barrel of crude oil.

    And quite obnoxiously, France provides support by allowing the crude oil purportedly stolen from Nigeria to be oil shipped with tankers for refining at the international refineries in the Port of Le Havre in France. And the scheme, it does appear, is to frustrate Nigeria’s moves to drill oil in the Lake Chad region, while Chad continues to feast on the resources, with France as a vicarious beneficiary. It explains the failure of the fire of Boko Haram terrorism to extinguish in Borno, comparatively with the peace and calm which have returned to Yobe and Adamawa states hitherto similarly terrorized and Nigeria generally.

    Commenting on the recent Boko Haram ambush on oil researchers in the state, Murphy hints that “… the attack was major, not one of those skirmishes where Boko Haram fighters want to inflict damages, instill terror and flee back into their hideouts. The intention was apparent annihilation on a scale that will ensure no scientist would be willing to return to the area for any prospecting.”

    “Secondly, the intensity of the attack was possible with a combination of sophisticated weaponry and accurate intelligence that made the ambush deadly. Both considerations suggest state backing for the terrorists and only one country has demonstrated interests that correspond to such capacity in the past. It has the resources to match. Furthermore, not much is heard anymore of Boko Haram’s desire for strict implementation of Sharia, which implies that the crux of the matter is about cornering resources and not the creation of a theocratic state”, he warned.

    Therefore, time has come for Nigeria to act decisively. The Nigerian military has silenced the religious Boko Haram sect. The emergent sect terrorizing parts of Borno at the moment is the economic wing of Boko Haram, heavily funded by interests bent on stealing Nigeria’s crude oil in the Lake Chad Basin.

    Nigeria needs to seriously examine this angle. It is good news that the relocation of Nigerian Service Chiefs to Borno state is not only to halt terrorists attacks on soft targets, but to unearth reasons why terrorism has resurfaced in that part of the country. No half measure should be applied on this mission, until the truth is exposed.

    With these emerging insights, the United Nations (UN) is urged to show greater interests by investigating the veiled forces promoting terrorism in Nigeria, at this stage, before it enlarges to plunge Nigeria into the experience in Afghanistan or Syria and the likes. The French President, Mr. Emmanuel Macron is also pleaded to re-examine the interests of France in the Lake Chad Basin to possibly make amendments, where it exacerbates terrorism.
    Ainoko writes from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

  • Terrorism: Trump’s Approval And End Of The Black Days

    The conjured and demonic opinions of skeptics on the unabated degeneration of Nigeria under a Buhari Presidency is the least of my nightmares. I am the more comfortable with myself because only falsehood struggles to be concealed, but truth breaks the most secured of jails to quench he thirst of man with its effervescent aura.

    But every day and across the globe, relations with Nigeria, comments about Nigeria and the engagement of her people by other nationals render these theorists of doom prostrate. Nigeria is unstoppably regenerating under President Muhammedu Buhari. Its war on terrorism is a resounding success and the administration’s no nonsense posture on fighting the monster of corruption in all spheres of public life attracts world-wide acclaim.

    And it is evident in a hitherto obstinate America under President Donald Trump also identifying with Nigeria on its drive to reinvent itself on all fronts. This has expressed in the approval the United State Government has granted Nigeria to sale 12 high-tech, Super Tucano A-29 attack aircrafts worth N219 billion ($600 million) to Nigeria’s Air Force to assist in battling Boko Haram insurgency.

    We do know that America had resisted such offer to Nigeria in the past, under the Obama Presidency, a development exacerbated by the mistaken bombing of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Rann, Borno State. And that America has recounted its position is a consideration of several factors, including transparency, accountability and respect for human rights of people.

    But we are today consoled because we have not stopped improving ourselves and making amends where possible. The Holy Scriptures says, in Exodus 14:13 that “These Egyptians that you see today, you shall see them no more.”

    Whilst the torment of Boko Haram lasted, lives were lost and properties destroyed and varying layers of social dislocation, some nations in the world in the position to assist Nigeria looked at terrorism as an isolated Nigerian problem. Nothing griefs the heart more like when a neighbor sits in celebration of your misfortune. That was the fate of Nigeria and international organisations also conscripted into the conspiracy against Nigeria.

    One cannot help but frown at the destructive roles played by Amnesty International (AI) and its array of local franchise and extremists sects like the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and some briefcase Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), which only existed on letterhead papers.

    They spared generous time to mock the plight of Nigerians in the time of sorrow and some went to the extent of initiating actions that inflamed the situation. These entities deployed fully to add to the deep pains and afflictions Boko Haram brought upon our land. They were everything an enemy would be to his neighbor; but today the narrative has changed for good.

    We cannot hold our joy that the Service Chiefs came and turned the tables against Boko Haram insurgents, which these soulless detractors and extremists used as canon folder in the destabilization plots against Nigeria. Their motley of minions satanically added some paraffin to the conflagration.

    But our courageous military have proved them wrong, by decimating and defeating Boko Haram. Nigerian troops have shattered the dreams of those who wanted to see more of a sinking Nigeria and embarked on nocturnal voyages to frustrate its bounce back to full economic life or harnessing its full potentials, with her blessed children.

    Today, we see a Nigeria where love and patriotism are returning back, after some statesmen came out to disown IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu and his agents. We are on the path of a new Nigeria where everyone will be proud of his country. And a new nation where ethnicity would no longer be a factor against merit and talents would saunter on the center stage.

    We are proud to say, it is not in doubt that Nigeria defeated Boko Haram before the end of the Obama administration in America. That our military took over every lost territory before the end of 2016 is not also in doubt. To also say the current Service Chiefs and the last soldier in Nigeria are true patriots is also not in doubt.

    These rare breed of Nigerians came at a time we had lost our integrity, pride and honour to a ragtag Army of street urchins. But they restored this dignity. It may not be good to continue to keep reflecting in this direction, but to appreciate the Nigerian military.

    It is in this light that we celebrate the recent approval by President Trump to sale military warplanes to Nigeria. It is an undeniable confirmation of the victory which our military secured for us over the terrorists. It is also a certification that Nigerian military played according to the rules of engagement in the counter-insurgency war. And the international organizations which operate in league with detractors and destabilization agents of Nigeria by fabricating stories about imaginary human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in the counter-terrorism campaigns have had the veil removed from their eyes in shame by America’s reversal of its position.

    I again reiterate, much as millions of patriotic Nigerians that it is an open endorsement of the professionalism and transparency in our military operations as being marshaled by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Olonishakin ; the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai and the rest. The appreciation for saving our collective destiny stretches down to the lowest on the rung of military personnel, obviously down to even a Private A A Goodluck. They have all done well and deserve all the golden applauses from us as a people.

    And to the extent that the gift of the Tucano attack aircrafts is coming after the rain, does not imply that the Nigerian military has not appreciated the approval, in spite of its belatedness. It is in reality a testament to the fact that our military is one of the best in Africa and have a leading role to play on the continent as the first to defeat Boko Haram.

    Nonetheless, a new vista of collaboration has been opened between Nigeria and the United States as both strive to work together in the global fight against terrorism. America soldiers can now freely share notes with Nigerian troops on how to defeat any insurrection against a sovereign state. The aircraft gift embodies many other lessons beyond the mere package, as it also signifies the overall endorsement of the war against insurgency in Nigeria.

    More exciting, President Trump has re-invoked the essence of the Biblical verse that the “Egyptians we saw yesterday, we shall see them no more.” So, those who are already afraid of the military procuring such hardware must now know it has become a reality. And they are powerless to bring back the era of horror and sorrow anywhere close to Nigerian soil anymore.

    They should lick their wounds quietly. I mean the likes of Amnesty International and all the dissident elements who once held us to the jugular should know that the world is now aware of their antics to destabilize Nigeria and nobody will ever take them serious again.

    Kolawole PhD, a University teacher writes from Keffi, Nasarawa State.‎

  • What If Oil Is The True Ideology of Boko Haram?

    The curse of natural is apparently real or more accurately, cursed interests in resource exploration are real. This evil often goes about masked as something less sinister. Take for instance the insanity that is today’s Afghanistan, which began in a fashion not too different from what Boko Haram is acting out in Nigeria today. Somewhere in the convoluted mix of transitions and mishmash of Mujahedeen, Taliban and al-Qaeda was UNOCAL, an oil multinational and its effort to construct pipelines through Afghanistan from the petroleum-rich Caspian Basin in Central Asia. By the way, that guy that went on to be handpicked as Afghan President upon the routing of the Taliban in 2004, Hamid Karzai was a consultant to UNOCAL before that appointment, something he and the company continue to deny and the records have been purged to make the denial easier. He happened to have also been a deputy foreign minister for the Taliban.
    A pipeline dream set another country on fire. Syria is today the scene of multiple proxy wars, which is senseless if only for the bizarre alliances that are engaging on industrial scale human slaughter. It might have been given different names to hide the true intent but nothing can subtract from the fact that the crisis revolves around two proposed gas pipelines that would traverse Syria; some have referred to that ugly scenario as “Pipelinestan”. Afghanistan remains fresh in the mind.
    In April of 2012, Tuareg rebels overran northern Mali under the name of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) , French state broadcaster, France 24 ran ahead of others to give extended airtime to Mossa Ag Attaher, a spokesperson for the rebels, with a chest caption that stopped short of recognizing Azawad as a country. France 24 continued its attempt to report Azawad as a sovereign nation for several days. It even christened an ambassador for the enclave at some point. In a volte-face France later supported the government in Bamako to contain the rebels. The then French President Francois Hollande sold the story of how his country’s interest was about stopping the rebels in West Africa before they become a threat to Europe.
    It has never been about terrorism for France. “In the long term, France has interests in securing resources in the Sahel – particularly oil and uranium, which the French energy company Areva has been extracting for decades in neighboring Niger,” said Katrin Sold of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) one year after in 2013.
    There was additional incentive for France to give up the Azawad misadventure at that time. It merged that group was not acting in isolation but was part of a larger ambition to fuse modern day Mali, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Northern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan into one vast wasteland controlled by fanatics.
    What France has not given up, however, is the obsession for the energy possibility in the Sahel and Sahara. It held a security summit to discuss Boko Haram which resulted in the launch of Sahel Force in June this year. If that force is of any use it was to catalyze the near rebirth of a terrorist group that Nigerian military had decimated to the point of defeat. Nigeria’s militia fighting Boko Haram – the Civilian JTF, Internally Displaced Persons and several survivors of Boko Haram attacks had recounted in the past how they witnessed airdrop of supplies to the terrorists across Nigeria’s borders with francophone neighbors – Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In 2015, eight French nationals were apprehended by Cameroonian forces for fighting on the side of Boko Haram. They were promptly handed over to former colonial master France once the then French Foreign Minister, Mr. Lauren Fabuci, who simply ordered for the transfer of the suspects. Nothing was heard afterwards by way of trial.
    It is not surprising that Boko Haram fighters that earlier fled into these neighboring Francophone countries have slinked back to renew attacks in Nigeria shortly after the French summit that was supposed to have fashioned a solution to their madness. If the authorities in Nigeria get their homework right they should have observed by now that something has changed. The true intent of Boko Haram is emerging and doing so fast. A pointer to this is the July attack on the team of researchers that went prospecting for petroleum in the Lake Chad Basin area (the name does not signify Chad ownership).
    Some things stand out. One, the attack was major, not one of those skirmishes where Boko Haram fighters want to inflict damages, instill terror and flee back into their hideouts. The intention was apparent annihilation on a scale that will ensure no scientist would be willing to return to the area for any prospecting. Secondly, the intensity of the attack was possible with a combination of sophisticated weaponry and accurate intelligence that made the ambush deadly. Both considerations suggest state backing for the terrorists and only one country has demonstrated interests that correspond to such capacity in the past. It has the resources to match. Furthermore, not much is heard anymore of Boko Haram’s desire for strict implementation of Sharia, which implies that the crux of the matter is about cornering resources and not the creation of a theocratic state.
    A possibility that has not been openly discussed is that the same Francophone trio that have not done enough to combat Boko Haram would easily overrun the planned theocratic state, install a proxy government, stabilize the region and then turn over the real estate to their colonial master, France, for the exploration of crude oil and Uranium to begin in earnest. Advances in fracking technology make oil exploitation viable in this area once commercial quantities are confirmed.
    The Nigerian government must therefore ensure it is not caught napping. Afghanistan and Syria are warnings it must pay heed to since things can stay bad for a long time once they are allow to degenerate beyond certain points. The era of thinking it is fighting only Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh) backed Boko Haram terrorists is past. These ones are propped up by another sovereign state and this is even more glaring now that the cover of religious fundamentalism no longer holds.
    It is time to confront the relevant international groups and supranational bodies with facts. France must not be allowed to create its own version of Afghanistan or Syria in West Africa and Nigeria is definitely the worst place to activate such insanity not in the least using Boko Haram, made up of sociopaths and psychopaths. The toll would be high not just on the region but on Europe as well. As it was with the Middle East destabilization and the refugee crisis it unleashed on Europe, only the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean stand to filter the refugee flow to Europe and Africans are getting better at beating these hostile barriers. Nigeria cannot burn for another country to light its cities and the world would think there would be no consequence.

    Murphy, a conflict resolution expert writes from Maryland, USA.‎