The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Skye Bank, Citizen Patience Jonathan: Classical case of despotic persecution

    Skye Bank, Citizen Patience Jonathan: Classical case of despotic persecution

    Fellow citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sometimes in a 1783 House of Commons Speech, William Pitt the Younger, stated albeit instructively and rightly that “necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

    It is against this backdrop that I hope to situate in proper context the brazenly unconstitutional, unlawful and illegal actions of the EFCC in freezing the Skye Bank Account which the EFCC alleges contains $31m belonging to Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Jonathan popularly known as Mama Peace, the wife of former President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan GCFR and immediate past First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    It is pertinent to state that the said actions of the EFCC are not backed by any law in force in Nigeria presently inclusive of the EFCC Act. I will buttress this assertion later in this piece.

    Nonetheless, it beggars belief that the EFCC in its desperation to hound, harass, intimidate, persecute, extort and expose Mrs.Patience Jonathan to public ridicule, opprobrium and anger has engaged in crude misinformation of the global public and manifestly breached not just the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended and other extant laws inclusive of its very own Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment)Act,what a monumental shame!

    It may interest you, fellow citizens, to note that whereas Section 6(a)-(q)of the EFCC Act, clearly outlines the functions of the of the EFCC particularly Section 6(b) provides thus: “the investigation of all financial crimes including advance fee fraud,money laundering,counterfeiting…” While 6(d) states “the adoption of measures to identify, trace, freeze, confiscate or seize proceeds derived from terrorist activities, economic and financial crime-related offences or the properties the value of which corresponds to such proceeds;” Furthermore, Section 7 of the EFCC Act confers Special Powers on the Commission to wit; 7(1). The Commission has the power to (a)”cause investigations to be conducted as to whether any person,corporate body or organization has committed an offence under this Act or any other law relating to economic and financial crimes; (b)”cause investigations to be conducted into the properties of any person if it appears to the Commission that the person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income.”

    The above powers of the EFCC notwithstanding,the EFCC Act in Part V titled “FORFEITURE OF ASSETS OF PERSONS ARRESTED FOR OFFENCES UNDER THIS ACT” clearly circumscribed the procedure for undertaking the process of freezing of funds in a suspect’s corporate or personal bank accounts, particularly a combined reading of Sections 27 and 34 of the EFCC Act will suffice. Sections 27 (1)provides thus “Where a person is ‘arrested’ for committing an offence under this Act. Such person shall make a full disclosure of all his assets and properties by completing the Declaration of Assets Form as specified in Form A of the Schedule to this Act.

    (2) “The completed Declaration of Assets Form shall be investigated by the Commission”.

    Furthermore, under the same Part V Section 34(1) provides thus:

    “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other enactment or law,the Chairman of the Commission or any other officer authorised by him may,if satisfied that the money in the account of a person is made through the commission of an offence under this Act and any of the enactments specified under section 7(2)(a)-(f) of this Act, apply to the Court ex-parte for power to issue an ‘Order’ as specified in Form B of the Schedule to this Act,addressed to the manager of the bank or any other person in control of the financial institution or designated non-financial institution where the account is or believed by him to be or the head office of the bank, other financial institution or designated non-financial institution to freeze the account.

    (2)”The Chairman of the Commission, or any officer authorized by him may by an order issued under. subsection (1) of this section, direct the bank,other financial institution or designated non-financial institution to supply any information and produce books and documents relating to the account and to stop all outward payments,operation or transactions(including any bill of exchange) in respect of the account of the person.

    (3)”The manager or any other person in control of the financial institution shall take necessary steps to comply with the requirements of the order made pursuant to subsection(2) of this section.

    The foregoing raises serious questions regarding the moral and legal basis and justification of the EFCC to undertake this vindictive Gestapo acts against citizen Dr. Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Goodluck Jonathan. In the light of the above, there arises certain fundamental and salient questions to wit:

    I)Did the EFCC invite,forward questionnaires or arrest Mrs.Patience Goodluck Jonathan for interrogation in compliance with Part V Section 27 of the EFCC Act in order for Mama Peace to fill the Declaration of Assets Form in compliance with the Act? The answer  is capital No! Which is a crystal clear breach of the outlined procedure as enshrined in the EFCC Act and a crass infringement of Dr. Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Goodluck Jonathan’s Constitutionally guaranteed right to fair hearing as espoused in Section 36(6) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and expressed in the latin maxim “audi alterem partem” meaning “hear the other side also”.

    (2)Did the EFCC apply and secure an Ex-parte Order from a Court of competent jurisdiction in Nigeria for the power to freeze the corporate or personal bank account of Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Goodluck Jonathan? The answer to the above poser is in the negative. It therefore necessarily follows that the EFCC is pursuing a manifestly vindictive mission in flagrant breach of section 34 of its own EFCC Act.

    (3)How much is exactly contained in the said bank accounts of Dr. Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Goodluck Jonathan? Whilst Mama Peace contends it is less than 10million U.S. Dollars,the EFCC in its statement mentioned 31million U.S. Dollars.

    Since this is the case, shouldn’t the EFCC ordinarily be glad that Mama Peace is ‘forfeiting’ about 22 million U.S.  Dollars? If so why would Mama Peace be in court with the EFCC to secure the defreezing of her personal account containing less than 10million U.S.Dollars instead of 31million US dollars? It therefore necessarily follows that the EFCC surely must be on a mission of malicious misinformation and dissemination of falsehood against citizen Mama Peace and by extension the family of former President Goodluck Jonathan. What then is the purpose of this malicious and tyrannical action of the EFCC?

     Could it evidently be a mission to impeach the international statesmanship credibility of former President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR and to in the process launder the badly battered anti-corruption image of President Gen. Muhammadu Buhari GCFR as he went to address the United Nations General Assembly? Could it be a Machiavellian attempt to extort Dr. Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Jonathan of her money? Fellow Nigerians, today it is the turn of citizen Dr. Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Goodluck Jonathan, tomorrow it will definitely be you and me!

    The greatest corruption known to humanity is institutional corruption and abuse of office because it destroys the confidence of citizens to explore the machinery of  legitimate state institutions for progress and protection. Therefore, I submit borrowing the immortal words of John Philpot Curran in his 1790 Speech where he posited that “the condition upon which God hath given liberty to men is eternal vigilance; which condition if he breaks, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”

    Nigerians must wake up to safeguard our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and prevent this slide into tyranny, nepotism and fascism by joining our voices to the mass movement fighting for respect of the principles of Constitutionalism, rule of law, federal character, independence of the Judiciary, Legislature and other governmental institutions such as INEC, EFCC, Code of Conduct Bureau/ Tribunal and the establishment of a robust socio-economic framework to engender social justice, economic prosperity and the greatest happiness to the greatest number of Nigerians by the administration of President Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,GCFR.

    Finally my confidence is of God, who in His time vindicates the innocent and oppressed person and I trust the Judiciary to ensure that all citizens and governmental agencies are treated equally before the law,borrowing the immortal words of Lord Denning Master of Rolls in Gouriet v Union of Post Office Workers, “To every subject in this land,no matter how powerful,I would use Thomas Fuller’s words over 300 years ago: ‘Be you never so high,the law is above you.”

    Therefore, the EFCC must be made to act under the ambit of the law in Nigeria.

    Jonas G. Iniayemana Esq., is a Port Harcourt based Lawyer.

  • Marking independence in bondage

    Nigeria last Saturday marked her 56th Independence not with pomp and pageantry as would be expected.  It was however a mixed bag; although it has become an urban pastime, no thanks to the harsh economic reality, unimaginative leadership and recession.  Independence ordinarily should occupy a unique place in the life of a nation and a bonding of the people with a unifying feeling and patriotic fervour. But this is not to be because our people have since lost the sense of history and do not have the fire of patriotic zeal that propels nations to lofty aims.  I remember with nostalgia growing up in a rural community in Agbor in the then Bendel State, now broken into Edo and Delta states during the Independence celebration in the 1970s.  It was greater than our birthdays and different religious festivals, including New Yam festivals.

    As young primary school pupils, our uniforms were well laundered as we had no pressing iron and we were given miniatures of Nigerian flag that we waved eternally in celebration while welcoming the governor who drove round the state in colourful convoy.  It did not end there, our schools where given bags or rice and cows which the school authorities prepared using the senior pupils.  We ate, stained our green uniforms in merriments and the memory lingered in anxiety and expectation of the next Independence.  In retrospect I saw a budding nation with potential for greatness as there was greater unity across ethnic and religious divides than the sharp fault lines that characterize our polity today.

    Today, in spite of our size and demographic spread as the most populous black race in the world and the resources nature has endowed us with, Nigeria has remained stunted in developmental index and unable to employ and feed its citizens.  As we mark our independence, we are living in bondage of bad and selfish leadership.  We have been taken hostages by political elite that has become a leech siphoning our common patrimony.  Citizens cannot afford decent meals or any meal at all; there is no electricity, no motorable roads unless you live in the city centres.  You cannot even afford to go out if you have the means for fear of being kidnapped or robbed of valuables like telephone, money and jewellery.

    Nigeria cannot become a great nation when it lacks national leaders and a bickering population divided along ethno-religious lines.  Great nations like empires are built by national leaders’ not tribal chieftains like we have as exemplified in our polity today where people are judged not by the standard of justice but by wealth, tribal affiliation and religion.   Sadly, for all our woes and misfortunes, we find it convenient to blame outsiders and never examined ourselves.  The crack came immediately after the Union Jack was lowered and green-white-green was hoisted as the founding fathers jettisoned the spirit of unity of purpose for one Nigeria with which they made demand on the colonial overlords for independence and became aggressive tribal irredentists.

    When the military sacked the First Republic in the bloody putsch, their justification for the coup remains valid in common sense and logic even after five decades.  They cited nepotism, graft and corruption, demanding 10 percent etc; and these have remained with us today and even taken to a more troubling height and level that make the nation to tilt on a delicate balance.

    Have we made any progress since independence?  Over and above the fact that we have been able to remain in one country, there is no clear evidence that we have made progress in any spectacular way.  In infrastructure, there is no noticeable sign across the country that our leaders have touched the lives of the people.  Most of what you see today were built in the early 1960s and mid 1970s; although some may beat their chest that Abuja is a modern city conceived and built by leaders.  Look at the educational sector, it is a sorry sight as public schools have been abandoned even by the government and we now steal public funds to send our children to schools, shamelessly in countries like Benin Republic and Ghana.  Even at that, our universities can only produce administrators both in universities of technologies and polytechnics.

    We do not have reputable indigenous construction companies that can carry out major construction of roads and other infrastructures; so we award contracts to Chinese and Indian companies for our road networks and airports and the result is what so see daily on our roads and the carnage due to bad roads which break up in places due to poor execution.  Today, after 56 years, we do not have indigenous engineers that can service our refineries; and as the sixth largest producers of crude oil, we import petroleum products and still live in scarcity.  The health sector is in complete neglect and ruins and only those who can afford it engage private practitioners or go for medical tourism abroad using money stolen from our common patrimony.  Look at our economy: it is a sad note of commentary that with the humungous earnings from oil, the federal government is barely able to pay salaries while the state governments are reducing working days and not paying workers in upward of eight months.

    Corruption is elevated to state craft and in spite of the effort of the present government which is losing steam already, our elected leaders romanticize corruption in semantics and rise up stoutly in arms against any efforts to check corruption in high places. Corruption has become a leviathan that threatens our very existence and if we fail to stand up to it, it is going to finally consume and swallow up the nation.  Look at the histrionics of members of the National Assembly when they troop out to court in solidarity with individuals on criminal allegations.  Look at the puerile and senile drama around the budget padding and its anti-climax as Nigerians watch the House members clobber the member that tried to spill the beans and expose the putrid infamy in the budgetary system in the House.

    Nigeria cannot become great with the mentality that public office holders should not be held accountable for their misdeed and corruption.  In Brazil, the former President, Mrs Rousseff Dilma was impeached for corruption allegation; in China, political corruption attracts the death penalty.  Look at the infantile sentiments being expressed when the wife of a former President that dragged herself to the murky water of what was obviously money laundering case.   It is clear that the nation has lost its soul.

    Nigeria cannot be great if it cannot provide security to citizens and help to build capacity for the people.  Today, the only people that government provide security for are its functionaries and visiting dignitaries; not the ordinary citizens as everybody tries to provide himself/herself with security and other basic infrastructure like water and light.  In spite of this, the government is beginning to harass citizens with all manners of tax so as to continue to maintain their exotic lifestyle.   Nigerian cannot become great when you sell all national assets both viable and dormant to a few Nigerians that have corruptly stolen the nation blind so that tomorrow as a nation we do not have anything of substance as a national symbol.  If we want to build a great Nigeria, it is not too late to start a foundation by those who have the spirit and soul of Nigeria and not tribal champions as we have today.

     

    • Kebonkwu Esq writes from Abuja.

  • President Buhari needs these candid words

    When campaigning for the votes of Nigerians, Muhammadu Buhari and his political party promised to give Nigeria a federal government that would lead Nigeria to very important, and much needed, change. Since they secured the votes they were begging for and became the managers of the affairs of our federation, however, they have behaved as if the only kind of change known to them is the elimination of corruption. Of course, we Nigerians welcome the fight against corruption, and we want corruption eliminated, but we refuse to accept the message that the elimination of corruption is the only kind of change that our country needs and wants.

    In the past week, it has increasingly occurred to me that we Nigerians who are clamouring for change probably have some fault in this situation – a fault arising from the fact that we are not spelling out clearly what we mean by change. Of course, we talk copiously about restructuring our federation as a major part of the change we want, but it is obvious that many of our people do not really understand what we mean by restructuring. I saw this glaringly a few days ago when a bright young man, newly arrived from above with a string of university degrees, asked me, “Sir, you and many others have been talking a lot about restructuring; what is there to restructure? Isn’t an efficient government what we really need?” Yes, we need an efficient government, but it is very clear that we ca never get any serious efficiency until we organize and run this country properly as a federation. So, we need the changes that will come with the restructuring of our federation, and a whole lot of other accompanying changes.

    Our country has been politically unstable and conflict-rattled since independence, and we want that to change. The management of our resources in all parts of our country, increasingly vested in the federal centre, has steadily lost all sense and rationale. We watch in dismay as our Federal Government struggles to take on more and more control of more and more features of our life as a country, and as it tries to do a whole lot of things that it is obviously incapable of doing effectively. We watch our Federal Government, overburdened and overwhelmed, plunge deeper and deeper into hideous incompetence, inefficiency and corruption – and as it therefore rakes together a disrespectful and shameful image for our country in the world. We watch the over-centralization and the federal incompetence push our people, in all parts of our country, into deeper and deeper poverty. We watch our Federal Government, determined to be the controller of education in our country, steadily degrade the quality of education in our country, promote the strange elimination of the teaching of our languages and our history from the curriculum of our schools, thereby preparing for the death of our languages and our cultures, as well as for generations of Nigerians without any knowledge of their own history. We watch our Federal Government turn our universities into glorified secondary schools teaching one uniform curriculum.

    We Nigerians want all these things to change. In different parts of our country, we want to manage our resources and to defeat poverty and produce prosperity, first for our own people, and then for all of Nigeria. We want to teach our language, our cultures, and our history, to our children in our schools. We want our universities to be left free to learn and teach whatever they think their country needs in the world, and free to engage, like universities worldwide, in uncontrolled search for the expansion knowledge. We want our Federal Government to be divested of its clumsy and destructive attempts to micro-manage all aspects of our lives. We Nigerians are a considerably educated people, a people very much exposed in the world – and we know how other federations in the world are organized and run. We refuse to continue to see our country being viewed in the world as some sort of primitive monstrosity among countries. We want to have our peripheral governments (states and local governments) spring forth as dynamic agencies of development and prosperity, and cease being impotent attendants upon a sloppy Federal Government.

    We want to see an end to the destructive situation whereby our people, in more and more parts of our country, are losing faith in our country. We want our Federal Government to develop the culture of endeavouring to find out why Nigerians in some parts of our country are seeking secession from our country, and we want our government to stop automatically throwing police and military violence against any of our citizen groups who may express dissent or seek secession.

    In short, we insist that, since history has given us a country that consists of many different nationalities, cultures and homelands, we must consciously and respectfully handle our country as a country of many different nationalities, cultures and homelands. Disregarding these facts and trying to operate our country as a country that is one in nationality, culture and homeland is the height of folly – crass and destructive folly. It has hurt our country, and our 180 million people, incalculably.

    We get to see absurdities endlessly in this country. But the Buhari refusal to recognize the changes that this country needs and wants today must qualify as one of the most sordid absurdities our country has yet seen. Our economy is perishing in his hand and he does not know what to do to save it, and yet he prefers to hold on to the major factors wrecking the economy and wrecking our country. He does not have the funds to implement even his own annual budget, and yet he is spending money to accumulate weaponry for fighting those Nigerians who are seeking to secede from Nigeria – and he is making grandiose announcements of military operation this and military operation that. Besides that, he prefers to threaten these citizen groups, and to command them to lie down and give up. He needs talents from all over our talent-rich country to tackle the multiplicity of difficulties and problems facing our country today, but he prefers to lean mostly on the narrow circle of his own kinsmen. Fears and anxieties about the attitudes of his own ethnic nationality towards the affairs of Nigeria are shaking Nigeria, and yet he assays nothing to address the situation. As a loyal son and leader of the Fulani people, he is showing that he is determined to learn nothing and forget nothing, no matter what happens to Nigeria.

    At home and abroad, the advent of the Buhari presidency was greeted with great sighs of relief, and with profound expectations. When he paid his first official visit to America as Nigeria’s new President of Change, those of us Nigerians in the Diaspora who gathered to listen to him in the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC literally danced for joy in the streets of Washington DC. The political leaders and business captains of America were not less ecstatic. But when he returned to America last week to address the United Nations, it was a sombre America and a nearly jeering world that met him. Here at home in Nigeria, the high expectations have fled away. All in all, our country faces today worse days that its worst ever.

    We need to speak in these candid words to Buhari. We do it in the hope that our country may yet be saved. We do it in the hope that Buhari may yet turn around and be the President of Change that he promised us. Nigeria is worth the fight and the hope.

  • Adeyanju hails Mimiko at 62

    Adeyanju hails Mimiko at 62

    • .-RSays, he is ‘Perfect Nigerian mentor’.

    In Nigeria, we have an acute shortage of real heroes and mentors. Most people who occupy leadership positions are people who go into politics do so to make a name or fill their pocket with money. Many of them are not interested in mentoring a new generation of leaders.

    I have had the privilege of meeting leaders of all categories and I can say without mincing words that most people in Nigeria who become leaders have no business with leadership. I have spent hours with some leaders and from whom I waited eagerly for words of inspiration and motivation that never came.  Quite a number of them spent time focusing on mundane issues, caught up in the web of materialism. There is nothing inspiring about them or their leadership lifestyle.

    I was introduced to Governor Olusegun Mimiko the Iroko by my older brother (Femi Fani-Kayode) who had a very soft spot for me and had repeatedly told me that if I was to develop leadership skills, I needed a visionary leader as a mentor. He believed Governor Mimiko was that leader. He spoke to me about how ideologically inclined Governor Mimiko was.

    From that first meeting, I could immediately tell that Governor Mimiko was going to have a strong impact on my life. He spoke about issues – socio-political, economic, historical and personal – with a knowledge and passion that was both iluminating and inspiring. At that first meeting, he told me that his abiding principle in his interaction and discussion with younger people was the desire to ensure that every conversation was a teaching moment, an opportunity to pass on wisdom, an opening to motivate.

    It was at this first meeting that he gave me, perhaps, the best analogy about leadership that I have heard. Iroko, as he is fondly called, believes that a leader is like a medical doctor, sworn and committed to daily apply himself to treating the patients who come to him.

    In the years that have gone by, I have often been a guest at his table. Meal times in the Mimiko household are an occasion not just to break bread in fellowship but to have enlightening trans-generational conversations about a wide range of issues.

    It was at his meal tables that I gleaned my first leadership lesson from him. Governor Mimiko has a core group of people with whom he has shared friendship for well over 20 years and with whom he often shares a meal, particularly breakfast. Their friendship is real and deep in a manner that enables them to talk to him frankly and help keep his feet on the ground. These are people who are not scared to vehemently oppose him on any matter, people who can look him in the eye and tell him how wrong his train of thought or intention on any particular issue is.

    The lesson I took from that is how important it is to have a core group of people with whom I can emulate such friendship. In a country where people often become trapped by power, surrounded by yes men and unable to get a true picture of the real perception of the public on issues, such friendships are a key ingredient to success.

    It was also from him I learnt my second and third leadership lessons. At the time he made his intention to run for office public, he was opposed by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Anyone who knows Baba knows that he does not oppose in half measure. It was a struggle that involved the use the apparatus of state to temporarily deprive Mimiko of the mandate of the people which was freely given to him.

    The two things that struck me about that struggle are – how Governor Mimiko has never said anything negative or derisory about Baba in public (at least to my knowledge) and how he remained committed to his goals until the Supreme Court delivered its landmark judgment that signified victory.

    From this tussle I learnt how important it is to be respectful – even to people who consider themselves your enemy. I also learnt the importance of patience and perseverance.
    As the years have gone by, I have seen Governor Mimiko apply his principles and ideology to governance. A very generous family man, I have seen him implement a number of policies and programmes designed to improve the welfare and lifestyle of the people he leads. These policies mirror his personal beliefs about life and what the minimum standard of living should be.

    One of such policies is the Abiye programme – a programme designed to provide free and qualitative healthcare for pregnant women and children aged 0-5 years. The cardinal objective of the programme is to eliminate maternal mortality and infant mortality as much as possible.
    This programme, which involved the establishment of Agbebiye/Mother & Child centres spread across the state and the establishment of the Ondo Mother & Child Hospital in Oke-Aro, compelled traditional birth attendants to refer pregnant women to nearby health facilities where they can receive qualitative healthcare before, during and after delivery.
    In its 3 years of operations, the Ondo Mother & Child Hospital has handled over 25,000 under- five children, 17,000 pregnant women, 1,000 gynaecological patients, 10,000 safe deliveries and 2,500 caesarean sessions free of charge.
    This has helped reduce the State’s alarming maternal mortality rate from 745 per 100,000 live births in 2009 to 172 per 100,000 live births in 2015. My research shows me that this figure will be significantly lower when the statistics for 2016 are released.

    This programme has helped Ondo State become the only State in Nigeria to achieve MDG goal 5 of reducing Maternal Mortality by 75%. As a result, the State has won two editions of the Bill Gates Leadership Award.

    Another of such programmes is the State School Bus programme. This simple programme involves the use of government provided buses to ferry children in uniform to and from school absolutely free. Established on June 12, 2012 the School Bus Programme provides transportation of an average of 53,000 students monthly. A report I saw showed that prior to the inception of the programme, most student spent an average of N100 getting to and from school daily. A simple calculation will show that this programme helps parents and guardians save around N113 million monthly.

    Iroko is one of the most humble Nigerian leaders I have ever met. An experience I can never forget is an incidence when I travelled to see him. By the time I got to Akure, I discovered that he had left for an urgent engagement in Owo – a 45 minute drive away.

    He asked me to turn around and gave me directions on the phone. I got to where he was to discover that he had stopped his convoy and waited for us on the road for over 20mins. When we got to where the governor was standing, Churchill Umoren my friend who had travelled with me was so amazed that he kept saying how “How can a governor park his convoy for 20mins and wait for a small boy like you?” My reply was that Iroko personifies humility.

    The Governor did not stop there, he left his bulletproof car and joined me in mine, a 2003 Toyota Corolla which did not have air conditioning, for the duration of the trip and asked Churchill to enter his car so we could talk privately. That incident with Governor Mimiko is a regular occurrence. I believe the he forgets most times that he is the Governor of a state.

    I could go on and on speaking about the polices and ideology of governor Mimiko and how they have affected the lives of the people he leads. When you meet the Iroko, you can never be in doubt as to where he stands: he stand for restructuring and true federalism. His programmes and policies are about the welfare of the people he leads. Every social services provided for the people are FREE, the schools, hospital, school buses, etc.

    I could speak about the Medical Village in Ondo town which houses the Gani Fawehinmi Mother and Child Hospital, Kidney Care Centre, the Gani Fawehinmi Diagnostic Centre and the University of Medical Sciences (First of its kind in Africa).
    I could also speak about his Cocoa Revolution Project (CRP) which has seen Ondo State grow to account for over 40% of Nigeria’s total cocoa production and which saw chocolate produced in partnership with the chocolate giant, SPAGnVOLA, with cocoa beans from the Oda Cocoa Estate win the 2015 Silver Award from the London Academy of Chocolate.

    When I wanted to contest for the position of National Publicity Secretary of our great party few months ago, Iroko was the first person I consulted before I took the big move. His words were: “If PDP is serious and ready to change, it will ensure you get it unopposed. This will send a loud sound to Nigerians and especially the young generation that the party has changed. This party will be lucky to have you as Publicity Secretary. You young people will start a revolution with the party. Nigerians will trust the party again if you guys are the face of the party”.

    At another time, I took some young politicians to him and he was speaking and motivating us and these were his words: “There are too many people without conscience in politics. They have no soul and I am so discouraged to the point of giving up on many occasions but it is every time I see you guys that I say to myself I must not give up; there is still hope.”

    But this was not meant to be a political piece on Governor Mimiko. It is an article written in celebration of a father, mentor and friend. It is an article written to share with its readers a little about this man who has helped shape the course of my life in so many ways.

    I write this to celebrate Governor Olusegun Otaibayomi Mimiko at 62. Sir, if you see this – may the Lord bless you, and keep you, and cause His face to shine upon you. May there be many more years to celebrate.

    Happy birthday!!!

    Signed:

    Deji Adeyanju

  • Questions for Nigerians to answer @ 56

    “I came to appreciate that the right question is usually more important than the right answer to the wrong question.”
    —Alvin Toffler

    Tomorrow, we celebrate our nation’s 56th Independence Anniversary. And we are still hoping and waiting for the GREAT NEW NIGERIA of our dreams. Just maybe we have been asking the wrong set of questions as a nation Nigeria and getting the right answers to the wrong questions. We need to ask a new set of questions that will provoke thought, action and new direction that will takes us to the promised land of greatness where we desire to be. Please kindly read the new set of questions we should be asking ourselves.

    Who are we? What do we stand for? What is Nigeria’s purpose? What does Nigeria exist for? Why does Nigeria exist? Why are we Nigerians? Who is responsible for where we are? What do we want and how are we going to get it? Where are we going? How are we going to get there?

    Where do we want to be – 5, 10, 20, 30, 40…100 years from now – and how can we get there? What lessons have we learnt from the past? What lesson have we not learnt from the past? What is it that we want to achieve and how are we going to achieve it? Will we be committed and determined to achieve whatever goals we may set for ourselves? What is our fundamental reason for being? What guides and inspires us as a people and as a nation? What are our values?

    What are our guiding principles? What should Nigeria’s fundamental goal be? What should Nigeria’s other goals be? What makes a nation great?

    What will make Nigeria great? How can we build a great new Nigeria?

    How can we create a compelling vision that every Nigerian can

    buy into? How can we paint a clear picture of the new Nigeria of our

    dreams? What is great about the Nigerian problem? As a Nigerian citizen, what am I willing to do to make Nigeria the way I want it to be? What am I ready to stop doing to make Nigeria the way I want it to be? How can I enjoy the process of nation-building while I do what is necessary to get Nigeria to the Promised Land of greatness?

    What do we, as Nigerians, want? What do the Tivs want? How about the Jukuns, the Efiks, the Hausas, the Igbos, the Yorubas, etc.? What do we need? What do we value?  What do we expect? What are our interests as Nigerian citizens? What is the Nigerian’s frame of reference? What are our beliefs as Nigerians?  What is our national ideology? What is our vision? What are our hopes, dreams and desires? What do we want to create? What is important to us as Nigerian citizens? What price are we willing to pay to make our nation great? What do we believe in? What contributions do we want to make in the global village community? What legacy do we want to leave behind that future generations will benefit from?

    What do we want Nigeria to stand for? What do we want our nation to be? What do we want to achieve? What will guide our decisions so that we can achieve what we want? What can motivate us into greatness? If all the things we desire are possible, what should we be doing right now to ensure our nation becomes great? What is the Nigerian way vis-à-vis the American way or the British way or the Japanese way? How can the various ethnic nationalities live together in peace and harmony? How can we evolve a government to which all of us will be committed? How can we evolve a government that will guarantee every Nigerian equity and justice? How can we communicate our new vision both to fellow Nigerians and to the international community?

    How can we change the strategy for prosperity from natural resources to human capital?

    How can the private sector get more involved in nation building? How can all Nigerians get involved in nation-building? Name some of Nigeria’s many problems. What are the possible solutions to those problems? What are the little things that cause great problems in our society? And what are the other little things that will ensure positive change? Out of all our problems, which one should we solve first? Which one of our problems do you think could cause the disintegration of Nigeria? What can we do to prevent it? Which one of our problems is the most volatile? How can we turn this volatile problem around and use it to our advantage by getting Nigerians to stand in unity? Who are those that hold Nigeria – and therefore Nigerians – in contempt both inside and outside the country?

    Who are the scorners in Nigeria? Who are those that cause division, strife and contention? Who would you say are the power brokers? Who are the people that will influence our society? Why in the world should we stay together as a nation? Give reasons why Nigeria should not disintegrate. Also, give reasons why Nigeria should remain one nation. What are the things that bring Nigerians together in unity and agreement regardless of age, sex, ethnic bias, religion and political affiliation? What things can we use to foster greater unity?

    What are the things about Nigeria that make you beam with pride? What distinctions can Nigeria make about herself? What are Nigeria’s strengths as a nation? What are Nigeria’s weaknesses as a nation? What are Nigeria’s assets? What are her liabilities? What are Nigeria’s opportunities? What are our possibilities for change? What can be done to turn things around? What are the things we can do to sell Nigeria to Nigerians? What is the mind-set of the average Nigerian? How can we create a positive mind-set in Nigerians? What are we known for (good or bad) nationally and internationally? How can Nigeria position herself in the evolving global village economy? How can Nigeria distinguish herself in the comity of nations?

    Can globalisation benefit us? How can we make globalisation benefit Nigeria? How can we take advantage of globalisation? How can we make Nigeria a force to be reckoned with in the global information and communications technology (ICT) industry? How are we going to find Nigeria’s positive side with all the bad image and bad publicity we have acquired over the years? Is it possible for us to make the name Nigeria conjure up positive things in people’s minds in spite of the worldwide negative perception?

    As a Nigerian, how would I like Nigeria to be? If the future of Nigeria as a nation depended on me, what would I do? What can I do on a daily basis to get Nigeria to the Promised Land of greatness and abundance? What can I do to create a positive change in my immediate environment? How can we produce a REVOLUTION OF THE MIND in Nigerians? How can we start a campaign for a GREAT NEW NIGERIA?

    What do we need to do to crack the code called N – I – G – E – R – I – A?

    If we can answer all these questions and take immediate action, our actions will quicken our arrival into Promised Land of GREATNESS!

    Happy question-filled Independence Day anniversary Nigerians!

  • Our pains and hopes

    On Monday September 26, I was at the Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola to declare a conference on Post-Conflict Peace Building and Reconstruction in the Lake Chad Basin open. The keynote Speaker was former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar. The Chief of Army Staff General Buratai was also present at the occasion.

    As I sat there listening to General Abdulsalami reel out harrowing statistics of lives wasted, property losses and infrastructure callously destroyed, I dropped a tear or two. But I had to put up a brave face because of my leadership role. But I am human. These statistics may be abstract to some people but they represent real tragedy for those of us directly affected.

    The figures were indeed frightening. Over 200,000 people killed, 2.4 million displaced living as refugees in other countries or IDPs in their country. Over 2000 abducted majority being female, several orphans created, 18,117 houses decapitated, 350 bridges blown, 22,099 schools, 1,205 public buildings and over 1,000 Worship Centres destroyed.

    These may just be numbers to some people. But to us they represent real people, friends, relations, associates and people we knew all our lives. It was two years ago that the marauding invaders took over my hometown of Mubi and renamed it “Madinatual-Islam”. During their unfortunate occupation of the town, people I had known all my life were killed. People I grew up with disappeared. Businesses I know including our family businesses were destroyed.

    As a Senator of the Federal Republic at that time, I saw development interventions brought to my constituency wantonly and callously destroyed. I saw men, women and children relocating from familiar environments to uncertainties. These tragedies are enough to push anyone to nostalgia. I nearly snapped on the high table. I felt all the anger and despair that pervaded the period of our occupation.

    The pains were real at that time and in retrospect, they are still real. But we are hopeful. Hopeful that there are now several voices calling for Peace Building and Reconstruction in a region bedeviled by Poverty and Social inequalities. Hopeful that we have a definite programme in place for Social and Physical Reconstruction. Hopeful that we have a President that believes in rebuilding our region. Hopeful that we have a gallant military that is committed and professional enough to degrade the insurgent and reclaim back our territory.

    Above all we are hopeful because our people have shown sufficient trust in us by voting for us massively to assume the leadership of the state; thus giving us an opportunity to play a leading role in the peace building and reconstruction process.

    Are we doing that? Certainly yes. Even at the risk of being a little bit immodest. We make bold to say we have truly taken some bold steps in the areas of peace-building and reconstruction. We have made tremendous efforts in physical reconstruction of our destroyed and dilapidated infrastructure. We have taken concrete steps to construct roads, rehabilitate destroyed schools, revamp our hospitals and indeed re-engineer productive activities in Agriculture and mining.

    In the area of peace building and social reconstruction, we have committed ourselves to building bridges of peace and unity within our state and among our people. We have designed policies and programmes that take a holistic view of social strife within our communities. It must be noted that we have other flash points in our state occasioned by communal clashes and the after-effects of natural disasters. We have those happenings into consideration as well.

    We have built enduring structures for peace and social harmony within our communities. Most people do not understand the anonymity of the task of ensuring social harmony in our state. Adamawa State has on record a total of 87 ethnic groups, each distinct in language and cultures.

    The two major religions of Islam and Christianity are almost balanced. In the Nigerian parlance, we will be said to have all the ingredients of social strife. But we have mercifully limited such occurrences and the magic is simple. We are building a system anchored on fairness and justice believing that peace is not just the absence of strife, but the presence of social justice. For us, “unity in diversity” is not just a slogan but an essential ingredient of governance.

    As we get out of the horrors of Boko Haram insurgency and it’s social effects on our communities, we must begin to appreciate the enormity of the challenges of peace building, social and physical reconstruction.

    We therefore support and appreciate the renewed focus on peace building and reconstruction in our region. We are indeed hopeful believing that from the ashes of our traumatic experiences a more prosperous society may emerge.

    We want to assure the Federal Government, our gallant fighting forces and the international community that our government is committed to partner in any efforts aimed at ensuring peaceful coexistence, engendering the economic wellbeing of our people and creating a conducive environment for productive engagement. This is our commitment and it is our resolve.

     

    • Senator Jibrilla (Bindow) is Governor of Adamawa State.

     

  • Recession as opportunity to reverse resource curse

    And, sadly, it came to pass. It is well predicted that most countries blessed with natural resources, even in the best of times, perform worse economically than countries not so endowed; and that, when times are tough, countries that are dependent on natural resources come to an assured grief. There is a popular name for this strange but common condition: resource curse. It sounds metaphysical, it seems counter-intuitive even, but it is a position supported by enough evidence. And there can’t be better evidence than this: a Nigeria that is in the choke-hold of economic recession right after 15 years of consistently high oil prices and over N70 trillion of oil revenues earned by the federation.

    A recession might be a dramatic inflection point, but the brutal fact is that our country has never really been in sound economic health. A long spell of rising oil prices in much of our over four-decade addiction to oil had put us on a permanent high, masked the hollowness of our economic well-being, blind-sighted us to the dangers dancing in plain sight, and induced a costly work-avoidance in our leaders. Now that we are at this terrible pass, it will be tempting to just focus all our energy at getting growth back to positive zone. Without a doubt, getting out of recession should be the first order business. But doing only that will show us up, again, as a people eternally incapable of learning. This should be the time to finally wean ourselves of the unhealthy dependence on crude oil for most of our exports and government revenues; a time to reset the foundations of our economy and even of our politics; a time to get a permanent cure for what deeply ails us.

    Clearly, natural resources do not come embedded with supernatural curses, as the positive experiences of Norway, UAE, Malaysia and Botswana have shown. But it is also clear how natural resources end up as blights, and not blessings, just as it is clear what to do to reverse the curse. So the problem is not lack of knowledge. The problem is that resource-endowed countries either do not do enough to prevent the sad prophecy from fulfilling itself or do not do enough to ‘cure the curse’ after it has manifested. And these countries fail to take both preventive and curative measures because countries blessed with natural resources are prone to certain risks and disposed to certain choices that create delusions, dependencies and distortions, which inexorably turn natural resources to impeders, rather than enablers, of development.

    One known risk is that the prices of natural resources fluctuate. This creates revenue instability for countries that depend on resource rents to fund their budgets. Since this is known, the sensible thing would be for such countries to save enough when the prices are up as insurance against when the prices are down, and to use the windfall to create other more stable streams of income and to invest in the productive capacities of their people. But most resource-dependent countries rarely do that, as a surge of easy money induces the delusion of everlasting riches. Such countries get unreasonably high when prices of their natural resources are high and set themselves up for an inevitable fall when prices inevitably tumble.

    Three episodes in four decades of our history provide good illustration. In 1972, a barrel of crude oil sold for a yearly average of $1.82. By 1974, oil price leapt to $11 per barrel, then to $29.19 in 1979, and then to $35.52 in 1980. But by the time the price of oil marginally dropped to $29.04 in 1983, our economy was already in trouble. It is important to look at the figures again: we were not in trouble when oil was $1.82 in 1972, but we were in a deep mess 11 years later when oil was $29.04.

    A second episode: at the outset of democracy in 1999, oil sold for less than $20 per barrel (in actual fact, our Brent sold for a monthly average of $15.23 in May 1999). In the 15 years between 1999 and 2014, oil prices rose steadily (except for 2008/2009), soaring to almost $150 per barrel at a point. However, by the time oil prices fell just below $100 in September 2014, we were on the way to distress district, close to the dark place we were just 30 years earlier. It is important to underscore this again: when oil was selling for $20 per barrel we got by but when it started selling for a little below $100, it was another season for weeping and gnashing of teeth, with most states and even the federal government struggling to pay salaries. What happened with the two episodes is that we got deluded into thinking high prices would last forever, we stretched public finances to breaking point, and we saved little for the rainy day.

    But there is a third episode: oil prices tumbled from a high of $147 in June 2008 to $38 in December 2008. Yes, the dip was short. But we survived that slump largely because we had reserves in excess of $60 billion, which tied us over that bust time. Interestingly, the savings were largely accumulated at a period when oil never rose above $70 per barrel, when our oil supply was constrained on account of militancy in the Niger Delta and when $12 billion was paid to get debt forgiveness. But crude oil per barrel sold for an average of $77.38 in 2010, $107.46 in 2011, $109.45 in 2012, and $105.87 in 2013. However, by the time oil prices slipped to yearly average of $96.29 in 2014 and $49.49 in 2015, we did not have the kind of cover we had six years earlier not just because we didn’t save enough but also because we had also over exposed ourselves, as will be illustrated shortly. If the time between the first and the third episodes is long enough to induce amnesia, the space between 2008 and the onset of the current slide in oil prices is short enough to remind us of the risk we are constantly exposed to. But we failed to learn.

    Another known risk that turns natural resources to curses is that resource-rich countries are prone to corruption, low levels of accountability, and high incidence of profligacy. Because of the nature of resource rents, it is easier for those in authority in extractive economies (as opposed to tax economies) to corner and capture public resources and expend them anyhow. Beyond the predisposition to graft and the wastefulness, resource rents concentrate and consolidate public resources in a few hands, nurture a ruling elite more interested in private gains than the common good, foster a rentier, patronage, and predatory political ethos, fuel intense competition for power, conflicts, poverty and inequality, inverse the relations between citizens (the principals) and those in authority (the agents), and distort the interaction between state and society. All these conduce to opaque and unaccountable management of the revenues from natural resources. Even before the ongoing revelations and probes, reports by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) had provided more than ample evidence of the mind-boggling mismanagement of Nigeria’s main source of revenue.

    The other well known risk that resource-rich countries are exposed to is a dependency condition called the Dutch Disease. It manifests this way: massive inflows of foreign exchange on account of the high price of a natural resource raise the comparative value of the local currency and turn the economy into a high-cost one. This means that other sectors, like manufacturing and services that the country can earn foreign exchange from become uncompetitive and are crowded out; and imports also become cheaper, eventually knocking off local industry. A double but dangerous dependency is thus created: the country depends solely on the natural resource for foreign exchange; and depends on imports for almost all its needs. While consistently high prices will mask the trouble, onset of low prices will burst the bubble. This is where, sadly, Nigeria has found itself today. The 1,851% increase in the price of oil between 1972 and 1980 infected us with the Dutch Disease, so much so that we depend on crude oil for 85% of government revenues and about 95% of exports. And we import almost everything, including, shamefully, refined petroleum products (which constitute about 40% of forex demands.)

    This composite picture should show why Nigeria is in trouble today: little savings from a long boom time, and a 75% plunge in the price of a product that accounts for more than 80% of government revenues and foreign exchange in a country where so much revolves around government and in an import-dependent economy; fall in monthly forex earnings from $3.2 billion to about $400m sometime this year; decline in oil production from 2.2 million bpd to a little over one million bpd; and the growth in monthly import bill from N148.3 billion in 2005 to N917.6 billion in 2015 (519% increase). While it can be validly argued that recession could still have been averted, the oil and dollar dependence created a downward spiral: fall in the value of the Naira, cost-push inflation (since most things including industrial inputs are imported), drop in disposable incomes, which is compounded by the fact that most states are owing salaries, and the resultant negative impact on demand and ultimately on production. True, oil and gas sector now accounts for only 9% of our GDP, but our unhealthy dependence on it for government revenues and foreign exchange imbues the sector with a disproportionate heft. This we need to fix in a systematic and sustainable way.

    We can easily spend our way out of this recession or bump up production in high growth areas. Oil prices and production may even rise again, making the get-out-of-recession task easier. But all these will not cure us of the oil curse. Hopefully, the present pain will permanently bury doubts about the need for a robust stabilization fund and the imperative of strengthening transparency and accountability mechanisms like NEITI. But we also need to permanently puncture the lie that we are a rich country just because we have oil. It is a trite fact that the wealth of nations is not buried under the soil. Countries become rich when their people and their companies produce value-adding, highly-sought, cutting-edge goods and services. But beyond fixing the defective structure of our economy, we also need to reinvent our politics. A governance model that is defined by extraction, sharing and consumption surely cannot lead to development. And by the way, development doesn’t happen: it is created. Rahm’s Rule should thus be our article of faith: “you never want to let a serious crisis to go to waste.” The crisis of this recession has thrown a massive opportunity our way, the opportunity for a total reset. It will be a shame if, again, we fail to seize this chance to heal our country.

     

    • Adio is Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)

     

  • Governors, workers, and salary arrears

    It is true that as of today, Nigerian workers, artisans, market women and indeed, majority of Nigerians except politicians in the ranks of president, vice-president, ministers, members of National Assembly, successful business men and women and some privileged ones who have easy access to the public purse are groaning under unusual, unimaginable, excruciating financial condition. Some say it has never been this bad. Some attribute the present bad condition of Nigerian citizens in the land of plenty to wickedness, greed and selfishness on the part of our leaders. As I would say, human beings are basically selfish, which informs the biblical golden rule: “do unto others as you wish them do unto you” or the great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative: “Act in such a way that you would wish your action to be a universal law of nature”.

    Unfortunately, the above condition of Nigerians is real. People are hungry and angry. Our friends from the US would find it unimaginable under the sun that people would work anywhere for one month without pay, not to talk of 5, 10, or 20 months! How do workers survive in Nigeria? How do they meet their monthly financial obligations on house rent, food, hospital bills, school fees, repayment of loans or bank over drafts which workers obtain every month from the banks to be paid back immediately from monthly salaries? There is the microeconomic issue of thrift societies like esusu where workers must contribute certain amount as compulsory savings every month without fail. This collective arrangement is derailed or aborted if one misses a month’s contribution! Such a profitable saving device among workers is no longer possible, as people no longer receive their salaries every month. The consequence of this for workers is bye-bye to thrift societies.

    Generally speaking, people feel aggrieved and angry that our political leaders never feel the pangs of extreme poverty occasioned by nonpayment of salaries and pensions. Rather, our leaders live in opulence as if they don’t know that Nigerians are suffering as many families cannot afford one decent meal a day. Many have died from hunger and from their inability to pay for needed drugs that are meant to keep them alive. Some had committed suicide out of neglect and frustration while some of our selfish leaders live in outlandish opulence and could even afford to comfortably take their families abroad for medical treatment at exorbitant cost in foreign exchange, and still draw estacodes to the bargain. This is a perfect demonstration that human beings are basically selfish, and there seems to be no cure for this disease, especially in Nigeria.

    However, our top political functionaries from the presidency to the governors and National Assembly members may have a calculated alibi for the current plight of the common man by invoking the self-inflicted economic recession. I know that, as a matter of fact, Nigeria had no problem of payment of workers’ salaries until sometime in 2013 under Jonathan’s administration. Now they have joined the ranks of pensioners who have always been a forgotten section of the society simply because they could not embark on strikes. Right now, the federal pensioners are having a running battle with the government not only for nonpayment of three years arrears of their pensions, but for wicked and illegal deduction of 20% as tax on nontaxable pensions. Perhaps our governments deliberately want the pensioners to die instead of taking proper care of them at old age as governments in civilized countries do for their pensioners seen as respected senior citizens.

    But there is no way we can discuss the present bad situation of workers and pensioners without going back to the memory the lane – Jonathan’s profligate administration. That was why, in one of my writings entitled “Aregbesola: more sinned against than sinning?” (Nation, April 7, p19) I argued, not only on behalf of Governor Aregbesola, but also on behalf of all governors including the President and the Federal Government in the present dispensation. The core of my argument and defence was that, with the monumental corruption and emptying of national treasury by Jonathan’s administration, the problem of nonpayment of salaries which started before the end of his administration was inevitable.

    In fact, I had envisaged this problem by warning the All Progressive Governors in an earlier article entitled “APC Governors beware!” (Nation, March 29, 2014, p21) in the following excerpt: “Since about July last year (i.e. 2013), the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory have been starved of funds through a drastic reduction of 40% of their statutory allocations attributed to shortfall in oil revenue. For instance, the State of Osun which used to receive monthly allocation of between ¦ 4.4 – 4.6bn now gets ¦ 3.2bn, a shortfall of a whopping ¦ 1.2bn per month! Consequent upon this, some states have not been able to meet their obligation to workers in the payment of salaries and pensions as and at when due”. For this strange development, I asked the affected governors all over the country to raise local and international alarms about the coincidence of the alleged 40% cut in monthly statutory allocations, with the time of the Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections in 2014, and presidential and National Assembly elections the following year, 2015. I then wondered about the motive that led the federal government to begin starving the states of funds at that time and why it coincided with the disappearance of $20bn, earned largely from bumper oil revenue which ought to have gone to the states, into thin air! I then posited that the 40% shortfall for all the states was a ruse, as only the APC states would be affected while the PDP states, their governors and National Assembly candidates for the 2015 elections would get hefty money through the back door, at least from the $20bn missing oil money – a gigantic loot which I said would be shared by PDP and governorship candidates, including the pursuit of Jonathan’s presidential ambition. Now, the sharing of part of the loot as exposed from Dasukigate has proved me right. So also are several looted funds allegedly supervised by the then Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Alison-Madueke and many others still under investigation. Fortunately, some of these looted funds from bumper harvest of oil revenue are being recovered.

    The question now is, why should people now groan under an unprecedented economic crunch even after some appreciable loot have been recovered? The loots belong to Nigerians who are citizens of the 36 states of the federation and not the Federal Government which is only a custodian of the nation’s wealth with its own share as prescribed by the constitution. But there can be no Federal Government without the state governments as its essential and irreducible components. If you are told that The Federal Republic of Nigeria is made up of 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, then the Federal Republic of Nigeria is only an abstract entity, unknown to villagers in their individual states. So when I tell you all the states that constitute The Federal Republic Nigeria and you ask me “where is The Federal Republic of Nigeria?” you are making what philosophers call a category mistake. There is no Federal Government outside the 36 states and the Federal Territory.

    My advice to the Presidency is to realize always, that the state governments constitute the essence, existence and soul of what is known as The Federal Republic of Nigeria. The federation is an organic whole, just like any living organism which, if it fails to take proper care of any of its component parts, is doomed to extinction. The non-functioning of just one organ of the body can lead to the death of a person. The same is true of Nigeria, and any nation, as a federation. The problem in one state can cause a lot of problem for the entire federation, or even its death or disintegration, just as we have witnessed in Borno State, and now witnessing in the Niger Delta.

    I think the federal government should take seriously the problem of nonpayment of salaries with governors, as this affects the nation’s economy badly. Citizens have no money to spend while market women, businessmen and women and petty traders cry loud for lack of patronage. There is also the need to reconsider the issue of TSA whose effect is telling heavily on banks and federal institutions which can no longer service the Nigerian people with money that have been seized by the Federal Government. The entire nation suffers while all its money is stockpiled in one place – an overstuffed central bank.

     

    • Prof. Makinde, FNAL, writes from Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo.

  • Sustaining the military action in North-east

    As the Boko-Haram insurgency which began about a decade ago rages, and proving almost intractable, the Nigerian military can be seen to remain steadfast in its determination to bring the insurgents to their knees.

    Even as unconventional a war as the war against insurgency is, the military has shown great courage and resilience and this has been rewarded with the recapturing of 19 out of the 20 Local Government Councils in the North-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe which were hitherto in the firm control of the insurgents.

    Recent reports have it that the military is indeed on top of the situation. That explains why only one Local Government Council area, Abadam located at the border of Niger Republic in Borno State that is yet to be liberated from the clutches of the Boko Haram insurgents.

    It will be recalled also that soon after President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 29 May, 2015, he ordered for the immediate relocation of the Military Command and Control Centre (MCCC) to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. The essence was to ensure that the Military had first-hand information about the insurgents’ mode of operations in the North-east. Also, the relocation was intended to expose the military to the realities on ground, to enable them re appraise, re-strategize and re-direct their counter-insurgency plans at the terrorists’ activities.

    Indeed, it is incontrovertible that President Buhari has absolute confidence in the ability of the Nigerian military to bring an end to the insurgency of the Boko Haram sect. To this end, his administration has remained committed to completely eradicating the Boko Haram menace at the shortest possible time. For instance, in a statement recently released by thePresident’s media aide, Garba Shehu: “The Buhari’s administration was already taking concrete action to build a more efficient and effective coalition of Nigeria and neighbouring countries against the terrorist group.’’

    Similarly, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed recently led a group of 33 journalists, working with Nigerian media organizations and their international counterparts to the hotbed of the insurgency – Maiduguri, Kondugua, Kaoure and Bama. This was aimed at exposing the journalists to the realities in the region, for them to see and write their stories from the standpoint of knowledge, rather than sensationalism, hearsay and conjecture.

    According to the minister, “Today, I can report to you that the entire 70 plus kilometres stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki which leads to Cameroun and the Central African Republic are in the hands of our gallant troops. They have so degraded the capacity of Boko Haram that the terrorists can no longer hold on to any territory just as they can no longer carry out any spectacular attack.’’

    As part of the government’s effort to sustain the ongoing military success in the war against terror, the minister in a forum with political editors in Lagos, disclosed that a national security awareness campaign will soon commence across the country to raise awareness among Nigerians about the war, the sacrifices of our troops, and how to stamp out the remnants of the war. He said: “Jingles are being played on national radio and television as part of the campaign in order to keep the media better informed about the war, so that they can also better inform Nigerians.’’

    Following from what he said of the military campaigns against the insurgents, Lai Mohammed enjoined Nigerians to support the military in the fight against terrorism in the country. In his words: “It is our turn as civilians to give them our support; to realise that the war they are fighting is not their war alone, but our war, hence we must own the war.’’

    In the same vein, the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Enoch Adeboye said, “The success achieved by the military in tackling insurgency in parts of the country is commendable and can be sustained through intelligence gathering mechanism put in place by security operatives.” He spoke at the ‘Let’s Go a fishing’ programme organized by the RCCG, Region One, held at the CMD field, Magodo, Lagos Mainland.

    According to the Church Leader, “Boko Haram insurgency was an internal insecurity problem that can be curtailed through a transparent partnership arrangement between the local people and the security operatives. Let us do our best to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies by volunteering vital information that would be investigated and crime and any form of criminality will be reduced in our society.’’

    There is no denying the fact that since President Buhari came into office, the morale of the Nigerian military has been heightened. No doubt, reclaiming territories from the insurgents has been the President’s priority, and the insurgents have now abandoned conventional warfare tactics and strategies owing to the losses they have suffered while trying to defend territory.

    The President has also made series of diplomatic moves – the signing of regional and bilateral anti-insurgency agreements and the immediate payment of $20 million of Nigeria’s share of the logistics to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) is illustrative of this point.

    Nigerian security forces have also killed several kingpins of the Boko Haram sect, coupled with substantial disruption of the media coordination between Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which Shekau had officially pledged loyalty to its leader, Abubakr Al-Baghadadi in March 2015. The inability of the Boko Haram sect in recent times to release scary videos and stage spectacular attacks as it were, is a confirmation of the fact that their strengths is beginning to fail them, and in no time, they may be forced to take flight.

    It should be remembered that before now, Maiduguri, the major city of the North-east was under incessant attacks and harassment by the Boko Haram terrorists. Today, the situation is slightly different as Maiduguri is a bit secure from Boko Haram’s daring raids. This is evidenced by the fact that attacks of the terrorists have been restricted to the outskirts of Maiduguri as they flee. It is pertinent, therefore, to note that Boko Haram threats to Nigeria’s territorial integrity has to a very large extent, been curtailed by the intensified campaigns of the Military.

    One of the sore points in the anti-terror campaigns by the military is the non-release of the abducted Chibok school girls. Even the non-release of the Chibok girls does not vitiate the fact that terrorism is indeed being defeated in the country. In fact, a dispassionate and objective assessment of the situation in the North-east reveals that truly, the military has completely degraded and decimated the deadly terrorist group. Even with cases of suicide bombings in the North-east, it can still be correctly said that terrorism is being defeated.

    In the US, for instance, with 9/11, America still experiences the San Bernardino, California attacks that killed 14 and injured 21 at a County employee meeting and Christmas party on December 3, 2015. Yet, it can be said that America has not been subjugated by her terror experience.

    The November 13, 2015 attack on Paris which also claimed several lives and brought a dangerous moment to the entire Europe speaks volume. Yet, the world did not say France did not survive her terror experience. In the same vein, the fact that Nigeria still experiences some attacks on soft targets such as suicide bombing of markets, churches and mosques does not imply that barefaced terrorism of Boko haram is not yet defeated or degraded by the military.

     

    • Ikemitang writes from Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Abuja.

  • Paradox in modern Yoruba history

    Last Friday, September 23, at the University of Ibadan, I delivered the keynote speech at a very important Yoruba memorial event – the 130th Anniversary of the Peace Treaty which ended the Kiriji War on September 23, 1886. That Peace Treaty is a major landmark in Yoruba history. It ended nearly a century of intra-family wars among Yoruba states. It also marked the beginning of modern Yoruba history – because it opened the door to British colonial rule that ultimately led to the inclusion of Yorubaland in a country called Nigeria.

    Therefore, the celebration of last Friday was offered by the planners (the Yoruba Academy) not merely as a celebration of a treaty that ended a war, but as a Celebration of Yoruba Past, Present and Future. In the present situation in Nigeria, what the Yoruba nation needs most is to dig into the deepest meanings of its historical experiences, and to derive from there the kind of clear wisdom that will enable it to step out of today’s gloom into a new era of strength, success and prosperity.

    By the time of the 1886 Treaty, Yorubaland was still a free country. Only the small coastal Yoruba kingdom of Lagos was under some sort of British colonial influence, which had started in 1861 when the Oba of Lagos had signed a treaty of cession with British officials. For more than 20 years after that British annexation of Lagos, no European power showed any imperialist ambition in Yorubaland – or in most of Africa. That suddenly changed in the mid-1880s, when the European countries held a conference in Berlin (1854-5) and started the scramble for territories in Africa.

    Preoccupied with their own affairs, the Yoruba paid no attention to all that the Europeans were now beginning to do to seize territories. In fact, many influential Yoruba rulers, as well as important Yoruba leaders in Lagos, wanted so much to see the wars in Yorubaland ended that they appealed to the British administration of Lagos to help broker a peace. The British administration of Lagos, joined by some Christian missionaries and influential Lagosians, helped to broker the 1886 Peace Treaty. After that, many important Yoruba rulers (the Ibadan chiefs, the Ooni, the Alaafin, and the kings of the Ekitiparapo) felt safe to sign with the British the harmless-looking “treaties of friendship and commerce” that would later be construed as British title to sovereignty over Yorubaland. Some notable Yoruba kingdoms that did not sign such treaties were later attacked and conquered – Ijebu-Ode in 1892, Itshekiri kingdom in 1894, Ilorin in 1897.  By 1897, then, all of Yorubaland that is now in Nigeria had come under British control. Abeokuta doggedly held on to a negotiated quasi-independence until 1918.

    Here now is the great paradox in all this. By the years 1886-97, the Yoruba commanded more than enough capability to protect their homeland from European imperialism. Militarily, all the well-armed and war-seasoned armies that various Yoruba states owned at that time, if they had worked together, were more than enough to warn off, or defeat, any European imperialist invaders. Ibadan had an army numbering 80,000 near Igbajo, another numbering about 40,000 near Abeokuta, another numbering about 30,000 at Oru in Remo, and yet another numbering about 30,000 near Ife and Modakeke. The Ekitiparapo had an army numbering 50,000 near Imesi-Ile, and another numbering 25,000 near Ile-Ife. Ilorin had an army of about 15,000 near Offa. Beyond the immediate war fronts, Ife had an army of about 30,000 in the Ifetedo and Oke-Igbo area, and Ondo an army of about 35,000 near Oke-Igbo. The Ijebu-Ode kingdom had a main army numbering about 50,000, another numbering about 35,000 near Oru, and another numbering about 20,000 near Ile-Ife. Abeokuta’s army numbered about 50,000, Owo’s about 40,000 and Ketu’s about 30,000.  Thus, together, the Yoruba nation commanded over 500,000 seasoned and well-armed troops – a much stronger force than was owned by any other African nation at the time, and a much stronger force than the European invaders encountered anywhere in Africa. But these forces never acted together and, as a result, inferior armies commanded by European agents took hold of parts of Yorubaland, while most Yoruba rulers signed treaties of “commerce and friendship” with other European agents.

    Moreover, Yoruba capabilities at the time did not end with military power. Unlike the rest of Black Africa, the Yoruba nation already had a substantial and fast-growing class of highly educated citizens – lawyers, doctors, engineers, writers and journalists, teachers, surveyors, etc. Some among the Yoruba clergy belonged to the highest levels of Christian church leadership in Africa. Some leading Yoruba cities already had newspapers owned by Yoruba proprietors and employing Yoruba journalists. Furthermore, some of the large commercial companies in Lagos were owned by big Yoruba businessmen, some of whom even possessed shipping lines of their own. If war ensued between a unified Yoruba national   army and the European invaders, the Yoruba merchants were in a position to import and sell highly sophisticated weapons to their people.

    In short, the Yoruba nation commanded many potent means, and had many knowledgeable, resourceful and influential people, that could have shielded their homeland from becoming part of any European possession.  These Yoruba elite were nationalistic enough to create a powerful movement of Yoruba Cultural Nationalism in the 1890s for the protection of the cultural integrity and pride of their nation, and for promoting researches in the history and culture of their nation. But, at the same time, they did not seek to protect the political sovereignty of their nation. Even when the British purposed to include Yorubaland in the scheme of amalgamation of different territories to create Nigeria in 1914, these knowledgeable, resourceful and influential Yoruba elite did not resist – even though, from the way the British were conceiving, directing, and speaking about the amalgamation, it must have been obvious that Yoruba inclusion in it was likely to be a kiss of death for the Yoruba nation. That is the paradox.

    But the great question is: Why is this important today? The answer is not difficult at all to see. Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the persons (the Northern Hausa-Fulani elite) to whom the British manoeuvred to hand Nigeria at independence, and who have predominantly controlled Nigeria’s affairs since then, have never hidden the fact that their principal purpose is to hold on to the powers of the Nigerian federal establishment and to use it to weaken and subdue Nigeria’s various peoples, and thereby make themselves the perpetual rulers of a Nigeria ultimately too crushed to offer any resistance.  Towards this end, they never cease popping up their strategies and schemes – disruption of the fast-developing Yoruba Western Region in 1962-5; massive pogrom against Igbos in 1966 (resulting in Igbo attempt to secede and the further loss of millions of Igbo lives); a long succession of coups by Northern military officers, and of Northern military dictatorships; destruction of the integrity of democratic elections; a general reign of impunity; a perpetually running jihad; attempts to declare Nigeria a Muslim country and make Nigeria a member of international Islamic alliances; influential sponsorship of Islamic terrorist groups (of which Boko Haram and the murderous Fulani herdsmen are now the most prominent); perpetual striving to concentrate all power and resource control in federal hands and reduce all sections of Nigeria to impotence; routine employment of military force against dissent; obstruction of state and local development efforts; federal seizure and destruction of the assets of various Nigerian peoples; endless plots to destroy the quality of education; imposition of development uniformity on all; frequent brutalization of various small nationalities of the Middle Belt, etc. Altogether a history of disaster after disaster for most Nigerian peoples.

    The Yoruba nation’s share in this disastrous history is very big. Altogether, at Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the Yoruba led in most aspects of development in Nigeria and in Africa. But the Yoruba have been made to lose ground steadily in all directions. The Yoruba are experiencing today a depth of poverty alien to their history, and the danger of Yoruba youth revolt grows daily.

    Today’s Yoruba elite are mighty. But, like the Yoruba elite of 1886-1914, we are not employing enough of our enormous capabilities to set our nation free for progress and prosperity. We do not mount a credible resistance to the efforts of others to subdue our nation.

    So, the old paradox reigns in the affairs of our Yoruba nation today. But we can, and we will, change the picture. My keynote speech of last Friday is a clarion call to the whole of the Yoruba nation, irrespective of political orientation or parties.  I hope all will read this note from it, ponder it, and respond to it in their hearts, minds and deeds.