The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Reforming the Nigerian Civil Service: My struggles, my pain, my triumphs (IV)

    The part three of this series offered the concept of trajectory as a methodological concept by which we can understand the evolution of reform visions and strategies since the beginning of the civil service system in Nigeria. And we saw that it is with the Udoji Commission that Nigeria and her civil service system came closest to reengineering a reform dynamics that would have launched our public service on a global track of managerial efficiency. Unfortunately, the administrative decision making dynamics of the Gowon regime failed to differentiate the substance of that report from its trivial components. Instead of “Udoji” being a signifier of administrative hindsight; it became a pointer to national profligacy.

    I was not part of the Udoji Commission, but every true reformer feels the pain of its unfulfilled potentials. I specifically feel the trauma more because I have been involved in the specifics of reform complexity, and I clearly understood what we have missed in administrative and historical terms. We made the point in the last part that we are still trying to catch up with its incredible administrative diagnosis of the pathology of the civil service system in Nigeria. And this is that the system lacks the capacity for change and adaptability. This is the first fundamental reason why most reforms efforts and strategies have failed in Nigeria. We have a tapestry of well-intentioned reform blueprints from 1954 till date, but unfortunately we have little to show in terms of the capability readiness of the civil service to encounter global and local changes and effectively engage them.

    As at the time the Udoji Commission was established, the civil service system in Nigeria, like its British counterpart, had already reached its bureaucratic point; it had become a great rock in the tideline. Beginning with the Nigerianisation Policy which favoured representativeness over merit, the decline of the civil service was accelerated with the destruction of the Weberian administrative structure by the structural adjustment programme (SAP). Since the 80s, therefore, most of the reform programmes have been serious exercises in administrative damage control. The major question of reform has been: How do we build effective capacities that would make the public service regain its efficiency and attain a world class status as a service delivery institution capable of establishing democratic governance?

    I take this question as both theoretical and practical. The theoretical dimension to arriving at an adequate answer requires that we understand why reforms have failed for so many years in Nigeria. Why has the trajectory of reform progress failed to reach the omega-point?The ultimate objective of every reform programme is to either restore a system back to its original state of efficiency or take it beyond a present point to a future state where it is better able to respond to institutional challenges, internally and externally. When we think reform, we think performance. Performance simply means getting the public service to work at its best possible optimal level. Performance, in other words, is the operational dynamics that makes good governance possible. But there is a long stretch between the reform and the achievement of a performance credential, and that stretch is littered with a whole lot of complex variable. We call that complexity the execution trap. Reforms succeed or fail in the details; that is where the devil resides. Reforms have often failed because beautifully crafted reform plans have been backed by poorly conceived strategy for execution. The fact however is given a poorly conceived strategy for execution, the best reform idea will always fail.

    The visions of where we want our civil service to be in ten and twenty years are not hard to come by. What is difficult is the will to push that vision to its logical conclusion by implementing its roughest details. In other words, the vision of reform must always be weighed against the reality of implementing the vision. Most visions have died because they had no good soil in reality to aid their survival. And the single most significant factor in mediating the conception-reality gap is a perceptive administrative decision making dynamics. The dynamics is realised in the administrative boundary between doing things right and doing the right things. The Udoji Commission Report and its recommendations were destroyed in the very act of deciding what to implement and what to put in abeyance. The decisional/policy failure is the first condition that ensures that a good reform plan hopelessly falls apart. This failure manifest at four (4) levels: (i) failure to anticipate problem before it surfaced; (ii) failure to see problem for what it is what it is when it surfaced; (iii) the tendency to ignore the problem even when properly perceived; and (iv) failure of attempts to resolve the problem.

    Policy failure in reform implementation is further complemented by operational and strategic disconnection. As far as execution is concerned, reform strategic plans must not just be dedicated to the analysis of data about how to go about reforming; rather, it must ensure that the data translate to action plan which will bring about growth, increased productivity, and quality of goods and services. Reform implies the willingness to think strategically. In this case, we can say that a vision is only as good as the strategy that instrumentalizes it, and keys it into the governance framework of a state. Thinking strategically involves asking fundamental questions: (a) Can we identify how we’re going to turn the plan into specific results for growth and productivity? (b) Are we staffed with the right kinds of people to execute the plan? (c) If not, what are we going to do about it? (d) How do we make sure the operating plan has sufficient specific programs to deliver the outcomes to which we’ve committed?

    All these questions point to the inevitable role of the MDAs in reform failure. And this is precisely to the extent that the operating system by which MDAs convert policies to action are inherently faulty. Within the Nigerian context, the MDAs are caught between two different and incongruous administrative business models-the Weberian and the neoliberal-operating side by side and simultaneously. This effectively translates, also, into worries about systemic capability and capacity issues involving (i) input process-oriented business model; (ii) skills and competency gaps; (iii) lack of clarity on actions required to execute national plan; (iv) poor alignment between national plans, sectoral activities and departmental/unit programmes; (v) unclear accountabilities for execution; (vi) inadequate performance monitoring and reporting; (vii) organizational silos and culture blocking of execution; and (viii) undefined rewards and sanctions.

    So, given there that there are good reform ideas, visions and blueprint, they will definitely meet their waterloo in the glaring lack of capability readiness for execution in the MDAs as the powerhouse for administrative efficiency. This is exactly the point of frustration for most reform-minded administrator. I spent twenty-plus years studying the policy, capacity, resource, process and performance gaps created by the reform deficiency of the MDAs, and the point of my depression is that these gaps steadily built up over long years of bureaucratic complacency. And again, we turn full cycle back to the neglected possibilities of the Udoji recommended reform. At the core of that reform would have been an attempted at instituting a performance management metric into the very operational heart of the MDAs to make them more efficient. When Udoji failed, there was nothing to arrest the MDAs’ inevitable drift into bureaucratic pathology.

    My evolution as an administrative reformer therefore had a straightforward pattern-I spent countless times at conferences, meetings, fora, seminars and inside books attempting to make sense of Nigeria’s administrative predicament while also simultaneously reflecting on the possible ways out of the bureaucratic conundrum. Even though the level of dysfunction is enough to constantly induce depression and disillusionment, one of the high points of my engagement with the civil service system is that I got the opportunity to define and refine my understanding of the idea of public service, outside of the corruption of bureaucratic pathology. How did the idea of the public service evolve, and what are the vocational intentions behind it? In part five of this series, I will sketch those core elements of the institution of the public service. And in part six, I will have the opportunity of outlining the personal vision of how the Nigerian civil service can overcome its limitations and deficiencies and move on to becoming a world class institution that we all dream about.

  • As Afe Babalola reconciles Fayose, Ekiti tippers and quarry employers

    The thickening ice of an imminent face-off between the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, and State Chapter of the Union of Tippers & Quarry Employers of Nigeria was thawed on Thursday through the timely intervention of a foremost proponent of Ekiti State and the Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD)

    This portrays the Elder Statesman as a peace maker as exemplified in the Beatitudes in the Book of Matthew 5:1-11. But of particular relevance to the matter in issue is Matthew 5:9 which says: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God”

    The seething misunderstanding between the two parties thickened with the introduction of a new tax regime for daily haulage of sand and gravels/granite by the State Government that has much to contend with but with a very tenuous financial muzzle.

    The Government decreed a flat rate of N1,000/trip for members of the association, but the association will have none of that. It quoted rates of between N200 and N500/day from neighbouring states of Ondo and Osun to buttress and even to justify that Ekiti State was out to rip their members off. But the much touted rates in the neigbhouring states fell on all their fours when Fayose presented some documentary evidence to corroborate the State Government’s position.

    To drive their point home, State Chapter of the Union of Tippers & Quarry Employers of Nigeria, which had earlier approached the Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, to broker peace between it and the State Government, resorted to some self-help: its members took to the streets on Tuesday, December 1, 2015 protesting the new tax regime.

    But thanks to the State Director of State Security, Mr. Fubara Duke, and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Etop, who engaged the aggrieved members of the union in several hours of dialogue on the need for them, like all others in the state, to contribute their quota to the development of the state and embrace the olive branch of peace in Ekiti State.

    At a stakeholders’ meeting held at Lady Jibowu Hall, chaired by Babalola and attended by Fayose, his tink-tank on the State economy and the union members on Thursday, the ice of the lingering misunderstanding was eventually thawed despite the fact that the two parties came into the crowed hall with strong positions which they advanced without let or hindrance.

    Fayose had earlier maintained that it is the duty of governments all over the world to make laws and the responsibility of the citizenry to obey such laws particularly in a State like Ekiti that has a very lean pause in the midst of several competing needs. He maintained that the new tax regime must stand to enable him give vent to electioneering promises.

    But Babalola’s fatherly intervention with emphasis on Public, Private Participation of governance (PPP) and the professional advice by the CP and DSS, who chorused the security implications of a face-off between the government and the Union might have convinced both parties to sheath their swords and unload their guns and opt for a peaceful and amicable resolution of the seething issue.

    Marshalling their position after Fayose, Babalola, the CP and DSS had spoken, the Union’s spokespersons, Messrs James Moka and Idowu Aduloju said they were not fighting and could not fight government, but only appealing for an amicable resolution of the impasse by both parties shifting grounds. And so, they asked that the N1000/ loading be reduced to N500/loading while some of the Union’s vehicles which were confiscated during the Tuesday protest should be released by the Police.

    In a rare demonstration of the non-bellicosity or belligerence by the Union against the State Government, they were hailing and singing the praises of the Governor throughout the duration of the peace meeting. And to cap it all up, they joked that he must give them a Christmas gift which he obliged, an act which was greeted with a thunderous ovation.

    The politician in Fayose now came to the fore.  With a smile playing now on his lips, he rose from his seat, greeted Babalola and announced a new rate of N500/loading and the release of the Union’s vehicles confiscated by the police.

    He however emphasized that all the Union’s vehicles must be registered with the State Government for security reasons while their excavation sites must equally be registered in the interest of the preservation of the ecosystem. Any infraction, according to him, will attract a N50,000 penalty.

     

    • Olofintila wrote from Ado-Ekiti

  • Why not Adamu Adamu?

    The Nigerian factor is on the prowl again, and, as usual, it is hounding another golden opportunity to change the fouled fortunes of Nigeria for the better! This time, the appointment of Adamu Adamu as Minister of Education has curiously shifted the focus from the chronic challenges bedevilling the nation’s all-important education sector to the puerile and forgone issue of the appointee’s competence. So they ask: “Will Adamu deliver?”

    Even the question implies that Adamu Adamu can deliver, reducing the supposedly ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ concerns of the critics to sickening sentiments. Interestingly, their seemingly sectional outbursts were pre-empted and eventually drowned by the spontaneous celebration of the mega-ministry’s more enthusiastic staff, thus passing a vibrant verdict on the competence and capacity of Adamu Adamu.

    The ridiculous premise for the ‘academic’ ambush and ‘professional’ persecution of the accountant-turned-journalist-turned prolific and perceptive public policy analyst is again spotlighted by the historical fact that a majority of the 55 education ministers Nigeria has had since independence flaunted educational backgrounds as veritable rights of occupancy of the portfolio. But the current pathetic state of education in the country casts a doubtful, if not dubious, shadow on their collective competence and capacity in their acclaimed comfort zone.

    Less skewed academic or even professional review of the status quo in the education sector will lend more credence to the rationale and relevance of the circumspective analytic insights of the accomplished socio-political columnist into the hydra-headed harbingers of the ‘rot’ plaguing the education sector over and above the bookish blinkers of ivory tower ‘experts’. There is no denying that virtually every ‘educated’ Nigerian will be just as familiar with the notorious inadequacies and entrenched policy and implementation paralysis which characterise education at all levels and all over the country.

    Thus, the most profound and impactful policies and programmes currently moving the education sector forward were initiated during Obiageli Ezekwesili’s tenure at the ministry, which is no mean feat given the typically long gestation period of policy outcomes in the education sector. Coincidentally, she also was an accountant, but, with hindsight, her most distinguishing, effective and widely-acclaimed attributes were intelligent assessment of challenges and corrective measures, insistence on timely and strict execution of policies and prudent and accountable implementation of programmes and projects while diligently motivating staff of the ministry. Candidly, the same cannot be said of the Okebukolas and the Osujis whose professed academic and professional prowess sank to abysmal depths, seemingly sucked into the whirlpool of administrative lethargy, widespread mismanagement and undue financial processes, among other entrenched encumbrances.

    Fortuitously, Adamu Adamu’s combined careers in accountancy, journalism and civic policy advocacy have been unblemished and highly appreciated, not to mention the acknowledged contribution to unbundling our Pandora’s Box of social, political, economic and attitudinal excesses and inequities courtesy of his decades of weekly wit and wisdom writings. Outside the mercifully muted ranks of his traducers, Adamu is reputed for patriotism, courage, humility, intelligence, uprightness and passion in his endeavours, all of which he will certainly deploy in his national assignment as Minister of Education.

    Contrary to the cynicism of critics, President Buhari chose Adamu Adamu for such an important ministry precisely because of the trust he reposes in his sincerity and commitment, traits that are believed to be much valued by the Spartan and highly meticulous former head of state in his choice of associates and assistants. Sincerity and commitment are indeed indispensable qualities for any meaningful and effective intervention and reform of the beleaguered education sector while humility, intelligence and patriotism will enable Adamu Adamu to optimise the goodwill and wise counsel of the many accomplished educationists and technocrats he will attract with his amiable personality and irrepressible quest for knowledge and experience.

    Adamu Adamu will certainly let this unique God-sent opportunity to transform his enlightened and purposeful insight and grasp of the underlying impediments to our progress and development as a people and a nation with abundant endowment and potentials into a realisable roadmap for the redemption and revitalisation of the education sector, thereby living up to the genuineness of his patriotism and intelligence. As a federal minister with the ear (and heart) of the President, Nigerians look forward to a glorious era for education in Nigeria whereby the sector most critical to national progress and development will take its rightful place as top priority of government and rise to play a radical role in overcoming its seemingly intractable challenges. He owes this to future generations of Nigerians who may otherwise not remember his tenure.

    It is high time the Federal Government extricated itself from state and local government-sourced afflictions on its otherwise justified, humongous and transformative intervention in the basic education sector, which has for too long been hamstrung by its concurrent classification. A situation that enables and even encourages states and local governments to callously dilly-dally and ultimately subvert substantial federal intervention funding of the basic education sector must no longer be condoned. The Federal Government can only set the pace and boost development of the basic education sector by assuming total responsibility for the timely and prudent implementation of its intervention, especially in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme.

    Pointers for a roadmap:

    Securing budget pre-eminence for education and state and federal levels.

    The Basic Education Programme of the Federal Government must decisively shake off the shackles of state and local government impunity and ineptitude in meeting their obligations. The key issue is the fate of the huge budget allocations from the Federal Reserve annually set aside through UBEC for federal intervention in states and local governments. From initially releasing the funds to states, to imposing several conditions precedent to the release of counterpart funds, virtually all measures to safeguard the funds from diversion have been circumvented by states. In the last ten years, states have generally shown a preference to access the funds than the much-needed timely and prudent execution of UBE projects in their areas. The current trend is to refuse to access the funds altogether if they cannot get them without strings attached. Meanwhile, other related projects such as teacher training and capacity building are being implemented by the Federal Government to dovetail with the projects tied to the funding which are lagging far behind or non-existent.

    The Federal Government cannot sacrifice its constitutional role and responsibility for UBE on the altar of state sabotage. On one hand, the FG has a duty to ensure that its policies and programmes are duly implemented across the country. On the other, it cannot look the other way while states willfully abdicate their responsibilities or brazenly divert allocated funds to their own use/abuse. All constitutional and other administrative and legal avenues to removing these anomalies must be vigorously pursued by the FG and there should be no mistake about the resolve of the FG. Options include Direct Intervention of FG in implementing UBE in states and local governments by getting FG funds directly released to schools and projects implemented by schools under close supervision of School-Based Management Committee of Teachers, Parents, Civil Society and Community Leaders (SBMCs). The status of the envisaged autonomy of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) from Executive manipulation which has been seriously compromised as SUBEB chairmen have become directly answerable to governors and beyond the control of education commissioners as well as the brazen diversion of FG Intervention funds to miscellaneous purposes should also be thoroughly addressed. This will be a major vista of change that the Presidency can proudly marshal.

    The ‘orphaned’ status of secondary schools should be decisively resolved in favour of bringing them under regulatory monitoring and supervision by UBEC as its regulatory agency.

    These and other related issues pertaining to the Federal Government’s concurrent involvement in basic education sector and the new resolve of the Presidency to get out of the hostage situation should be top on the agenda for unveiling the new policy thrust to states and LGs at the Hon. Minister’s first meeting and interactive session with SUBEB chairmen and education commissioners. The interactive session should be adequately publicised nationwide to expose the rot in the system, obtain any relevant input to the new policy from states and garner states’ consensus and public support for the new policy thrust while highlighting the corrective change initiative.

    Out-of-school children and limited access to tertiary institutions.

    This is another issue for similar national meeting with commissioners and SUBEB chairmen as a distinct aspect of the FG intervention in basic education. There is need to situate the problem in the national emergency bracket considering the weighty implications and alarming consequences of steadily increasing numbers of predominantly children and youth affected on national security and future development. The basic education sector new policy thrust should be extended to achieve timely, decisive and effective positive change towards realistic resolution of the national crisis. It should also be properly profiled as a nationwide problem though it is more pronounced in some northern states. So an all inclusive interactive session approach should be adopted in arriving at the appropriate policy direction. The crucial responsibility of states and LGs is also a matter of serious concern that should be decisively tackled even as FG develops an option for achieving its targets, irrespective of partnership performance capacity.

    Craft and vocational/entrepreneurial education.

    The curricular challenges to the desired and much delayed implementation of shift in emphasis from white collar education to functional education that equips all students with at least one proficiency in a skill or vocation with entrepreneurial relevance by the time they exit Senior Secondary. The systematic relegation and revision of Nigerian and African History in schools and tertiary curricular with deleterious effect on the national consciousness of our children and youth of their political and historical heritage requires urgent attention and concerted efforts to “format” the minds of our children and youth must be countered vehemently and effectively. The disconnect between youth development and education – twin issues that are separated at great risk to civic development of youth – deserves similar attention with a view to establishing synergy to enhance the moral and civic qualities of school leavers.

    Federal Government Colleges.

    The original motivation for establishing FGCs was to promote national unity and federal character in the hearts and minds of our students as part of the post-war remedial measures. While these values are still relevant and necessary for inculcation today, the zeal and commitment of the founding fathers has fizzled out of the attention and concern of the bureaucrats. To restore the founding momentum and depth of passion for national unity and cohesion as well as common national ethos through comprehensive rehabilitation and revitalisation of infrastructure and teaching and learning processes in the FGCs will also manifest a profound transformation in a model institution under the Presidency. More significantly it will rekindle the fading embers of nationalism and unity in diversity on which the nation and people depend and thrive on a sustainable and progressive basis. It will be a welcome change for the better. In addition, the curricular of the FGCs need to be revisited and further fine-tuned to enhance the nation’s ICT and digital computing standing.

    Schools broadcast/FRCN network.

    The challenge of greater access to learning for the teeming out of school and early child education children calls for the integration of the nation’s radio broadcast facilities into the access spectrum which still remains a major national asset for service to education all over the world. Here it has been virtually abandoned since the deliberate dismantling of the Schools Broadcast Service under the Education Ministry that was once a qualitative and highly effective supplement to the delivery of special programmes by TV and radio to all primary schools in towns and villages on a regular curricular based broadcast schedule. Today FRCN boasts of over 100 stations as does NTA, not including the national network services, suitable for airing schools broadcasts but instead devoted to disc-jockeying and Mexican soap operas. The NTI-based Teachers Radio (if on air) and National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) facilities (if any) and the surviving personnel and equipment of the Schools Broadcast Unit of the FME are the potential building blocks for a completely new national schools broadcast and distance education service that will also register as a monumental transformation and positive change in the education sector impacting on the challenge of access at basic education sector in a very significant way for the benefit of millions of poorly taught pupils across the nation in a cost effective method.

     

    • Babatunde wrote in from Kaduna

  • Honouring Abubakar Audu

    The finality of death is the coldest and starkest reality every man must confront. Indeed, this is what we are repeatedly told but in truth, it rarely sticks in our minds because, we falsely act as people living in a fairyland where death never occur.

    What recently happened in Kogi State regarding the sudden passing away of Prince Abubakar Audu is a painful loss that drives the point home. The post events of his demise presents a touching picture of our real value for human life and how ludicrous we act on certain vital issues.

    Commonsense sufficiently suggests that Kogi people must resist the temptation by some persons to lead them to quickly fall into the gulf of forgetfulness for a man whose existence was very impactful as a major source of inspiration and encouragement to all his friends, political associates and members of his constituency. Indeed, it is really sad that very limited attention has been given to Abubakar Audu at death even by his close associates.

    But this piece is in no way intended to utter direct condemnation or  expose the failings of  anyone or group for a man they so claimed to love. My aim is that this piece may serve as a modest reminder to our dear Kogi people that the late Audu Abubakar deserves to be mourned properly by being  honoured for his immense contributions and remembered as a politician with candid belief in his ability to make Kogi better rather than allow some persons to use his death  to create serious cracks in the unity of the state .

    For me, Abubakar Audu lived a life worthy of remembrance and emulation  but his abrupt exit should be a standard reminder that in whatever we do or claim we are, for every man, there is certainty of death, irrespective of the record of lives touched. We should always bear in mind and retain the knowledge that the people we consider dear, may make a make a hasty reverse of so called loyalty  when we cease to exist.

    I watched Prince Audu Abubakar’s body being lowered by his male children into his grave while wrapped in a white shroud, I could not hold back tears in my shock. The constant thought in my mind was could this really be the great Abubakar Audu’s journey to finality? Indeed, in a long while, this is one death that has brought me close to revisit the complex issue of death, man’s real essence and basic understanding of the value of life. Even though the official three day mourning declared by the Kogi State government  has elapsed, many people will remain in an almost permanent season of grief and many others like me will continue to remember Audu  for months and years ahead.

    Prince Audu Abubakar was a man I met about two decades ago. Then, after my close interaction, he left me with a positive lasting impression that strongly influenced my thoughts about him as a person of unshakable desire to contribute to the development of Kogi State. He was a man that was not afraid to speak openly on issues especially those that were not in line with his convictions.

    His remarks were not just about the usual rhetoric from the mouth of a politician  but  he exhibited the philosophy of a man that had firm belief in his convictions and unwilling to compromise on issues that made no sense to his beliefs. Perhaps such self-opinionated trait could have largely contributed in earning him the label of arrogance.

    I feel very disturbed about the post-events of Abubakar Audu’s death especially given that in this period of sorrow people ought to focus on offering strength to the family by comforting them to overcome the hurting consequences of the loss of their bread winner, a man that died in active political service in his quest to better his society. Instead, some persons are more concerned about who takes over the likely benefits of a political empire Abubakar Audu solely built.

    Such a naked display of insensitivity is a direct affront to the family, of great significance is that the Audu’s family have exhibited right conduct expected of good Muslims by accepting death as God’s will despite the many controversies and rumours about his sudden death that pervaded the political sphere of Kogi State.

    In death Abubakar Audu remains an admirable politician of rare courage with special traits of courting followership because he had a special way of conveying his message to his people to make himself a voters delight despite the many odd against him. Simply put, Audu was a political icon that no opponent in an election would wish to ignore his influence on the electorate.

    It is really unfortunate and a matter of great pain that the cold hands of death has snatched away one of Kogi’s best at a time he was almost coming back to attain a new status of political relevance. A significant section of the Kogi people are pained by the death of Audu.

    The incumbent governor, Captain Idris Wada exemplified this in his condolence speech where he clearly stated that he is still in great shock because Audu was his friend and brother despite their political rivalry and this has been the governor’s only but worthy public remark since the grief thrust upon us by the untimely death.

    Let us however not forget that every man has his less respectful moments and neither Abubakar Audu nor the highest placed man in the world is exempted from this rule. Nobody is perfect but it remains our responsibility to promote the positive values of a man like Audu, protect his rights and alleviate the burden of his bereaved family.  Whatever be his assumed sins, it is obvious they have since been blotted, more so since no guilt verdict by any court of law was pronounced before the journey to the great beyond.

    Indeed, it will not make good logic for any sensible person to now dwell on his shortcomings because that era is gone and the many unanswered questions about Abubakar Audu may never find answers. This is where it becomes very necessary to state that even the hitherto popular EFCC Vs Abubakar case has now become infamous and no matter how self-opinionated this may sound, the man should be allowed to rest in perfect peace as judgement is now for God.

    Whilst I wish not to dwell on INEC’s relinquishing of its independence by announcing a date for what it termed supplementary election as presumably directed by the Attorney General of the Federation, it is sufficient to state that the new leadership of INEC should be informed that its ill-advised action and insensitivity to Audu’s death has already thrust the Kogi people into greater confusion. What the INEC has succeeded in doing is to polarize the Kogi electorate not necessarily along party divides but an intra-party wrangling within the APC. This INEC induced disenchantment is clearly visible in the way the APC is conducting itself. But there is a popular adage in Igala land of Kogi state which literally means that there is really no need for anyone to quarrel over how a hunter’s bush meat will be shared when there is no news that the  hunter will make a harvest for the day.

    For now, no one knows what the court will rule, as such violence is  unnecessary and the ongoing struggle will be the least befitting way to honour Audu. The emphasis on who becomes Audu’s political successor should be rested until the court decides because it is apparent that the death of Audu will certainly give rise to a new addition to the nation’s jurisprudence and the constitution.

    Let the energy of the Kogi people be channeled in areas of utmost significance like reminding the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele to urgently release the long overdue Kogi bailout funds it has mischievously held back for disbursement. We do not wish our workers to die to avoid Kogi becoming a mourning society. Kogi citizens deserve to enjoy this season of relief that the bail out provides  like their counterparts in other states.  Perhaps this will help console them in their period of grief.

    • Shaibu is Chief Communications Manager to Governor Wada.

     

  • Challenges before new Unibadan VC

    On Monday, November 30, a significant event took place at the Nigeria’s premier university, University of Ibadan (UI). Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka was inaugurated and sworn-in as the 12th indigenous Vice Chancellor of the institution. Following the smooth transition which culminated into his appointment after a rigorous selection process at the expiration of the tenure of Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole – now the Minister of Health –Prof. Olayinka will be leading the university for the next five years.

    Olayinka who came first among the 13 eminent professors who vied for the position has thus, by the reason of his appointment, achieved historical immortality, joining the exclusive club of intellectuals privileged to lead the premier university. But beyond the celebration of this great achievement, there are inherent challenges awaiting the occupant of the hot seat. Prof. Olayinka is of course aware of the fact that, having being appointed to lead the orchestra, he must be ready to take in his stride, all manner of burden, headache and pressure.

    The job, a difficult task requires an extra ordinary amount of courage. Perhaps, the kind of courage Olayinka is expected to demonstrate in this job is defined by G.K Chesterton who says courage simply means strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die. In other words, a leader who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing. If truly, the task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been, then, Prof. Olayinka should know that from now till 2020, there is no looking back in taking UI forward.

    One of the major challenges the new UI VC will be facing is paucity of funds. Prof. Olayinka is coming at a time that is regarded by many as tough. He has a lot to do with money but the resources are not just there. Economic indicators from the federal government clearly show that Nigeria is in dire-strait. The price of crude oil, the nation’s mainstay has crashed considerably. Many states are unable to pay salaries just as budgetary allocation to different government’s agencies and parastatals are no longer be guaranteed.

    Yet, before now, there had been general outcry about poor funding of education! Prof. Olayinka has to permanently put on his thinking cap with respect to raising additional funds to augment whatever that is coming from the government. Again, this is where the new VC needs to take a look at the activities of those who are hired to raise money for the university, but are perpetually looking for overseas training at the expense of their assigned task. Rather than raising money for the university, they prefer travelling in order to get estacode. The new VC must ask them critical questions, such as how much did they make for the university last year? How much have they raised this year? How much has the university spent on them? Where is their annual report? The current economic reality does not allow lackadaisical attitude to work.

    Closely related to funding is the need to maintain ageing infrastructure. Most of the structures in UI, put in place in the 50s and 60s are old. Many of the classrooms require facelift. Cables for electricity are old. Water pipes are begging for replacement. All of these and more demand attention which is predicated on money. Although the immediate past VC, Prof. Adewole tried his best to remedy the situation, it is apparent that there is still a long distance to cover.

    Staff welfare is another challenge that is waiting for the new VC. This is where his predecessor brilliantly succeeded. Prof. Adewole creatively wormed his way into the hearts of the workers by taking their welfare as priority. Many workers in UI will forever be grateful to Prof. Adewole with some steps he took. The question is, where will the new VC get money? Will the workers understand that resources have considerably diminished? This is where Prof. Olayinka will need to deploy his scientific mind to persuade the workers to show understanding in the face of “money palaver”.

    Beyond financial constraints, the 57-year old professor must find a way to fight the inherent lethargy and bureaucratic bottlenecks that usually delay service delivery in public service. As an institution, services should be computerized in such a way that alumni get their statement of results and certificates without facing frustration. The university has offended some of its former students by not attending to demands expeditiously.

    Prof. Olayinka who is a world-renowned scientist should not hesitate to initiate some innovation that will bring about a dramatic change in the modus operandi of the university. He needs to confront and fight laziness; after all, he himself is not indolent. Usually, he does not close from work earlier than 10pm. He may need to punish one offender in order to warn hundred against bringing anachronistic mentality to the 21st century.

    Leadership, according to Warren Bennis, is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Therefore, the laconic new VC owes it a duty to unlock people’s potential so that they can become better. It is his duty to ensure that the university’s vision of becoming a world-class institution does not just remain a mere refrain. To achieve result, he may need to wield a big stick. Stick and carrot approach may serve as deterrent to misdemeanour, just as commendation and reward for hardworking staff can perhaps stimulate productivity.

    Apparently, the job at hand requires courage and bravery. For Prof. Olayinka to take UI to greater heights, he should not be afraid to step on toes. There is no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. This Professor of Geology should know that fate loves the fearless. Obviously, there will be some forces that will be working for his failure, but with prayer and hard work, it is certain that the gate of hell shall not prevail.

    A leader is a dealer in hope. He should be hopeful of the best. He is expected to be the distributor of God’s goodness. He should not hesitate to promote people’s well-being. Yes, a leader is the one who knows the ways, goes the way and shows the way. Prof. Olayinka who is today leading in UI is expected to chart the direction with which UI can be more recognized globally. The good news is that he has the capacity, and he is not lacking in experience. He understands the system. He is a scientist of methodological appropriateness. He can do it.

    In addition to his intellectual fecundity, the new VC enjoys popular support in UI. His amiability which has drawn the admiration of the majority of members of the community will certainly go a long way to assist him to achieve success. He equally has a solid contact across the globe as a result of many years of teaching and community service. This is the time he needs the support of all his friends and well-wishers. He must succeed in this yeoman’s job. All eyes are now on him.

    If UI is to be listed among the best 20 universities in the world, this is the time to activate the momentum. It is a task that requires the support of all and sundry. It is not only about money, stakeholders could come forward with useful pieces of advice, suggestions, and opinion – all towards making UI greater than it is.

    • Saanu is of the Directorate of Public Communication, University of Ibadan.

  • Tale of four deaths

    First, it was  Senator Donald Dick Etiebet, Senator in the Second Republic – 1979-1983, Governor of old Cross River State (now Cross River and Akwa Ibom States in July, then Dr. Mathaias Oko Offoboche, renowned academic, outstanding Obstetrician and Gynecologist, respected politician, Deputy Governor of the old Cross River State on the same ticket with the illustrious economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Clement Isong as Governor  in the same Republic, on October 4. Then it was Navy Captain Edet Akpan Archibong (retired), who served  briefly as Military Governor of the same old Cross River State at the inception of General Muhammadu Buhari’s military administration  on October 12, and lastly, Dr. Walter Patrick Eneji, resourceful career civil servant who became a Permanent Secretary, Commissioner and later Deputy Governor in the present Cross River State to the charismatic and affable Donald Duke on November 4. They all died. Senator Etiebet at 85,  Dr. Offoboche at 78, Archibong at 85 and Eneji at 68.

    Remarkably, Eneji, the youngest of the quartet had served as Principal Secretary (now known as Chief of Staff) to both Offoboche as Deputy Governor and Archibong as Military Governor and all three died within one month of one another.

    Dr. Offoboche was more or less an uncle to my immediate family and I. He had had a long standing relationship with my larger family, from my grandfather, parents, uncles and aunties. He was an alumnus of my Secondary School, Mary Knoll College, Okuku where he was more or less a legend having established a number of academic records long before I found my way there.

    Captain Archibong it was who without knowing me previously appointed me on his assumption of office as Military Governor of Cross River State as Commissioner for Works and Transport at the unusual age of 27. He gave me the biggest introduction to public life as it were.

    Walter on the hand was a senior friend. Also an alumnus of Mary Knoll, I got to know him later as I did not meet him in school and developed a friendship that lasted until his death. Indeed, he had called from the UK the Saturday before his death and we had our longest telephone conversation ever. He apprised me of certain major developments in his personal circumstances and that he would be home in December. That conversation turned out to be a valedictory. When I became commissioner, we served in the same government and he became during my time, the General Manager of the then Cross River State Housing Corporation, one of my parastatals.

    The build up to the elections in 1983 in Cross River State (now Cross River and Akwa Ibom States) was tension soaked and interesting. There had been the expectation of the creation of a new state out of the former South Eastern State.When Murtala Mohammed created seven additional states in 1975, everyone expected Cross River State to be one of them. Rather than a new state, General Mohammed merely renamed the then South Eastern State Cross River State without more. This expectation, or rather, disappointment was to define the local politics of the Second Republic. The National Party of Nigeria, NPN rode on the sentiment of a new state to power. Dr. Clement Isong became Governor of the state while Dr. Joseph Wayas emerged as President of the Senate, the country’s third citizen. With time, the local politics became bifurcated along the Lagos Group, led by Dr. Wayas and the Home Front led by Dr.  Isong. The Lagos Group was believed to be championing the creation of the new state while the Home Front was perceived to be indifferent to it. This defined the elections of 1983. Dr.Isong lost the NPN primaries to Senator Donald Etiebet, an Anang, whose ethnic group entered into a political alliance with the Orons, Efiks and Ogoja to upstage the majority Ibibios. Senator Etiebet won the election and was sworn in as Governor of Cross River State in October 1983.

    The NPN’s bandwagon and landslide victory was contentious. The other political parties rejected the results. The polity was agitated and tense and the atmosphere ominous. On December 31, 1983, the military struck. The Shehu Shagari government was overthrown and General Muhammadu Buhari became the new military Head of State with Tunde Idiagbon as Chief of General Staff. In Cross River State, the two months governorship of Senator Etiebet came to a sudden end.Navy Captain Edet Akpan Archibong, an Ibibio, was appointed military governor of the state. He lasted four months, just twice as long as Senator Etiebet before he was redeployed to purely military duties. He was succeeded by Colonel Dan Patrick Archibong of blessed memory, an Efik.

    All three were gentlemen of the highest order who served their state, nation, humanity and the Almighty with all their strength and might. They were of unquestionable integrity and loyalty; they were icons and idols to the generations behind them. They belonged to that fast diminishing generation that believed in others before self, in a good name rather than wealth, in simplicity and rectitude rather than conspicuousness and arrogance. They were exemplary in their honesty and dignity.

    They were connected by their origin but more importantly by the history of their state, and their service to their state, nation and humanity. Though they died on different dates, in our mortal understanding, they died at the same time. We are therefore confronted with that question that has haunted humankind throughout history, that question that Thornton Wilder in his classic The Bridge of San Luis Rey sought to interrogate without an answer: “Is our fate random, or is it planned and controlled by some higher power”?

    In their deaths, we see the cynical democracy of death. It spread among the Anang, Ibibio, Yala and Bekwarra, from the elected governor to one who was not elected, from the lawyer, lawmaker to the soldier; from a famous doctor to the classical civil servant; from those in their eighties to one in his seventies and yet another in his sixties. From the swashbuckling to the suave, to the genteel.

    Etiebet, Offoboche, Archibong and Eneji will be remembered not for the quantity of their years or for their riches, they will be remembered for the richness of their lives.

    In the words of Wilder;  “But soon we shall die and all the memory of those five (these four) will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough, all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning (The Bridge of San Luis Rey)’’

    They have run their race and played their parts. May they rest in peace.

     

    • Senator Ndoma-Egba OFR, CON, SAN, was Senate Leader in the 7thSenate.
  • Still on the Abia tribunal blunders

    Still on the Abia tribunal blunders

    Many commentators, especially legal experts have continued to air their views regarding some of the judgments delivered by both the Houses of Assembly/National Assembly Tribunal and the Governorship Tribunal that sat in Umuahia recently.

    It is normal for people, both experts and laymen to try to scrutinize election Tribunal judgments because they have a lot to do with our democracy and leadership which centre on ensuring the well being of the people.

    One is always careful in commenting on such a sensitive issue to avoid being accused of partisanship, however, when one takes into consideration some of the events that took place before and during the elections in Abia, and subsequent events that played out during proceedings at the election Tribunals coupled with the reactions of majority of Abia voters, then it would not be out of p lace for a concerned citizen to comment.

    It would be recalled that while the Governorship case was pending at the Guber Tribunal, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and her candidate Alex Otti who were challenging the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate Okezie Ikpeazu, filed a motion to inspect the materials used in one of the contentious LGAs of Obingwa, their request was granted by the Tribunal, and after series of delay and frustration by INEC they agreed to grant APGA legal team and forensic experts access to the materials, unfortunately this legitimate order was flouted as thugs suspected to be working for the PDP assaulted the APGA legal  team, and prevented them from assessing those sensitive materials needed.

    This development  no doubt frustrated APGA as they were forced to return to the Tribunal to seek another order compelling INEC to bring the materials to  the Tribunal premises for inspection, unfortunately, less than twenty four hours before this order would be carried out, some arsonists also suspected to be supporters of the ruling party (PDP) stormed the INEC office in broad day light and set the place ablaze.

    APGA and her candidate were left with the option of requesting for materials of the other LGAs which were later brought for inspection after PDP and some INEC staff were said to have connived and mixed up the materials to frustrate the inspection.

    Having suffered avoidable delays as a result of INEC and PDPs unwillingness to obey the orders of the Tribunal on time, APGA and her candidate prayed for time extension to bring more witnesses, which observers believed would be the material contents of the forensic  examination, but shockingly, and suspiciously this motion was turned down by the Tribunal under the pretence that the parties were granted  seven days each to present their witnesses, and that having exhausted theirs, APGA would not be given additional time.

    The Tribunal took such a terrible decision without first of all considering that by the provisions of the electoral act, each of the parties was  entitled to fourteen days for presentation of witnesses,  and that the seven days given was because the Tribunal claimed it  was running out of time.

    Again, the Tribunal denied the extension of time without recourse to the delay tactics applied by INEC and the defense team who were never punished for their disobedience and lack of diligence.

    The Tribunal did not also reason that the petitioner’s legal team was given only seven days to face the three joined parties of Okezie Ikpeazu, PDP, and INEC  who were allocated separate number of days during the presentation of witnesses.

    Surprisingly, the Tribunal that claimed it was running out of time added extra four days to the date earlier agreed for adoption of written addresses, claiming that Abia judiciary wanted to use the Tribunal complex for a certain activities that ought not to have interfered with the Tribunal time table; this time around the Guber Tribunal wasn’t running out of time again, the same Tribunal that denied APGA time extension.

    To climax what could be described as an absurdity of legal proceedings, the Tribunal repeatedly used the word “re-run” against APGA  while delivering it’s judgement, when it was obvious that no re-run took place in Abia.

    The Tribunal in the most bizarre manner refused to align with APGA and her candidate in the case of Osisoma LGA where it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that the PDP L.G Collation agent and their House of Assembly candidate signed the results of the entire Ten Wards of the LGA instead of the Ward collation Agent as prescribed by the electoral act, the Tribunal did not just give their blessing on the grievous electoral crime, but also accepted the lies of the LGA and ward collation  agents of PDP who were caught  red handed lying under oath.

    The over eighty thousand votes fraudulently allocated to PDP and her candidate is one result that should alarm any unbiased mind even without going through the details of the election considering the pattern of voting and election results in the last election across the country, let alone the LGA in question, Obingwa LGA.

    As expected during the Tribunal proceedings, the result from Obingwa was exposed to the world as fake when a staff of INEC from Abuja appeared before the Tribunal and tendered a gazzetted INEC document in evidence which clearly contradicted and indicted the result earlier declared.

    Unfortunately the same Tribunal that accepted and never disputed the content of the document ignored its undisputed facts while delivering its judgment.

    In the case of Chief NnamdiIro Orji, the APGA candidate for Arochukwu/Ohafia constituency, the National Assembly Tribunal shocked everyone when it rejected the pink copies of the election results tendered by APGA showing the original results as earlier given by the INEC presiding officers before the fraudulaent results were announced by Senior INEC Officers in the State.

    Again, in one of the INEC result sheets that bore a report written by the INEC Officer in charge, it clearly listed details of votes as scored by the individual political parties and clearly showed that APGA won in all the polling units of the areas in question. The INEC staff also detailed how some agents of the PDP came and snatched the result sheets, and subsequently entered fraudulently figures which contradicted the genuine results, as the scores in figure differed in words. She subsequently used asterisk to differentiate the fake result from the original, unfortunately, the Tribunal used her discretion in the most unfair manner to accept the ones marked as fake.

    In another interesting case involving the APGA candidate for Aba North State Constituency in the Abia House of Assembly, the Tribunal said that it established a case of certificate forgery against the Aba candidate and thus nullified his election, ordered for fresh elections in some polling units, and subsequently barred APGA from taking part in the would be rerun election.

    However, in what looked like a selective justice and bizarre contradiction, the same Tribunal  established a case of double registration and forgery against the PDP candidate for Bende North State Constituency, but did not nullify his election on that basis, rather recommended  him for trial in a regular court? Two pre-election election matters, two parties but different judgments.

    There are other clear examples of miscarriage of justice involving the lower Tribunals that sat in Umuahia which cannot be listed here for want of space.

    One is no trying to play the innocent here or cast aspersion on the judiciarybecause of avoidable inactions of some judicial officers, but some of these judgment are not only conspicuously questionable but clearly suggest that there was a huge compromise taken to the point of ridicule.

    The appropriate authorities and institutions charged with the responsibility of ensuring justice and sanity in situations like this need to urgently look into what transpired in Abia so that a very dangerous precedent would not be set at the expense of the suffering masses.

    Injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere-Martin Luther King Jnr.

     

     

    The author, Ekeoma is a social commentator

    He writes from Abia state, Nigeria.

  • Political culture and inconclusive polls

    If there is one lesson that the political class must learn from the recent Kogi State governorship election, it is that there is no more easy pass for impunity in the Nigerian electoral process. That is the design of election administration presently, and that is what the inconclusive outcome of the election penultimate weekend proves. Although 22 political parties contested the election, the scoreline of collated results – not unexpectedly – showed the poll to have been a two-horse race between the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket, which led with 240, 867 votes, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that trailed with 199, 514 votes. No winner was declared by the Returning Officer, who ruled the election inconclusive because the difference of 41, 353 votes between the leading candidate and the runner-up fell short of the 49, 953 registered voters in 91 polling units across the state where elections were cancelled or didn’t hold at all due to violence and sundry irregularities. By existing electoral regulations, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will have to conduct a supplementary poll in those 91 polling units to determine the election winner.

    A tragedy has since complicated the equation, with the sudden death of the APC flag bearer, Prince Abubakar Audu. Lawyers are at odds, as always, over the legally correct way to unravel the constitutional tangle, but INEC has already taken the decision to allow APC to replace its deceased candidate and has scheduled the supplementary poll for 5th December. In a rare (I am not certain if sincere) show of like-mindedness, politicians across partisan divides mourned the late Audu – apparently in recognition of the fickleness of the human species. After all, the American rapper and songwriter famously called ‘Eminem’ said: “The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.” But then, there is nothing else on which you would find any semblance of accord between the two leading parties. Whereas the PDP seemed initially comfortable with the declaration of the election as inconclusive, the APC took fierce exception. Now, APC seems reconciled with the idea of concluding the election through a supplementary, and with a substitute for its deceased candidate, but the PDP is pushing vigorously for a fresh poll.

    One quick point: Neither the demand to summarily use results from the 21st November election in declaring a winner, nor the evidently opportunistic angling for a fresh poll is borne out by the strict provisions of electoral laws and regulations as well as precedence. And INEC, as we should all desire for the good health of our bourgeoning democracy, must stick by those. By its decisions so far, the electoral commission, in my view, is discharging its onus as a dispassionate and neutral umpire amidst competing interests. Contrary to a common notion, inconclusive elections do not evidence poor preparation or defective performance by INEC. Rather, they result from wilful breaches of the voting process by unruly partisan supporters, who snatch ballot papers and ballot boxes, stuff ballots, disrupt voting and foment violence as well as other irregularities that make it impossible for the electoral commission to conduct the process conclusively.

    There are 2, 548 polling units in Kogi State, 91 of which experienced such irregularities during the 21st November election. The rule that the Commission has in place is that where such incidents happen, results get cancelled, or elections are stepped down altogether in places where the breaches are serious enough to hinder lawful voters from coming out. The challenge in certain polling units was over-voting, and some people have wondered why over-voting occured despite the use of Smart Card Readers by INEC. But the fact is, this technological tool does not in itself eliminate the human agency that perpetrates over-voting; what it does is to expose the misdeed by storing records that could show the ballot papers cast as being in excess of the number of persons accredited if there was over-voting.

    The other aspect of the rule that is contended in the Kogi case is the relevance of the margin of difference between the two leading candidates, compared to the number of registered voters in the polling units without results. One argument that has gained traction is that the Kogi election shouldn’t have been inconclusive since the APC was leading by about 41, 000 votes; and even though there are some 49,000 registered voters in the 91 polling units without results, barely half of that number have collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and they will not redirect the final outcome even if they all come out to vote – which is most improbable – and if they all vote for the runner-up candidate.

    I have not checked the PVC collection figures in the specific polling units to confirm the statistics being cited. But simply, the argument runs foul of existing regulations and precedence. INEC’s regulations have the force of law, and a Commission with integrity cannot apply them whimsically. Besides, this was the same rule that was applied in the Anambra Central senatorial constituency supplementary election in 2011, the Imo State governorship supplementary election in 2011 and the Anambra State governorship supplementary election in 2013, among others. If it was okay to apply the rule in past elections, with the Commission being indifferent to who benefits, what would be the justification to tweak it now? Actually, if the electoral commission were to do as canvassed, Nigerians should be very worried about the integrity of an INEC that would apply a rule in past elections, and alter that rule now to fast-track the outcome of the Kogi election.

    The moral here is that INEC is striving to institutionalise its process design for credible elections, it remains for the political class and those supporters who perpetrate irregularities to get the message that voyages in impunity will end up nowhere other than a dead end. Just think of it: Why do we seem unable to rise above a political culture that locates us in the backwaters of human civilisation, which many countries have succeeded in weaning themselves from? It is bad enough that elections in our jurisdiction entail security lockdowns that translate to huge economic losses for the country, it is worse that these lockdowns are not sufficient to stop the breaches that yet occur. We need an urgent reorientation of the political culture.

  • Buhari’s trips not for enjoyment

    I have been amused, reading a number of jokes concerning the frequency of the President, Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign trips. Questions have been raised about why so many visits, and what are the benefits Nigeria is getting?

    I will make it clear from the beginning that the critic is entitled to his and her opinion and nothing said here is intended to silence him or her. Criticism goes with the territory and as it is often said in a wisecrack, if you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.

    President Muhammadu Buhari came into office under the mantra of change. While Nigerians are yearning for change, you need someone who will set up the infrastructure, both at home and abroad for it. President Buhari is busy doing that. The change is manifest in where he visits and what he does. In the delegations accompanying him abroad, President Buhari has slashed the numbers, bringing them down to a tolerable or the bearable minimum.

    He went to the United Nations General Assembly in September with an unbelievable 32 officials in his delegation. These included his cook, his doctor and luggage officer. His predecessor in office went to the same meeting with 150 officials and family members the year before. Wherever they are given government accommodation and feeding, members of President Buhari’s entourage receive reduced allowances, thereby saving the government some money.

    In public diplomacy, experts say that it is better conducted through  face-to-face interaction than through third parties. This is even moreso at the level of heads of state. To do by it by proxy is to miss the effect of fostering strong interpersonal relations between leaders, by which nations benefit.

    President Buhari has so far visited Germany, South Africa, USA, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, South Africa, India, Iran and Malta, where we are presently for the Commonwealth Summit. Mostly, these were due to either the United Nations, EU, African Union, or energy and security-related summits. They were mostly undertaken to attend specific meetings, not state visits. Looking at these assignments, the trips are inescapable for the President. What would Nigerians say of their leader when see the array of world leaders assemble, as they would shortly be doing discussing climate change in Paris on Monday and their own President is missing from the table?

    Those of us who were around under Abacha read all the taunts about him being a sit-at-home leader. Abacha was despised for not representing his country abroad.

    President Buhari’s foreign visits have been marked by punishing schedules. They are always business-like and results-oriented. All trips have been marked by tight schedules. Meeting after meeting, happening back-to-back morning, afternoon and evening. The President has had to travel overnight for some of these meetings.

    The visit by any president to another country is the highest act in international relations. It sends out a message that that county is important to the visitor.

    It is not like your usual vacation abroad. Official discussions involving political leaders, the military, the diplomats and at times, business people are held at multi- track levels. In foreign  policy you stand on a quick sand of events and you slip up if take a rest or lose focus. Governments also know that their achievements at home will be meaningless if they cannot project them abroad. Who or where are the foreign investors, whose hand you are seeking if you can’t travel meet them? Will they come if they don’t know about the country? President Buhari demonstrated a keen understanding of these when in the first week of his taking the office, he brought together foreign policy and all three cardinal objectives of his administration-security, economy and war on corruption- by embarking on visits to neighbouring countries.

    In our recent history, much of the West had ignored Nigeria under the corrupt PDP administration for many years, which warranted the country’s tilt towards some Asian countries. As a consequence, this country has suffered past isolation of various types, including the denial of access to the arms-purchase market.

    As a member of the then Standing Committee of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, I remember being in a delegation that visited the Aso Rock Villa, to beg the government at that time not the execute the writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. At the meeting with the Number Two man in that government, Major-General Oladipo Diya, he announced to everyone’s shock and disbelief that Ken had been executed. “Honestly,” he muted, “I think he has been executed about two days ago.”

    What followed that pronouncement was a global outrage.

    The then Foreign Affairs Minister, Tom Ikimi representing Nigeria at the Commonwealth meeting in New Zealand, shattered the feelings of the leaders of those countries when he announced to them that he had not been briefed about the executions and begged for time to talk to the leaders back in Nigeria.

    Nigeria faced an imminent expulsion from the group and would have been so sacked but for the intervention of the then President of South Africa, late Nelson Mandela. In place of this extreme form of sanction, a suspension and a barrage of sanctions followed and remained in place until an appreciable remorse was shown and progress made towards the return to democracy by Nigeria.

    Throughout that period of time, it was difficult being a Nigerian in the international space.

    As council members of the UN Human Rights Commission, Africans would caucus in Geneva without Nigerians. Like lepers, we were shunned wherever we showed up.

    I mentioned this short narrative to illustrate two things: one, for a country to do the right things all the time and two, you don’t know the joy being a part of international gatherings until you suffer the pain of exclusion from them.

    Short of begging the world, there was nothing that the Abacha government didn’t do to be taken back into the Commonwealth.

    There is no reason to be angry with anyone criticizing President Buhari for travelling abroad. In politics, even if President Buhari were to bring with him a suitcase full of cash and a pot of gold each time he returned from a trip, someone will criticize him, saying that the journey is wasteful. The PDP will kick, knowing that they got 16 years and did nothing with it. Those who didn’t do much during their term of governance will find it instructive to fault whatever the President is doing. If President Buhari is successful as a leader, the PDP will be history.

    My own point here is that he is doing a great job and the fruits are here, and many more will soon come. He is working to strengthen diplomatic relations, trade and the security of our nation. He holds serious meetings with serious investors and has fetched us investments in the range of billions of US Dollars. Now, countries such as France, UK, and U.S are supporting Nigeria with intelligence, weapons and training for our military against Boko Haram and the economic saboteurs in the Delta region.

    All heads of countries around the world now take Nigeria seriously. His foreign trips are for business, security of the country and bilateral contacts- contacts that get actualized by follow-ups and the love and support a leader enjoys at home and abroad. Today the world is in a warm embrace of President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigerians should be proud of the attention, love and admiration, importance, respect and investment he is bringing to Nigeria. These trips are not for enjoyment.

    Lastly, to answer those who ask all the time, what is he bringing back home?

    We are not a country of beggars. It is good if something is in the bag as the leader comes home from a trip. Culturally, we never return home from a trip without a souvenir for everyone left at home. Yes it is good he declares something upon his return. But the most important task for the President at this time is to reset the image of Nigeria abroad, given the damage it sustained over many years in the past.

    So far, in fairness, the President has projected  a large image of Nigeria and of himself which should be a matter of pride for all our citizens. Marketing of Brand Nigeria can never be more important than currently it is. The President is doing a great job for the nation. He needs to be supported.

    Shehu is Senior Special Assistant to the President, (Media and Publicity).

  • The ’ember’ month syndrome

    It is evident that road accidents are caused majorly by people’s non-compliance to traffic rules such as fastening of seatbelts, and ensuring vehicles are in good condition.

    Similarly, the act of over speeding, drunkenness, overloading, while usage of mobile phones on the highway has contributed to numerous road accidents.

    In fact, many life’s including that of innocent citizens have been wasted due to these human factors.

    Aside the above mentioned causes of road accidents, many people also have the perception that road accidents occur mostly during the so called “EMBER MONTHS”.

    While some has attributed major road accidents during the “Ember months” to Spiritual causes, various stakeholders have described the phenomenon belief as a fallacy that could not be proved.

    Through research and study conducted, it is noted that the rate of road accidents during the ember months have always been on the increase, because of the unimaginable travelling rate of people which commercial drivers are willing to explore, while this drivers are willing to take risk of travelling against traffic rules by embarking on over allotted trips by the road unions, while not bearing in mind the psychological effect of embarking on multiple trips without resting all in the name of “making money”.

    Also, commercial drivers while trying to boost and motivate themselves to go on multiple trips, take intoxicated concussions known as “opa eyin”, which would make them to be hyper active, thereby risking the life of the commuters.

    However, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement and other Agencies (TRACE) in Ogun State also stated a total number of 26 crashes was recorded during the 2015 festive period which was less than 74 crashes recorded during the same period in year 2014.

    It is against this backdrop that, the Ogun State Government considered it worthy to continue to sensitize members of the Public on the need to be safety conscious, as it embarked on the “Ember month” campaign for 2015. Ogun State Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Onanuga, during a flag off campaign at major Motor parks in Abeokuta, the State capital attributed the causes of road accidents to human factor.

    According to her, she stated that it is high time people change their mindset on “Ember months”, as road accidents are caused by negligence of the motorists. She therefore advised Motorists to adhere to traffic rules and regulations, while Passengers should support all measures, towards ensuring safety of their life’s on the road.

    She specifically charged the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement (TRACE) and other agencies in the State to intensify efforts on compliance to traffic rules emphasizing the agency to apprehend motorists driving against traffic.

    To the Chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ita-Oshin branch Alhaji Adetunji Odunfa, saw the need for Government to intensify efforts towards ensuring effective monitoring and enforcement of motorists with a view to achieving accident free on the road at all time. Another stakeholder who is also the General Manager of Parks and Garages in Ogun State Alhaji Olaayo Ogunsholu while highlighting various measures put in place by government stemming the tide of road accidents in the State apt, on the need to adhere to the basic traffic rules and regulation.

    In conclusion, stakeholders should join hands with traffic enforcement organizations and other related agencies in the task of ensuring that the road is free from auto crash, considering the fact that human factor constitute major causes of road accidents.

    Similarly, motorists and other road users should abide by basic traffic rules and regulations while on the wheel rather than attributing causes of road accident to spiritual forces. They should as a matter of fact, realize that lifes and properties of passengers can be secured, if they desist from over speeding, drunkenness, over loading and others traffic offences as “Life does have a reset button”.

    • Koleade wrote from Kenta, Abeokuta.