The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Amaechi’s legacy remains indelible

    The unfolding political drama in Rivers State is no doubt, a worrisome distraction not only to the dramatis personae and their henchmen but also to the entire polity. Its festering dimension as we follow the intrigues and name-calling portrays us as an unserious lot who see politics and political power as avenues to lay claim to some fiendish acclaim. It is depressing as a recurring negative of our democracy at a time the political system is fraught with many challenges, yearning for overhauling. But my greater worry is the implication of this unrestrained indulgence on the critical question of proper governance in the state and the basic interest of the people which should be the pre-occupation of the incumbent governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike. Rather than the fixation on his predecessor with all sorts of recriminations, the new government should be circumspect by focusing more on governance as a pressing factor of its responsibility in spite of the allegation of a stolen mandate.

    From the look of things, it will appear to any objective observer that this is a dog fight which has a deeper, disguised essence other than the much publicized allegations against the immediate past governor, the Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. This is an important observation, reinforced by the sequence of events and indeed the feisty and bitter nature of public pronouncements of Governor Wike against Amaechi before and after the controversial election in the state which are largely suspect and objectionable.  The persuasive deduction from this important observation as many are wont to believe is that the whole orchestration that is gradually but consciously executed by the new power block in the state is aimed at rubbishing the legacy of the former governor which is regrettable.

    Now, the refrain in the government establishment in Port-Harcourt and those of associated political interest groups is the tendency to cast Amaechi in very dark stripes as a “demon” and in the new consciousness of betrayal and ardent provocation as a ‘fraud” barely six months after leaving office as a celebrated performer, a humanist and democracy hero, one who actually made a difference in the lives of his people.

    So what really happened? Why the bizarre obsession to destroy a good man at all cost especially when we recollect his many firsts in leadership, effective governance and overall huge successes in policy and programmes and as affirmed in public opinion in no distant time?  What could be the issue? Is it a manifestation of the evils of our crude politics or sheer banality? This should be a time for soul-searching as well as time for healing, I believe.

    Lest we forget that our politics is still largely driven by opportunism: from that sunny day at the water front in Okirika, when  Amaechi had a “confrontation” with the former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, over policy (public good)rather than such mundane interest as she then postulated, the seed of discord was sown. As with all things Nigerian, our dear Nyesom Wike capitalized on the face-off to feather his own nest. He became the willing tool, an errand boy and a manipulator, no matter the moral question, to persecute his benefactor. So sad! From that moment till date, Wike has never hidden his disdain for Amaechi with his burning interest and target to become the governor of Rivers State and a new power broker.

    A lot had since happened but certainly the desire to rubbish Amaechi by Wike in any way possible remains a constant element in his agenda. From day one in office, this desire became a priority going by his numerous vindictive and selfish actions against Amaechi.

    But beyond the maddening crowd of Amaechi crucifixion, can we really justifiably believe the new found corruption claim of the state government other than a deliberate plot to paint Amaechi so black with a possible damning verdict by a court so primed to deliver a hasty pronouncement on his tenure? A logical end in the on-going hot pursuit of a sworn enemy? Let’s wait and see! Of course, it is too clear to every discerning observer of the macabre dance in Port-Harcourt that the objective is to dent Amaechi’s hard-earned reputation to possibly frustrate his higher elevation in leadership position and national service but this will fail so woefully. President Muhammadu Buhari, all conscientious leaders and the generality of patriotic Nigerians can see beyond Wike’s façade of hypocrisy. It won’t stop Amaechi from ascending to higher calling as a will of God, a God of purpose who has so far used the former governor to liberate his people and by extension the Nigerian people from the yoke of poverty, ignorance and incompetent leadership.

    No matter what his political enemies may say, Amaechi is an uncommon leader who was conscious of his place in history and acted so pragmatically especially in the last presidential election. His strategic roles in the election of President Buhari will continue to be of serious evaluation and analysis with a generous verdict by perceptive thinkers as a vote for national interest rather than tribe or ethnic leaning. He was simply a patriot whose activist and progressive leadership in this 4th Republic raises hope for democratic consolidation and national renewal. Amaechi is a man of convictions, dogged, thorough and certainly a key architect of the democratic success we are enjoying today. He deserves to be celebrated as a genuine national icon.

    From that Okirika incident to the huge infraction of the Soku Oil Well to the‘16 higher than 19 votes” at the Nigerian Governors Forum election down to the orchestrated impeachment as we recollect those terrible occurrences in the state house of assembly, deprivation of Amaechi’s administration in legitimate constitutional entitlements and privileges to all manner of political intimidation and harassment (remember Mathew Mbu), the stage had since been set to bring down the Lion Heart. But in major considerations, we can only look back and reckon so proudly that Amaechi won the battle, notwithstanding the subsisting leftover as we are witnessing.

    Amaechi came into office well prepared and he delivered on his lofty promises to the huge excitement of his people. His passion and determination were too visible to the end. First, he worked so hard to birth a lasting peace in a former enclave of street gangs and insecurity. He moved so fast to reposition education in a creative manner that has changed the lot of a generation. Making Port-Harcourt a UNESCO World Book Capital was not an accident, Wike should be reminded. Health, agriculture, entrepreneurship and empowerment, infrastructure, particularly roads and bridges got major attention as he provided a remarkable leadership which was duly recognised locally and abroad. He bonded freely with his people and they loved him for his forthrightness.

    Like Rosa Park, Amaechi, however, insisted on being treated with dignity, decorum and equity. He refused to sacrifice his principles on the altar of convenience or compromise. It is a moral force shaped by his values and ethics which have also helped to build his enduring leadership of integrity and honour. He was courageous and he continues to inspire. This was the defining moment which Wike and his tribe of opportunists hated so much and exploited to become somebody today but I doubt if Amaechi is regretting his course of action.

    Thus let the word go forth from now to friends and foes alike that the essential Amaechi is unshaken even in the face of provocation and abuse of power. Amaechi’s legacy remains indelible and no amount of human efforts can obliterate that important part of history.

    • Njoku wrote from Port-Harcourt.

  • Ayade: 100 days after

    Over since the term, “100 days in office”, was first coined by a former US President, Franklin Roosevelt in an address on July 24, 1933, the expression has continued to generate public appeal and application. In that address, President Roosevelt encapsulated his programmes and outlined the successes of that obviously brief period to an expectant American populace.

    In the past 82 years, leaders the world over have been conscious of their first 100 days in office by making pronouncements and initiating actions aimed at justifying the people’s confidence in them.

    Cross River State is a defining example of how an elected leader, conscious of the huge expectations of the people, makes spirited efforts to lay a solid foundation for the present and future generations. Presently, the affairs of state are being presided over by Senator (Prof.) Ben Ayade, a suave and urbane gentleman, who assumed the reins of power, riding on the tide of popularity, following his past philanthropic gestures. His assumption of office as the first elected Governor of Cross River State from the northern senatorial district was accentuated by his huge credibility profile.

    His swearing in, along with his deputy, Professor Ivara Esu on May 29, was indeed the commencement of an unprecedented era, filled with expectations and rich in its convincing ambience. The governor’s first working day in office was instructive of what he intends to entrench in the psyche of both civil and public officers. He was at his desk at 8am only to discover to his chagrin that punctuality was no longer a virtue among civil and public officers.

    Thereafter, he embarked on inspection visits to many ministries, departments and agencies, among which were the Cross River State Water Board Limited and the Waste Management Agency to ascertain the state of affairs. Since then, there has been regular unscheduled visits to other ministries. This has not only re-established the sanctity of official resumption time but has also indicated that it would not be business as usual.

    With a prodigious capacity for work, he has steadfastly adhered to a rigid regime of official punctuality. Although coming from the private sector, Governor Ayade has continued to demonstrate a clear knowledge of how the bureaucracy functions. No doubt, he is ready to deploy the totality of his creative elements to give the state a new look and take its development paradigm to higher levels of appreciation.

    Of significant impact these 100 days is the determination to reduce the huge unemployment figure to a manageable level. One way in which he has shown this is in the on-going recruitment into the Cross River State Green police – a security outfit targeted at securing the vast forest reserves the state is blessed with. A total of 1,500 (500 from each senatorial district), will be recruited into scheme.

    In the same vein, the envisaged garment factory is becoming a fascinating reality with the on-going construction at the factory site. When fully completed, the factory will be another bold initiative that will add value to the lives of Cross Riverians and equally set the pace for the state industrialization agenda. Recruitment of employees for the factor has since commenced.

    The Deep Seaport under construction is yet another big project that has become synonymous with the Ayade led administration. He has left no one in doubt about his desire to exploit the enormous economic potentials of a deep seaport, which will strengthen the state revenue base as well as exploit the commercial activities begging for attention from the Cross River State axis of the country. When all these projections are added to the need to grip the alluring inflow of the much needed foreign investments, the seaport need no further advertisement.

    Cross River State no doubt suffers from lack of road infrastructure, which has over the years suffered neglect. To this end, Governor Ayade is embarking on, unarguably, one of the most ambitious road projects in the world – the 260 km Super Highway Stretching within the entire length of the state from Calabar to Obudu. Interestingly, his administration intends to run a public/private partnership collaboration to source for the funds needed for these signature projects. Assuredly, an iconic infrastructural assets is in the offing. It is noteworthy that Governor Ayade has been paying inspection visits to the various project sites at regulated intervals to ascertain their pace of progress.

    Other areas of great interest are the many courtesy calls by a cross section of people, corporate bodies, international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, all with the intention of playing one role or the other in the life of the people of Cross River State. One such visits that holds so much promise for the state was embarked upon by Affordable Buildings Concepts Ltd. from the Republic of Ireland.

    Through the company, the Governor hopes to address the huge housing deficit that plagues the state by significantly reducing the cost of building materials. Some commissioning ceremonies have also been performed such as the Fynfield Petroleum Ltd. to ensure steady supply of petroleum products in the state.

    Other visits and courtesy calls were from the Ecological Funds Office, The Presidency, Abuja, Governing Council of the University of Calabar, Leaders of forest communities in Cross River State, the United Nations Redd Programme, as well as the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), among others.

    Within this brief period of 100 days, Governor Ayade has played host to the Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and undertaken a trip to the Republic of Cameroun with President Mohammadu  Buhari. Yet another inspection visit was to the Military Recce Operation at Ikang in Bakassi Local Government Area. In a bid to secure the lives and property of the citizenry Governor Ayade has boosted the morale of the state security outfit and the Nigeria Police by the provision of vehicles.

    The Calabar Christmas Festival often referred to as Carnival Calabar remains very dear to the heart of the governor. He has revealed his intention to reignite the passion of the festival by introducing many variety shows, cycling competition such as formula one, games, demonstrations and casinos, among others.

    To ensure that those at the lower rung of the ladder do not suffer unduly, Ayade has proposed a bill to be sent to the State House of Assembly to exempt low income earners from paying tax. Shortly after his assumption of office, Gov. Ayade cleared the backlog of salary arrears and set an unshakable date for the payment of salaries on the 25th of every month and he has kept tenaciously to this date.

    Aware of the need to generate funds for the various landmark projects, he has embarked on the re-organization of revenue generating agencies. Already, a new chairman has been appointed for the state Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He has equally taken notice of the need to source for and appoint credible, competent and qualified Cross Riverians into political positions in the state. That search to ensure equity, justice and fair play is responsible for why such appointments are yet to be made. Hopefully, this issue will soon be laid to rest.

    Interestingly, Cross River State has the startling coincidence of being the first state in Nigeria to have two professors as governor and deputy governor respectively. Their experiences in the various positions they have held will undoubtedly be brought to bear in the administration of the state. The expectations are indeed high.

    With a massive dose of optimism, Governor Ayade has hit the road running. It has not been an easy yoke, however. He has encountered the relentless animosities of defeated opponents, some of who took him to court to question his overwhelming electoral victory. He came out of the court with his head high by conquering the frivolities of the case. Not a few hailed the victory. He is deeply aware of the verdict of history and has vowed to confront it.

    It has been an incredibly busy 100 days in office and the result has been very encouraging. Welcome to the enchanting vision of Governor Ayade. Welcome to Cross River State, the land where the past and present are rapidly melting into the future.

  • Why Peace Committee must disband now

    The drumbeats of war sounded so loudly in the run-up to the 2015 General Elections, that it reverberated in major capitals across the world, raising concerns that Nigeria could blow apart, if the polls were stalemated.

    The prospect of a political quagmire loomed very large on the horizon. But like they say, all that is now history. The transition was concluded peacefully to the glory of God, and peace now reigns in Nigeria, apart from the perennial Boko Haram insurgency which is also top on the agenda of the APC government.

    Every patriotic Nigerian should support President Buhari in his war against terror and its twin demon of corruption. His success or failure would ultimately be judged by the defeat of insurgency and the recovery of looted public funds by the government of his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in particular, because the most reckless looting of our national resources happened under his watch.

    One is therefore disappointed by the discordant tunes coming from some members of the National Peace Committee, which includes former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Rtd., Bishop Mathew Kukah, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’Ad Abubakar III; the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor; Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Revd. Nicholas Okoh;  etc. The committee only recently visited President Buhari for undisclosed reasons.

    But Bishop Kukah, who addressed journalists on behalf of the Peace Committee after the meeting with the President alluded to the ongoing investigation of the PDP government of ex-President Jonathan, saying his group appealed to President Buhari “to be fair” in his handling of the probe.

    I am amazed at the ecclesiastical affinity of Goodluck Jonathan. First it was Pastor Ayo Orisejafor and now it is Bishop Kukah. Both are now amalgamated in the Peace Committee. I submit that Pastor Ayo Orisejafor has exhibited himself as a general factotum of the imperial house of Goodluck and Patience Jonathan. He therefore debunks the definition of an emissary of peace.

    Bishop Kukah in his apologetic prolixity describes Jonathan’s governmental enterprise, inter alia, as ‘’fantastic’’. To my sanctified mind; this is not only imaginary but approaches the periphery of phantasmagoria.

    He castigates President Buhari in subtle verbiage for what he perceives to be a sluggish pace in revving the engine of governance. He thus, abandons momentarily, the responsibility of his committee’s morality posture and immerses his Episcopalian garments in the quagmire of the political emporium. He almost loses his compass in a broken monologue of praise-singing sycophancy in veneration of vanquished Jonathan Goodluck. Haba, Aboki, with all due respect!

    Question: What compels a chartered libertine who has been weaned on the mountains of divine servitude to descend to such lowly valleys of mundane terrestrials? What inspired such lisping accents of jejune political naivety? Is it peace committee? Seriously? Yeah right! Ha!

    There are several other questions still begging for urgent answers: Who sent the National Peace Committee to Aso Rock to plead with President Buhari “to be fair” to officials of the Jonathan government now under investigation? Why is the committee putting the President under pressure in his quest to rid the Augean stable of the filth of the corrupt PDP regime? Why are they pre-empting the President by assuming that he’d not be fair?

    A mitigation plea by this committee is not only premature but uncalled for, and is a direct insult to the injury that ex-President Jonathan’s six-year misrule has inflicted on Nigerians, majority of whom are now impoverished and dying from the ravages of hunger, malnutrition and disease.

    The Peace Committee is no longer relevant and should honourably and immediately disband, to save Nigerians from this gratuitous charade and national embarrassment. There’s no denying the fact that, at least, one of the committee members used to hobnob with ex-President Jonathan, and is a beneficiary of his patrimonial leadership.

    President Buhari’s crusade against corruption must begin with a comprehensive probe of former President Jonathan, to send a clear signal that he means business. A serious fight against corruption must, therefore, begin with the immediate subpoena of the former President, who ran a large patronage network that spurned the unprecedented corruption

    that has brought this nation to the abyss. Under his leadership, his extravagant wife, Patience, functioned like a Deputy President, and must also be investigated, to ascertain the extent of her involvement in the squandermania.

    Since a fish rots from the head, any credible and effective drive towards the recovery of looted public funds in the PDP federal government can only succeed, not just by investigating functionaries of that government, but by taking the bull by the horn: Probe the ex-President and his imperious wife.

    President Buhari must know that Nigerian’s are firmly behind him. He must demonstrate to the world that he still has fire in his belly, by showing himself strong, fearless and capable of taking on the most sacred cows whose hands are soiled.

    PDP chieftains and the erstwhile First Lady made an issue about Jonathan going to jail if President Buhari won the elections. In the twilight of his administration, Jonathan had warned that officials of his government would be persecuted. Well, this is cheap talk. The President has no power to send anyone to jail unless the court finds such person guilty. Moreover, there’s nothing new about jailing high profile leaders. Besides, it is in Jonathan’s interest to face a probe to clear his name if he has nothing to hide.

    Late politician, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the leader of the opposition in the first republic when he was tried and jailed by the Balewa government for treasonable felony. President Buhari himself was behind bars for 23 months with his No. 2 man, the late Gen. Tunde Idiagbon, after their military regime was toppled in August 1985, 30 years ago this month.

    The Peace Committee should stop whipping-up sentiments about the probe and allow justice to take its natural course. Whoever is aggrieved or dissatisfied with the outcome of an investigation could seek reliefs from the court, which is open to all. The probe is across party lines, President Buhari has assured. Therefore, nobody has anything to fear if their hands are clean. Whoever is found guilty of misappropriation must face the appropriate sanctions prescribed by law. Period!

    The ambience of peace we now enjoy was attained by team effort, not just the Peace Committee. The international community, especially American President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, played commendable roles.

    On my part, I dare say that I contributed to the success of the transition by resisting pressures to go to court to stop the general elections because of INEC’s refusal to allow our party, Fresh Democratic Party, FRESH, participate in the elections, despite the court verdict that voided

    the de-registration of our great party. I knew that a successful move to halt the elections would favour the PDP, which was facing imminent defeat from a determined and cohesive opposition, APC, which looked certain to carry the day. The PDP would have been grateful if anyone was able to stall the polls. It would have had a valid excuse to stay in power to

    continue to cover its tracks.

    Former President Jonathan feigned ignorance of INEC’s intransigence in perpetuating the illegal act of disobeying a court order to relist our party and allow it to take part in the elections. He condoned the abuse of power and flagrant contempt for the rule of law displayed by the electoral agency; but now out of power, and at the receiving end of a new order that has restored individual liberties, Jonathan is desperately campaigning for

    the corporate respect of the rule of law. What goes up must come down.

    • Rev Okotie, a pastor – politician wrote from Lagos.

     

  • Kogi 2015:  The odds against the PDP

    Electioneering in a democratic setting like Nigeria at times could be very interesting and entertaining.  Not necessarily because of the fun and excitement that come with it  but the opportunity it offers people to partake in many pre-election activities. Presently, the attractions that come with elections are rapidly unfolding in Kogi State in its another era  of choosing a new governor or re-electing the incumbent Governor, Idris Wada. As such, in the build up for the Kogi gubernatorial elections of November this year, some aspirants and their supporters have already started mouthing their chances and reasons why they should be regarded the best choice.  Actually, political campaign is a permissible and important aspect of an electoral process, both for contestants and voters but it turns out best when it comes with objectivity than obscure sentiments.

    In Kogi State, the struggle for party ticket is ongoing and political parties are taking decisions on who becomes their respective party standard bearer. Out of over 20 eligible political parties, only two seems to be making waves in the upcoming elections and as usual, these two parties have commenced the old tradition of courting the electorate by making bogus promises on both things that are feasible and impracticable.  Nevertheless, there exist major hurdles to cross which do not really lie in the quantity of promises made but in the quality of candidate selected that will be acceptable to the voting public. Interestingly, the selection of contenders has stirred up a lot of problems in the wings of both parties, the APC and PDP. Although the APC party has successfully decided on its contestant, there are deafening grumbles over the emergence of Audu Abubakar as its candidate. For the PDP, even before its primaries, its problem has gone beyond whispers of disaffection to an existential dilemma of purported rigging of its primary election.

    Candidly put, the predicament that confronts the PDP is the interest and insistence of the incumbent Governor, Idris Wada to seek another term of office under its umbrella. For anyone with fair knowledge of the Kogi politics, it is no longer news that Governor Wada is facing a lot of challenges arising from wide spread criticisms of poor performance in his present first term in office.  Indeed, more than anything else, many Kogi citizens believe that Governor Wada’s re-election trouble is more rooted in the fact that he ascended the number one office in Kogi state through the back door, as such, was  ill-prepared for leadership as evinced in how he has conducted the affairs of Kogi state in the past three years.

    Thus, to many political observers of governance in Kogi State, it will be least surprising that the second term ambition of the governor has stirred up deep resentment and anxiety within the PDP. Infact, under Wada’s leadership, his party’s shortcomings have been on vivid public display and his inability to manage the damage has hammered some form of huge dent on the fold of PDP loyalists. The common belief is that Wada’s leadership has destroyed the base of PDP reliable voters. The result from the last presidential and legislative elections in Kogi State has shown that the PDP hitherto faithful constituents have been largely taken over by the APC. This is largely ascribed to the growing number of PDP members that are aggrieved with Wada’s inappropriate headship. To a large extent, this fragmentation of party loyalists has made Governo Wada to be widely reviled and rejected by most PDP members except those who benefit from his government.

    Reviving the PDP membership strength under Wada’s guidance will not be an easy task. The quiet negotiations initiated between some top PDP leaders and Wada for a back down as state party leader to advance the PDP’s unity has not been possible because of a mix of the party’s constitutional limitation and Wada’s indifference. Also, appeals to the governor to step down as a contestant in the election are yet to yield any positive result. However, the truth is that the fears about Wada’s candidacy are real because even if he ultimately captures the PDP nomination again, his chances of victory are very slim in a credible  governorship election especially against a reinforced Audu Abubakar of the APC.

    Given the many political negatives against Wada, his insistence in not stepping down portends danger for the PDP especially given that there are many issues demanding clarification from him that if left unaddressed may be used by his opponents to make him unelectable in the coming  election.

    Some analysts posit that  though Governor Wada’s ambition still flickers in the minds of his few close associates, the reality on ground is that the PDP majority are against his quest for second term. Thus, without Wada as candidate, it is right to state that the PDP may have a good chance of victory especially if its national leadership is able to halt the planned rigging of its primaries.

    Ordinarily, the Kogi PDP primaries presents a ready and viable alternative for the PDP as  there exist a credible contestant, Jibrin Isa Echocho that stands head and shoulders above the controversial Wada. However, for the skewed customary belief  by Wada and his cohorts that an incumbent like him should be extended automatic nomination, such a credible option may be difficult. This is where it becomes necessary to encourage the national  leadership of the PDP  to be astute in its determination to cleanse the party of  unethical democratic practices that advance imposition of candidates. Specifically, dignifying measures should be put in place to ensure that the delegates for the Kogi PDP primary election are not compromised or coerced into taking a decision that will buttress the PDP as unserious for victory in the governorship election.

    If the truth be said, the Jibrin Isa Echocho option will make the most sense for both PDP members and Kogi electorate. Echocho remains the political favorite of majority of Kogi PDP members as he has a broad appeal amongst the electorate and this puts him in a very good position to understand what can be done about his party’s division. Arguably, that most aggrieved persons that are now APC’s members are from Echocho’s PDP camp simply implies that he has the ability and antidote  for the party’s unity. Thus, given his capacity to desegregate the party, his emergence as PDP candidate will not only go a long way to console the many aggrieved  persons that left the PDP out of frustration, but will give both new and old members of PDP equal comfort and opportunity for participation in Kogi politics. Such possession of trait of political charisma for attracting earlier decamped members of the PDP will help cultivate support outside the PDP which is a key advantage above Audu Abubakar of the APC.

    Realistically, given the present lessons from Wada’s failure, the right guess is that the politics of Echocho will certainly be about the exploration and implementation of new ideas to validate his age long claim of stolen mandate.  Already, Echocho has defied every prediction that a maltreated politician should be the attraction of opposition camp because his four-year patience and calmness after being displaced as winner of the PDP 2011 governorship primaries defines his real nature as an exceptionally committed and loyal party member. The fact remains that a rejection of a popular choice from  the PDP will not only stimulate anger that may rekindle another era of division within the party but will make many of its voters to emotionally act in ways that will advance the interest of the APC. Such protest votes will not only lead PDP to an ignominious defeat but will inflict deep injurious in its current purported bid to rebuild its party.

     

    • Onyegbule writes from Ogori Magongo, Kogi State 
  • Buhari and August 27, 1985 (thirty years after)

    Buhari and August 27, 1985 (thirty years after)

    History is always neutral.   Whenever distortions creep in, it is historians who are to be blamed.  Effortlessly, but most significantly history like an ever rolling mill has crept up on us.    According to the clock and calendar, thirty years now separate us from the day when Major AbdulmuminuAminu, Major John Madaki and Major LawanGwadabe the Nigerian Army [Infantry] swept into Dodan Barracks, Ikoyi, Lagos and arrested the Military Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Major-General MuhammaduBuhari.    It was a dawn attack and the coup d’etat was swiftly accomplished.    There was no resistance; hence there was no bloodshed.   It brought to an end the Buhari / Idiagbon regime which had been in power since 31st December 1983 – a brief twenty months of stern military rule which by its own mantra was determined to rid Nigeria of corruption and indiscipline.   The efficacy or otherwise of the security reports which should have alerted the Head of State that a coup d’etat by his own colleagues was imminent is a subject for another day.

    For now, it would suffice to confine ourselves to the neutrality of history which has with complete detachment and neutrality recorded that Major-General TundeIdiagbon who was Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters and the number two man / right hand man of Buhari was away to Mecca on pilgrimage allegedly on the invitation of the King of Saudi Arabia.   It was a decoy disguised as a ruse which effectively fooled Idiagbon the strongman.   He even took along his teenage son.   He had been sold a dummy !!Unknown to the rest of the nation, Idiagbon would have (on his return from Mecca) announced the retirement of the Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Ibrahim BadamosiBabangida [IBB] from the army.   This was regardless of the pivotal role Major-General Babangida had played in the 1983 coup d’etat that toppled the civilian government of President AlhajiShehuShagari.    Rather than take over the mantle of leadership himself, Babaginda had ceded it to Major-General Buhari who was then in far away Jos, in Plateau State as General Officer Commanding [GOC] of the Second Division of the Army.   Major-General TundeIdiagbon was the Secretary of the Army Council.

    Initially, the rulership had been anchored on the troika of Buhari, Idiagbon and Babangida.   Then the cracks began to show as both Buhari and Idiagbon were of the same stern and spartan disposition while Babangida’s orientation and body language were in sharp contrast (to the duo of Buhari and Idiagbon).   It was of little consequence that all three of them were Northerners and Moslems.   Increasingly, Babangida was according to his own subsequent version of events sidelined and isolated.    The Supreme Military Council consisting of the military hierarchy and intelligence / security officers was split down the line (as well as various factions headed by Major-General MamamVasta and Major-General Magoro).   There was also the unresolved nuanced dilemma over whether the Head of State was the “Supreme Commander” (Emperor) or “Commander-In-Chief” (first among equals).

    It is also on record that following the 1983 coup d’etat, two memorable declarations were given wide publicity by BBC Overseas Service:

    (i)          “These are our boys” – General OlusegunObasanjo (former Military Head of State 1976-1979).

    (ii)         “If only we had known that the Nigerian economy was in such a shambles (and the treasury was empty) we would not have bothered to take over the government”

    –             Major-General MuhammaduBuhari (Military Head of State of Nigeria).

    Somehow till today, the bond between General Buhari and General Obasanjo remains solid.   Ironically, the bond between General Babangida and General Obasanjo is just as robust (and enduring).   As for the Buhari / Babangida nexus, that is a different and complex equation.  Right in the vortex of the quadratic equation is Lt-General T.Y. Danjuma (Rtd) and his undulating relationship with General Obasanjo, (late) Major-General ShehuYar’Adua and General Babangida.

    For now it is sufficient to record that within a few months of the Buhari / Idiagbon government, the cracks began to show particularly as Idiagbon who had no direct control of the troops became increasingly domineering and overbearing – at the expense of Babangida, the Chief of Army Staff.   From being a full member of the troika, Major-General Babangida was somehow degraded to a junior partner in the government he had installed.   A whole chapter should be devoted to the dummy sold to Lt-General Mohammed InuwaWushishi(Chief of Staff 1981 to 1983) who like Babangida is from Niger State and may have been led to believe that he would be invited to become the Head of State.

    Anyway, what brought matters to a head was the retirement of Brigadier AliyuGusau by Buhari / Idiagbon regardless of the protestation of Babangida.   According to the grapevine the allegation against Gusau had something to do with import licence.   Brigadier Gusau pleaded innocence but he was nevertheless served with a letter of retirement by the new secretary to the Army Council, Brigadier Ele Peters.

    Major-General Babangida, Chief of Army Staff did not need any one to prompt him that the writing was on the wall.   If the junta of Buhari and Idiagbon could retire his trusted ally and bosom pal Brigadier AliyuGusau, he [IBB] was next in the firing line.   He went for the pre-emptive strike.  It was a masterstroke but the timing was awkward.  The coup d’etat was on the eve of sacred Sallah but the security agencies were generally relaxed.  Besides, Major-General Idiagbon who would have launched a counter coup was away in Mecca.  Here is the thrust of Babangida’s maiden address according to BBC History series:

    Most of all, the August coup appears to mark the decisive rejection of authoritarianism in Nigeria. This was forcefully signaled in President Babangida’s maiden address to the nation, an extraordinary statement for a military ruler. In it, Babangida recognized that even a military government “needs the consent of the people” to govern effectively. Promising to uphold human rights, he announced an immediate review of the status of political detainees. Most significant, he announced the repeal of Decree Number 4 and vowed, “We do not intend to lead a country where individuals are under the fear of expressing themselves.” Words are easily offered to an angry nation; the test will be in the way President Babangida governs. But having figured so centrally in the last four coups, he is acutely aware that Nigerian leaders ultimately cannot escape accountability for their actions. His initial actions indicate that—whether through real commitment to liberal government or simply shrewd political instinct—Nigeria’s new president means to govern liberally.

    Among his government’s first actions was the release of all journalists in detention. Dozens of politicians who had been in prison up to 20 months without charge or trial were also released, many to heroes’ welcomes. In addition, public exposure of the NSO’s (National Security Organisation) violations of human rights was encouraged. The top leadership of the NSO was dismissed, and a thorough probe and restructuring were undertaken. Amnesty International praised Babangida for these steps. Another augury of a more consensual and accountable style of rule is the new government’s structure and composition, which is both more open to criticism and internal debate and more representative of the country’s many ethnic and interest groups. To disperse power at the top of government, the functions of the domineering former chief of staff, Idiagbon, were split between two positions.

    Political administration was assigned to the chief of general staff, Naval Commodore OkoEbituUkiwe—the first Igbo military officer to hold such high government office since the 1967-70 civil war. Military administration was assigned to a newly created Joint Chiefs of Staff, chaired by the powerful Defense Minister Domkat Y. Bali. All but five members of the former Supreme Military Council were appointed to the new and enlarged Armed Forces Ruling Council. The five who were dropped were those primarily responsible for the previous regime’s abuses: Buhari, Idiagbon, the internal affairs minister, the NSO director and the attorney- general.

    The ethnic balance of the council’s membership was also altered, with the center of gravity shifting from the far north to the ethnic minority states of the middle north. And at the state level, Babangida replaced 13 of the 19 military governors, a shrewd move that gave younger officers—including several populists and an avowed socialist—a share in the running of the country. The cabinet appointments are even more striking, both for those who were retained (only six of the previous 18 ministers) and those who were newly selected. Signaling that open dissent will not be unwelcome, the new president retained Petroleum Minister Tam David-West, an independent academician who had condemned the policy of negotiating massive countertrade or barter deals exchanging Nigerian oil for foreign goods.

    It was rumored at the time of the coup that David-West would be fired for his candour. Instead, he is joined in the cabinet by other forceful and capable figures who were not afraid to speak out in opposition to the Buhari regime. These include Akinrinade (Agriculture), Professor BolajiAkinyemi (Foreign Affairs), who condemned the Buhari government’s expulsion of illegal immigrants, and Dr.KaluIdikaKalu (Finance), who argued, in opposition to the former regime, that Nigeria should take an IMF loan. Babangida named the president of the previously banned Nigerian Bar Association, Bola Ajibola, attorney-general. Given the explicit pledges, personal inclinations, appointments and early actions of President Babangida, his government seems unlikely to sink into the kind of narrow dictatorship that preceded it. Nevertheless, symbols and good intentions lack the force of law and the stability of institutions.

    Verbal commitments can wither in the heat of crisis and opposition, which are sure to greet the difficult economic decisions that will have to be made in future months. If there is a lesson in the misrule of the Buhari regime, it is so basic as to seem banal: unlimited power corrupts its holders and perverts its original ends. The Buhari-Idiagbon regime had promised to bring its predecessors to account, but put itself beyond public scrutiny or criticism. The current government likewise has pledged retribution for offenders. For example, in proclaiming the recent coup, the Babangida regime denounced the “glaring fraud” in the Buhari government, and then appointed a committee to investigate corruption in the negotiation of oil countertrade agreements. But, again, this is to establish accountability for past actions of other officials; it remains to be seen how those now in power will conduct themselves. How can accountability be advanced from the past to the present, so that it is not merely retroactive but also preventive? In my analysis of the December 1983 coup, I suggested that stable and accountable government in Nigeria might be achieved through a “diarchy” of shared civilian and military rule, in which civilian democratic rule was further checked and balanced by military control of certain crucial regulatory functions.

    This reflected the active search then under way in Nigeria for a constitutional formula to overcome the abuses of power that spoiled the country’s two attempts at democratic government. Before the Buhari regime banned all discussion of the country’s political future, this public debate accelerated, and numerous variations of diarchy were advanced and debated. Now that the Buhari regime, like the military government in the post-civil war era, has soured public confidence in the military as rulers, there may be an even more compelling case for diarchy as a way out of what one observer called “Nigeria’s ruinous political cycles.” Diarchy is typically conceived as civilian government making some permanent institutional place for the military in the constitutional system. It could, however, be implemented in reverse; the military could create and gradually enlarge institutional roles for civilians. Indeed, if the Babangida government is serious about allowing itself to be held accountable, and about building a consensus for a long-term attack on Nigeria’s economic problems, power-sharing may be indispensable to its success.

    To some extent, it has already shared power by appointing prominent civilians to the federal and state cabinets. But there is nothing institutional about this participation. Similarly, it has recognized that the free press is a cornerstone of accountable government. But with the constitution in suspension, this freedom exists only at the pleasure of those in power. There is no reason why a military government cannot draw up a constitution or bill of rights to which it can be held accountable in the courts.

    Such a document would be a first step back to democracy in that it would recognize the supremacy of the judiciary in interpreting and protecting fundamental liberties. There is also no reason why a military government cannot subject itself to a code of conduct for public officers, to be enforced by an independent bureau and tribunal. While the military remains dominant in government, the appointment and supervision of this framework could be entrusted to the Supreme Court, or the bar association, or a council of traditional rulers, or some other independent, civilian body commanding general respect. No government can ever be fully trusted to watch itself; nor can it root out corruption if it does not set up independent structures for doing so.

    These structural innovations would provide established means for ensuring accountability and thus enhancing public confidence in military government. Moreover, such changes would not threaten the military’s basic control of the government. Yet it is difficult to imagine any government, including this government— for all its apparent democratic intentions—limiting its power in the absence of explicit, sustained pressure from opinion-makers and organized interest groups. The military government could also be strengthened, as an editorial in the journal West Africa suggested, “by announcing early a programme for a return to a more representative form of government no matter how far in the future.” President Babangida has signaled his intention to present a programme of political transition, with initial emphasis on revitalizing local government.

  • A new sheriff is in town

    Some call it the Buhari bounce. Others describe it as the Buhari effect. Yet some others say it is the Buhari aura. One thing is however crystal clear. Things have not been the same in the past 100 days in Nigeria, since Muhammadu Buhari assumed the presidency. A new sheriff has truly come to town.

    Exactly 100 days ago, he climbed the podium at Eagle Square in Abuja and got inaugurated as president, 30 years after he had been toppled from power as military head of state. He promised to belong to nobody, and to belong to everybody. It is a pledge that still resonates loudly today, and will surely echo for a long time to come.

    On a day like this, you would expect a presidential spokesman to chronicle the achievements of his principal in office. He has turned stone to bread, slain the dragon, and climbed Mount Olympus in ten seconds. But that is not what I want to do. There are some intangible, almost imperceptible achievements, but which run very deep, and are quite fundamental. Those are the ones I’ll rather talk of, while we leave the tangibles till some other day.

    Oh, he’s escaping. There are no concrete achievements, some wailing wailers would  cry. True? Not true. I could have decided to focus on the bloody nose being given to Boko Haram in the North-east, which would see the country rid of insurgency soon, the rallying of leaders of other neighboring countries to deploy a Joint Multinational Task Force, the openness displayed about government finances and the welfare package instituted for states that couldn’t pay salaries, the Treasury Single Account, which would promote transparency and accountability in governance, the disappeared fuel queues, fast-tracking of the cleanup of Ogoni land, reduction in the cost of governance, and many others. But I will not focus on all those. The day cometh!

    When a new sheriff comes into town, disorder gives way to order. Chaos flees. Impunity is swept away. Laxity gives way to diligence, and people change their old, unedifying ways. When you have a Wild, Wild West situation prevailing, the new sheriff comes, and stamps his authority. Old things then pass away, behold, everything becomes new.

    Nigeria had always needed attitudinal change. That was why the Buhari regime launched War Against Indiscipline in the 1980s. And the war was succeeding, till a spanner was thrown in the works through regime change. Buhari was called all sorts of names then: despot, tyrant, iron fist ruler etc But the discerning knew. They understood that it was a change we needed. And that change was postponed for 30 years.

    But what is bred in the bones never goes out through the flesh. Immediately Buhari returned on May 29, Nigerians knew that discipline was back. The bird of the homestead told the ones in the bush, and they all sat up. No unnecessary chirping. Stealing is now corruption, they whispered to themselves. God help you if you get caught.

    Now, consider the situation with electricity and with our refineries. Electricity has climbed to about 5,000 Megawatts. Some refineries, which had not produced a drop of fuel for years, have cracked into life. Even the perennial queues in our petrol stations have disappeared, vanished. Is it because Buhari threw billions of dollars at the problems? No. Those things simply responded to the presence of the new sheriff in town. Those who manned those schedules could afford to be laid back  in the past. But not anymore! The music has changed, and the dance steps must follow suit. And would Buhari take credit for the newfound zeal and efficiency? Not the plain and honest man from Daura. The broadcaster Omotayo Omotoso had come to the presidential villa to interview him sometime in July. And she had asked what the magic wand he waved was, that refineries, long comatose, had sprang back to life. The President responded that it would be dishonest of him to have claimed he did anything. He had not touched refineries at all. But unknown to the President, he did something. He had swept into town with his reputation for efficiency, and for achieving results. And the refineries, fuel supply, electricity supply, responded to the new sheriff. May things continue to get better till the change becomes enduring and irreversible. Amen somebody!

    Another imperceptible but momentous achievement is the faith that Nigerians now have in their leader. Yes, the opposition numbers in millions, and naturally so. A political party had held power at the centre for 16 years, and its loyalists would not simply disappear, or get converted overnight. About 12 million Nigerians had voted for the presidential candidate of that party in the March 2015 general elections. Would they just cross over to the winning side? It often takes awhile. But despite all that, a great deal of Nigerians, a vast majority, believe in the new sheriff. And that is great achievement. A big deal. When the citizenry believe in their leader, and almost can swear by him, it is no mean feat. The NOI polls, in a survey in July, revealed that over 70% of Nigerians were happy with the Buhari administration. And I can bet that the percentage would rise, as the months and years roll by. Faith in leadership is something that does not come cheap.

    And this one! Even our foreign reserve knows that a new sheriff is in town, and has responded appropriately. In June, just one month into office, and with the plugging of some leakages and loopholes, foreign reserve surged from $29 billion to $31.89. Holy Moses! Just in one month. Well, that is what a new sheriff can do. He brings sanity, confidence and probity to the system. And you would agree that Nigeria needs such shot in the arm, if we consider recent past experiences, when our treasury was like a bag filled with holes.

    An evidence of the believability of the new sheriff, and the confidence reposed in him, is the disclosure that came this week from Ambassador Godknows Igali, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power. He said since Buhari came to office, not a single sabotage of the power infrastructure has been recorded, and it is one of the reasons that electricity supply keeps improving. But did Buhari line up soldiers across the power infrastructure? Did he hire a combination of OPC, Egbesu, MASSOB, MEND and Arewa  youths to keep vigil? No. Just believability. Those who are so angry with the country, and would go to any extent to sabotage development, have decided to give the sheriff a chance. They have heard of his reputation. A man that believes in fairness and justice. He would do right to all parts of the country.

    Can you imagine the respect our sheriff commands on the international scene, and how it redounds to the glory of the average Nigerian? American President, Barack Obama said Buhari came onto his job with reputation of integrity and a clearcut agenda. Ambassador Johnny Carson, also during the U.S trip in July, said the Nigerian President was a man of honour and integrity. Everywhere he goes, the Nigerian President is lauded and garlanded for his virtues. And the image of the country is burnished and repositioned in the process. Surely, greater days are ahead.

    Some people say the sheriff did not hit the ground running, as he is yet to constitute his cabinet in 100 days. And I usually ask such people: when you hit the ground, and you land in mud, how do you begin to run immediately? You can only sink deeper, if you attempt to run. The thing to do is to first clear the mud, till you get to terra firma, and then you can begin to run.

    President Buhari has spent time trying to clean the Augean stable he inherited. And he is succeeding. Sheriffs can either come in with guns blazing, shooting malefactors to kingdom come, or simply stamp their authority on the situation by sheer force of personality and presence. The Nigerian sheriff seems to have opted for the second option for now. But we should never forget that sheriffs are licensed to shoot. And those shots can be lethal for lawbreakers. In a matter of months, you can ask those who had bled our treasury to the point of death. They’ll have stories to tell.

     

    • Adesina is Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari

  • Obasanjo, Obasanjo, Obasanjo

    For most members of my generation who had the privilege of being pioneers of the National Youth Service and in addition began their career at any level of the Nigerian civil service, particularly at the Federal level in 1974, General Olusegun Obasanjo cannot but carve at all times in our imagination the image of that hellish bull in the China shop. A bull in the China shop is bad enough, for he is bound to leave behind in its wake at all times total destruction and sorrow.

    I speak of that generation that met a productive, process led civil service that whatever its failings were enabled and sustained good governance that saw Nigeria through a bitter civil war and facilitated measurable recovery and reconciliation within a short while after. Perhaps if Murtala Mohammed had not been assassinated, Nigeria’s history might have been different. I am ready to concede, however, that the weapon of mass destruction that Obasanjo unleashed on the Nigerian civil service in particular and the country as a whole was conceived and manufactured during their joint tenure.

    My short piece today, however, is about the messianic image that General Obasanjo would want Nigeria and Nigerians have of him. He must speak on all matters, and his views must be the view. If there is a headache I had saved myself all this while, it was to be impervious to his regular and sanctimonious lectures  to his successors in office on probity. In the early 1990s he railed at General Babangida, but as soon as it became obvious that the country really had got Babangida to his tether’s end and against the wall, he became chummy with Babangida once again and sought to head the interim government that Babangida was bent on subverting the 1993 presidential election with. Of course Babangida is still alive to confirm that he spurned the do-gooder and rather accepted from him Chief Earnest Shonekan who they both knew was a weakling who could and would be supplanted in  a short while.

    In this piece, I would skip all his holier than thou diatribes under General Sanni Abacha, and since 1999 against President Umaru Yaaradua, and lately against President Jonathan. The Leadership newspapers only recently confirmed (in an editorial) Obasanjo once again spearheaded the issue of interim government at the tail end of Jonathan’s tenure, because he thought he could be called upon to lead it. All these would be taken up at another time.

    In recent times, the messiah has been at it again, just that his gaze is narrowed at the Yoruba people. We will never be able to fathom what the Yoruba people have done to him. I probably would not have been interested in his diatribes on Yoruba leadership, whether any exists or ever existed and on Yoruba monarchical sovereignty, whether any hierarchy exists amongst or ever existed. I probably would not have been concerned at all, until I read Gbogungboro’s “message to Obasanjo” in The Nation of Thursday, August 20, 2015.

    Gbogungboro, a seasoned international scholar, historian and a former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to my mind, has provided the historical facts as they relate to the falsity of the two claims of the General. The columnist was, however, at pains not to call Obasanjo’s claims as dubious, which they really were anyway. He, in claiming objectivity, sought not to conjecture the motives of General Obasanjo in asserting that the Yoruba never had a leader in modern times, and that unlike the Hausa Fulani traditional institution, no Yoruba monarch is superior to the other. It is in not conjecturing Obasanjo’s motives that I find Gbogungboro’s analysis almost patronising of the General.

    A careful read of the opening paragraph of Gbogungboro’s treatise, to my mind, provides the basis for my assertion of subjectivity. There is no how the motive of the messenger in this case would not be significant in assessing his messages. Gbogungboro is, however, a very kind, unassuming man. He was only being generous to the General, I should think.

    General Obasanjo would at all times seek to establish that he should only be seen as a Nigerian leader, rather than a Yoruba leader. No one would deny him being a Nigerian leader, after all, he had been military head of state and elected President of the country for a cumulative time space of over eleven years. Whether he had been a good Nigerian leader is for historians to decipher. He knows, however, that irrespective of the number of years he had been Nigerian head of government, he had rarely been accepted or found acceptable as leader or role model by the Yoruba people. As he had in pursuit of the larger glory and happiness forsaken the smaller glory and happiness, Obasanjo had sought to deride the modern day Yoruba leader, and if I may say so, of all times, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whom in his days as premier of Western region, Obasanjo would have been unfit to tie his shoe lace. Yet at every stage he must run Awolowo and his two successors, Micheal Adekunle Ajasin and Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya, down as if they never existed in history.

    If he would forget, however, I cannot. It was the same Senator Abraham Adesanya, the Leader of Yoruba people at the time, that he Obasanjo ran to when his presidency and re-election for second term in 2003 were clearly under threat. The meeting with Senator Adesanya which was held in London was facilitated by His Royal Majesty, the Ooni, Oba Sijuwade. Senator Adesanya was reluctant to meet with General Obasanjo, whom he felt had no regard for all things Yoruba. The Ooni persisted with his plea that the Yoruba leader should at least listen to the General, and Adesanya finally conceded to a meeting in deference to the monarch. I and a nephew of Senator Adesanya, a United Kingdom, based medical practioner, Dr. Timeyin, accompanied the Senator to the hotel rendezvous, even if the meeting was to later turn to one on one between them. When he needed Yoruba support, he recognised that the Yoruba had a leader he could seek out and appeal to his nationalistic sentiments. Anyway, he was to rubbish that support very soon after.

    There is an explanation for this, however. Obasanjo’s cerebral daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, said of her father in an open letter to him: “You are one of those people who think the progress and sucess of another takes from you”. She added most poignantly in the same letter that “you try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you”.

    And Gbogungboro stated that for objectivity, he needed to exclude the motive behind Obasanjo’s repeated derision of all his superiors in the modern day history of Nigeria. I cannot with due respect understand that, for it is the reason Obasanjo had always bestrood Nigeria and its affairs in a manner that the Leadership newspapers correctly described as unbecoming of a lucky, fate-imposed Nigerian leader. I recollect vividly in one of the heady moments immediately preceding the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, in a review of General Obasanjo’s roles towards the annulment process, quipped to me: ” Segun was my school mate in the secondary school. All his activities geared towards frustrating my installation as the president of Nigeria is to ensure that no other Yoruba person, no less his school mate and peer, supersedes him by becoming the elected president of Nigeria”. You would recall that at that time Obasanjo could only claim to have been a military dictator, not an elected democrat.

    Abiola was never sworn in, thanks to Babangida and support from other military renegades and other collaborators, inclusive of General Obasanjo. If the truth must be told to the wily General, and that is what Gbogungboro should have done by examining his motives in bringing historical scholarship to bear on the known grandstanding of the General on the issue of our Yorubaness. That is very important. Even his daughter asserted in the referred letter that not telling her father the truth only enabled him to”continue to delude” himself “about the kind of person” he is.

    I believe that Yoruba people of all ilk should begin to tell him the truth, may be, it may set him free.

     

    • Hon. Oshun is the chairman, Afenifere Renewal Group and

    former Chief Whip, House of Representatives

  • Key challenges of Nigerian Pension Industry and possible solutions (2)

    Pension Protection Fund (PPF)

    Key Challenges

    The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) to be established and maintained by PENCOM for the benefits of eligible pensioners approved or recognized under section 82(1) of PRA 2014 is to funded by the Government, PENCOM and Pension Operators but the specific ratio of funding had not yet been fully worked out for the operators (section 82(2) of the PRA 2014).

    Indeed, the funding of GMP is the responsibility of the government in other jurisdictions (such as in the UK and Chile, just to mention a few).In Chile the cost of funding the GMP is expressed in terms of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This metric is more appropriate than a percentage of total monthly wage bill of employees in the Public Service of the Federation (section 82(1)(a) of PRA 2014) since private sector employees in CPS who retiree may also qualify for GMP.

    On the other hand, the adequacy of the PPF will be tested if the GMP is fully implemented to take effect retrospectively, thereby allowing all those who have retired since the CPS was established in 2004 to qualify for the GMP provided the level of pension in payment is below the GMP to be set by PENCOM.

    As employees of organizations with less than three employees as well as self-employees shall be entitled to join the CPS (section 2(3) of PRA 2014), the number of future retirees qualifying for GMP is likely to increase exponentially over time. Thus, there will be a corresponding increase in future GMP liability which is also likely to put a strain on PPF, having considered the funding methodology in section 82(2) of PRA 2014 in the light of present economic situation in Nigeria.

    Possible Solutions

    There is likely to be an accrued GMP liability already in existence prior to initial funds being set aside in the Pension Protection Fund leading to an immediate shortfall in PPF. Thus, a periodic actuarial valuation of the fund would be required to ascertain the right level of contribution/levy to be imposed in order to meet the future GMP liabilities.

    The assessment of the cost of guarantees becomes an issue for capital adequacy and financial management of the PPF and the test of capital adequacy will be carried out on regular basis in line with generally accepted actuarial practice (GAAP).

    The number of retirees qualifying for GMP will be reduced if many employees are encouraged to make AVC and this will reduce the strain on PPF.

    Investment Guidelines

    Key Challenges

    The dearth in wide range of investible instruments is a major problem facing the pension operators, as it will be difficult to determine an optimal investment mix consistent with risk profile as required by section 78(3)(b) of PRA 2014.This will also hamper diversification within PFAs investment portfolios with the aim to maximize their investment returns, leading to an increase in total pension assets.

    Empirical evidence shows that Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have continued to invest bulk of pension funds in Federal Government securities and money market instruments relative to equities, leading to having investment portfolios that are too risk averse.

    In other words, most PFAs are adopting low risk investment strategies without taking into account the individual members’ risk profiles and therefore, in the long term, are likely to result in lower emerging pensions than might have been expected of life-style investment strategies for investment portfolios with different risk profiles. Furthermore, it has been argued that the over concentration of pension funds in debt instruments might be limiting the growth potential of the retirement fund for young pension contributors with long term investment horizon.

    Possible Solutions

    An actuarial advice might be needed by the Investment Strategy Committee, which is to be established by every PFA under section 78 of PRA 2014, in carrying out its functions. Actuaries should typically have a part to play in strategic investment decision-making, bringing to bear skills in asset-liability modelling and stochastic modelling of investment portfolios. In addition, actuaries can also provide PENCOM with an independent assessment of the appropriateness of PFAs investment strategies.

    Public education and enlightenment

    Key Challenges

    Actuarial Involvement in CPS

    The traditional thinking has been that members in DC schemes bear all the risks and rewards and receive whatever outcomes are produced at retirement. These DC schemes may have the legal ability to adjust member liabilities including contribution rates automatically, as asset values move up or down,therefore limiting the need to immunize asset/liability movements. It is normally assumed that such schemes have limited or no actuarial involvement.

    On the other hand, a DC system such as CPS operating in Nigeria that forces compulsory contribution rates (section 4(1) of PRA 2014) and entails significant tax concessions (section 10 of PRA 2014) should not, under reasonable circumstances, be left to require members to bear all risks over many decades of membership. Thus, the introduction of GMP is quite appropriate with the aim to reduce the risk of volatility of standard of living in retirement facing the pensioners. Conceptually, the determination of the GMP and investment strategies to meet accrued GMP liability requires an actuarial methodology.

    Knowledge Gap

    The CPS has been characterized by general misconceptions and knowledge gap. The contributors (particularly employees with low financial literacy level) are either reluctant to contribute to the scheme due to lack of investment knowledge (many workers misunderstand investment returns, expenses, and how each investment vehicle works) or just because they are unaware of the benefits of such scheme.

    Lack of professional advice

    PFAs and insurance companies are misinforming newly retirees in order to gain undue patronage under the CPS (i.e. de-marketing each other) instead of allowing the retiring workers to freely choose their mode of withdrawing their benefits as required in section 7(1) of PRA 2014.

    Thus, lack of professional advice on the choice of pension benefit options at retirement has led to more retirees still opting for programmed withdrawal (94,097 retirees) than life annuity (8,479 retirees) in February 2014. The PFAs have failed in their duty to enlighten the retirees professionally simply because the programmed withdrawal is a product of the PFAs (the preferred withdrawal option recommended) while the life annuity is a product of a licensed Life Insurance Companies.

    Furthermore, the lack of professional advice has also led to few workers make AVCs and this will affect their standard of living in retirement.

    Possible Solutions

    There should be a regular awareness Campaign/Education to sensitize the RSA holders of the benefits of the CPS by PFAs and the PENCOM.

    PENCOM should require Independent financial advisers (IFAs)to advise the RSA holders at retirement date on the choice of benefit options. The advice to take either programmed withdrawal or life annuity should be based on individual circumstances in order to eliminate the asymmetric nature of retirees’ decision making process of being influenced by PFAs to buy more of a programmed withdrawal than a life annuity. Regulators should factor into the overall charges the cost of advice retirees received from IFAs.

    Conclusion

    The key challenges facing the pension industry and the possible solutions highlighted above (if considered and implemented by all stakeholders) would form the basis for transforming the Nigeria pension industry to meet the expectation of pensioners and also contribute significantly to the nation’s economic development, leading to an increase in the  GDP.

    • Dr. Pius Apere (FCII, PhD) is Deputy Managing Director, Linkage Assurance Company PLC

  • Buhari and politics of probe

    Nigeria should be ready to face a lot of challenges. The biggest in my view is corruption; it is everywhere. There is no department, no ministry that can be said to be free of corruption. There is nowhere that fraud does not take place on a daily basis. It has become embedded in the minds of the people because the rule books have been thrown away and everybody is doing what they like. Nobody follows the rules anymore.”

    —— (Malam Ahmed Joda, Chairman of Buhari’s Transition Committee in an interview with the Daily Trust newspaper on June 21, 2015).

    If coup-making was still in vogue, the Buhari administration probably would have been history by now. Considering the apparent discomfort (not unexpected) of a significant section of Nigeria’s ethno-religious and economic class and the vehemence with which they are marshaling their collective energy to denounce (because that’s what it is, no matter how they tried to couch it) President Buhari’s stubborn insistence on fighting corruption into extinction in Nigeria, enough signals would have been received by the ever-restless Nigerian military by now that Buhari’s government must go. Either the government would have been overthrown or the coup planning would have reached such an advanced stage for its actualisation to be irreversible and/or irrevocable by now.

    This particular ethno-religious and economic class, who would most definitely be negatively impacted, if not mortally wounded, initially, did not have any reason, in their calculation, to take candidate Buhari seriously with his campaign promise to the Nigerian people that he intended to kill corruption before it kills the country if elected. This is because this class held the country by the jugular. They had an iron-grip on all the levers of power. But when it dawned on them that the unthinkable but inevitable God’s day was about to happen in the polity that has been deftly wired on ‘auto pilot’ for very long, they threw in Godsday (Orubebe) as a counter-punch to God’s day. Since His ways are not their ways, they had Godsday for about half an hour, but God’s day was supreme. And it will endure for four years.

    What seems to be eerily unfolding since the corruption protection crusaders (championed by Prof. Ben Nwabueze (for an ethnic group) and Bishop Mathew Kukah (for a segment of the religious class) launched out, is a replay of that Jonathan’s diabolical but clever onslaught which was, to a large extent, successful in driving a wedge between the nation’s various ethnic and religious groups during his presidency, most especially in the run-up to his re-election campaign. Generally believed to be the most clueless and patently incompetent chief of state that Nigeria ever had, Jonathan had also broken another record as a leader who deliberately took advantage of the nation’s ethno-religious fault line to further polarize the country for his ultimate political goal of achieving another term in office. But it failed in the end. We must thank God for little mercies.

    Nwabueze’s stance on Buhari’s anti-corruption war in a three-part article in the Vanguard Newspaper of August 13, 17, and 19, 2015 which he cleverly but dubiously titled “Corrupt practices: Igbo leaders’ position of past governments” (it didn’t matter that he was the sole signatory to the article), with all his intellectual gymnastics and illogicalities, was nothing other than a disingenuous ploy to shield the people of Southeast extraction who were predominant in the Jonathan administration from losing the tremendous material gains they had acquired from a man whose government was distinctly Niger-Delta/Southeast. It mattered not that these material gains could be glaringly illegal or morally unjustified.

    As a constitutional lawyer whose involvement in making Nigeria a great and respectable nation in the world cannot be questioned, and an elder whose moral stock is expected to be in abundance, it is disturbing that Prof. Nwabueze did not only approach Buhari to “let bygone be bygone” before his trip to the United States, but his public declaration in the three-part article that Buhari should jettison his anti-corruption fight leaves a sour taste in the mouth. One would have expected the respected voices in Ndigbo to have dissociated the Southeast from a personal opinion that has now been largely known as “Igbo leaders’ position” in Buhari’s anti-corruption fight.

    But it may well be asking too much from Ndigbo, as a collective, to denounce Nwabueze as they are never known to go against anything that will advance their economic interest no matter how illegal or morally repugnant to the nation’s corporate existence, to which Nwabueze himself alluded in his exhortation to his people as to how they should vote. Theirs is the classic case of eating one’s cake and wanting to have it too.

    Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah may have denied that his committee’s meeting with Buhari had nothing to do with giving Jonathan, or any corrupt Nigerian, any reprieve in the president’s war on corruption, but Nigerians are no fools. With all his convoluted and illogical reasons why Buhari should “not waste his time” in prosecuting the Jonathan administration, that ill-fated ‘invasion’ of Aso Rock by the so-called National Peace Council (NPC), formerly known as the 2015 Elections Peace Committee (which might as well be renamed the National Corruption Protection Council (NCPC), of which the Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese is not only its spokesman but also its founder, who may have cunningly co-opted some of its revered members to the committee, had everything to do with not only Jonathan but probably the bishop himself.

    It is also not inconceivable that Jonathan may have given the council a marching order to The Villa, having realised, now that he’s out of the cage and his eyes cleared, how he had been conned to dispense a huge fortune for his re-election when these people knew that no miracle could have changed his electoral misfortune.

    The religious colouration of the corruption protection agenda became self-evident when the respected Archbishop Anthony Olubumni Okogie joined the fray in which was reported to have said that Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign would fail unless the government appeals to the conscience of the looters to voluntarily relinquish their loots. With Kukah and Okogie, one needs no further evidence of a society whose moral compass may have been damaged almost beyond repair. Pray, how, for instance, can someone who carted away several billions of pensioners’ hard-earned money be considered as having any conscience? How do you appeal to the conscience of someone who never had one in the first place? Bishop Kukah’s unsolicited reminder that we’re not in the military era was a disingenuous put-down of the Nigerian president. What the bishop may have refused to acknowledge is that Buhari may well go down as having the highest democratic ethos among Nigerian leaders since independence for adamantly insisting on the actualisation of his campaign promises to the Nigerian people on which his electoral victory was secured.

    Malam Ahmed Joda’s statement used as an epigraph above definitely epitomises the herculean task Buhari faces and anyone who cannot appreciate the enormity of the corruption problem, not to talk of advising the president to concentrate on other national issues, should not only be seen as anti-people but also be considered a traitor. The movement that culminated in the Sai Baba,SaiBuhari catch-phrase during the campaign has now crystallised into a cause probably bigger than Buhari himself. Therefore, the best that the likes of Kukah and Nwabueze can do under the present circumstance is to allow this cause to run its course.

     

    • Femi Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com

  • Waiting for another flood?

    Many lowland communities located in Nigeria’s River Benue basin live in absolute dread of the month of September. Depending on the mood of officials in charge of the Lagdo Dam in Garoua, northern Cameroon, entire towns and villages in Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Niger states, and going all the way to the Niger Delta, could be washed away by floods that typically leave the landscape looking apocalyptic.  When the flood comes, it usually lasts only a few weeks, but leaves long-term devastation in its wake as it sweeps away human lives, homes, property and livelihoods!

    While relatively less flooding was experienced in the usual areas last year, same cannot be said of 2012 when floods displaced about 2.3 million people; killed 363 persons and destroyed about 597,476 houses in 30 states, according to official figures from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). In fact, post-disaster assessment surveys put the estimated total value of damages and losses to the flood at about N2.6 trillion or $16.9 billion!  In a broadcast to the nation, the then President Goodluck Jonathan unveiled a relief package of N17.6 billion. The Federal Government also received about N2.5billion ($12.8 million) from donors (individuals and organizations) as part of the flood relief fund. The total was a whoping N2.6 trillion!

    Now, there had been credible allegations that these funds were not used in transparent and accountable fashion, but that is not really the main focus of this article. Of course, this is not to minimize the importance of accountability and transparency in emergency management, but the larger concern here is that this scenario, with changes only in inflationary terms, has been re-occurring since Cameroon built Lagdo Dam in 1980 with absolutely no evidence of lessons learnt! Just two weeks ago, the Cameroonian government notified Nigeria of its plan to commence routine release of excess water from Lagdo between August and November this year. When the floodgates of this dam are opened, lowland communities in the Nigerian side of the border are damned.

    Sadly, Nigeria’s reaction to this warning has been to, in turn, warn “all those living around the dam and along River Benue in Garoua up to Nigeria to be at alert and be ready for evacuation in case of possible flooding.” [Translation: lowland communities are, once again, on their own in the face of imminent catastrophe!]

    The Director General , NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi told newsmen in Abuja last week that NEMA had reached out to governors of the states that are usually worst hit by the floods to commence emergency response planning and to prepare safe locations for possible evacuation of communities at risk.

    NEMA did not disappoint with its predictable response. It’s a script that has been rehashed every August since the NEMA Act came into effect in 1999. However offensive and absurd NEMA’s response may sound, it pales into insignificance against the confounding level of lack of intelligence packed into the Federal Government’s response, which is as old as 1981 when the annoyingly famous “Dasin Hausa Dam” was designed but never built.

    The background to this pathetic failure by successive Nigerian governments is this: Well before Lagdo Dam became operational in 1981, both Cameroon and Nigeria had agreed a year earlier that the latter would embark on a similar project on its side of the border to contain excess water released upstream from the dam as a means of curbing possible flooding in its territories. In 1981 the “Dasin Hausa Dam,” conceived as a shock-absorber dam, was designed by Nigeria. It was simply visionary in concept, scope and design! It was not only supposed to mitigate flooding from Lagdo Dam, but was also expected to generate 300 megawatts of electricity and provide irrigation for over 150,000 hectares of land with the hope of generating an estimated 790,000 tons of crops in Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states.

    This project was also intended to provide about 40,000 jobs and open up the Benue River for inland water transportation from Nigeria’s southern ports, all the way to Garoua in Cameroon. The dam was to be sited in Dasin village in Fufore Local Government Area, Adamawa State.

    Now, fast-forward by 34 years and the response from the Nigerian Government has yet to change! The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Musa Istifanus told the media in Abuja last week that the government was making efforts to see that the construction of the dam commenced. Thirty-four years later and we are still making efforts to see that the construction of the dam commenced!

    It should be noted that peak flow in the River Benue at Garoua end is usually in the months of August and September. According to the Cameroonian weather website www.climatemps.com, the average flow observed in the river at Garoua in August this year is about 247.9 mm or 9.7inches! This is the wettest time of the year for Garoua, when the rains are at their peak and the authorities are often compelled to release the accumulated excess water from the Lagdo Dam to save their own Cameroonian communities. Nigeria, ever so unprepared, gets to bear the brunt while Cameroon does not only protect its population, but even generates electricity for them to boot! Some have even described it as some form of cold (water) war on Nigeria by Cameroon.

    The truth of the matter is that as long as Nigeria does not build that Dasin Hausa Dam, it will never be in a position to contain the perennial floods as neither of the country’s two major rivers has its origin within its territory. While the larger River Niger has its source in the highlands of Guinea, River Benue, itself a major tributary of the Niger, rises in the Adamawa Plateau in northern Cameroon, from where it flows west, and through the town of Garoua and into the Lagdo Lake and on through Nigeria’s Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states before reuniting with the Niger in Lokoja, Kogi State. The 40-metre high Lagdo Dam straddles the Benue at about 50km upstream of Garoua.

    Apart from repeating the line about building the Dasin Hausa Dam each time there is a flood or threat of one, the Federal Government has also added another tired stanza to its song, namely, the dredging of the River Benue to deepen it and to also boost inland water transportation.

    Over the years, a huge volume of silt has built up in the riverbed and rendered it so shallow that it doesn’t take much water for it to flood its banks and cause damage to lowland communities. That is why the idea of dredging the riverbed makes absolutely perfect environmental, security and economic sense. Earlier in July, the Federal Government announced the award of a N26 billion contract for the dredging of the lower River Benue basin to Messrs Oyins Oil & Gas Limited. The project is expected to be completed in two years, the government says. But whether or not there are plans to also dredge the upper River Benue basin is something the government is not saying at the moment. However, whether the government admits it publicly or not, the urgency of the need to dredge the upper River Benue basin cannot be lost on anyone who has seen the devastation caused by flooding in those areas.

    Without a doubt, perennial flooding poses serious thought to Nigeria’s food security. It also comes with public health challenges and sets the environment back by decades. It robs the affected communities of homes and livelihoods and leads even to death. It causes the government to incur avoidable economic costs, a luxury that Nigeria could ill afford given the crying need for investment in public services, infrastructure, security and the national economy. Building the Dasin Hausa Dam and dredging the Benue may cost a fortune in the short term, but it is a much cheaper option in the long-term, just like it was 34 years ago.

    The challenge to President Muhammadu Buhari, whose government enjoys unprecedented local and global sympathy, is to move quickly to show that he meant his promise of making Nigeria better again by saving ordinary people from watching their lives swept away by a flood that has been more than three decades in the making.

     

    • Ethan is a student of Mass Communication, Taraba State University, Jalingo.