The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Nigeria’s debt position

    Nigeria’s debt position

    There has recently been a lot of misinformation and misconception in our
public debate on debt. My goal in this article is to shed some light on the
public debt, to clarify the real state of Nigeria’s debt position, and
hopefully, provide a knowledge platform for constructive debate.

Let me say at the outset that no one in government is supportive of a
Nigeria that returns to a high state of indebtedness. On a personal note,
having gone through tremendous stress during the quest for Paris Club debt
relief, I am committed to a Nigerian economy that is fiscally prudent,
balances its books and remains at a low state of indebtedness.

To begin, Nigeria’s overall debt is comprised of external and domestic
debts. The external debt is typically owed to foreign creditors such as
multilateral agencies (for example, the Africa Development Bank, the World
Bank, or the Islamic Development Bank), to bilateral sources (such as the
China Exim Bank, the French Development Bank or the Japanese Aid Agency),
or to private creditors such as investors in our Eurobonds. The domestic
debt, however, is contracted within Nigerian borders, usually through bond
issues which are then purchased by Nigerian banks, local pension funds, and
other domestic and foreign investors. The resources raised typically go to
help fund the budget or other domestic expenditures, such as infrastructure
projects. We also have some contractor arrears, and other local liabilities
which are normally handled through the budget.

Both federal and state governments borrow domestically and externally.
However, no state government can borrow externally unless guaranteed by the
Federal Government. Similarly, state governments’ domestic borrowing is
subject to federal government analysis and confirmation – based on clear
criteria and guidelines that a state can repay based on their monthly FAAC
allocations and internally generated revenues (IGR).

As a nation, we have had a difficult history with debt. As such, no one can
forget the challenging times we went through from 2003 to 2005 trying, in
the end, successfully to get relief on our large external debt. Neither the
government nor any Nigerian wants a repeat of the country’s past history of
large debts. That is why the current President Goodluck Jonathan
administration, the Legislature, the Ministry of Finance, and the Debt
Management Office, are very focused on a conservative and prudent approach
to managing the national debt. Our current approach balances Nigeria’s
needs for investment in physical and human infrastructure with a strong
policy to limit overall indebtedness in relation to our ability to pay.
Above all, any debts incurred must go for directly productive purposes
which yield results that Nigerians can see.

*First the numbers:*

a. In 2004, prior to the Paris Club debt relief, Nigeria’s overall debt
stock was very high. External debt stood at US$35.9 billion while the stock
of the domestic debt amounted to US$10.3 billion resulting in a total of
about US$46.2 billion or 64.3% of GDP excluding contractor and pension
arrears.

b. After the successful debt relief initiative, Nigeria’s stock of foreign
debt declined dramatically. Indeed, in August 2006, when I left office,
Nigeria’s foreign and domestic debts amounted to US$3.5 billion and US$13.8
billion respectively – a total of US$17.3 billion or 11.8% of GDP.

c. By August 2011, when I resumed for the second time as Finance Minister,
the domestic debt stock had grown substantially to US$42.23 billion, while
the external debt was still a modest US$5.67 billion. This implied a total
debt stock of US$47.9 billion or 21% of GDP. Note that while the debt stock
grew, our national income also grew so that debt to GDP ratio (the
parameter used globally to measure a country’s debt sustainability) remains
modest and manageable.

d. Thus, the key noticeable change in Nigeria’s indebtedness in recent
years has been the growth of domestic debt. There were two main reasons
which resulted in this outcome. First, the initial growth of the domestic
debt stock was because the federal government wanted to deepen the domestic
debt markets and generate a yield curve for Nigeria which ultimately could
help our corporate bodies to access the capital markets and borrow funds at
more affordable rates. The DMO through its work has been successful in
doing this.

Nigerian corporates can now raise money at reasonable rates at home and
abroad, helping them secure resources to invest in the economy. Secondly,
however, domestic debt was also raised to finance increased budget
expenditures including consumption. For example, in 2010, the 53% salary
increase for civil servants was financed by raising domestic bonds.
Borrowing for recurrent expenditure or consumption, as was the case here is
a practice that is less than ideal and one that we should endeavour not to
repeat. We must learn that domestic debt should be incurred sparingly at
modest and manageable rates so that government is able to service it and
pay back domestic creditors. Failure to do so would severely undermine the
finances of our private and institutional creditors to the detriment of the
economy.

It is with this background in mind that we have put in place several
measures to limit and manage the national debt. There are a number of
specific policies we have introduced in the current administration to slow
down the increase in our overall debt stock.

a. First, we have brought expenditures and revenues much more in line,
through a low fiscal deficit of 1.81% GDP, to reduce the need for domestic
borrowing. For example, we reduced annual domestic borrowing from N852
billion in 2011, to N744 billion in 2012, and to N577 billion in 2013. Our
objective is to reduce government’s domestic borrowing to below N500
billion in the 2014 budget.

b. Second, for the first time, we have paid down part of our domestic debt
rather than rolling all of it over. Beginning in February 2013, we
successfully retired N75 billion worth of maturing domestic bonds. And we
will continue with this practice in the coming years.

c. Third, we have established a sinking fund with an initial capitalisation
of N25 billion. This fund will enable the government to retire maturing
bond obligations in the future.

d. Fourth, we are working increasingly with states to get a clearer picture
of domestic debts acquired by state governments, thanks to the
comprehensive review recently completed by the DMO. Our particular concern
is that state governments limit borrowings in line with their incomes and
put any borrowings made to work on specific projects and programmes that
bring direct beneficial results to their citizens.
    [Please find attached the Debt-to-GDP ratio of selected economies]

     e. Fifth, instead of the previous practice of contracting foreign
loans in an ad hoc manner, we have streamlined the process for federal and
state governments and made it transparent through the Medium Term Rolling
External Borrowing Plan, which is reviewed and approved by the National
Assembly. This plan presents the anticipated loans to be contracted by the
government over a three-year time window, so that we can target funds to
priority projects, and also make trade-offs where necessary. Notice that
this covers planned foreign borrowing by both the federal and state
governments for projects that will yield results in infrastructure,
education, health, etc. Most loans contracted are on concessional or very
favourable terms. For example, many of the multilateral loans are at zero
interests, 40-year maturity, and 10 years grace. Others are at less than
three per cent rate of interest.

f. And finally, we have put forward a Medium-Term Debt Strategy with a mix
of limited external and domestic borrowing that is appropriate for the
economy.

But let me repeat that we shall never be complacent about our national
debt. We need to be constantly vigilant to limit the amount of debt and
create room for the private sector instead to borrow. As such, we need to
stay focused on three main priorities.
First, we should continue to monitor our external borrowing and ensure that
we do not slip back to our high indebtedness prior to the debt relief
programme. As I mentioned earlier, the External Borrowing Plan, helps to
address this concern by ensuring that we always have a comprehensive,
transparent view of our foreign borrowing. As at now, our external
indebtedness is low at $6.67 billion or about three per cent of GDP.

Second, we should closely continue to monitor and limit our domestic debt,
and ensure that it stays within a prudent and conservative range. We should
pay off debt that is due to the extent of our ability.
And third, we should also continue to closely monitor borrowing by states
to ensure that the debt burdens of our state governments remain within
manageable levels and that borrowings are applied to specific projects that
yield results for citizens of the state. In that regard, we enjoin banks
and other lenders to be careful and prudent when lending to ensure that
this is done within the existing rules, regulations and guidelines.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said: “Information and
knowledge are central to democracy – and they are the conditions for
development.” That is precisely why I have gone to some length to throw
light on the real facts and the real issues regarding our debt situation
and what the federal government is doing to address them. We need to create
the basis to have a healthy and constructive public conversation on this
issue, not a distorted and partisan battle.

*• Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister
of Finance.*

     

  • Gbogun gboro – 1

    Greetings from Gbogun Gboro. Odidi omo afidi digun. Nwon nlee bo lehin, o nle ara iwaju lo. [Gbogun Gboro., heady and magical child; who pursues others, even when given a hot chase]

    This morning, I woke up laughing – laughing uncontrollably. It was not because I was so happy. It was because I could not believe what I had seen in two or three days of travelling in my homeland, the Yoruba Southwest of Nigeria. Everywhere, I could see that we Yoruba can no longer feed ourselves these days. We have to wait on food brought from other people’s land before we can put any food in our mouths. Lagos housewives cannot put tomatoes and pepper in their soups, Ekiti and Ijesa mothers cannot put pounded yam before their husbands and children, without having to bring lorry loads of crops from the Middle Belt beyond the Niger and Benue.

    I was told that some two years ago, when the trailer trucks from the North had some problem of their own and failed to run for some days, our great city of Lagos soon began to starve. Many Lagos friends of mine told me that they cancelled already scheduled weddings of their sons or daughters or the funerals of their departed parents. Some young friends told me that they had to drive their young families all the way to Cotonou in Benin Republic to go and buy tomatoes, peppers and onions. One related that when he got to Cotonou, the marketplace there was filled with Lagos people, and most items of food had been snatched up –so he and his family had to hurry further on to Lome in Togo.

    I was also told that many months ago, some northerners, because of some political situation, threatened to poison the food, especially the beans, coming from the North to the Southwest. Out of fear, some Lagosians avoided eating beans for some time. But when they could no longer go on avoiding it, they decided on a creative solution. They made it practice to soak the beans in water for a whole day before cooking it – hoping that the poison would have all drained into the water.

    In short, we Yoruba people have trapped ourselves in a very serious food crisis. And it is not because we lack the resources needed for successful farming. We do have such resources plentifully. All experts on the subject say that Yorubaland has most of the best land for agriculture in West Africa. Our land is fertile, well watered, and, thank God, it is free from cataclysmic erosions. The fact that we have variations in vegetation (from our thick southern forests to our northern grasslands) means that we are able to produce many varieties of crops. In fact, our historians now tell us that the natural agricultural assets in our land, and our ancestors’ industrious use of those assets, were the roots of our success in building tropical Africa’s most advanced urban civilization in history.

    Yes, throughout what we know of the history of West Africa, our ancestors were the proud owners of the most advanced and most productive crop farming system in all of West Africa. The story of great farming and rich farmers runs through all our history. Even as far back as Oduduwa’s time and the beginning of our first kingdom, the Ife kingdom, in about the 10th century AD, big farmers were part of the pride of our country. Later, big farming and proud rich farmers were part of the backbone of one of our kingdoms, the Oyo-Ile kingdom, which became so prosperous that it went forward and conquered the largest indigenous empire in the history of West Africa, the great Oyo Empire.

    Later still, when the first European explorers penetrated into the interior of our country in 1825, and travelled from Badagry to Oyo-Ile, the first things that surprised them were the large rich farms which they saw all along their way – and the many large thickly populated towns which they came to after every few miles, and the well-kept and well-protected roads on which they travelled. After writing about “extensive plantations of yams”, “rich plantations of corn”, “endless acres of cotton”, “tens of acres of indigo”, “plantations of coconut palm”, and “farms as far as the eye can see”, these explorers finally concluded that we Yoruba people were truly “an industrious race”.

    In the years that followed this 1825 exploration, and throughout the rest of the 19th century, various explorers and various European Christian missionaries travelled copiously all over Yorubaland – all the way to our farthest eastern territories like Ekiti, Akoko, Iyagba, etc. Everywhere, their records were the same – big farms and proud rich farmers everywhere. The first man who became the highest chief of new bubbling town of Ibadan after it settled down in the early 1830s, Oluyole, saw that his large and constantly increasing town needed a lot of food. So he called on his Ibadan people to rise up and go massively into the enterprise of farming in which Yoruba people had always been masters. He himself became a big and accomplished farmer. We have written records for all this. He developed the practice of establishing a separate farm for each crop – a farm for yams, another for corn, another for okro, another for garden eggs, etc. Ibadan people rose up massively and followed suit. Every single prominent citizen of Ibadan was owner of a huge farm. Most of the common people followed according to their abilities. Even women followed. One Ibadan woman named Efunseyitan Aniwura, a very rich trader, invested heavily in farming. At the peak of her success, more than 2000 workers were employed on her farms. When she went visiting her farms, she and her attendants rode on horses. Agricultural prosperity became one of the strengths that made it possible for Ibadan to become a successful empire builder among us – to become the creator and leader of a movement aimed at unifying our whole homeland into one country under one government. Every one of the warrior chiefs who arose in all other parts of Yorubaland in the century owned, first and foremost, an extensive farm. Many of them became very rich indeed.

    In the 20th century under British rule, a new crop called cocoa was introduced to us – one of the most valuable crops in the world market. We went into the thicker forests of our land and established cocoa plantations. Soon, we became the greatest cocoa exporters in the world, and our cocoa exports became the largest earner of foreign exchange for Nigeria.

    What all these things mean is that the soil of Yorubaland is gold waiting to be won. Our forebears until the 1960s knew this secret, and went out to win the gold – and generally became rich or at least comfortable.

    But since the 1970s, we their descendants have shunned that gold. We now prefer to give our lives to scrambling and begging for, or stealing, shares in the oil wealth of the Niger Delta. We think that because we have been to school, doing this is the real life, and that farming is only for the illiterate, the old or the poor.

    One of my high-school teachers, whenever one of us in his class did shoddy work or neglected homework, used to say,” Oh, you hate yourself”. Yes, a lot of us really hate ourselves these days. And that is why we Yoruba people are now living in a degree of poverty and hopelessness unknown before in our history.

    But we can turn our lives around. By the grace of God, we are still intrinsically what we have always been – a resourceful, enterprising and great nation.

    Look out for Gbogun Gboro’s thoughts on this next week.

  • Fronm the cell phone

    For Dare Olatunji

     

    Cry my beloved country. These people are making mince meat of governance. They do not have regard for us and have demonstrated that they are just educated thugs, desecrating the exalted office of the governor. What a pity! Can we now conclude that Nigeria is held by the jugular by a cult which must have its way while the people have their say? I am, indeed, afraid for the entity called Nigeria, for these people care for nothing, no one but themselves. Anonymous

    Nothing good is coming from what they know how to do best if not lies, deceit, blackmail and name calling. Can the ruling party sustain the democratic setting with all these atrocities? If the ruling party thinks witch-hunting Amaechi or perceived opponents can earn the President a second term, they must be joking. The President will fall like a pack of cards. He is playing God forgetting the yesterday in his life. He has allowed himself to be fixed by those who feed fat on every crisis. Mr. fix it is doing what he knows how to do best now, but he should also remember that, the Most High will do what He thinks best. Mr. fix it should think of three things in life: First, when he started; second, the present and third, the future.

    If Jonah Jang thinks Jonathan is his friend by calling him to context the NGF election, he must be joking. Where was the President when Jos was boiling? If the President said he is so much in love with Jang let him annoit him his successor. Enough of this harrassment of those he calls his enemies. Take my words, the President will regret his actions very soon. A lie can travel 1,000 kilometres in a second but, at the end, the truth will prevail. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

    What played out in the NGF election happened in the 2011 election. Some of the actors now did not win the election as governors. They are masters of rigging, harrassment and kidnapping of opponents. Above all, what money cannot do, more money can do. That is their belief. Anonymous

    Having succeeded in exposing majority of Nigerian lives to years of unadulterated unhappiness through injustice, poverty, discrimination, hatred, unequal rights and opportunities, the administration of President Jonathan is again planning to extend its hold on power beyond 2015, with or without legal votes. In the plan, any opposition must be crushed like they are presently doing to Governor Rotimi Amaechi. But can’t they allow civility to prevail? Is the government not aware that if we all resort to lawlessness, the only thing we can hope for is civil war, untold bloodshed and the end of our dreams as a nation? Chief Anenih and his co-travellers should please pause and think. From Adegoke O. O., Ikhin, Edo State

    Amaechi suspended himself from the PDP when he refused to accept the consensus candidate of the PDP. I believe that as a member of the party, its majority decision is binding on you, otherwise, you resign or face disciplinary action. Anonymous

    Good day sir, it was because of your comments that I still have the desire to read any Nigerian newspaper. I pray that Almighty God will add to your days on earth. From Sunday Adepoju

    That the PDP will self-destruct is a destiny foretold given all the atrocities it has committed against the people since the military unleashed it on Nigerians for daring to force them out of power. What have we got in 14 years of the locusts? Nothing! Let us pray harder that the divine Hand that we are seeing completes His assignment. Have a very good day, Prof. Regards. From Olu.

    ‘Doing what they know how to do best’ encapsulates the Nigerian politicians, most especially of the PDP stock. They lie, rig, steal, impoverish, kill, maim, exploit, blackmail, deceive, confuse, and misrule, among others, they know how to do best. From Alhaji ADEYCorsim, Oshodi, Lagos

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    He, who makes trouble for others, the great Chinua Achebe had said, also makes trouble for himself. The attack Jonathan unleashes on Amaechi on all fronts and through the backdoor is bound to backfire later, that is if it has not already started doing so. To me, turning the open and clean victory of Amaechi to that of Jang, all of a sudden, courtesy of the powers from the above, is simply a public relay of how the last general elections were clandestingly won and lost at various levels, especially that of the presidency. And with this, who then still needs extra-sensory perception to know what PDP could do come 2015? I think the scuttling of Amaechi’s victory before our very eyes, especially, should serve as a wake-up call to whichever political party that thinks itself a viable alternative to the embarrassments the PDP governments have been over the years. From Emmanuel Egwu

    What do you expect Jonathan to do now when he has enslaved himself with sycophants who are not telling him the truth. We all thought he was going to be a listening president but he has made himself a regional president. This is a man that Nigerians voted for massively because of how he humbled himself. But now he has turned to a terror rather than a listening man. Jonathan is the architect of his problem. Now, he is supporting a loser, automatically he is also a loser. His puppets are praising him forgetting that those who did that yesterday are nowhere to be found today. The earlier he does away with those praise-singers the better for him. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

    US runs her democracy through crystal clear modus operandi that allows a loser to congratulate a winner witha handshake; a gesture that usually douses after-election fist blows on cheeks and major upheavals, and makes US great. May Nigeria be exalted through righteous acts. From Samuel Ojo Sanni, Mopa Kogi State

    I read your comments on the President! What you said was the truth but how many of us like and accept the truth? Keep it up! From Emughedi Arthur, youth leader, Arukwo Community, ABOLGA, Rivers State

    If I were Jonathan, I would rather listen to those who are cursing me, because he said it on May 30, when he organised a PDP family meeting that, if people are clapping for you, examine yourself. Some governors are praising him for supporting Jang while others are criticising him. Now, he has shot himself in the leg for supporting praise singers. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

    Your opinion on the election of Governor ‘s Forum is the objective view of the public. The PDP’s belief that the concensus agreement should supercede the election is curious. It simply shows that we are being ruled by wrong leaders. You can now know their plan for 2015. Anonymous

    You talk about Amaechi as if he were a hero of some kind. Please, come to Rivers State and see what we have here before you go on praising him. Anonymous

    I’m very pleased with your balanced article of May 30, on NGF’s show of shame in its election. I was lucky to watch when the video recording was relayed and it was very clear that some can kill to subvert the truth. But, let them and their masters never forget that it was the same politics of impunity that brought down the Shagari regime. Let them ask Umaru Dikko and the late K. O. Mbadiwe and others, who were tools of subversion then, they will tell them that there are still some young revolutionists in our forces today. They should watch it. God bless Nigeria. From EZ

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

     

    What a piece! Shouldn’t comedy have its limit and limitations…? Jang, who could not even pay his workers the minimum wage, had the irreverence to go to church to celebrate. Thank God, people like you still make us keep hope alive. I hope you will not one day go the way of Abati? I really enjoy reading your piece. Anonymous

    It is the governors’ integrity that is at stake. Involvement of the presidency is speculative. It means Amaechi was not in control in Rivers. From Bar Cole

    I am yet to recover from the shock I got, watching Governor Jang, a grand-father for that matter, claiming victory of an election he was roundly defeated. Could this be the reason many states have become killing fields? I wonder what those that fall over one another to give Governor Akpabio awards are doing now that the whole world has seen that the man is everything but a democrat. What Nigerians need now is development rooted in credible democratic principles not building of dubious roads, bridges, and airport which is a cover up for dictatorial tendencies. From Ifeanyi O. Ifeanyichukwu, Abuja.

    Imagine Governor Jonah Jang who cannot maintain peace in his state fighting to become the NGF chairman, wonder, they say, shall never end. From Kunle Adeyemi

    Your write-up ‘When governors go gaga’ is a classic and must read. It shows clearly the type of politicians and deceitful leadership we have. Kudos to you! Anonymous

    Whether Governor Amaechi rigged the election or not, he still won. I believe God is really on his side. Let us join him to celebrate his victory and look forward to what the future holds for Nigerians. Anonymous

    It is sad to see people like Mimiko and Obi, who were victims of rigged elections and had to fight a long-drawn battle to secure their mandate, support another daylight rigging and arbitrary position. Are they saying they no longer believe in democracy? There is nothing excellent about these excellencies. Anonymous

    My Editor, do not forget that one of the acronyms of the PDP is ‘People Destroying People’. The nation’s political landscape is littered with bones of innocent citizens, high and low, who dared to confront the powers that be in the PDP, especially, during elections. They thump their chest and call it ‘do or die’, because they must be in power to control; to plunder the national treasury. Any wonder we are the way we are after 14 years of the locusts? But the blood of the innocent does not rest easy. So, it is pay back time. Let us pray they do not take the nation down with them. Regards. From Olu

    Jang should stop decieving himself. You do not endorse a defeated candidate after a very transparent election has been held. PDP should bury its face in shame and throw in the towel instead of continuing its act of always wanting to steal other contestants’ victory in election. From Mathias Val.

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Re: ‘Wobbling and fumbling to 2015’ (your article in The Nation of June 2). The outcome of the election did not show a Governors Forum, rather, it reflected a disunited power bloc. Personally I am happy at their disunity as their sittings had been for selfish purpose rather than for the people. They wanted fuel subsidy removed; they voted against savings but wanted excess crude receipts, shared and spent. They wanted to determine who becomes Nigeria’s head of state. All the parties in acrimony are advised to tread softly. From Lanre Oseni.

    I just read your article titled ‘Wobbling and fumbling to 2015’. It was a masterpiece. It showed the desperation and the ‘do-or-die’ antics of the president, oblivious of the challenges staring at him. But to stoop so low to be involved in who leads the NGF is laughable and a pointer to what to expect in 2015. May God save Nigeria from myopic leaders. From Igbinosa Gabriel, Benin.

    Thank you for your write-up. You are a prophet in this situation; if they like, let them listen, their doomsday is fast approaching. From Ekundayo Aiyedogbon, Ekirin-Adde, Kogi State.

    Your write-up is another eye opener for the President and his men. But, will they truly see the handwriting on the wall? This seems the beginning of the end for them. Have a nice week ahead. From Festus.

    Your article of June 2 was well researched and precise. I think Nemesis has caught up with the PDP after 14 wasted years. God is a just God who feels He should deliver his children from bondage. One thing is clear, Mr. Jonathan should leave Aso Rock come 2015. Shikena! From Alhaji Aiyeoribe, Ilorin, Kwara State.

    Jonathan is naturally nice and Jonah Jang is very responsible. Anonymous.

    My dear Tunji, I want to commend the depth of your article in The Nation Newspaper of June 2. You got it right. The NGF drama has equally vindicated those that have not hidden their blame on Jonathan for the woes presently ravaging our nation. Most PDP governors are sick and tired of him and anything that has to do with him. They’ve not forgotten the imposition of Tukur and Anenih on the party, the choice of Jang became a reminder. Amaechi is a symbol of victory over the PDP efforts to ruin this nation and Nigerians are more than ever determined to challenge this. The presidency is seriously preparing its expected end. From Orji Henry.

    The Yoruba are the problem of his country; they are hypocrites, they set the country ablaze and hide …. We in south south and south east will vote for GEJ come 2015 … Anonymous

    Whose interests are the governors serving? Many of them have disappointed their citizens over non-performance. Is Nigerian Governors Forum in our constitution? Let the governors make peace because crisis would not augur well for democracy in the country. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia.

    Tunji, after reading your article, I felt satisfied; in fact, this is the same formula they are going to use in 2015. May God save us from the hands of … leaders. From Olu.

    ‘Wobbling and fumbling to 2015’ will surely end in disaster and defeat, as it happened to the author of the phrase, the man with the copyright, who led the national Under-20 team to a wobbling and fumbling outing in that year’s Under-20 world football tournament. From Alhaji Adey Corsim, Oshodi, Lagos.

     

  • Jang and his NGF

    Jang and his NGF

    Plateau State governor and factional chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Jonah Jang played out the hypocrisy that is the stock in trade of our leaders, when he apologized for the problem that dogged recent election of the forum. Receiving a solidarity delegation on his purported election as the forum’s chairman, Jang had promised that under his leadership, corrections would be made and efforts intensified at reconciliation.

    He said during his tenure, the forum will work out a structure for rancor free elections and he regarded himself as an instrument in the hands of God to unite and reconcile the forum.

    Given what we know of the conduct and outcome of that election, it is a big surprise that these statements are coming from Jang. This is a man who by all accounts, lost to the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi by 16 votes to 19 in a freely contested and fair election. Instead of accepting its outcome, he and some of his colleagues embarked on a smear protest that cast serious slur on their integrity as governors.

    They complained of weird and inexplicable grievances that many have found difficult to understand. Brandishing a list of 19 governors who had in April purportedly indicated the direction of their support, the protesters sought to deceive the public that it should be taken as reflecting the outcome of voting.

    Yet, they voted. The votes were counted; results announced and Amaechi declared winner. Then they began to talk of signatures and all that trash. We began to hear that Amaechi should have resigned before contesting.

    Amateur video footage from one patriotic governor put a lie to all that. The same governors who sat tight while gunning for a second term had the temerity to talk of resignation. What a bare faced hypocrisy! Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko scoffed the video recording on the ground that it was not all embracing. He said aspects of his contributions that Amaechi should resign from his post before contesting were not shown in the video. He also spoke of his contribution that the election should be by open balloting which was also overruled. Mimiko appears to be contending that the power of incumbency tiled the balance in favor of the Rivers State governor. That could as well be. But it is the same incumbency power that his sponsors deployed to advantage to extract questionable commitment from him to vote for their preferred candidate. Those who opposed open balloting and the resignation of Amaechi before contesting were not oblivious of the game plan of the now protesting governors. They wanted to monitor the actual voting of those they had previously obtained their signatures for some inexplicable reasons. How free and fair would such election be? Why compel the governors to sign before election if the intention is not to influence the process? So, it is a matter of one group outsmarting the other. However, the absence of the observations of Mimiko in the video clip did not in any way, encumber its credibility. It did no collateral damage to the fact that votes were cast, counted and announced before their eyes. At any rate, those were the high points of that exercise that should attest to its credibility.

    If the dissenting governors were that serious on some of these issues, they should not have allowed the election to hold. By consenting to the ground rules and voting, they lost the moral ground to latch on to these excuses to fault its outcome. Had their preferred candidate won, Mimko and co. may not have had any cause to complain.

    Yet, it was from the same election that Jang is laying claim to the leadership of the forum. If that election was flawed as we are being persuaded to believe, from where did Jang derive his mandate to lead a faction? If the pro-Jang governors were honest in the matter, there were two options open to them: reject its outcome and call for a fresh election. But they had a mindset. They had been primed to a leadership headed by Jang irrespective of the outcome of the pool. That was why our governors had to embark on very embarrassing protests unbecoming of their elevated offices. It was a monumental embarrassment to behold. There is nothing wrong with the Plateau State governor apologizing for the misconduct of his colleagues. They really misbehaved and Nigerians still deserve unreserved apology from them.

    It is shameful for the arrow head of that misconduct to be parading himself as the forum’s chairman even as he is apologizing for the problem on which basis he lays claim to that post. The minimum expectation in the circumstance would have been for him to repudiate his claim to that office and congratulate the authentic winner of that election. But to hold his questionable mandate with one hand and be rendering apology with the other is the height of deceit. He even talks of uniting the forum and working out a structure for rancor free elections. He also sees himself as an instrument in the “hands of God to unite and reconcile the forum”.

    Jang is entitled to his views on the issue no matter how absurd that may seem. But the question that he needed to answer is which mandate is he referring to and from where did he derive it? Jang does not have the mandate of the governors and therefore cannot lay claim to any. And he now talks of God using him to unite and reconcile the forum. It is difficult to fathom how this can happen. Rather, the baggage his dissenting colleagues have placed on his back will further weigh down and polarize the forum to the point of irrelevance and disintegration. The Bible says, we should not use the name of God our father in vain. It appears that references by Jang to himself as an instrument in the hands of God in respect of the contrived crisis in the forum, amounts to using the name of God in vain. It is a sad reminder to the charade that played out during the 2003 governorship election. In one South-south state, an ambitious governor who had massively rigged himself into power by hook and crook; appeared in church the next day with his entire family, mounted the pulpit, singing and dancing for what God had done for him. And he got away with it. Because God is very forgiving and lenient, all manner of people use his name in vain without fear of immediate repercussions. But all such people should be wary of His wrath some day.

    This writer has great sympathy for Jang. Not for any other reason but for the conspiracy of enemies of peace to make Plateau State uninhabitable through serial killings, maiming and destruction of valuable lives and property.

    Most of the times I have watched him on screens or in the newspapers, the impression I get is that of a governor fighting organized conspiracy from very powerful forces.

    He comes across as a man who knows his detractors but very handicapped in squaring up to them. He has not been allowed, through these contrived plots to have his vision of that state come through. Such a man deserves our collective sympathy. Jang should therefore have been saved the avoidable burden which the factional chairmanship of the governors’ forum is to him. He is talking in a manner that will erode the sympathy and respect he had enjoyed from discerning members of the public before now. Obviously, the forum is heading for the abyss. And unless the winner of that election is allowed to exercise his mandate, we should consider the forum dead. Then, history will record Jang as the instrument in the hands of those who brought about that pass. That is the foreboding verdict.

  • Achebe: The story and story teller

    Finally, the story ends. The story teller has gone to sleep. He has gone with his stories – a bagful. But then another story begins. It is telling the story according to the story teller. It is the story of Chinualumogu Achebe and his stories. It is also about the stories of Chinua Achebe, the man with the stories. It is a story that thrills, enthrals and captivates – both sides of it. Children hear it and demand for more until they go to bed dreaming it. Adults too. They continue to cogitate over both the story and the story teller until a mental war begins to take place; an endless clash of which is the bigger – the story or the story teller.

    At that remote village of Nkwele Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State where the story began 82 years, ago it was a gathering of those who came to tell their own last stories, while others came to hear them. Yet others became the story. They came from all parts of the globe – Europe, Asia, The Pacific, Antarctica, Australia, Oceania, The Americas and Africa, where the story of the story teller had spread and is being retold in different tongues; written and verbally. Those who failed to make it to the ancient village, physically, had to rely on the varied media instruments to hear the story or tell theirs.

    The frenzy actually began on March 22, when the story teller told his last; when the eagle descended from the iroko and took a permanent habitation with others before him.

    Sitting there in the crowded enclosure of St. Phillips Anglican Church, I could tell that though many struggled, there were and still are many stories to tell. Attempts will be made as they were indeed made on that occasion. But it will continue to be like the proverbial story of the blind men attempting to describe an elephant by feeling it, each telling his according to where he touched and felt.

    I even told mine. When confronted by those who wanted to know my own version, I said: “Chinua Achebe rose to become an iconic figure in the area of literary geniuses. He stood up for everything that was right, everything that was good, everything that had to do with accountability and transparency. Chinua Achebe was so bold, so great, so courageous that he could hold a whole country ransom whenever he was ready to call for accountability and transparency. Chinua Achebe was a man who never feared anybody and he spoke the truth from the profundity of his heart not minding whose ox was gored. So, we give God thanks that this wonderful man, one man iroko tree and one man army squad has gone the way of all mortals…”

    To many, the fascination in the story of Achebe was that he told the story of Africa the way no other did – that indeed there was life and living in the continent; that Africans didn’t live on trees or hunted each other for meals; that it was actually the white man that came and put a knife in Africa, cutting the existing cord of sequence and order that bound those elements of life and living together. But he did not stop there. From Things Fall Apart, a book he wrote at age 28, he went ahead to do other works, which basically pointed out the contradictions between life and living, man and his environment and the consequences of those contradictions. These were the import and purport of No Longer At Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, Anthills of the Savannah, The Trouble With Nigeria, There Was A Country, et cetera.

    In all, Achebe, simply tried to re-establish the principle of the teaching of Jesus Christ that Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone. He tried to tell the world that man could indeed conquer his environment; that all that is needed is for him to follow the sequence as part of creation and not to attempt the impossible of re-creating it. He tried to point out the hugely destructive factor of man’s desire and attempt to own the world. Things Fall Apart, the book that put him in the eyes of the world must have sold in hundreds of millions and earned more proceeds for its translation into about 50 languages. Other works could have earned him fairly sizable amounts equally. This is apart from his other earnings from his work as a teacher and other engagements. Therefore, there is no doubt that he ought to be an extremely rich man. Yet, his riches translated more in his reflection of ordinariness and his closeness to humanity and his environment. At every point he perceived that environment drifting towards danger, especially man-made, he never failed to warn. That was the essence of those books. For him, any position must never be used to serve self more than the society. It was this demand that he made of me few days after my appointment as the Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), in 2003. He had called from the US to wish me success. But beyond that he reminded me that I must strive to re-establish the standard of the institution and ultimately Restore the Dignity of Man, its motto. I must not fail, he emphasised, to use that platform I had to advance humanity. The effect of those words cannot be stated here. But it suffices to say that the modest achievements recorded in that assignment owes a lot to their direct impact.

    And for those who thought that such a demand was utopian, impossible and even obtuse, Achebe showed how it could be done, using his immediate environment, Nigeria.

    Yes, some of the things he wrote, said or did, could be considered as and were indeed controversial. But more important were the motives, principles and courage that drove those thoughts and decisions. Either in his controversial rejection of national honours or the fact that he, according to the Most Reverend Ikechukwu Nwosu, officiating minister at his funeral church service, described same sex marriage as alu (taboo) or his latest book – There Was A Country, Achebe was not only able to demonstrate unquestionable courage to speak his mind at all times, but that a man could and indeed, should say no to certain things no matter the attraction.

    Whether wrong or right, in the instant examples, Achebe was able to demonstrate the teaching that saying No! at a time it is needed could reduce greed, one of the greatest elements that have held Nigeria down and prevented the giant in it from rising. By writing his version of part of the Nigerian history in that book, he simply tried not only to state the truth as he knew it, but remind the country of the glorious past and the need to rediscover itself.

    Many actually miss the point by putting Achebe on the hot seat for those deeds. They do because they forget that he was an intellectual. And one of the most visible elements of intellectualism is that those who inhabit that elevated platform often disagree on virtually every issue, yet remain friends.

    The abiding lesson(s): We can say No! to a lot of things in this country, particularly the desire for mindless and obscene acquisition of wealth through corruption and obtrusively clogging the steady match towards making Nigeria the great country it deserves because of selfish agenda. More importantly and even more relevant to our present reality, Nigerians can disagree at every point and in all places, but must remain friends. We must never allow such disagreements destroy our unity. Those are what we owe Achebe as a legacy.

    • Nebo, professor of Metallurgical Engineering, is Minister of Power

  • Please, make Nigeria indivisible

    Today in Nigeria, 2015 has become detraction. Those in power are hardly working for the people any longer, but more for themselves. The focus of the remaining two years of tenureship is now more on power retention.

    It as if accomplishment of electoral promises and attainment of people’s desires are no longer of value. The nation is now filled with desperation for occupying political seats rather than working to put smiles on the face of the depressed people whose vote brought them into power. Insecurity is everywhere and the poor are getting poorer. As it were, politics is bringing in strenuous tensions, making distress to envelope the land the more.

    Ahead of the so-called Democracy Day last week, it was as if people were waiting for official announcement to confirm the death of Nigeria as a nation. But thank God that on that day, President Goodluck Jonathan and Senate President David Mark were reported as declaring Nigeria as indivisible, talk less of dying, despite the escalating challenges.

    Making public presentation of his mid-term report in Abuja after which some of the ministers had rolled out heartening financial indicators, which among others was that Nigeria has become the highest investment destination in the continent, the president said contrary to the position of the opposition parties, he had achieved so much in the two years of his administration.

    Mr. President self-applauded his administration’s performance. He challenged the media to use his 234-page report as a confirmable tool for any objective assessment. “I plead with all of us, especially those who want to assess and write about it to develop criteria because without a marking scheme, you cannot mark anybody’s paper. Develop your own, compare with previous governments. Develop your marking scheme and mark us.” Perhaps he is unaware of the numerous online hands now placed on websites to respond to virtually all criticisms in the media.

    In seriousness, Mr. President ought to know that Nigerians need no marking scheme to know that under him, the rate of unemployment has gone up, security of lives and property and the welfare of the citizens have receded discouragingly. In truth, what scoring format does one need to know that despite the ostensibly inspiring economic figures rolled out by the ministers, the average Nigerian is worse off today than before PDP took over power in 1999?

    The core basis of the nation’s afflictions has been that most of those who find themselves in leadership position hardly lead by example. The realism is that good leadership deficit has constituted the greatest clog in the wheel of national development and progress.

    As an opposition party said, “performance is like a pregnancy that cannot be hidden.” Other than swelling corruption and desperation to retain power at all cost, how much of practical performance in power, security, job creation and vital infrastructural developments is already making impact on the life of the people today?

    It is non-performance that is pushing desperate aggression and the fight of imaginary enemies much more within the ruling party. With sincere and wise people on the president’s side, the battle with Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi should not be as dismal as it is. Perhaps they are blind to see the unnecessary conflict thinning the integrity of the president while Amaechi is being lifted higher.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who preferred to be part of Jigawa State May 29 show than being with the president in Abuja called for change in leadership. He was quoted: “You know you can help somebody to get the job, but you cannot help him to do it. If somebody cannot do the job, we have Sule Lamido who we are confident can do the job.”

    Before this, Obj who reigned and ruled over Nigeria in totality of more than 13 years, had earlier condemned the increasing level of indiscipline in PDP leadership. Although THE GUARDIAN editorial reminded us how he contributed to the foundation of the indiscipline, the newspaper also recollected:

    “To say that PDP “lacks sufficient discipline” may well be the least that could be said of the party that has ruled Nigeria for 12 years, with very little to show for it. Poverty in the land is acute and widespread, corruption is endemic, critical infrastructure decrepit and insecurity of lives and property prevail in a huge magnitude. The PDP-led government has also not found solution to the problem of epileptic power supply. The situation deteriorates by the day without much hope of a respite.”

    With this contention, how then can Nigeria be saved from being dragged to primitivism? If the Bible says that a soul that sinneth shall die, why can’t the present leadership focus more on cleansing the nation from impurity so that it will not finally disintegrate?

    It will be in the nation’s interest if political office can become less attractive and corruption eliminated. It is clear today how politics is fuelling corruption. The desperation to occupy political office is largely to loot, plunder and embezzle. Politicians are not seeking for power to serve anymore. From federal to local level,

    the few in power corner the resources of the land and leave the masses with the crumbs.

    When there is leadership error, the common man will suffer the consequence. If sincere steps are not taken to correct the ills in the system – starting from the top, there might not be restoration of the people’s confidence in government. Ultimately, when citizens are not given desired measure of goodness of the land and assured of protection, the country will be pushed to crumple.

    As those in power might be pretending not to know, many Nigerians are not blind and are not foolish. People are aware of the level of corruption, insecurity, insincerity, joblessness and poverty. They will become totally disillusioned if the leadership failed to resolve the afflictions.

    FEEDBACK

    Re-Amaechi God-given victory.

    Let PDP work hard for magical change of electorate minds before 2015 elections. Otherwise, the leaders’ colossal self-inflicted damage will ruin them. The NGF election exposed their shoddiness in handling credible elections. The president is rattled and more errors are bound to be committed. Please let us watch the video tape of the election and compare it with Gov. Akpabio’s doctored voters’ register or endorsees. INEC should borrow his style to save cost. From James, Jos.

    Dear Sir, I concur with your piece on Amaechi’s God-given victory. Nothing to add or subtract. Sentiment and desperation are ample words in Jonathan’s dictionary. Victory is really God-given. As for Akpabio, his first name is Godswill. By this he should know that God gives and takes. Your write up actually made my day. May you continue to inspire us with stimulating and thought-provoking mind. From Dr. Apelologun, Ilorin.

    Hello Sir, that is a wonderful write up. Akpabio should know what Chibuike means in Igbo language.

    – 2348033339232

    “The nation that once had the potentiality of greatness has been stagnant for too long” was your last statement. Pres. Jonathan might not have done well. But if in those past long years those whom ACN are trying to take us to had governed well, this nation wouldn’t have been in this sorry state. That you and ACN are trying to package us back to Egypt is gravely unfortunate. You are not a young boy. If you’ve been watching Nigeria event with objective mind, you’ll know where our problems are from. From Amadi Ibeleme

    Mr. Soji, your write-up in The Nation is a perfect fact of what happened and what is going to happen. Thank you and God bless. From Chris Ukpere, Abuja.

    Your piece spoke my mind. – Akibu Hassan, Ijebu-Ode

    Dear Soji Omotunde, Sir, not only am I pleased with your write up on Amaechi’s God-given victory, I also want to encourage you for good work. This election was monitored online by Nigerians. So, who are those fooling the president? From Solomon Vambe, PH

    If you are an apologist of Amaechi, just tell us. You do not know the man called Amaechi, but we know him well. You are a Yoruba man that shut your mouth during OBJ’s misrule and wants to use Amaechi against GEJ. It won’t work as it will only dig his grave politically. – 2348055331902

  • The coming of Osun’s Opon Imo

    Tuesday, April 23, I missed a media chat hosted at Western Hotel, Ikeja by the deputy governor of the State of Osun, Otunba Titi Laoye –Tomori. I, however, did not miss the fact that the event was put together to appraise the content and texture of educational renaissance of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the state. While the phenomenal Opon Imo innovation is a major plank of Aregbesola’s educational reform, it is, by no means, the reason the event was organized. This is precisely where a handful of analysts got the facts wrong. Rather than an occasion for the launch of Opon Imo, the gathering was designed, among others, to herald the official presentation of the electronic learning devise today, Monday, June 3.

    In fact, keen observers of events in the state of Osun since the inception of the Aregbesola administration would readily come to the inescapable conclusion that, indeed, educational intervention is the sole reason the administration came into being. Nothing, however, can be farther from the truth as huge transformation in other socio-economic sectors – roads, electricity, hospitals and modern markets among others – would bear witness.

    To be honest, anyone who holds such view can easily be pardoned. What with the intimidating tell-tale evidence of huge work in the area of education. Many schools all over the state have begun to wear new look. Many of the outdated colonial relics in schools are being pulled down to be replaced with modern structures. These buildings, before Aregbesola picked up the gauntlet, were, at best, eyesores. Successive administrations in the state, particularly the Olagunsoye Oyinlola- led one, viewed the decay with an air of nonchalance. New schools are also being constructed.

    Personnel development, another major aspect of the educational policy of Aregbesola has received giant attention. Salaries, allowances and a coterie of other entitlements of teachers have been promptly attended to. This development represents a comfortable departure from the old practice or unpaid salaries and allowances which often resulted in seizures in the educational sector of the state.

    A couple of decades ago when the almighty West African Examination Council (WAEC) was truly conducting its yearly tests foolproof, many of us in college had an uphill task passing. But tragically painful as it were, we drew consolation in the fact that we could re-sit the examination after each disastrous attempt. Each year, we would dust our books, ready for another titanic confrontation with the body. We had books to dust. In the state of Osun of Aregbesola era, Opon Imo has replaced our old reliable books.

    The privilege of having books to turn to after leaving school is precisely what critics of Opon Imo academic innovation in Osun  have against the project. Other short-comings are challenges posed by epileptic power supply and inability of the scheme to accommodate printing of materials. While post-college referral is a challenge the scheme has to contend with at the moment (this is surely an area the Aregbesola administration would have to address urgently), the twin issue of printing of materials as well as electricity challenge are not much of a task.

    It needs to be emphasised, right away, that government does not necessarily have to provide this electronic devise to pupils who fail to pass the final college examination at the first attempt. We all can recall that although we enjoyed free education in the Awolowo era complete with free textbooks and tuition, the government of that period did not saddle itself with the additional responsibility of provision of books after college years. During that epoch, post college candidates for WAEC satisfied their text book needs privately,

    This is not meant to foreclose assistance of the Aregbesola administration in the area of providing these all important tablets affordably to candidates in   the post-college category. Not at all. This is precisely why it makes a whole lot of sense that the Chinese company, manufacturers of the Opon Imo device, is now setting up its production factory in Osun. Apart from addressing the question of ready availability of the device to users of all classes, the production line is, unquestionably, a veritable source of employment to the populace and revenue milk cow to the government.

    The way the entire Opon Imo scheme is designed, pupils need not print out any material from the devise because each school pupil owns one that can be assessed at any time desired.

    A tablet in the scheme is an all-inclusive little technology containing all a pupil needs to navigate college academically. 750,000 units have already been distributed to all pupils in Senior Secondary School one to three (SSS 1-3). Each of the units, in terms of configuration, is designed in a way that no pupil needs any text book except exercise books. Each unit has three components – e-Book library, integrated test zone and virtual learning. The e-Book library section contains 66 text books, 56 of which are subject based while the remaining 10 are for other developmental engagements including entrepreneurial, leadership, civic education, health hints and guidance among others. The integrated test zone, on the other hand, boasts of 10 years past questions and answers of Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, (SSCE), NECO, JAMB and so on. In the virtual learning segment, users are treated to high powered electronic teaching and learning classroom experience with a teacher in charge.

    The moment a pupil resumes in class at SSS1, he or she takes possession of one of the tablets and such would remain with the pupil until graduation from college three years after. Every pupil lives with the devise 24 hours of the day. Any material required by pupils is therefore only a key-tab away. Why should anyone need a printer when a pupil would only lose possession of the devise on completion of studentship?

    Along with the gadget, each pupil also takes possession of two charging devises-electricity and solar. Solar charging accessory, given to every school user, comes handy where electricity is not available. On full charge, an Opon Imo would run for five hours of intense usage.

    Through the Opon Imo initiative, an unusual feature has been introduced into the Nigerian school system, throwing up an entirely e-Book community of students. More remarkable, it is edifying that the technology is being introduced to a very poor, largely rural human setting – a pointer to the fact of its adaptability anywhere and capability to help pupils leapfrog the challenges of poverty and illiteracy.

     In all sincerity, the replacement of books with Opon Imo is, to put it mildly, a turning point in the educational life of not only the state of Osun but the nation as an entity. For once, someone has courageously taken more than five decade old educational revolution of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo a step higher – almost beyond imagination. This Aregbesola initiative – without emphasis- has not only introduced a new outlook in the teaching and learning conundrum but has- more significantly, changed the way we see and prepare the younger generation for the challenges of global competition for advancement.

    Today, a colossal section of my generation relies on our children to do anything meaningful using the wonder electronic slate with which almost every task is now accomplished. A great number of us have similarly experienced untold frustration in our attempt at compliance due to impatience largely   imposed by pressure in other areas as well as the ever so natural dwindling in the cognitive aspect of our being due to advancing age. Contemporary school pupil in Osun would confront no such obstacle. Such a child would be leaving college as a proud member of world community, computer literate- wise.

    • Lawal is Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria, Ogun State.

  • Making basic education matter

    Making basic education matter

    Goal two of the millennium development goals, MDG, specifically talks about achieving Universal Primary Education for every child by 2015. These children are not only expected to have access to primary education, they are to be retained in their classes to ensure they complete the full course of primary education.

    Closely related to goal two of the MDG is goal three that focuses on promoting gender equality and empowering women. In essence, gender parity between girls and boys in terms of accessing basic education should be eliminated. Again, the target is 2015.

    By historical design, the first term of President Jonathan administration coincides with this critical era when the entire universe is working towards ensuring that no child is denied access to basic education, which is a right. From the very beginning, the administration made it clear that it was committed to addressing the fundamental challenges that negatively affected the development of the basic education sub-sector in particular and the entire education sector in general.

    This commitment led to the launch of the four-year strategic plan to completely re-position the education. One of the cardinal objectives of this plan that runs from 2011 to 2015 is the creation of access to quality education for Nigerians at all levels.

    Since 2011, the administration has completely re-positioned the basic education sector. Two years down the line, the steps taken by the administration are now yielding positive results and Nigerians from all walks of life are keying into the plan of the Federal Government to ensure universal basic education for Nigerian children.

    Spear-heading the Federal Government’s revival of basic education in the last two years is the Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike. He has two controlling philosophies that have driven his successful campaign to get less privileged Nigerian children get enrolled in schools and stay there to acquire life sustaining skills.

    First, is that running the nation’s basic education would not be business as usual and the other, working assiduously towards achieving results rather than promoting bureaucracy. Second, he works from everywhere in the country and has revolutionized monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes at the highest level.

    Across the nation, unprecedented achievements in the basic education sector dot the landscape. These projects are carefully designed to increase the enrolment of less privileged Nigerian children in basic education institutions. The projects are supported by a vibrant academic workforce being trained and retrained by the Federal Government.

    Some of the projects that have increased access to basic education for the less privileged Nigerian out-of-school children include the Almajiri schools, the special girl-child schools and the out-of-school project for children in the south-south and south-east.

    Over eighty percent of the Almajiri schools in parts of the country have been completed and are ready for the commissioning. These schools will cater for the need of the roving Almajiris in the north and other parts of the country.

    These schools will absorb a large number of the Almajiri, with the framework for the construction of additional three hundred Almajiri schools between 2013 and 2015 already in place. The interesting aspect of this programme is that several states in the north have bought into it and are constructing their own schools for these out-of-school children.

    The story has been the same for the girl-child in most parts of the north. The Federal Government has completed majority of the schools in sixteen states of the federation. By June ending, all the schools would have been completed. The aim of these schools is to grant access to basic education to girls hitherto left out due to cultural, religious and environmental reasons.

    Collaborating with the state governments, teacher capacity development has been comprehensive since 2011. More than one million teachers and basic education administrators have benefitted from training programmes. The government has also initiated the Housing for All teachers programme, with the Nigerian Union of Teachers participating actively.

    While the government has created access to basic education for a high percentage of Nigerian children, it has strengthened the distribution of free textbooks and instructional materials to these children for quality of education in the public schools to be guaranteed.

    Other key projects that have taken place in the course of the last two years include; phased rehabilitation of Federal Unity Colleges, construction of e-library in selected unity colleges and sponsorship of self-help infrastructural programmes in communities.

    Technical and vocational education and training have acquired a new meaning under the Jonathan administration. The hitherto neglected Federal Science and Technical Colleges have been given grants to re-position their facilities and equipment. This process of re-positioning these schools is nearing completion in most of the schools. The new schools for the Boy-Child in the South-East and South-South about to be constructed will have elements of technical and vocational education infused in them.

    Increased investments in the basic education sector by the administration have led to more foreign participation by international development partners all over the country. Korea International Development Agency, Japan International Development Agency, British Department for International Development, the Chinese government and other global groups have helped in developing infrastructure and the capacity of teachers to improve access to basic education in the country.

    Progressively, the enrolment of less privileged Nigerian children in basic education schools has increased under the Jonathan administration. This is expected because of the quality results attained due to the investments by the government and the sustained monitoring of the process of implementation. However, the population of out-of-school children is still on the high side. The good news is that with the level of commitment by the administration, if the target is not met by 2015, the percentage of work left undone will be minimal. The Federal Ministry of Education and other stakeholders are working towards achieving 70percent reduction of out of school children by 2015.

    Before concluding this piece, it is instructive to point out that the four year strategic plan of the Federal Ministry of Education has two fundamental goals, creating access to education across all levels and maintaining quality. These two principal goals have been achieved from the basic through to the tertiary level of education.

    Detailed above are key steps that have implemented in the basic education sub-sector. However, in the tertiary education sub-sector, the Jonathan administration through the Federal Ministry of Education has established 12 New Federal Universities. Nine of these universities have started full operations, while the other three are building their operational framework. The Federal Ministry of Education has kick-started several programmes to develop a virile academia for all universities, state and Federal, with first class brains being trained in 25 world class universities.

    The Jonathan administration has also released funds to all Federal and State Universities for the development of infrastructure though TETFUND. This was done after the first Needs Assessment of the Universities were conducted by the administration.

    Therefore, for any stakeholder to opine that education has not grown under the administration tantamount to acute cerebral fixation. The type most social media enthusiasts have fallen into. Doling out criticism for the sake of it. Whatever assessments that should be made of the nation’s education sector must take into cognizance the position of the sector before the administration started her surgical remedial operation. To do otherwise would be unjust and pedestrian.

    What is considered by most stakeholders in the educational circle to be the most important achievement of the administration in the education sector is the fact that most states are beginning to live up to their responsibility in development of this all-important segment of our national life because the Federal Ministry of Education has provided the right example.

     

    Nwakaudu is the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of State for Education.

  • In dispraise of Achebe

    In dispraise of Achebe

    One of the reasons why Africa’s growth is stunted is what I call – pardon the bombast – the fetishization of the dead. We turn the dead into so great a fetish and canonize them immediately they breathe their last. Evil men a few seconds ago suddenly assume the garb of angels the moment they die, so cloaked because of the age-long aphorism that cautions against speaking ill of the dead. In a great way, this emboldens evil men of today and has made their evil hydra-headed.

    What bigoted hypocrisy this is that has become the refrain on the lips of the living! Why can’t we progressively shame evil doers in their lifetimes and even at their departure, so as to serve as a disincentive to potential evil doers that whenever they exit, society will reserve the hottest scurrilous tongue against their acts and misacts while alive?

    Chinua Achebe, great author, literary scholar, poet and story teller of note comes under reference here. His death has depleted the literary firmament of writers whose works breathed life into the inertia of our intellectual environment. There are seldom as talented writers as Achebe in this part of the world any longer. In the eulogy penned by John Pepper Bekeredemo-Clark and Wole Soyinka, these great authors spoke of the near irreplaceability of Chinua in the literary firmament.

    When you read Things Fall Apart and its suffusion with African proverbs, culture and language, you will almost mythify Chinua as a gnome who hailed from the spirit world but was loaned to humanity by the spirit world; that he took temporary residency on earth.  How could a man, born of a woman, aggregate the thinking and culture of his people into such an unputdownable book for posterity as this? How could a man codify the worldviews, thoughts, philosophy and ways of life of his people in such a way that he colonizes other peoples as prisoners of his people’s ways of life? For before Achebe’s book, many of us were alien to the persona of the Igbo man. But Achebe opened the book of the lives of his people bare, threw the gate open into their historico-societal lifestyle, their weltachuung and upturned them into the lives of the rest of the world. Knowingly or unknowingly, since the 1950s when Chinua emerged as one of the authors of note on the African continent with his Things Fall Apart, the centre has refused to hold for the rest of the world, as we have transferred our centre to the Igbo cosmology; we have become slaves of his Igbo thinking which we drink in intoxicating suffusion.

    We can reel into tomes of Achebe’s literary scholarship, a shuttle of which Wole Soyinka recently made in an interview with SaharaReporters. But, after all that and all that about Achebe’s literary scholarship, full stop! Chinua was an extremely bigoted man who saw the world only from the prism of his Igbo people. For him, humanity ceases to exist outside the locus of Igbo and indeed, the world could go jump inside the Zambesi River once his Igbo people are sequestered inside the safe haven of a decent existence.

    For anyone who was alive to witness the 1966 pogrom and the Nigerian civil war, especially if you were Igbo, you already possess in your being cicatrices that will last you through a life time. The reprehensible massacre of the Igbo in the North, the beheading of Akaluka in Kano and the recent extinguishing of several Igbo in a South-bound bus in Kaduna, are some of the callous vilifications of the Igbo and his unfortunate lot in the Nigerian nation.

    The above could anger anyone and it did gnaw at the pancreas of the great story teller. But Chinua became so paranoid about these ethnic vilifications of the Igbo and refused to forgive any race he presumed had a hand in the suppression of his people. His vituperations were vivid in virtually all the interface he had with the rest of Nigeria in his literary voyage. He amplified most of the character flaws that the Yoruba noticed in Nnamdi Azikiwe and his West African Pilot. Those who were alive during this period would recollect that Pilot over-celebrated Igbo who traveled overseas for the golden-fleece at their departure and arrival in Nigeria. The converse was the case whenever any other ethnic nationality recorded same achievement. Mbonu Ojike, ace Pilot columnist and Zik, with his Weekend Cathecism, did a great job of trumpeting Igbo achievers and relegating any other nationality with same achievement. It was this perceived media projective inequality that led to the establishment of other newspapers and the upturn of Daily Service, the National Youth Movement (NYM) organ, edited by Ernest Sese Okoli, into a converse of Zik’s Pilot which also began to fan ethnic agenda the moment editors like Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Bisi Onabanjo took over the editing suite.

    If the 1966 pogrom bored crevasse of hatred that could never be filled in Chinua’s heart, the civil war even dug a greater cesspit of anger in his subconscious. Everyone who contributed to the failure of the Biafran agenda became object of literary crucifixion and denigration in the hands of Chinua. Administrators on the side of Nigeria who sought every means to return Nigeria to normalcy, he scurrilously disparaged. The archetype of his disdain and vilification, till death, was Obafemi Awolowo whom he disdained in death and even while alive.

    Achebe had shown his disdain for Awo when this man of uncommon sagacity passed on on May 2, 1987. In the defunct Thisweek magazine of June 15,1987, while Nigerians and African political maestros poured encomiums on Awo, Achebe chose to insult the dead. In a rather insipid piece he entitled The Apotheosis of Awolowo, Chinua wrote, “Chief Awolowo was a great Nigerian leader in so far as he was a Nigerian and a leader. But his contribution to Nigerian public affairs of the last 40 years did not qualify him as a great national leader… to turn the burial of a tribal leader to a state funeral with invitations to foreign countries is both absurd and unacceptable”.

    The novelist and poet was not done yet. His words got more pungent and caustic. “It is in the light of this simple fact that the decision of the federal government to accord the status of a Head of State to him in death should be seen as no less than a national swindle”. As a parting short, the former professor of English at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka summarized the bile in his lacerating cudgel: “Despite the clowning circus of ex-politicians and would –be politicians in Ikenne in recent weeks, there is no doubt that serious minded Nigerians are highly critical or even contemptuous of the expensive hocus-pocus which is now being staged in their name”.

    Where Achebe got it wrong was that, at the war front, you are to fight and not to preach morals. The moment Ojukwu declared war against Nigeria, he was no longer the Odumegwu that Awolowo and co visited but an enemy of Nigeria. All his people (unfortunately) became enemies of Nigeria and they could not be treated as friends. Biafrans didn’t treat Nigerians as friends as well. That was why Murtala Muhammed faced his waterloo in Asaba where hundreds of Nigerians were killed by Biafran soldiers and the heavy casualty suffered by Nigeria in the Abaagana disaster, amply romanticized by Achebe in There Was a Country. How then did Achebe expect Nigerians and Awolowo to deal with Igbo as friends when Biafrans were killing Nigerians at every available opportunity? Indeed, only a fool feeds and not starve his enemies!

    Soyinka’s recent interview, where he reasoned that Achebe’s There Was A Country was a poor reading of the ethnically-biased person that Achebe was was too patronizing. Perhaps, the laureate also fell into the African mantra of not speaking ill of the dead. Achebe’s ethnic irredentism did not just start with his last book. It was merely a continuation of the war against Awolowo and his race. If you read the book very well, you would see his profuse eulogies for the Flora Nwapas, the Christopher Okigbos, the Cyprian Ekwensis and none for any other ethnic national. It was as if only the Igbos existed.

     As great as Achebe was as a literary icon of note, his global size was terribly diminished by his consuming tribal inclination. What then is the difference between Achebe the tribal warlord and Joseph Conrad whose Heart of Darkness he vilified for his racist inclination?

    The National Assembly would lose the last ounce of my respect for it if Achebe was ever considered for a state burial. As what and for what? He was a great story teller. Full stop. Any attempt to celebrate him beyond this prism would be irreverence for the Igbonness that he did not disguise while on earth.

    • Mukaiba is an Ibadan-based journalist and newspaper columnist.

  • Army saboteurs

    The complex nature of the war against terrorism in the country came to the fore last week in Abuja. A seminar organized by the Army Transformation and Innovation Centre was the theater for revealing disclosures on the collaboration of some soldiers with the deadly Boko Haram religious sect. Chief of Army Staff Lt-Gen Azubuike Ihejirika shocked his audience when he revealed that some soldiers have been caught divulging vital operational secrets of the Army to the religious sect.

    A visibly angry Ihejirika lamented that a soldier supplied the information on the movement of the soldiers that were attacked at Okene, Kogi state in January while preparing for international peace-keeping operations in Mali. In that attack, two soldiers were killed and five others injured. He said while some other soldiers were busy posting negative comments against the army on the internet, there were also those promoting communications with the insurgents.

    Confounding as these disclosures are, but they are not entirely surprising. President Goodluck Jonathan blew the whistle when he alerted the nation that there were Boko Haram members within his cabinet. But the weight of that alert was whittled down by the inability of his government since then, to catch any of those of his aids aiding and abetting terrorist attacks.

    However, comments by sundry personages from the areas prone to these sectarian attacks seem to fuel suspicions that some of the reasons touted for the resurgence of terrorism may after all be far from it. Before now, we have been told that poverty, ignorance and disparity in levels of development of sections of the country were the leitmotif for the growing army of terrorists. We have also been told over again that military solution will prove ineffective in the campaign against the malfeasance. The argument is that once we identify and address these developmental challenges, we would have had the right angle to the orgy of violence that has held this country prostrate these past years. The government bought this idea despite initial ambivalence on its capacity to achieve the desired objective.

    Events since has shown no change of heart from the insurgents such that state of emergency is now in force in the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. And this has thrown up a plethora of further posers. But central to all these is that we have not been told all about Boko Haram. We have neither been told the real reasons for these acts of terrorism nor have we been led into the sources of the funding of the insurgents. What of the high level planning and sophistry in the execution of these numerous attacks? Is it possible for the insurgents to have been that successful in their military incursions without the benefit of superior knowledge in guerilla warfare and suicide bombing apparently supplied by those well groomed in that art? At any rate, have we cared for the source of those bombs and those that prepare and equip the bombers for their lethal operations? What of the enormous funds that are wasted in them? Yet we talk of poverty as the main reason for these acts of terrorism.

    Perhaps, if those funding these terrorist acts had deployed their funds to addressing poverty among the vulnerable segment, some significant progress would have been recorded. Rather than do that they opted to levy war on the country and further annihilate the poor. Some other people are asking if the north is at war perhaps, for them to now to decide what position to take. The north is not at war but some sections and groups in the north are at it. They also have collaborators both in the military and the civilian population.

    Here, the startling revelations by Ihejirika come in very handy. It is a remote possibility that the insurgents could have been able to hold this country down without the tacit support and collaboration of some insiders both military and civilians. It is also very unlikely that such saboteurs within the army and the larger society are motivated by the simplistic reasons that have often been offered to account for the extreme violence and killings it that part of the country. Neither can it account for the vaulting and stale ambition that it is still possible to Islamize this country of diverse religions, cultures and ethnicity. What will motivate a soldier trained and paid to protect this country to turn round and supply logistic information to insurgents to get his colleagues ambushed and killed cannot be located in poverty? It can only be found in some higher group interest which making this country ungovernable can possibly precipitate. Not long ago, the nation’s high profile military training institution, the Staff and Command College Jaji, Kaduna state was bombed to the greatest embarrassment of the nation. That could not have happened without some insider cooperation. Besides, the leadership of the college was alleged to have received some security report in that regard without taking steps to avert it.

    Given the training, regimentation and command structure of the military, is it not baffling that such high level sabotage can be found in the army in this very sensitive national challenge? Ihejirika has a daunting task to discharge by fishing out all saboteurs that are hell bent in undermining his job. The whole idea is to discredit him and he must not allow that to happen.

    More over, we now hear that the sect had training camps in many parts of the north, sacked the government there and installed their own flags. The report that the insurgents nearly brought down one of the nation’s fighter jets with anti-air craft batteries underscores the point that the matter is damn serious. With such a high level military build up in those areas before now, the government failed in providing quick response to the threat of the insurgents. That may have emboldened them in their weird escapades.

    The point here is that there is a serious political dimension to the Boko Haram menace. And the sooner we come to terms with his foreboding reality the better for us. I had in this column argued that Boko Haram is nothing but political grievances masquerading under a religious garb. That contention has been borne out by the frustrations of the Army Chief. What will make soldiers to supply secret information on the activities of the military for insurgents to inflict maximum fatalities on our forces? And some others are equally busy posting negative comments on the military so as to discredit that institution. So where is the patriotism the military prides itself for? Not long ago, Obasanjo and Babangida had in a joint statement lamented that patriotic Nigerians had begun to question the basis for the nation’s unity. But do we have real patriots or class interest masquerading as patriotism? If we really have patriots, why are they in short supply each time sectional or class interests are seemingly threatened? The inevitable conclusion here is that our leaders are patriotic to the extent that their self interests are not challenged. Such people do not really qualify as patriots. That is why we must restructure the commanding heights of key national institutions in such a manner that no section has absolute control over them. That is the only panacea for political stability.